Film
Subtle forks
A tangential look at Canadians—who they are, what they like and how they got this way—though the lenses of their contemporary film narratives, settings and characters. A series of films I've curated for the Fall Screenings at the 221a Gallery in Vancouver.
Review in Tabs: The Orchid Thief
A review in tabs—excerpts I found noteworthy in Susan Orlean's novel about orchid collectors in the swamps of Florida, about what passion really is and means. The non-fiction novel formed the basis for Charlie Kaufman's film Adaptation, which inspired me to read the book. Page 30 Is what I did ethical? I don't know. I'm a shrewd bastard. I could...
Saguaro by Carson Mell
A review in tabs—excerpts I found noteworthy in Carson Mell's—who as far as I can tell is a young independent writer—writing about Bobby Bird, "a classic rock star who's been producing rock albums of greatly varying quality since the early 60s", 2006 (second edition 2008; ordered directly from Mell and his apartment in LA). Page 7 "But here I was,...
Transcribed Inspiration
Passages from films I've found particular poignant / relevant / inspiring of late. Adaptation John Larouche's pollination monologue Note: skip to 3-minute mark "Point is what's so wonderful is that every one of these flowers has a specific relationship with the insect that pollinates it. There's a certain orchid looks exactly like a certain insect, so the insect is drawn...
Scenes from Fitzcarraldo
Werner Herzog, 1982....
The Fit of Existenz
David Cronenberg's eXistenZ (1999) is a near-future noir of virtual reality gaming, genetic mutations and--like all Cronenberg films--a graphic discussion of the nature of the body and its relation to invasion and manipulation. Specifically, I'm interested in the designs of the organic game pods: mutated amphibian semi-creatures with synthetic DNA that port into the gamer's spine. The bioports are installed...
Four Masters of El Topo
Images and transcripts from Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1970 film, El Topo, specifically a bootlegged video copy of a projection of the film with subtitles from which this dialogue and screen grabs are copied.
High Five Session 1
high-five session #1 from Jonathan Igharas on Vimeo. With friend and classmate Jon Igharis. The goal of our sessions: learn something new, fun and creative in a few hours with available tools to produce something worth showing. Tonight: an Arduino, some LEDs, a Sony HVR-A1U HD camera, a couple MacBook Pros, and Final Cut Pro. We messed around with...
Internship Transition
Video prepared as a component of a presentation given at the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver, Canada concerning a student design internship in the Philippines, May and June, 2007. Created in two days during late October, 2007 in Bali, Indonesia, with a Sony MiniDV Handycam, MacBook Pro, Final Cut Pro. Filming by Amanda Huynh. Editing by Jeff Werner. Uploaded to...
Puerto Princesa 1
Recorded May 19, 2007 walking around a central market in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines. Sequence includes the dominant public transportation (tricycles i.e. motorbikes with sidecars and bodies), a mobile phone repair and accessory shop, a cashew dehusking stall and the local ferry dock. 0:34 video created with a Fuji F30, MacBook Pro 2.0, Final Cut Pro and QuickTime Pro....
Bacon Sandwich
Recorded May 16, 2007. 1:01 video created with a Fuji F30, MacBook Pro 2.0 and Final Cut Pro. Of note: the music sampled is by OPM (Original Pinoy Music) band BrownBeat and their track Romantikong Bastos. Download the QuickTime movie [5.8 MB]....
Philippines Nagtabon
Recorded May 13, 2007. 0:25 video created with a Fuji F30, MacBook Pro 2.0 and Final Cut Pro....
Philippines Mall
Video from Manila, April 28, 2007. Or download the higher quality QuickTime version, 00:56 sec., 13.5MB. Created with a Fuji F30, MacBook Pro and Final Cut Pro. Text from video: Henry "Retail King" Sy a taipan (tycoon) of Asia richest man in the Philippines and head of SM Prime Holdings, Inc started the Philippine "malling" phenomenon in 1985 now operates...
Stan Douglas Lecture
Live report at the Emily Carr Institute, March 21, 2007. More info about the lecture at the Emily Carr website and about Douglas himself at Wikipedia. Hmm, he's more mild manner-sounding than I imagined. And this lecture started right on time and he gets into it right away. Also, he's giving a special crit to the Master's students afterwards, whose...
