Friday, February 3, 2012

LAURA LUCIA FERRER ZAMUDIO WORX

Laura Lucía Ferrer Zamudio is an artist working out of Queretaro, Mexico. In 2010 she received her BFA from the University of Queretaro and has since been in a few solo and group exhibitions. Her drawings are created with graphite, ink, and sometimes a wash of color from maybe watercolors or watered down acrylics. The content deals mainly with the idea of humanity and death, and through Laura’s impressive drawing skills and use of texture as seen with the cross-hatching, each image is not only delicate but surreal.

If your like me and plan on keeping an eye on the work of the very talented Laura Lucía Ferrer Zamudio, make sure you check out her homepage which also has links to her tumblr and other social profiles.

1313.mx

WOMAN IN BLACK

Woman In Black gleefully embraces campy horror of a bygone age

Everybody thinks that Woman In Black, the old-fashioned ghost story featuring Daniel Radcliffe (AKA Harry Potter), is about Edwardian England. But in fact, it's about the 1960s - at least stylistically. Full of silly plot devices, hyperbolically drawn characters, and menacing Victorian geegaws, this movie feels exactly like a Hammer classic from the UK studio's heyday in the 60s. But sadly there are no sexy Christopher Lee scenes, or lesbotic vampires lurking in the shadows. Hammer's first film in decades is actually closer to Scooby Doo than Taste the Blood of Dracula.

If you're scared by windup dolls whose eyes follow you, ghosts who literally say "Woooooo!", and old rooms wreathed in spider webs, then you are going to loveWoman In Black.

As I said, this is the first Hammer film in quite some time, and it's clear the studio is trying to recapture its glory days when Peter Cushing starred in its campy, blood-soaked updates of Frankenstein and Dracula. Woman In Black is an adaptation of a wildly popular novel, which has already gotten a very respectable TV movie treatment in the UK. Radcliffe does a fine job in what would probably have been a Cushing role, though he's far too tentative to do any scenery-chewing - which is our loss. He plays a young lawyer named Arthur, whose wife died in childbirth four years before. Still mourning her loss, he's neglected his son and his job, which is why he finds himself sent off on a crappy "last chance or you're fired" gig, going through the papers of a woman who has just died in chilly coastal town. He's got to get the creepy, dilapidated estate, Eel Marsh House, ready to sell.

For anyone who loves classic horror, there's a lot of fun to be had in the first part of the movie, where the horror clichés are laid on so thick they become charming. Everyone in the town refuses to talk to Arthur. He sees a spooky figure in black. Children die mysteriously. Eel Marsh House is full of cobwebs, chairs that rock on their own, evil-looking crows, and looooooong hallways that terminate with dark, vaginal openings into realms of curtained shadow.

It soon emerges that the "woman in black" that Arthur has been seeing is a spirit who has haunted the town for decades, always appearing before children die. The one person who doesn't seem completely convinced by the legend is Sam (Ciarán Hinds), the town gentleman who befriends Arthur. He putters around in his newfangled car, telling Arthur that the village is mired in superstition. There's a great scene where Arthur visits Sam and his wife for dinner, and discovers that they, too, have lost their son to the curse. Sam's wife keeps two dogs instead of a child, and we watch her spooning food into their mouths from silver dishes at the table - right before she's seized with the spirit of her dead boy and starts drawing scary shit on the table with her knife.

Oh, and did I mention all the creepy ghost children? And the sad/spooky pictures that Arthur's own son has drawn? Yeah, this movie leaves no ghost trope untouched. Buried beneath the Scooby Doo touches, however, are some genuinely chilling glimpses into the minds of parents robbed of their children. We are never allowed to forget about the horrific underside of family bonds.

The longer Arthur stays at Eel Marsh, the more obvious it becomes that yes, the place is seriously haunted. As more children die, Arthur finds the ghost's secret in some hidden papers - and hatches a bizarre plan to help her find peace. But not before he spends a really long time opening doors and ogling furniture in the ghost's giant Victorian mansion — making you wonder whether this isn't a Very Special Episode of This Old House. I mean, I know the guy is a real estate lawyer, but still. There is such a thing as too much house porn.

