Monday, June 25, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
A NEW FAIRY TALE FROM SCRATCH
Pop culture is obsessed with fairy tales right now. But it's all retreads of the same few stories from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen — and not even the original, dark-as-hell stories, but rather the warmed-over Disneyfied versions. Where are the people creating brand new fairy tales from scratch? And why don't these endless retellings of old fairy tales keep the emotional and moral core of these stories intact?
If you want to see how to create a new fairy tale, with all the psychological and emotional intensity of an Andersen classic — and the lesson, too — then you should check out Pixar's Brave.
I'm going to try hard to keep any plot spoilers super vague — but if you're the sort of person who wants to avoid even the merest hint about a story, including stuff that's in the trailer, then here's your spoiler warning.
First off: Brave is by no means as mind-blowing as the Toy Story films, or The Incredibles, or Monsters, Inc. But if this film had come out from Dreamworks or Vanilla Disney, or some other studio, you would be left completely perplexed as to how they managed to pull off something this great.
For one thing, Brave feels like a simpler, smaller film than some of Pixar's all-time classics. It's not that Brave is simpler than those other films — at their core, every single one of those stories is a small story about a handful of characters. But rather, Brave doesn't quite muster the same level of sensory overload. There's nothing like the "huge factory full of moving doors" from Monsters Inc., or the frenetic junkyard squence that ends Toy Story 3. If Pixar was about making formulaic movies that all had the same climax, then this movie would be a bad example of the formula. Luckily, that's not the only way to look at it.
And like I said, Brave feels like a classic fairy tale that you've just somehow never heard of before. It works on all the levels that you'd want a fairy tale to work on — the basic level of spectacle and wonder, the gut-punching emotional level of confronting something really terrible, and the deeper level of looking at our capacity to screw everything up.
And Brave's simplicity is its huge strength — there's pretty much nothing in this film that doesn't wind up feeding into the main storyline, either directly or thematically. There are no wasted lines or purely random bits in the film — it's all feeding into the main story, and it all comes together neatly at the end. Without seeming at all pat.
And now, a brief synopsis, without any major spoilers:Brave follows the Princess Merida, the red-haired rebellious daughter of King Fergus (Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson!) She's basically Arya Stark, without all the terrible things that happen to Arya. Merida doesn't want to be a lady, she wants to ride her horse and shoot her bow and arrow, and be bad-ass, and her dad indulges her just like Ned Stark indulges Arya. Until, suddenly, it's time for Merida to become betrothed to the son of one of the other chieftains, and become a Proper Lady. Merida doesn't want to give up her freedom, or marry one of these losers, and thus she goes full-on rebellious. But what if there was a way Merida could have everything she wants?
So here are the ingredients of a great made-from-scratch fairy tale, judging fromBrave:
Build a sense of place and history
This is something Brave does pretty well — you get a sense of exactly how King Fergus got to be a King, and what the stakes are, with the chieftains whose sons are vying to wed Merida. And the movie does a really nice job of making it feel like a world where magic exists, and people are sort of aware of it, but it's not a magical kingdom where fantasy shit is happening every other day. There's one monster out there, but people aren't sure if it's magical or just a really bitchin animal.
This is something Brave does pretty well — you get a sense of exactly how King Fergus got to be a King, and what the stakes are, with the chieftains whose sons are vying to wed Merida. And the movie does a really nice job of making it feel like a world where magic exists, and people are sort of aware of it, but it's not a magical kingdom where fantasy shit is happening every other day. There's one monster out there, but people aren't sure if it's magical or just a really bitchin animal.
Focus on the relationships
This being a Pixar movie, the relationships are really well drawn — and there's really one central relationship that dominates the film: the troubled bond between Merida and her ultra-controlling mother. If the audience doesn't buy into that relationship, then nothing else will matter, and the characters will feel just like plastic action figures. Luckily, Brave really makes the mother-daughter bond work, in a way few kids' movies have before.
This being a Pixar movie, the relationships are really well drawn — and there's really one central relationship that dominates the film: the troubled bond between Merida and her ultra-controlling mother. If the audience doesn't buy into that relationship, then nothing else will matter, and the characters will feel just like plastic action figures. Luckily, Brave really makes the mother-daughter bond work, in a way few kids' movies have before.
