This blog will present news items about the motion picture business, with emphasis on lower budget, independent film in most cases. Some reviews or commentaries on specific films, with emphasis on significance (artistic or political) or comparison, are presented. Note: No one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"! Starting in May 2016, many of the reviews for new feature films have been done on a hosted Wordpress site, and this blog now mostly does shorts and older films.
Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!
TENET Time Inversion Explained (The Movie’s Timeline),
from “Heavy Spoilers”.
The time inversion means that the person reverses
backward through the exact event with no changes allowed, so that causality in
physics (the “grandfather paradox”) is not challenged.
Although this preview doesn’t say that, some people say
that with a non-traumatic death, you relive your entire life and can see any moments
you want, as time slows to a standstill.
The film is due to preview in theaters Thursday, Sept. 3.
I want to link to Einzelganger’s “5 Signs of the Sigma
Male” which supplements a film presented May 24 on “not belonging”.
Sigma males dislike participating in social hierarchies
or tribal conflicts (such as partisan politics), especially the polarized political
climate today with extremes on both Left and Right.
They also may consider marriage and relationships as
less important, and might venture into what is sometimes seen as schizoid or
avoidant.
But they do have a rich internal world of their own
making and can “self-date”. (Interesting
reference to that idea in an older book by Katherine Kersten).
“President vs. Virus: Corona in Brazil” by DW Documentary
(12 minutes) with M.K. Boese and others.
Right wing president Jair Bolsonaro has called COVID “a little
flu” but got it himself, a mild case. He seems to believe in “survival of the
fittest”. Brazil has the second highest death toll, at 118,000 in the world,
after the U.S.
The film shows his left-wing opponents, with a lot of
community engagement, like a soccer group called “Corinthians” delivering food
to the poor, especially in an underground homeless shelter in Sao Paulo. The
food is starchy and has no fresh produceFamilies who lost jobs to the virus were simply evicted, with no safety
plans even comparable to those of Trump. One family had moved some its furniture
to the shelter but was given shoes by the volunteers.
The film also shows the right wing support, especially
around Brasilia.In one family a “gay
conservative” is presented, despite Bolsonaro’s homophobia.
Brasilia picture from Wikipedia, click for attribution.
Here’s a cute short from CatPusic, in Russia (I think): “Wild West:
Wanted Cat Steals Food from Moving Freight Train”, from January 2020.
A young man has set up an interesting model train layout in
his basement with a self-propelled strain and large track that I’ve never seen
in American stores. There is a tunnel, a bridge, and some unusual loops and
designs.
He fills the flatcars with food and invites his cat in to
the room to stalk the train and steal food from the toy flatcars and hoppers.
“Coronavirus in Spain”, a 28-film by Natalia
Bachmayer, for DW Documentary (which has docs on many different countries). The other title is "Close Up: Spain's Fight with the Coronavirus" (wiki link).
Natalia documents the strict lockdown in Madrid which
started around March 14, with people socializing only from their balconies,
with road checkpoints, and people allowed go out only once a day for groceries.
She is allowed to move around because she is a “professional”
journalist for a living. But a blogger
like me could not do this.
With restrictions so strict, I don’t know what
happened if something broke in your home (an appliance or an Internet
connection).
She moves on to the Canary Islands, with the volcanic
scenery, before returning to Spain and seeing the people, often migrants, in food
lines.Spain’s social safety net is not
protecting everyone from complete destitution due to the extended lockdowns.
Picture: Madrid on March 22, embed, click for attribution in Wikipedia.
Vanity Fair and director Rodney Passe present the
8-minute short film “Voices from the Black Lives Matter Protests”, and that
pretty much includes all of them recently.
One protester explains something.It goes like this.“You are bent up on property destruction.But if police can come at will at kill us, we
don’t even own our own bodies”.(That
refers to slavery in the past, although he doesn’t say that explicitly.) What good
is your property then?He could have
added, your property is worthless because it is predicated on an unfair system
that victimized us.It’s time for you to
learn what it means to become the victim you despise because of the prejudices
of others.
So this gets very personal. Even so, mainstream journalists and vloggers are paying heed to BLM as an organization when as such (not the movement, just the organization) seems to have Marxist origins. And Marxism (especially Maoism) can turn vengeful.
The Jacob Blair medical condition update was broadcast by the family late today (see Issues Blog).
Picture: Memorial for Breonna Taylor in Louisville KY, wikipedia embed, click for CCSA attribution
Continuing in the spirit from yesterday, I’ll present
Jussi Alexander’s “How to Film Yourself”.
Jussi uses a modern Sony something and tripod, as well
as a drone, to show himself walking in and out of a building, and then down an
alley.The drone is quite high, above
decks on the nearby apartment rowhouses.
I don’t know where this is, maybe Los Angeles.
