akratic

- John Sturges’ commentary on the ‘Bad Day at Black Rock’ laserdisc

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Paul Thomas Anderson claims that everything he knows about directing he learned from John Sturges’ commentary on the BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK laserdisc.

This is an exclusive, it’s never been released on any DVDs of the film, it stayed on the Criterion LD for ages – until it was ripped a while ago. So the only way anyone could ever hear this is if they had a laserdisc player. Well, not anymore.

Seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.

This was the first MGM film to be shot in Cinemascope. According to director John Sturges’s commentary track on the Criterion Laserdisc release, it was also filmed at the same time in the standard 4:3 ratio version because studio executives still weren’t sure how well the wide screen format would work. That version was never released.

Behind the Camera On BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK

The film itself is an hour and 21 minutes, when I got done splicing up the bits I marked as informative – I had about 50 minutes of material from Sturges. After the split, I left out about 20 minutes that was good, but mostly outdated. So what you’ve got is essentially 30 minutes of some really great fucking filmmaking discussion. I am thankful that this great man left us with some insight before he left this earth. — filmschoolthrucommentaries

A must-listen: John Sturges’ commentary on the ‘Bad Day at Black Rock’ laserdisc cinephilearchive.tumblr.com/post/381543706… #filmmaking
— LaFamiliaFilm (@LaFamiliaFilm) December 17, 2012

One of the human brain’s many tricks is that it automatically finishes unfinished things. This is remedial psychology — Sensation-Perception 101. If we see part of a circle, our mind closes it. If we see part of a word, our mind fills in the mssng lttrs. Something analogous happens, I think, with unfinished novels: we always end up finishing them with something. We fill in the blanks, unconsciously, with what is closest at hand: the gestalt, the legend, the vibe, the tone, the aesthetic of the author in question. This is, after all, part of what a great author does: he trains us not just to receive his vision but also to extend it — to read the world (its landscapes, people, events, texts) in the peculiar way that he would have read them.

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—	Sam Anderson on David Foster Wallace (via austinkleon)

Director Paul Thomas Anderson owns a vintage 1910 Pathe camera which contains a special 43mm lens. The lens was specially modified to be used in the film as it has very low resolution and can shift colors at corners. Only certain shots of the film used this lens; for example a shot of Plainview in the train with infant H.W.

I don’t particularly make an effort to have a recognizable style. I’m usually making something up, not adapting something, so I’m going to end up working within my limitations.

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—	Wes Anderson (via goldenfiddle)

Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life,” he said. “If you cannot concentrate, you are not so happy. I’m not a fast thinker, but once I am interested in something, I am doing it for many years. I don’t get bored. I’m kind of a big kettle. It takes time to get boiled, but then I’m always hot.

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—	The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami - NYTimes.com