PSYCHO-NONSENSE Angel Dust IMDB Shogo Ishii's psychological police thriller about murders along a subway line is weighed down by an overabundance of psychobabble.

You'll see a lot of this shot in the movie

Another in the usually vibrant Japanese subgenre of psychological horror, "Angel Dust" has all the hallmarks of its kin. Stark, gritty photography, detached pacing and emphasis on characterization encompassing a solid thriller hook. In Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Cure", it was unrelated victims slashed with an "X". In the soon-to-be-remade "The Ring", all the victims had viewed a mysterious videotape. In "Angel Dust", all the victims were young women who were poisoned by a hypodermic during crowded periods on the subway on Mondays. Unfortunately, "Angel Dust" begins like a lot of bad psycho-thriller movies. Stop me if this sounds familiar. A beautiful detective Setsuko (Kaho Minami) trained in psychology is thrown into the investigation because she gets 'feelings' from being around the victims. We have the obligatory autopsy scene. We have troubles with the woman gaining acceptance with the male dominated police force. It is as hackneyed as it sounds, though these trappings are dispensed with in shorthand fashion. Director Shogo Ishii seems to use these cliches only to set up the meditation on psychology that makes "Angel Dust" a frustrating bore. Recognizably due to its genre, "Angel Dust" is a study on mood and atmosphere that is comparable to "Cure". Long, harshly lit shots that settle on one or two characters. Overly saturated framing of the eyes. Cosmetically, then, "Angel Dust" does put you into the mood where you can spend a lot of time thinking about the psychology of both the murders and the investigator. It is composition that requires patience, though in this case the wait is unrewarded. Almost as soon as the investigation begins, the psychologist recognizes a connection with a man in her past, a black sheep researcher named Aku (Takeshi Wakamatsu) who specializes in "re-brainwashing" former cultists through deprivation techniques. Now married, Setsuko is wary of meeting Aku again. When they meet it should seem to the audience why she should be afraid. The man speaks extremely slowly and entirely in psychobabble. The majority of the movie then becomes a series of meetings between the two psycho-intellectuals. She seeks insight into the murders while he wants to reexamine why they are no longer sleeping together. That seemed to be the gist of it. Of course, it was supposed to also unveil the meaning behind the murders (something to do with failing to recognize your true identity) but the effect was to bring the 'thriller' aspect to a screeching halt. One might argue that you have to accept the mood and pacing in order to get into the depth of the movie in the same way you have to be extremely silly to go along with the earnestness of "The Attack of the Clones". However, composition aside, there is no denying that the two characters were largely talking shit. Even as developments brought the actual murder investigation and the jousting psychologists closer together, "Angel Dust" seemed to end with more of a tying up loose threads. Subplots with the lead male investigator, a weird discovery involving Setsuko's husband, and even the identity of the murderer seemed hurriedly concluded. This is unfortunate because "Angel Dust" does contain some interesting setups involving the murders. In a couple interesting scenes (which should be of note to budding guerrilla filmmakers), the 'victim' (an actress) 'dies' in the center of a public area amidst hundreds of people going about their daily lives who become unwitting extras. Shocked by the collapse of the women, they rush to her aid. I could imagine the production assistants quickly dispersing the crowd with a cheery bow and quick explanation: "nothing to see here. Move along." On DVD.

More bathroom filming
After two more days of weekend filming in my bathroom I have learned this eternal lesson. Do not direct yourself. I could have saved myself a ton of trouble if I had only conned Kelvin into being the star of the movie. Instead, I had to spend 3x more time making sure I was framed in the shot and then running back to the camera, rewinding, and reviewing. And those moments of inspiration came easier when I was watching someone else do the shot. Here are some other things I've learned:

• - Get an external monitor. Not everyone can see through your viewfinder. In fact, the viewfinder on the XL1 does not show the entire frame. So, in a number of shots, including a painstakingly composed stop motion animation, my chunky body was in frame.
• - You might think that a tiny bathroom like mine would be easily encompassed by the lens, but in fact the focal length is not wide enough on the stock 16x Canon lens. I totally needed a wide angle adaptor.
• - Because I kept on switching modes between shooting and VCR, I constantly lost my camera settings. Hence, I need the on camera battery that keeps the settings.

