June 05, 2009
Wes Anderson and the Substance of Style - five video essays exploring the artistic influences on Wes Anderson's style, from Charles Schultz to Martin Scorsese. Beside the content I was fascinated to hear an expert describe how the approach and grammar combine to generate an overall feel -- I feel like I understand film much better after viewing the series. It's like hearing Ron Jaworski break down football film -- he's not only telling you what he sees, but how to see it yourself.
[It wasn't initially obvious to me, but ignore the essays and watch the videos: click on the thumbnail video to the far right of each essay, right above "Related Articles".]
That Arnold article could be one of the best things I have ever read.
I haven't watched these yet (although I am very excited to get to it) but completely randomly I saw a different link today to another video essay by the same author on "following" shots in film. It was really great and it turns out that I had never thought about how much I have always loved the kineticism of this kind of shot. Shots that are not strictly "following" but have that great feeling of motion and that came to my mind immediately include the opening shot of I Am Cuba, several scenes in Jackie Brown but particularly when De Niro and Fonda have made the drop at the mall and are walking to the car in the parking lot, and the great tracking shot in Swingers of Mikey and the crew entering the club through the kitchen (which I remember having wonderful use of sound as well).
The first shot in the following shot video (apparently from Lady in the Lake) reminded me of one of the in-game cutscenes from the Half-Life series.
a complete compendium of plot twists via the above blog with some twists and turns.
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Via the author's blog, a Grand Unified Theory of Schwartzenegger.
posted by mrflip at 10:54AM CST on June 06