found_drama

Kind of an art house
“Office Space”; Plebeian coup!
But not as funny.

I wanted to like this one. I really did. The opening scene was so strong — it was such a great setup that seemed a bit… Wasted? The film seemed a bit unfocused to me; like it could have been a really strong short film if it had focused entirely on Tom. Instead it seemed to veer all over the place, trying to pull in meaningful side-stories from some of the supporting characters. But I just wasn’t feeling it.

Which (contrary to what I’m suggesting) is not to say that I didn’t like Waydowntown. Like I mentioned, the opening narration is a great setup¹ with a clever monologue and some interesting images. There are also a few other scenes that work really well — all of them centered around Tom (the central character). The way it weaved in/out of his reality and hallucinated fantasy worlds had a lot unrealized potential and this really could have been improved in one of two ways: (1) cutting out some of the other, clumsier scenes to focus on “Tom’s world”; or (2) expanding the film’s scope a bit to tie things together a bit more effectively.

In summary? It came close to being “great” but will have to settle for being “good”.

BONUS ROUND: Compare/contrast with Haiku Tunnel:

Film: “Office Space” meets
“Curb Your Enthusiasm”;
good, funny, “at times”.

1. …for the movie we didn’t actually get…[↩]

• How To Read and Understand a Histogram
  a “Professional Photographer Magazine Web Exclusives”
  (tags: tutorial Photoshop howto graph graphics photography essay todo)
• WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle
  @ New York Times (via John)
  (tags: writing essay)

I have co-authored a plug-in for Google Earth to help canners track their scavenging and maximize their returns.  I demo the features to a bunch of prospective investors and retailers.  I show them how they can use a layer based system to show how many bottles/cans/etc. they locate each day, what the most successful blocks and neighborhoods are, some built-in math to show all time highs and lows and averages.  There is a social networking feature to track belligerent home-owners that might chase them off and also a newsfeed system to give tips about what other items they might be able to scavenge and where to redeem those items (e.g., copper tubing).