Over the past few weekends, Tess and I have been able to chip away at our ongoing apartment decorating project. Our south wall once looked like this, but now…ta da!

…and the detailed view:

Tess found some pretty cool vintage maps of the elevated lines of the NY subway system, San Francisco, and the world on this cool site called Kate’s Paperie. There was a cool map of Paris but she didn’t want to get it for fear of being a poser. I told it was okay since she had actually been to Paris. You can’t be a poser if you’ve been there, right? But she insisted that since she didn’t live in Paris, and she was only there for one day, she was indeed a poser. Whatever, Tess never actually lived in San Fran either — Daly City doesn’t count.

After arranging the frames, the wall still felt a bit empty. The following week, Tess saw some pictures of an apartment with a guitar hanging from a wall mount. We thought we’d give it a shot and I think it works. I did sort of like the guitar on a stand in the corner between the TV stand and the wall, but it does free it up for a thin floor lamp or something to complement the recessed lighting. We also thought even though the frames and guitar were different shades of brown, it provided some balance with the black vertical frame.

Now I was really happy about this next addition because it was one of the only things I saved from home (being The Bay) that I was actually able to put up in our place. My Swingers “cocktails first, questions later” poster has been relegated to my corner at work.

My 2046 poster still needs a home, though.

I just bought a new snowboard in January ‘08, but I already know which one I want for my next one. It’s an Arbor Coda. It boasts a bamboo reinforced wood cure and cork dampening stringers. The website describes what these two features do, but man is it tough to focus on the words when the board looks like this!

[drool] How pimp is that?! A samurai fighting a dragon?! Someday, you WILL be mine!

Girls get shoes and purses. Me? I’m all about hats/beanies, watches, and to a lesser extent, kicks. DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a sneakerhead. Al-Jay, Jay-Jay, Edson, and Presto are sneakerheads. I am also casually into eyeglass frames, but Tess ultimate champion for those.

But my hunger is growing for watches right now. Currently, these are the ones currently in the crosshairs:

Fresh!

Fresh x2! I feel like the green one is off limits because it was Al-Jay who showed it to me. Boo. But there are other color options.

I got my first Nixon (The Rocker) back in 2002 at a ski shop at Squaw Valley. I’ve been in love with the brand ever since.

But then something happens. You’re at some pretentious coffee shop sipping on a café borgia, something catches your eye. You do a double take and it’s this spunky hipster girl wearing $5 neon flea market shades. She’s not classically beautiful, but there’s something about her – the steeze or the attitude – that intrigues you. And that girl’s name is Nooka…and she looks like this:

Right away, you’re unsure if you’d be compatible. You don’t know if you’ll even look good together. But you’re intrigued and you’ll always remember that brief, yet engaging few moments of eye contact. So now you’re at a crossroads. Do you go up and talk to her?

A “oner” (pronounced – wunner) is a term in film used to describe when an entire scene is shot in a single continuous take. This differs from a “master” shot in which the entire scene is shot (usually in a wide) with the intention of being cut together with coverage – other shots like closeups,  over-the-shoulder shots, inserts, etc. – in the editing room. Oners are all over the place. In fact, movies began with oners. However, the memorable scenes that come to mind are the opening of Touch of Evil and Boogie Nights, the lot sequence in The Player, and probably the most significant in recent memory, Children of Men. Here are some others.

Omitting discussion of the aesthetics of oners, they are pretty damn cool. The casual viewer may not necessarily notice, but since filmmaking is kind of, well, my thing, I  probably have a greater appreciation of them than most. As you can imagine, the longer the take, the more chances that something will screw up the shot. And considering the myriad of variables that can happen at any given moment on a film set, most of the time when the cameras are indeed rolling, you can imagine the elation of getting that perfect shot. If the movie gods are smiling down upon you at that moment, you might be moving on to the next setup in say, what 2 takes minimum? (get it in the first shot and the second for “safety”) If not, you’re pushing a 400+lbs dolly up and down the track 20, 30, or God-forbid, 40 times! Or if you’re a Steadicam operator on a music video, that’s a minimum of 3 minutes per take. And speaking of music videos….

