A complex romantic story unfolds in two parallel worlds that split apart by a seemingly unimportant event of Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) catching or missing a subway train. In one, she comes home early and finds her boyfriend cheating on her, but not in the other. The two stories dance together all the way to the end until something else happens…
Director: Peter Howitt
STC Genre: Buddy Love (Rom-Com) – despite what Blake says
- “Incomplete Hero” – Helen who is not very happy in her current relationship with Gerry
- “Counterpart” – James
- “Complication” – two different ones, in fact. In one version she doesn’t even learn about him, and in the other – well, that would be a spoiler, wouldn’t it?
Yes, with this movie I feel confident enough to disagree with Blake Snyder, and reclassify it as Buddy Love (instead of Out Of The Bottle). Why? Because there is really no “wish”. Helen is reasonably happy with Gerry, as long as she doesn’t know better, and makes no wish except for his success with a book (which quite obviously never happens). There is really no “spell” except for that freak incident of “time split” at the station. And while one can argue she learns the “lesson”, whatever that is, it is a necessary change in the hero that has to happen in Buddy Love too. And, most importantly, where is the emphasis in the story? What is always on the foreground? It is clearly the relationship of Helen and James and/or Gerry, and as a B-story, Gerry and Lydia. So, there it is.
The movie itself is great. The story is on one hand rather complex – you have to figure out which “universe” each scene is from, and the two stories interweave in a rather non-trivial way. But on the other hand, it is quite simple – it is a story of a woman who is discovering the truth about her boyfriend, and ultimately about herself and her own desires. Who wouldn’t understand that? The two possible scenarios is a clever tool to explore the character in more ways, going deeper than otherwise would be possible. I admire Peter Howitt for putting together such an intricate story, and showing it in such an elegant way.
Tags: Buddy Love, Movie Reviews, Peter Howitt, Sliding Doors
After FedEx systems engineer Chuck Noland’s (Tom Hanks) plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean, he finds himself fighting to survive on a deserted island with nothing but a painted volleyball — a silent partner he names Wilson.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
STC Genre: Golden Fleece (Solo) – according to Blake
- “Road” – Starting as a flight across Pacific, and ending as Chuck’s solo sailing into the sea four years later
- “Team” – the lonely hero and Wilson the Volleyball
- “Prize” – On the surface, return home. But upon return, he finds a lot more about himself and his close ones, and learning yet another life lesson.
This is a very good movie. What else would you expect from Zemeckis, after all? 
However, I found it to be a bit slow in the setup, with almost nothing exciting happening for the first 30 min of the movie. Of course, given that it’s 143 min long, the beat sheet calculator gives exactly 32 minutes to Act II, but I still find it to be too long. I guess, these numbers shouldn’t be taken too literally, and the setup should be as short as reasonably possible even in a long movie. The rest of the movie has a nice pace that feels just right.
Also, I at first thought of it as a Dude with a Problem. After all, Chuck goes about his everyday life, and suddenly – BOOM! He’s on a tiny uninhabited island. I mean, what ELSE can it be? Right? Well, not according to Blake. I’m guessing, the subtle difference here is in the choice of the hero. A Dude will mind his business, will try to live exactly the life he wants to live, nothing extra. While Chuck chooses to fly away from his home, from his beloved, from everything else – to do his job of passion. He chooses to go on the road. And he pays for it. And of course, by the genre, he then has to not only face the opponent (the Ocean, in this case), but also find something at the end that would be more than he’s looking for. That usually doesn’t happen to the “Dude” whose best reward is his “normal” life gained back.
Tags: Cast Away, Golden Fleece, Movie Reviews, Robert Zemeckis
Today I was faced with a problem of creating an interlaced NTSC video (“30i”) from progressive HD footage, in my case 60p – that is, 60 progressive frames per second. A quick web search brought up a tutorial from Creative Cow by Marco Solorio, where he converts a 30p footage into a 60i video. Unfortunately, his process doesn’t work when the footage is already at 60p. So, here are a couple of ways that worked for me.
