Wednesday, May 11, 2005

atlanta billboard--new and improved Check out this new and improved photo and billboard design. This photo was taken the easy(er) way, with me and Rachel sitting in about 12 inches of water, at this manufactured beach (where they just dump sand with dump trucks) about a eigth of a mile from my house.  This way I didn't have to nearly drown myself while swimming with a painting in twenty feet of water. We actually did a little bit of dramatic directing too.  There were three different faces that I experimented with to get the right look: smiley face, adventure face, and sexy face.  Right before Rachel was about to take the photo she would say, "okay start kicking....okay now....SEXY FACE!!!" Then I would try to muster a sexy face while kicking and holding the painting.  Sometimes the sexy face didn't come out right and it just looked like a psycho face, or a haggard face, or a depressed face.  But I was pretty pleased with this one. The adventure face was an expression kind of like what you would make when jumping out of an airplane, or charging into a medieval battle (not that I've ever done that, but I've seen it on TV).  Most of the "adventure faces" turned out like psycho faces and were discarded. And here's a little Hollywood secret: since I alreay gave my mom the "real" Dali painting for mother's day, I had to use a prop painting for this second day of shooting.  (I would feel kind of weird asking my mom for the painting back).  This painting was actually just an empty frame with a cardboard backing.  Goatbelt Matt helped me photoshop an online version of the "disintegration of the persistence of memory" into place (which is actually much more clear and vivid than the "real" images.) In fact, much props to Goatbelt Matt for lending his time and photoshop expertise to this design.  This new billboard is definitely going to blow away the last billboard as far as concept, design, size, and mass impact. And in case you have any doubt: I am going to make it to the BIG TIME, whether it be major motion pictures, or a reality TV show, or just a well funded and publicized performance art circuit.  If you want to help me out now with any kind of respectable ($) contribution, I will remember you when I get there, whether its a return on your investment or a chance to work in Hollywood.  This project will probably take about $1,500 to complete in all.  Any chunk of that amount would be well spent and very appreciated.   8:58:37 PM    comment [] (a partially finished) review of the amityville horror Me and Rachel saw the new Amityville "Horror" last night, which was, by the way, a complete piece of crap. I used to want to be a movie reviewer when I grew up--growed up?--so let me tell you what sucked about it: *First of all it wasn't scary.  They took what was a 70s suspense movie and turned it into a gore/horror movie.  Instead of steadily building a sense of evil and foreboding, they just start throwing corpses at you from scene one. And they use that stupid, bullshit, technique Hollywood always uses when the director doesn't know how to make something scary:  they blast you with a noise, a musical note, and a sudden mutilated corpse all at once to make you jump out of your seat. This does in fact make you jump, almost every time they do it. But even when you're jumping, you're saying, "this is stupid." *The new Amityville basically rips off and incorporates the the plot to the Shining, by having the father of the house slowly go "psycho," scaring his family more and more and then finally chasing them with an axe. One problem with this, besides the fact that its a rip-off, is that the lead who plays the father is very dorky, and once again, not scary.  I mean, not even in the movie sense of scary, but like, if  you stepped on the guy's foot in a bar, you wouldn't be scared that he'd do anything about it. Also, the little girl is a carbon copy of the girl from Poltergeist, and says Poltergeist girl stuff the whole movie. *The casting is pretty absurd over all.  The mother/wife of the house is a 25 year old super hottie model starlet, who somehow has three kids, including a tubby and moody 13 year old boy. All of the adults in the film have these ridiculous hard bodies, like they're about to dispense with the movie at any moment and revert to a "skine-max" cable porn flick. (okay, got to go to work, but the exiciting conclusion to my review is coming later, with a real life haunting moment at my house). 8:17:46 AM    comment []

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