Former Vice President Al Gore's Wicked Speech!

Click here for clips of Al Gore's impassioned speech from yesterday where he slams the Bush Administration's incompetence in "making the world a far more dangerous place." He says the Bush Administration "has dramatically increased the threat of terrorism against the United States" and it is fantastic to see him rail against the Bush Administration for subjecting the American people to the disgrace of the war in Iraq. You go Gore!!!

London Calling: Mega-VFX, Financing and Cultural Fusion

Here's an interesting article from VFX World on the current state and success of the UK film and broadcast visual effects business. Quite a lot of jazz about the place where I work at the moment: The Moving Picture Company.


London Calling: Mega-VFX, Financing and Cultural Fusion

I have to admit that when I first arrived in Soho, it was a rush. So many studios (and good ones!) located in such close proximity to each other. You can literally walk from The Mill to Framestore/CFC, to Cinesite, to The Moving Picture Company, to Double Negative, to The Peerless Camera Company in about 15 minutes. It is quite a healthy situation for both employees and the companies. Rarely are good people out of work, and "fair market value" is very easily attained. Dominance of one studio over the others is rare, and there is less evidence of under cutting for contracts. Why under cut the dudes on the nexy block when they might be your staff in a few months?

Some of the shots I worked on for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were examples of the studios "sharing" the work. I was the Lighting Technical Director on a shot that later included a digital flock of bats produced by Framestore/CFC. We passed off a digital final to them, and they just sat their bats into our grade. The result was really pretty and remarkably easy to do! Many of the shots involving the "interaction" of the Hippogriff and the Werewolf in the film were shared as well between MPC and Framestore/CFC.

Also, it is really true about the "Pub Based Learning" comment. I can't count on fingers and toes how many times I have been introduced to someone from another studio at the pub. Each studio has its own favorite haunt. MPC at The Ship on Wardour, Framestore/CFC at the Coach and Horses on Great Malborough Way, The Mill at The White Horse near Carnaby Street. It seems totally silly, but it's true. The closest pub out the door, that's the crew pub! There really is no comparison to the "social aspect" to the studios here, and in Vancouver. Although, I hope that with the growing East Vancouver scene things will move in the Soho direction!

Why you should never put your picture on the internet!

Unless you are bound and determined to begin a cult following like this: click here

My second film screen credit

I am happy to announce my second feature film credit:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Screen Credits

If you scroll down, way down, to find the visual effects section, and then find The Moving Picture Company, you'll see me under "Lighting Artists." At times like these I remember when I was in my early teens and going to "hockey school" at the University of British Columbia in the summer. The coaches gave out bananas as awards. Why? Well, pretty simple. They taste best when enjoyed for the moment (the longer you relish them, the worse they taste), and if you get to many of them, you get the farts!

Congrats to everyone who toiled to make Alfonzo Cuaron's "whacked-out lunatic Mexicano" vision of J.K. Rowling's world come to life on the silver screen! It was a really fun ride for me, I felt a great sense of accomplishment with some of my work, and I met some great people. Now, about that willow tree... perhaps I should visit the Scottish Highlands for real!!!

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11

Here's a link to a Guardian UK article on the possible political effects Michael Moore's new film, Fahrenheit 9/11, could have on the coming November Presidential election in the United States.

click here

I am in agreement with the reviewer's assertion that under normal circumstances this bold, opinionated film, could be simply seen as preaching to the converted. But, with the added media attention that comes directly from Disney being determined to ban the film, despite subsidiary Miramax's objections, I think it could reach out and touch a lot of Americans who don't consider "Dubyah" to be "all that bad." Bad, he most definately is... support this film!

The Rain in Spain... AGAIN!

Meg is calling it "la maldición de las Canadienses." Every time someone from Canada visits Madrid lately, it rains. It started with me about a month ago when a bike ride in some inclement spring weather yielded a total bastard of a cold (my fault, I know!). Then, Lucy and Paul arrived to experience spring in Madrid in all its glory, only to find themselves battling some serious chilly rain fall during their stay! The weather turned beautiful, of course, after they left and right up until the day that Andrea and I arrived to visit with Meg. Once again, the forecast was for rain and it did not fail to deliver! We managed to have a lovely time with Megcita, even though it rained pretty much the whole time. There were brilliant breaks of sun, which we took full advantage of, but really it was a huge summer storm rolling through that was unavoidable! At times the sky was turned "ocean blue" by huge low hanging clouds. The metro was even closed at times due to flooding! I think I have seen more rain in the past two trips to Madrid than I did the whole damned winter!

