Wellsbaum.blog

Writing about life and arts

movies

  • How to survive a plunge from a waterfall

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    1 min read

    You know when you’re going over a waterfall and there’s no way to avoid it? Life throws challenges at you. That’s why this tutorial on diving from a waterfall — a real one, not the metaphor for life’s hurdles — will come handy. Oddly enough, the figure in the how-to image looks exactly like Harrison…

  • Camera obscura

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    2 min read

    Sometimes it’s the written word. Other times, it’s a still photo. If the camera is too revealing, we can communicate via video or sound. Said filmmaker Robert Bresson’s in his 1975 book Notes on the Cinematograph: “A locomotive’s whistle imprints in us a whole railroad station.”  Communication is a game of elements. Film is the art of combining…

  • Werner Herzog talks filmmaking, Pokemon Go, and how to manage our online life

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    2 min read

    The Verge interviewed legendary director Werner Herzog about his online class where both aspiring filmmakers and professionals can learn his tips and secrets on moviemaking. Not surprisingly, Herzog practices an unusual style of teaching too. He encourages his students to break the rules of storytelling and make up their assignments. “don’t wait for the system to…

  • Wes Anderson vehicles

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    1 min read

    Video editor Jaume R. Lloret compiled some of the vehicles from Wes Anderson movies including The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Grand Budapest Hotel. What aesthetic eye candy!

  • ‘The secret of theft, which is also called creativity’

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    1 min read

    When asked how screenwriter and film director Paul Schrader came up with some of his scripts for the movie First Reformed, he responded like all remix artists: PS: The secret of theft, which is also called “creativity,” is you have to steal a bit from a lot of different places. You can’t go to the…

  • Your vocation chooses you

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    2 min read

    We all start out with a dream, a goal of someone or something we want to emulate. We keep that dream close, putting up bedroom posters and memorizing phrases that propel us to keep pushing toward our goal. But then something else happens along the way? The creative gods tell us to do something else instead.…

  • How to make up your mind and decide

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    2 min read

    Decisions are multi-faceted. They can be manifested as desires, little bets about how you want things to go. After all, all believing is betting. However, you can also decide against your best wishes. No one wants to put a sick dog to sleep. Difficult decisions paralyze people’s judgment. “Sometimes it’s not what I want to do…