Just Saw OCEANS THIRTEEN :)

I think I need to see it again. (On dvd.) I'm tempted to say it was better than the second but can't touch the first.

And yet...

It was really only the end of the second movie that made me feel a bit let down. That was a DYNAMIC flick, if you think back. Stuff's happening all fast-paced like the first one. But in the first one, the resolution was PERFECTION. In the second you sort of felt that Soderberg and the writers hadn't really played fair with you.

Thirteen...

It's a bit of a blur now, but I'm tempted to say that the story's better with the third but the romp is better with the second. You know?

Good flick, mind you!

The thing is, once you've seen it for the 15th time on dvd it's just part of the overall story.

EDDIE IZZARD GETS MORE LINES IN THIS ONE!!!

He gets some MAJOR screen time with Clooney and Pitt, and THAT'S a GREAT thing!!! In fact, you could fairly say that Izzard carries the opening exposition. If not for him, it might have been a slow opening.

So that's cool!

I'll need a second viewing of the third flick.

Anyway, I got to see if for free, and I got to see it at the Alamo, so THAT'S groovage!

My baby had to go early tonight, so I did my laundry and I said to myself, "Hey... I could go see Ocean's Thirteen tonight..."

Then I replied, "Yup. You sure could, sir."

So I did.


OH!!! GUESS WHAT!!!

Okay, I'm a HUGE Dirk Maggs fan. The cat's BRILLIANT, and he's doing with audio something I thought SHOULD be done with audio since I was a kid. And I was passively researching him last night and discovered that he has done something ELSE that I wanted to do with audio...

Okay, first I should tick off the things he's ALREADY done with audio:

First and formost, his aproach to sound design for audio theatre is what he calls "sound movies". He applies the same techniques and theory to designing audio theatre that cinematic sound designers do, giving the audience -- in affect -- a movie without the images!

It works amazingly well!

Traditional sound design principal is based on stage plays. You have actors and sound effects. The acting sometimes comes off as good (or bad, in some cases) stage acting, rather than filmic acting. Then you bring in whatever sound effects you HAVE TO HAVE to complete the sort of perfunctory illusion.

Cinematic sound design conversely, is ROBUST!

First off, the acting isn't a representation of being in a moment, it is absolute mimicry of being in that moment.

For instance, a stage actor running in a play can only run so far, as the stage is only so long. So he might pant an pull off some dramatics to give the audience the IMPRESSION of someone physically exerting themselves. In a FILM, however, the actor will ACTUALLY run whatever distance he is meant to run. And if the scene calls for a cut immediately after the running, so the camera can be repositioned to get a better angle on the actor for the next chunk of action/dialog, the actor is very likely to have a good run after the camera is in its next position, so that when he starts the shot he is ACTUALLY panting, lending even more believability to his performance.

Stage and film acting are really 2 very, very different styles of acting. The latter being more of a recreation of life than a representation of life. Academically speaking, this can be argued, as acting is a great deal more subtle than represented here, but I'm trying to make a general point here, and not about acting.)

Secondly, and most obviously (to those who have the ear) cinematic sound is a GREAT DEAL more subtle! Movie sound designers have be able to account, aurally, for everything the eye sees in the frame. (They don't have to always incorporate it all, because sound is used just as shrewdly as framing, lighting, music, writing, acting to focus on each important moment, and to emphasize each story moment as ti is happening to ensure the audience is following the import of what's going on at every given moment.)

But the movie sound designer will often include incidental noise (that may not be available on the master track) to enhance the illusion of reality.

For instance:

Two people are having a quiet discussion in a New York apartment.

But the conversation was actually filmed on a sound stage in Los Angeles. All you hear on the master reel is the voices of those people, because sound stages are DESIGNED to keep all other sound out.

But the sound designers will take a recording of a New York City street (and most likely THE street that the apartment is supposed to be located on, as cinematic sound designers are famously anal retentive when it comes to authenticity and detail) and layer it in under the scene. So in between lines of dialog -- even during, when it's not distracting -- you will hear cars and trucks driving by.

The effect will go unnoticed by the audience. But if the outside traffic weren't there, there would be a subliminal sense of something missing.

So Dirk Maggs recognized this long ago, and adapted this approach to his audio plays. (Going so far as to introduce Dolby Surround Sound to BBC Radio series!)

So that's a HUGE thing he's done that I'm jealous of. (I still want to do it, but by the time I get a chance, they will simply call me the "next Dirk Maggs", if anything at all. I can't be the first to do it now, lol.)

Next, he's done stories featuring Superman, Batman and Spider-man! I've always wanted to work with those characters, and he ahs.

Next, he got to be the one to adapt (masterfully, I should add) the last the Hitchhiker's Guide novels back to radio! THAT is a MONUMENTAL feat!!! He got to work with Douglas Adams! He got to -- in a sense -- BE Douglas Adams!!!

And he'll be doing it again at the end of the year, with his Dirk Gently series!!!

And here's another thing he's gotten to do that I just discovered:

I'm a huge Marx Brothers fan. I think they're genius! Always have!

In 1988 someone found all but one script to the Marx Brothers one and only radio series, and he released them in a collection.

I bought that collection and I SO wanted to produce that series! I mean, I've always loved radio theatre -- aka "The Theatre of the Mind" -- and I wanted to be the person to bring the genius of the Marx Brothers in audio to life!

But Maggs beat me to it.

In 1990 (and again in 1992 and 1993) he produced 3 BRILLIANT series which recreated mosty of those scripts!!!

And I scored me some mp3s of 16 of the 18 total episodes!

So while I was doing my laundry and washing dishes and decided whether or not to see OCEAN'S THIRTEEN tonight, I listened to several episodes of this show, FLYWHEEL, SHYSTER AND FLYWHEEL.

Genius! :D

(I love my iPod!)

And now...?

Not sure. I should probably polish my short story and post in on MySpace, but I don't really feel up to that. I polished an audio script I wrote some time ago and sent it to Kelly. He may direct in in L.A. and let me produce it here. We'll see how that goes. But I'm not itching to write tonight.

Not sure what I'll do.

But if it's interesting, you know I'll tell you about it!

PEACE!!! :D