El cumpleaños de "La Embarazada" lo mas bonita!

Here's a little photo of Megcita pregnant on her 32nd birthday... there have been a ton of requests, and I am sorry to say I have not been too good about taking photos! What can I say? It is a little hard when I have been in Los Angeles and she has been in Vancouver. I hope to make up for it in the near future... keep your eyes peeled!

Two Movies On Battle Of Iwo Jima

Yep. I am a Clint Eastwood fan... how can you not be? I love the fact that he has grown so much throughout his career and remained creatively vital for so long -- and much past many of his contemporaries. He is often under appreciated by many who have not seriously taken a look at his greater body of work. His better films, for example "A Perfect World" and "Unforgiven" from the early 1990's, always seem to tackle difficult characters and challenging tense situations. I can't help but think that his drive to present such a horrific subject as the battle fought on Iwo Jima "from both sides" is a not so subtle way of waking American people to what's happening elsewhere in the world due to their involvement. What's happening on the "other side" of the Iraqi situation?

‘You Just Have to Trust Your Gut,’ Eastwood tells TIME

New York – Next fall, Clint Eastwood will simultaneously release two movies telling the story of the battle of Iwo Jima – one will be from the American perspective, and the other told from the Japanese perspective, TIME’s Richard Schickel reports in TIME’s What’s Next special issue (on newsstands Monday, Oct. 17).

Beginning next February, Clint Eastwood will start shooting the companion movie to Flags of Our Fathers, tentatively called Lamps Before the Wind. Typically, Eastwood is not able to articulate fully his rationale for this ambitious enterprise: “I don’t know—sometimes you get a feeling about something. You have a premonition that you can get something decent out of it,” he says. “You just have to trust your gut.”

He asked Paul Haggis, who wrote Flags, if he would like to write the Japanese version as well. The writer of Million Dollar Baby and director of Crash, Haggis was overbooked but thought an aspiring young Japanese-American screenwriter, Iris Yamashita, who had helped him research Flags, might be able to do it. She met with Eastwood, and once again his gut spoke; he gave her the job and liked her first draft so much that he bought it. It was she who insisted on giving him a few rewrites she thought her script still needed, TIME reports.

Taken together, the two screenplays show that the battle of Iwo Jima—and by implication, the whole war in the Pacific—was not just a clash of arms but a clash of cultures. The Japanese officer class, imbued with the quasi-religious fervor of their Bushido code, believed that surrender was dishonor, that they were all obliged to die in defense of their small island. That, of course, was not true of the attacking Americans. As Eastwood puts it, “They knew they were going into harm’s way, but you can’t tell an American he’s absolutely fated to die. He will work hard to get the job done, but he’ll also work hard to stay alive.” And to protect his comrades-in-arms. As Haggis’ script puts it, the Americans “may have fought for their country, but they died for their friends, for the man in front, for the man beside ’em.”

Type and the truth will be told...

Click here. You know you want to...

Back On the 24/7

Well, work at Rhythm and Hues Studios over the past few weeks has finally felt like all my other computer graphics jobs. That is, I have been shackled to my desk for hours on end. It seems to have been a long time coming. We are on "work as much as humanly possible" mode at the moment trying to finish all our work for "The Chronicles of Narnia" to the highest standard possible before our looming deadline arrives towards the end of the month. I have been here since mid-march and it is a testiment to the relative sanity of this studio, and the fine folks running it, that only now am I posting this comment. This gig at R&H has been the closest thing to a 9 to 5 job I have ever had in computer graphics. I have to admit to feeling quite conflicted about it. While Meg was here it was certainly nice to be able to guarrantee her I'd be home at a certain time. That hasn't happened a lot in my career. But, as it turns out I took a big cut in pay due to the relative lack of over time hours here. It made Los Angeles seem a lot more expensive to me as a result I guess. I am not at all apprehensive about leaving R&H because I know that there are great challenges waiting ahead. But, I will "miss it." It has a tremendous "studio vibe and culture" and a relative lack of egotistical behaviour that has been great. Like an oasis in an otherwise not very admirable city. Easy to leave Los Angeles, not so easy o leave Rhythm and Hues!

