One of those days

It's one of those days. I spent beginning of the day in bliss. Playing some games and watching some shows, as I usually do when I wake up in the morning. I had started working on my thesis when I hear a key being slipped into the lock of my front door. I groaned. I knew what was coming.

Writing Exercises #4

Here is the next installment of the writing exercises. I've changed the date so that it looks like I posted it on time, but I had a sudden internet/phone loss. Therefore I couldn't post the obituary, but here it is.

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Obituary

November 13th 2011

Johnny Bruton, a perfectly adequate man was taken from us yesterday. 

His friends and family mourn his passing, which was, by no means, any fault of his own. I mean, who plays with matches at a gas station? Why was he even there? He doesn’t even own a car! But... I digress….

The many people he tore into death along side him will begrudgingly accompany him on his way to the after life. Johnny will be missed by us all.

His ceremony will be held this Sunday morning at the Memorial Church at 10 o’clock. That, which is left of his body will be cremated as by his request, so that when The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers comes to theaters, his friends can bring him to watch these highly anticipated films.

When we mourn Johnny Bruton, let us remember his accomplishments in life and if anyone can tell me any, let me know.

We miss you Johnny and I wish I could have given you this advice before you left us; Don’t screw up your afterlife like you screwed up your life. 

Writing Exercises #3

Well, here you go. Number three.

I really enjoyed writing this one. This was actually the first writing exercise I did. It was after I had finished with this that I thought I could have a month worth of blog posts with this. But now, click here to read my 500 word biography.

Writing Exercises #2

Here is the second writing exercise. This time on google docs.

I wasn't really too happy with this exercise, I didn't really understand what I was meant to do. However, while I was looking over it again, I realized I should have taken the gist of the radio show and made my own scene out of it. However, this has become more of a transcript than anything else. If I would have the time now I would have re-written it. Sadly, I'm stressed for time and am going out very soon. Friday's will be better though. I know, because it's already finished.

Click here!

Writing Exercises #1

Okay, so here is the first writing exercise!

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"Pick then people you know and write a one-sentence description for each of them."

He is quite small for such a powerful man, and is the only one who can push me to work harder and harder.

A sense of confidence flows from him like a sent, engulfing me in its sweet aroma. 

The first thing one would notice when looking at this man’s face, was how dumbly he would stare into space with no thought or imagination behind it. 

She is like a sister to me, when I imagine her, I think of a cartoon – always happy, always ready to play.

Her dark brown eyes peer through the ruffled hair in front of her face, exciting me beyond anything else. 

He is a man of low self esteem, yet he works harder in the face of failure than anyone else I know.

She is a wicked, wicked woman.

She is not ugly, nor beautiful, she is not thin, nor fat, she is not good, nor bad, she is just a normal person who blends into the background of a scene. 

His was a hairy man, some would say too hairy but the kindness beaming from his face always warms me and everyone around him.

I would like to tell you about a friend of mine, sadly anything I would be allowed to tell you wouldn’t make a good story.

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And that was it. I hope you enjoyed. Wednesday's exercise will be "Record five minutes of a talk radio show. Write down the dialog and add narrative descriptions of the speakers and actions as if you were writing a scene." That should be fun. Obviously, I will write it as a screenplay, since I am interested in writing screenplays.

National Novel Writing Month

Well, it's NaNoWrMo, and I don't have any time to participate. Usually I would decide to write a script this month, but I don't really have the time to plan out a whole story and write it, because of my thesis and looking for a job. However, while browsing the internet in one of my very frequent procrastination phases, I found a website that showed Fifteen Writing Exercises. 


So, for NaNoWrMo I will be participating by doing one exercise every other day. This way I have something to work on besides my thesis and job hunt and can somewhat participate in NaNoWrMo.

Also, since I am testing out Scrivener, I'll upload documents instead of just writing it in a blog post. But, I will post them to this blog.

I will be uploading the first one later this evening!

Wish me luck!

Discipline

Yesterday I watched The Last Samurai, one of my favourite films. I know many of the people who read this will disagree with me, but it really is a great film. I guess many people think it gives off a white supremacist meaning because a white man is "the last samurai." But I don't believe those people have watched the film, since it is very clear that "the last samurai" is plural and refers to the entire Katsumoto's clan not just Nathan Algren.

But I don't really want to talk about the film itself as much as I want to talk about what the film has changed in me now that I watched it again. 

I haven't been very productive lately. I've been wallowing in self pity for probably the last year and my productivity suffered equally. Now, I have to write a 14000 word thesis in two months and find a job at the same time. Yet, I have no intention to do either until it is far too late and I won't be able to make either of the deadlines. However, yesterday while watching the film and having Tom Cruise's character observe the japanese customs and daily lives I was inspired to work hard as well. A quote I like to remember from the film is; 

"From the moment they wake, they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue. I have never seen such discipline."