It does take a lot of technique and practice to do
this well.Oli Barrett would have done
the same thing in his videos where he talks while walking around in cities in China.
If you want to get serious with video yourself, in
order to prepare selling a script, this gives you an idea of the skills you (“I”)
need to master.
Film Riot presents the instructional video from Ryan Connolly,
“Making a Short Film Alone”, which relates to a 4-minute short “The Volunteer”
by Joe Simon.
The film shows a lone man who has decided to stay behind in
a deserted Austin TX after an evacuation during an alien invasion.A spacecraft hangs in the sky.
Simon chose the subject matter as appropriate to do alone
during the pandemic when streets would be deserted naturally.
His most important prop was a yellow hazmat suit that he ordered online for $427.
He uses editing software called Resolve, rather than Premier
(or Final Cut).
He pays a lot of heed to the composition of a scene where he
sits in an old bathtub.
“Wicken” is a proof-of-concept horror film from HashmiHouse,
or Faisal Hashmi.
A woman (Noir Safieh) sits on her bed and chats with a
boyfriend (Stuart Richard) on her laptop with Zoom or Skype.She
notices curtains moving in his apartment as he sends her a demonic image as part
of a chain letter (usually a TOS violation).
She has to send it to someone else to get rid of the
same entity who now is stalking her. She sends it to a woman with a newborn.
The 7 minute film links to a “making-of” which is
longer than the film (14 minutes). The director says he plans a longer feature
based on the same idea.(This idea of a teaser
short was tried by Jorge Ameer for his “The House of Adam”. May 12, 2012).
This morning, “The Priceless Benefits of Not Belonging”
flashed into my YouTube queue.I didn’t
recall at first I had written a quirky review (very personalized) May 24,
2020.It still holds. It’s driving
polarization and the radical Left.
Run-DMC offers the 10-minute short film “Can You Catch
COVID-19 Twice? How Long Does Immunity Last?”
The speaker, from the UK, gives many academic
references, and the best one comes from DDB-Future, “The people with hidden
immunity against Covid-19”.
He explains that the “humoral” and “myeloid” arms of
the immune system themselves split into compartments.Memory T-cells are recruited like mercenaries
with resumes, for their ability to fight a specific new invader. It’s almost
like your T-cells had LinkedIn accounts. But the separation of functions within
your immune system (a workplace concepts) is really quite elaborate, almost
like the CIA.
The practical likelihood is that, even though obvious conspicuous antibodies wear off (like going bald), serviceable immunity (in immunologically healthy people) may last 1-2 years, enough time for yearly vaccines to work.
Wikipedia embed from NCI. click for attribution
Update: Aug. 25 There is one case in Hong Kong, See International Issues blog Monday Aug. 24.
Journeyman Pictures releases video documentaries of
issues overseas, especially in autocratic countries.They also take up some other issues, like censorship
(the video channel has many trailers for featurettes to come).
So then here is the satire. “Batshit” (7 min).Humans, dressed as bats, infect Los Angeles.They look more like actors out of “Cats”, than
anything from the Batman or Gotham franchises. The letter "i" in the title is replaced by a bat emoji for common decency.
With Rich Hall and Romash Raganathan.I could well be from bat feces or guano in caves that
Sars-CoV-2 jumped to humans. This is the narrative of Mojiang Miners Passage hypothesis in China.
Wikipedia embed of vampire bat, click for CCSA attribution.
I haven’t talked about games much on my blogs (except for
the Sony litigation) but I wanted to present as a “film” a review of the 2016
game “The Witness” (from Thekla), review from IGN.
You can also look up Joseph Anderson’s 40-minute 2016
misadventure, “The Witness: A Great Game that You Shouldn’t Play”.
The game places you on a fictitious island. As you traverse it, you are presented with
puzzles as “Keys” where you have to solve the puzzle (a navigation with unknown
rules) to reach the next area. People say that a typical game takes 60-80 hours
to play.
The game has been associated with philosophies like “non
duality”.
It seems to have been derived from 20-year-old games like
Myst and Riven.
Sal Bardo presents “Requited” (2010, 5 Hands Films, 20
minutes), re-released this week.
A young man (Chris Damon) living in Manhattan chooses
between seeing his current boyfriend off to the airport, or seeing his first
love one last time forever at a wedding, a look back at his whole youth.
The film starts in bed, which kind of reverses the
opportunity for tension.
His other friends from his past, maybe before his “second
coming”, remember his as talkative, maybe like me? There is a very long penultimate shot of him alone in bed near the end.
Think Media offers some advice to people who might be
considering starting a YouTube channel, and who want the production quality to be
good enough to attract subscribers and become monetizable. It’s “Best Camera
and Equipment for YouTube Beginners” from 2018.
He talks about an upscale Canon camera for about $700
and even sets it up on a stack of books that looks like a leaning tower of
Pisa. Then he wises up and sets up a tripod that he recommends, and shows how
to film yourself seated in a couch with lighting gear.
