A choreographer, who recently had open heart surgery, attempted to goad me into a fight at a rehearsal last night because a student put a chair in the wrong place on stage. He succeeded in getting my friend, who was working with me on staging the ballads, to quit the show. This can't be a normal theater situation, right? Wouldn't a mouthy, fight-picking choreographer not be invited back to work every show? On the plus side, a professional lighting designer was brought in to insure the students in the lighting booth aren't practicing their cues on a paying audience. 50 new lights are being hung in addition to what we have already; fancy lighting for, as the designer said, "a really spectacular rock show." Repo! The Genetic Opera: Day 3 For this last portion of the investigation of Repo! The Genetic Opera, I thought it would be interesting to examine the look of the film. It is, after all, a major source of the criticism against the film. Some that saw it in theaters thought the stock was awful because some scenes were blurred while others weren't; the lighting and color design also shifted between different tones of the same families. To put it another way, all the colors in a column are the same color; the tone is the only difference: I can understand confusion when the film starts with the first row of red, then jumps to the fifth row of red, then switches back the first row and lightens slowly to the third row throughout the scene. The best way of understanding the visual scheme of Repo! is to imagine it's a comic book film; not in the Spiderman or Iron Man sense, but in the 300 or Sin City sense. Repo! is all about visual storytelling to enhance musical storytelling. There's a reason an apartment building before a gore scene… has a very different look than a scene with zydrate junkies in an alley… Perhaps one of the strongest examples of this color storytelling is found in the work of Dario Argento. Known for the beautiful cinematography in his brutal gialli films, Argento consistently changes the expected reaction to a scene with the use of color. Many of the cues in Repo! seem influenced by the look of Suspiria, particularly the saturated hues before the big scare/jump scenes: Notice how the colors, when taken out of context, look unrealistic. No hallway, especially in a dance school, would be lit red from wall to wall; that stained glass window would neither produce that much light at night nor diffuse into that particular gradient color pattern. But that's not the point. Argento created a vision of a nightmare. Repo! director Bousman does the same in his film. The purpose in Repo! is to break off the dark side of GeneCo's organ loans (repomen, graverobbers, zydrate junkies) from the public image (Blind Mag, clean suits, dramatic lighting) from the true face of the company (gray areas everywhere, confrontations, manipulation). The distinction threw people off, for certain, but there's a reason for the shifting look. Some other unique characteristics? Much of the transitions are accomplished through an animated comic book style, similar to the back story sequence of O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill Vol. 1. The film also mashes great practical set design with computer processing to really make the most of a limited budget. And I would be remiss to ignore the excellent practical effects, oozing in blood and style that punctuate some of the most entertaining sequences of the film. Repo! works exceptionally well as a horror film because of this commitment to a distinct, purposeful visual style. And that will end the discussion of Repo! The Genetic Opera. Return on Tuesday for a new weekly topic and please enjoy Zydrate Anatomy:

Labels: color, dario argento, Darren Lynn Bousman, kill bill, Repo The Genetic Opera, suspiria

