Amezri's other journal space

So...I'm about 6 weeks behind on Vampire Diaries. Time to finally try and get caught up! (Also, the only TVD icon I have is Caroline looking a lot like Harmony. Hm.)

Full on ramble as always.

( Vampire Diaries 3.01: The Birthday )

***

( Vampire Diaries 3.02: The Hybrid )

***

( Vampire Diaries 3.03: The End of the Affair )

On a production note, the cinematography is slightly improved on the show. Contrast ratio is not as ridiculous, but it still needs some work. Overall, though, lighting is a hell of a lot better and I can see more detail in the highlights and darks.

Okay, actually, I feel like there are two DPs working this show. Sometimes night scenes look great and sometimes they look like previous season - too dark and no detail. What is going on, you guys?

I'm not gonna lie, I love The Vampire Diaries. It's pretty different from the books, and that's okay, because I'm actually enjoying the show much more (even after my griping about the casting and other changes). Damon is, of course, my favorite. Stefan is Broody McBrooderson, but a lot less so than Edward. Uhm, anyway... this post is not about that. It's about the super-annoying cinematography on the show. Some of the shots are quite nice, possibly even cool... but I really wouldn't know because half the time it's so dark, I don't know who's where doing what.

I've been rewatching the show during the hiatus and now that I know the plot, I'm focusing a lot more on the technical stuff. For the last few weeks, I've been griping about the Director of Photography (DP), but I didn't really want to bother looking up who it was. tirgaya saved me the trouble and told me it was Paul M. Sommers. He's only listed for 13 episodes, but there are no DP credits for the other episodes.

Below are a bunch of screencaps from the first eleven episodes of The Vampire Diaries to show you the stuff that's annoying the crap out of me. (To any cinematographers/DPs reading this - some of my terms might be wrong. SORRY. I need to learn more, obviously.) I did not edit any of these images - I capped them and grouped them in Photoshop. Depending on your screen, they might look better or worse.

( IMAGE HEAVY. SRSLY. )

Actually, looking at all of these Vampire Diaries scenes again, I'm really starting to wonder if they're just working with available practical lighting and not even bringing in studio lights. Which can't be right because... they must be using some, right? They can't possibly just rely on the lights on set. That seems... weird. Then again, the daylight shots look great except for sometimes needing a bit of fill (IDK, get a bounce?) and the other shots look like they were lit with whatever practical lighting they had lying around. Maybe it isn't lighting - maybe it's the camera or the film stock or post processing. I have no idea. Someone with more knowledge could probably go on and on about it.

This concludes my amateur filmmaker criticism of the lighting on The Vampire Diaries. Like I said, I am still a huge fan of the show and I can't wait for the new season to start up. I'm just hoping there is a new DP and the show can stop... looking like that. Because it's kind of annoying and hard to watch at times.

SFX.com posted an update to the Being Human US remake - they contacted creator Toby Whithouse for his response.

"I'm really pleased there's going to be a US version of the show. The way these things work though, I have no idea what they're planning for the series. It could end up being about giant mice living on the moon. I don't know. I don't feel any sense of rancour about this. It's the nature of the system we've entered into. And SyFy has a better understanding of the US marketplace, so is in a better position to determine what will work and what won't. My priority always has been and always will be the UK version.

"A lot of Being Human fans have already voiced misgivings about a US version, and it's fair to say that UK formats have met with... mixed success when transposed to the States. But every single significant step in the life of Being Human has been either fraught or needlessly worried over. When we moved from pilot to series, the notion of recasting Mitchell, Annie and Herrick was met with wails of despair. As it turned out, all three new cast members delivered extraordinary performances and now it's impossible to imagine those parts being played by anyone else. So who knows, in a year from now, we might be rhapsodising about the US version and toasting its staggering success. Obviously I'll be sitting on my yacht, but I'll be with you in spirit.

"Also, whatever happens in America, it doesn't have a backwards effect. The UK version won't be affected an iota. Expanding the Being Human world can only be a good thing. If the US version is a success it might inspire its audience to seek out the original version.
So I'm going to approach it with a completely open mind and watch it as if I were watching a brand new show with a brand new format."

I'm glad he's taking it so well... but I am still not at all pleased.

Oh, Mike Rowe, ILU.

I've spent all weekend catching up some TV and movies I've been meaning to watch. Which means I've done nothing productive. Meh.

Battlestar Galactica 4.01-4.10: Wow. Okay. That was pretty awesome. And I still think the final Cylon is Dualla.

Penelope: Yeah, again. Really like the movie and the visuals. And James McAvoy.

