before departure

obviously i'm a huge pj harvey fan... i read these lyrics a while back & they're sticking with me.


I don't need much
and the older I become
I realize
my friendships
will carry me over
any cause of distance
any cause of sorrow
The friends that last
Will dance one more time with me.
I don't need much,
but this, I need.

uh huh...

I just don't get sick of this song. So good.

Metric!

Even from sitting in the back of the middle section of The Greek Theatre, Metric puts on an amazing show & makes me very, very jealous of the people that are right up front. What a fun dance party it must be up there. I filmed a tiny bit of a couple songs - even though I wanted to keep shooting, I stopped b/c I wanted to dance & enjoy the show. Even the opening band was incredibly impressive (Half Moon Run). This is the definition of a perfect concert!

 

http://www.ilovemetric.com
https://www.facebook.com/halfmoonrun

Lake Placid

I went to Lake Placid, NY for a couple days. I used to go camping there when I was a kid. Lovely sights. Fall is my favorite season and it's a nice change of pace to see turning leaves, see thunderstorms, and feel some crisp air.

Pictures

I haven't been much in a blogging mood lately. I have 4 rolls of film waiting to be developed. I'm excited to see what they'll turn out like, but I have been putting it off until I buy a new scanner & printer - which I'm on the search for. I don't want to get them developed until I have a scanner. I'm done with paying double to have them scanned. Trying to find a new printer or scanner is like the least fun thing ever. I've gotten it pretty narrowed down, so hopefully I'll actually buy them soon. I've taken a few pictures lately... a cute dog at the mall, a quick photo while working at the E3 convention, a man hole cover (which I'm increasingly paying attention to lately), a stolen shot of my friends posing for another friend's photo, and some fun 4th of July pictures.

Snow White and the Huntsman

Let's talk about Snow White and the Huntsman!

I'll be honest, I liked it. It didn't live up to my every expectation - but it got pretty close. This is a fairy tale. You know what happens. It's going to be spoiler city in here so be forewarned.

The director, Rupert Sanders, has mainly done commercials & short films. I'm thinking the commercial background has done this film a justice as far as the beauty of the film, but also a detriment as far as not letting emotions play out. I noticed the first half hour blew through the back story when I felt at times they should have taken longer to let things play out. I'm not talking minutes but a few seconds here or there could have greatly helped build emotions. Even elsewhere in the film there are moments when I felt they were cutting or chopping things up too much instead of drawing on the actor's performances - for instance when the Queen has her mirror brought in - she's screaming "Get out! Get out!" - it was so chopped up, there was no build up to her screaming. It just seemed off. They should have stayed on a shot of her instead of cutting around.

It's funny I felt it should have been longer in places b/c the thing I've heard from others is that it felt long. It runs just over 2 hours and I honestly didn't notice. I don't mind things being slow paced, but I felt this story moved along just fine. I was never bored. My friends also likened it to the Lord of the Rings movie, which it has the same type of atmosphere and sure, it's got a bunch of people, including little people, traveling over land trying to fight evil - and it's a dark story. But I certainly think it was it's own film in many ways.

Let's talk about the story... we all know the basic story to Snow White. It's interesting to take some risks with it. I thought it was really interesting to provide a look into why the Queen is so evil & why she has powers & why she does what she does. I didn't expect her to be such a man hater, but considering how many women she kills/sucks the beauty out of - she seems to be equal opportunity.

Since the film starts out with Snow White and Prince William as children, I was worried once the Huntsman came on scene that he would turn out to be her lost William - thankfully not! I love the fact they let these characters naturally build relationships with each other & alluded to the fact that maybe Snow White's true love could be the Huntsman - but didn't take it there. I never thought he chose to help her b/c he loved her - he chose to help her at first b/c he was duped by Queen Ravena, but also b/c there was a reward in it for him. They naturally grew closer going through this harrowing journey together. At the end when Snow White is practically holding her breath & breathes a sigh of relief when she sees the Huntsman kind of caps off an interesting twist. Leaving it up to the audience for their own judgements was absolutely the right thing to do.