Friday, we just bummed around in central Madrid. Andrea and I were both really tired from the work week and early flight to Madrid, so we took the time to sit and eat at Vinoteca for lunch and Lateral for dinner. We even made time for a nap! The only real highlights of the day were me dumping someone's beer in their lap by accident at Vinoteca, and Andrea getting a rude introduction to "las fumadores de Madrid!" at Lateral. We left when she started to look a little green.

Saturday, Meg went to the trouble of organizing a little day trip to Segovia and the neighbouring town of La Granja. In La Granja we visited the Palacio Real and the associated gardens. It was really beautiful and gave you a great insight into the "life of the royalty" in Baroque times. But, as beautiful as it was to waltz around in the former home of the King of Spain, it pailed in comparison to the lunch we had at a little restaurant called "La Zaca." This is a very popular little place for which Meg had to make a reservation one week in advance! We delighted in their specialty called a "favada." It is like a stew with "fava" beans, potato and chorizo sausage in a rich broth and is very typical of the Castilla y Leon area. I also had some fantastic "chuletas de cerdo."

Sunday, we went to the Prado in the morning as it is free all day. For the first time I had a real opportunity to look long and hard at "las pienturas negras." Goya's Black Paintings. Painted towards the end of his life, having severed ties from the court and secluded himself in his country home, they are his most intense and masterful rumination on the disaster of war and the summering of human kind at the hands of evil. They are timeless in their severity, and disturbingly beautiful. We had hoped to see some of his famous drawings and etchings, but none were on display. We then took in a bit of the Retiro, and met Meg's friend Elen at a cafe for our afternoon "charla." Dinner was at the excellent "La Vaca Veronica" and I couldn't resist ordering in the "filete" which is always so good. The restaurant is a great little spot located on "la calle Moratin" near Plaza Santa Anna, conveniently right around the corner from Andrea's Hostal!

Monday was spent doing a little shopping and more looking around in central Madrid. This time we managed to see the majority of Chueca, some of Malasana, the Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, etc. I managed to find some new sandals for the summer weather! made by the Spanish company Camper. Also, a few bottles of wine to tide me over until the next time I am in Madrid (not to mention some excellent queso manchego and chorizo, porque no!?). We managed to arrange to see Pedro for a couple of drinks and some tapas prior to dashing off to cash the plane.

All in all a very enjoyable, if packed, trip to see my Megcita who I miss more and more and more... nobody ever said separation like this would be easy, and I am seeing there is plenty of reason for that. Enough said.

A little bit "Withnail-esque"

Well, I had my first full day off in a couple of weeks yesterday. It was a great day with the weather turning so nice and Andrea (and her research assistant Abby!) in London.

We managed to arrange a visit with Brad and Alison and their two young boys Turner and Gibson. Turner is coming three and Gibson is just three months old. They are a barrel of laughs. Turner's favourite word these days is "no." Turner, would you like some juice? No. See Turner drinking happily. Turner would you like to see the ducks? No. See Turner chasing ducks. Turner, are you a good boy? No! See Turner behaving quite well all things considered. Brad and Alison have a lovely flat that has a view of the park, and is right next to the community swimming pool. Brad made the great suggestion that we "walk the Heath" and so we headed into Hamstead Heath to check out an outdoor cafe that serves a wicked English breakfast. What a great idea!!! It was like breakfast in the garden. It felt a little like home for me because of all the green I have been missing lately! Anyway, after that fine feast we fiddled around in the park with the kids until Brad's sister Martha had to head for the airport.

