Busy Weekend

Very busy last week and through the weekend. First, here's the next episode of Atomic Boy:

So last week was full of deadline production work, which is good. I also had a SCA scroll deadline, which we (my wife and I do scrolls together) almost missed. Fortunately through careful scheduling and lots of left-overs and delivery food we managed to get the scroll done, and delivered on time. Which is very good, scene we've had to push a bit to get scroll assignments and not missing a deadline at this point is important. Also, I requested this scroll, as it's for a local fighter who I am a big fan of.
Saturday was a SCA event, melee practice for war. Overall it went well, but I'm a little concerned that there seems to be a division in the kingdom that people aren't traveling across. But, perhaps that's something that's fixable if I can get my act together and win the Crown Tournament in October.




Sunday was a lot of fun. My parents came down, they actually came down Saturday but I was at the SCA event most of the day. For more on what they did on Saturday see my wife's blog. Sunday we went to a B-Mets game, AA farm team for the Mets. It was Superhero Day and Kids Eat Free Day. The superheroes turned out to be park employees dressed up. It was really funny to watch the Flash and Captain America running camera during the game (special note for me: the B-Mets use basically the same camera I have for their on the field shooting). I think my son really enjoyed the game, chasing superheroes between pitches probably helped. But tonight at dinner he spontaneously commented on the game, "Remember we went to the baseball game with Nana and Papa? That was fun." Maybe we'll try and get another game in this season.

Well this weekend is a holiday and should be slightly more busy, so perhaps I might be another two weeks before more Atomic Boy.

Super Movie Series

Posting problems put me off deadline, so it's not really Monday anymore.
But here is the first of the next series. Hopefully this will get me focused back on production.

It was a good weekend. Got to see the Hulk for Father's Day. We also had and SCA event this weekend. Great fighting and some other interesting drama, but even that may end up turning out for the best. Finally, my wife and I made an award scroll for the event. It's nice to get to do some non-video art. I suspect my wife will post more about the scroll on her blog, but I wanted to post the picture:

There is no charge for Awsomeness . . .

Is there anything better than sitting in a nice cool movie theater on a hot summer afternoon?
I say there is not.
My son and I went to see Kung Fu Panda. The movie was fantastic. It had a great message, which was made even better by the subtlety with which it was delivered. The playfulness of the characters and comic timing of the movie made for a magical combination. It was also nice to see a kids movie where the hero is able to win on his own rather than finish an honorable second behind a friend (Cars, Surfs Up).
Rating: 4 out of 5
On a side note, I sit through the credits to the end of the movie, at every movie I go to. And what's be great is that my son will sit with me and watch the credits (or dance in the case of Speed Racer). Well, we got an unexpected bonus scene at the end of Kung Fu Panda. My son was very excited about this, "We got more movie" was his comment when he realized we were then only two in the theater who stayed for the credits.

Well, that's it for now. Plans are to see Hulk on Sunday and have the next movie series posted by the end of the day Monday.

Summer Movies

Back from a brief trip to Vermont. I went to a science center with my son. There were a TON of kids there, I'm guessing it was a mandated state-wide field trip day. But we managed to move around and get some time at most of the stations. Apparently there is a similar museum about an hour from where we live, which we may try and get to at least once this summer.
Here is a movie of my son playing at the Vermont science center.

So, I'm about ready to start another series of movies with my son. I've got a noir mystery sort of scripted, but I'm going to need some actors besides just my son for it to work. So, maybe I'll collect footage for that and edit / post it later this summer and do a quick series with just him for now. Also, I've been looking at some on-line video contests that could be some fun. But with those I usually need voting help. Get ready for mass e-mails. I was going to start with a Ben & Jerry's Birthday Video contest, but they state in their rules that no one under 18 can appear in the video. And since my idea involves my son, and he's still a bit under 18, I think we'll skip this one.

Movies I've seen recently (over due):
Iron Man: Another addition to good superhero movies being produced. It's not as good as Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, but it is close to the level of the first Sam Rami Spiderman (which get bonus points for re-establishing the superhero movie as a viable franchise.) Iron Man works due to an excellent selection of enemy that works for the non-comic fan (Mandrin would have been a disaster). It also only updates what needs to be changed to work as a current story (IED in Iraq rather than a landmine in Vietnam, for example). The humor and playfulness was fantastic as was the feel that the armored characters were really there not a CGI paste in (see Ang Lee's Hulk). However, I think the movie spent too much time on the build process and not quite enough with villain development. The War Monger seemed to be there just so that there could be a fight at the finale of the movie. On a serious note, movies don't all have to be 2 1/2 hours long for me to feel like I got my money's worth.
rating: 3.5 out of 5

Speed Racer: Okay three things. 1, there was enough racing from my son (good). But, 2: there was too much monkey for both of us. Seriously the three year old was unimpressed with the monkey sidekick. 3: Too much close-ups. I know this is because of pressure to make movies more accessible and enjoyable on smaller screen (phone, ipod, ect) distribution. It's just disappointing to see what I assume is studio pressure effect artistic decisions in film making in a way that detracts from the overall quality of the film. For Speed Racer, there was the potential for a good movie there, the Wachowskis just didn't quite get it to the screen.
rating: 2 out of 5

King of Kong: Documentary about the world record high score on Donkey Kong. I remember making my dad get me past boards on the Atari 2600 version of Donkey Kong so that I could play the later levels. This is a fantastic documentary. There is a wonderful story arc, characters emerge develop and evolve. There are heroes and villains. As someone who as a hobby that falls outside of the normal range of leisure activities, I found a lot to identify with in this movie.
rating: 4.5 out of 5

Finally, on my leisure activites. I'm helping to train an army for Pennsic. For those of you who don't know what the large scale stuff we do looks like. Here's a link to Blackstone Raids, a much smaller event at the end of April. If I remember correctly there were 180 fighters on the field that day, about 80 on one side and 100 on the other. Pennsic will have numbers closer to 400 on a side.

Finally, here's another movie of my son. Doing a sword fighting drill he made up:

Hopefully I'll have a new movie up Monday.