andrewducker | Venice through the looking glass

Last week was somewhat confused, as I was supposed to be back up on Tuesday, but due to rain and landslides didn't make it until Saturday (just in time, as 90 mile and hour winds hit England today, but missed Scotland). Erin was down from Wednesday, so I actually got to see her in London on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon, and also got to see the short film she was production manager of last year (or possibly the start of this year). It wasn't great, but it was pretty good - a short (10 minute) piece about a young boy whose father (and stepfather) were both no good for him at all, making the decision that he'd rather have no father than a bad one.

I also saw Dave McKean's film [N]eon, which was very, very pretty. I have no idea how the CGI was done, but it makes every other CGI work I've seen look a bit crap. Not because it looked realistic, but because it didn't. It deliberately strove for a particular kind of stylised look that it pulled off amazingly. From milky black and white dream sequences to 3d excursions through paintings into the sketches and ideas that produced them. It was ostensibly about a man living in Venice, trying to find a place he could fit into now that his friends were all settling down. But it was actually about far more than that. Very, very lovely. If it was available on video I'd be showing it to all my friends by now.