There are TONS of music videos that use a single take, each one with varying degrees of difficulty, both in choreography of the subjects within frame and in the actual movement of the camera. Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry have memorable videos in this style. Jonze directed “Drop” by The Pharcyde and Gondry one-ups him with Cibo Matto’s “Sugar Water”.

Yesterday, I saw the video for Metric’s “Gimme Sympathy” on their website. As you probably figured, it’s a oner. And one that is eerily similar to the video for Spike Jonze did for Weezer’s “Undone (The Sweater Song)”. Check them out:

Oh, I guess I can’t embed the Weezer video, so you’ll have to just click it. Lame.

Hmm…is the director a fan of Weezer? Or maybe Spike Jonze or Gondry? Pretty close, right? Video starts “off-stage” then goes into the main performance area. Then the Steadicam kind of goes around and then weaves in and out. And then strange beings run through the set – dogs in the Weezer video and kids with butterfly wings in the Metric one. All the while, light gags enhance the eye candy factor.

What makes the Metric video fun is how the band members perform a Chinese fire drill of sorts. They each take turns playing different instruments complete with costume changes. Since this is all in one take, all these changes and switcheroos happen when the camera is pointing away from them. It reminds me of a sequence in Cereal Monogamy (at the 6:08 mark) where we crammed 4 actors, 2 boxes of cereal and a cameraman into BobaDave’s kitchen to shoot a pivotal moment in the story. The direction and blocking was inspired by what Gondry did in Eternal Sunshine – specifically the argument between Joel and Clementine after she crashes his car. I didn’t have body doubles or trap doors, but we made it work. It was great watching Veanne, James, Chuck,  and Annalisa squeeze and slide by each other while Eric floated around to get them in frame. It was very much like a stage performance. You’re on stage when the camera’s on you, and in the wings when it’s not.

It’s coming up with stuff like this (well, ripping off, really) that makes me love this craft.

*Whoa…as I’m writing this, Donnie Darko is on and I just watched the oner when they introduce the school and some of the supporting characters. Bonus for using “Head over Heels” by Tears for Fears in this sequence.

**I <3 Emily Haines. I wonder who would win in a frontwoman-off – Karen O or Emily Haines? Perhaps a topic for the next post! I have a feeling that’ll have to go to double OT in the 7th game to determine a winner.

From yesterday’s AIM conversation…
anton is rad: splash pages are so 1999, right?
david is dope: haha

So this ALWAYS happens to me. Somehow, I get all inspired to either A) re-design the look and feel of this site or B) update and add content to it. I think it’s mostly because I suffer from ATS, known to most as all talk syndrome. I’m sure I’m one of many who suffer from this affliction.

So BobaDave has been very gracious to offer his Wordpressifying services if I wanted to overhaul vertigopictures.com. I spent a good chunk of yesterday perusing Wordpress.org’s showcase page for possible ideas. There were some cool ones, and I even took some time during my lunch break (because you know, personal projects should ONLY be done when you’re clocked IN) to sketch up some possible mockups. Some things looked good so I thought I’d do some digital versions after work.

Mind you, I went to Cogswell and took a few Photoshop classes. But for some reason, I can’t seem to figure out the best workflow for creating some simple mockups. Now I can Layer Mask and can Cmd+I, Shift+Cmd+J like a muther, but actually coming up with a design that looks like what I came up with in my head is a different story. I know what I like – hell, I even think I know what looks good – but I can’t seem to make it all myself.

And color theory? Forget about it…I had to rely on a website (whose URL and keyword search terms elude me right now) for ideas for the new look.

The best and easiest solution is to get someone who knows what they’re doing and get them to do it. In a world where I have money to afford such services, it’s a no-brainer. But where’s the fun in that? Besides, as a former (and sometimes current) freelancer, I know how doing a favor freebie for a buddy is. So I’d much rather do it myself…even if I have to re-learn Photoshop and Illustrator. It might be ugly, but it’s ugly that I made.

So I’m almost back to square one. Really, this isn’t so much a cry for help as it is just a simple rant. So with my constant battle with ATS, I must press on.