La La Land - Movie Where The Camera Is One of the Actors

We're in LA and the reviews I scanned sounded like La La Land was worth seeing.

From the long opening long take* of people stuck in freeway traffic getting out of their vehicles to sing and dance with downtown in the background, to the very end, the camera (cinematographer Linus Sandgren) was a key player in the film.  Generally, the camera should do its magic without the viewer noticing it.  But in this case it becomes one of the dancers, so to speak, twisting between the cars, moving in and out, circling around.  And it participates vigorously throughout the movie.

This is a fun movie with lots to like.

Having grown up in LA, there are iconic locations - like the Griffith Park Observatory - which played a big role in my first 20 years.  And then there's the emphasis on jazz.

But I don't remember La La Land as name for LA as a kid, and it's not a name for LA I ever used.   I suspect it would only be used as the title of this movie by someone who moved to Los Angeles from elsewhere, which is the case of film maker Damien Chazelle.

And just to double check my memory I looked up the origins of the term.  It seems to have come into use after I left LA.

The Word Detective writes, in part,

“La-La Land,” by which is generally meant Los Angeles (although occasionally all of California), certainly has the ring of Royko, but it’s not one of his inventions.  The earliest appearance of the term (in reference to Los Angeles) so far found comes from 1979.  Interestingly, at about the same time, “la-la land” came into use as a slang phrase meaning “a state of dreamy disconnection from reality,” whether due to drunkenness or dementia.

The LA Times pondered the origins of La La Land in 1987, and decided it was probably the invention of a San Francisco snob.

*a  long take is when the camera rolls continuously through the scene.  There are no cuts from one shot to another.  IndieWire has a list (with videos) of a number of long shots from different movies.  But if this term is new for you, watch carefully.  Many, if not most, of the examples have some cuts at the beginning and the end.  In the long shot, the eye of the camera follows the action (or inaction) without a break.


Here's a little more than a trailer to whet your appetite.

Wind Replaces Rain And Digital Spot Curse

Thursday it rained.  Friday was sunny again, but windy.  My bike ride to the beach was upwind going and downwind coming home.

Venice Beach sand wind patterns.  If you look close, you'll notice a spot on my lens.  The curse of digital cameras.  I've been noticing it, but as long as I had dark images where the spot was, it didn't show.  But yesterday I lost to the camera bad.

There was a much shallower puddle under the Santa Monica pier, but when I got out on the north side of the pier I was faced with this new gull playground.  Luckily, it was easy to bypass by going through the parking lot, though it covered a section of the lot as well.


The bike path picture is the kind where the lens spot isn't obvious.  But in the video below it's glaring.
But this short movie gives a sense of the breeze.





Finally, on the way home, the almost setting sun lit up Rose Avenue as I made my way back.

Obama's Press Conference Message: E PLURIBUS UNUM

Listening to Obama now in his press conference, I think there is one message that he is trying to send:  E PLURIBUS UNUM.  "Out of Many One."

It underlies his answers - which are focused on American values, on things like smooth transition, on following procedures, on minimizing Trump's outrageousness.  "The president still is in transition mode.. . There's a whole different attitude and vibe when you're not in power as when you're in power. . . We have to wait and see how they operate when they are fully briefed on the issues, have their hands on the levers, and have to make decisions."

But lest people miss the message, just look at the camera view of the president at the conference.

Screenshot from White House feed of Obama press conference Dec 16, 2016

Look carefully at the lower right corner of the image.  It's the presidential flag.  E PLURIBUS UNUM fits neatly into the corner of the image.  There is no way that was an accident.  Look at the presidential flag and think about how it has to be folded so that E PLURIBUS UNUM folds so perfectly into the corner of the image.  You'll also notice that much more of the presidential flag is in the image than the American flag.

Image from flagandbanner

As an amateur photographer and blogger, I know that I don't capture that kind of image accidentally.

And if you listen to his comments, he tells us over and over again, in his words and in his tone, that we have to improve the public discourse, that we have to stand together as Americans or foreign nations will exploit our disarray.  We are the strongest nation and that we are the only enemy who can defeat us.


The subtext is the old Pogo message.

Image from here

Grey, Then Rainy LA Day

We got in last night.  Set off the alarm in my mom's house and it took us a while to figure out how to shut it off.  Slept in late.  The house and yard are looking better.  When I open drawers, many are completely empty.  Others have just a few things in them.  We've gotten most of the stuff into the garage.







