I've been on a Coppola kick, but hey, he's a smart guy:
As an aside, when I was fortunate enough to take a few art classes with George Pratt, we would copy master paintings to understand the mindset of particular artists. In emulating them, we solved some of the same problems they had to solve in compositions and essentially, we stole their knowledge. Go. Steal. Create.
Showing posts with label directors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label directors. Show all posts
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Coppola and the merits of risk
Risk
-noun
-exposure to the chance of injury or loss; a hazard or dangerous chance
-to venture upon; take or run the chance of
If you're wondering why should you listen to this man, it's because if anyone knows about risking all for a passion, HE would. The risks Coppola took to film a little movie called 'Apocalypse Now'(considered to be a masterpiece and #30 on AFI's top 100 movies in the past 100 years) were great and include:
-mortgaging his home
-spending large amounts of his personal savings on his film
-suffering a breakdown
-dealing with actors' heart attacks, obesity and drug problems
-extending the shoot by 13 months
-enduring typhoons
-filming in a country at war with local guerrillas
-entertaining the idea that George Lucas should direct his film....
"The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live."
more about the filming of Apocalypse Now
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
A peek into the mind Darren Aronofsky
"What was interesting was that swan lake the ballet is just this great fairy tale filled with Gothic and scary elements, and this one dancer was telling me how the swan queen is a half swan half human creature and this idea of a were-swan went of in my head and I realized, we were kinda making this were-wolf movie and it sort of built out of that."
My first Aronofsky experience took place in college and it came with a warning, "Raph, if you're gonna watch 'Requiem for a Dream', you NEED to have a happy follow up movie or your emotions are gonna be jacked for the next few days." I thought I was an avid movie watcher at the time, so I naturally scoffed such a ludicrous notion. Two hours later, I found myself sitting on my futon, clutching my blanket, and looking at my friend with eyes that screamed "Hug me!"
Years later I saw Requiem at Best Buy for 4 bucks and couldn't pass up the deal, however, it was at least another 2 years before I ever thought about watching the movie again because the thought of seeing Jared Leto shoot up into a decrepit vein made my skin crawl. I eventually manned up and re watched the flick, and because the initial shock was gone, I found that it was indeed a really great movie.
Fast forward to the theatrical release of 'The Fountain'; the day I went to see it, I had the top row, middle seat of an empty theater save 3 teenagers, 2 twenty somethings and a couple at least in their fifties if not older. At the end of the movie, I sat in silence because I really loved the film and as I proceeded to look around, I noticed that the teens made jokes about the movie being stupid, the twenty somethings seemed to be satisfied with the evenings entertainment and walked out, but the older couple, they really got it. Mid way through the movie, they started holding each other and at the end, they looked into each others eyes, passionately kissed, and walk out hand in hand. To evoke such different emotions from three different age groups according to their understanding of life astonished me and from then on I knew, I was in love with Darren Aronofsky as a film maker.
Needless to say, hearing Aronofsky talk about his new film Black Swan is super inspirational to me!
My first Aronofsky experience took place in college and it came with a warning, "Raph, if you're gonna watch 'Requiem for a Dream', you NEED to have a happy follow up movie or your emotions are gonna be jacked for the next few days." I thought I was an avid movie watcher at the time, so I naturally scoffed such a ludicrous notion. Two hours later, I found myself sitting on my futon, clutching my blanket, and looking at my friend with eyes that screamed "Hug me!"
Years later I saw Requiem at Best Buy for 4 bucks and couldn't pass up the deal, however, it was at least another 2 years before I ever thought about watching the movie again because the thought of seeing Jared Leto shoot up into a decrepit vein made my skin crawl. I eventually manned up and re watched the flick, and because the initial shock was gone, I found that it was indeed a really great movie.
Fast forward to the theatrical release of 'The Fountain'; the day I went to see it, I had the top row, middle seat of an empty theater save 3 teenagers, 2 twenty somethings and a couple at least in their fifties if not older. At the end of the movie, I sat in silence because I really loved the film and as I proceeded to look around, I noticed that the teens made jokes about the movie being stupid, the twenty somethings seemed to be satisfied with the evenings entertainment and walked out, but the older couple, they really got it. Mid way through the movie, they started holding each other and at the end, they looked into each others eyes, passionately kissed, and walk out hand in hand. To evoke such different emotions from three different age groups according to their understanding of life astonished me and from then on I knew, I was in love with Darren Aronofsky as a film maker.