Doctor Who season 3: Just filling in some episodes I happened to miss. "The Lazarus Experiment," "42," "Human Nature," and "Family of Blood." They were quite good and the Doctor seemed like less of a jerk to Martha in some of the episodes. Still a jerk though. Forgot how much fun this show is; need to watch season 4.

The Singing Detective. Uh. I heard a lot of mixed reviews about this RDJ movie and, yeah. I think I'm in with the group who think this film is fraking weird. I may or may not watch this again. It was kind of cool seeing a lot of other favorite actors (Eddie Jones, Jon Polito, Saul Rubinek, Jeremy Northam) but really, it was just odd. Until the end... the last twenty minutes was pretty cool.

Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus: Odd, but in a good way. I liked it and think I'll be watching it again. RDJ does some interesting things with the character of Lionel.

Resident Evil: Extinction: Wow, that was really... not that good. I did like it better than Apocalypse, but that's not really saying much. Also, WTFCARLOS?! I was just starting to 'ship Alice/Carlos too. Meh. An army of Alices would be pretty kick-ass though.

Casanova: The Heath Ledger one. Honestly, it was a bit silly and oddball, but I liked it for what it was. Heath plays a great Casanova, of course, and I loved Charlie Cox as Giovanni Bruni; found it funny that he was after a girl named Victoria in this as well (see Stardust, which Victoria was played by Sienna Miller).


Didn't really think about what I'm going to do about the job. And now I should really try and finish my Shore Leave report.

OMG. WHAT? WHAT?!

Someone told me the US Life on Mars remake was on hold. Not so! ABC has added it to their Fall line-up, announced at the Upfronts. GLARGH!

There's a FRAKING TRAILER. I mean, okay, Colm Meaney playing Hunt, but... but.. NO. Why don't you just show the original BBC series and leave it alone?!

On the plus side, McSpaced has been dumped. HOORAY!

Dropped my Jeep off at the mechanic's after work. No big deal, just getting an oil change and a check up for the trips I've got planned ahead.

Washed BDUs for my Atlantis outfit. Baked some cookies to take to queenmaab's. Uhm.. I think I did something else, but now I've forgotten what.

I've been watching H2O: Just Add Water. Don't ask me why. It's just strangely entertaining. Plus, hey - mermaids. (Rikki's totally my favorite.)

Wow, this is a boring entry. I'll just stop there, then.

Oooh kay. Catch up time again.

Friday
Had the day off of work. Was a bum. Watched some stuff I had on my DVR, which wasn't really a lot -- just the SGA mid-season cliffhanger and then a new Pushing Daisies episode that I didn't even know was new; but they were both good. Then I finally busted out Battlestar Galactica: Razor (which I also liked) before listening to the commentary for Waitress, which wasn't really as entertaining as the movie. Finally, watched the first 4 episodes of Lost season 3. Surprisingly good.

Saturday
Wasn't feeling well Thursday, actually (leaving out the TMI) so I'd canceled plans for the weekend anyway. Which, you know, works, since I spent the whole day watching the rest of Lost season 3. Overall, I really liked it and I'll probably buy the season 4 set next year. Seriously, the only way I can watch this show is to just sit and go through the whole thing all together. But yes. Goodbye, Saturday!

forcryinoutloud - Thank you so much for the card! And the photos :D They are awesome ^___^ Really unexpected surprise *hugs*

Sunday
Having finished Lost and wanting something else, I put in Eddie Izzard's Definite Article DVD and did laundry. Over the course of the day I actually did 5 loads and got some sweaters out of storage. Go, me! After Eddie, I ended up watching the SciFi Channel's remake of Dune, which I bought ages ago, but just never even opened. Silly me. It was pretty good, actually, and I think I might have liked it better than the original (frankly, I understood it a lot better without expending too much brain power).

Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares? The British one is better, but I really enjoyed Gordon yelling at the stupid owner of The Secret Garden.

Monday
That'd be today. Got to work at a decent time. Early in the day, the VP called to say we could close at 2pm. Woohoo! They day pretty much flew by then... well, until the last half hour then it was dragging. Anyway. Finally, we all escaped the office early! And I had some pretty awesome production numbers today...

After work, I wanted to do some last minute shopping. Which, you know, Christmas Eve... so not the brightest idea, but whatever. I... am really bad with money management when something is bugging me and clearly something is bugging me because I've spent an obscene amount of money on stuff I'm sure I don't really need and did it all in sort of a daze, just going through the stores and grabbing stuff.

Anyway. Went to Linens N Things first to find stainless steel chopsticks because I swear that is where I bought them before, but I looked and looked and an employee said they didn't carry them. Blah. So then I went in to Target to look, but they didn't have any either.

