The scanning of the storyboard for W. T. for Short is done. I finished them last night. I did not post about it because as soon as I was finished, I had a movie to watch. I'll get to that later. The storyboards are in the computer now. Next, I begin the tinkerings in Photoshop. I need to assemble a few things and cut out elements to use in the animatic, which I'll start as soon as I can. It all depends on how long the Photoshoping takes, which I won't know until I start and work a bit.

Because of the headache named Earl, I quit early the other night. I turned on Sundance and catch the last half of the Al Franken Show. And then to my surprise, the movie Audition by Takashi Miike came on after it. I did not want to watch that movie with a headache. But I couldn't find it listed to come on again anytime soon so I watched it.

My other experiences with Takashi Miike are Dead or Alive: The Final and Ichi the Killer. I love Ichi the Killer. It is a gorefest that's over the top almost in a comic book way. Dead or Alive: The Final was okay. I enjoyed it but in a weird sci-fi kind of way. I knew of Audition well before I'd ever heard of the other two movies. I knew Audition was supposed to be really good and was beloved by horror fans. I'm a horror fan. So, despite the headache named Earl, I was a bit giddy when Audition started.

The movie is slow. It takes about an hour and a half to get to the fucked up stuff that everybody freaks out about. It is not like Ichi the Killer. Audition is almost a romantic comedy. It's the story of a man who looses his wife and seven years later, with encouragement from his smart son, decides to look for a new wife. He's a bit traditional and wants a traditional wife but one with confidence in herself. So his buddy at work decides to fake a movie and holds auditions for actress. The man picks a very quiet and beautiful woman, shy and demure. He wines and dines her. Like I said, it's almost a romantic comedy. And everything seems beautifully shot. The director took his time, which I enjoy. Ichi the Killer, the other famous Takashi Miike film, does not take it's time. It's all over the place.

Here's where I have a hard time admitting things. Audition is the better movie because it takes it's time before it shows all the horrible gore and torture, and when it's time to show those things, it doesn't show you everything. And it's not all that gory, too. When the torture starts, you see close ups the very beautiful Eihi Shiina as she does her thing. I enjoy seeing all the gory details in movies. This partly why I like Ichi the Killer. But sometimes, the hard time admitting part, it's better to let the viewer or reader use their imagination.

Also, the Japanese word for "deeper" sounds like "kitty" and that's freaky.

Last night's movie was different. As soon as I finished the scanning, I watched A Tale of Two Sisters, a Korean horror movie by Ji-woon Kim. This movie reminded me of Ju-on in a good way. The movie is supposed to be a traditional Korean ghost story. I'm sad to say I'm not that familiar with Korean ghost stories. I need to be. A Tale of Two Sisters is the story of two sisters who come home after being sick. Their mother is dead, and their father has remarried. The stepmum doesn't seem to be very nice. There are plenty of jump scenes and creepy stuff. It's a very beautiful film as well. I'm not sure where it was shot, and I'm guessing Korea. Korea looks a little bit like Alabama. That's kind of creepy in itself.

A Tale of Two Sisters pays off big time in the end. Not only is it scary, it's also sad, one of the saddest movies I've seen. The characters were real, and it was easy to feel for them. There were also some pretty neat camera stuff going on. At first, it was all subtle, but as the story went on, it became less subtle. It almost seemed the moment I figured something out about the story, the neat camera stuff became less subtle and became more important to the story telling.

Well, it's time for me to get back to work.

  ¶ 2:14 PM