On the way back Turner decided to test his "separation threshold." He wandered off the path into an open field while his dad gently called "Turner, don't go too far." He was pretty proud of himself striding out alone into a brave new world and stood smiling smuggly as his dad edged further and further down the path. "Turner, we're leaving, come on now." He just chuckled and said "No!" And then, as fate would have it, the separation barrier was crushed in a heartbeat, and his whole little adventure came crashing down around him. A little Jack Russel came up, gave him a sniff, and went "BARK!" Little Turner did the international "this has all gone horribly wrong!" child sign language flop and plopped down wailing at high volume. I am sure he thought he was going to be ravaged by wild dogs!!! His dad marched back up the hill as the little Jack Russel ran circles around the strange little man making an aweful noise. Oh, well, as with all these little lessons, Turner recovered quickly and before we knew it he was back to reciting his favourite word: No! Albiet from the safe confines of his pram.

Having had a bit of an overdose of "family time" (compared to what we are used to at any rate) we headed back to the "other London" for a cafe in Soho. It was great to just sit and read the damned paper for once! Following our "gay cafe," we headed to The Blakemore Hotel where Andrea and Abby are staying in order to be "collected" by Andrea's acquaintance Roman, who is in turn a friend of her friend, Rupert Belfridge. Rupert is a fellow who Andrea met in a pub while in Lancaster researching some time ago. I think Marisha was in on the "meeting Rupert experience." I think it had something to do with Rupert babbling on about avant guard pottery and disco dancing while the girls smiled and nodded. Anyway, we were invited to have a barbeque dinner in Chelsea, at Rupert's mother's place, and we jumped at the chance to sit in a quaint English garden and eat. Hilarity ensued as Rupert arrived fashionably late (to his own engagement) and introduced his own hand made crab cakes as the "finest known to humanity." Some good chatter lead to a fine meal (con langostinas a la plancha tambien!!!) and the suggestion that "we retire to the club." Meaning The Chelsea Arts Club for a game of snooker and glass of port. I made quite the travesty of the snooker, but was very "at home" with my glass of port! Roman demolished me, and then Rupert demolished Roman, reasserting is sharpish abilities with the cue! I did my best to provide top notch play by play commentary. Suffice to say that Rupert's slightly off kilter gait, and rustled appearance, along with obvious upper class upbringing and eccentricity give him "a bit of the Withnail."

"Le Blagueur" is back!

I am happy to report that Andre "El Latino Desastro" Brizard has returned safe and sound from his holidays in France. Welcome back DD! More importantly for me, he has brought with him a fine selection of wines and some olive tapanade made by his mother in Arles!!! Joder macho hombre que bien!!!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I saw Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Claus last Firday night. I enjoyed it, though I have to admit a bit of "preaching to the converted" syndrome on this review. I am a bit of a Charlie Kaufman fan. The film revolves around the idea that a technical process can effectively remove painful memories and enable clients to live happier lives. Patients requesting the procedure experience no more brain damage than "what amounts from a hard night of drinking" and the service is performed by skilled technicians whilst they sleep. Or so they are told, and inevitably, complications ensue. The questions raised by the premise are obvious, but principly it is what is the nature of memory and how does it determine our character. If you erase a memory, are you a different person?

Like all of the filmic offspring of Kaufman's screen plays, however, the film seems to be "all in the idea" and the actual manufacture of the film is a mere rumination on that idea which is perhaps better expressed as a thesis in written form. At times like this, I am reminded of Alfred Hitchcock's comment that the film is "all in the script." Meaning that the actual creation of the shots in the film is merely a mundane technical exercise at best, performed to exacting standards by specifically trained individuals. However, where a film like Adaptation perhaps laboured under its own weight of circuitous plot high jinks (and obvious "how can this possibly end" questions) before the virtual certainty of its final swerve into Hollywood-ism as its only possible outcome, Eternal Sunshine has some gloriously chaotic and touchingly sentimental moments that tend to keep its pace and timing alive and somehow more true to the original idea. It is a love story after all. Thus, the race to the "anti-conclusion" that we all know is inevitable, is actually quite enjoyable. There are some really wonderful moments along the way, often aided by some of the best "invisable effect," visual effect shots in recent memory. One in particular that defies proper description here has Carrey exiting a bookstore (the sight of a recent tramatic memory) only to walk seemlessly into a friend's living room whilst the bookstore flickers in and out of existence - seen only by the audience. Does he know he has just lost a memory?

