Frauds and Frenzies - yet another these-things-and-those-things film by the imfamous Larry Semon. This one has some interesting bits, but after I researched embedding this obscure russian video in Tumblr I realized that what I wanted to blog about was actually Huns and Hyphens, which has even less to do with Huns or hyphens than barrel of monkeys.

All that’s to say that I’ve set up a new, narrowcast blog called “The Slapstick Linguist” and I’ll be writing all non-production based logs over there now. Check it out here: www.theslapsticklinguist.wordpress.com

Location scouting outside Saratoga Springs, NY.

Location scouting outside Saratoga Springs, NY.

The deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen — say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what. But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on, depending on what the illusion is. So 3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. And 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before. All living things with eyes have always focused and converged at the same point. -

Walter Murch ending the debate on 3D as far as this film-making team is concerned. Posted in full at Roger Ebert’s blog.

For more anti-3D theorizing, read my silent film “I’m 3D too!” here: http://that-a-way.tumblr.com/post/375760374/im-3d-too-a-that-a-way-short

Testing, testing …

That-a-way.com is currently undergoing an intense period of R&D. We’re finishing up a few feature scripts, planning a couple shorts, and looking for angel investors for upcoming projects in Upstate New York. Stay tuned for a revamped online platform.

That-a-way.com is currently undergoing an intense period of R&D. We’re finishing up a few feature scripts, planning a couple shorts, and looking for angel investors for upcoming projects in Upstate New York. Stay tuned for a revamped online platform.

Tags: R&D, angel investors feature films short films Upstate New York That-a-way Film Company
“[In film noir] the fiction passes from minor familial squabble to an unexpected slaughterhouse, from pastoral romance to cataclysm, or from a commonplace inquiry to an inexplicable mystery. The gap between the two movements is an asyndeton: a rupture in the chain of significations where the spectator feels as if they has somehow skipped a necessary logical step. The bridge between the two movements has escaped us; the second (pot au noir; the “pitch-pot”) does not appear to be logically derived from the first (mise en place; the “set-up”). There is instead a disconnection, a gap, where the spectator feels the absence of a necessary structural relation.” - Marc Vernet in Film Noir Reader 2, pg. 65 

“[In film noir] the fiction passes from minor familial squabble to an unexpected slaughterhouse, from pastoral romance to cataclysm, or from a commonplace inquiry to an inexplicable mystery. The gap between the two movements is an asyndeton: a rupture in the chain of significations where the spectator feels as if they has somehow skipped a necessary logical step. The bridge between the two movements has escaped us; the second (pot au noir; the “pitch-pot”) does not appear to be logically derived from the first (mise en place; the “set-up”). There is instead a disconnection, a gap, where the spectator feels the absence of a necessary structural relation.” - Marc Vernet in Film Noir Reader 2, pg. 65 

Cover illustration from Panther Horror edition of The Haunter of the Dark & Other Tales by H. P. Lovecraft. Artist is unknown at the present, though it’s possibly Howard Wandrei as his brother was the owner of the copyright on this UK paperback.

Cover illustration from Panther Horror edition of The Haunter of the Dark & Other Tales by H. P. Lovecraft. Artist is unknown at the present, though it’s possibly Howard Wandrei as his brother was the owner of the copyright on this UK paperback.

Tags: Panther Horror, Book Art Lovecraft Wandrei
“Yellow Mustard” - Free Download

That-a-way.com now hosts a free download of Walm Art’s original score for the short adaptation of Mark Twain’s “The Stolen White Elephant”, composed and recorded by J. Rosenau and A. Ciccone.

Download: “Yellow Mustard”

[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

Color Bars

… I enjoy myself walking amid insane houses, staring at windows that look like drunken octagons, observing lamp posts that simper with evil, promenading fan shaped streets that scribble themselves like arithmetic over my face. - From Fantazius Mallare by Ben Hecht
EXT. ROAD - OUTSIDE SUPERIOR, WYOMING - DAY

EXT. ROAD - OUTSIDE SUPERIOR, WYOMING - DAY

The perfect detective story cannot be written. The type of mind which can evolve the perfect problem is not the type of mind that can produce the artistic job of writing. - Raymond Chandler in “Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story”
That-a-way out West.

That-a-way out West.

A Jim Flora goat. Probably the best kind of goat. From Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora by friend of That-a-way, Irwin Chusid.

A Jim Flora goat. Probably the best kind of goat.

From Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora by friend of That-a-way, Irwin Chusid.