Also, I must warn you in a non-spoilery way that the ending of the movie may annoy you deeply. You'll see what I mean.

Though there were genuine chills and good fun to be had with this flick, I was left wishing that Hammer had returned to movie-making with hat-tips to the science fictional world of its Quatermass series, or the deeply goofy (but still awesome) prehistoric world of One Million Years B.C. (who knew Homo erectus looked like Raquel Welch?). This movie felt like warmed over goodness, rather than something fresh and spicy.

PRISMA COLLECTIVE

Back in October 2011, a small group of artists had the idea to create a collective online. The internet is a great place to get your work out there, but I have often heard from artists that a place to swap ideas, share stories, converse, and even help each other out is lacking. So this group of artists started the Prisma Collective, and now there is already over 25 active members: Mary Jane Ansell, Tom Bagshaw, Lindsay Carr, Hsiao-Ron Cheng, Leontine Greenberg, Nicole Gustafsson, Caitlin Hackett, Daria Hlazatova, Ruben Ireland (shown), Sarah Joncas, Nom Kinnear King, Alex Louisa, Rod Luff, Kit Lane, Jen Mann, Kelly McKernan, Lady Orlando, Lily Piri, Audrey Pongracz, Michael Shapcott, Kaspian Shore, Allison Sommers, Kelly Vivanco, Casey Weldon, and Bec Winnel. The site is very well laid out, easy to navigate and is ready to go with the content. Each artists has their own profile and gallery, a shop section filled with prints and originals, and a list of interviews with the artists that will be published soon.

Check it out: Prisma Collective

TEETERING BULB

Last weekend I attended a wonderful illustration workshop with Zelda Devon, one half of the art duo, Teetering Bulb. This intimate peek behind the curtain of the working processes these two artists employ was a fantastic and helpful eye-opener for the small group of students who attended.

Teetering Bulb is very prolific with brains packed full of mysterious stories that they like to share. Besides that and the slew of commissions they are hired to do on a regular basis, they are also in the midst of working on a project for DC Comics. Teetering Bulb‘s visual style is very unique; many people have asked them how they create their magical works. With this workshop, Zelda explained their working process from pencil drawing to digital coloring. She also did a small critique of each attendee’s work and talked about the art business, all in a three hour session that cost only about $75. Kurt Huggins, Teetering Bulb‘s other half, joined in towards the end of the session.

If you’re interested in taking part in Zelda’s next workshop, please drop her a line.

A Stranger’s Encounter. Read the entire Little Fiction here:

Zelda talks about her sample image:

Pomegranate is a commissioned painting:

The gathering:

The image below is from one of Teetering Bulb’s Little Fictions called The Tempest Awakens. To see the rest of the story click here:

Some serious charcoal pencil sharpening:

An illustration for musician Kim Boekbinder‘s single, Open Avocado:

The product of the workshop, an illustration for the play, Arsenic and Old Lace:

And may I introduce Cypher, Teetering Bulb’s furry muse:

Thursday, February 2, 2012

YURI LEONOV WORX

Artist Yuri Leonov is an up and coming New Contemporary artist who recently graduated from the School of Visual Arts’ Illustration program. He’s been painting since he was 13, thus his skills with a brush are exemplary to say the least. Moody and thoughtful, his work explores his “inner conflicts and fluctuating surroundings” via series of paintings that are heavily planned out.

About a year ago, Yuri joined forces with some of his peers to put together an artist collective called Artillery, which has been working with galleries and alternative spaces in New York and Brooklyn to put up a group show about once every six months or so. Artillery is about to put up its latest exhibition, Love and Other Drugs, at a new store on the Lower East Side’s Orchard Street, Grit N Glory.

Check out Yuri’s site here and, if you’re in New York come to the opening of Love and Other Drugs on February 10th.

A TIME TO KILL

“Although theres no unifying theme to this show, the inspiration for the work comes from the metaphysical- ghosts, spirits, intergalactic space creatures, anything that hints at the idea that we are just a small part of the unimaginably vast universe. Some of the works are based on hypnosis sessions of people who believed they had been abducted by aliens. I’ve created human/alien hybrid creatures based on the experiences these people described. All of the works, I feel incorporate the inherent beauty of interpreting both the known and unknown.”

