DeZ Vylenz Log

A captain's log of activities and projects, affiliations and developments involving the Shadowsnake ship and various guerilla film expeditions. Updated in between storms by DeZ Vylenz, Writer - Director - Martial Arts Choreographer

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Watchmen Essay

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm not a punctual blogger. That's because I still prefer to write fiction in the little time I have left and most of my life is nomadic in nature. Pretty much like a ronin, a sword for hire, so am in the middle of too many ventures and projects, which still bring me to interesting places.

For those interested in consciousness, the mystical, comics, narrative and Moore, here is an old essay from 2006. Only published before in Italian. This is the first time it comes out in English.

Now relevant as the Hollywood film adaptation has finally arrived.

http://sardinianconnection.blogspot.com/2009/03/article-dez-vylenz-on-watchmen.html

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Snow Surprise

Another week, another pound. More crisis in the news, as if nothing good is also happening. The snowfall made most of the UK ground to a halt, but really shows the incompetence of those in charge of the infrastructure. Not even salt on stairs or sidewalks when it started to melt. I guess that tax money everbody coughs up has to cover bonuses for the top dogs and finance building projects nobody needs. Talk about skimming off money, it's going on everywhere in the world.

A few images of families playing with their children, sleds drawn by dogs as if they were Poledogs. Now why is there not more of that positive coverage. When I grew up back in Suriname, there was always a kind of anecdotal item at the end of the 8 o'clock news.

After all the wars, economic pessimism and starvation on the box, something from around the world to show another angle, something uplifting.

This year we're hoping to launch this particular weblog as a place for everybody to send a little 2 minute item from all corners of the world. Notes From the Other Ground.

Feel free to send anything you think is not covered by the world media, as long as you keep it "civilized".

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Obama in office, Oxen on the move

The Chinese new year of the Ox officially started Monday 26 January. New moon, new year and a new president of the US and A. Apparently Obama is also an Ox, who are apparently strong headed and determined to toil towards their goal over a long stretch time.

This year they say is the harvest, the fruition of all that (not only Oxen) all you have worked for over the last few years. Let's hope so, I'm a water Ox myself and have been in the grind for quite a stretch. So will put it to the test, not by waiting for astrological predictions to actualize, but by blazing through in serious combat mode.

I came back to London last week fly-by-night styling and had to get straight into new missions to finish treatments for deadlines (one of the projects being a factional thriller styled docu).

My main hunger is still to shoot the Caribbean drama-thriller and the work on it still continues on a parallel track, but these specific projects for broadcast are more feasible short-term.

I've also been writing more and more fiction and currently working on a number of short suspense stories. Film and music are such fickle industries, but with fiction it's at least me, my fountain pen and paper. A crazy trinity that I can at least rely upon to get the narratives out of my head.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

New Year of the Ox

Unbelievable, already a week into the new year. The firework explosions and foggy mists afterwards seem so far now.

Still in Amsterdam working on the short fiction stories and the screenplay for the Caribbean thriller. Meanwhile I've been commissioned to get involved in a number of interesting projects, most of them in London.

This weblog still needs to be updated to Wordpress, so apologies again for the lack of options to place comments. Thanks for all the emailed response, all feedback is appreciated.

Anyway, all the best of health, wisdom and prosperity in the New Year of the Ox.

Safe,

DeZ

Posted by DeZ Vylenz  

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Kickback Exhibit / Gomorra

Checked out the opening night of the David Lloyd exhibition at the New End Gallery last week (http://www.qype.co.uk/events/240776-Kickback-An-Exhibition-of-the-Dynamic-Sequential-Art-of-David-Lloyd-New-End-Gallery-London), always great to see the larger originals with all the shades of inks, water colours and crayons going on. Lloyd has a very recognizable style of his own, so for those who can make it to the Hampstead area in London before 23 December, check it out.

http://www.lforlloyd.com/news/

Then in between the creative writing and the Kafka paperwork this week, finally got a chance to see Gomorra with a friend/film colleague. I thought it was gripping and tense, but it wasn't the absolute master piece everybody had been raving about. My friend David was less convinced and made the point that it wasn't showing him anything he hadn't seen yet in the raw urban crime films and TV shows. Then I realised that I knew some of the actual background of Napoli (as it's one of my favourite cities in Europe), so that helps a little bit of understanding the context of the actions. I had also read parts of the original book by the author Roberto Saviano. He's now in hiding with government protection as the Mafia have put a price on his life.

In a nutshell, I think the problem with Gomorra is the micro-cosm it presents, while never allowing the audience to really grasp the macro-scale of things going on, and the whole food chain. An unofficial hierarchy of crime exploitating on the smallest of human levels.

Without this back knowledge we miss the whole exposure of the Camorra's modus operandi, which was deliberately to show the sordid anti-thesis of the more glorified Mafia myths like The Godfather.

The original narrative in the written form began after all as a piece of investigative journalism.

There are many opponents of voice-over, but e.g.if Casino didn't have it, less of the machinery/food chain that formed Vegas would be clear. The key to these things is usually the place the city as a protagonist and we didn't get one shot of the wonderfully loud and colourful Napoli or the ports, which is the center of their wealth.

But besides sorely missing all that multi-leveled knowledge, I thought it was a very tense piece of film making, the energy often contained in the pressure cooker of what's going on between the actual killings. And death always comes unexpected, the warring creatures naked in all their sordid violence.

Check it out.

Posted by DeZ Vylenz