Brows Held High: Ken Park

[Oancitizen]

Greetings, cinemaphiles! We're here to discuss the workings and wonders of the arthouse circuit. You probably won't see much of Welles, Bergman or Fellini here, but instead be prepared for the strangest, headiest, and most daring films ever to work the Cannes circuit. Prepare to have your morality questioned, your mind expanded, and your bowels evacuated

Latest episode:

Ken Park

Ken Park, a tale of youngsters and their foibles. In this quaint little romp through small town Americana, Oancitizen totally loses his shit, like a lot. I mean, you have no idea.

Previous videos

Primer
The Discovery of Heaven
Masters of Horror: Dreams in the Witch House
Prospero's Books
Shortbus
The Anatomy of Hell
Antichrist
Trailer

Between the Lines

The Last Action Hero
Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers

Check it out on XTreme Network Online

[Marky]

Nice concept Great that you could work on your first review now. As long as the final video will be in better quality it's ok. What about your computer you mentioned? I did not notice anything bad. The only thing that bothered me was that at about 1:10 the singing in the background music was too loud and it distracted me from listening to you.

So what movies will you review mainly? You showed footage from Metropolis in the end, but I this is not really a modern arthouse film, is it? Though I must confess that I am not familiar with the other films you showed.

[Oancitizen]

There was a bit of annoying background noise during my filmed segments - the sound of my computer's fan. I guess I was the only one who noticed it.

And yeah, the sound levels were really annoying to work out, but this is only a test run. And while editing it the quality was a lot better. I think I lost something when I converted it to FLV - I need to pick a different format next time.

As for the films, the clips you saw were mostly from great movies that I *won't* be reviewing, and were just there to set the mood. Metropolis was in there, as was Citizen Kane, 8 1/2, Battleship Potempkin, 2001, the 400 Blows, Jules et Jim and Un Chien Andalou. The other clips are from films that I *will* be reviewing, and the directors that I listed did some of the films on my review queue. But I won't say which films just yet .

Glad you like the concept!

[Oancitizen]

Oh, crap in a hat...

Does anyone know a decent FTP uploader? I'm having buckets of trouble getting my pilot onto blip.

[Oancitizen]

Brows Held High: Antichrist is now up.

[Marky]

The link would lead to your own episode overview, it won't let me see it

Edit: from your trailer I can get to the episode, going to watch it now.

Edit 2:
So, I'm done. The review was informative, I liked how you censored the body parts with their corresponding animals. Your "cannot be unseen"-list was also great
You have to check the audio levels though, your voice was the same level, that's good, but the movie's audio was too low. I couldn't understand a word of what they said, but I didn't change the volume and I guess you summed up most of the dialogue anyway.
Finally, you appear natural on camera as well, that's always good.

[ManicWebb]

Note to self: A cabin in the woods and my dick most probably won't cure my wife of her clinical depression.

I loved the review. You might want to watch for a slight buzzing sound in your mic when you speak. I could hear your audio track go in and out during the clips of the film. Other than that, it was brilliant.

[Oancitizen]

Thanks. And you're right, I really need to invest in a decent mike. It bugged the hell out of me when I was editing.

[ApolloZHack]

Haha, you're like the Turner Classic Movie version of the Cinema Snob.

Good debut here. The video looked out of focus but I'd guess that's due to the video conversion problems you were running into. My only real complaint is that I thought it could have been tightened up editing wise and the pacing could have been faster. Most of the time I could barely hear the Anti-Christ audio and at those times it seemed to drag. Your on-screen prescence, commentary, and scripting I thought were definitely entertaining. Your character seemed to come out here and that's always a plus. Your stuff is only going to improve from here on out and I'm looking forward to seeing what else you have in store.

Oh, and the talking fox totally reminded me of the Gomork in Neverending Story both in movement and voice haha

[Prons]

I'm watching your pilot right now and so far it's really good!

I hate to pummel you with suggestions when you've only made one video so far, but do you think you'll talk about Audition someday? I can't stand that movie but everyone seems to love it.

Edit: I can't stop watching that scene where you're all "HOW MANY DEAD BABIES DOES ONE FILM NEED?!" My only problem is that the movie scenes are pretty quiet. I assume that's a problem with the movie itself, those damn artsy movies are always quiet

[Oancitizen]

Haha, you're like the Turner Classic Movie version of the Cinema Snob.

