The Worst Review I’ve Ever Read: Ignorant, sexist, and insulting to fans of fantasy.

Never have I felt quite as insulted when reading a review of any novel, film, or television series, as I was when I read New York Times critic Ginia Bellafante’s “review” - if you can call it that - of the new series, Game of Thrones, and I am most certainly not alone.

The review came to my attention as I stumbled across the waves of anger and backlash that flowed across the internet in the wake of Bellafante’s article being posted on the NYTimes website, and out of curiosity, I endeavoured to investigate. I wondered, what could have possibly triggered so much frustration and fury from so many people? What I discovered, as I read Bellafante’s article, was enough to have me seeing red.

To begin with, I have sadly never read George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels, though I do own the first one and intend to read it this summer. I had seen some of the promos for the new HBO series and had long since made the decision to check it out (hey, it’s epic fantasy, a genre I’ve loved since I was eight years old - why wouldn’t I watch it?). I didn’t know much about it other than what I’d been told by enthusiastic fans (I used to work in a bookstore, so I interacted with ASoIaF fans often as they arrived every couple of months or so to inquire as to the new publishing date for A Dance With Dragons). So, like many others, I had thought that perhaps Bellafante’s “review” would give me a bit more insight to the series, and perhaps give me an idea of what to expect to see.

I was so very mistaken.

It seems that Bellafante’s understanding of the term “review” is rather different from the general population’s view. I, personally, would consider a review to be a written (or spoken) analysis of a work that examines all the aspects of it and makes a recommendation of its quality - in more basic terms, someone with experience critiques a work and makes an argument as to why they think it is good and worth a person’s time and effort to see, or why they think it is not. Bellafante, on the other hand, seems to have decided that reviewing Game of Thrones was the perfect opportunity to not review the new TV series, but instead attack the fantasy genre as a whole and, to cap it all off, insult the female population of the planet in the process.

Why "Knowing" is an awful film.

Even the poster is rather awfully Photoshopped. 

I was reading through io9 today and came across this article: “In which our critic confesses to loving the end of Knowing” (http://io9.com/#!5797215/in-which-our-critic-confesses-to-loving-the-end-of-knowing). The review argues that the film isn’t great, but Nic Cage mostly makes up for it, and it attempts to make some kind of point about something but doesn’t quite get there.

Sure. I can agree with that. I’m sure there was a point buried in the nonsense that was never quite uncovered; still, I would never, ever come close to calling Knowing a good film in any way. I didn’t even like it, at all, and I’m a big sci-fi fan who is very accepting of even mediocre sci-fi, or spec-fic, or whatever. I love the genre so much I’m willing to forgive a lot and even if I recognise it’s bad, a film can still be enjoyably bad.

Not so with Knowing.

Ah, the life of a student filmmaker.

I have a confession.

I have been negligent in my blog-posting duties. I must apologise for this disgrace, and promise that I will be much better in the future!

The reason for my absence from the blog-sphere is, naturally, life as a student filmmaker. End of term hit like a freight train, with exams, papers, excessive studying, and - of course - the last few weeks of editing this year's film for SFU before the big deadline (the sound mix at Sharpe Sound) and the second big deadline, Tuesday's film screening.

But now everything is coming to an end, and suddenly I have some free time that did not exist before! My blog will prosper once more, and rest assured, I have many ideas for interesting blog posts (much more interesting than simple colour correcting, I promise - that post didn't seem to get as much attention as the Riese or Sharpe Sound ones did, and I can see why).

To begin my return to this blog, I will post a rant I wrote on my other, slightly more random, Tumblr blog (myriadthoughts). It is in response to an article I read on the very awesome website, io9.com, about the film Knowing - a train wreck of a film if ever I saw one. Surprisingly, I've discovered there is a lot of love and admiration out there for this awful film, and I felt compelled to write my own thoughts on the subject. I hope you find it entertaining!

The Awesome Magic of Colour Correcting

It’s one of those little things that I’d always taken for granted, one of a list of settings in Final Cut Pro that I had generally ignored, because I had never really seen much use for it... or rather, I had, but had not realised it was this that I needed.

Colour Corrector in Final Cut Express

What is it, exactly?

The little widget that I am now going to praise with a dedicated article is the fantastic Colour Corrector, also sometimes used as the 3-Way Colour Corrector. It is the tool that can miraculously change the image of a video from a bland colour palette to a vibrantly colourful one, or vice versa; it changes contrast, it adjusts saturation, it manipulates the image in such subtle but impactful ways - or, if you would prefer, not quite so subtle. 

I have recently discovered the joys of colour correcting, and thought I’d share.

Talking about 'Riese', and developing a project from idea to production and onward.

This week in my film class at SFU, we had Galen Fletcher, one of the producers of Riese, come talk to us about his experiences in the film industry and the evolution of Riese, as well as give us advice. His talk was compelling and very interesting, so I thought I’d share some of what we learned.

