Muse by Craig Ranapia

A song that never gets old.

PARTY AT DAVID'S PLACE! There's a case to be made that Stop Making Sense is the best concert movie ever (though Jonathan Demme's lousy remakes of Charade and The Manchurian Candidate are unforgivable). But while I love the performance of This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) in the film...

Martin Scorsese's Shine A Light ranks up there too.

An arguably NSFW video for a version which gets stuck in my head more than the original.

Martin Scorsese’s Shine A Light ranks up there too.

Quite possibly, though I'd personally rank it as highly competent and little more as a piece of film-making. Though, to be fair, that's probably influenced by my complete disinterest in The Rolling Stones. Would recommend No Direction Home, his contribution to The Blues and The Last Waltz more highly, but (of course) that my not at all humble opinion and YMWV. :)

Paul Lewis and James Harkin
The Guardian,
Who are the rioters?

Three Asian men in their 40s, guarding a newsagent, discussed whether they should also take advantage of the apparent suspension of law.

"If we go for it now, we can get a bike," said one. "Don't do it," said another. Others were not so reticent; a white woman and a man emerged carrying a bike each. A young black teenager, aged about 14, came out smiling, carrying another bike, only for it be snatched from him by an older man.

Anybody can be a Rioter these days it seems.

An arguably NSFW video for a version which gets stuck in my head more than the original.

If Mary Harron’s lawyer calls, I’m not here. M’kay? :)

Meanwhile, safe for work but still utterly terrifying is the trailer for Paolo Sorrentino's English language debut. Sean Penn in Robert Smith drag! Some adorable (but culturally illiterate) child asking if he can play ‘This Must Be The Place’ by Arcade Fire. (Sidebar: Are hipster douchebags like Jesuits - start early and you've got 'em for life?)

Saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes last night, and have to agree. Well done, the best of the Apes films since the first one.

God's approval rating is languishing at 52 percent,

God's problem? He had a child out of wedlock and he is a "gaffe machine," between floods, famine and the lack of aged pinot noir on Air France.

I heartily endorse John Scalzi’s case for an Oscar for Andy Serkis.

+1. It would be a crime if the work of that man over the past 12 years isn't recognised by the academy in some way. King Kong was average, but he was the best character in LOTR, and I hear he's fantastic in POTA.

Saturday linky love: Feist has a new song "How come you never go there?" It starts off sweet, with her delightful vocals, but gets sadder every time I hear it.

So glad Love Story http://vimeo.com/27049545(trailer, Vimeo)has gone general release for those of us who inexplicably missed it in Auckland. Now I really have no excuse.

As for Serkis, I’d argue he’s worthy of a simple nomination in the lead or supporting categories. The Academy is a strange beast however (and I don’t hold much stock in their awards as indicative of anything, outside the technical categories).

(all of which could have been a single post, but whathaveyou.)

ETA:

God’s approval rating is languishing at 52 percent

Needs new branding. His Christian and Islam brands are market leaders, but they’re losing their shine. If he could engineer a takeover by Apple, his stakes would rise considerably.

Andy Serkis as choreographer John D'Auban in Mike Lee's 1999 Topsy Turvy
.

+1. It would be a crime if the work of that man over the past 12 years isn't recognised by the academy in some way.

I think Scalzi is right that actors (or more specifically the acting members of MPAAS) get really weird about motion capture. Which is really odd when you consider Brad Pitt scored a best actor nomination for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, where he spent most of the movie buried under Oscar-winning prosthetics and more digital jiggery-pokery than you could shake a Hal 9000 at.

. . . actors (or more specifically the acting members of MPAAS) get really weird about motion capture.

From my recollection of having storyboarded for a particularly grubby little subgenre of video games eupmemistally described as "interactive movies", while the actors appreciated the clarity of my stuff as a guide to work from, they regarded motion capture work as the absolute pits.

a particularly grubby little subgenre of video games eupmemistally described as "interactive movies"

I really can't imagine what entertainment that would give a chap. Whatever next? "Interactive Movies" that involve shooting things or driving badly.
:-<

Here's an example Steve. Seems they did further episodes after I bailed out. It was a living of sorts. Ancient stuff I know, but motion capture's been around for a while.

Posting this video here, because all the other threads are just a little too political.

Snow, on Cuba St.

they regarded motion capture work as the absolute pits.

I could believe that – can’t really imagine trying to hit a mark on a green screen while wearing a unitard covered in reference markers is every actor’s dream. Then again, there’s a simple reason why you tend to have actors recurring a lot as aliens in SF shows. If you’re prone to claustrophobic panic attacks, trying to deliver a performance through a full head of latex appliances is going to be hell on Earth.

here, because all the other threads are just a little too political.

ahem - seems to have survived the experience

seems to have survived the experience

Yes, but I'm quite enjoying a thread where I don't hear a word of other such things.

Fair enough, I guess that's another value of culture threads.

. . . can’t really imagine trying to hit a mark on a green screen while wearing a unitard covered in reference markers is every actor’s dream.

Given the degree of subtlety that high-end motion capture seems capable of transferring, I'd imagine that Olivier would have been busting to give it a go if he was still on deck. While the results mightn't have been to everyone's taste (remember his blacker-than-black bling-bedecked Othello?), they'd certainly have been interesting.

I guess that the simple motion capture rigs used in game design are a lot easier to suit up in than the level of smart that captures facial expressions. From my humble past experience of witnessing such stuff, drama students on basic equity rates would be expected to "play" several characters in one session. No voice stuff, nothing much for your CV. Because they were probably cheaper than the computer folks who'd post-process their work, everything in the storyboard that could possibly be mo-capped was slavishly grabbed, right down to close-ups of simple hand actions.

ahem - seems to have survived the experience

Pish. Remember, it's not a showpocalypse until there's an outbreak of situational cannibalism.

Here's an example Steve.

Seems I have a filthy mind, I read "grubby" as "adult" and was trying to make a subtle point about sex being treated as worse than violence.
Subtle point 2.
Isn't all good film acting mostly about emotion capture? It would be the "Action" genera that depend on motions.
Meanwhile, A Motion Capture Game
Maybe NSFW,