Vangroovey Tops The List

Click here to read an article about a survey conducted by The Economist Group that proclaims that of the 127 major cities in the survey Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is the most "desirable place to live" in the whole world. It is always a bit odd to read something like this when you are from the place they are talking about. But, I have to admit to being a total "homer." I believe most of my friends would attest to hearing me rave once or twice about the place (and I trust will permit me yet one more rant). But I also recognize that in this respect I won the lottery. How did I end up a Vancouverite? My father grew up in New Westminster and having spent a decade in the east at graduate school and beginning his career throughout his late 20s and early 30s he elected lifestyle over careerism and chose to move to the much sleepier climate and take advantage of the family proximity of Victoria. His forethought, my lottery. I grew up in Victoria and only became a "Vancouverite" in earnest when I went to The University of British Columbia in 1990. Being a formative time in my life, I fell in love with the place and I haven't ever really lost the passion for it. It is my place and I am very comfortable about that.

I think the thing that strikes me most about Vancouver these days is that I realise now more than ever that it has yet to fully define itself. Its character is in flux. And while you live there you are a part of defining that character by what you do and your values and the choices you make in your life. Having lived in places like London and Madrid recently, I recognize that Vancouver "is not" but "will be" what it is... The vast majority of the character of the place has yet to be etched in stone. There just hasn't been enough time yet. It is cool to be part of that defining process rather than inheriting it. Of course, much will be derived from the local surroundings. The presence of the ocean and the mountains and the trees is a constant reminder that the place was built on the backs of "pioneers" from elsewhere in the western developed world who gave little attention to the local colour at the time of their arrival. Nonetheless, I think that this sense of pioneerism is still very much a part of the culture there. New things do well in Vancouver. There is a spirit of openness and honest opportunity that is greater than elsewhere I think!

For me, Vancouver also personifies the movement towards a kind of cultural fusion. As such it is a city of people who are best when embracing the best of multitudes of cultures and trying something new. That's why there is such a diverse range of people and their food, there is comparatively broad opportunities and a lack of discrimination, and a sense of a growing vibrant place. This vibrancy is one of the things I really noticed having been away for a few years. Something that you don't necessarily catch while you're living there day to day. By way of comparison Spain is incredibly rich culturally, but you don't get the sense that much is evolving. Spaniards are pretty happy with the status quo. London is also a very engraciating culturally mixed place, but it gives you the impression of a place that the cultural mix is being "enforced" in a way. The fall out of a empire that once reached around the globe. In Vancouver, fusion is the only way there has ever been.

Anyway, a feather in the cap. Here's hoping that the rain keeps all the baddies away!

Behind The Scenes Hoop-lah!

Click here (warning: film look spoilers!) to see a featurette about the visual effects post production work ongoing on "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." I believe this is one of the behind the scenes documentary style movies that are all the rage these days (used as a compliment to the DVD package). There are a few of my shots in the mix. They are the ones that feature the "flying hawks and gryphons" during the battle sequence. What you see there is definitely "work in progress" and I was surprised to actually see them in there! Because they are missing all sorts of elements and so forth... C'est La Vie! There has been a lot of press buzz being generated out of Sony Imageworks especially, and WETA Workshop, about the work and it has been a bit of a thorn in the side of the companies who do not have the same level of PR resources: Rhythm and Hues Studios in particular. It is very difficult for a truly independent studio like Rhythm and Hues to go head to head with Sony when it comes to "exposure." Little do people know that Rhythm and Hues Studios is officially the Lead Visual Effects Facility, entirely responsible for the digital Aslan character, the Centaurs, all the Massive work in the film, and for that matter the vast majority of the key battle sequence towards the climax of the film. In the long run, when the credits roll I think that the perception of Rhythm and Hues Studios will stack up really well. The shot that I feel is really exemplary of the full range and level of the work is featured very briefly as a split screen of a centaur walking. Totally convincing. And I might add that the background roto/prep work is astounding on its own. Lookin' good people!

American Automotive Industry Stupidity!

Check out this shining example of American automotive industry stupidity! If there is one thing holding Southern Californians image of rampant stupidity and ignorance hostage, it is the Sport Utility Vehicle/Pick Up Truck. When! I ask you are these moronic gearheads going to be shaken from their intellectual slumber? 13 Miles per gallon? What the hell!? Most of these vehicles never see anything rough in terms of terrain than the parking lot medians they regularly drive over as their helmsmen strain to make out anything outside the cab. Pure gluttony in a time of mounting global concern over fossil fuel usage. Meanwhile, companies like Toyota seek alternatives (they are offering more hybrid engines than any other manufacturer) which while still using gas are at least a step in the right direction... Thank you for not even trying America! Trying to find a reason the U.S. invaded Iraq? Or why 2000 Americans have lost their lives? How about "the two-wheel-drive Ram Mega Cab takes a 47-foot-wide road to turn around. "