The topic fits into my own plans a little bit more now
than it used to, since I have to think about the future of my own channel and
the “commercial viability” issue.
There is also the issue of boxing yourself talking while
you show content on your screen.One way
to do this is with Zoom (video).
As you can see from my condo living room, I would have
some housekeeping to do. Does Think Media have anything to do with ThinkFilm?
“Hand Off” is an interesting gay short film from
Germany, directed by Chadlee Skrikker, about gay men in contact sports, this
time, rugby. It stars Andhar Cotton and Arno Horn. The title is indeed
metaphorical.
A rugby player confronts his best friend on the team
that he has lost his lover, and (only then) that the lover is a man.
The teammate is mildly surprised that his friend is
gay.
The film goes into a long intermittent dream sequence
where the player goes to bars and a wild Roman party and makes out, in costume,
with another player, before coming back to reality. Somehow living in an alternate reality fixes things.
Then he comes back to the team and does not
necessarily find himself welcome. Some
players do have a problem with it.
On Monday, Aug. 10, 2020, PBS aired the film “About
Love” by Mumbai filmmaker and writer Archanda Phadke, about her own life as a
single adult living in a multi-generational home in a crowded but middle-class
are of India’s metropolisThe film was
shot before Covid, but it depicts the practical problems of integrated family
life when there are many people.
Archanda, 32 when finishing the film, was working out
her own attitudes about family and marriage, as she gradually had to come to
terms with cultural ideas about a woman’s place in the home in her society. Family
was about more than focused love, it was about the continuity of a tribe. “If
you wouldn’t serve your husband’s family, then stay home.”
Her 87-year-old grandpa Madhav is becoming ill, needs
adult diapers at night, and finally goes to the hospital for a tragic but
expected end.Her grandmother Neela says
she doesn’t know why she married him, but he used to be good looking and
relatively humble.
Her parents, especially her dad, are a bit hardheaded
in running a family jewelry business. There are arguments about the physical
assembly of accounting statements into binders able to hold them.
The infrastructure around the house seems
suspect;the TV or Internet go out “when
it rains”.
Toward the end of the film Archanda talks about her
own novel, and her own mind, as separate from family.She talks about the idea of your soul living
at different times (135 years apart) through imagination or reading (or maybe
virtual time travel).
Wikipedia embed of Mumbai railway picture, click for attribution. See also "In Praise of Love" Oct. 7, 2007.
SpaceRip presents “Cloud Cities of Venus: Settling Earth’s
Twin”, by David Sky Brody, narrated by David Grinspoon.
At 30 miles altitude above Venus, the atmospheric pressure
is about the same as Earth, with atmosphere of carbon dioxide and clouds of
sulfuric acid.
But the film imagines cities, of blimps (maybe 1000 meters
diameter) strung together.If a large balloon
is pierced at atmospheric pressure, it does not deflate immediately and it can
be repaired.
Robots would be sent to the surface of Venus to mine for raw
materials.
The film also discusses terraforming, even of Venus, which
would take millennia.
GIF -- embedded from Wikipedia, click for attribution, topographical map of the surface of Venus
I think it’s interesting to review a typical theater
chain’s “coronavirus notice” back in March 2020, with progressive entries (like
a blog) March 12 (Thursday), 13, and 16.Landmark tried to implement a policy of 50% seating on March 14, and
decided on March 16 to close March 17.
This notice shows how suddenly and unexpected the lockdown
hit most service and performing arts businesses.Most of the owners and investors say they had
no idea that could even happen for the reason given at the time, to “flatten
the curve”. The same goes for restaurants
and bars.
Most analysts now say that movie theaters can’t reliably
open until mid 2021, after vaccinations have started in some earnest.
A good question then is how well film production
continues for the VoD market.Even in
the gay “soft core” world, I am seeing stuff come out, as if actors could be
tested for coronavirus first and then act the scenes safely.
On March 10, I was on a day trip in Pennsylvania and
ate in a typical restaurant. By March 17, I pretty much realized “it would be
this way” but it doesn’t sound like a lot of businesses had.
Update: Aug. 11:
Kate Cox writes in Arstechnica that a federal judge has vacated the Paramount Consent Decree, which could open the motion picture theater industry to vertical integration with large studios, after it is possible for them to open given Covid. I'll probably come back to this issue again as to how if might affect what scripts get greenlighted.
Here’s a video that gives the technical side of
storytelling in short film, beyond the screenwriting.
“3 Reasons You Should Be Making Short Films” by Jo Jo
Productions.
There are four reasons, really.(1) Learn the camera system, with frame rate
(24) and shutter rate (usually close to 48)(2) Learn to do the lighting; (3) Learn to do the storytelling (beginning,
middle, end). And (4) Learn to do the audio with a separate hardware pack,
which will be integrated when you edit (I guess Final Cut Pro).
