Vertical Distance short film shoot begins

Visual Thought Learning, An interesting method for directing actors

VTL, short for Visual Thought Learning, is a rehearsal tool devised by Annie Murtagh Monks, my teacher for Directing Actors class, a year and a half ago. And to me, it definitely changes the way I've always thought actors should be directed.

Basically, the whole point about VTL is to aid actors in remembering their lines, and allowing themselves to get more into character, immersing themselves completely into the scenario as presented to them in the screenplay. It isn't about memorizing your lines like a robot, but feeling and understanding why your characters are saying those lines in a particular scene. For VTL to work, the best method is to make sure the actors haven't read or memorized that particular scene.

To perform a VTL session, what you do is to have your actors sit closely to each other so that their knees will touch, and that they won't cross any part of their bodies. Then, sitting beside the two facing figures, you will read the script to them.

1) But actors are not supposed to try remembering the lines read to them.

2) They should imagine and picture the scene while it is being read to them.

3) The scene will be read to them by the director three times.

Clive Barker

Posting on behalf of Justin.

Mission Impossible 3

Appreciating films that have Tom Cruise in it has made me an object of ridicule during the last few years. How could a manly man like I cite Jerry Maguire as one of his all-time favourite romantic comedies (I listed it as one of the must-watch movies for Valentine's Day earlier this year)? How could a rational film student like I call Minority Report one of Spielberg's finest films? How could a person like me always feel excited whenever a Tom Cruise film is about to come out? Be it War of the Worlds (... yes, the ending sucked, but I wrote a fanboyish review right after I saw it last year, before it occurred to me that the film wasn't THAT good after all) or The Last Samurai (... yes, the ending sucked too), I would always be the one rushing to the theaters for their premiere.

American Dreamz

I have no idea how it started, but I think I am starting to fall in love with Mandy Moore.

Blood and Flowers: Purity of Action in The Sea of Fertility

Posting this for Justin.

Failure To Launch

I can never understand why I belong to the 1% of the entire male population in the world actually partial to romantic comedies and chick flicks. I'm a hopeless romantic, that's long established. After all, I AM a Piscean. But anyway, yes, I don't know what is it about romantic comedies that appeal to me. Fulfilling my fantasies? Hm. Perhaps it's caused by my years-long singledom. But anyway, what do I have to say about this sleeper hit starring Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker?

Scary Movie 4 is LOL-inducing sometimes

I have waited more than a week to review Scary Movie 4, because I felt that it's, er, pretty damned challenging to review a film like this. Seriously, when I look at the reviews in Rottentomatoes (39% in the Tomatometer thus far), I have to scoff at the negative reviews, were critics really expecting THIS to be a masterpiece? This isn't a film where you can give negative or positive reviews, the usual methods used to evaluate the merits of a film are useless with films like Scary Movie 4. Is it acted well? Is it well-scripted? Is it well-directed? How's the script like? Oh please, are you even looking for all these?