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[This is not about the Netflix series.] All my life, I have lived in the St. Louis area, which is at the northeast corner of the Ozark Plateau. A great deal of my outdoor life takes place in the Ozarks. The Mark Twain National Forest is scattered throughout the Missouri Ozarks. My favorite nearby hiking […]
It is usually the case that “the book was better,” but not in the case of The Devil Wears Prada. Actually, the novel and the film are very similar, and the film is a rather faithful rendition of the book. However, the end was subtly different, resulting in a profoundly better story. The Devil Wears […]
There is more than one kind of strong female character. It would not do justice to them to attempt to categorize them. That said, there is one strong female character I find to be cheap and cliché: female characters who behave like men, especially stereotypically stoic men. I’m not saying such that’s wrong, or that […]
Today is Armistice Day, the centennial of the end of the first World War. My thoughts about the violent nature of our species have evidently settled into my gut, because my reaction to events today is one of sadness over our futile waste of life. World War I was particularly dehumanizing, because it was the […]
I worked on two films in August on back-to-back weekends. I recorded sound for one and was the AD for the other. The sound gig was frustrating, primarily because of the DP, with whom I’ve worked before, and with whom I was similarly frustrated the first time. He has an attitude that drives me up […]
A popular way to begin writing a story is to start by creating a character. I have read plenty about creating characters, but it has occurred to me that perhaps I should examine a variety of fictional characters I already know, and analyze them on the basis of my book knowledge about character creation. This […]
It seems to me that The Zero Stone would be easily adaptable to film. As such, I might make an attempt to write a film script about it, although it isn’t a novel that fills me with passion. It is a fairly straightforward story. Eet is a creature that would best be handled as CG […]
Somewhat on impulse, I picked up a Canon 77D. I figured this would be a good camera to have around for filmmaking, without being terribly expensive. The APS-C sized sensor is certainly more appropriate than the full-frame sensor in my 5D Mark II. The video quality is good, and the autofocus is quite good. That […]
My overnight backpacking trip in the Rockpile Mountain Wilderness Area went well. I didn’t have any equipment problems, and I didn’t forget anything important. I did add a couple of items to my list for next time, but they aren’t serious (like handy-wipes). I didn’t forget to bring my hammock, but I was unable to […]
As a kid, I grew up camping with my family. Car camping, we would call it now, in a tent. We camped mainly in our home state of Missouri, and farther north for relief from the heat, in Michigan and Wisconsin mostly. We were limited by how far we could drive, and our drives were […]
