Unless I’m in the mood for a truly down-to-earth story, I watch movies in order to be transported to places I’ll never go and live moments I never could in real life. In a word, I want escapism. And I get annoyed when I try to escape into an ostensibly escapist movie, only to be jolted out of it because the creators fucked up when it came to immersion. Although aspects such as the story and the characters are undeniably the most important, immersion is also very crucial. Many elements combine to form a truly immersive experience: score, sound design, acting, lighting, camerawork, and, of course, effects.
Continue reading When Effects Lose Their Effect
Tag: essay
Kill The Lion: A Film Manifesto or rather a Taste of a Film Manifesto I’m Working On
“True revolution comes from true revulsion; when things get bad enough, the kitten will kill the lion.” – Charles Bukowski, from his poem ‘The People’
I read that poem back when I was making Shredder, my first feature-length film, and that line blew me away. It perfectly expressed my feelings about the then current (and still current) state of so-called ‘independent film’—a phrase that once, long ago, had an objective definition: a film made outside of the major studio system, funded by an independent studio or some other wholly independent source.
Continue reading Kill The Lion: A Film Manifesto or rather a Taste of a Film Manifesto I’m Working On