Last Thursday was the first time in four years I played indoor soccer. It was for fun with some friends from work over lunch. Friday morning I hurt all over. Am I that out of shape?
Oh, right. Never mind.
Tim Burton’s Batman was the definition of “awesome comic book movie” for me. First of all it was PG-13, which meant it had far more action than PG rated films; I was 12 when I saw it, and the “pen is mightier than the sword” moment still freaks me out. Second, the visual design was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Up until that point live action Batman meant Adam West and the ‘Bat-tucci’, so Michael Keaton’s brooding vigilante was just so cool.
It’s no surprise Batman was the third Spanish video I made.
Google Readers click here for video.
The story: Gotham Nuclear Power plant has been taken over by the Scarecrow, and Batman goes to stop him. (Points for super-brief recap!)
If you’re wondering how the scenery actually looks like a power plant and not my basement, it’s because my father, who works for Xcel Energy in Minneapolis, was able to get me permission to shoot at one of the coal fired power plants in Minneapolis. We were allowed to shoot in the old control room and in some of the unused parts of the plant (with supervision of course). For a high school video, the setting looks fantastic.
I’m still amused by the “Danger! Nuclear plant!” sign on a music stand used for the establishing shot.
The costumes were done by my mother (who also does the costumes for the Movie Monkey) and Jason’s mother Penny who did his Scarecrow costume. This was a zero-budget production, so there was a lot of creative use of sweatpants.
Penny did the Scarecrow costume, and my mom did the Batman costume with help from an actual rubber cowl provided by Jason. The main problem is that the actor playing the main character, me, was a 98 lbs weakling in high school and there was no way I was going to fill it out. I’m the frumpiest Batman ever.
I look like I’m posing for a “Before” photo.
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Before Photoshop |
 After Photoshop |
This was the first (and last) time I ever wrote my own score, composed and played on an Amiga 2000 (the computer for the creative mind). I had dreams that I the second coming of both Steven Spielberg and John Williams, but it was apparent after the fact that I was a kid with a copy of Deluxe Music. If you can play three notes and play them backwards than you can play the challenging Batman score.
It was also my first use of green screen/chroma keying
The live action from the above shot was taken from the third floor of my high school, looking down at some of my sister’s friends from her Spanish class. According to her, her Spanish class had seen my videos their sophomore and junior years, and by senior year they were asking her if they could be in them. Apparently it was cool. I’ve never had outside confirmation on that so it may have been something you tell your little brother to make him feel good, but I’d like to believe it’s true.
While I wouldn’t go so far to say I have a Walter Mitty complex, I do have a tendency to romanticize my life. Maybe I’m just a software monkey, but being a software monkey isn’t so far from the action and adventure on TV, right? This idea has crept into my statuses lately. A few days back I posted on Twitter:
Putting error reports together to find the root problem is makes me feel like I’m in a CSI episode with much worse lighting.
And then yesterday I posted as my Google status:
Do you remember that TV show about the software team lead who played by his own rulebook but always got the project in on time? Thank god that never show never existed.
That status in particular was picked up by my friends Matt and Dave, who sent quotes from said fictional show:
Maybe my life is more exciting than I think.
Google reader readers: click here to see video.
Okay, we’ve covered the back history. The montage sequence sets up the story: Back in the day there’s an evil mayor (henceforth known as the bad guy) who runs Los Angeles. When the people are being taken advantage of, they go to Don Diego De La Vega for help. Don Diego’s crazy son Don Fransisco is the one who actually helps them, because at night he goes to his C64 cave and turns into Zorro. So one day my sister and my friend Ryan go to talk to Don Diego in our dining room to ask for help because their daughter Angie was kidnapped. Zorro finds out by choking Blue guy, who then takes an inordinate amount of time to get to bad guy island. Of course, bad guy is not concerned with Zorro knowing his whereabouts because
So Zorro shows up in our basement, and sure enough gets the butt end of a sword. Then Bad Guy sets off some well labled TNT, we get some C64 fire, and finally one of my first and last usages of model FX.
Other notes
Whenever I visit my parents, I can always be sure that I will feel at home because my room is pretty much the same as when I left for college many years ago. My parents have done a little work – new carpet, new wallpaper, new desk – but things are more or less been left as they were, from the books about programming the Amiga on the bookshelf to the porn under the mattress. When I was up there last for Christmas, I decided it was time I admitted I owned a house and brought some of these things back home with me. Let’s face it: since I’m only there 5% of the year, there’s no reason my mom shouldn’t use the room as a sewing room.
Of the things I brought back, what I was most excited about – yes, even more than the Magic Eye book – were the videos I worked on in High School. Some history: the Minnesota Spanish teachers had a statewide arts competition, and one of the areas of competition was video. The only real rule was that the dialog had to be in Spanish; otherwise it was a free for all. At the time my friend Rob and I were cable access nerds who volunteered at Northwest Community Television, videotaping everything from sports events to “Tuesday Night Trivia”, a live trivia show. For an outcast nerd like me, this was a place to put a lot of pent up creative energy.
