LIAH

LIAH #1151

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:28:00 +0000

Last night I watched Boomer. A very rough version, but all the pieces of the puzzle are finally synced, and intact on the timeline. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a rough cut. And oh boy, is it fucking awesome. I'll say this, watching a rough cut is a hell of a lot more fun than reading over the script for the 1000th time. Well on day 2 of my 4 day break from work to finish all my finals work, I'm onto my documentary class. Why did I not do this every freaking semester? Not that I really give a shit about my grades, but finishing these classes are a hell of a lot easier when you actually have days to take care of it. Oh well. Either way, stay tuned for a massive recap of all the documentaries I'll be watching the next two days.

LIAH #1150

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Sat, 12 May 2012 05:27:00 +0000

The state of our countries political system has been depressing me a lot lately. I don't like being lied to, and I don't like seeing my generation being duped and fed bullshit. Barack Obama recently came out supporting gay marriage, as his "view has evolved." About a week before this, Obama also officially started his re-election campaign. What better way to help your image than stake your claim in one of the most over talked issues that shouldn't be an issue at all. The constitution does not say that marriage should be between a man and a woman, the bible "does". If Obama was serious he'd realize that it's silly and unconstitutional for the government to give out marriage licenses, but oh wait my protestant church doesn't like your reform church's view on marriage. So let's pull the strings on the puppet we like to call the government, because it's not like seperation of church and state means a thing anymore!

It's sickening. Obama is taking advantage of our generation with his politics, and the Republican Party's head is so far up Rush Limbaugh's ass that they somehow think Mitt fucking Romney can bring something to the table. What a joke, and it really pains me because I really like this country.

Andrew Southard 2020. Motherfuckers need to know.

LIAH #1149

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Sun, 06 May 2012 05:00:00 +0000

LIAH #1148

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:26:00 +0000

It's very nice to be able to seperate myself from Boomer before I start editing it. This weekend I'm working on Jake Dilucia's film, Little Luchador. The great thing about working on a film set is that I'm completely checked out of work, or sometimes school, whatever it is I'm doing and I can just focus on the task at hand. Rolling burritos has the same effect, but comparing rolling burritos to making movies is like comparing apples to something a lot more awesome than apples. Either way, Boomer post production starts Monday. For now, let's help make an awesome movie. The AD from Boomer, Rick Rosset, put up a couple cool directing shots of me on his blog. Check them out holmes, even though it's on a tumblr. "Tumblr", at least Blogger resembles English. http://rickrosset.tumblr.com/

LIAH #1147

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:54:00 +0000

I want to make a movie about New York in the 1850's.

LIAH #1146

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:52:00 +0000

Boomer by Bears In a Temple for Midgets

Boomer, in the fucking can!

LIAH #1145

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 03:18:00 +0000

~~Three~~ Two Movies I've Watched

Where the Buffalo Roam - "The movie based on the twisted legend of Hunter S. Thompson" is the tagline. An awesome flick, practically soley because of Bill Murray's portrayal of the Doctor. Prepping for watching this I finished reading his book, Hell's Angels, and watching two documentaries. Hunter S. Thompson was one of the centuries best writers, period. Top three, and a very good chance I'd fight to say number one. Sadly, and against it, I think you can only appreciate this movie if you're a big Hunter S. Thompson fan, otherwise, some of the 80s cheese falls flat. Bill Murray though, fucking spot on and very entertaining.
Also, the music is by Neil Young which is very cool.
-See it with restrictions.

Religulous - A Bill Maher documentary about religion, which in terms of content is very insightful. To sum it up as it was summed up through a Bill Maher talking point montage, religious people are simply crazy people and it's destructive to society. It was very interesting and definitely insightful, but incredibly biased and bullying. Bill Maher pretty much knows he's right and doesn't let up. Maybe that's what this issue needs though.
Seriously, religion? I don't know man. Shit's quite fucking fishy.
-Definitely see it.