Needless to say, hearing Aronofsky talk about his new film Black Swan is super inspirational to me!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
"Miyazaki wouldn't tell you nuthin' that ain't true"
"I give young people this advice because jumping into the industry four years early isn't going to help them become full animators any faster. Once your in the industry, you'll be overwhelmed with work and you won't have any time to study or learn for yourself.
One of the things about drawing is that, if you put in serious effort, you will be good at it, at least to a certain extent. But that's all the more reason to study a variety of things that interest you while you have the time, before you enter the professional world, in order to develop and solidify such fundamentals as your own viewpoint and way of thinking.
If you don't do this, your life will be treated as just another disposable product. In the animation business, most people spend a long time working at the bottom of the organizational ladder. You usually have to endure a lengthy apprenticeship period, waiting patiently for the chance to someday demonstrate what you can do. But the opportunity to demonstrate what you can do only comes along once in a while, so unless you are extraordinarily lucky, you'll probably never make it.
To endure something is obviously exhausting and agonizing. But at the same time, you must also continue to hold what you regard as important close to your heart and to nurture it. Should you relinquish what you truly hold dear, the only path left to you will be that of a pencil-pusher...the type of animator whose sense of self-worth is determined by the numerical amount of his earnings, or who cycles between joy and despair over the high or low ratings his work receives.
It is all well and good to love animation, but I always counsel people, it is best not to think of entering this business lightly. Animation is still a very new field, and there are only a few works in existence that we can really call classics. But it is essential to watch as many of these classics as possible. And it is also essential to be interested in subjects that have traditions going back hundreds of years, and to broaden your own knowledge. In exerting yourself to this end, you will find that you develop something truly all your own."
taken from a section of "Starting Point :1979~1996 Hayao Miyazaki"
P.S. - Though Miyazaki-san is talking about animation, his wisdom can be applied to any field. Don't get caught in the tide of bullshit, stay hype!
One of the things about drawing is that, if you put in serious effort, you will be good at it, at least to a certain extent. But that's all the more reason to study a variety of things that interest you while you have the time, before you enter the professional world, in order to develop and solidify such fundamentals as your own viewpoint and way of thinking.
If you don't do this, your life will be treated as just another disposable product. In the animation business, most people spend a long time working at the bottom of the organizational ladder. You usually have to endure a lengthy apprenticeship period, waiting patiently for the chance to someday demonstrate what you can do. But the opportunity to demonstrate what you can do only comes along once in a while, so unless you are extraordinarily lucky, you'll probably never make it.
To endure something is obviously exhausting and agonizing. But at the same time, you must also continue to hold what you regard as important close to your heart and to nurture it. Should you relinquish what you truly hold dear, the only path left to you will be that of a pencil-pusher...the type of animator whose sense of self-worth is determined by the numerical amount of his earnings, or who cycles between joy and despair over the high or low ratings his work receives.
It is all well and good to love animation, but I always counsel people, it is best not to think of entering this business lightly. Animation is still a very new field, and there are only a few works in existence that we can really call classics. But it is essential to watch as many of these classics as possible. And it is also essential to be interested in subjects that have traditions going back hundreds of years, and to broaden your own knowledge. In exerting yourself to this end, you will find that you develop something truly all your own."
taken from a section of "Starting Point :1979~1996 Hayao Miyazaki"
P.S. - Though Miyazaki-san is talking about animation, his wisdom can be applied to any field. Don't get caught in the tide of bullshit, stay hype!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Iron Sharpens Iron : Mexican Style
So I decided to watch the extras on the Pan's Labyrinth dvd and I found this Charlie Rose interview with Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. If you don't remember these three guys, they basically fucked up all the awards ceremonies of '07 with some badassed films. Needless to say I was blown away by the camaraderie that these three exhibited. I always knew that peoples of Latin decent had the family and friend relationships on lock, but this shit made me want to move to Mexico, take a wife, and become a filmmaker. A person cannot be an island unto them self to be great, it takes a group of people to constantly push and challenge the other. Please, please.....get that inspiration bitches, Viva la cinema!!
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