It seems odd that the Queen would leave Snow White alive & locked up for so many years instead of using her as a symbol to the people to say - see, I'm not all that bad... but without her we have no story. Maybe the Queen was growing her to suck the most potential beauty out of her - or maybe she was so traumatized as a child that she didn't want to do the same to Snow White - or maybe it was just that her brother had a major thing for girls who are locked up.

There were a few nods to Disney in the movie - for instance birds interacting with Snow White and the magical happy forest the Dwarves live in. I loved that they weren't afraid to make the land more magical. This is a fairy tale - the Queen has magical powers - why can't the land? I loved the locations and the characters. I especially loved when they showed a birch tree forest covered in snow - that is like a perfect dream to me. The use of ravens was pretty awesome. I loved how they brought up the way Snow White eats the Queen's poisoned apple. With a quick allusion to it in the beginning of the film, I wasn't sure if they put it in there for symbolism or if they really were foreshadowing the later events or if they thought it was cool. The definitely tie it in to that important moment. The Queen uses magic to disguise herself, not as an old woman, but as someone close to Snow White, someone she trusts.

The Dwarves - well people seem to be making a stink that there are 8 of them (when I say people, I really mean like 2 of the articles/videos I've seen...). We do end up with 7 though, so don't worry. Or do now that you know that. Also an interesting thing is they didn't use Little People for the roles. If you saw 'Mirror, Mirror' that was one thing I actually liked about it - they found some great actors for those roles that were Little People. However, that aside - you want to cast actors that you feel are right for your film & they got a bunch of very good actors. I mean, Bob Hoskins - awesome! And during the film, I kept wondering why one of the Dwarves reminded me of the guy from 'Hot Fuzz' - b/c it was him! (Nick Frost) Looking at the IMDB page - they are all very recognizable British actors - good actors.

I loved the contrast btwn where the men lived and where the women lived. It seems that since most of the women were kidnapped or killed or driven away - the men are mostly living in muck perhaps living in their sorrow of their lost loved ones. They're getting by but it's a real rugged life. Then we come across the amazing camp that the women have set up - women who have escaped & scarred themselves to be deemed as ugly by the Queen. They have a sort of security perimeter & they made themselves an impressive village. The only thing I didn't really like were their scars - you could still see how gorgeous those women were w/ scars - if I were the Queen, I wouldn't be fooled. Perhaps they should've had the make up dept make them a little more scary looking.

Snow White - I think people have a problem with Kristen Stewart and they tend to associate anything she does with being bad b/c they just don't like her. I'm not sure if I think she doesn't have great range as an actress or if she just plays too similar a character, but I've consistently liked her movies (well, sans the Twilight saga - although I have watched them all - you gotta see the bad ones to appreciate the good ones!). Does the type of characters she's played differ or are they all similar? Is she being typecast too much or does she just not have great range? I don't know. I don't let these things bother me. I don't feel like it's taking anything away from this movie or any others. There are a lot of beauty shots in this movie - and Kristen Stewart is in many of them. I felt like it worked. Her character is supposed to be innocent like a child but with a fire in her belly to fight for what she believes in. She's also been locked up for a long time - it makes sense that she takes wonder at so many things around her.

There were a couple 'this seems familiar' moments. The first being after Snow White flees on the white horse and it gets stuck in the bog - my brain was screaming "Atreyu!" (while it should be screaming "Artax!" but the memory mixes things together), and of course I relive an extremely sad moment in another film for a half second. Then, as Snow White enters the Dark Forest, the pods she falls on make her hallucinate - heavily reminding me of the Scarecrow in Batman Begins. Lastly, the Queen's wax milk bath reminded me of Aaliyah in Queen of the Damned, although she may have just been a wax statue - there is something super familiar there. But guess what - all of these things are okay b/c they are great images to use.