Give the hero a selfish desire, that we can relate to.
The best fairy tales aren't about purely virtuous protagonists — the hero always does something stupid, even when she probably knows it's the wrong thing to do. Most classic fairy tales actually feature someone being told "whatever you do, don't do _____," and then you know that's what the hero will wind up doing. And a lot of classic fairy tales are sort of conservative, deep down — the protagonist brings doom on everybody by rocking the boat and choosing to reject his/her assigned role. (Think the fable of the sausage, the mouse and the bird.) Brave walks a really tough line — as feminists, we want Merida to be free to be herself and we admire her wild-child spirit, but the film also shows how her desire to do her own thing instead of fulfilling her responsibilities is a bit selfish. And the way she goes about trying to get her freedom is definitely a bit of a mistake. Which brings us to...
The best fairy tales aren't about purely virtuous protagonists — the hero always does something stupid, even when she probably knows it's the wrong thing to do. Most classic fairy tales actually feature someone being told "whatever you do, don't do _____," and then you know that's what the hero will wind up doing. And a lot of classic fairy tales are sort of conservative, deep down — the protagonist brings doom on everybody by rocking the boat and choosing to reject his/her assigned role. (Think the fable of the sausage, the mouse and the bird.) Brave walks a really tough line — as feminists, we want Merida to be free to be herself and we admire her wild-child spirit, but the film also shows how her desire to do her own thing instead of fulfilling her responsibilities is a bit selfish. And the way she goes about trying to get her freedom is definitely a bit of a mistake. Which brings us to...
The darkness the hero confronts is at least partly inner darkness
Yes, the Luke Skywalker lesson. A feckless adventurer facing terrible stuff is compelling — but watching someone confront their own inner horridness is always more interesting. Merida faces the absolute worst thing you can imagine, and the absolute worst thing about it is the light it casts on her and the choice she's made.
Yes, the Luke Skywalker lesson. A feckless adventurer facing terrible stuff is compelling — but watching someone confront their own inner horridness is always more interesting. Merida faces the absolute worst thing you can imagine, and the absolute worst thing about it is the light it casts on her and the choice she's made.
The moral lesson isn't simple or spelled out
You can spend a fair bit of time debating the ending of the movie, and just what the film is saying about Merida and Elinor — and I have a feeling there are going to be some pretty interesting conversations pulling apart just what happens in the final act. Oh, and you should expect to get majorly choked up at the movie's tear-jerking climax.
You can spend a fair bit of time debating the ending of the movie, and just what the film is saying about Merida and Elinor — and I have a feeling there are going to be some pretty interesting conversations pulling apart just what happens in the final act. Oh, and you should expect to get majorly choked up at the movie's tear-jerking climax.
The fairy tale is at least partly a coming of age story
Everybody's changed at the end of this movie, and Merida winds up taking a huge step towards adulthood, with everything that goes with it. To some extent, Merida's rebellion against her betrothal is always a rejection of having to grow up, and by the end of the film she's done that "journeying into darkness and embracing adult concerns" thing — although it's not in any way as angsty as a YA novel, or anything. This is one of those films that kids, teens, and adults will probably all view in very different ways. Because the best fairy tales speak to everyone in a different way.
Everybody's changed at the end of this movie, and Merida winds up taking a huge step towards adulthood, with everything that goes with it. To some extent, Merida's rebellion against her betrothal is always a rejection of having to grow up, and by the end of the film she's done that "journeying into darkness and embracing adult concerns" thing — although it's not in any way as angsty as a YA novel, or anything. This is one of those films that kids, teens, and adults will probably all view in very different ways. Because the best fairy tales speak to everyone in a different way.
So to sum up — Brave is a lovely film, which stays focused on one central relationship instead of exploring multiple axes the way some other Pixar films have. And even though it's often funny as hell, it never gets that "million tops spinning" feeling that some other Pixar films have gotten. But it's a really well-told story that keeps a strong focus on character — and in an era where we're getting endless retellings of the same old fairy tales in slightly different flavors ("Dark Snow White!" "Campy Snow White!" "Snow White Riding on a Dolphin!") it's immensely refreshing to see someone creating a brand new fairy tale that manages to feel like a new classic of the genre.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
ORCHID
Tom Morello has famously lent his axe-slinging skills to such acts as Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, and his one-man band The Nightwatchman.