Hand Gestures
A short video (3:24) with subtitles demonstrating various hand gestures, many with multiple meanings. For an Interdiscplinary Media video assignment.
Short Films
Messing around with cameras and ideas, some old, some new. A series of still shots arranged. This happens to tie into a current project for Visual Communication, sort of.
Into Each Generation a Fan is Born
Will Xander finally wake up to Cordelia's feelings? Who exactly is Angel (a good vampire?), and will we find out why he's so hot and mysterious? And what exactly happened to the high school gymnasium in L.A. that blew it up (did I miss the feature film)? And man, if Giles got it on with the "Slayer"...(That'd be crazy!). But...
The Village: An analysis
Note: the following critique contains big spoilers! OK, so The Village (2004) is about a group of people who lived in the "towns", who all suffered a violent and criminal loss of a loved one, and who voluntarily start new lives and families together as an isolated community. Surrounding the entire village is an off-limits forest, lest the beasts exact...
Making breakfast video
A friend mentioned an idea for a series of short film collaborations involving breakfast preperation, and what do you know, I already have my own breakfast video (Quictime, 1:14, 2.75 MB). Recorded March, 2002....
Coffee and Cigarettes
Quote of the day, from Jim Jarmusch's latest Coffee and Cigarettes, staring among others Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, the White Stripes, Roberto Benigni, Steve Buscemi and Bill Murray, most of them appearently playing themselves. Oh, that quote: I drink a lot of coffee before I go to sleep. Then I can dream fast....
Bubba Ho-tep
This review contains spoilers. Was mildly disappointed with this film (USA 2003), which both in reviews and its first on-screen hour promised to hold some sort of insight into human truth, or at least some very entertaining camp horror via the Bruce-Campbell-as-Elvis in a Texas nursing home teaming up with Ossie-Davis-as-JFK to battle an Egyptian mummy narrative....
100 Movies Someone else thinks you should see
100 MOVIES THAT DESERVE MORE LOVE (Chud.com) Pretty good list. I've read to number 25 so far. I liked Gattaca and Contact, and have been told before by a reliable source to see Iron Giant. And Mouse Trap looks nice....
Robot, Our Friend
Could it happen in my lifetime, my own robot? In grade about 2 my friend Denis had that one from Radio Shack, Omnibot. Programmed with magnetic audio tapes and could carry a drink. I was very jealous....
Triplets of Belleville
Saw this acclaimed (by critics and friends) animated film, a Canadian-Belgium-France collaboration now nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, at the Odeon the other night. Narrative synopsis, with possible spoilers: a quiet French orphan boy and his petite Grandmother, who buys him a tricycle to encourage his harbored fascination with heroes of the Tour de France. Cut to Grandma,...
Turnpike Films
Turnpike Films. High quality, high wit, very entertaining ads/promos for cereal, coffee and beer. Gotta watch them all. Had me smiling out loud....
Current Tracks
Weird Al - Eat it Yo La Tengo - Nuclear War; The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science Interesting note to Tengo's SoSoS: it's a 78 min. album designed and performed as a cinematic soundscape to a series of undersea doc film shorts by what appears to be one of the more under-rated founders, avant garde champions and prolific authors...
Eugene Levy's Accent
Was having trouble pinning down the source of Eugene Levy's accent in A Mighty Wind (2003) last night. Thought I'd nailed it as Dieter from Sprockets, Mike Myers' regular SNL sketch featuring a German-accented, 80s avant garde talk show host. But that wasn't quite as stilted as Levy's portrayal of a mentally unstable, recovering 60s folk singer. Who Levy really...
Pleix - Digital Film Collective
http://pleix.net/films.html Some of the more innovative trendy short art film/music videos I know of online. Esp. check out E-Baby, Sometimes and Beauty Kit. Pleix is one of those self-described "virtual community of digital artists based in Paris" things. Very nice to watch. Thanks Ross for the link....
Easy reading is damned hard writing.—Nathaniel Hawthorne Copyright © 2002–2012 Jeff Werner, Creative Commons (Some rights reserved), Login