Bah, humbug

[desperance]

I was all fired-up this morning, despite ongoing headcold issues: wrote a couple of pages, end of the chapter in sight, story coming together, all of that. Then I went to the press show of "Beowulf" with friends, with all that that implies about going to the pub afterwards to dissect same, etc.

So here I am home again in the late afternoon - and it's gone. I have no fire, no application. No words. I despise myself.

And I didn't even like the movie much. I do not get this thing for making movies look like comic books. I don't know what the technical term is for making live actors look less-than-live, and I don't understand why they do it. You lose - well, the best of acting, which is reacting, because their faces have been deliberately rendered unreactive, almost mask-like; and I don't see what you gain. I just find the whole process distancing, the opposite of engagement.

So despite the pleasures of friends and pubs and such, it's still starting to feel like a day lost. I shall drink a pot of tarry lapsang crocodile, and see where we go from there; but I may well be disgruntled.

Comments

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I was about to direct you to the review by naturalbornkaos, but it's f-locked. Damn. I'll ask him if I can C&P it to here.

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

disgruntled

I love this word. It means that most of the time you're gruntled. I like being gruntled, just makes the days fly by.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Well, the theory goes that the monsters and digital sets look like crap anyway, and would look worse if the people looked real, so make them all look crap and allow imagination and suspension of disbelief to make everything equally unreal and thus equally real ... or something like that.

It's the way the special effects in things like the old b&w King Kong worked well, because everything was poor quality so it tricked the brain into making the special effects appear more realistic.

Of course it's only a good trick if it works, and obviously it didn't for you ... have you seen Sky Captain and the thingymaflip of Tomorrow? Did that work for you?

Sorry to hear you day was lost :-(

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Is that seriously the thought-process? To denature the human, to make the artificial look more real by comparison? I did wonder, but it all seemed a little too weird. And, um, ineffectual.

Nice point about King Kong, though; that I take on board entirely.

No, I haven't seen Sky Captain and the whatchamadoodle of whenever. I'll catch it sometime, but I'm good at missing things if I don't get to the press call. (Can I remember the last time I paid to go to the cinema? No, I can't. I've lost the knack of it.)

S'okay, though - I am making stirling efforts to recover at least part of the day. Half a page, half a page, half a page onwards...

[wishus.livejournal.com]

I just find the whole process distancing, the opposite of engagement.

...sounds almost Brechtian!

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

Ah, he provided a link.

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/6176/beowulf_review.html

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Whereas we went and had meetings with three separate clients (two of whom had been baking) and then went back to Gail's and made her computer talk to the internet (that last bit ought to be in block caps, considering how long we have been trying and failing to do that thing). And ate pizza. So that altogether it felt like a very productive day.