LIAH #1144

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:46:00 +0000

Oh man, one month since my last LIAH. That can tell you two things. One, that life inside andrew's head is just absolutely crazy right now. You know those dreams where you wake up at like 9, but because it's your day off you can sleep so you doze back off, and have like a mini dream. Well I had a mini dream that I woke up, and it was Friday the 15th, and I thought that meant we had to shoot Boomer. I was at my house in Westchester, and I was like "Jack, get ready to go!"
Then I stood in my bathroom, and panicked. "What the fuck, there's no way we're shooting today, there's no way. We have more time, why does my watch say the date is 15th? Fuck, wait, it's February, we're shooting in April! Thank God."
And I woke up. It's that weird semi conscious logic that can fuck with you, and can be disturbing. Anyway, I'm stressed. I'm trying to get less stressed. I've been working out, trying to eat healthy, I don't smoke cigarettes, really just to fight stress. I've been trying to stand up straight so I can not look like Gilbert Gottfried when I'm older, but also I read there's an insane amount of stress that you keep in your lower back. I need to be focused like a fucking laser for this shoot, this is it. This is going to be an awesome fucking movie. Boomer doesn't stress me out, I can't wait to get away for 4 days and go make a masterpiece, no. Everything fucking else.
Work has been a big one. We've started delivery the past couple weeks, which understaffed has led us into problems. We're finally starting to figure out the system(which has glitches), not be understaffed, and get morale back to where it needs to be. It's just at the end of the day I truly have to manage this place, and what the fuck, that can be hard. Especially when about three curveballs get thrown at me. In little league, I was never able to hit the baseball. The only pitch I could get a piece of was a high fastball. I kind of just knew what to do in that situation, and every now and then I got a piece of it. A curveball though? Good luck. This shit happens, and at the end of the day you deal with it, and you move on. Roll with the punches. Some people can, some people can't, hold'em or fold'em people. And motherfuckers gotta get paid.
Well here we are right, the end. The end of this LIAH, the end of college for some(not me, one more semester, but shooting my thesis really is "the end"), and it's already fucking 1:33 in the afternoon. I have so much fucking shit to do! But don't stress. that's number 1.
Peace homies, I'm going to try and update more frequently, pinkie swear.

Three Movies I Watched This Week
Wet Hot American Summer - This was a rewatch, I think my third time sitting through it. It truly is one of the funniest movies of all time, just every scene is literally painful laughter. If you have any interest in Stella, Reno 911, Party Down, Role Models, Children's Hospital, any of that stuff, that all pretty much originates from WHAS.
-Definitely Fucking See It
Escape From New York - Ah, the awesomeness of Netflix. I owned Netflix for like 4 months and just never used. Now recently, I've just started to brisk the landscape of Netflix and start to up my movie watching by ten fold. This is a film that I knew John Carpenter made and just from the title alone sounded very intriguing. I love writing in film where the writer completely creates their own world, makes up their own rules, and puts the audience on a ride. Most recently Hanna tried to do that but got too artsy fartsy and failed. Escape From New York does this brilliantly, and by the way, Kurt Russell? Fucking AWESOME in this movie. During Grindhouse press, Tarantino would always say, "I'm trying to give Kurt Russell his balls back, like Kurt Russell in Escape From New York." Yeah, always trust Tarantino. Also for any of you video gamers, Kurt Russell in this movie was the basis for "Snake", in the Metal Gear Solid series.
-Definitely Fucking See It
Tree Of Life - Went to see the Saturday matinee. Strange movie to kind of wake up too, definitely powerful. As you're watching it you got the sense that, "OK we're in the hands of a craftsman, let him do his thing." So you let go, and that's always a good experience when you go to the movies. Too often it's impossible to let go, because there's so many damn flaws in the movie, and thats all I can think about. This film is getting a lot of comparison to 2001 Space Odyssey, and that's a fair comparison. I'll take 2001 any day, I'll Kubrick pretty much any day over anything, but this was a good film.
-You Should See It

LIAH #1143

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:00:00 +0000

We've finally reached day 1 of my production class. I had to suck a lot of dick to get approval to take the class, but I'll pretty much do anything to get my vision across.

I'm ready to spoil Boomer's poster right now. These are the quotes that will be on the top.

"There is absolutely no way you can get this film in the can. This film is going to be a disaster." - Department Chair of Brooklyn College

"I can not approve this." - Production Professor

"Fuck them." - Boomer

Boomer lives.

LIAH #1142

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:41:00 +0000

I got all four of my wisdom teeth pulled this weekend. I'm hoping those four little fuckers were the causes of headaches I was getting, leaving me in good shape medically. We'll see. They didn't put me out for the oral surgery, I was just under heavy novacaine. I was told to listen to my iPod, which I did, and which was awesome. There was nothing more soothing then getting your teeth pulled while looking out into the suburbs and listening to Modest Mouse. It was a great mix, which I highly recommend. Well, here I am, hopefully living on the healthy side of life. We shall see, oh we shall see.

LIAH #1141

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:01:00 +0000

Dear Charles Wang,

My name is Andrew Southard, and I have been a fan of the New York Islanders for eight years.

