Thursday, June 16, 2011

I'm Working For the Okanagan Film Festival

I would apologize for not updating, but  Eyes at 6'5" updates EVERY Single day. Anyway, I somehow landed a  (non paying) job on the board of directors for the Okanagan Film Festival. My friend Jeremy, who directed the '32 Ghost IV Video' I'm in (a couple of posts down) is the new president of the board and invited me to a few meetings and then elected me to the board. Most of the board are new, so there's a great sense of energy. I get to attend meetings, give valuable input, watch short and feature length submissions (I'm the resident animated and LGBT film expert) and think of ways to market the festival. So far things are pretty low key, we have the social media thing started up and soon moving into phase 2 with some physical displays. I'll post a few things here as they come up. We're hoping to do a couple of videos as well, which will be awesome. Keep your eyes on my Twitter page Twitter Page  and the following links:

Okanagan Film Festival's Twitter Page

Okanagan Film Festival's Facebook Page

Okanagan Film Festival's Official Site

Oh, if you're interested in my choices of movies and want to know some interesting short and feature films that I've seen then visit my IMBb.com List Page. I have a few interesting lists up so far. Enjoy them!

Monday, October 04, 2010

Eyes At 6'5" Daily Photo Blog By Me

Sorry for a lack of updates around this blog. Had some 'life' happen and was rendered homeless for a month. I'm not kidding. Thanks to some friends I wasn't out on the streets. Now I have my own apartment and things are back on track. I was going to mention my new photo blog a week into it's conception, but got busy. But hey, better late then never right? Now there's plenty to view. Head over to Eyesat6-5.blogspot.com To check it out!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Opoona Review

Imagine a game developed by the makers of the Dragon Quest series.. set in outer space and the lead characters don't have spiky hair. Welcome to Opoona, a Japanese RPG for the Nintendo Wii.
Opoona, much like many JPG starts out with Opoona (the main character , the chubby bald headed kid with the orange ball on top of his head) sleeping in. He wakes up, his ship gets attacked and gets separated from his family and has to find them on the alien planet known as Landroll. Landroll, according to lore was hit by a meteorite awhile back and now the planet is split in half, a inhabitable side and a dark side.
The game takes a few cues from the Metroid Prime franchise with this plot device, but never gets very far with it. Sadly with no voice acting and only ONE CGI cut scene the story is made out through dialog boxes, long boring ones if that. And it's sad to say that Opoona did not get the best translation job out there. Things may have been taken too literal and sometimes leaves players wondering where to go and what to do? But then again the first dome (city) Tokione is such a mess of a design that it's easy to get frustrated trying to find a certain shop or even the exits! Whoever designed that city needs to be kicked in the balls, repeatedly. Thankfully the city designs are much more functional once you get to the next domes.
While getting frustrated with the city lay out and how the 'life style' part of this 'life style RPG' game works made me wonder about it even further. The game allows you to get jobs and make friends. In fact if you want to get outside of the first city you have to find a teacher to allow you to get a lice sense to be a Ranger, go the Admin office, get a license, then exit the building. If you want to upgrade your hover board transportation you get, you have to work fast food and get a mining license, then you can go face the second boss. At times I think the game is commenting on the bureaucracy of other games with job systems or society itself. But much like other JPGs and their ham fisted environmental message it comes off as annoying and leaves the player frustrated, especially when you have to do multiple 'side quests' just so you can reach the final boss's lair.
But let's talk about some more positive aspects of the game. The graphics and look of the game fit very well. Some of the domes look beautiful and have a real theme to them. Sometimes I wonder if the art team got their way on everything. The game heavily features variety of art work on display from paintings to sculptures to new age installation pieces. The character designs of the main characters work well, the cell shaded visuals of the characters make them look more childish and innocent. Some of the other characters are so oddly designed you wonder what kind of sick plastic surgeon the world of Landroll has, some women have beaks! Later in the game you come across some giants in an ancient forest, you’d swear they were created by a guy who just got his 3D modeling program the week before. Once you get out of the domes you can see some wonderful photo like sky boxes, which kind of clash with the cell shaded main characters.
The music of the game offers some short tunes, no 5 minute epics here. Most are over and done and repeating within a minute and a half, which isn't bad for some songs like the third battle theme or the final baddie lair music. But some of the cities have quite annoying songs to them (Bravo Company!).
The box of the game says it's one handed controls, only using the Nunchuck controller to do everything. I tried that, then picked up the Wii-Mote after 10 minutes and didn't put the Wii-Mote. It also supports the Classic Controller, didn't play with that.
The controls work well. 'A' To action things, 'B' to cancel things, etc, etc. In battle it's push the analog stick back, forward or sideways to direct your balls in battle and attack. Sure there's magical abilities which speak of angles and such (but never given any insight into how these abilities come to be, could be called Healing Spell 1, 2, 3 really.) As you progress through the game you'll find more and more attachments to your ball and gives your characters a bit more flare.
In the end you control 4 people over all. Only 3 at a time. The 4th is only momentarily during a part during the story. The three, Opoona, Copoona and Poleena have slightly different abilities. Copoona is more of a magic user, Opoona is the muscle and Poleena is the middle ground. But there isn't much difference between the three.

If you can make it to the second dome (Life Born) then you're going to be in for an RPG that will last 25- 40 hours, depending on your play style. The game has an odd quirky and cute charm that people have compared to the Super Nintendo cult classic Earthbound. I haven't played Earthbound yet, but Opoona has cult classic written all over it. Pick it up, give it a shot. It's most likely in a discount bin somewhere wanting you to play with its balls.

Grade: C+

Saturday, January 16, 2010

32 Ghost IV Video

Back in November I was visiting my friend Jeremy who is a director, editor and actor here in Kelowna and he was showing me his compilation of the Nine Inch Nails Ghost Film Festival. He chose his favorites and best and was compiling a fan made DVD of fan made videos. My 16 Ghost II video is featured on the DVD, but sadly he was having troubles finding a the right videos for a couple of songs.
So we looked at the candidates and thought of ways we could improve them. We then decided to just go out and shoot something. He had these really cool looking goggles, and the camera case and headed out as the sun was sinking lower in the sky. As we begun to shoot in the park, I suggested we walk by the military complex that's just a few blocks away since it had some tanks and chain link fences, things that frequently showed up in other Ghost videos and Year Zero. As we shot things just fell together.
After sitting on the footage and doing some post production, the video is complete:



Jeremy is also apart of an up and coming comedy group called A Quick and Dirty Experience, which I highly suggest checking out. Link.


In other Nine Inch Nails related news, the fan made video of concert footage taken by fans, edited by fans and distributed by fans called "Another Version of the Truth: The Gift" contains a remix of mine on the Las Vegas disc. You can find out more information about the project, and download it for free HERE.