Now Do You Believe Me About Being a Make-up Artist?

79-RAandTamiLane

See. Being a make-up artist can be rewarding on lots of levels. :D So far I’ve only covered some of the personal rewards. But for Tami Lane, who received an Oscar nomination for her work on The Hobbit, it has transcended the personal, and it’s not her first time. She was nominated and won an Academy Award in 2006 for her work on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

But working on The Hobbit was a far different experience for Ms. Lane when considering the unforgiving eye of 48fps:

Since the 3D movie was being filmed in 48 frames per second instead of the normal 24, their work had to be flawless, she said. Each set of dwarf eyebrows, which are not reusable after removal, had to be re-created daily to look exactly the same – for all 266 days of shooting.

“All the old tricks we use for film had to be thrown out the window. Shooting like this makes you a better artist,” Lane wrote by email.

Read the article here

The 48fps aspect of this film just gets more interesting. Could dealing with near ten times the normal frame rate be any more daunting in its rendering of reality? I wonder. 48fps seems pretty tough.

And now a must:

Dear Ms. Lane,

You did a marvelous job. I think it’s safe to speak for other fans to say how much we appreciate the time and care you took to make RA look so spectacularly Thorinesque. [is that a word? if not, it should be. Then again, I suppose it’s okay if it’s hyphenated — Thorin-esque. Hmm. I can make anything a word if I hyphenate it. Can’t I? :D]

All the best and at the Oscars as well!

Signed,
One of Richard’s crazy fans who sometimes covets your job for all the Richard-esque moments you got to witness. ;-) Yeah, it’s lame, but I need coffee, and it is my first time to make up somethin’. At least I didn’t say Armitage-esque. I’m outta here!

P.S. Wait. One more thing. I hope you can chuckle at all those shallow girls in high school who didn’t think it would pay to be a geek. Oh, how wrong they were. Look at your life, and the fantastic views you see. Damn! I need to start this letter over, but I don’t have time. Best o’ luck!

After I drink some coffee, I may be back with some other words that you’ve never seen. :D

January 11, 2013
Categories: Geek, Interviews, Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 16 Comments

Not Being a Dumbass

We have all done something dumbass although there are some who would never admit it. I couldn’t manage to cover all the stupid things I’ve done. Thankfully, most of my dumbass moves haven’t been published for the whole world to read — as if the whole world would even be interested. Billy Connolly maybe not so fortunate. He was recently interviewed about his involvement with The Hobbit, and either Billy was drunk or really is an idiot or the reporter chose to take comical remarks and disparage him by highlighting them as if they tend toward sincere, or the reporter is an idiot too. Whatever was happening, there’s dumbass going on somewhere in this exchange about Tolkien’s work:

So, how many times has Connolly read The Hobbit? “I’ve never read The Hobbit. Never.” What about Lord of the Rings? “Never read Lord of the Rings,” replied the 69-year-old Scottish actor. “I could never read Tolkien. I always found him unreadable … I didn’t read [the books], and I normally don’t like people who have! The people who love it, they’re kind of scary. They talk all this gobbledygook and they think of it as the Holy Grail.”

Yeah, I’m gonna go with drunk. :D Surely Billy knows it’s dangerous to make sarcastic remarks to a journalist. Okay, I will give him the idea that some of the Tolkien fans do spout things unrecognizable to 99% of the population, and before I took the time to seriously read Tolkien and get to know some of his fans, I was also prejudiced and thought it was odd. But at least I had the good sense to keep my mouth shut about it, and I’m not even beholding to any of them for part of my living.

Wait! Billy sobers a bit, er, I mean comes to his senses toward the end:

How, then, does Connolly plan to deal with Tolkien fans who will lob at him obscure questions about The Hobbit for the rest of his life?

“Usually I just make stuff up because I don’t know what I’m talking about,” Connolly admitted. “But invariably, there seems to be a sector of the press that is consumed by The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and it’s indicative of that notion, that it’s the Grail. So whatever I say is rubbish, but then I become answerable for it! People get all upset, they get terribly upset about anything that has to do with it, as if it were real! It’s a story! Just relax! It’ll go away and you’ll be just fine. Don’t panic.”

read the rest here if you dare :D And don’t even bring up his comments about 48fps. LOL! Yes, I really am laughing.

Dealing with the press is almost like a contact sport where you have to keep from getting boxed in and hopefully can emerge with no bruises, so I’m not really down on Connolly, and he may be more clever than he appears. It’s doubtful journalists or others will be on his back with questions about Tolkien when he comes with answers like those. I also appreciate the belly laugh he gave me this morning. But all of this has reminded me I’m so glad Richard Armitage is not an idiot.

Dear Rich,

Thank you for being intelligent and thoughtful and well, for not being a dumbass, and especially for never going out in public drunk –at least not that the public is aware. And I’m confident you had the good sense to stay away from reporters. Hell yes, I’m biased. What do you think this blog is about?

Of course you do have an obvious advantage over Billy. When you look like this:

you can get away with almost anything. And given that, you’re still kind to your fans. Amazing.

Signed,
One of your crazy fans who would forgive you for sticking your foot in your mouth but glad I haven’t been tried on that yet. :D

P.S. And thanks again for not letting us in on your politics. I really don’t want to know. It’s just one less thing to process.

No, don’t even bring up how completely insane I am for knowing so much about some guy from the U.K. who is going to be in a Peter Jackson production. What?! Yeah, sometimes it hits me that our guy Richard may actually make it big, may actually be a movie star despite his protestations, and you and I have been along for the ride.

