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BLU-RAY BLUES

DVD sales are dropping and Blu-Ray isn't gonna change that. The New Yorker's James Suroweicki explains why:

The hope was that Blu-Ray would be the solution, but, from my perspective, the quality difference between Blu-Ray and DVD is not high enough to justify the massive price difference between the products, at least when it comes to movies I already own on DVD. I’ll buy some new releases, like “The Dark Knight,” on Blu-Ray. But I can’t see ever buying a Blu-Ray of, say, “Office Space,” to replace the DVD I own. In other words, unlike the way people upgraded from cassettes and albums to CDs, or from videotapes to DVDs, I think most movie watchers will be content to keep their current collections on DVD. And that means in the long run that Hollywood’s going to need to make up for a fairly sizeable drop in profits.

Bizarrely, Suroweicki claims the studios have depleted their film libraries and in the same breath extolls cable channel Turner Classic Movies as indispensable because it airs many movies that aren't on DVD.

The fact is there are plenty of unreleased movies. Most won't prove to be major sellers but die-hard film buffs are a sturdy and loyal niche market. Think Criterion. At DVD Savant, Glenn Erickson maintains a comprehensive wish-list of films unavailable on DVD.

STATE OF THE ART

My favorite magazine, New Scientist, has a special feature on the state of science fiction. It's a somewhat cursory overview with no real surprises -- scientists approve of 2001: A Space Odyssey and hate The Matrix sequels. It is nice to learn they think highly of the incredible novels of Iain M. Banks and Joss Whedon's fun pulp throwback Serenity.

Here's Ursula LeGuin's summation of what's interesting in the written world:

Science fiction that pretended to show us the future couldn't keep up with the present. It failed to foresee the electronic revolution, for example. Now that science and technology move ever faster, much science fiction is really fantasy in a space suit: wishful thinking about galactic empires and cybersex - often a bit reactionary. Things are livelier over on the social and political side, where human nature, which doesn't revise itself every few years, can be relied on to provide good solid novel stuff.

TRUE 'DAT!

Congrats to my good friend and collaborator Danielle Bisutti! This gorgeous, talented and very funny gal just got a rave review for her role in the new Nickelodeon series True Jackson, VP. This sitcom for young adults co-stars Keke Palmer and Greg Proops, who are very funny people when Danielle isn't totally stealing scenes out from under them.

And last week Dani shone in what is hopefully a recurring role on Steven Bochco's TNT legal drama Raising the Bar.

You go, girl.

The impossibly good-lookin' screenwritin' trio of Kalimba Bennett, some guy, and Danielle Bisutti.

BAD SCIENCE

 

Methinks they doth protest too much, but James Randi's website asked five brainiacs to review the scientific accuracy of Fox's new TV show Fringe, the X-Files clone that was just picked up for a full season.

On the one hand, c'mon -- it's a sci-fi show whose stated intention of exploring "fringe science" clearly gives it a pass on the real world. On the other hand, this is pretty funny:

Maybe Fringe would be good if, before watching every episode, you had a lot of alcohol. I'm not sure. I'd guess that's what J.J. Abrams was doing when he created the concept. It's crap masquerading as science.

I'm hoping this show can find its footing soon. Only one episode to date -- "The Arrival" -- has been worth re-watching. I think Fringe's problems have nothing to do with pseudo-science at all, and everything to do with one-note characters who offer little emotional investment.

THE MORNING AFTER

Good God, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the gift that just keeps right on giving:

Fox News reported Wednesday that Palin's lack of knowledge on some topics also strained relations. Carl Cameron reported that campaign sources told him Palin had resisted coaching before her faltering Katie Couric interviews; did not understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country; and could not name the three nations that are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement -- the United States, Canada and Mexico.

More from the LA Times here and here.

And here's Newsweek behind the scenes:

One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

(Artwork above is by the amazing Zina Saunders.)

MEDITATIONS IN AN EMERGENCY

Who Killed Amanda Palmer? by Amanda Palmer

Jennifer Government, by Max Barry

The Signal, written & directed by
David Brucker, Dan Bush & Jacob Gentry

ONE FRAME AT A TIME

Here's Roger Ebert discussing how to read a movie:

You and those joining you will also find yourselves discussing color, lighting, shadows, construction, characters, dialogue, acting, history, sources, influences, and messages both obvious and buried. Anything and everything. It truly is a democracy in the dark. Everything worth noticing on the screen will eventually be seen by somebody. For example, I had been through "Citizen Kane" at least 30 times before I took it to the Savannah Film Festival, and someone noticed a detail I had never seen before.

INTO THE CAULDRON

Everybody's got their favorite movie car chase. Some people go straight for The French Connection. Others swear by Ronin or Vanishing Point or Mad Max II: The Road Warrior or Bullitt.

I've been thinking about car chases since I saw a screening last month of Steven Spielberg's first full-length film, Duel. The whole movie is one pulse-pounding car chase about a traveling salesman (played to nebbish perfection by Dennis Weaver) who finds himself pursued by the a psychotic driver of a big rig. Legendary screenwriter Richard Matheson was in attendance at this Writers Guild screening and afterward talked about the project and why it still ticks along like a finely-tuned engine.