So who else took the online Jeopardy test? I did it last night (was not going to skip a class on Margaret Atwood for a ten minute game show testplication) and wound up skipping 10 of 50 questions. Though I'm confident of the answers I did put down (and mad that a few of those skips were because the author of a book escaped me until the last second), methinks I won't be receiving any call for an interview. The final night of testing is tonight for the West Coast crowd at 8pm Pacific. Repo! The Genetic Opera: Part 2: Cast Contributions Repo! The Genetic Opera is a rather strange film. A not too distant future is rife with massive organ failures, leading to the rise of GeneCo's unscrupulous lending contracts; fail to pay up and they will collect what they gave you. And it's a musical. So what kind of cast can you possibly pull together for a low budget horror musical about organ harvesting? A very strange one, but not for the reasons you would think. You would expect an actor like Bill Moseley to be drawn to this sort of project. This is a man who has made a career out of appearing in bizarre horror films and standing out, for better or worse. Moseley has talent for this sort of material, but he needs the right director to bring out the best. Right now, he is probably best known for his collaborations with Rob Zombie as the sadistic backwoods maniac Otis Driftwood from House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. Appropriately creepy, Moseley provided a perfectly twisted backbone to the hyperactivity of House of 1000 Corpses and barren surroundings of The Devil's Rejects. He brings this sadistic streak with him for a vicious character in Repo!, though the results aren't as effective. His physical business when not singing is far stronger than his vocal abilities, though that is part of the role; why should ungrateful, uncouth, worthless grown children clearly incapable of running the family business be masterful singers in a musical? Another unsurprising choice was Paris Hilton. Vitriol or not, Paris's more popular film work has been in mediocre horror films Nine Lives and House of Wax (2005). This is partly because the films were marketed to show she died horribly violent deaths. This Razzie nominated performance is probably only Razzie nominated because she is Paris Hilton (the same way Lohan's competent work in the mediocre I Know Who Killed Me won her Razzie gold for being Lohan). She's perfectly competent in every way as Amber Sweet, especially since this grown child is completely self-absorbed and believes her vocal prowess is far greater than it actually is. Plus, more horrific circumstances are tossed at her than in those other two horror entries combined. She gets the second best effects sequence for a major character in the film. Beyond these two, some of the choices seem puzzling at first. The third grown child is played by Nivek Ogre, who is the lead singer of a band called Sick Puppy. This casting choice works out well partly by virtue of the character: he participates in a form of elective surgery where the entire face can be removed and replaced by another using large hooks installed in the head. It's as disturbing as it sounds, and means all Ogre has to do is sing beautifully; he does. So who else is important to the film? Let's see. We have a Spy Kid, Giles, Gino Barberini, the composer/writer of the film, and Sarah Brightman. Brightman and Paul Sorvino are up to the task vocally in the film. Clean, operatic performances abound when they open their mouths, lending a sense of authenticity to the proceedings. Anthony Head does his best to balance out a tricky dual role, though at times his voice seems to lack the variety to pull it off. The biggest surprise is Alexa Vega. Her singing is fine for the role, though her nuanced work as a teenager struggling to break free by any means possible brings back memories of Evan Rachel Wood's breakout role in Thirteen. The strange balancing act of Repo! The Genetic Opera is how many vocal pairings there are throughout the film. Brightman and Sorvino; Vega and Head; Vega and Zdunich; Vega and Brightman; Brightman and Head; Hilton, Vega, and Zdunich; Hilton, Moseley, and Ogre; Moseley and Ogre; Vega and Sorvino; Head and Sorvino. Then there are the implied pairings, such as Hilton and Brightman or Vega and Hilton/Moseley/Ogre. Combine that with the need for various styles of performance, from opera to prog rock, and you begin to realize how tricky casting this film had to be. The end result is certainly worth the struggle, as even in its weaker moments, it would be hard to imagine a different casting combination for the film.

Labels: alexa vega, anthony head, bill moseley, nivek ogre, paris hilton, paul sorvino, Repo The Genetic Opera, sarah brightman

Congratulations! You have arrived at the relaunch of Sketch-y Details. Exciting changes have already been implemented, with more poised on the horizon waiting for just the right moment to charge into the coding. For one thing, I figured out how to make the font size larger, which means even I can read my own blog now if I choose. New color scheme and layout, as well. I've also reintroduced Adsense; feel free to ignore it. Now, the significant change: it's a brave new blog format. While I was at no shortage for books, films, and miscellanea to recommend, I just didn't enjoy working on the blog anymore. It was a grueling, restrictive format that locked me down in a specific way and limited the topics I could even discuss within a specific category (writing only). The change: weekly connected topics. What does this mean? Every week, I will research and prepare a broad reaching investigation of a topic that interests me. For example, let's say the weekly topic was Scanners. Does this mean three posts discussing the movie itself? No. Since art is not created in a vacuum, why should I expect this blog to do the same. While Scanners would be the cornerstone of the discussion, the posts might be more concerned with literature that influenced the creation of the film (I see the Lovecraft mythos conceit of monsters all around us and we can't see as a major influence), or perhaps historical events that are connected (government sponsored psychic research being the obvious one). Maybe I'll use it as a segue to discuss Stephen Lack (the polarizing star of the film) and how his artistic output and philosophy influenced the film. Or perhaps look into the work of the special effects artists who created the memorable design and effects for the film. And what has Scanners influenced? Who steals from the Cronenberg playbook in music? Or literature? Or art? Or television? It goes on and on. That's the game plan. The first topic is Repo! The Genetic Opera. What kind of person decides a horror musical about organ harvesting in a not too distant future is a great idea? Better yet, who could actually spend the time to turn such a strange concept into something worthwhile? Terrence Zdunich and Darren Smith collaborated to bring Repo! alive as a stageplay. They composed a very inventive score that teeters between opera, musical, and various genres of rock/alternative music. The result is called an opera, a classification I take issue with. Investigating the website for the initial stageplay, it's clear from clips of "Zydrate Anatomy" and "Chromaggia" that at one point this was legitimately an opera based around rock music. The songs follow classic rules of theory and balance out in expected ways within the context of opera. While I can't be certain, it seems to me that perhaps in an attempt to open up the material to a wider audience, the score was changed in significant ways to tone down some of the more subtle opera elements and shift the music towards the more traditional musical an American audience would better understand. I'm aware that at some sites, my claim that Repo! the film was a musical, not an opera, was considered a personal attack against its fans; however, I find it insulting that my argument was met with the reaction that musical theater has no merit and therefore I hated the film. I think the score is the greatest strength of the film, and short of sitting at my desk-side stage piano and transcribing the score note for note from the film to better classify it, I'm willing to leave it at this: Repo! the film is closer to the German singspiel (the midway transition between the height of formal opera and the early stage musical, normally filled with romance or comedy – Repo! has both, sung through and intended for a wide audience; yes, it's widely regarded as a style of opera, but that does not mean A) every singspiel is an opera in a classical sense and B) that everyone who has studied theory and examined representative scores agrees with this wide regard) than it is to a classical opera, and that's a good thing. So, two men brought Repo! to life, then, right? Wrong. While Terrence Zdunich and Darren Smith composed the show and wrote the book, there was one other man who had a significant impact on the early development of the show: Darren Lynn Bousman. That means that the man who directed the Saw sequels for years was the natural choice to direct the film adaptation because he directed the first ever stage production of Repo!. Bousman was a perfect match for the film even if he didn't previously work on the show because Repo! is all about the look of the film. He knows how to frame a shot, how to do creative editing that advances the story, and how to pull a consistent style of performance from a large cast. So what can you expect when you buy (or rent, cheapskates) Repo! The Genetic Opera? It's hard to describe, so why not end with one of the most visually compelling moments in the film? Chase the Morning has singing spokesperson Blind Mag visiting with young Shilo, a girl so ill she cannot safely leave her house without breathing equipment. It seems Blind Mag might have a purpose for visiting with Shilo before her last performance at a Genetic Opera: CHASE THE MORNING
And that's how you effectively use CGI to enhance a film.