But for his Dark Horse Comics series Orchid, Morello has traded pyrotechnics on a Fender Bassman for a simple pen. The guitarist told io9 his plans for this post-apocalyptic rebellion tale, which sees a prostitute-warrior named Orchid rising up against the mutants and dictatorial rule of the warlord Tomo Wolfe.
Where do readers find Orchid in the upcoming issues?
The story from the first issue builds small. The idea was to take it to a very humble place, that is a common teenage prostitute scrambling for a living. She begins to discovers the limits of the society has imposed upon her.
The tattoo on her collarbone says "Property" and the brand on her arm says "Know Your Role." You might mistake these for being the same thing, but they end up being very, very different. She discovers that her role is one far greater than the one she was born into.
As far as where we are in issue #9, there's a major development in issue #8 that sets the tone for the story. Tomo Wolfe's forces have decided to exterminate the Bridge People. The mysterious masked man has eluded his possession and that throws him into a paranoid rage. This haunts his reign, so he believes it's going to be a cakewalk to eliminate them.
How are you finding the monthly schedule of penning comics?
My esteemed editor Sierra Hahn is constantly cracking the whip for [series artist] Scott Hepburn and I to make deadlines. I love writing Orchid — it's a passion project of mine, and it provides an intellectual outlet as well. For me, it's about exploring a completely different art form. In my rock life, stuff gets done when it gets done. I like the work ethic that Orchid imposes on me. And when we're done talking, I'll march up to my studio to polish the ninth and tenth issues! I immersed myself in comics as a teenager, and it's a welcome return. The fans have been great.
What sort of real-world events and political movements inspired the story of Orchid?
My favorite fictional characters have their grounding in some historical or fictional precedent. In Orchid, it's the naming of places — the town of Gath is named after the birthplace of Goliath. Fortress Panuel is named after the Biblical spot where Jacob wrestled the angel.
The character Orchid is a composite of some of the drug addicts and prostitutes I met when I first moved to Los Angeles. I felt a lot of personal and professional rejection from the Sunset Strip heavy metal scene. It was only when I became friends with fans off the beaten track that I met this fascinating group of people. I shared my stigma with them and was surprised by their intellect, caring, and kindess. These women were both damaged and beautiful, so there's a lot of personal history there.
As for a character like Tomo Wolfe, he's a composite of Nietzsche, Goebbels, and George W. Bush. [Laughs] With regards to the politics, the four revolutionary characters — Orchid, Simon, Opal, and Anzio — have their roots in real history.
Anzio represents the liberation theologist, someone who has a strong faith and belief in helping the poor and oppressed, but is willing to pick up a sword to do it. Opal is the prototypical idealist freedom fighter. Simon is weak in military background but provides the ideological underpinnings. He's like a Lenin or Trotsky meets C-3PO. Orchid — the Spartacus of Whores — has the drive and bent that you might refer to more as a terrorist than a freedom fighter. It'll be interesting to see how her anger fuels her desire to fight back.
You've been recording a soundtrack to accompany the comic. What sort of musical cues are informing these songs?
I wanted to be able to create a beautiful, desolate soundscape for this. Two of the inspirations were Peter Gabriel's Passion from The Last Temptation of Christ andAshes and Snow, a beautiful art show I attended several years ago that combined music and photography. That got me thinking that mediums other than film could have a soundtrack.
Orchid #8 hits stands June 27; Orchid #9 hits stores September 12. The first volume of the collected Orchid hits stands July 11; Tom will be on deck that evening at the San Diego Comic-Con for a Q&A and signing. Interior artwork in this article by Scott Hepburn; covers by Massimo Carnevale.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Sunday, June 10, 2012
MONOLOGUE 43
What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a collection of all the things you’ll be talking about tomorrow with your friends. Assuming you have friends. We hope you do. If not, we’ll be your friend.
We begin this evening with the first image from Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim, featuring Idris Elba looking badass in a suit that, if our guess is right, allows him to control giant robots or something. Everything about this film makes it a giant, sloppy, wet orgy for nerds. We cannot wait.
