Archive for the ‘Watching’ Category

It's like "Where the Hell is Matt" without quite so much silly dancing.

So it's not as good as "Where the Hell is Matt." But it's still pretty cool.

Lust for Love is the story of an innocent guy (Fran Kranz) who wins the love of his childhood sweetheart (TBA), but since he’s been holding out for her his whole life, he's so embarrassing that he’s quickly dumped. Convinced he needs more experience with women to win her back, he convinces the sweetheart's girlfriend (Dichen Lachman) to teach him how to woo women.

It's also got fellow Dollhouse alum Enver Gjokaj, plus Maurissa Tancharoen, Caitlin Stasey, and (because she is federally required to be in all indie-Whedony-webby productions) Felicia Day. It's written and will be directed by Anton King, the guy who did the amazing music video for Tancharoen and Jed Whedon's "Remains." So yeah, I want to see this.

And I will; it's already funded. But a basic budget, while cool, isn't enough. I'd like to see higher production values, better distribution, maybe even (gasp) a few bucks for the people involved. There's still 6 days left to contribute and be a part, and you can get lots of great stuff by doing so. Copies of the movie, access to the behind-the-scenes stuff, posters, even private screenings if you've got the bank for it.

Indulge your lust for "Lust for Love."

It's been making the rounds so you've probably seen it, but just in case… the cast and crew's goodbye to David Tennant. Watch closely and you can tell who knew the words already and who didn't!

Marian Call performing at The Geek Easy in A Comic Shop in Winter Park, FL, Sept. 17, 2010, with guitarist Bryan Ray. This is an early version of "Good Morning Moon," now available for sale at mariancall.com . Try not singing along, I dare you.

So last week I became, temporarily, accidentally, a TV star.

The Investigative Discovery TV show "Wicked Attraction" did an episode called "57 Seconds" about a particularly sleazy Daytona Beach man who woke to find a man shooting his wife, whom he then gunned down. Didn't take police long to find this guy's mistress, his connection to the assassin, his criminal doings, his hidden stash of weapons, the video tape he made of himself telling his mistress to shoot another guy…  One of our editors at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Kathy Kelly, was a crime reporter during the time of this remarkable bozo and was interviewed for the piece. Guess who was in the background, again and again?

Fortunately I'm a) blurry and b) hard at work the whole time. Employers tend to look askance at a worker displayed on national television while napping, juggling, practicing his puppetry, etc.

The show gets rerun occasionally if you've any mind to see it — although it doesn't do great things for your opinion of humanity, not even counting my presence — and will show up on iTunes eventually. God knows why. But I'm in it! Woo hoo, I guess.

Yes, I'm late to the party. But it's been eating at me.

Actually I stopped watching Smallville somewhere around the 5th season, and only lasted that long out of dogged optimism. There were so many things right about the show, they couldn't blow every opportunity, could they? Well, yes, yes they could.

But I tuned in to the finale just to see the payoff, what we've been waiting for these ten years. Clark, flying, in the suit.

Guess what we didn't really get?

Now, I don't know exactly why. I've heard the suit they used (from Superman Returns) didn't actually fit actor Tom Welling so they couldn't. I've heard that Warner didn't want a full-body shot of Welling in the suit because they had the new guy lined up for the next movie and wanted his to be the face everyone expected. I've heard Welling flat-out refused to be seen in the suit. I have no idea, and frankly I don't care.  Whatever the reason, the fans were cheated.

Everything the finale did to make the ending inspirational and triumphant — and it tried really, really, really hard –was undercut with the awkward direction and bad CG required to show Clark being Superman without really showing it. And it would have been so easy to do so, even within the budget of a cable show. So, let's try this:

EXT. METROPOLIS – DAY

Apokolips is approaching earth, a fiery ball of hate. Citizens of Metropolis GATHER to look up at their doom. Some are crying. Many of them have glowy OMEGA symbols on their foreheads. OLIVER rushes out into the street. People are packed in the windows, watching. The end is very clearly near.

CUT TO:

A terrified WOMAN HOLDING A BABY leans too close to her window and gets jostled; the baby slips, FALLS. The woman screams, the crowd reacts.

And something blurs past the woman. Something red and blue.

CLARK lands gently in the Metropolis street, in full costumed view, holding the baby, moving with calm assurance. The crowd marvels.

MAN IN CROWD
It's the Blur!

People gasp and murmur. Clark HANDS THE BABY to Oliver. Then cue the Superman theme song as he SMILES THE SUPERMAN SMILE for the first time ever, and TAKES OFF into the sky. 

OLIVER
(holding the baby)
Good luck, Clark.

As we cut back and forth between his grim determination and the people we see signs of long-denied hope in the populace. Here and there the Omega symbol blinks out, overwhelmed by emotion. The people of Metropolis CHEER HIM ON.

Clark vanishes into the planet's corona. And Apokolips STARTS TO MOVE AWAY. The crowds go wild, hugging each other and yelling. The last Omega symbols VANISH. The day is saved.

Same scene as before. No fancy special effects the crew hasn't already done a zillion times before, I'm not even suggesting we show him pushing the planet (which would have been nice). But we get two things we were denied: Clark, in the suit, being Superman, in full view. And we get the added benefit of Metropolis realizing their hometown hero is a lot more heroic and inspirational than they imagined, with that holy-crap moment that lifts you up inside. 

How hard would that have been?