There were heavy clouds all day and I finally got my body out the door to mail the bills and pick up a book at the bookstore, then circled back through Marina del Rey down to Venice Pier, then along the beach and back.

It wasn't raining when I started.  It was drizzling lightly when I left the book store, a little more on the way home.  And now the streets are wet.

The Alaska/Virgin Marriage Begins

Today is the official first day of the Alaska Airlines/Virgin merger. I know that because the flight attendants passed out free chocolates to all passengers on our flight.

 


They may be officially married, but it sounds like they're not going to move in together though.  The LA Times reports that the two airlines will continue to operate separately for the time being, but starting Monday people can buy Virgin tickets at the Alaska Airlines website.  It doesn't say whether you can buy Alaska tickets on the Virgin website.

It also says this makes Alaska/Virgin the fifth largest US airline, but it's still relatively small:

"Combined, Alaska and Virgin America control about 6% of the nation’s domestic flights. The country’s four bigger carriers — American, United, Delta and Southwest — control more than 80% of domestic flights."

As usual, the flight out of Anchorage offered amazing views. Here’s a view of the ice in the inlet as we took off about noon today.

it gets a little bigger and sharper if you click on it

I was sitting over the wing, so my camera view is a bit obstructed. Denali was hidden by the wing tip for a long time, and then finally came into view before we began flying over the Chugach.  It's about 265 miles by car from Anchorage to Denali National Park, but as the raven flies, it's more like 140.

It was snowing in Portland and the new plane had to be de-iced before we could leave.

The Moose And Me

Getting the house ready for our house sitter, I went out in the early morning dark to sweep the driveway.  I made it down and turned around to go back up the driveway and there were two moose casually munching the mountain ash right next to the driveway - less than ten feet away.  I didn't even see them until I was down at the bottom.  Obviously, they'd paid no attention to me as I'd swept the driveway, but now that I knew they were there I was less comfortable going back up the driveway.  I was just wearing a long sleeved t-shirt over a t-shirt.  No phone.  No camera.

My neighbor was starting his car across the street.  While I went over to see if I could get a ride up the driveway, a school bus, lights flashing, went by and the moose meandered off.

Here's a photoshop recreation of the scene.  Yeah Barbara, you could have done this much better.  But I'm trying to get this up before I have to board the plane.

Yes, they were really that close and were preoccupied with eating like I was preoccupied with a clean driveway.  (Just getting off the frost dust that had accumulated the last couple of days.)

Are You A Wikipedia Freeloader?

I got an email from Jimmy Wales today asking for a donation to Wikipedia.  My only problem with the email is that their choices of different donation levels didn't have an option "I already gave."

As a blogger, I use Wikipedia a lot.  Partly because it comes up near the top if not first in most searches.  Partly because it generally has the most balanced starting point for me on any topic.  

I posted about my check on Wikipedia's fund raising in 2011.  It seemed like a good idea.  Since then, a relative got a job with the Wikimedia Foundation, so I need to disclose that now.  Fortunately, I checked on Wikipedia long before I knew I'd have any connection to them.  

Below is the letter I got this year and I encourage you to help keep this organization publishing their information for the world to read.  Actually, their small staff doesn't and couldn't post all the information.  That's done by volunteers around the world and it's success and quality is a testament to people volunteering and doing what they believe in without having to be paid.   

I was at their headquarters this year and I can guarantee that this is not one of the luxurious hi-tech companies you read about.  This is a non-profit with funky furniture.  And the employees don't get paid incredible sums and there's no promise of shares in the company, because, well they're not a profit making company and there are no shares to be had.  

"When the clock strikes midnight, our email fundraiser will end — but we haven't yet hit our goal. I'm asking you, sincerely: please take one minute to renew your $25 donation to Wikipedia.
These images are vestiges of encyclopedic knowledge of the past, when scientific, factual information was expensive, hard to digest, and hard to come by. Even today, your name-brand, hard copy encyclopedia would cost nearly $1,400 and contain about 65,000 articles. You get Wikipedia's 40 million articles and 35 million images for free. We just ask that once a year you contribute a little bit -- whatever you can -- to keep this amazing resource available for everyone.
If everyone who used Wikipedia gave today, we wouldn't have to worry about fundraising for years to come.
We’re a nonprofit. We’re independent. We don’t run ads or sell services to our readers. Though our size requires us to maintain the server space and programming power of a top site, we are sustained by donors who give an average of about $15. This year, will you take one minute to keep our work going?"

