Tag: art

Film Review: THE HUNTER (2011)

Disclaimer: I don’t plan on making film reviews the norm on this site but because I already wrote about this movie, I’m willing to make an exception.  I also don’t like giving negative reviews, especially for independently financed projects, as I respect the difficulties of moviemaking and I don’t want to steer revenue away from these hard working artists.  However, my audience is intelligent enough to know that this is only my opinion and that their own millage may vary.  So we shall proceed.

Please be aware that SPOILERS will follow, so if you don’t want to ruin your Monet Experience then go watch the movie now (it’s currently playing VOD) and then come back and share your thoughts.

Here is the trailer for the movie:

The Hunter (2011) – Official Trailer HD

The trailer would have you believe it’s a tense thriller, right?  About a man with a rifle, put in jeopardy by a conspiracy of those all around him–plenty of intrigue and suspense, right?  Wrong.  This 1:38 might be the most exciting of the whole 100 minute movie.

Okay, so maybe the problem was with marketing.  Maybe if I knew I was getting into a slow, plodding drama more about unemployed loggers than a Tasmanian tiger hunt, I’d have enjoyed the experience more.  But probably not.

Don’t get me wrong, this movie has its redeeming aspects.  The cast was stellar!  Defoe and O’Conner brought grace and strength.  Sam Neil perfectly blended as a native (IMDB tells me he grew up down-under, so it’s no surprise).  And what a beautiful film; the cinematographer expertly captured the breathtaking scenery.

I actually wish I liked this movie more.  The topic is obviously one that interests me.  But I just couldn’t get behind it.  It strikes me as another in a painfully long line of films that tries to be profound by having nothing happen.  It’s like someone who wants to write a great work of literature, so they decide step one is “don’t have a plot”.

A fellow friend and filmmaker once shared a bit of wisdom with me he learned while making a documentary on the Air Force Academy.  He said, you can’t show the audience that an event is boring by boring them for ninety minutes.  By the same token, I find that if you spend too much time building the atmosphere, you’re left with nothing but that.

So did I miss something?  Or did the filmmakers?

by Categories: ScreenwritingTags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Books

I’ve started querying my historical fantasy novel, which I’ll refer to as WTZD until I can give out more details.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to blog about this, as publishers like to be tight-lipped about their in-development projects, and it dates my efforts to any agent looking at this site.  BUT that’s why I started this blog, to track my progress as a writer.  So what does that mean?  Unfortunately I can’t say much, yet.  Just that the novel is done, loved by my inner circle of critics, and ready to be shown to literary agents.  I am, as of this post, unrepresented.  That will soon change .

What I can share, is this image below, which I found while doing research for my queries.  It sums up, quite nicely, my goal with WTZD.  To enthrall and feed imaginations.

Wish me luck.

Books - That is exactly how they work

Source for: Books

by Categories: On Writing, WTZDTags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Behind the scenes of a writing exercise

Since I write both movies and books, I find it only appropriate if my blog blurs the line between the two as well.  I wrote a short story entitled, “the deepest part of man is his skin“, which I posted under fiction yesterday (if you were following me on twitter, you’d have seen the notification).  This blog entry is a DVD commentary, if you will; a look into the writer’s process.

It began, like any good endeavor, out of both necessity and inspiration.  I was taking my niece and nephews camping, and figured scary stories might be the order of the day.  I started to think, “If only I had a book of campfire tales,” and it wasn’t long before my DIY attitude took over.  After all, if I were a carpenter, I wouldn’t buy a birdhouse, would I?  So I took to the challenge of writing my own scary story.

At the time, I was reading a collection of HP Lovecraft shorts.  Lovecraft, if you don’t know, is as much a founding father of horror as Poe.  Stephen King called Lovecraft, “the twentieth century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.”

Lovecraft is most renowned for his Cthulu mythos.

From the first sentence, I heard his voice in my own words.  I embraced it.  Writing as another author, one whom you admire, can be a great way to expand as a writer.  Or, as my friend Damon suggested, many of the greats would type out word-for-word copies of the works of the masters as a way to put another’s genius through their own mind.

I quickly spewed out the first draft, but found it was far too adult for the kiddos (in vernacular, mostly), and so it stayed as an incomplete work for the next few months.  This was August 8th.

Cut to four months later, I’m done editing my novel–which I can’t wait to share!  Queries to be sent soon (gulp)–and I find myself with some extra writing time as I transition to my next big project.  So I pick this one up.

Let me emphasize now the importance of peer review.  I showed an early draft of the story to my friend Chris, who’s not a writer; just someone smart and insightful.  His suggestion was to make it seem more “real”by having the letter come  to me rather than by me (as it was originally written).  This one simple suggestion gave it a new spin; like one of those “found footage” horror movies.  Lovecraft was fond of spelling the demise of his narrators, and I feel he would approve of such a creative choice.

Overall, I found the exercise to be a success.  It was fun to be overly macabre and descriptive, and I think the final product is something new and valuable.  I hope you enjoy it.

by Categories: Fiction, On WritingTags: , , , , , , , 7 Comments