I watch movies.

After 50 years a Bond movie finally won the Oscar for Best Original Song.

A movie partially funded by Kickstarter won an Academy Award.

There was a running theme in the acceptance speeches about the importance of encouraging new talent and colaborating on artistic endevors.

The First Lady of the United States madea surprise appearance.

For only the sixth time in 85 years there was a tie.

With any other Oscar ceremony these would be the topics of discussion the morning after. Instead the producers' latest misguided attempt to draw a younger audience is what's getting the attention.
( Read more... )

For the fifth consecutive year I'm attending the Best Picture Showcase. For the second consecutive year I'm going over the course of two Saturdays because AMC thinks Denver is a cow town unworthy of a 24-hour nine-movie marathon, but that's a different rant.

Going in this year I'd only seen two of the nominees, so this is my first exposure to a lot of the movies. I'll have more to say about the Oscars asa whole and other nominees later, but I wanted to get my thoughts down after day one of the showcase.

( Amour )

( Les Misérables )

( Argo )

( Django Unchained )

I haven't seen as many 2012 movies as I usually have by this point, but based on what I have seen I'm actually quite happy with this year's picks.

( More behind the cut )

There wasn't a lot of interest in my fantasy movie awards season this year, so instead of actually playing I'm running a simulated version to see how the mechanics play out. That way I can work out any kinks and try again with more lead time and a better idea of what does and doesn't work in future years.

I'm running a family legue: Me, Meg (with some input from me), and my kids, who want their dad to be happy so they picked from his favorite movies so far this year (their picks may have been made after they went to bed and without their knowledge). I'm going to keep it updated here, just for somewhere to keep track of things, and in case anyone wants to follow along. I'll also put updates behind cuts in case you don't want charts invading your friends page throughout the next few months.

( Anyway, here are the picks )

Episode 8 is my personal favorite so far. The fight scene was a fun shoot in a great location, so I'm glad it came out well.

Meg and I have a web series now. It's a monthly cake decorating show that will update the first Friday of each month. The first episode can be found here.

In an effort to get myself doing more creative video work (as opposed to the 40+ hours a week I spend doing very basic and usually uninteresting Final Cut editing), I'm putting together a professional site. Something I can send people to when they ask for a reel, but also a place I can use to link to current and upcoming projects. So check out the rather spartan XVI Films, especially if you're in the market for a videographer.

As of today I've seen thirty. Taking into account what I'd already seen, that's seventeen movies in the past twenty-four days, with ten days to see the remaining half of the list.

Obviously I don't plan on seeing thirty movies in the next ten days. Mostly because about a third of them won't open in Denver until March or later.* But I think I can get my tally un into the high forties by Oscar night, which is closer to my goal than I've gotten most years, so I can't complain.

*And there are two which are available but I don't plan on watching. Pretentious as it may make me I just can't bring myself to go out of my way to see movies that all available evidence, including personal experience, indicates are going to be absolutely awful. Sorry Anonymous and Transformers 3 (not really sorry).