Good debut here. The video looked out of focus but I'd guess that's due to the video conversion problems you were running into. My only real complaint is that I thought it could have been tightened up editing wise and the pacing could have been faster. Most of the time I could barely hear the Anti-Christ audio and at those times it seemed to drag. Your on-screen prescence, commentary, and scripting I thought were definitely entertaining. Your character seemed to come out here and that's always a plus. Your stuff is only going to improve from here on out and I'm looking forward to seeing what else you have in store.

Oh, and the talking fox totally reminded me of the Gomork in Neverending Story both in movement and voice haha

Damn, if I remembered the Neverending Story I would have totally made that joke! And if the pacing was slow, then I guess I did my job. Antichrist feels like it's five hours long anyway.

And yeah, I tried converting to an mpg but the file got so large that it kept stalling on the upload so I had to convert to a lesser quality flv file.

I've already scripted a second episode, which I should be filming tomorrow.

[TheEternalShadow]

Having seen this movie before I saw your review, I must say that I was scarred for life. But enough about that strange film, let's talk about your review. I'd hate to quote Jew Wario's "I like it" because like is such a small word. I LOVED it. You seem rather comfortable in front of the camera, like everyone's said, and you do, in a way, remind me of the Cinema Snob.

There were some problems of course, like the audio and a bit on the pacing, but hey, no one is perfect (hell, just check out my reviews and you can see that) But seeing how much potential there was in here, I am sure that the problems will be fixed if not by the second episode, than soon. Either way, I eagerly await good sir.

[Oancitizen]

"Brows Held High: The Anatomy of Hell" is now up.

[Ethan]

I can tell Lindsay's work has a pretty big influence on your style. Of course, I could be wrong, but... Regardless, your review of AOH was very good; and you've improved a lot from the first one - better timing, better pace, better editing (that scene with the block of wood in Antichrist, BTW - now the WTFiest scene in movies involving a block of wood, taking the crown away from Misery). I don't know where you find these, but I'm kinda glad you do. Seriously, forward this to Linds, Nella, and their crew - they may get a kick out of it if they haven't already.

I don't know if you do requests. But Punishment Park seems like it should be reviewed - or are you just doing bad art-house flicks?

[Oancitizen]

Oh I love the Nostalgia Chick's work. And I've already gotten the Chick's attention in the past - I wrote an essay on the larger themes of Nella's pony epic.

Never heard of Punishment Park, but I'll definitely check it out. I have a lineup of about 10-15 movies that I could potentially do, but I'm always looking to add to the list.

I'm not really looking to do *bad* arthouse films - just weird and impenetrable ones. There are a couple of movies on my list that I really enjoy, but are just really heady and generally incomprehensible to the layperson. I know the Cinema Snob generally likes exploitation films and Lupa (whom I also love) is willing to admit her own guilty pleasures. I guess I'm just going to work through my own inherent pretentiousness in doing this series

[The_Bookshelf]

Dude, I would give one of my lungs, both my kidneys and my copy of Brick to read that essay.

I do like the series a lot. It's a cool idea, and I think you're a very intelligent, very natural reviewer, so fair dos! A few criticisms, though. You had some camera trouble in Anti-Christ, which I think worked against you. You seem to have corrected that in Anatomy of Hell, though, so I suppose it's kind of moot. I'd advise you work on sound levels a bit more; your biggest strength is your dialogue and delivery, and that can get screwed up pretty easily if you've got something else going on as well. You do seem to be improving on that as well, though, so I'll just shut up and go hide in my corner.

[Oancitizen]

Dude, I would give one of my lungs, both my kidneys and my copy of Brick to read that essay.

Keep your organs. Here it is.

[ManicWebb]

Oh. My. God.

The Anatomy of Hell was the most hilariously disgusting movie review I've ever seen in my life. I was both in stitches and felt like vomiting my breakfast from start to finish. Well done, sir.

[Marky]

Oh this one was a lot better than the first indeed. Sound level was good, only one thing bugged me and that was when the woman was talking and you did the voice-over at the same time. Better turn the woman mute then.
Where do you get to know about these movies by the way? I never heard of any of the two. It's kind of obvious though that I won't find them in most of the regular theatre programms

[ApolloZHack]

First couple minutes in and there's already a huge indication that this one has improved substantially over the last (such as the clearer picture). The scripting continues to be both amusing and informative and you got a hold on your character. Really 'lol'd" at the old-time striptease music gag. Your picks of "censor" images are awesome, too, haha.

More, please.