Oh Baby I like it Raw

Feb 19 2008 Tuesday Midnight + 42 min. AM

Shimmy shimmy ya shimmy ya shimmy yay.

A new Raw cookbook arrived today. Raw in Five minutes. Simple recipes you can achieve in 5 minutes.

Why do I care about raw? I don't.

Yet, raw is appealing because I can prepare the foods ahead of time and not have to worry of reheating or cooking. It's raw. Uncooked. And since it's vegan, there's little risk of spoilage or sickness resulting from being at room temperature for a day.

Raw appeals to me for movie food. As in, food to prep the night before and bring to the set and let cast and crew eat as is. Raw. No burners or colemans. Just raw readymade nutritious delights.

So that's why I'm raw curious. Craft services. It solves the problem of cooking and reheating. No cooking - raw- means no reheating.

Lotte Rieniger, Shadow Puppets, Magic Bullet Looks

Feb 18 2008 B&T

Looking at the bookshelves at UCF for a distribution book. Turns out I've read that book. Twice, maybe. It was far less attractive. Remembered the puppet section, which precedes the film section in the Dewey Decimal System.

One title jumped out. Shadow Puppets. Yes, score, I'm getting it. I looked to see if there were other shadow puppet titles. Yes, a book titled Shadow Theatre and Shadow Films. By Lotte Reiniger. Lotte Motherf-ing Reiniger. She of the silhoette animation? She of the first animated feature film? She wrote a book? And tells how to make a film? Yes, Yes, Yes and Yes. I checked it out. There is crazy information to be had, and it's timing is perfect.

Magic Bullet Looks has been on my mind. I was told of the Letus 35mm lens attachment for HV20s. It allows you get shallow depth of field. After seeing the amazing Puerto Rican film "Angel," I realized the proper place for shallow depth of field. Alas, the web video that demo'd the Letus had nice saturation and vignetting. The look of the web video was as much magic bullet looks plug-in as the Letus lens attachment.

I was planning on trying to get the special beta tester price, which was offered back in October but I didn't take advantage of it. No cash at the time. Well, the request was answered. I purchased an upgrade for $99. Wow! Compared to a $399 list, $99 is amazing. And compared to the $1200 for the Letus (with rods/supports), um, that's $1100 to use on catering, or 2 new HV20s. Or just keep it in the bank for the eventual killer app coming down the pike. That's $1100 I don't have to come up with, essentially.

Anyways, I haven't see truly what the HV20 can look like with Looks, so it's worth it to play with it.

I am so grateful for the Lotte book and the Magic Bullet Looks.
Moving forward. That's the post path. Move forward.