I don’t think this is quite the setup that news
journalists use, like when filming protests.
Tyler Mowery just did a livestream on his channel
where he read short film scripts submitted to him, we’ll come back to that
soon.
“The Deteriorating Tunnel that could Break New York
City”, as explained by Cheddar (and Jil Jonnes). I would retitle “New York City’s
Big Tunnel Problem”.
The documentary gives the history of the two tunnels
under the Hudson that Amtrak and commuter railroads depend on, and the controversy
over reconstruction projects, especially since the Hurricane Sandy damage in
2012. The north tunnel (southbound) seems particularly vulnerable. The two tunnels are called the "North River Tunnels". In the past, the passenger would see an open area coming out of the tunnel in NYC before going into Penn Station (which has been completely remodeled). Now you don't see that. (You can't go right now because of the quarantines, but that is another matter.)
You can see the NJ/NY stateline inside the tunnels (as with the Lincoln Tunnel).
There is mention of the bankruptcy of Penn Central in
1970, which I remember well from my young adulthood.
A permanent closure of one tunnel could cost NYC $16 billion a year.
There is a rotating draw bridge over an inlet in NJ south
of the tunnels that often fails, causing Amtrak delays.
Picture: embed from Wikipedia, north Bergen entrance, click for attribution
Darious Britt (“D4Darious”) directs and stars in his
meditation “Pandemic”, with Darious playing Ty, Late Cannon playing Brin, and Travis
Klecska playing Bruce, and music by Artists.io. It has the feel of a Terrence Mallick film.
A mixed-race young couple is separated by quarantines
in Arizona, while bad news about the pandemic keeps invading their spaces.
Darious (Ty) goes on hand-washing binges (it’s mostly your
fingertips that touch things) and then there is bizarre metaphor with a
dripping showerhead.
Then it seems he travels, maybe he’s in the Army.
Then he and his girl friend, communicating with Skype,
agree not to talk about coronavirus or watch the news for 48 hours.
The film is accompanied by a detailed “making of” short,
and D4Darious’s channel seems to be made for filmmakers.
Picture, Wikipedia embed, Arizona teacher's strike protest from 2018; maybe there will be another one about returning to classroom (click for attribution).
Rosine Mfetgo Mkakam directs “Chez jolie coiffure”
(Oct. 2019), shown on PBS POV on Monday Aug. 3, abridged to 52 minutes from the
original 71 minutes (title: "at a joyous salon").
In the African Matonge area of Brussels, a hairdresser
shop owner Sabine works with customers and talks about the harrowing
difficulties of immigrants from Africa, particularly the Cameroon.
When white people come by to gaze into her shop, she
says that white people think they are going to a zoo.
She also says that white people imprisoned Africa
(settlements with colonialism) by gazing at it, a kind of quantum theory statement. She is definitely arguing for anti-racism.
She says that some immigrants are indentured to
specific wealthy families in Belgium.
Toward the end, the police come and arrest people and
close her down temporarily.
The entire film is shot like a livestream from the shop.
The film (French, with subtitles) comes from Tandor Productions
and is distributed by Icarus.
Picture: Embed from Wikipedia, summer festival in Brussels, 2018, click for attribution
“Bell’s Theorem: The Quantum Venn Diagram Paradox” by Minute
Physics.
This video presents Bell’s hidden variable theory in quantum
physics which posits the possibility of “local realism”, that somehow information
(of entangled particles) is so fundamental that it is instantaneous (faster
than light).Or is it because the
observer changes the result by staring at it?
The theory could explain some biological paradoxes (maybe
even how viruses evolved).
There is a sci-fi idea that somehow information somehow can
transcend the normal limits on energy (speed of light), and is so fundamental
that aliens (“angels”) could use it to teleport themselves in some strange
circumstances.
Mermin's inequality is embedded from a pdf on Wikipedia, click for attribution.
Iaowhy86 (who lives in China, I think) explains “How
Hollywood Is Censoring YOUR Movies for China”. Moviegoers (especially when theaters reopen) should complain about this.
He opens with an explanation of how Maoist China
censored everything so as to memorialize “the Proles”.But China made a tremendous turnaround and
embraced statist capitalism, and eventually became a big market for Hollywood.
So often Hollywood would censor scripts for Chinese
screenings, but overtime started writing scripts to be acceptable in China
wherever they were shown (in the US). That seems really sensitive now (given the theories about the pandemic).
This sounds like it could be a big deal for screenwriters
trying to sell scripts, if they are politically charged (let’s say talk about
the US and China in a space race, for openers). I would even wonder about Tyler
Mowery’s script “Blue Moon” which he shares on his YouTube channel.
Picture: Wikipedia embed, Wuhan, click for CCSA attribution.