Riese & Fenrir

If you don’t know Riese, here’s a quick primer for you. Riese is a Vancouver-based, steampunk-influenced web series (created by Ryan Copple and Kaleena Kiff, produced by Galen Fletcher and Nicholas Humphries) about a wandering princess (Riese, played by Christine Chatelain) and her wolf, Fenrir, who are fighting to reclaim her throne from the Empress Amara (Sharon Taylor) and the evil Sect, who murdered her family. A number of well-known actors who often work in Vancouver have roles in the show as well, such as Sanctuary’s Ryan Robbins and Emilie Ullerup, Smallville’s Allison Mack, SGU’s Patrick Gilmore and of course Amanda Tapping, who lends her voice as the Narrator. There are currently ten episodes, each about ten minutes in length, and the entire series is divided into two “chapters”. Picked up by the SyFy channel in the U.S., the episodes debuted online in October; in Canada, the series has begun showing on the Space Channel website (www.spacecast.com) and will be broadcast as a TV movie on Space within a few weeks (when I have an exact date, I’ll update this). 

Adventures in ADR

Often when making a film, you reach a point in your editing process where you realise that some fixing needs to be done. Sometimes that fixing relates directly to the image, and other times it is the sound. You then have several options: re-shoots (which can be costly and impractical), manipulation in the computer, or, for sound, you can do ADR.

An Enlightening Tour of Sharpe Sound Studios

This week, I had the great opportunity to visit Sharpe Sound Studios in North Vancouver, BC with my film class from SFU. According to the website, it is “Western Canada’s Premiere Audio Posting Experience”, and one of the best sound studios in North America. After the tour, I have no doubt that this is true; the tour was so awesome, I just had to take it twice!

The best books on screenwriting I have ever read.

I have always been a writer.

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to tell stories; in kindergarten, I drew "picture books" since I didn't quite have the vocabulary necessary to write the words I wanted. By grade two, I was well on my way to writing chapter books; I finished one novel by the beginning of grade seven (which now I read and think it is absolutely atrocious and would die of embarrassment if ever anyone else read it), and in the summer between grade nine and grade ten, I finished a second, much larger novel (nearly 400 000 words at last count, currently into its eighth round of revisions and re-writes - what can I say? I'm a perfectionist). 

However, it is filmmaking that is my greatest passion, and I want to be able to write good screenplays. There are significant differences between novels and screenplays, as I'm sure is obvious, and for some time I had been at a loss as to how to properly go about translating the stories in my mind to script form. 

Then one day, I found a book.

The things I do for film...

Photo credit: Becca Johanson, 2011.

It's hard to be a filmmaker when you're not very tall. Still, I make do with what I have!

*Note: the camera is wrapped in blankets because old cameras like this one (ARRI SRII 16mm) are very noisy, and if we don't wrap it up the sound will get picked up by our mics when we're rolling. Being able to improvise is an important trait in a filmmaker, I must say!

The Importance of Slates

As a filmmaker, one should never, ever underestimate the importance of the almighty slate.

While quickly shooting a little short film with a couple of my friends after Christmas, just for fun, I thought "well, it's just me, the camera, and my friends as actors - there's no need for a slate..."

Oh, how wrong I was.

It is, as I have now discovered, very difficult and time consuming to go through hundreds (yes, hundreds - I didn't realise I had shot so many) of clips from my camera, with basically no reference whatsoever to what scene or take they were. I really should have known, but I simply wasn't thinking.

Now I have to go through each clip, listen to some of the dialogue and match it with the script. I'm less than halfway through, and I am so not impressed with myself.

Lesson learned.

This, my friends, is called a Filmmaker Fail.

A Bad Habit on Set...

It has come to my attention this past weekend that I have a slightly "bad habit" when I'm working on sets. It applies to any set - a professional television series or a student film, it doesn't matter.

When I'm on set, I consume a ridiculous amount of caffeine.

A Message to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, RE: Best Original Score Category.

Dearest Academy Members,

While watching the recent Academy Awards Ceremony it came to my attention that the Best Original Score category seems to be lacking some guidelines as to what is worthy of winning the award. I understand that most people are not as obsessed with film scores as I and some others are, and so they would not perhaps be fully aware of what exactly makes an award-winning score, so I decided I should try to help provide some guidelines to make the voting process easier, as well as more clear. 

The REAL story of Ridley Scott's 'Robin Hood' (2010)

Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe’s version of Robin Hood is an interesting film in many ways… particularly in that it doesn’t really seem to have much to do with Robin Hood at all, and would actually have been better (in my opinion) if they’d ignored that part of the story and just focused on whatever story it was they were trying to tell in the first place. But what story was that?

I think I found it.

AGORA: stunning, intellectually and emotionally profound tragedy of intolerance.

I can’t stop thinking about this film. Apparently, many people online cannot either, and I feel a need to respond to the things I’ve read and make my own opinion known.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog, Tales of a Student Filmmaker. I have many opinions and experiences to share as I journey through the adventure that is becoming a filmmaker, and I thought that this would be the best way to do so. Perhaps you're a young filmmaker interested in comparing your experiences; perhaps you're a film lover who is interested in a "behind the scenes" look at the lives of filmmakers. Or maybe you're just interested in what I have to say. In any case feel free to comment, disagree, discuss, provide opinions or advice or whatever you may want! Everyone is welcome.