If your in the area, make sure to stop by the show and see these works in person. The full show is now online to view.
Thinkspace Gallery

THE GATES OF HELL

Saturday, January 28, 2012

SHINGO MATSUNUMA - WORX

“I’m painting. Graduated from Tama Art University (Department of Painting, Oil Painting Course) in Tokyo.” - Shingo Matsunuma

Sunday, January 22, 2012

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

32 Things We Learned From the ‘Blair Witch Project’ Commentary Track

Welcome back to Commentary Commentary, where we dive into the shiny backside of your favorite DVDs and bring you the magical insight that comes from hearing filmmakers talk. This week we’re going back to the woods, trekking through miles and miles of uncharted forest area, and looking for some lost film students. Not necessarily film school rejects. You can’t really be rejected if you wind up dead in the woods, right? Doesn’t matter.

This week we’re listening to the commentary track for The Blair Witch Project, the infamous, no-budget shocker that became a cultural phenomenon in 1999. It also remains a sure-fire way to scare your friends or making them violently ill from all the shaky cam. Here’s what we learned from the commentary on this, the movie that kicked off the latest trend of found-footage moviemaking.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Commentators: Daniel Myrick (writer/director), Eduardo Sanchez (writer/director), Rob Cowie (producer), Gregg Hale (producer), Mike Minello (co-producer), Eduardo Sanchez’s stomach growling

