Hacker Cinema
The Salton Sea
2002 · Film · 103 min
Directed by D.J. Caruso
After the murder of his beloved wife, a man in search of redemption is set adrift in a world where nothing is as it seems. On his journey, he befriends slacker Jimmy "The Finn", becomes involved in rescuing his neighbor Colette from her own demons, and gets entangled in a web of deceit full of unexpected twists and turns.
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4 comments on Hacker News
That movie was such a foundational document for me, and (obviously) for many other nerdy GenX kids.
I found this site years (decades!) ago, and was happy to discover it's still there:
https://monkeybagel.com/culture/movies.html
The blurb there for _Real Genius_:
"The most accurate portrayal of geeks in the wild I've ever seen. The geeks in Real Genius LOOK, ACT and TALK like geeks. And Jordan gave me hope that I'd someday -- just maybe -- kiss a girl on the lips."
I remember a discussion of this film on a long-running private listserv back in the late 90s or early 00s about possible real-world antecedents for some of the characters, including and especially Jordan. A proto-web site existed for this person where she elaborated on her connection to the writers of the film, and more or less confirmed that she was "Jordan", or at least the inspo for it, but of course I can find no trace of this now.
Anyway, between TOP SECRET, REAL GENIUS, WILLOW, TOMBSTONE, HEAT, and TOP GUN, he's about as inconic as an actor can get. For a dose of maybe less blockbustery work, seek out 2002's THE SALTON SEA where Kilmer is joined by Adam Goldberg, Luis Guzman, Anthony LaPaglia, Peter Sarsgaarad, BD Wong, R. Lee Ermey (!) and in a spectacular turn Vincent D'Onofrio.
There are actors I developed an affinity towards. I don't know for sure whether it was their role or acting in that role. I don't think so. I just think I saw some of them when I started exploring cinema from the world, outside my country, and hence in the beginning that meant mostly from the USA. I think it is just early familiarity. Kilmer is one of them.
And - they never seem to age to me. Maybe it's the makeup or what not. I remember him from Heat and even in subsequent films somehow he stayed that old or young - like in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, or Salton Sea, there was this with Michael Douglas, and some more. don't remember Top Gun for Cruise, hell I don't remember any Tom Cruise film for Tom Cruise. If I noticed him in a film I'd just assume I'd like that film and that kinda seemed irrational but I did like the film. There was something about him. There are few more actors like him. It's sad. They never look older to me, they just die one day and that becomes more shocking. In a way it reminds me of my own mortality harder compared to maybe if I would have noticed them steadily growing and looking older. I will miss him.
Great movie: Salton Sea
I have a Canon 7d that takes beautiful video. I spent a fair amount of time learning to make beautiful videos with it, and I also spent a fair amount of money buying low light lenses, filters (vari nd filter), and still need to buy audio (zoom h4n), steadycam (zacuto) and follow focus gear. The thing is, I intend to make a documentary so I do want it to be as good as I can possibly make it so I will end up spending an additional $1k-2k on top of the camera body depending on the gear I end up going with.
Having said that, the target market for a cheap Canon DSLR (parents) with the stock lens and nothing more than a tripod should be very happy with the flexibility of carrying one camera for stills and video, and the results they get on video should be very close to a a similarly priced camcorder.
Here is an example of why. I was at a ballet recital on Saturday and a father was filming his daughter with a $900 Canon T2i camera on a tripod and his video will likely look better than on a comparable Canon camcorder because the light was not changing, his subject was at the same focal distance and his camera was mounted on a tripod. That eliminates almost all of the manual control variables that require more equipment except for one - audio. A $99 audio device can fix that if it matters to you.
On the flip side, the DSLR gives you full manual controls and the ability to shoot in low light with possibly a cheap $100 Canon 50mm f/1.8.
Here are two videos shot with DSLR's that can show you the range of these DSLR's:
Alexandra (1 camera body, lens, and monopod) http://vimeo.com/6854556
Salton Sea (1 camera body, lots of lenses and fancy equipment) http://vimeo.com/10314280
Video DSLR's will replace camcorders eventually. In the meantime they can be useful in that they take both stills and video, and etter yet they are the best thing that happened to independent film makers.
UPDATE: Another comments points to a post on Philip Bloom's site about which DSLR to purchase. Philips site is full of very helpful information, the Salton Sea video linked to above is his.
http://philipbloom.net/2010/06/06/whichdslr/