It was bound to happen — only a matter of time before someone thought to exploit kink culture and the BDSM underground as a source of comedy, and in PERMANENT OBSCURITY, Richard Perez manages to do this. Even with the dark subtitle of this book (and the mention of porn and death), even as everything goes to hell in a handbasket with these two women, you expect to hear a laughtrack. In some ways, Dolores and Serena, the primary characters of this story, are like Lucy and Ethel from the old I LOVE LUCY show. Imagine Lucy as a 22 year old, pot-smoking, downtown dwelling wannabe artist and you have the narrator, the overly dramatic Dolores, who spins this tale from prison where she and her “ex-best friend,” Serena, have been incarcerated for kinky shenanigans gone ridiculously overboard.
Here’s how Dolores tells it: the two meet as refugee downtowners. Serena is a performer in a band and Dolores is a photographer. Both are typical young people with a creative edge who do their best to dodge the normal or straight 9-to-5 life and opt to live by their wits, which in the so-called “real world” is asking for trouble. After a disastrous exhibit of her photographs, Dolores tries to go straight with a temp job (at MTV, of all places); while Serena, the more adventurous of the two, is taking out Craigslist ads as a dominatrix. It’s when they meet a kinky magazine publisher that a seed is planted; Serena has an opportunity to allow her dominatrix personality to take center stage while Dolores gets to photograph her. Along the way, the girls overindulge in partying, spiraling off into debt to dealers who soon start popping up like angry mushrooms. The opportunity to pay back some of the debt arises as Serena’s fetish modeling career starts to bloom. She’s already made a few kinky movies, and the idea of making one herself, of being “in full control,” seems to follow naturally. The relationship between Dolores and Serena — their constant bickering, and banter (incredibly foul-mouthed as it is) — is what makes for some great situation comedy, finally leading up to their first real production. And, even when things go wrong then — seriously wrong — it all seems to go from dark to screwball comedy in a heartbeat. Watch Lucy and Ethel get high and botch their own dominatrix movie, watch Lucy and Ethel try to dump the sad sack evidence. The author, Richard Perez, exploits every situation leading up to the event — then every situation leading out of it — milking every opportunity for farce or slapstick. From dropping a corpse down a steep flight of stairs and watching it go thump-thump-thump-thump-BOOM!, to dropping a loaded Smith & Wesson, 38. Caliber revolver at every critical opportunity. These two are not Thelma & Louise, but fumbling, stumbling sitcom comediennes. The only real casualties of the book are the male characters who become comedy fodder in the presence of these tabloid-style “dangerous” women.
Book Review of Permanent Obscurity: Or A Cautionary Tale of Two Girls & Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death by Dolores Santana (as told to Richard Perez)
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In association with Filmmaker Magazine, the National Film Society interviews Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim about their new film Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker Magazine: filmmakermagazine.com TWITTER twitter.com FACEBOOK www.facebook.com National Film Society: Subscribe by clicking here: www.youtube.com YOUTUBE CHANNEL www.youtube.com FACEBOOK www.facebook.com TWITTER twitter.com twitter.com twitter.com TUMBLR nationalfilmsociety.tumblr.com National Film Society The National Film Society is a new media studio co-founded by thirty-something filmmakers Patrick Epino and Stephen Dypiangco, who’ve decided to take their talents to YouTube. They produce original content, collaborate with talented creators and make fun of each other as much as possible. This video is about: Tim and Eric Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie 2012 Sundance Film Festival Park City, UT Independent Film Filmmaker Magazine Tags: “tim and eric” “tim and eric’s billion dollar movie” “Tim Heidecker” “Eric Wareheim” “red carpet” “sundance”, “sundance film festival”, “filmmaker”, “Stephen Dypiangco”, “Patrick Epino”, “National Film Society”, 2012
Question by : How do I get started in videography?
I’d like to get more involved in the video community.
What is a good DSLR/video camera to start off with?
What computer is best for editing?
What programs are best for editing?
Any good online magazines/communities to follow and keep up with for videographers/filmmakers?
Best answer:
Answer by creativehaze
There are a lot of elements involved with getting started in this field, you know this based on the questions you asked above.
Study is important in any field, taking some course work isn’t a bad idea. There are also some good books and web sites on the subject.
You can also honestly start out with a cheap digital camera then move up from there. It depends on the length of the kinds of video you are looking to produce. There have been some amazing pieces done lately with just a low end device. I have a $ 1300 Canon that is good for my needs, but the sky is really the limit.
Also, keep in mind that these video files are massive. Longer the video, bigger the files. You not only need to be able to store these things, but you need a computer with plenty of mojo. Many gigs of RAM (8 or more) a good processor, ideally multiple drives for rendering. The waiting around for the finished video to render could take days! I have set it to run over a weekend before! On a high end Mac!
The right software is VERY important. Apple Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro are the two big dogs right now. There will be a learning curve with either, it just depends on what you are trying to do. I think Final Cut is easier to use, but for the price… you don’t get much more than Final Cut. Conversely, if you buy the Adobe product, you get a suite of applications that all work tightly together to help you with the finished product. I like Adobe myself. Many would debate this.
Sound is something else to think about. You might not want to rely on the camera’s built in microphone. While it is typically decent at this price level, it is also designed to pick up “all sound.” Meaning, if someone sneezes 10 feet behind the camera, you get that to. Most of the pros use a “directional condenser mic” that basically attaches to the camera and plugs into an audio port. It is directional and does a better job of picking up the sound you want. I have a “Rode VideoMic” ($ 130). This is a very good device. A lot of pros also record audio separately on a hand-held device via a boom mic or lapel mic if your subject is stationery. Then add the audio back in via the video editing software. This is often best because you eliminate a lot of background noise.
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At Sundance, John Hawkes and Elizabeth Olsen sat down with Filmmaker Magazine to talk about their new film, “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” Shot by Jamie Stuart.
Video Rating: 4 / 5