24 Hour Comic

My boys are very much looking forward to a "Graphic Novel/Comic" class for their upcoming junior year in high school. So I was searching for Scott McCloud related books, when I stumbled across this DVD.

One boy watched it with my wife and I, and we really enjoyed getting to know the people involved, albeit through the selective eye of the camera. The lens work less an issue for us on the small screen for what it's worth.

As time rolls by, a bit of a weariness settles in, not just for the contestants but for us. I found Jacob to be the heart of the film, to me his relationship with David Celsi reminded me of Neil Young always wanting to seek out Crazy Horse. As success rises for one artist, he needs more than a muse, but a kind of unfiltered raw nerve to spark the effort and repel any darkness tat might set in.

As with musicians, and perhaps even more so for cartoonists, trying to find enough business sense to keep the medical and housing bills at bay seems like a daunting challenge. Paul Guinan and the other CalTech guy (sorry forget his name right now, but somehow calling him CalTech guy underscores this notion) need to have a really rational approach to the business of their art.

But that phrase alone "business of art" is oxymoronic at best. And if as a young person you go into any kind of "dream" creative job, these sort of thoughts should be emptied from your pockets (at least till you're 30?!?)

Anyways it was interesting that my other son, who watched the DVD by himself (and not on a Friday night with a nice supportive family vibe) was not at all engaged by this film. Kind of like the event itself, it is surely more fun to watch this film with a few friends.

To me the genius of the 24 hour comic contest, is that it can be a decent business decision (if those involved, and/or hosting it can quick-bake a product out of it), plus for 24 hours, just not thinking about the business end, but just completing a comic (and holding back your inner critic, much less publishers and others) might be a bit of Crazy Horse for all at involved.

Maybe watch this, but for sure check out some of the McCloud series of comics on comics, and his "The Sculptor" was surely not created in 24 hours, but was a nice piece of the teacher showing he's quite a doer as well. His appearance in the film by the way is pretty minimal. Though he helped launch these contests.

I do recommend watching it with some friends, especially your crowd's version of Jacob Mercy.

The subject matter of this film was interesting enough, and I won't provide any spoilers in regard to the storyline, but the camera work was just awful. The person behind the lens could not, for the life of them, focus their camera or hold it steady!

Every single shot either began or ended out of focus and, after a while, it started to give me a headache. From the repeated quick zooms in and out, the jerky camera movements, the countless blurry shots, and the barrage of shots that would begin out of focus only to quickly hunt back into focus and then back out of focus again--sometimes more than once in the same scene--ended up becoming so distracting that I could barely focus on the storyline and what the people in the film were saying; I was focused more on the poor camera work. In fact, I find it to be so bad, for me, it's now become the reference film for how not to shoot a film.

I don't know if the cameraman thought they were being creative or what. But the purpose of these types of camera movements and focus techniques is for creative purposes that are meant to be used sparingly--not for virtually every scene! Otherwise, it just becomes annoying and viewers end up paying more attention to the flaws than they do the story. That's just Cinematography 101. This cameraman doesn't seem to understand this, so the doc is left feeling like amateur hour for most of the shots.

TL:dr: If you can manage, for over an hour, to stomach the distracting and annoying camera work, then you might enjoy this documentary. If not, then that's too bad for all involved, including the viewers.