Spielberg's later blockbuster, Jaws, would follow the same essential template as that of Duel. Both are simple, almost mythic tales of an average person facing off against an unstoppable killing machine. I recall watching Duel when it originally aired as a TV movie of the week in 1971. That mindless truck was at the time the scariest monster I'd ever seen. I don't think I'd watched this movie since in its entirety and, honestly, I was worried it wouldn't hold up that well. I'm thrilled to report that Duel still packs a primal wallop. It's lean and efficient storytelling, even with the extra 12 or so minutes Spielberg added for the film's overseas theatrical release. Grab the DVD and see for yourself why this killer thriller still resonates in today's pop culture.

Duel is certainly up there in the pantheon of great car chase movies. For my money, though, the car chase in Friedkin's 1985 cop thriller To Live and Die in L.A. is the most thrilling, unpredictable and increasingly suspenseful car chase ever filmed.

Based on a novel by Gerald Petievich, this garish and seedy flick sells itself like a slick hooker who's been up all night snorting rails and watching Miami Vice. The film's deep orange hues pulse like burnt neon -- the entire color palette will leave aftertrails on your eyelids. The thumping New Wave soundtrack by Wang Chung practically conjures its own pile of cocaine on your coffee table. That's a kind way of admitting that this movie's aesthetics are dated in many ways, but their cumulative effect is undeniable. You get a true sense of what it must've been like to surf the shiny edges of this L.A. world.

Friedkin's movie vibrates like a meth-head approaching the speed of light. It boldly features unsympathetic, corrupt lawmen decades before Shawn Ryan's TV series The Shield. And damn, that incredible car chase has always floored me. In it, two desperate Secret Service agents pull an audacious robbery designed to fund the takedown of a major counterfeiter (played with sneering aplomb by Willem Dafoe). As the agents speed away, things start going horribly wrong. And then they get worse. Much worse.

 

 

Here's a great essay by Michael Crowley that pins down why this car chase takes your breath away:

Technically and artistically, every choice Friedkin makes during this sequence is exceptional. The chase is slow to develop. It’s not even clear that this is a car chase until after it’s begun. The compositions are superb; the editing sparkles and is frequently abstract. Friedkin even temporarily transfers the point of view to the pursuers without any formal introduction or establishing shots. By reusing set-ups, he induces a transitory sense that we are seeing the same action twice, or that Chance is driving in circles rather then being pursued. The rhythm of cuts and sounds as Friedkin percolates between perspectives and omniscient compositions escalates the sensual intensity ...

I love this essay because it recognizes so many things about this movie that even I hadn't noticed. But what it says about the centerpiece car chase is, like Duel, startling in its leanness, its efficiency. The car chase in To Live and Die in L.A. is not just an eye-popping series of slick stunt moves. It's not adrenalized action for the sake of action. In fact, it's not about the cars at all. It's about these downward spiraling lawmen and the events that brought them to this precipice and how it changes them. This is a car chase that serves as a searing cauldron for the characters.

Car chase as cauldron. Take a moment to just sit and think about that.

And here's something to think about for the script or story you're working on. If there's a scene that doesn't work in some way as a cauldron for your characters, be it a complex car chase or a simple dinner scene, what in the world is it doing there?

MAD ABOUT THE MEN

If you're watching this, you should be reading this.

Until Battlestar Galactica returns, this is hands-down the best show on TV.

And click the above image for a swank desktop picture.

WHO: HOW & WHY

There's no U.S. publication date yet, but the book Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale by Russell Davies is on my must-read list.

Davies spearheaded the revival of the classic British TV show, the longest-running sci-fi series in history (seen stateside on the SciFi Channel and available on DVD). In this book, a series of emails between Davies and journalist Benjamin Cook, Davies pulls backs the curtain on what it's like to revamp, write and produce one of the genre's most enduring icons. You can read some excerpts from the book here.

The publisher has made available several of Davies' Who scripts here. They're all worth reading but I definitely recommend "Midnight," an uncanny alien encounter tale that takes place mostly within the confines of one room.

Davies is leaving the show in the capable hands of writer Stephen Moffat, who penned some of the revamped show's more memorable episodes. As a parting gift, Davies leaves us with a rare glimpse inside the world of television production. Writers everywhere will want to sample his insights and process:

There's little physical evidence of the script process to show you. No notes. Nothing. I think, and think, and think...and by the time I come to write, a lot has been decided. Also, a lot hasn't been decided, but I trust myself, and scare myself, that it'll happen in the actual writing. It all exists in my head, but in this soup. It's like the ideas are fluctuating in this great big quantum state of Maybe. The choices look easy when recounted later, but that's hindsight. When nothing is real and nothing is fixed, it can go anywhere. The Maybe is a hell of a place to live. As well as being the best place in the world.

I filter through all those thoughts, but that's rarely sitting at my desk, if ever. It's all done walking about, going to town, having tea and watching telly. The rest of your life becomes just the surface, chattering away on top of the Maybe...and the doubts. That's where this job is knackering and debilitating. Everything - and I mean every story ever written anywhere - is underscored by the constant murmur of: this is rubbish, I am rubbish, and this is due in on Tuesday! The hardest part of writing is the writing.

via i09