The ride through Joel's (Jim Carrey) rapidly deteriorating memories of his relationship with his recent girlfriend Clementine (played by Kate Winslet) as they are systematically and surrealistically erased is of course helped along by some exceptional performances by a sharp cast. Winslet is forgiven for Titanic now in my books (hardly her fault I admit, but I lay the blame nonetheless) based on this one wonderfully whacked out performance. Her version of "high maintenance" is I absolutely believeable and endearing. I loved Mark Ruffalo's stoner technician, with the most outlandish "bed head" known to man. Not the sort of performance to build a career around, but he was amazing nonetheless. Tom Wilkinson and Kirsten Dunst both turn in measured and exemplary performances that play off their established screen personas. Carrey is totally watchable and quite engrosing as the sometimes funny, mostly sad Joel. In hindsight, it is Carrey's proper break out from straight up comedy into the seldom inherited territory of "comedian and dramatic actor" a la Robin Williams. He has really stretched out in this film and I hope it is the sign of amazing things to come.

Those expecting a truly "indie" weird out experience will be disappointed, as the guts of the story just don't support that kind of experimentation, and Michel Gondry's direction is just too damned stylish! What I can't stand is all the complaints from reviewers about requiring "immense patience" with the story due to its jigsaw puzzle structure. These are the same reviewers who complain that a film like Van Helsing is nothing but pulpy bubble gum and squeal for more. Yet, when they have to work a bit, they get tired and complain of "hard going." I say "pipe it, you!" Those looking for a lovely bit of offbeat love story, you have found it in this film.

Mi hermana esta aqui en Londres!

My sister is here in London! She arrived safely this morning with her research assistant Abby and seems to be none the worse for wear after the flight! We will meet up later today for a pint of the nectar and then some food at one of Soho's grottiest of grotty bistros. Ha! Andrea is here to do some research for the next few weeks at the Victoria and Albert Museum, during which time we will go to Madrid together for four days to see Meg. By month's end, she'll be off home I and I will be busy moving to my new flat! It should be a lot of fun and I hope we have plenty of time to see each other even though we will both be really busy. AT the very least, we'll have a blast in Madrid!

Happy Mother's Day!

Well, a big happy Mother's day to all the mother's out there and a special one for Mom, Jenny and the most impressive Mrs. M.J. "Grannie" Blakely!!! We miss you all more than ever this year with the increased distance between us, and hope to see you all this summer to celebrate properly. Here's hats off to the matriarchal leadership that guides this family!

p.s. and a special "shout out" to the expectant Miss G who we are all sure will be the next in a long list of fabulous new mothers in our midst!

Going To Madrid Tomorrow

Just a short note to say that I am spending Saturday to Tuesday in Madrid. The building that houses The Moving Picture Company is an old, yet refurbished, Soho classic and I think the rapid expansion of the company in recent months has burst the seems! Lucky for me they have to shut the whole thing down and figure out the power situation. So, I am off to enjoy a bit more of the Spanish spring time while I can and I will be back to work on wednesday.

New Address in London (I am moving soon!)

As of the first of June I will be living here:

Flat #2 - 33 Museum Street
London, United Kingdom, WC1A 1LH

My new room mates are Jean-Paul Rovela a.k.a. "The Black Pepper" and Andre "DD" Brizzard. A couple of crazy Frenchmen (J-P from Paris, and DD from Arles) whom I have gotten to know well while working at The Moving Picture Company. A room became available in their flat, which is quite nice, and I jumped at the opportunity. There are three floors, a nice living room and a roof terrace that overlooks the courtyard entrance to the British Museum. The location is great because it is still quite close to the studio, being about a 10-15 minute walk, but it is a might quieter than my current location and nicely removed from "the walking wounded" in the center of Soho! It is a good combination of economy and living I think, as well as having the added social advantage of being a spectator to the goings on of the crazy Frenchies! I look forward to the good times! Bon chance, mes amis, Le Canadien vient bientôt!

The Thin Man (a review of Kill Bill Vol.1 & 2)

I saw the second and final installment of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill last night. Although I enjoyed it, possibly more so than Volume One, I couldn't help but come away from the movie feeling there was something missing. It felt thin. But, perhaps I was partly guilty for having higher expectations than were appropriate. That mystical feeling so frequently delivered by the man born to take lurid, pulp films into the lime light was somehow absent. I missed the "intrusion of the bizarre" propelling the story and the connections made to characters through their dialogue. In place of these things was a world of filmic conventions (albeit ones not familiar to a westernized audience perhaps) layer upon layer where as Peter Bradshaw aptly put it: "everything happens in a weightless comic-book universe where the normal rules of physical existence have been abolished, or at any rate extensively modified. It's a world in which international travel and the purchase of new cars may be achieved without money, a world where people can ascend six feet unaided through an earth pit, where they can fire guns indoors without disturbing a sleeping child in the next room."

