Commentary &Daily post 06 Jul 2010 08:33 am
Notes and bits
– Jaime Weinman has an excellent post on his blog. He posts the donkey-change scene from Pinocchio with the music only. It accents the terror in the sequence and shows off the brilliance of the Leigh Harline score.
Something else worth watching during the sequence is the brilliant use of direction. The camera moves brilliantly from left to right, never crossing up or confusing where any of the characters are. The necessity of this is magnified when we pick up Jiminy running to and into the saloon. No one ever crosses the 180, yet the violence of the sequence is always growing. And this is all with only a music track. It’s great film making.
This reminds me that I recently watched a bit of Martin Scorcese‘s The Last Tempatation of Christ. There was a scene where Christ, Willem DeFoe sat at the edge of a hillside talking with a follower. The camera followed the 180 strictly. Then Christ makes a wild gesture with his hands, and the camera swirls with it. From then on the image has crossed the 180, and we’re looking at a wholly different setup.
It was one small setup in a larger film reminding me that Scorcese, one of our elder statesmen now, still directing vibrantly, is more alive and challenging than ever. He uses all the extensive knowledge he has to break all the rules. Rent this movie or get another lesser known Scorcese film, and see what I’m talking about.
His work is an inspiration.
Amid Amidi has posted a wonderful piece on the passing of Betty Kimball. The photos and drawings of her by her late husband, Ward, are priceless. You’ve probably all seen it at Cartoon Brew, but if you haven’t, go there.
- Brian Sibley has had a great blog since 2006. Called the blog. This has been a daily stop for me ever since I found it. Brian, who writes plays, scripts and books, uses this blog to discuss many cultural events and thoughts that pass by his life. This includes interesting and fine comments about many movies and plays that have opened. There’s a lot there in an entertaining and informative style.
Well, perhaps you may have missed that he’s just begun a new blog called decidedly disney. This one has as its focus, obvously, Disney and Brian has a lot to say about them. Take a look.
- Bill Benzon wrote a recent, thoughtful piece on the blog, On The Human. Here, he espouses the premise that “nothing in human psyche and society makes sense except in the light of cultural evolution.” He posits thoughts about Nina Paley’s feature, Sita Sings the Blues as support for this idea. If you find it too heady for you, at least scroll down to the midway point to read his comments of Sita.
Benzon is one of the finest intellectuals interested in animation and this article explains why.
- If you haven’t read the couple of posts Mark Mayerson has written about character and story structure particularly concerning Toy Story 3, I suggest you take a look.
“Do what we can, summer will have its flies: if we walk in
the woods, we must feed mosquitoes: if we go a-fishing,
we must expect a wet coat.†— Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Jeff Scher‘s latest Op Ed opus appears in today’s NYTimes. Summer Hours is the perfect thing for the torrid summer day (like we’re experiencing in NY today.) A cool drink of iced tea. The perfect music is, once again, by Shay Lynch.
Jeff Scher‘s website.
Shay Lynch‘s YouTube page.
on 06 Jul 2010 at 9:43 am 1.Elliot Cowan said …
The only thing better than Brian’s blog is Brian in person.