[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [LXXXIII].

In Judaism, when someone turns 83, they can have a second Bar Mitzvah. This is because the first Bar Mitzvah is celebrate at 13, when they become men. Since the Torah says that 70 years is the 'normal' lifespan, their age essentially resets, so at 83 - 13 years after the end of their normal lifespan - they can have another Bar Mitzvah. Something like that, anyway.

I saw Hunger Games with my wifey and her sister and her sister's friend - I'll talk a bit about it later, so if you don't want spoilers, don't read the book.

For today:

The top of my amazing new dressing gown ('robe' for you, American). It's 4XL and it's hooded. It's the best dressing gown I've ever seen. I see two things - me and my wifey fitting in it at the same time watching a films and me sitting in it playing Call of Duty when I have a morning off. Lovely.

I call this 'Meeeeeuuurrrrrrhhh'. It's been a full day of making dollar bill butterflies and running round making appointments and going to see Hunger Games. Drawing took a back seat today, but here's a thing.

Hunger Games was pretty great! I was fully expecting it to end sooner than it did, but then I've not read the book. It was really great apart from one thing that I've noticed about quite a few films of late.

I'm talking shakey-cam. Steadicam rigs make filming smooth and fluid. Recording footage without one does not. When the focus of the film becomes trying to keep up with who is who and what they're doing - as opposed to how an event is unfolding and how well choreographed it is (or could be) - then there's something wrong. When it was first being used, the shakey, in-there-with-the-action, looks-like-it-was-a-handheld-camcorder shots were interesting because - as something new - it made you think that yea, being there and doing that would give you that feeling of uncomfortable, maybe unpredictable movement. Now, though, I find it a bit of a cop out - the technique one would go to to mask a lack of choreography or even boredom - Heaven forbid we see a steady shot of someone running through the woods.

The one thing that makes it worse is that among the shaking and blurred shots of the trees or whatever else is round there, half of the shots are of the camera coming into and going out of focus. It felt as if half of the film was shot by High Schoolers on work experience. "Zoom in, Craig." ... "Too far. Zoom out a little bit." ... "No, that's just a bit too far. You know what? Let's call it a day. Time's tight and you're going back to school tomorrow. If I don't get round to shooting this scene again, I still have this."

But that being said, it was a pretty great film and worth the time. If the chance to see it again comes along I may well take it. It makes me want to watch Battle Royale. It's a cleaner, lower-rated version which was nice. And I appreciated the fact that there were no guns - just good old fashioned spears and bows and arrows and knives and things.

I'm not sure how much of that would be considered a spoiler, so I'll go ahead and make an alert at the top...

Done. Ha.

Peace.