Weirdness happened on the way back to the car. I had noticed the to guys walking towards me, but they were busy deciding where they were going next, I guess. Anyone, one of them shouts out my name, so I turn around and am all "uhm, hi?" Clearly I looked like a person who didn't remember him, because he was all, "you went to BG? It's Rob." And then I go, "oooh, hi!" and we do the quick catch-up thing before I run off. Thing is... I can't remember which one he was. I mean... I think I know, but I can't remember the last name. He looks really different now and, yeah, it's been 8 years, so obviously. Except I guess I don't look that different because even with hair covering my face and my long gunner coat, he still recognized me. Then again, my memory is pretty shit, so, not really surprised. Moving on.

Defeated, I headed over to the mall and checked out Le Gourmet, but of course they don't have any. Don't know what I was thinking because this is where it all goes pear-shaped. I planned on just going in to Best Buy to get blank DVDs as they have a spindle of Sony discs on sale for $22. I managed to snag one of the last (really dusty) ones, but then I wander over to the DVD section where I knew there was stuff on sale. Like, huge 50% off sale. I am weak, I know. First thing I grabbed was Babylon 5 season 4. I thought about season 5, but apart from "A View from the Gallery" and a couple other episodes, I thought it was generally rubbish.

Uhm. Right.. and then I picked up Tru Calling season 2 for $12 XD Snagged something else as well, but I can't say what yet as I don't know if I will be gifting it or what. I was also looking for Children of Dune (James McAvoy!) and Boomtown, but Best Buy didn't have either. Meh. Picked up a gift card on my way out the door and there went 1/5 of this week's paycheck. Oh well.

After Best Buy, I decided to toddle over to FYE and just check to see if they had the stuff Best Buy was missing. OMG. They did. And Boomtown season 1 was on sale for $13 XD That is totally the right price for a show that I'm only getting because of Neal McDonough. Yes, I already know I have problems, thank you. They also had Children of Dune for $13, which was more than I wanted to pay, but sort of justified because of the Boomtown deal.

And finally, the last stop on the way home was Bed, Bath & Beyond, where I also looked for fraking chopsticks, but of course they didn't have any. Glargh. Two months ago I saw them everywhere and now I can't find them anywhere. I think I'm going to check the Chinese grocery, which is probably where I should have looked in the first place. I did end up getting a 1-pint Pyrex measuring cup for seijitataki and a new stainless steel toothbrush holder for my bathroom. Yay?

Right, before the spazzing: fyrdrakken! I got that card. Thank you so much! Now I feel sort of bad about being a bum and not giving out cards this year :(

Right. Spaz. Dead Like Me movie trailer found on YouTube! I cannot wait for this to be out. It's gonna be awesome!



I hardly recognize Reggie - she's not all gawky anymore! George still looks the same. And Mason. Mason, Mason, Mason.

gypsyjr alerted me to the fact that there's a US remake of Spaced in the work. No. Just... NO.

Edgar Wright mentions in his blog that neither he nor Simon has been contacted about the thing, not that he will be making any money from it anyway. And I quote the same entry gypsyjr did:

I'm calling for everyone to refer to the U.S. version of Spaced as "McSpaced" from now on.

I can't think of a better distillation of the whole idea.

Edgar, I love you.

There's a really great story at CHUD.com basically ripping the remake apart. Normally I'm not one to just jump all over something before I hear about it, but really. Fox + McG - Pegg&Wright = DISASTER. It's simple maths, people!

Twitchfilm mentions the fact that Adam Barr from Will & Grace has been contacted. Uhm. Even more no.

In other crappy remake news, CBS has pulled Viva Laughlin. THANK GOD. Look, I love Hugh Jackman, I do. But I watched 10 minutes of that show and the acting, singing, and dancing of everyone except Hugh Jackman was awful. Abysmal. Tragic. Unwatchable. Seriously. I wanted to like it... I did. Blackpool was awesome, and not just because of David Tennant. Everyone on that cast really threw themselves into their roles. Everyone on Viva Laughlin just fell flat.

The really extra funny thing is that not only did they pull Viva Laughlin off the schedule, they pulled everything related to the show off the website. XD

Anyone... to see what I mean, go to IGN's Laughlin video page. Watch the "Whatcha Got?" clip (this is actually the Viva Las Vegas opening) (youtube alternate). Contrast that with the original Blackpool Viva Las Vegas opening. One is fun and exciting and the other is... phoned in.

Why, America? WHY?! Why can't you stop snurching other people's ideas and just come up with your own?!