The off-camera voice heard in the opening shot of the film is Lonnie Glerum, head production assistant on the film. Likewise, this shot was filmed in Lonnie’s house. The directors spent a number of weeks testing people on the crew to find the right “moron voice.”
The shot Heather takes at Josh calling him “Mr. Punctuality” is an in-joke, as Josh Leonard was extremely late to the shoot that day.
Josh’s camera used throughout the film, a CP-16, sold on eBay for $10,000. This was about 10 years ago, so the inflation on that makes the camera worth at least $10,500 in today’s market.
The scene of Heather and Josh picking Mike up at his house is the only scene that was overdubbed. Heather’s voice during this scene and the song were mixed in later. Mike’s voice during this scene is that of Tony Cora who did the film’s score. Likewise, the song playing on the radio during filming was The Animals’ “We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place,” but the production could not afford the rights.
It took forever to get approval to use Power Bars during the scene where the three are buying groceries. Now the production team receives boxes of Power Bars shipped to their offices.
The scene at the cemetery is the only scene actually shot in Burkittsville, Maryland.
The woman on the street telling her account of the Blair Witch and the events in Burkittsville was just a random woman the actors came across on the street. She made up the entire story on the spot. After filming, the directors tried with no success to find the woman to get her to sign a release form.
A number of shots and small scenes were filmed after The Blair Witch Project had been picked up at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. Chief among these was the scene of the man with the backwards baseball hat whose story about Rustin Parr ended up giving the story the biggest clue as to where it was headed.
The production put out fliers at a local community college looking for interns. Patricia DeCou, who plays Mary Brown, was the only person to sign up. She’s referred on the commentary as the “world’s oldest college student,” the scene was actually shot at her home, and no production design was done to it. The make-shift wooden gate was already there.
The shot in the car of Josh complaining about meters on the camera was really actor Joshua Leonard trying to explain his inexperience with the camera. During the scene with Mary Brown you can tell he’s mishandling the camera, as much of it is out of focus.
The directors recognize certain anachronisms in the film. A few vehicles shown were not around in 1994. Also the flavor of Power Bar Mike was holding up earlier in the film was not available in 1994.
There was an hour and a half worth of footage shot in the hotel when the actors are getting drunk. They really are drunk by the end of the scene, and each person’s real characteristics came to light. Among the footage that was cut includes Mike and Josh reciting poetry and a scene of the three at a diner. This latter scene is included on the VHS version of the film.
The actors immediately found themselves lost in the woods. In the shot where they are walking away from their car, they are already going the wrong direction and ended up being lost for roughly an hour. “I just figured at that time we are so boned. They got lost off of a road. We’re just screwed,” says Myrick.
The directors wanted Mike to be seen as the antagonist from early on as indicated by the first big blow-up between he and Heather. Mike was also originally going to be the first of the group to disappear, but this was changed to Josh during filming so the end of the film would focus on two characters with completely different dynamics.
The scene with the three sitting around the campfire is probably the most expensive few seconds in the film, as the production had to get the rights for Heather to quote the Gilligan’s Island theme.
The team out in the woods making noises to scare the actors was comprised of Myrick, Sanchez, art director Ricardo Moreno, Tony Cora, and producer Gregg Hale. Certain sound effects were also included in post-production. The entire team had to wear safety goggles, as it was completely dark and they could have been injured from all the dry branches. During filming the first night’s scene, Heather began yelling at the other two actors berating them for not wanting to go out to investigate. It was one of the only times the directors stepped in to address the actors while in the woods.
Throughout the production in the woods, the directors would leave drops for the actors with notes and directions where to head next. On the third day, the actors completely missed their drop, went the wrong way, and ended up at someone’s house. That night, the directors let the actors stay at a nearby hotel and restarted the next morning to reshoot the “third day.” The weather was drastically different, rainy the first time, sunny and windy the second, so much of the footage used is from the first run-through.
On the “third night” the directors had to wait for the actors to go to sleep before sneaking up to build the rock piles. This didn’t work, and the actors heard them. The production team yelled the set code word “taco” which meant to break scenario and not to come out of the tent.
The tooth necklace Josh wears through much of the film was actually lost in the woods. He asked the directors to go into the woods to try and find it, but they didn’t. So find a necklace, win a prize, right?
The CP-16 Josh uses in the film broke about three days into filming and had to be taken to cinematographerNeal Fredericks to be fixed. This is the same camera Fredericks would go on to sell on Ebay for $10,000.
One of the dropped messages to the actors revealed to Mike that he was the one who was to destroy the map. He improvised on the spot to kick it into the river and thought Heather and Mike had seen him do it. Mike carried this information to himself for much of that day’s filming before finding the right moment to reveal it to the other two.
The big stick figure with leaves and grass is referred to as the Chewbacca.
According to a Christian, right-wing review that the directors and producers bring up, the word “fuck” (also referred to as the “foulest of the foul” words in the review) is uttered 137 times. The Blair Witch Project -137. Commentary Commentary – 1.
The sounds of children outside the tent in one scene are sounds of kids who live across the street from Eduardo Sanchez’s mother. Tony Cora recorded them playing, reading, and talking gibberish. The production team had three boomboxes with this audio playing outside the tent during this scene. Mike Williams has said that this was his most terrifying moment during filming.
When the three are running through the woods and Heather yells, “What the fuck is that?” at something off-camera, she is really reacting to art director Ricardo Moreno dressed in white long-johns, white stockings, and white pantyhose pulled over his head running alongside them. Commentary Commentary – 2.
It bugs Eduardo Sanchez during the scenes where Josh or Mike are yelling at Heather to put down the camera so they can start hiking. It bothers him that they are in such a rush to leave, but they aren’t packing up the tent or their gear. “They’re not packing, because they know we’re gonna come and pack it,” says Myrick.
During the shot where Mike tries to force Heather to put down the camera, she actually bit him to get him away from her.
54 minutes 11 seconds into the commentary, Eduardo Sanchez’s stomach audibly growls. Or maybe it’s a throat gurgle. Or it might have been the witch. We haven’t gotten confirmation either way.
On the night Josh was to disappear, the production team had to wait for him to come out of the tent. They had left him a note telling him to wait for Mike and Heather to fall asleep before coming and looking for the production team’s flashlight. Gregg and Eduardo waited outside for nearly 45 minutes before calling out to him. Josh was happy to leave the production, since there was a Jane’s Addiction concert he wanted to see.
Over the course of filming, the production team left less and less food for the actors in each day’s drops. Over the last two days, Heather and Mike were down to getting a Power Bar, a piece of fruit, and water each day.
During the scene where Heather finds the bundle of tied sticks, production designer Ben Rock was looking on to see her reaction when she looked inside. She didn’t open the bundle but instead threw it away. Rock conveyed this back to the production team who stepped in and to tell her to go back and look inside. The teeth inside the bundle are from Eduardo Sanchez’s dentist and from casting’s Lisa Dane. The hair is really Josh Leonard’s hair.
During the infamous scene where Heather is speaking directly into the camera, she thought she was getting her whole face in the shot but didn’t realize she had zoomed in so much. The directors and producers are also clearly impressed by the amount of snot and phlegm Heather Donahue is able to create.

