In keeping with the vision I have for this blog, I've decided to write an entry focusing on an up-and-coming filmmaker whose creativity and do-it-yourself story inspires me.
David F. Sandberg is a Swedish director who, with his actress wife Lotta Losten, has made a series of short yet effective horror films. They can be found on his YouTube Channel under the moniker "Ponysmasher." One of these short films, "Lights Out," is the focus of this entry.
I discovered "Lights Out" a couple years back while I was aimlessly browsing YouTube for horror shorts. While not a horror fanatic I do enjoy a well-made horror movie, particularly if it is effectively scary. There is something that fascinates me about a truly creepy horror movie, especially one that manages it on a small budget. The first "Paranormal Activity" hit that chord with me, as does "Lights Out."
Plenty of horror films with big budgets fail to capture that genuine creepy atmosphere that this short nails so well. The short plays off fundamental fears, and I feel that the best horror movies often do the same.
I'm not the only one impressed by this short film. In fact, it went viral and has led to Sandberg being offered the chance to turn his film into a full length feature, produced by Hollywood director James Wan. The movie comes out next month. Now, based on the trailer it does seem a bit "Hollywoodized." In fact, I would be surprised if the movie is as creepy as the short film is. From what I can gather in the trailer, the movie gives the monster a back story. In my experience, the more I know about a monster the less scary it is. What makes the short version of "Lights Out" so terrifying is that we know nothing about the monster. We don't know its origin, its motivation, or what it does to its victims. Now, we also know nothing about the protagonist. But essentially the protagonist is a stand-in for ourselves. We have all been home alone, and we have all been spooked by strange shapes in the dark. What I fear for the feature length version is that much of this will be lost by over-explanation. However, it's possible that the movie will still be effective in its own way. Apparently James Wan has been impressed with Sandberg's performance thus far, as Sandberg is next lined up to direct "Annabelle 2," a sequel in a franchise which is also produced by Wan.
The most fascinating thing about Sandberg is how very rags-to-riches his story is. Before "Lights Out" exploded on the internet he was just a struggling filmmaker living with his wife in his native Sweden. Now the pair has moved to LA and he is making big-budget Hollywood movies, all because of a little low-budget short that he filmed in his own apartment.
I sincerely hope that the movie is well-received so Sandberg can continue making movies, which is clearly his passion.
Hands down, my favorite rock singer of all time is Chris Cornell. Chances are, I will cover various albums from his illustrious career over the course of this blog, but for now I'm going to talk about Cornell and his career in general.
Chris Cornell was born in Seattle in 1964. In 1984, 20 years later, he formed Soundgarden with friends Kim Thayil and Hiro Yamamoto. This makes Soundgarden and I the same age. No wonder I love them so much. An interesting note: Chris Cornell started out as the drummer. Eventually Matt Cameron settled in and took over the drum kit; clearly the band recognized Cornell's vocal talent. Soundgarden signed to the famous indie label Sub Pop, which has a very strong association with the Seattle "grunge" sound. Several years later, they were the first band out of that scene to sign to a major label.
Soundgarden's early years were comprised of albums such as the dual EPs "Screaming Life" and "Fopp," their debut LP "Ultramega OK" (which was nominated for a Grammy), and "Louder Than Love" (their major label debut). It wasn't until "Badmotorfinger," however, that they began to attain truly notable mainstream success. That album, bolstered by hits like "Outshined," "Jesus Christ Pose," and "Rusty Cage," rocketed them into the limelight. That album happens to not only be my favorite Soundgarden album, but one of my favorite albums of all time. I will definitely cover it on this blog at some point, and talk about its influence on me.
Despite being the first to the major label party, Soundgarden's success was eclipsed in the early years by Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Indeed, while "Badmotorfinger" came out the same year, 1991, as "Nevermind" and "Ten," the latter two albums enjoyed success on a whole other level. Not to say that they were bitter rivals. In fact, Cornell collaborated with the members of Pearl Jam on the Temple of the Dog project, a tribute to their late friend, Andrew Wood of the band Mother Love Bone. This album resulted in the hit song "Hunger Strike," which is a duet between Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder. I still remember when I first heard that song on the radio: "Hey, that sounds like the guy from Soundgarden . . . and the guy from Pearl Jam. How can that be?" When I confirmed their identities my mind was just about blown. That song is still one of my favorites.
