tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21373052.post6741191395478495490..comments2023-11-02T06:31:36.840-07:00Comments on The Sandwich Machine: How "300" Helped Me Understand MusicalsWalrushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05608261154284316277noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21373052.post-18730923952408174712007-06-08T21:06:00.000-07:002007-06-08T21:06:00.000-07:00We nearly pissed ourselves as that ending scene be...We nearly pissed ourselves as that ending scene began, laughing so hard it was obnoxious. People looked at us as they left the theater and we convulsed.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06192537713607428731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21373052.post-91775165420366345512007-06-04T21:21:00.000-07:002007-06-04T21:21:00.000-07:00Personally I love the departure from reality one f...Personally I love the departure from reality one finds in an on-screen song and dance number -- I still remember when I first went and saw the South Park movie and discovered it was a MUSICAL! OH, I was so HAPPY! :-) But not as happy as at the end of the 40-Year Old Virgin when they slip in that gorgeous "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In" Bollywood-esque thing of beauty. Oh the transcendent vitality of art!!!Amyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04736955125611064179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21373052.post-7476386409639180912007-06-04T19:56:00.000-07:002007-06-04T19:56:00.000-07:00Now I'm the one who can't find the references. But...Now I'm the one who can't find the references. But there was a time in film before cross cutting, where you'd see all the events in one space and then see the parallel events in another space. The sample film we saw of that was "A Day in the Life of a Fireman" that showed the inside of the burning building with the rescue and then the outside. (there is some dispute that this isn't just a found uncut copy of the raw footage.)<BR/><BR/>That essentially it was through D.W. Griffith and Eisenstien that our ability to follow cuts emerged.<BR/><BR/>I think I have a good size rant about the ridiculous expectations of story telling in film loaded up and coming soon...Walrushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05608261154284316277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21373052.post-44331031103084405292007-06-04T12:18:00.000-07:002007-06-04T12:18:00.000-07:00It occurred to me this morning that there's anothe...It occurred to me this morning that there's another dimension to all this. I read an article once, and just spent twenty minutes trying to track it down unsuccessfully on the interwebs, that talked about how villagers in Africa couldn't initially follow educational documentaries because Western film is loaded with all kinds of "transparent" conventions that we simply accept--jumps in time, cuts in dialog, people walking off the edge of the screen--because we're steeped in them from infancy. The aid workers had to produce films that illustrated these principles so that the audiences would be able to follow this bizarre new (to them) medium.<BR/>Another quick point--the dramatic unities limited theater for centuries, insisting, for instance, on only one set. Convention breaking is integral to every medium except, apparently, film--I guess it's the money.Sous Raturehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00338066541296609949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21373052.post-59329153507991892132007-06-04T08:03:00.000-07:002007-06-04T08:03:00.000-07:00I was talking to Sous Rature about this and he bro...I was talking to Sous Rature about this and he brought up something that seems pretty obvious about audience expectation-Bollywood. There the audience actually expects the unreal, they expect the song and dance routine no matter what the rest of the movie portrays.Walrushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05608261154284316277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21373052.post-52384196023600122302007-06-03T18:19:00.000-07:002007-06-03T18:19:00.000-07:00Amy and I have often said that contemporary film n...Amy and I have often said that contemporary film needs more song and dance numbers. Ferris Bueller in Chicago, the dancers who appear out of nowhere to jam to "ABC" in Clerks II--why the fuck not? There are a number of films which come out on any given weekend that could do with something like that.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06192537713607428731noreply@blogger.com