Anyway, this insanity is still fun even if a few of us are infected with APM at times. :D

edit: speaking of dumbass, I published this under the wrong user name, which I’ve now corrected.

October 4, 2012
Categories: Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 15 Comments

Tech is My Boyfriend

Someone mentioned boyfriends.

Tech is one of my passions. Yes, my eye strays from Richard Armitage at times — especially when he pays no attention to me! No pictures or soundbites to drool over! Nothing to fangirl over (absolutely fangirl is a verb. Don’t argue with me; it’s a verb!) But I get a steady stream of cool stuff from tech, which makes me giddy reading about the latest gizmo (can I say gizmo if I’m a techie? I guess I just did). It also makes me feel in ways I never thought I could even in ways Richard has never made me feel. And I love experimenting. Heck, I love breaking things just to see how I can fix them. I have a savior complex which demands I continually fix things. And since I can’t fix Rich, I settle for inanimate objects. No, Rich doesn’t need fixing. At least that I know of, which doesn’t mean I’m ever going to leave him, but if I did leave him, it wouldn’t be for some wild eyed, angst ridden villain who looks good in leather. ;-)

Meanwhile my real boyfriend has been checking out more of Peter Jackson’s works. He recently finished “Heavenly Creatures” which led to quite a discussion of fantasy. He’s also been reading up on the brouhaha over 48fps and launched into a comparison/contrast of Jackson’s and Cameron’s styles including some talk of how it would be fantastic if Jackson could use technology to artistically get inside a character’s head and Cameron doesn’t even know how to get inside a character’s head. This is the quick and dirty since I can’t remember everything SO said, and it’s times like these that make me want to throttle him for not blogging. Countless times I’ve said, “I’ll handle the technical stuff. Just write the pieces!” The man is stubborn.

But back to Richard.

Rich,

I’m starting to get a complex. I mean are you trying to tell me something?! Are my feelings for you wearing you out?! I really will understand if you don’t like my gushing. C’mon, you can tell me. Don’t hold it in until you have to throw a chair out the window. Or are you just saving the good stuff for later? :D

Hopefully, I won’t be so immersed in this that I miss it:


Go ahead; you can click on it.

Signed,
One of your crazy fans who would leave you only for a wild eyed, angst ridden villain who looks REALLY good in leather.

P.S. My real boyfriend knows you’re not a threat, but he is a little concerned about tech.

P.P.S. I suppose we’re not going to get another production vlog anytime soon. Gotta wait for the trailer in July huh?

Notice how I’m completely ignoring the Facebook IPO. May it crash and burn (after some of you have made some money of course :D)

May 19, 2012
Categories: Fandom, Geek, Movies, SO, The Hobbit . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 7 Comments

Seeing Red

Those firmly in RA Universe know by now Peter Jackson screened 10 minutes of ‘The Hobbit’ at CinemaCon, and it was ill received by a significant number of attendees. The plan by Warner Bros. was to highlight the potential sea change in movie making with the advent of cameras like the Red Epic. What I found completely predictable, and I’m going to be shocked if Sir Peter and Warners didn’t as well, were the stunned reactions of a bunch of theater owners and some journalists who needed something interesting to write. This gathering was not conducive to appreciation of something highly creative and inventive in film making. It was mostly about the bottom line, about consumption and give it to me now.

After the lean years of movie going and fear of not being in the black, I can understand theater owners not being eager to embrace something that requires them to invest lots of money and must in part be an acquired taste for the public. As for most of the journalists, they did not do their homework as per usual and must hear the same things over and over. For those who did do their homework, they knew Peter Jackson had already made it plain how 48fps will look and for ‘The Hobbit’ film will require some additional work on his part. Check out 5:00 to about 6:45 and especially the part about “grading down.”

For now I’m assuming Peter Jackson was not thrown a bit by the reaction at CinemaCon:

Peter Jackson responds to complaints about ‘The Hobbit’ footage — BREAKING

by Anthony Breznican
Peter Jackson says the negative reaction this week over new technology he’s using to shoot The Hobbit won’t hold him back, and he hopes moviegoers will give it a try and judge for themselves.

“Nobody is going to stop,” he said. “This technology is going to keep evolving.”

He hopes critics of the format will change their minds when they see the finished film.

“At first it’s unusual because you’ve never seen a movie like this before. It’s literally a new experience, but you know, that doesn’t last the entire experience of the film; not by any stretch, after 10 minutes or so,” Jackson tells EW. “That’s a different experience than if you see a fast-cutting montage at a technical presentation.”

So what does he say to people who just decide they don’t like the glossy new look of the format he’s using?

“I can’t say anything,” Jackson acknowledges. “Just like I can’t say anything to someone who doesn’t like fish. You can’t explain why fish tastes great and why they should enjoy it.”

Right now, every second of a motion picture is made up of 24 images, or “frames,” but Jackson is shooting his two Hobbit films at 48 frames per second, which he says creates a more lifelike picture and will make 3-D less of a strain on the eyes.

Read the rest here

As for me, I found the Ain’t It Cool write up on ‘The Hobbit’ screening about the most fair assessment, and I’m willing to wait for the finished product.

I’m also glad I finally got to highlight this vlog. It has been the most fascinating to me so far, but in the autumn I had a few things going on to keep me from giving the piece its due. Oh well, I got a chance to begin now and will have more to say on the subject.

Obviously something interesting happened. :D See you on Tuesday.

April 28, 2012
Categories: Geek, Interviews, Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 10 Comments