Our freshman year we decided to team up to do “Un Dia En La Vida De Robin Hood” (A day in the life of Robin Hood). For those of you who took other languages, the plot is pretty simple. Robin Hood (Me) needs to steal some gold from the local gold truck shipment for the poor. First he has to cross “The River” (a.k.a Meadow Lake) in disguise, but his fan club gives him away and he gets in a boat chase with the boat guards(?). On the other side of the river he intercepts the gold carriage, but the Sheriff of Nottingham (Rob) was secretly hiding so he could catch Robin in the act(??). Some Commodore 64 assisted sword fight action ensues(???), which ends predictably.
How can you not love something that has “Wacky Sax” as the credits music? You can’t. Don’t be hating.
I remember the day we brought the final copy in for the submission to the contest. For some reason I had to miss the first five minutes of Spanish class, so I gave the tape to Rob with very clear instructions this cannot be shown in class. Predictably when I returned they had already finished watching. The part that shocked me was that they were actually impressed with what we had done. There were questions about how we’d edited it together, and how we’d done this or that. It was the first time I’d put my heart into something and people said “hey wow, that was kind of cool.”
I realize this looks like typical YouTube fodder now. I could defend it by saying it was before computer video editing existed and all editing was strictly tape to tape (computer controlled within five frames of accuracy), but I’ll be honest: it does look pretty bad. What can I say, I was sixteen years old. The wonderful thing about kids and film making is that you’re basically giving them endless possibilities. The thing they have to learn for themselves is to learn from what they’ve done; to strive to be better.
Did I learn that lesson? I’ve got three more of these. I could post them all together, or I could stretch this out for another couple posts because this is the most exciting thing I have going on. Guess which one I’m doing?
A few photos from 2009.
Happy Holidays everyone.
I logged into Facebook this afternoon and saw this
Fred was a Film TA when I was going to KU. I think Facebook is just trying help me reconnect with an old contact, but in this case the reason I haven’t talked to Fred lately is because he died of cancer this year. The page remains as a way for people to post stories about Fred. Considering this is becoming more and more popular, I see this “feature” creating a lot of unintended grief.
RIP Stanley J. Kral, Father, Grandfather, and Great Grandfather.
Let’s me make my non-medical opinion clear to start: I don’t think there is much health value in lifting weights. I know that weight lifting builds muscle and a pound of muscle burns 10 calories a day just sitting around, but you burn a whole lot more running and you get the cardiovascular benefits. In my mind the main reason people lift weights is vanity, pure and simple.
Of course, what is wrong with vanity? Sure, some people have a problem with it, but that’s their loss. Who doesn’t want to look good naked? To the women out there who are scared they’d end up looking like Schwarzenegger I have three words: Michelle Obama arms.
He may be the Commander in Chief, but she’s the one with the guns.
I first started going to my college gym when I was a freshman because I wanted to shake the “99 lbs weakling” image I had in high school. Fun fact: in 8th grade they had to pair me the other 99 lbs kid for wrestling in gym class. By college I had gained a whole… well, 20 lbs, so I still had an image to shake. I didn’t know anything about weights, so I did what all 99 lbs weaklings do – I went to the book store. Thankfully, I found Bill Pearl’s book Getting Stronger, a book full of workouts for building muscle.
I find that a big problem when people try weightlifting is that they get a bit over-psyched – they find some picture that will be “their inspiration”, they sign up for the 12 month membership at Gold’s Gym, and then find it is a lot easier not to go. It is a setup for failure, except it’s failure with a gym membership that has a fiscal exit penalty.
For starters, be honest with yourself. Unless you work out 8 hours a day and get into illegal doping, you will not look like that photo, but only because the human body was never meant to look like that. Really there’s a much easier program to look like the person in the photo: it’s called Photoshop.
Personally I’m happy we’re past the 1980’s action movies where the heroes were monosyllabic and all looked like they never left the gym.
Second, if you get a gym membership to lift weights, you are basically paying money so you have access to a room full of heavy objects to lift, but for $30 you can get your own heavy objects to lift, so why pay rent on a room you don’t need? As you progress you will no longer be able to afford the equipment, but I don’t believe in putting in the investment of a membership until you know it will be used. Finally, weight lifting will not help you lose fat, and being heavy will make it harder to see results. Only get started if you know what you want out of it.
I think Bill Pearl’s starter workout is a fantastic introduction (for those doing this with home equipment, do push-ups instead of the bench press). Make sure you follow his advice before getting started – you don’t want to hurt yourself! Every body is unique and results will vary, but if you keep up a three times a week schedule within a month you will notices differences for the better.
Where to go from there? Depends on how much you enjoy what you’re doing. I’ve had friends who, once they got over their initial skepticism, tried out weight lifting and became engrossed once they began seeing results. For others it never stuck. Your results will vary, but hopefully this has given you some reason to try.
The KCCC Triathlon was last weekend. I thought my time was decent but I do need to work harder on cycling (I think I’m doing okay with running). The next triathlon I am signed up for is the Shawnee Mission Park triathlon in early July, where I am signed up for the full course instead of the sprint distance.
After fighting rain and my lack of skill with hammers, I now have a shed in my backyard. I needed a shed so I could store a lawn mower so I could start doing yard work, even though nothing in that last phrase sounded appealing to me. Many thanks to Brian C for all the hard work he put into it.
And finally, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is now available in brick & mortar stores! As you may or may not know, Dr. Horrible is the internet musical sensation starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day. Movie Monkey Applies To The ELE is also on the DVD as one of the special features (which got a nice mention in this review).