Punisher, Speed Racer and more - everything I loved this week
Weekly Reset is my lil diary of stuff I've done, stuff I've enjoyed and anything else I want to talk about - this week we've got a couple of underrated movies, art books and more
Welcome to Weekly Reset, a selection of some of my favourite things I’ve watched, read, listened to, played, unboxed, ate, smelled…you get it. I love reading these so I thought I’d make one. Don’t forget to sound off in the comments with what you’ve been enjoying lately.
Speed Racer - hot damn is this movie good. Such a fun and vibrant use of VFX with a simple and well told story that keeps you engaged from the off. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this since maybe Tron? Wonderful.
Away - I haven’t watched Flow yet but I did want to get a jump and watch some of Gints Zilbalodis’ older work. This was a huge surprise. It’s beautifully animated and scored and reminded me a lot of something like Spirited Away in its visual style. The fact that this was pretty much a one man show is astonishing and incredibly inspiring. I highly suspect Flow will be making an appearance in next weeks Weekly Reset.
Punisher: War Zone - and on the complete opposite end of the spectrum we’ve got a hyper-violent and gleefully comic-accurate version of The Punisher. I’m not super familiar with old Frank Castle beyond the few clips I’ve seen from Daredevil but this might just be my gateway - it’s so good! This thing is so criminally underrated, I’m surprised Frank Castle hasn’t gotten involved. Any Punisher fans, sound off in the comments with comics I should read.
‘How to use your art books’ by Chroma Moma - I’ve got a lot of art books, mostly movie concept art/making of books, but I rarely ever know what to do with them beyond flicking through in awe at the talent some folks have. That’s changed thanks to this video. I basically always have an art book within arms reach on my desk just in case I’m in need of a little inspiration. Currently, I’ve got Tech Noir: The Art of James Cameron on my desk. If I hit a wall with a project or I’m struggling to articulate how I want something to look or feel, I’ll flip open the book and start taking some notes in my journal or sketching out some ideas. It’s something I’d highly recommend if you’re on the hunt for some inspiration.
Scriptnotes 680: ‘Writing Action Set Pieces’ - I found this invaluable when writing a major action set piece early in my current work in progress. Some fantastic advice and particularly good analysis of why certain action scenes read well on the page.
Captains Log
Captains Log is basically my way of holding myself to account. Or at least that’s the idea, anyway.
‘How I organise my world-building’ - writing and productivity essays are some of my favourite to read so I loved putting this together.
Given my tendency to jump from project to project sometimes within the same writing session, I set myself the goal of working just on one thing this week and I actually managed it. I got about 4000 words down this week for this ‘scriptment’ I’ve been working on including a particularly big action scene which melted my brain.
And that’s it for another week. Remember, let me know what you’ve been loving in the comments below.