Girltrash

    

  Mention lesbians and punk rock, and you've got me hooked. Girltrash is a film that a friend of mine recommended we watch together and this week, it finally happened. She'd been telling me about the movie for the better part of a year and times just never matched up. Well, that is until one of our classes was cancelled and I was too lazy to walk home. In sitting down, she said that I'd either love or hate this film, nothing in between. Let me tell you, it feels like it probably should'nt have been made but I'm also not upset because our class was cancelled anyway and nothing could mess that up.

     Anyway, for some reason it reminded me of the student film Art of Adjustment. I will take a shot in the dark and say it's because songs came out of pretty much goddamn nowhere and made me questioning whether god was real or not with those striving rhymes. Long story short, I'm always a sucker for a musical so I was easily wrangled on in and I thought it was a pretty cute movie. I enjoyed pointing out obvious plot points and inconsistencies in lighting but over all, I really enjoyed the characters. The representation in women was fantastic, obviously, as 90% of the characters were women and most of them were lesbians. Yay, lesbians. Also, most of them were in a punk band and most of the plot surrounds getting those this gig at the end of the night which, spoiler alert, they do. What a time to be alive. Even though much of the film was lackluster, the characters really make up for it and that pretty much was the only thing actually still keeping me interested in this film: the sarcasm that the characters made tangible.

Why "Pas de deux" is Comparable to Chocolate Covered Bacon

I love short films. They're the Hershey's Miniatures of movies. You watch them when you just can't fit a feature length film into your diet. Not only are they convenient and compact, but they come in any flavor you could ask for. Craving animation? Try Paperman. Looking to try a silent mystery? Sherlock Jr 's the one you want. Or maybe you're a fan of the classics: A Trip to the Moon. Despite your personal taste in genres, like Hershey's Miniatures, you can't just have one. [Side-note: If you happen to be one of the rare individuals that can eat just one of these delicious chocolates I envy your self-control. Also there might be something inherently wrong with you. Sorry.]

Anyway, during one of my short film binges, I came across Pas de deux. Keeping with my chocolate analogy, Pas de deux could be compared to chocolate covered bacon. Would I eat it again? No. Do I admire the originality of the composition? Absolutely.

Directed by Canadian filmmaker, Norman McLaren, Pas de deux was embraced instantly by the filmmaking community. Not only did it receive 17 awards, (one including the 1969 BAFTA award for Best Animated Film), it was also nominated for an Academy Award. The short is an interpretation of a ballet-style dance called, get this: the Pas de deux. Content, however, is not what launched McLaren's piece into movie history. The real beauty lay in the filmmaker's extraordinary method of production.

The Canadian cinematographer used light and photography to create a stroboscopic collection of images. First, McLaren took photograph after photograph of the dancer/s; backlit and in front of a black backdrop. This lighting scheme, along with his choice of high contrast stock, contributed to the piece's radical overall look. This ain't your run of the mill Instagram filter.

Then, using the "step and repeat" process and an optical printer, McLaren overlaid the photographs to great some of the most interesting and surreal cinematography I've seen. I can not help but to deeply admire the fact that Norman McLaren manually did the job of both the videocamera, and the editing software.

Regardless of whether you're discussing movies or chocolate; one thing can be said of both. You don't need to consume a whole portion to appreciate the taste.

Disney Animation Studios & Frozen

This summer, I got the wonderful opportunity to privately tour Disney Animation Studios. My sister's friend's brother (kind of confusing) is one of the animators. He showed us his office, which was awesome, and took us to some other cool places. We saw a new Disney movie in the works through the program he uses for animation. The new Disney movie, Frozen, is coming to theaters November 27th. It's Disney's first computer animated fully-fledged musical. It's about a Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) teaming up with a mountain man, Kristoff (voiced by Jonathan Groff) to find her sister, Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel). Elsa's icy powers have trapped the entire kingdom in an eternal winter. It's a comedy/adventure/musical, so naturally, I'm looking forward to it. I am slightly skeptical, however.

Looking at the promotional artwork, you see Anna looks very similar to Rapunzel in Tangled. Her face dimensions look exactly the same; the only difference is her hair is strawberry blonde instead of golden blonde (whoa), and her eyes are blue, not green. Take a look for yourself:

Disney could be a little more creative. I loved Tangled but would like to see something different.

We also saw some pre-production of the movie coming out November 2014, Big Hero 6, which looks very different than Tangled or Frozen. So maybe that'll be a little more exciting.

All this being said, Disney Animation Studios has an amazing, creative atmosphere. They have different sections of the building devoted to different projects. With the projects that are in full swing, they decorate that area with the theme of the movie or project. I would really love to work for Disney when I'm older.

Les Miserables

While I was home over break I went to the movie theater 3 times.... well i personally lover previews and always have to get to the movie theater 15 minutes prior to the start of it so i can see whats coming out. One of the films that they were talking about was Les Miserables. It was originally a musical and is now being turned into a featured length film. The interesting thing about this film is that they are not pre recording the music before filming the music. They are going to have the actors sing on set so they they can change up their emotions and how they play to role as much as they want. This allows the actors much more freedom with their roles. I am very interested in seeing how this movie turns out and am excited for it to get to theaters!

And to all you haters I finally made a blog post deadline!!!! GO TORI!