It doesn't matter how interesting the activity is, whether it is sword fighting or tea making, they strive for perfection. Something which I have had trouble with for a long time. 

I never believed that my film making was great, or my screenwriting could become anything, most of the time I believed that which I enjoyed to be frivolous.  But this film has inspired me to work hard and perfect that which I pursue, no matter what. Which means I will be working from the moment I wake on perfecting my writing, my thesis, getting a job and finally learning Japanese. 

Another subject of the film that really struck home was "honor." Since I was a little boy I always believed in honor. I don't know why – I wasn't a Japan fanboy back then or had any other connection to honor, but for some reason it has always been very important to me. Therefore, when I learned about Seppuku I found it understandable. Of course times have changed and I believe there are other ways to restore honor than killing yourself, but I respected the idea.

For those of you who haven't watched the film, it's about a civil war between the Japanese monarch and a rebel group lead by Katsumoto. Japan is in the middle of becoming more like the west and the rebel group believes they should stay traditional. The climax of the story is somewhat like the battle of thermopylae, where a few men stood up to an army of much greater numbers. Katsumoto and his clan defeated two waves of men before storming at the generals, finally being gunned down by the newly invented machine guns. Katsumoto, dishonored by defeat commits Seppuku with Algren helping him. 

And in what is my favourite scene in cinema, one of the captains goes over his generals head to stop the gunmen to allow Katsumoto to take his own life. Then, he takes off his hat, drops to his knees and bows in front of Katsumoto, with the entire army following his lead. I don't know what it is exactly, but I always get very emotional when watching this scene.

Discipline and honor. Two words, I find have been forgotten in this day and age. I like to believe I have always been very honorable of everyone I meet and now, thanks to The Last Samurai reminding me, I will work on my discipline. Yet, because I know myself, in a week or two I will have forgotten everything I have learned and will fall back into a depressed state and once again accomplish nothing. So I will be watching The Last Samurai every month from now on, so that maybe I can learn discipline and finally get my life on track.

I have become what I hate

Let me tell you a little about my day so far. It's been a very short day, seeing that it's only 9:35am. However more has happened to me in this time that in the past few days combined.

I know, right?

As some of you may know, I suffer from knee pain. I've been to many doctors, none of which were able to diagnose me properly. Last January, I went to a doctor in Munich who told me my feet were flat (apparently there is meant to be some sort of arc in the foot) and this pulled some muscles in my legs which then again pulled some muscles in my knee, which then caused the pain. I wanted to call "bullshit" but since this was the first diagnosis I've ever had, I gladly accepted it. With this, I was required to wear inlays and go to a massage therapist.

Yeah... I wish

Now, this leads us to a week ago. I was playing volleyball and as a pretty strong attacker, I was spiking a lot. Which requires jumping. Which requires knees. Healthy knees. Which I don't have. As you can probably guess, I was in pain again. I have, however grown quite accustomed to the pain in my knee after volleyball. It's been a very regular occurrence. After every game, every training I've had pain in my knee for about two days, at the most.

This time, however, we had a game. And the pain still hasn't gone away (a week later.) So last Thursday I went to volleyball, even though I had still a little pain in my knees. I did half an hour of a game again the girls team so they could get some practice, and I was in excruciating pain. I left after only half an hour and since all the Asperin was gone, I grabbed the next best pain killer – whiskey.

Fuckitall.

So where does that leave me now, and why have I become what I hate? Well let me tell you about today.

I went to the doctors bright and early and was seen before my appointment at 9 am. The doctor did an ultrasound of my knee and since he could find anything (surprise, surprise) he sent me off to get an x-ray. After I was shot three times, I went back to the doctor who said everything looks normal

So why am I in excruciating pain? Well, voice in my head, the doctor did have a theory. He said, since my kneecaps look find and my bone structure is impeccable the only problem could be the cartilage between the kneecap and the bone. Maybe some had broken off, or worn off or whatever. Either way, he said he wants me to get an MRI. That way he can say for sure if I need surgery (which is very unlikely) or some other treatment.

So. I now have an appointment for Monday to get an MRI.

Now, James, to answer your question of becoming what I hate. I was meant to meet with a friend at the airport, where I went to the doctors. When I called him after I had finished with my doctor, I woke him up. He had overslept and was meant to be at least ready to leave by the time I called. Oh well, now I am waiting for him and we'll probably go to Subway or something similar for lunch.

