"When I was a Kid..."

So, I also started reading, "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls," by Peter Biskind.

In the second chapter, titled "Before the Revolution," he tackles the making of Bonnie and Clyde. Enter Robert Towne.

Towne would go on to write that unbelievable and near perfect script: Chinatown. But, on Bonnie and Clyde (on which he is uncredited, I believe), he had the following to say.

When I was a kid, I noticed four things about movies: the characters could always find parking spaces at every hour of the day and night, they never got change in restaurants, and husbands and wives never slept in the same bed. Women went to sleep with their makeup on and woke with it unmussed. I thought to myself, I'm never going to do that. In Bonnie and Clyde -- although, I don't think it was my doing -- Bonnie counts out every penny of change, and C.W. gets stuck in a parking place and has a hard time making a getaway."

And that, my friends, is the quote from my reading this week. I am sure... sure... more from this book will follow.


(Quote c/o "Easy Riders Raging Bulls" by Peter Biskind and Photo c/o artvehicle and this link).

Making Movies

Today is not a day for work.

Besides the fact that I'm wearing a red dress (I mean-- who can honestly press their nose to the grindstone [cubicle] when they are decked out in red?), I am reading the book "Making Movies" by Sideny Lumet and I am smitten.

Smitten with his writing, smitten with his movies... even though I think The Pawnbroker is the most depressing thing I've ever seen. But mostly, I am, again, just smitten with just the process.

[It doesn't help that I was on set two weeks ago while I was on vacation and I've been to some preview screenings to help friends out recently.... le sigh.]

But anyway, since I have to be content to be distantly smitten at the moment, here's something to feed into the movie-making-development-production-editing lust:



Making a movie has alwasy been about telling a story. Some movies tell a story and leave you with a feeling. Some tell as story and leave you with a feeling and give you an idea. Some tell a story, leave you with a feeling, give you an idea and reveal something about yourself and others. And surely the way you tell that story should relate somehow to what that story is. 

Because that's what style is: the way you tell a particular story. After the first critical decision ("What's this story about?") comes the second most important decisions: "Now that I know what it's about, how shall I tell it?" And this decision will affect every department involved in the movie that is about to be made. 

Let me vent my anger first, so it's out of the way. Critics talk about style as something apart from the movie because they need the style to be obvious. The reason they need it to be obvious is that they don't really see. If the movie looks like a Ford or Coca-Cola commercial, they think that's style. And it is. It's trying to sell you something you don't need and is stylistically geared to that goal. As soon as a "long lens" appears, that's "style." ... From the huzzahs that greeted Lelouch's A Man and a Woman, one would've thought that another Jean Renoir had arrived. A perfectly pleasant bit of romantic fluff was proclaimed "art," because it was so easy to identify as something other than realism. ... 

Good style, to me, is unseen style. It is style that is felt.



(quote c/o making movies, chapter 3, "style"... picture c/o imdb)

India - Analog

Final set of india pics-- taken with Holga, because I'm just that indie.

38 photos on my flickr.... enjoy.

Temple in Amravati 

Women preparing sweets for mass wedding in Amravati 

Preparing rice for mass wedding in Amravati 

Making Roti for the mass wedding 

Eggplant for the mass wedding

Prepping flowers for the mass wedding. 

Outside of Victoria Station

Gateway of India 

Choor Bazaar (The Thieves' Market)

Oranges in the Thieves' Market

I had a bit of an issue with exposure and lost one roll.... but my first time with a Holga and first time with medium format-- I think they turned out really well.



And that's it, ladies and gents, for India. See the whole collection on my flickr. 

India - Digital

Photos, set 2... taken with my Canon 1DMarkII--- thus, "India Digital."

These were taken all in Mumbai, mostly in Bandra West (Kishori's 'hood) and Colaba (the touristy 'hood).

If you'd like to see all 38 photos.... visit my Flickr. 

And keep your eye out for further adventures in India Analog (coming later this week)... in which we visit Chor Bazaar and take an overnight train to Amravati to see the largest mass wedding in India's history.

Evening in Bandra West 

A building in Colaba

 Kishori with Chaat, street food. 

Sunset on Marine Drive

 Souvenirs outside of the "Gateway of India" 

 Me, outside of the "Gateway of India" 

A pile of peppers on the street in Bandra 

 Around the corner from Kishori's place.

A Tailor in Bandra West 

 Birds flock around the Taj

Texting in Bandra 

Construction in Bandra

If you like what you see... there's more here!

India - Mobile

This is the first of three posts of India pictures.

Obviously, this one is the lamest-- as the few photos it includes were taken with the Hipstamatic App on my phone when I couldn't get a camera out of my bag/was just messing around...

but I hope it whets your appetite for India-Digital and India-Analog posts, to come later this week.

 Window view in Amravati

 

Another view in Amravati

Street in Amravati 

Waiting for the Overnight train back to Mumbai 

 Midnight on the platform near Amravati