Film Fest Friday - Do Penguins Fly?

Hi folks. Today's feature on Film Fest Friday is a short computer animated cartoon I found called "Do Penguins Fly?" It's short, but kinda cute.



That's all folks. Sorry I haven't posted much recently. School's been kind of crazy, and I haven't taken many photos at all to post as PhotoBlogs. Stay tuned, though...
T.H. Excellence

Some Recent Work

One of the classes I'm required to take as a film major is New Media. Quite frankly, I'm not sure why this class is required. The text is mostly just a rehash of my Mass Media work from last semester, and all of the projects are Internet-based. So far, we really haven't done anything film related.

But, on the plus side, I'm learning how to make small web sites, which could someday prove to be a profitable talent. I recently completed a very small site featuring a bit of my Disneyland photography, so if you want to see what I've been up to, check it out here.

T.H. Excellence

Film Fest Friday - A Trip to the Moon

Continuing the trend of silent films, today's featured short is George Milies' A Trip to the Moon. George Milies was a French filmmaker and magician and used techniques from both of these fields to create unique special effects. This film is also noted for being the first motion picture with a story and narrative. All prior films were little more than minute-long exhibits of various scenes or portraits.

Enough talk. On with the show.



That's all for me for now, folks. Sorry for the lack of posts recently. School has kept me busy!

TTFN
T.H. Excellence

Film Fest Friday: The Great Train Robbery

Today I thought we'd take a change of pace from cartoons, and so instead I'm featuring one of the first films of all time: The Great Train Robbery. This short film, directed by Edwin Porter, was revolutionary for its time, making use of narrative editing. This style of editing allowed the audience to follow the story without the use of a general narration or title cards, paving the way for a new type of storytelling.
The Great Train Robbery also made use of color to heighten the tension and emotion of the shot. Although this was an innovative technique, it wasn't entirely new. Thomas Edison dyed the frames of his dancing girl video clips to enhance the flair and style of the subjects.

But enough idle chit-chat. On with the show.



Quite different, isn't it. Films of this style are actually what I'm being subjected to frequently now, as I'm currently at the beginning of my History of Cinema class.

Good day
T.H. Excellence

If Adventure Has a Name...

Today is Valentine's Day.

That's not why I'm writing.

This morning at 6 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, the first trailer for Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull was released to the world.

And if I do say so myself, it looks pretty epic.



That's all for me
T.H. Excellence

Keeping Up With The Joneses

All I can say is, "It's about time."

I just learned this morning that February 14th will see the release of the teaser trailer for the new Indy movie. I've been wondering for the longest time when this would happen, and I honestly expected it to show up around the Christmas season. For some reason, Lucas and Spielberg decided to wait until now to show us footage of Indiana's new adventure. I can understand their desire for secrecy, but for a film of this size I think an early release is imperative. All the other big blockbusters released their teaser trailers months ago.

Oh well. Better late then never.

Return here on Thursday the 14th for a link to the trailer.

S'long, everyone
T.H. Excellence

Film Fest Friday: Mickey's Trailer

It's Friday again! Today's feature is a classic old Mickey Mouse cartoon called Mickey's Trailer. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy go on a road trip with a trailer in tow, but things don't go quite as planned.



Sheesh, I'm supposed to be showing short films, but all I put up are cartoons. Probably because that's all that I can find that's suitable.
Oh well. Cartoons are fun.
T.H. Excellence

Epic Poster Sale!

Things have been a little different this semester. One of my roommates moved out, and when I returned to school I discovered that my remaining roommate had accordingly rearranged the room so that we'd have more space. Coincidentally, we now have more empty wall space, and I found myself in need of more movie posters. Unfortunately, I knew of no nearby poster shops, and so the walls remained for the most part empty. Then lo and behold I opened my mailbox and saw this notification:
POSTER SALE! SCORE! Finally no more empty wall space!

So after spending most of the weekend imagining what posters I would purchase to deck my walls with, I headed out after lunch and went to examine the fine merchandise offered at this sale. I made quite a few purchases, and now my walls are much more exciting. Accordingly, I thought I would post the results.

The Indiana Jones poster is old, but the Back to the Future and Princess Bride posters are new. But, old or new, these are all some of my favorite movies ever.


And here are the other two posters I purchased. I've had the Star Wars Episode IV poster up for quite a while, so I decided to obtain the posters for Episode V and VI to supplement it.

So that's what my space looks like now.

I always enjoy these poster sales, but I hope they don't come around for a while. I'm out of wall space. And money.

Ta ta
TH. Excellence