"Films Worth Freezing For" Was True This Week

The Anchorage International Film Festival's motto is 'Films Worth Freezing For" and this week we had fresh snow and cold.

This thermometer is in Fahrenheit.  (-18˚C)

And yes, the films were worth going out into the cold to watch.

[Yes, I did play with the hoarfrost picture in Photoshop.]

AIFF2016: Film Festival Winners

[UPDATE Dec 11, 2016  10:45pm:  All the awards listed and related photos are up.]

This post was updated many times from when I put up the list of all the films in competition and as the winner were announced in each category, and as I put up pictures of winning film makers and some of the festival programmers.

Todd Salat  Aurora*

Jury Awards
Made in Alaska

Alaska's Mind-Blowing Aurora  Honorable Mention
Find Me
I am Yupik  Winner
Interior
Speaking from the HeART
Super Salmon  First Runner Up

Ryan Peterson - Super Salmon*

Really, I didn't know these two would win awards - I took these pictures less than ten minutes ago.
Ryan said his film would be available online next week.

Alex Myung Arrival**

Animation 
Murderous Tales (Czech Republic)                    
Green Light (South Korea)
A Space in Time (France) Honorable Mention
Adija (USA)
Alike (Spain) Winner
Arrival: A Short Film by Alex Myung (USA) First Runner Up
Hum (USA)
Just Like it Used to Be (USA)
My Life I Don't Want (Myanmar)
Pearl (United Kingdom, USA)
Red (Iran)
Under the Apple Tree (Netherlands)

[UPDATE:  I erroneously marked Adija as the winner - wishful thinking on my part.  I really liked Adija, the spray painting was magical.  But Alike was also good.  And they look almost the same.  Sorry to both film makers of both films if you saw this before the correction.]

Rich Curtner Shorts Programer center*

Super Shorts

How To Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps (USA)
Death$ in a $mall Town (USA)
20 Matches (USA)  Winner
A Reasonable Request (USA)
A Magician (UK) Honorable Mention
On Time (USA) First Runner Up

Programmer George Pollock (Shorts) Juror Kelly Walters (Features)*

Shorts
Il Campione (The Champion) (Italy)                      
Like a Butterfly (USA)  Honorable Mention
Thunder Road (USA)  Winner
My Mom and The Girl (USA)
Gorilla (USA)  First Runner Up
Curmudgeons (USA)









Documentary Short

I’ll Wait Here (Austria)
Pickle (USA) First Runner Up
Starring Austin Pendleton (USA) Winner
The BlindSide (India) Honorable Mention

Best and Most Beautiful director Zevgetis**  

Documentary Feature Length
Best and Most Beautiful Things (USA) Honorable Mention
Drokpa (China) First Runner Up

Kate Rigg Happy Lucky...*

Goodbye Darling, I’m Off to Fight (Italy)
SHU-DE! (USA)
Happy Lucky Golden Tofu Panda Dragon Good Time Fun Fun Show (USA) Honorable Mention
The Cinema Travellers (India) Winner
The Slippers (USA)

Attila Szász director Demimonde***

Feature

Putnam and Hunter Producers First Girl I Loved**

Demimonde (Hungary)  Winner   AK Small
Donald Cried (USA)
First Girl I Loved (USA)  First Runner Up            

Heredity (Columbia)
Planet Outtakring (Austria)
Youth in Oregon (USA)  Honorable Mention






Audience Choice

John Serpe - Producer The Happys**

Feature - The Happys

Documentary - Walk With Me

Jesse Nesser, Walk With Me, With his Oosik*

* photos taken at Awards Ceremony
**photos taken earlier during the Festival
***screenshot from 2014 Skype interview

AIFF2016: LA Movies

Saturday and Sunday are always full of films most of the day, and this year Friday started at noon as well.  Actually, it began at 10 with a film maker discussion.  So keeping up with blogging has been tricky, even with wifi in the venues.

Saturday I saw two good LA movies, among other things.

Here are John Serpe and Tom Gould of The Happys answering questions about their film after it showed Saturday.  Their movie was about a woman who moves to LA with her actor fiancee who turns out to be gay and how she finds her calling.  I'd call this film not so much a gay film as a food truck movie.








And Jennifer Lafleur talking about No Light and No Land Anywhere.  Lafleur played the role of Tanya in that film about a woman who flies from London to LA to find her long lost father.