It wasn't until 1994 that Soundgarden truly took the charts by storm with "Superunknown." This is the album that cemented the band's status as rock royalty, particularly due to the smash hit "Black Hole Sun." Other hits like "Fell on Black Days" and "Spoonman" showed that Soundgarden weren't just a one-hit wonder. It was "Black Hole Sun" that first introduced me to the band and to Cornell's amazing voice. I was hooked from first listen.
Unfortunately, Soundgarden's follow-up to "Superunknown," titled "Down on the Upside," did not replicate the former album's success. Although it did give us the classic song, "Burden in My Hand," which is one of my absolute favorite songs. After that album Soundgarden broke up. By the time I actually discovered them in 1999, they'd already been broken up for three years or so (I was a bit late to rock music).
Chris Cornell pursued a solo career for a while, including the wonderful album "Euphoria Morning." "Can't Change Me," the single from that album, is another one of my all-time favorite songs (anyone seeing a pattern here?)
Cornell was pretty quiet for a few years, until a rumor started that he was possibly going to collaborate with the former members of Rage Against the Machine, who were without a singer since Zack de la Rocha left the band. This was practically too good to be true! I hadn't been much a fan of RATM at the time. While I loved their instrumentals, I wasn't that much a fan of the rap vocals (they've since grown on me). So pairing my favorite vocalist with them sounded like the makings of the best band ever!
When the supergroup finally came to fruition with Audioslave's first album, my expectations were more than met . . . it was an awesome album! While their second and third albums couldn't quite measure up, they were still solidly one of my favorite bands and I was able to see them live twice. To my pleasure, they tended to cover several Soundgarden songs, which was the second best thing to seeing Soundgarden live. Here's one of my favorite Audioslave songs, "Show Me How to Live."
Chris Cornell also had the honor of contributing the theme song for the movie that brought James Bond back into movie audiences' good graces: Casino Royale. The song, called "You Know My Name," did not disappoint. While it didn't quite dethrone "A View to a Kill" as my favorite James Bond theme, it's definitely up there!
Chris Cornell's solo career hasn't been quite as . . . consistently high-quality as his work with Soundgarden. None of his solo albums after "Euphoria Morning" really had the same magic, and he made the questionable decision to work with Timbaland for one of them. Fortunately, a few years ago Soundgarden reunited, and I was finally able to see them perform live. This was after I had already seen Audioslave twice and Chris Cornell solo twice. What an amazing show! The band later put out their first album since "Down on the Upside": "King Animal."
Chris Cornell is one of the greatest rock vocalists of his generation. From Temple of the Dog to Soundgarden to his solo work to Audioslave and back to Soundgarden again, Cornell's career has given rock music some of its most enduring classics. If you want to sample the best that the "Seattle Sound" had to offer, you can't go wrong with sampling any of Cornell's amazing work.
I was late to board the Netflix train, but now that my new roommate has it I have definitely fallen under its spell. This is largely due to my first Netflix original series, "Daredevil."
First of all, I am pleased that the show has rescued the Daredevil character from the low point that the 2003 movie starring Ben Affleck had left it. Now, to be honest, I was not one of those who thought that movie was terrible. I'd place it in the middle ground of Marvel movies: not as good as the first two "Spider-Man" entries, most "X-Men" movies and pretty much all of the "Avengers" movies, but much better than its spin-off "Elektra" or the abysmal "Ghost Rider." I especially enjoyed Colin Ferrell's (admitted hammy) performance as the assassin Bullseye.
"Daredevil" the series, however, blows that film completely out of the water. No hit-of-the-week nu-metal bands to be heard, no cheesy overblown special effects, and no overuse of gratuitous slow-mo. Instead, you have a well-crafted, brilliantly acted, and marvelously choreographed thirteen episodes that are an inspired addition to the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
One thing that "Daredevil" does remarkably well: deliver multi-dimensional, interesting characters. I can't think of a single weak link in the cast. Charlie Cox is great as Matt Murdock, the blind attorney who moonlights as a masked vigilante, desperately trying to save his neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen from those who would destroy it. Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson are equally effective as Matt's friends and coworkers, Karen Page and Foggy Nelson. Foggy is his best friend and partner at their law firm, while Karen is an early client who becomes their secretary and friend. Together, the three make a very believable group of friends and coworkers that have their ups and downs but always are there for each other in the end. Vondie Curtis-Hall plays Ben Ulrich, a newspaper reporter ally of the trio who brings pathos of his own to the story.