The Apple Motion Way
The most reliable, in my opinion, is to pipe the footage through Apple Motion. This flow will also work for footage other than 60p. Here are the steps:
- Create an interlaced (30i) sequence in Final Cut
- Drop your 60p footage in it and do the necessary scaling and positioning adjustments (in my case, I had to scale the HD 16:9 footage to fill the SD 4:3 frame)
- Control-click (or Right-click) on the clip in the sequence and choose “Send to -> Motion Project…”
- Choose the file name for the Motion project, make sure “Embed Motion Content” box is checked. Press “Save”.
- When Motion opens, it should already be preset to your sequence output format (30i). If your original clip is not 60p, you can set Frame Blending to Optical Flow in the Properties / Timing pane (otherwise leave it “off”). In the preview you should see the jagged lines for any moving objects in your clip – that’s exactly what you want.
- Save the Motion project and return back to Final Cut. The original clip should now be replaced by the perfectly interlaced Motion clip.
Motion (unlike Final Cut) does not de-interlace the frame for display, so you can see the actual raw interlaced fields as they are. It is also much smarter about retiming, and will grab the correct frame of a 60p footage for each field automatically.
A fair word of caution – if your clip is more than a few seconds long, don’t try to render it in Motion. Or, before you do, reduce the Memory Cache setting to something low, like 20%. Otherwise Motion will hog all your available RAM and will take hours to render because your computer disk will be thrashing. However, rendering the same clip within Final Cut will work fast and furious with no noticeable memory overhead.
The Final Cut Way
Now, if you do not have Motion installed, you can still do it in Final Cut with a little help from Cinema Tools.
- Open your 60p clip in Cinema Tools and conform it to 29.97 fcp. The clip will now play at half the normal speed.
- Import the clip into the Final Cut 30i sequence and speed it up by 200%. Make sure your sequence has frame blending turned on. You are done.
The key here is the speed up by exactly 200% with frame blending. Turns out, Final Cut can do frame blending for individual fields of the interlaced frame, but only when the footage is retimed. If you try to drop an un-retimed, un-conformed original 60p footage in the same sequence, the fields will be pulled from one and the same progressive frame, which is not what you want. This was the problem somebody posted in the comments to the above mentioned article.
Instead of Cinema Tools you can use any other software that can conform clips to the required frame rate (Compressor, Adobe AfterEffects, etc.).
Tags: Apple Motion, Final Cut Pro, interlaced, progressive
When a reclusive romance writer (Kathleen Turner) — whose humdrum life in no way resembles the exploits of her fiery fictional heroines — learns her sister’s been kidnapped, she’s soon embroiled in a wild adventure involving hidden treasure and a dashing mercenary (Michael Douglas).
Director: Robert Zemeckis
STC Genre: Golden Fleece (Buddy)
- “Road” – literally a road to and around Columbia
- “Team” – Joan and Jack
- “Prize” – the original goal is freeing Joan’s sister, but at the end she gets quite a bit more than that
A nicely done action / comedy / romance film. The two main lead characters are perhaps the most opposite of each other, and all the great conflicts and comedic tension that comes with it. Very well done, very enjoyable movie.
Tags: Golden Fleece, Movie Reviews, Robert Zemeckis, Romancing the Stone
To test its top-secret Human Hibernation Project, the Pentagon picks the most average Americans it can find — an Army private (Luke Wilson) and a prostitute (Maya Rudolph) — and sends them to the year 2505 after a series of freak events. But when they arrive, they find a civilization so dumbed-down that they’re the smartest people around.
Director: Mike Judge
STC Genre: Superhero (People’s)
- “Special Power” – the smartest man on Earth
- “Nemesis” – the idiocy in the society, at various points represented by specific people
- “Curse” – can’t go back
While the title and the premise scream for low expectations, the movie is actually quite good and (surprise!) not as stupid as it may seem on the surface. The filmmakers didn’t (always) give in to the temptation for cheesy toilet humor, and provided quite a few good laughs for a good reason. In other words, you do care “whose ass it is and why it is farting”.