The next two nights are devoted to editing.

Bathroom filming
Today was my first day of filming the five minute bathroom movie that Bradly Peterson on DVDA proposed. (Click on the image to get a full capture frame)

It started (after work) when I tried to make my first bucket of fake blood. There are a multitude of recipes for fake blood on the Internet and I may have chose the one with the most opportunity for mistakes. In any case, it did its purpose. You can't tell in the shot here but in the video around it, the blood is dark and red enough.

Filming in the bathroom was a great challenge to propose. Not only do you have to film within the physical constraints of whatever bathroom you have access to, you also have to play a lot with the lighting.

I discovered to my benefit that my bathroom has four separate tonalities that the Canon can fully exploit. A green tonality behind the frosted glass of the sliding shower door (you can see the green in the screen cap), a naturally yellow glare from the lights, pristine white if you white balance against the eggshell wall or door, and a red one if you turn on the heat lamp. Also, by manipulating the gain (db) levels you can create saturated yellow images.

I need to film a couple more days before I have enough material, I think.

Trip to interior: Keremeos
I've been gone the past five days on a trip to the interior of British Columbia with friends to a small town called Keremeos which is known as the "fruit stand capital" of B.C. Indeed, it has a lot of fruit stands but also a nice desert setting bounded by mountains on all sides. It was really nice to get away from computers and work. The dry and occasionally warm climate encouraged loafing, nice solid blocks of sleep.

Of course, I took along the Canon to shoot whatever was interesting.

Among the things I missed was a deer roadkill, a real live rattlesnake (which we cruelly prodded with sticks) and a cloud of mountain sheep. However, I did manage to shoot a lot of video, the majority of it fairly uninteresting road footage (a la "Cops" chase video) and a lot of pretty scenery shots. Some more interesting things I did was try and direct one friend, Mel who was a willing subject. Surprisingly, it took less than a few minutes to make her unaware of the camera.

Also trying to keep up with horses galloping was a challenge. There are a lot of problems with the Canon's 'unique' way of focusing with the default 16x lens. It is not entirely manual but is motor served so it will try and compensate, not making it a smooth zoom. The horses were fairly willing subjects, being very friendly. Overly friendly at times when they tried to bite the lens.

Keremeos has some excellent background scenery and usually predictably dry, sunny weather. However, on this weekend most of one day had a heavy rainstorm which I was told was unusual.

Being there gave me some ideas for part of a feature. One local I asked regarding filming here was unimpressed when I said I was a budding indie filmmaker. "Jack Nicholson filmed The Pledge here," she said.

DVDA 5 minute bathroom film challenge
Bradley Petersen on the DVDA forum has come up with an interesting challenge for budding DV moviemakers.

Ok, here's an excercise...
1. Takes place entirely in a bathroom.
2. Do it without actual nudity (minimal or implied only)
3. Use available light only.
4. Minimum of 1 minute, max of 5 minutes

I've been thinking madly about this for the past two days.

Recovering from weekend
I didn't do any more video work after the two back-to-back shoots (Fidgital concert and paintball). It turns out that the Fidgital concert went to a second act too. I can't imagine how badly I would have performed the next day at paintball if I had stayed on for the second act. The default shoulder rest for the XL1S is really terrible for extended shooting.

Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away"
To wind down Sunday night I sat down to watch Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away", the anime film that broke box office records in Japan. It was very nice but I like his "Mononoke Hime" (Princess Mononoke) and "Naussica" better. I suppose I like the stronger adventure narratives of the latter films more than the fanciful children's tale that "Spirited Away" is.

"Spirited Away" is the story of a girl whose parents are turned into pigs in a fantasy world where humans are unwanted. To free her parents she has to become a servant of a sorceress who hosts a bathhouse for gods. It is tremendously imaginative in a way that is not normally seen in North American children's film.

I will write up a review later as it is sure to hit North America this year. Kelvin is showing it to friends later on today after sundown.