But now, while I am waiting, I am sitting in a Starbucks, sipping on an Earl Grey tee writing a blog on my Apple computer. I have become... that guy. I really want to start working on a story idea I am thinking of, but I think that will just solidify the stereotype if I open a wordprocessor or my screenwriting software. 

Website

Well, the website is online. It's actually been online for a couple of days now, but I've been correcting quite a lot of the bugs for the last couple of days. Everything should be working now.

www.christian-claus.com

I've had a very, very bad case of procrastination going on this past two weeks. In that time, I have only managed to make the website. Even though I have quite a lot of other stuff to do, including finalizing my job hunt, my thesis and a correction of a businessplan. I really shouldn't have time to hang around doing nothing, but I just can't get myself to do anything. I guess I really just need to buck up and get down to it. Maybe it's because I don't have a direct deadline for anything, but I just can't inspire myself to get anything done.

Other than that, what's really annoying me, is that I haven't written anything for a really long time. Since I wrote the script for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic I haven't written a single thing. This adds to the whole low self esteem I've been having for the last couple of weeks. Maybe I just need to start another television script. Maybe just write another My Little Pony script... Either way, I need something creative to do and soon.

Diamonds and Beer

Today was an interesting day. I followed my normal daily plans, getting ready, going swimming etc. However, my girlfriend has free lessons right when I finished swimming so we spent her frees together. By the time I had come home, I decided to go into town to buy her birthday present. Of course I'm not going to write what it is but the title kinda gives it away.

Eitherway, while I was there I met up with a friend of mine, Alessandro. It was meant to be just a quick meeting. Go for some coffee and then I'd make my way back home to continue working on my job applications. Things, however did not go by plan. After the coffee he wanted to go to the Finnish shop to get some great chocolate and wanted me to come along to translate. Before I could make my way to the train, he told me of a store where they sold knock-off Moleskins so I thought, "what the heck... can't take too long." But while we were at the store, he had this great idea about going to a local Irish pub for a round.

Me, being very light in cash after buying the very expensive present, rejected the offer. Then he said he'd pay.

It is now 9:20pm. Okay, my deadline isn't until Monday, so I have enough time. However, I like to keep to my schedule, so it'll be a very late night for me.


Some of you might not be too interested in my personal life, so here's some stuff that I'm currently up to.

I'm working on a website that will be up probably on Sunday. I'll make a post specifically for that then.

Also, while I was editing my reel, I watched my first student film and found that of all the films I've made since becoming a student this is my favourite... and probably my best. Which is kind of sad.

When I showed the film to the class they said the only major problem was the two main actors, which I can completely understand. They were just friends of mine and since it was "just" my first project I thought, what the hell? But now, I'm thinking maybe I should re-boot it, so to speak. Write a feature film based on the character of Lucio Germano and maybe even this murder. I'll keep you updated. If you want to watch it, here it is.

11pm

Let's get all of the backstory out of the way first. In my school we are required to do a project at the end of our bachelor year. After some discussion I was named director and writer, which I was very happy about. However I was unaware of the problems that would arrise. 

We were told to not do anyone else's job and to only focus on yourself, since this was to prepare us for when we work as part of a very large team. Therefore, one was not allowed to do any work for another person for the sole reason of getting it done. This meant a lot of waiting around for other people to get their work done.

After a very long pre-production period, we finally went into production that involved its own set of problems. For one, we were never completely prepared for the filming. We thought about filming at night, but when we were actually there it started raining and was far too dark to work efficiently – so we changed to filming during the day, meaning we had to use "day for night" which is its own problem. Basically, we weren't very happy with the current situation.

The film was finished a couple of months later and I received a film that I had agreed with. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough to present to the school. We got some feedback and decided to alter the film accordingly. I told the project leaders that I would like to come in and look at the changes before they are finalized, however I was never contacted.

A month ago, I was told casually that not only did the project leaders authorize many changes, they also did a complete re-shoot of the greenscreen scenes and the dog scene. This made my absolutely furious. I had no problem with the fact that they wanted the changes made. The problem was that they didn't tell me. Just a call saying "Hey, we want to re-shoot the greenscreen and the dog scene. But you don't have to come, we can take care of it" would have been fine. But that they went behind my back and made changes that I did not approve of is plain rude.

What makes the situation even worse, is that most of the changes aren't even good. For example, the greenscreen was never really good, but it was passable. You had to actually have a still shot and nitpick to find problems with the greenscreen. However, the new version has completely visible black dots where the greenscreen didn't work correctly. Let me give you some examples from the films.