To be sure, the films are a visual feast. They are as inventive as they are referential. Enigmatic as they are concrete. For example, I love the in your face odes to Sergio Leone in Volume Two, and the "look at how much further animation can take the audience" prompted by Volume One's use of animation "to show something that could not otherwise be shown." As well as the feeling of utter dumbfounded shock as Tarantino holds you in darkness while the heroine's coffin is lowered into its deep grave having nothing but the horrid sound track to guide you. Lurid, for certain, but so stylised it si absurd. This is when Tarantino is at his best. Taking something to the absurd, yet in some extraordinary way, retaining believeability. The cinematography can hardly be faulted. It is as rich in detail and nuance as it is commanding of the simple and straight forward. And that is also true of nearly every other technical and artistic aspect. Indeed, some images are nothing short of arresting.

Volume 2 definitely benefits from an emphasis on drama and character development, thus resulting in a reduction in the violent escapades that featured so strongly in Volume One (mind you the removing of Elle's (Daryl Hannah) second eyeball is a grotesque flourish in the extreme). But, in so doing Volume Two merely exposed that there was really very little there dramatically, and the film lost momentum and purpose as a result. A fate not suffered by the first film in that there was so much happening by way of choreography that it created a true imersive environment that did not allow you to ponder motives. Good thing as the only motives present are revenge and insanity - thus the flatness and brevity of the ending in Volume Two.

What I can't help feeling is that Tarantino's is using this overtly visual format to express a flourishing interest in montage. Montage not only in a dramatic visual sense, but also in how one may tell a story. Quickly jumping back and forth across cuts as he does from comedic to horrific to dramatic modes of conveying the story. This above all was the highlight for me from Kill Bill as a whole, even though it threatened to bring down the house around him at every change of scene. Sometimes this alone was thrilling. A master work, no, but certain to be influential in western film making. At best, I think it may become one of those films I return to frequently precisely because it is troubling and intriguing cinema.

The Man From Amsterdam

Well, not exactly. More like Barcelona, although he is arriving from Amsterdam! Jordi Legarre arrives this evening for a visit to London. He is a friend of ours from Madrid who we met through Marie-Laure Nguyen while I was at ESC Entertainment working on Matrix: Revolutions. He is an animator at a little visual effects shop in Madrid called Miopia. When I arrived in Madrid, Marie-Laure thought it would be a good idea for me to know someone there, and so she introduced us via email. Jordi has been taking English classes from Meg as well. He'll get lots of practice this week! Though, I have to say that you could have sworn that I was in Madrid from the amount of Spanish I heard in the street yesterday. I guess for years and years, there have been a ton of Brits heading to Spain (apparently more per year than any other EU nation including Germany) and now there are more and more Spaniards venturing to London for work and what not as their exposure to English keeps increasing. Well, I hope Jordi has a good time, and especially so if the weather holds up! Perhaps it will be a chance to see something myself as well!

In Green Sort of Mood

I suppose that the title implies I am jealous about something, but in fact, it is all about my new colour scheme! I painstakingly edited the html template for my blog (ugh...) so let me know what you think! I hope it is a little more subdued, yet still readable.

Back at The Moving Picture Company

I have arrived back in London to begin work on Alien Versus Predator. Sure to be well... ahem... a towering example of modern cinema. But I digress. Looks like it is going to be a fun show to work on: lots of mayhem and a pretty short time line, but the client seems eager to get it done simply and ALIENS ARE ALWAYS COOL MAN!

I had a pretty nice time off in Madrid. Meg had moved us to our new pad sharing with a friend of hers named Maria, so it was good to get settled and a little more used to the neighborhood (north in the north of Madrid on the edge of Chamberi). It was good to get to know Maria a bit as well. She is pursuing a career as a journalist. Meg was quite busy with school and work, so we mostly saw each other in the evenings and for lunch occasionally. This gave me ample chance to get out on the bike which was great as you can tell from the last few posts. I feel a little fitter and healthier now, so I hope I can continue that trend into the summer rowing season here and participate in some events!