“We certainly don’t feel that a third movie is a foregone conclusion. Hopefully the second movie turns out well and we are really happy about everything so far. So three movies, again not to do everything that Christopher Nolan does, but if you do it right it’s a good model. But that idea, whether you want to call it a trilogy or not, although I reserve the right to when we are talking four years from now to say “this is the third movie in our trilogy,” but it does feel that three movies is the right responsibility for us to have the baton for before we then pass it off to the people who are take Trek to wherever they want to take it.” That’s Damon Lindelof talking about a Star Trek 3. Yes, we got that number right.
Over at The Pixar Touch, a compilation has been made of Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling, according to story artist Emma Coats’ Twitter account. They seem reasonable enough.
JoBlo has debuted the first poster for Dredd, the Karl Urban-led readaptation of the Judge Dredd comics. It looks relatively badass, when compared to the plastic silliness once worn by Sly Stallone.
The HitFix staff has published 15 questions we have about a Justice League movie. Sadly, none of the questions include, “Is Joss Whedon available?” I’m just saying… It’s about directing talent.
Over at Pajiba, the ever-talented Joanna Robinson presents 16 Spoiler-Free Reasons Why You’re Looking Forward to Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, focusing on Scott’s ability to inject some girl power into his films. Even though I wasn’t high on the film, I did enjoy Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian in Robin Hood.
TV.com has a list of 10 Most Anticipated New Shows of Summer 2012. Only one of which — Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom – actually seems worthy of being called “most” anything.
Those of you who went out and boarded Prometheus at midnight last night now know the film’s big secret: it’s got a lot of unanswered questions. In an essay at Movieline, Jen Yamato tries to find Prometheus‘ biggest unanswered question. And I’d say she’s pretty close.
Over at Movies.com, Scott Weinberg takes A Look Back at the Movies of Ray Bradbury. RIP.
And since we’re doing all kinds of lists on this rather slim Friday evening, Pajiba’s Josh Kurp gives us the 10 Least Walter White-Like Roles in Bryan Cranston’s Career. For the record, his performance in From the Earth to the Moon as Buzz Aldrin is an all-time favorite in my space nerd heart of hearts.
We close tonight with an animated filmography of Tim Burton. Proof that Tim Burton has, in fact, made good films. Back in the day.
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Posted: 08 Jun 2012 07:00 PM PDT
Late last week, the Daily Mail reported that Marc Forster‘s World War Z was set to undergo some massive reshoots in Budapest this fall, with the venerable Baz Bamigboye reporting that the production, wrapped for almost a year, was set to film for a boggling seven additional weeks. And now it looks like things are getting even worse for the Brad Pitt-starring adaptation, because those reshoots will apparently come care of screenwriter Damon Lindelof.
The Hollywood Reporter has word that Lindelof has been tapped “to save” the production. He will reportedly focus on the film’s third act – which is deeply hilarious if one considers his apparent inability to really take things past the finish line (yes, I am talking about Prometheus, a film I was fully invested in until its third act, and even LOST and Cowboys & Aliens to varying degrees).
The film has already been plagued by potential problems, including the delayed delivery of its first rejiggered script from Matthew Michael Carnahan, who was working off of some drafts by J. Michael Straczynski and the hard fact that World War Z the movie just didn’t sound like“World War Z” the beloved novel by Max Brooks. The main issue – how do you turn a book that’s about a post-zombie outbreak world into a movie about a world in the throes of a zombie outbreak? Oh, and also, how exactly do you focus the action all on one man, even if it is Brad Pitt?
Other details on the reshoots are still not very clear and it’s unknown if Pitt’s other co-stars (such as Matthew Fox, James Badge Dale, Anthony Mackie, and Mireille Enos) would be coming back for the fresh filming, but with so much time and apparently so much new material, it seems inevitable that they would. At the very least, the film does have a solid cast and some great source material, so perhaps it can be saved – even with outsized remakes and a potentially fatal script doctoring.
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PLANET FURY - PROMETHEUS
Directed by: Ridley ScottWritten by: Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof
Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, Charlize Theron
It is an old, old dream of mankind to eventually meet its maker, learn the answers that lurk behind its existence, and then be granted the boon of everlasting life.
Archeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) have managed a startling discovery; they have found multiple carvings around the globe, separated by culture, great distance, and millennia, which show the exact same pattern of heavenly bodies in the sky. This very same pattern is matched to a distant yet attainable system, which appears to have a planetary system much like our own. The existence of these many carvings are interpreted by the archeologists to being a sort of galactic invitation to human beings to visit this far off system, once the technology is available to do so.
The year is 2089, and the technology is, in fact, available to do so. The archeologists team up with the Weyland Corporation in order to investigate this invitation. The ship Prometheus is funded to take a crew of scientists to the far off planet in the hopes of finding answers to some of the most fundamental questions of our existence.
As might be expected, the planet has a few surprises for the team. They do successfully complete their journey, and manage to find a partially buried and seemingly abandoned alien complex on the harsh surface. This is far from the teeming society of welcoming benevolent alien beings that the group hoped to discover. While investigating the dusty and dark tunnels, they find a vast chamber holding countless canisters of goopy "stuff". This goop turns out to have an organic quality to it which, after interacting with various members of the crew, causes things to go terribly, terribly wrong.
The core theme of Prometheus is the burning desire to meet our maker. Some members of the scientific team, such as scientist Elizabeth Shaw, exhibit religious awe at the very idea. Others, such as the cold and driven representative of the Weyland Corporation, Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), are far more pragmatic and see the possibility of meeting the aliens as more of a business opportunity. Yet a third group, such as ship captain Janek (Idris Elba), don't even really care, and are just there for the pay.
While these three groups generally cover the human aspect of the crew, there is yet a fourth; that being the android David (Michael Fassbender). Much of the crew treats David with casual disdain, referring to the being as having no soul or any other qualities of "feeling". While never openly disagreeing, it becomes very obvious, very quickly, that David strongly disagrees. What David is to the crew, and to the entire film of Prometheus, is a marvelous foil representing mankind's hope to meet its own creator and the potential bitterness of which such a hope may lead.
The foil is one of contrast; David, to his bitter disappointment, has already met his maker, that being mankind. David has long faced that his creation was not one of divine providence, was not a thing motivated by nobility, virtue, or fate, but instead was simply done because we can. David was brought into being by an uncaring intellect, and not a loving parent who was there to carefully guide his existence towards an idealistic plan or goal. David hates this with an intensity that burns as well as it is hidden, and it is hidden just as well as the included clip of Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia hiding his pain while putting out a match with his bare fingers. The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.
While heady questions regarding mankind's origins are the forefront subtext of Prometheus, it is also rippling with strong tension and tentacled monstrosities. The abandoned structure discovered by the space scientists is not empty of all life. In this, Prometheus begins to echo some of the science fiction horror of its related films in the Alien series. Even more than that, the origins of the original 1979 Alien even becomes obvious, as the nature and motives of the gigantic humanoid engineers is made more clear. While Prometheus does not provide all answers, it does seem to suggest that these giants are a little more like us than we'd hope.
Prometheus is an excellent film, if not quite a perfect one. There are some inconsistencies and flaws. It's never made clear just why there were glyphs showing the pattern of the alien solar system scattered around Earth, and, by film's end, it doesn't even really make sense that they were ever made. Other events come out as a bit too convenient and scripted. Ultimately however, these flaws are pretty easy to ignore given the rest of the film's quality. The internal struggle of the android David with the bitter realization of the mundane nature of his creation, and how this struggle echoes our very own, is worth several interesting conversations all by itself.
Even with the flaws described, Prometheus is a near perfect science fiction film. It is intelligent and raises smart questions about how we view ourselves in the universe and how we idealistically perceive our own creation, yet it accomplishes this intelligence with a visceral adventure through a harsh alien landscape filled with awful, slimey monsters that want to melt your face. Go see this movie.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
THE ALBUM WITH THAT HIT RECORD - PART TWO
Music and design go together so well, not only because they are both creative fields, but because they combine two of the most dominant senses (visuals and sound). Many top designers have a specific style of music that inspire them the most while working on design, and there is no shortage of design work for the music industry as well.
One of the great things about combining music with design is the ability to use common concepts from music in original ways for design.
Here’s 30 awesome music-themed poster designs that illustrate how music and design can come together for poster printing.
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