If you like fantasy & adventure, if you like dark & stylized movies - you'll love it. I was entertained the whole time, which is really all I can ask for in a film. There are a couple images from the trailer that I didn't recognize in the movie. I hate when they do that. I'm talking about these two in particular:

Here are a couple trailers for the film:



www.snowwhiteandthehuntsman.com
www.rupertsanders.com

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I just found an article on Huffington Post that mentions 8 confusing plot points. I don't think the author of the article was paying attention during the movie, b/c they all seem pretty self explanatory. Here is the link to his article, along with my thoughts.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ryan/snow-white-and-the-huntsman


1. What was that white horse doing before Snow White showed up?

As we learn in the film, there are magical elements to the land - including fairies that can control birds... It's not a far reach that since the birds kept coming to Snow White's prison window and again to show her the way out through the sewer, that they would also create a way for her to escape - by bringing her a horse. *OH - As someone pointed out in the comments of that article, the man who was leaving the castle after seeing the Queen kill his son in front of him had a white horse with him & saw Snow White escaping then quickly left the castle - makes total sense that he left it for her.

2. Why is Eric the Huntsman so afraid of the forest?

Didn't you see how Snow White was hallucinating heavily b/c of those pods she inhaled in the forest. It's a scary place. Plus this story takes place years & years ago - I'm sure they didn't understand what was happening there so they saw it as evil & scary. It was so easy for them to find Snow White b/c she passed out for who knows how long.

3. Why does Finn tell Eric the truth about his wife?

This was just stupid but perhaps he thought since they already found Snow White & he had soldiers with him, that he could boast a little.

4. Why does Queen Ravenna refer to the mirror as a "mirror"?

I imagine that it's more symbolic - the mirror is a reflection of the world, and to her vanity by being able to "show" her things.

5. What is that mysterious stag?

The stag is like the spirit of the forest - it can present itself in many ways, but perhaps a stag is the most important - I likened it to the appearance of Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia - it's just not represented as god in this movie.

6. What happens to the extra ravens?

I think they used that for a more visual effect, however, her powers were weakening building up to this point & using all that magic to go to the forest weakened her even more - I took it as parts of her magic dying - perhaps parts of all that beauty / souls she's sucked out.

7. Why does Ravenna have powers in the forest after stating that she didn't have any powers in the forest?

There are 2 forests - do you not remember them escaping the Dark Forest to cross the bridge where the troll was - then they found the river & the women's camp - then they found the Dwarves. The Dwarves don't live in the Dark Forest. This was a completely different place.

8. In the final scene, what exactly is Eric doing when he walks in on Snow White being anointed queen?

In the Disney version, Snow White's spell is broken by a kiss from her true love - they were alluding to the fact that maybe the Huntsman is her true love. I saw that scene as her maybe realizing she loves him.

Annular Solar Eclipse

Yesterday my friends & I got together to have dinner and watch the Solar Eclipse from downtown Los Angeles. We didn't have anything fancy, just some paper to reflect the image on and some cameras. Luckily my friend had a couple ND filters to use so we could attempt to protect our cameras. You're also not supposed to shoot without a solar filter, but we took a gamble & made due with what we had. Even though you're not supposed to look at the sun, I wound up doing it several times unintentionally. Maybe my subconscious is taking over! I wish we had proper viewing equipment to be able to look at it directly.

An Annular Solar Eclipse happens when the moon passes between the Earth & the Sun, causing most of the sun to be blocked from sight, but leaving a ring of sunshine around the outside at its peak. The last time this happened I was a Junior in High School. I remember everyone gathering outside to view it, but I don't remember actually getting to see anything. I don't think the school organized it, so I don't think I had anything to view it with.

Here are my results - In the first 3, the eclipse is visible by a light flare, and the last 3 are with the ND filters in front of the lens to see the actual sun & moon. All shots taken btwn 6:30 & 7pm. The pictures may look dark but don't be fooled. It was super bright out the entire time! In fact, I'll include a picture I took of downtown just 3 minutes after I took the last shot, which was behind me to the left when facing the sun.