Follow up on Cucalorus

Wow! I'm already ready for next year! I wanted to go to everything. I figured out too late that the department was giving out more passes that no one picked up...I'll get on it next year. Anyways- my cucalorus experience began with Rare Exports, the story of the evil Santa Clause. It definitely got me into the Christmas spirit. The main character, a little boy was so perfect for the role. I was expecting some sort of horror film but it turned out to be a really cute and fantastical story.... I think some people were disappointed that there was no gore but I was thrilled. The movie was suspenseful, and the ending was much to my relief. The look of it was really interesting. On friday night, I went to Enter the Void, the movie everyone was hyped about. Although it made me want to go home and shower, there were some really great techniques used! There were awesome graphic matches that made the movie flow seamlessly, and the car accident scene was incredibly shocking and realistic. I had never seen anything like it. My complaint is that the movie could have ended about 30 mins sooner, because the last bit of it was just the camera floating around. Another thing that fascinated me was how the city was shown to look like miniature figures. Just when I was sure that the cars were miniatures, the camera zoomed down and into the taxi. There was a particular part that I wish I could have gone my whole life without seeing...I think everyone who went knows what part that was....
On Saturday I attended the Kodak seminar at Screengems. It was fun seeing the studio and learning more about shooting with actual film. They gave us lots of brochures. I love film because it is the classic route to go when making movies since HD is always moving on and changing to the "next best thing." After this seminar I also went to the underwater camera seminar. I thought it would be more hands on but it was interesting to listen to the guys talk about their underwater adventures. They showed us some equipment, I was really interested in the Go Pro that they showed. It is so small that it can be attached to anything, and they told me that it looks even better above water. Sounds like a lot of possibilities!
Later that evening on Saturday, I saw Skeletons and Brilliantlove. Skeletons was really great understated British humor, which I love. The comedic duo themselves were there to answer questions afterwards! They described their movie as Inception, "on the dull," (a low budget). haha.
I heard people saying a lot of different things about Brilliantlove, but I really liked it a lot. There was something really appealing about the concept. Everyone said it was too long, and normally I'm the first to agree, but I stayed alert the entire time. It had a lot of sex, and I think that's why most people went to it, but there were some really funny parts as well (aka I didn't go to watch the obscenities). If I had to label it I'd say "think a soft core porn version of Napoleon Dynamite if the people were better looking." The guy and girl in the film were really cute together and an absurd and homeless sort of way.

CUCALORUS!!!!!!

It's been difficult narrowing it down and figuring out when I can go, but here's what I'm going to:

Thursday: Rare Exports @ 10pm Thailian Black
Friday: Kodak stop by shoot film @ 11am-1pm Screengems
           Enter The Void @  10:15pm Thailian
Saturday: Skeletons @ 7:45pm Thailian Main
               Brilliantlove @10:30pm Thailian Main

Installation Piece

Once again, beyond excited for this one. I've learned a lot about Installations in my avant garde history class and the thought of a mixed media performance sounds spectacular to me. I like the concept we're going with and can't wait to help put it all together by gathering props for the construction workers as well as materials to build a giant "planet" type screen to project images onto. I also suggested that if we use a few construction workers on stage that they wear those flashlights on their heads to add to the visual interest and see the lights in addition to the projections scattering throughout the dark room. I have no doubt that we can make it work because Royce has a story to tell that will capture the audience's attention. I'm very interested to read the script he writes.