Best in Commentary

“His line about ‘Damn fool kids will never learn,’ kind of seems corny. It’s a total Scooby Doo line, but then it turns into he really was right.” – one of many commentators

Final Thoughts

All in all, the commentary on The Blair Witch Project is interesting and insightful, a nice look into the making of a film that had absolutely no budget to work with. To hear how the directors handled the actors while shooting in the woods is very intriguing. You can also tell the pride the production team has with how the film turned out, particularly in the acting of the three leads.

What hinders the commentary, though, is a matter of too many cooks in one kitchen. There are five men talking on this audio track, and most of them have similarly sounding voices. That makes it pretty difficult to know who is speaking at any given moment, as indicated by the vague attribution I had to put in the Best in Commentary section. It’s not for lack of trying to understand it, though. I listened to that part of the commentary four times, listened to the introductions where each person says who they are five times, and still can’t be 100% sure who is talking there. It could have been Daniel Myrick. It could have been Gregg Hale. It could have even been that fucking throat gurgle Eduardo Sanchez dropped. I’m just not sure.

Commentary Commentary – 3

FEARNET

For a network that sets its sights on the horror genre, a buddy comedy might seem like a strange place to venture into original programming.

Nevertheless, FearNet is lining up their new Tuesday night Twisted Comedy block withHolliston – a multi-camera sitcom starring Hatchet and Frozen writer/director Adam Green and Joe Lynch (Knights of Badassdom).

olliston sees Green and Lynch as a couple of young, wannabe filmmakers who host their own late-night cable access program called The Movie Crypt. The series is being described as “Wayne’s World meets Saw“, so take that as you will.
Rounding out the rest of the Tuesday night line up will be the similarly themed series Todd & the Book of Pure Evil and the BBC program Psychoville.
Green and Lynch will be playing versions of themselves — as two guys working (perhaps unsuccessfully) at becoming the next big thing in terms of horror filmmaking. To hear it from Green, the idea is to build off his and Lynch’s personal history and have a good-natured laugh at others in the industry.

“This is a show built on the memories and real-life experiences of our post-college days, wrapped in a shroud of wrongness, packed full of movie quotes and genre references, and topped off with plenty of jokes at the expense of our real-life friends and industry associates. No other network would have the guts to make this show; we’re pushing the boundaries of television. I mean, what other sitcom on television includes exploding heads and an imaginary alien friend who lives in the closet? We plan to really turn the traditional American sitcom on its head. It’s the first horror sitcom. A hor-icom!”

While Green may need some time to revamp the term ‘hor-icom’, the concept does sound promising. Perhaps if this block of horror-themed comedies finds an eager audience, then FearNet can do for original horror programming what Syfy has been doing for science fiction. In fact, there is a whole host of unsuccessful pilots like Ron Moore’s 17th Precinct, and ABC’s Poe, or even the in-the-works reboot of Tales From the Crypt that could make for tempting acquisitions.
Adam Green Holliston FearNet

Right now, however, FearNet and Green seem to agree that testing the limits of television is the main goal of the show – and the quickest way to get recognized amongst the myriad of other programming offers.
FearNet president Peter Block says Holliston’s edge is what first attracted the network.

“This show has just the right amount of wrong, and you really can’t imagine it ever making it on to TV. That’s where FearNet comes in. Adam came to us with a truly off-the-wall series that was overflowing with a supporting cast of misfits and I-don’t-know-whats, and we knew it was a perfect fit for our Twisted Comedy block.”

For those well-versed in the horror realm, the ensemble cast – featuring the likes of Laura Ortiz (The Hills Have Eyes, Hatchet II) and Corri English (NCIS, CSI: Miami) – along with what is expected to be a long list of industry-specific cameos, should be another reason to tune in.
Green will likely handle the majority of the writing and directing chores for the series’ six-episode stint.
-
Expect Holliston to drop on FearNet sometime in 2012.