Of course, every effective hero story should have a strong villain, and this is where the series' most well-known actor, Vincent D'Onofrio, comes in. His portrayal of Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin, is terrifying and memorable. An interesting facet of the series: the most prominent love story we see is not that of the hero, but of the villain. Over the course of the season we see Fisk go on awkward first dates with the beautiful Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) and gradually build his relationship with her. In fact, after a few episodes of Fisk being a never-seen, barely named boogie man, we first meet him during his first meeting with Vanessa. The season is just as much Fisk's story as it is Murdoch's.
The show does a great job of building tension, raising stakes, and offering up surprises. Even minor characters that you expect to just be passing through can end up being crucial players in the deadly game of cat and mouse between our heroes and the antagonists. There are also plenty of Easter Eggs for perceptive viewers, both those that are fans of the other films and TV shows in the MCU and those who are die-hard enthusiasts of the original comic book source material.
Thinking back to the origins of these characters, it's amazing that they have come so far. That goes for Marvel Comics in general. It's little wonder that Stan Lee has a cameo in practically every Marvel movie or TV show (he's not present in the flesh in "Daredevil," but eagle-eyed viewers might spot his photo on the wall in the police station). These characters all started out as nothing more than ideas in the imaginations of several remarkable men. Now, new generations of creatives are able to give their own spins to them, retelling their stories in new mediums of which the original creators would not have even dreamed.
The recent superhero trend, which started in the movies and has moved to television, is still going strong with no sign of slowing. As long as we are still given material of the high quality of "Daredevil," I don't see it slowing anytime soon.
Today's post is about a very recent release: Super Mario Maker for the Nintendo Wii U.
First, a bit about the Wii U. It has admittedly not been Nintendo's greatest accomplishment. While the tablet controller was an interesting concept, it was nowhere near as revolutionary as the Wii's motion controls. Giving the system the name they did was probably the biggest mistake, as many people thought that it was nothing more than an add-on for the Wii.
Despite the system's failings however, Nintendo's first party software is still second to none, and is the most compelling reason to own the system. Unfortunately, new games in the Star Fox and Legend of Zelda franchises have been delayed until 2016. Which leaves Super Mario Maker as the company's major offering for 2015.
Super Mario Maker is not your typical video game. In fact, I would hesitate to even call it a game. It is more of a tool. A tool to create your own Mario levels, and a tool to explore the levels created by others around the world.
The game has gotten some flack for having a sub-par searching system, which makes finding the best levels a challenge. Let's face it -- the majority of levels that have been uploaded are pretty bad. Then, even among the ones that are well-designed, you have to sort through dozens of so-called "automatic" levels that are set up in such a way that they play themselves, and other musical levels whose gameplay is secondary to recreations of theme songs from other games.
With help from the internet and YouTube, however, you can find some gems. It is amazing how some people have found unique ways to use the Mario characters, obstacles, and mechanics to do a variety of things. Some people recreate levels from classic games such as Mega Man. Some levels contain a narrative of sorts, telling a story. Others are straight-forward Mario levels meant to challenge the player. I've seen Mario-ized versions of Alice in Wonderland, the classic arcade game Space Invaders, and even Disney's Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride. The sky's the limit, which is one thing I love about the game.
Super Mario Maker is not the first game that has brought the tools of basic game design into the home. When I was a kid, I messed around a bit with a game called Klik and Play on the computer, which was a lot of fun. It would allow you to create simple games and institute logic in them. While Super Mario Maker does not have an explicit logic function that allows you to program events into your levels, many creative minds have found ways to use the tools the game does provide to attain similar results. For instance, a Thwomp placed on a conveyor belt may activate a "P" switch at the proper moment, thereby opening the way forward by turning a previously impassable wall of blocks into collectible coins. That's the best thing about a sandbox-style game like Super Mario Maker: chances are the players will discover ways to do things that the makers of the game didn't even think of.
Being a sucker for creativity (hence this blog), I was captivated by the premise of Super Mario Maker from the first time I heard of it. It definitely takes a bit of patience to enjoy it, but for creative types it is a rewarding experience.