Original

New Version

This is not a big change, but still something I believe shouldn't have been done. The intro was really, really interesting. A pan over an animated forest, leading through a graveyard, coming up to the moon with a zombie face inside it which fades to the two characters walking towards the screen, and the rest of the logo fading in. The new version is just boring.

Original

New Version

Now, if you look at the original you can see some problems with the greenscreen effect. However, in the new version there are actual black marks not only in the left part of the glasses but also in the beard an on the face. The color however does look better in the new version for this scene, but not in the rest.

Original

New Version

Okay, here the new version doesn't look too bad, but then again there wasn't much to change. I was told however that the flashlight was meant to get a light beam. I guess they decided it wasn't necessary, I don't know... I wasn't there.

Original

New Version

This annoyed me the most. The idea was that a dog runs in front of the car, to indicate that the sound they heard was just a dog. It was all one very long shot, ending with the dog running across the front of the car, cut to a reaction of the two friends and off they go. In the new version, not only were the colors completely off, but it just doesn't fit into the editing of it... It just looks way too forced.

Well, now it's your turn to watch it. Tell me what you think. Be as honest as possible, I don't want you to hold back. We already got an e-mail from one of the actors telling us not to add his name to any internet tags relating to this video because he thinks the effects ruin the complete experience of the film. 

Here's the script of the film in English if you want to understand what they're yelling about. Remember, some dialoge might have been cut during translation and production.

Popularity of Superhero Films [Article]

At the beginning of the Bachelors year we had to write three blog posts and an article. The three blog posts were of no significance and were very shot. Around 500 words. I believe one of them was a review of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and the others I can't remember. Probably something that I spewed out in the last minute.

Now we come to the article I had to write. I decided to write about Superhero films. Because... well... I'm a Superhero film nerd. Big nerd.

I don't remember exactly what grade I got on it, but it couldn't have been anything really good. Apparently they weren't happy with the layout, which I don't understand, because I love it. It looks very professional.

Well – here it is. Enjoy.

The History of Star Trek [Video]

Well, here it is. The History of Star Trek.

First, let me bore you with a story.

We had a week of classes in film history as part of my Bachelors program at my school that shall not be named. At the end of this week, we were supposed to be able to identify certain events in film history that are interesting and make our own "documentary" about something.

I first thought about making the documentary about my favourite style of film – Film Noir. However, I don't own anywhere close to enough DVDs to make a 15 minute documentary about it. In the end, I decided to do the original series of Star Trek. It had enough topics to be discussed. Off the top of my head was the first interracial kiss on television, the view of women and the internationality of the bridge.

Making the documentary wasn't easy. My school lies a good hour and a half away from where I live. If I wanted to use the professional sound recording facilities, I'd have to get an audio person to help and extra someone to read. Since I didn't think much about it, and didn't want to go through the extra stress of finding someone here who spoke English, I did it myself. At home. With my brothers microphone.

My brother has a pretty good microphone, since he is an amateur "recording artist" so the quality wasn't that bad.

I'm not too pleased with the result, but then again I hardly ever am. However, something must have been good since I got 99%. But that might say more about my school than about my documentary.

Well, here it is. Feel free to leave a comment. If you want.

Introduction

First, let me introduce myself.


I have tried three time already to write a blog and have failed three times. This is now my fourth try and hopefully I will continue longer than before.


My main problem with Blogger was that it didn't have an iPhone app. For example when I was filming 11pm, I wanted to do a day by day journal. However when I came home, I was so tired I went straight to bed and never had the chance to write a blog post. That, however is no longer the case! I found the app today, and immediately decided to start a new blog. So now with the iPhone app, I can post from where ever I am!


The other, smaller problem was that I had nothing to write about or to present. A friend of mine makes his blog a portfolio. But since making films is very slow and I wasn't really doing much anyway I felt I had nothing interesting to show.


Now, what will this site be for, you may be asking? Well, it's very simple, Jeffery. This blog will be for everything that I've done. All of my films, papers, scripts, whatever! I am hoping to be able to post something new every week. Also, because of this deadline, I might be more inclined to actually do some more work and get some feedback from people on the internet. It'll probably be a Friday update with actually some work, like a script, film, story or website. Then, of course there will be updates during the week if something interesting happened to me, or I finished something small that I'd like to show off (like a brainstorm or an idea.)


I have a couple of things I've already finished, that I'd like to show, but they will have their own posts. These include an article I wrote, my diplom paper, a Star Trek: Original Series documentary and 11pm. The first one will be out later tonight.


Oh, and if you're wondering about the name of the blog; it comes from one of my favourite directors, Aki Kaurismäki.

"Coffee? I don't want coffee. To talk about my lousy films I need more than coffee."

Well, let's see how this goes! I have high hopes.