Labels: announcement, Darren Lynn Bousman, Darren Smith, Repo The Genetic Opera, Terrence Zdunich

It's that time of the year, folks. When I fall down at every opportunity and destroy all of my good clothing due to ice. I've been topped this time: my uncle, a mailman of many years, fell on a patch of ice and shattered his wrist. It only took the hospital 9 days to schedule his surgery. Film Rec: Gran Torino As far as I'm concerned, Gran Torino is the best American film of 2008. Say what you will about the supporting cast or Eastwood himself. I've heard it already and probably worse than you can imagine. I've been called a racist, an idiot, and Joe Six-pack for declaring it my top film. And I'm fine with that. If loving a film with a screenplay this strong is wrong, I don't want to be right. You might now Gran Torino as that film where Clint Eastwood shoots off racist remarks and yells at people to get off his lawn. And, if that's all you think it is, you are mistaken. Gran Torino is a moving study of a man, Walt, living in a world that no longer understands him. He's a grandfather who everyone believes is incapable of caring for himself due to his age. He's the last white person in his now ethnically diverse neighborhood. And he's a Korean War veteran who is haunted by demons of a much more personal nature. So, yes, he does yell at people to get off his lawn. It just happens to be the most powerful scene in a film this year and is edited in such a way for the trailer it almost seems absurd. Take into consideration that he is threatening a gang that tried to steal his car in an initiation ritual and are threatening to kill him for objecting to the act. Now add in how this gang is comprised of lost Hmong youth who would rather kill their own kind than let another young man have a chance at a decent future. Toss in the references to gang warfare with other cultural groups that are trying to wipe each other off the map. And end on the notion that this man is trying to protect the country he fought for and is more devoted to than his own family. Now: does "Get off my lawn" seem as ridiculous as it did before? And that's just the beginning of the film. Eastwood slowly ratchets up the tension through his character's relationship with the new parish priest, attempting to get fulfill Walt's wife's last wish of bringing Walt back to the church. Or Walt's family's disregard for anything that doesn't result in more money brought to their lives. Or Walt helping to build up a weak young man into someone capable of surviving in society. All of this would easily tilt to melodrama if Eastwood didn't make it a comedy. The situation is absurd not because that is the reality, but because Walt views his life this way. This a man who would rather sit on his deck with a cooler full of beer each day and not speak to anyone. His new neighbors and growing cultural community force him to break free from this by finally showing Walt some respect. When the film finally shifts to the drama you would expect from an Eastwood film, it's all the more powerful for taking the longer route. There are moments that could have been milked that are casually picked up and put back down like a photograph on a shelf. And there are incidental moments that are constantly pushed to the forefront to shift the dynamics in the film. There are some people who will never admit they like this film, and that's fine, too. For some, it's because Million Dollar Baby was so successful. Others just don't like older film styles. And still others will hate it because they refuse to admit they could enjoy a straightforward film without a big twist or Hollywood flash. Fine. I just recommend that people give this one a chance.