I need you to understand that as one of your 100 percent diehard loyal custumors, I am telling you, that you are fucking up sir.

Your dedication to keeping the team where they are is admirable and undeniable. I'm talking about hockey though, and this team right now is playing like shit. We have some very good young players, but that is about it. We need an NHL experienced head coach, to start, and quite frankly we need an NHL experienced GM as well. Garth Snow is a hell of a drafter but we need more, and he's clearly not getting it done.

Please clean house and get us some proper fucking builders to finish this and get this team right. There is too much at stake here, and I like to think you know that. The Islanders desperately need to be relevant right now and they're not even close.

Please, with all due respect, get your fucking shit together. Please.

Let's go Islanders,
Andrew Southard

LIAH #1140

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:08:00 +0000

Happy holidays, to you and yours. That's been my go to holiday wish for people, "to you and yours", that's just class all the way. I spent my Christmas(or fifth night of Hanukah) like a true jew, eating latkas and bagels with lox in Queens with the family. It was a nice day. Now I'm going to go see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and get some Chinese Food. Fincher!

LIAH #1139

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:52:00 +0000

I am incredibly happy to say that I am done with this semester. I've got two left to go, which is one more than I was expecting, but I'm shooting my thesis film next semester. This is it, game time. This is the shoot I've been waiting for, for a very long time. I'm going to give this everything I got, and I can't fucking wait. Boomer 2012.

LIAH #1138

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:43:00 +0000

We live in a fake world. A fake society, fake culture, fake ideals, fake people, fake celebrities, fake music, everything is fake. Our generation is defined by autotune, spray tanning, and reality television. What's the running theme here? Fake. Does this suck? Yes, yes it does. The results of this are shitty music, shitty looking people, and shitty television.
Technology has lobotimized us. Facebook has isolated us and provides an arena for the fake. Twitter has reduced our thoughts to 140 characters or less. YouTube has made celebrity possible for anyone, making us all very, very stupid in the process.
I am an optimist though. If the 2000s were the years of the fake and stupid, I'm hoping the 2010's turn out to be the years where we defined ourselves as not morons.
Beavis and Butthead is back on TV and Ron Paul is surging in the polls. I believe.
I hope in 2012 we elect a president who will end the war on drugs, bring all of our troops home overseas, and cut 1 trillion dollars from budget in his first year of office. Two fake wars and fake money.
End the fake.

LIAH #1137

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 02:31:00 +0000

tomorrow is december. i'm going to start setting monthly goals for myself. december, i'm going to relearn piano. january, i'm going to learn spanish. february and march are both undecided. april and may have one distinct purpose in mind, to make the crap out of Boomer. to do what? oh you'll see.

LIAH #1136

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:19:00 +0000

This is it. The time is now for the New York Islanders to get out of their funk and make something of this season. The past three games the Isles have lost 6-0 to Boston, 5-0 to Pittsburgh, and 4-3 in overtime to Philadelphia. Next is a home and home against the Devils, and the Isles need to step the fuck up. What's become clear through this losing is a few things. The defense is shit and has too many has beens, Coach Jack Capuano seems to lack a game plan besides "working hard and hustle", Blake Comeau has scored 0 points the entire season, and their goalie situation is not solved by the 15 year contract man Rick DiPietro. After this losing streak, Blake Comeau has been waived and Al Montoya, the much better goalie, has come off the injury reserved. It's time to sweep the Devils in the home and home, and get this season back to where it should be, a trip to the playoffs in the least. The time is now.

LIAH #1135

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 22:39:00 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving you turkeys.

LIAH #1134

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:06:00 +0000

The Islanders lost their last game 6-0, and they're currently losing now 5-0. They're in last place. This is a team with no defense, no offense, and no direction. What the fuck, when will I stop putting myself through this.

LIAH #1133

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 05:16:00 +0000

I am going to do everything in my power to get my next project Boomer on Adult Swim. Pipe dream? Fuck that.

LIAH #1132

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 22:21:00 +0000

The Islanders are killing it. Guac It Out is killing it. Now the real question is, can the Jets turn their season around on Monday night?

LIAH #1131

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:46:00 +0000

LIAH #1130

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 02:11:00 +0000

Is this not the greatest movie of all time? It's certainly up there.

LIAH #1129

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 06:08:00 +0000

Thank you Rolling Stone. After this video, and a reminder on the bottom of that page that Jon Stewart has an in-depth interview in the latest issue, I plan on going out and buying a copy of the magazine. Well done Rolling Stone, well done.

