I Went To Synecdoche NY

And all I got was this lousy blog post.

SPOILER ALERT

Seriously, the directorial debut of Charlie Kaufman (writer: Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich) is going to be considered in one of two possible categories: a sprawling incoherent mess, or a brilliant work of cinema.

I will argue that it is a brilliant work of cinema for exactly the reason that it is a sprawling incoherent mess. It is trying to recapitulate all of the twists and turns of life, or at least life as seen through the eyes of a weepy hypochondriac playwright, Caden, who is wonderfully played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. His attempt to create an epic play in a Manhattan warehouse is a microcosm of life itself.

Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole or the whole for a part.

Exactly. Or inexactly to be more precise.

Possibly more convoluted than David Lynch's Inland Empire (talked about here), the constant shifts in the narrative might leave many viewers nauseated, which is a shame. Roger Ebert seems to get it. Too bad so many others do not.

The act of creation, or its attempt, is not talked about in many of the reviews I've read. Left adrift on the sea of life, the attempt by Caden to control his creation ultimately fails for the exact same reason that life is not a video game with a neat and tidy ending. But the attempt of control and creation, however messy the results, however Caden tries to treat his actors/characters as nothing more than puppets (notice how almost none of the cast and crew has a voice), is everything. Many times the character asks "what should I do?", as if somewhere offstage is a director with script in hand ready to jump in with a line. But life is not like that. Funny that the sprawling play Caden envisions is an attempt to create that control, exerted in that microcosm, and that it too ultimately fails.

I think I will have to see this one again.

On a tangent, I wonder if Kaufman would be better off in animation instead, completely unconstrained, or whether the constraint of reality is a necessity.

Singapore Machinima Symposium

Dec 12-13 in Singapore in co-location with Siggraph Asia 2008. Seems very business oriented.

Machinima Expo

Update*

Slideshow


Mostly pics for the event. Great job Phil, Ricky, Ingrid, and all the staff for a great show.

The beginning












In the ashes of Antics arises an impromptu chat












Screening The Monad












Festival attendees














Phil and Ricky on stage anouncing the winners












The award is an Illuminati pyramid!












Winners on stage














Jurists were:

Joey O'Brian
Armand Constantine
Matt Kelland
Isabelle Arvers
Ben Grussi


Women in machinima panel












The winners are:

Leo Lucien-Bay - Beast
Ian Chisholm - Clear Skies
Michelle Petit-Mee - The Snow Witch
Kerria Seabrooke - Tiny Nation
Thuyen Nguyen - An Unfair War
J. Rojas - Turbulence


The Eyes have it!












Do the Fleef dance












Lol, my film screens to an audience of one












A great time, some interesting discussions, and a lot of interest judging by the audience size. Cannot wait for the next event.

Machinima Week And More Money Woes

Back.

Wow, what a week! A festival last weekend, millions in funding to machinima.com, the Machinima Expo this weekend, and another important event just occurred. All within one week. Perhaps we should declare the first week in Nov. Machinima Week!

The bad news:

Antics3D will no longer accept new purchases, and subscriptions will no longer be renewed after Nov 28th. Existing customers and support will continue to June 29th, 2009.

The writing was on the wall. I recently noted my unhappiness with the V5 upgrade. It's too bad this had to happen, but with a lack of customers I suppose it only makes sense to discontinue development.

Time to go crank up Blender.

The Flow Of Capital

Away from keyboard. 

But this seems far too important to let pass. Machinima.com announces that it has secured $3.85 million in investment from MK Capital and other investors. No matter what you think of the situation, this is far too important to ignore.

While some people worry about infringement of intellectual property and lack of control, an aggregation site has shoved itself to the forefront of the entire situation and managed to capitalize on this movement not simply by leveraging themselves into the 800 pound gorilla position, but with the seeming nod of approval from multiple game companies, if not explicitly, then at least implicitly. Check out the advertisers and the board members.

Money talks.