Mystic River

Whow. What a great film. Clint Eastwood is truly a master film maker now. I had read quite a lot about it, but for some reason, it has taken this long to get an opportunity to see it! With such a strong cast, I was amazed by how subtle, and believeable the performances were. Especially considering such melodramatic subject matter. The subject of the film -- a grizzly murder of a 19 year old daughter in a neighbourhood where she has lived all her life, is never simplified and is always left raw, and treated with such respect and solemnity that you could swear these were real events, not a facsimile. Eastwood's direction shows a thought process and attentiveness not seen from him since Unforgiven. He doesn't so much direct with a heavy handed style as merely try to represent the perspectives of the characters as mulitple, complex, changing and ultimately strong and fragile in the same moment. Highly recommended.

La Vuelta del Norte (con Patricio)

Yesterday, after some tastey breakfast treats and coffee, Patrick and I headed out on the bikes north of Madrid for what turned out to be a brilliant, though challenging (for me) ride. 102kms round trip and with a considerable amount of time spent climbing up to the town of Hoyo de Manzanares, near El Escorial, in the foothills of the Sierras. It is amazing how the mountains can affect the climate. In the city, it was a fairly warm morning, with a bit of cloud cover helping to keep in the heat. As we headed out, I kept my shell jacket on to warm myself up, and by the time we reached 25kms away from the city I was sure glad I had brought it with me as there was a brisk cool wind blowing down off the Sierras. I kept it on for the remainder of the ride! So much for blistering spring temperatures in Madrid! The latter half of the ride was a bit of a inter-urban struggle back through the subdivisions and developments north of the city, so I won't say much about that. However, the first half of the ride was brilliant. It took a mere 15 minutes or so to hit a "calletera" similar to that of the one I usually ride south to San Martin de la Vega and we road that north for 25kms or so stretching out to a good rhythm (though passed by several groups of riders, ha!) and before we knew it we were passing through Colmenar Viejo. We then took a little rural road through Parque de las Colinas that featured a serpentine descent and ascent of a little river gourge that was truly a glimpse of a perfect Castillian landscape amidst the foothills of the Sierras. Preciosa! I just had to stop to take a photo or two - much to Patrick's amusement! It was great to get a little elevation and look back on the city from afar. Little rock walls, sheep herding, and that ever present Castillian rocky scrub pine forest surrounded us for much of the first 2 and a half hours. 60kms had passed before we had even thought of a break! I returned home quite exhausted to find Meg and Maria just about ready for lunch - que suerte! So we had a chance to chat and eat together before we all collapsed into one form of siesta ot other. Me from my ride, Meg from her trip to the gym, and Maria from "burning the night down!" as the Madrileños make a habit of on a friday night!

Mi Cumpleaños!

Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes yesterday! Old Man Walsh got a little older - though I might try to deny it, the past few days of riding have given me a fairly hefty reality check! Where did all the power go!? I wonder, did I leave it under my desk in London???

I started "my day" with a good long sleep in, and then walked into town to meet Megcita for lunch at Plaza Olavide (which incidentally is my favourite haunt in Madrid of late). We had a nice long lunch in a very sunny spot, with good food, and of course "una caña de cerveca." Meg studied her Spanish homework and did some class preparation and I studied a little Spanish before returning to the book I am reading. Meg went into work for a bit and I lounged about before we walked home together in the gorgeous late afternoon sun. We met up with Maria (our roomate) who had just returned from her Semana Santa holidays in Puerto de Santa Maria (near Cadiz) and headed out to a tapas bar in the O'Donnel area recommended by Bart Boere. Great tapas, a liberal smapling of "vino tinto" and of course great conversation was had by all. It is truly the one great thing about Madrid. How the tapas bars are so lively and casual, with a good crowd, and inclusive to anyone walking in off the street. Everytime, without fail when the door opened and a new face appeared the bar keeps called out "¡Hola! Buenos noches!" All in all, a really fun and relaxing day! Don't I wish every day was like this one!!! Meggi has promised me dinner and a movie for tomorrow night so the celebrations still carry on!