LIAH #1128

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:11:00 +0000

LIAH #1127

noreply@blogger.com (Southard) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:56:00 +0000

I recently invested in an HD television, and watching football has been incredible. While watching the Giants game last night, out of disinterest I started flipping through the channels. I was very close to settling on TBS to watch the last ten minutes of a Family Guy episode, but decided against that. I hate joining an episode of television way after the fifteen minute mark. Once you go past that fifteen minute mark, you’ve reached the point of no return and quite frankly you’re just going to spoil whatever laughs you might get when you get around to watching the episode in its entirety.
The next channel up was Wild Hogs, and while I was kind of stoned and there’s nothing I love more than watching a trainwreck of a movie, my attention right now was definitely still up for grabs. It was then that I made a hell of a good decision, and found that The Red Shoes was playing on Turner Classic Movies. It was about an hour in, and for a two and a half hour movie that I’ve seen about five times at this point that’s not too shabby. I’d like to add also that when I turned it on, literally the feature ballet within the film, “The Red Shoes” was just starting, which made this channel flip absolutely perfect timing.
The Red Shoes? Ballet? Masterpiece? The answer to all three of those questions is a defiant, “yes.” The film is perfect, on just about every level. What’s great about film is that it’s a major collaboration between so many different mediums of art, including acting, cinematography, set design, and editing to name a few. The Red Shoes completely knocks all of those out of the park. It’s truly an achievement in directing and filmmaking, and as a young filmmaker it really just makes me want to be better. After having seen the film a couple of times, I really got to dissect it from a directorial standpoint, and Michael Powell killed it. In terms of shot composition, it really does not get much better than The Red Shoes. Powell tends to lean on very long shots, but he completely fills the frame to the point where every shot is an achievement in itself. During dialogue he’ll cut into a medium long shot or a medium shot, but he’ll only go very close when it’s pivotal to the story. This method is not only effective, but it makes those close ups incredibly emotionally effective. There are only literally a handful of times in the film where he goes into a harsh close up, but when he does it’s usually on Moira Shearer who plays Victoria Page to perfection. Her grey-white skin fills the frame and then at this point we’re focused secondarily on her bright red lips and most importantly on her eyes. Without a convincing performance from Shearer the crispness of the shot would work to her disadvantage, but Shearer knocks it out of the park and from an audience’s perspective you truly feel the pain of this artist who is giving everything she possibly has. So much so that to the point where Ms. Page does indeed break, it’s unlike anything captured on film.
Speaking of the performances in The Red Shoes, the crowning achievement is without a doubt Anton Walbrook’s chilling and mysterious performance of the director, Boris Lermontov. It’s an amazing performance that is not manufactured by editing in the slightest. There’s this choreography to the way Walbrook moves through Lermontov, and I’m not talking about dancing at all. Lermontov is completely unpredictable in terms of reaction throughout the film, which is not only good writing but is supported immensely by this incredible performance. Lermontov represents this idea of seeking perfection, and this character is someone that not only I relate to but other filmmakers reach out to as well. It’s very easy to see where the influence for Black Swan came from, as they’re both similar films. Darren Aronofsky essentially became Boris Lermontov while making Black Swan, because Aronofsky’s whole point with Black Swan was to show an artist trying to achieve perfection. This is exactly what Lermontov is trying to do in The Red Shoes. I also think it’s no coincidence Aronofsky started sporting a mustache while making Black Swan. While Darren and myself aren’t exactly close friends, in about twenty years when I interview him for my memoirs I’d like to personally guarantee that this is how this conversation is going to go. “So Darren, while we’re discussing how Michael Powell has influenced both of our work, I have to ask, your post-Black Swan mustache…”, and right on cue, “Oh yeah total Lermontov homage.” Beyond the facial hair though, the influence of Powell in Aronofsky’s work is totally apparent in both tone and shot composition.
In terms of cinematography and set design, it goes without saying that The Red Shoes is truly an achievement. In 1949 it won a much deserved Oscar for Art Direction. I can describe the vast beauty of the sets, color, lighting, but anything I say doesn’t even come close to giving credit to the work. Go see this movie, go see it right now. The Red Shoes is available to watch on Netflix-Instant Watch, but I really recommend spending the whole 5 or 6 dollars on Amazon and getting a copy of the DVD to watch it on as big a screen as possible. After watching, feel free to laugh at the people who complained about receiving “the live-action” version because they wanted the 2004 Disney animated movie of the same name for their grandkids. Silly old people, kids like good movies too.