0

Category: Inspiration

Dec302011

Inspiration at the Movies: Jeeves & Wooster – Kidnapped

“Yeah!!!”
“What are you cheering about, Barmy?”
“I finished MILES ahead of you fellows!”
– Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps (Jeeves & Wooster: Kidnapped, 1990)

The band members at the Drones Club are practising… sort of together – they’re all playing different parts of the song, and the cacaphony is eardrum-splitting. Barmy, finishing ahead of the rest of them, leaps up with his cheer like he’s won something. ‘Tis an hysterical moment.

And in this moment we are reminded that racing ahead to the “finish line” is not always the “right” way. Music needs team work, team pacing, team expression to be “right”… to resonate with musician and listener. Transferring this thought to our lives – as we are apt to review our lives, its direction and speed as the new year rolls in – do we need to “finish first” or do we need some “life pacing” to truly resonate with the world around us? Interesting question to mull…

Cheers & a good 2012 to you,
Deb

P.S. On that note of life pacing, I’ll be posting at least bi-weekly from now on… unless events or your encouragement inspire me otherwise. All the best for the new year!

Nov252011

Creative Tail Credits: Black Adder III

Tail credits are so often a text roll: white text on black. To spice things up, sometimes the font is tweaked. Sometimes images or outtakes are included for the earlier part of the roll. In the case of TV, it’s text on cards that flash by. Name & role. We’ve seen it before. We expect it.

Black Adder (Third Season) is different. The tail credits are creatively in keeping with the style of the season: Regency England… and you can’t help but want to watch the entire credit roll. The final shot of the episode dissolves into a drawing of the same image and the roll begins… like the pages of an historical book of its era, the tail credit roll goes like this:

For the
BENEFIT of SERVERAL VIEWERS
MR CURTIS & MR ELTON’S
Much admir’d Comedy
BLACK ADDER The THIRD
or
[EPISODE NAME]
was performed with appropriate Scenery Dresses etc.
by
EDMUND BLACKADDER
butler to the Prince,
Mr. ROWAN ATKINSON
Baldrick, a dogsbody, Mr. TONY ROBINSON
The Prince Regent, their master, Mr. HUGH LAURIE
Mrs. Miggins, a coffee shoppekeeper,
Mifs. HELEN ATKINSON-WOOD

[etc..]

MUSIC, (never perform’d before), Mr. HOWARD GOODALL

designer of graphics, Mr. GRAHAM McCALLUM
buyer of properties, Mifs. JUDY FARR
designer of costumes, Mifs. ANNE HARDINGE
designer of make-up, Mifs. VICKY POCOCK
mixer of vision, Mifs. SUE COLLINS

[etc.]

the producer, Mr. LLOYD

To conclude with Rule Britannia in full chorus
NO MONEY RETURN’D
(C) BBC [logo] MCMLXXXVII

Such creative use of overall visual style, font style & size, uppercase & lowercase and even camera zooming to highlight where needed! The tail credits are so very much in keeping both with the comedy of the program and the historical era portrayed. You’ll have to see an episode for the full effect. Would that we could be inpsired to make more tail credits as creative and inclusive to the film as a whole!

Cheers & a good shoot to you,
Deb

Oct212011

Ciné-surfer: Inspirational Quotations

Motivating Quotes.com : Dream Quotes have some great quotations of inspiration and thought-stimulation, especially about your dreams. George Lucas and Steven Speilberg are included in the list, as is John Barrymore and Jimminy Cricket (further down the list). My fav has to be Goethe’s… surf by and look it up.

ThinkExist.com boasts it has more than 300,000 quotations, so you can spend plenty of time here looking for the right inspiration you might need today. Their home page, however, displays quotations from people who were born today. Not all quotations are inspirational and motivational, but they’re bound to get you talking or thinking.

Might any of these quotations end up on a call sheet near you?

As a challenge game, you could include, say, 3 to 5 quotations and their 3 to 5 speakers… and then have the crew try to match the quotation with the speaker throughout the shoot day.

Cheers & a good shoot to you,
Deb

Sep232011

Magic Movie Moment: Once Upon A Time… This Morning

The shadow puppet show gives the kids courage to continue their journey.
(Once Upon A Time… This Morning, 1995)

As festival season is upon us, I’m reminded of films I’ve seen that have left such an impression on me that I wish I could see them again.

In this film (from Thailand) the kids are trying to trek through the city on their own to their other parent. The come across so many challenges and one night, at a low point, the eldest girl brings out and uses their dad’s shadow puppets, taking on the role of telling the story their dad usually tells them – an adventure not unlike their current one… but seen through the dance of metaphor. The telling of the tale not only transports the kids out of their worries and into the magic of the story, but also gives them hope and courage to continue their journey… bringing them all together during their crisis.

How this magical moment reminds us of how important the “bards” are of this world as we all take life’s challenging journey: theatre, music, film, dance, oral tradition, shadow puppets… We work in an essential service in this industry, even if we can’t see the results immediately or directly.

… and that’s a magical, inspiring thought, don’t you think?

Cheers & good on ya!
Deb

Aug262011

Magic Movie Moment: The Blue Brothers

A gleaming white big band plays “Minnie The Moocher”
(The Blues Brothers, 1980)

When Curtis plays the warm up number for the Blue Brothers at the end of the movie, there is a gleaming white big band behind him. The stage is impossibly clean and spacious. Their outfits are distinguished white tails. Whattaband! Whattanumber!

We are magically transported with Curtis to how the performance feels to him, not how it may actually be in reality. His dream has become real… and we are there to witness it!

Curtis’ journey reminds me that when you set a dream in real life and then realize it, the reality may not be exactly as you imagined it… but that doesn’t mean that you didn’t realize the dream. You just have recognize the dream in whatever form it comes to you.

Cheers & happy cinematic dreams to you,
Deb

Jul292011

Inspiration at the Movies: High School Musical 2

“But if along the way you act like someone you’re not, pretty soon that’s who you become.”
– Gabriella (High School Musical 2, 2007)

Painful words, but they ring true. We are defined by our actions, aren’t we? We may deny ourselves when we make certain choices we deem are out of our character (who we want to be or who we think we are), but if we keep repeating these out-of-character choices, then at some point we have to accept that these choices are us… or we have to start making the “right” choices for ourselves. And we have the power to change… and that’s a hopeful thought.

Cheers & good choices to you,
Deb