Tags: Idiocracy, Mike Judge, Movie Reviews, Superhero
Local teenagers are being haunted and killed in their dreams by a monster Freddy Krueger. Nancy is the only survivor who has a chance and willing to face the monster.
Director: Wes Craven
STC Genre: Monster In The House (Supra-Natural) – obviously
- “Monster” – Freddy Krueger
- “House” – in this case the local block, the boiler room, and often literally the house
- “Sin” – the mob of angry parents who killed Freddy
No wonder this is considered a classic of horror. While not exactly my favorite genre, I enjoyed the drama of the story (save the gore), and the way the movie created the suspense, without ever going over the top, but never losing it either. Overall the story, acting, directing, cinematography, editing – everything was top-notch.
Tags: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Monster in the House, Movie Reviews, Wes Craven
An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn’t believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her.
Director: Marc Webb
STC Genre: Buddy Love (Rom-Com)
Quite well done movie. Curiously, it is a highly non-linear narrative, and we know the ending in the first 2 minutes. And yet, it is captivating to watch what was happening throughout the relationship.
And of course, the true (surprise) ending is not revealed till the end
Tags: 500 Days of Summer, Buddy Love, Marc Webb, Movie Reviews
On a mission to make the country forget the dangers of smoking, Big Tobacco spin doctor Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) promotes his product everywhere he goes, and hushes those who bad-mouth cigarettes, all the while trying to remain a role model to his young son.
Director: Jason Reitman
STC Genre: Institutionalized (Business)
- “Group” – the tobacco industry, along with other “killer” giants
- “Choice” – pay the mortgage or be a role model dad? Why, take both!
- “Sacrifice” – in this case, your morals, your ethics, and perhaps even your soul. Well, something has to go, right?
Gotta love that movie! This is a brilliant move on behalf of filmmakers. The “good” guy is so bad, and is so good at it, that we have to love him just for his brilliance of spinning the evil, and come out making sense while denouncing those who should obviously be making sense in the first place. “The guy could disprove gravity!” – the highest praise out of his mouth.
MILD SPOILER ALERT
Tags: Institutionalized, Jason Reitman, Movie Reviews, Thank You For Smoking
Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of intelligent aliens, who send plans for a mysterious machine. Based on Carl Sagan’s novel.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
STC Genre: Golden Fleece (Epic)
- “Road” – at first, metaphorical, but by the end quite literal travel in space
- “Team” – her colleagues
- “Prize” – originally looking for contact. “If we are alone, seems like a lot of waste of space”. But finding much more – and different – than she was hoping for.
Tags: Carl Sagan, Contact, Golden Fleece, Movie Reviews, Robert Zemeckis
Las Vegas magician Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) can see a few minutes into the future, a talent he uses to enhance his shows — and to win at blackjack. But when an FBI agent (Julianne Moore) wants his help thwarting a nuclear attack, Cris finds his psychic skills put to the test. Based on Philip K. Dick’s short story “The Golden Man.”
Director: Lee Tamahori
STC Genre: Superhero (Fantasy)
- “Special Power” – Cris’s ability to see a couple of minutes into his future
- “Nemesis” – the nuclear terrorists
- “Curse” – in part, the ability itself. I guess, it’s like knowing the ending of every movie before you watch it… However, on a deeper level, it is also the girl he meets who (unwillingly) meddles with his gift.
A very well done movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is not too packed with action, but the pace feels good. Despite a few obvious shortcomings (what did he do with the stolen cars? who were the terrorists? – and a few other open loops like that), overall the movie actually feels quite well-balanced and satisfying. The model of the world (or the gift, rather) is well-defined and crisp. The fun and games is also quite impressive. And of course, the surprise ending is a total killer – those pieces are probably what really makes this movie work.
Tags: Lee Tamahori, Movie Reviews, Next, Superhero
