Keeping your fingers on the pulse...

It's only in the last year, since the conception of Cautious Train really, that we have truly begun to embrace and familiarise ourselves with social media - Facebooking, Twittering and diving headfirst into the blogosphere. Now we thought the hardest part would be finding decent and read-worthy enough content to keep our own blog updated with. This has in fact proven a challenge, and only time will tell whether we are truly blog-worthy bloggers. But worst still is the feeling we've missed so much.


I stop by www.indiewire.com on a regular basis, but only of late. I know I'm only, like, 15 years behind the times! I'll be there, poring over fascinating blogs from industry stalwarts like Peter Bogdanovich (http://blogs.indiewire.com/peterbogdanovich/) and Ted Hope (http://blogs.indiewire.com/tedhope/), and all I can help thinking is where do I start?? I mean these blogs go back quite a way, with so many juicy updates, that I'm left feeling like I've come late to every party and I'll never catch up. And that's just indiewire for crying out loud.


I've only just started "listing" on Twitter and I already follow in excess of 40 blogs, most of which I haven't even had the time to explore yet. There just aren't enough hours in the day for all this super relevant, engaging, informative content. Now I'm not normally one for gushing, but how do you deal with getting through this bounty of brilliance? Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of nonsensical trash out there (sometimes I'm baffled as to how Kim Kardashian has in excess of 12million Twitter followers and Werner Herzog only 25k). I come back to this time and time again - Ted Hope's term "super-abundance". Example: how to set yourself out as a truly noteworthy filmmaker amongst the digital millions out there with an iphone, pirated copy of adobe premiere and a Youtube channel. But when it comes to wading through the super-abundance of crap to find what you really like to watch, read, follow, engage in, I find this a little less daunting, because I know what I don't like. But when I whittle down the super-abundance, I'm left with an abundance...of brilliant f***ing things I want to look at all day. How do you navigate without constantly feeling your missing something?


My memory also fails me repeatedly in this respect. Sometimes I feel I have the short term memory of a trauma victim. Now, if my memory serves me (hmm), there are no significant head injuries in my history. But suffice to say, if I don't instantly bookmark a page, and dawdle away from it, it's wiped from my brain within minutes. I'll read lots of lovely articles, watch gorgeous videos, and the next day half of them are gone. If I don't talk about them, share them, then and there, then there isn't a hope I'll ever mention it again. It sounds drastic, but it's really not a medical condition. Perhaps too much Super Mario and not enough Brain Training on the Nintendo DS.


As with this and the previous "anti-populist" blog entry - this is all beginning to sound a bit "from the psychologist's chair". I have to ask, myself and anyone one else reading, how does this "need to be in the know" reflect on the personality? And why can't I be happy with the content I'm finding now, and look forward to all the future findings? Why am I always looking backward, discontented? It's probably why I have a hard time starting anything new. How do you keep up with the curve, and catch up on what's already happened? What I'm really asking for is a time machine, photographic memory and an 8 day (minimum) week. Simple.


Sara

VIDEO games

Video games. Not computer games, or consoles or anything else, but video games. Video, meaning film and cinema, meaning a visual medium where we are taken up in to a story and then delivered to a satisfying conclusion. Yet the term “video game” itself is slowly decaying to a retro way of thinking, those hulking 80’s units are to be found on sticky-floored amusement arcades, or found lurking in bowling alleys.

However, the “video game”, a synthesis and middle ground between content and viewer has, in the last five years, become a multi-billion dollar industry and continues to happily outgrow the film industry. We are finally living in a golden age of gaming, where graphics and processors have caught up to the imaginations of the developers and the game purchasing public. We can theoretically render anything we want, from atoms, to apples, to galaxies; and then throw a flashbang at it. But the storytelling has fallen behind. We have been treading the same old ground.

Now, the film purists among you, the vast majority of whom will have clicked back on their browser as soon as the words Video Game came up (shame on you), are shouting and stamping about the validity of films and games being mentioned in the same breath. But then again, I bet they haven’t climbed a Colossus.

There have been a handful of games that have boldly attempted to be the first to bridge the gap between these steadily closing media continents. I’m sure you’re naming some of them in your head right now. The cleverly realised Heavy Rain is perhaps the most fully-fledged, the enigmatic old school Myst was an early adopter, the various GTA’s and the eagerly awaited Mass Effect 3, to name a few. But where are the borders? Some films, or particularly the DVD releases, are built to house multiple endings, so we are sculpting the experience right there. Is that not a video game, in its purest sense?

After all those years of wishing for a weird cinema where you can choose what the hero does (but you’d have to move seats, or even screens, right? I’ve thought this through a few time and it just doesn’t work, let the dream go), video games have marched up and grabbed the idea by the throat. I think we’re still waiting on the true breakthrough video game, but it’s on the way, and then perhaps the dwindling film industry will wake up and wonder where the revenue went.

Ah well, maybe caution is the best approach.

Tom, of The Cautious Train.

The Space Between

Hi, this is Tom of the Cautious Train here. I'm here to kick off our ongoing trawl of content, dredged from wherever we happen to wander to.

• First up, Bear 71, which is coined as a "20 minute, interactive documentary", but comes out as something a little more haunting than that. Cleverly constructed cartographic layout, combined with well pitched voice over and inserts make this a real recommender-er. It's a full page loader, so you'll have to click the link.

• Second up, this was found on a short video hunt, and I wasn't sure about it at first, but strong ideas and fluid execution have made it a welcome rewatch.

• Third and certainly not least, because this has been doing the rounds for a long time now, comes the magnificent reimagining of the Shining trailer. Yes, I know you're sat there saying "Yes I've seen this, and yes I'll watch it again," but this isn't for you, this is for those out there who have happened to skip past this gem. So hopefully that is you and you're wondering why this might be so good. Well, here we go. 

Well, lets leave it at that for now. More content is being sorted, pruned and chosen as you read this, so check back soon for the next upload.

Stay Cautious.

Why do we reject the "popular"?

Maybe it's just me, but I'd be interested to see if I'm not alone. A thought struck me the other night while watching Rosemary's Baby: why have I not seen this before? Not because it's the best film I've ever watched (a ways away in fact), but it's a seminal piece of film history, and I waited 25 years before sitting down to it. Now this may not seem excessive at first, but on reflection this is not the first piece of pop culture I've abstained from. And it's been, I'm ashamed now to admit, a conscious effort.

I watched the Godfather parts one and two for the very first time last year. Up until this point I had rejected them out of hand as overhyped and underwhelming...without even knowing the storyline! Now, in my opinion, HBO's The Sopranos is one of the best, smartest, slickest and most entertaining series I've ever had the pleasure of indulging in over and over again. Only now do I realise it never would have happened without the Godfather. In fact, on finally succumbing to the imploring of those near to me to give it a shot, I fell so much in love with the Godfather that I fought sleep, tooth and nail, to watch parts one and two back to back. I come off hypocritical, but lately I'm as baffled as the next guy as to what motivates me towards such prejudice.

It happens across the board with pop culture favourites. As long as I can remember I've (terribly strong word) hated Led Zeppelin. This mostly comes down to the fact that the world and his wife thinks they're the best band in living memory. Now I wouldnt go that far, but (and please don't tell Tom) the more Zeppelin songs I give the time of day to, the more I come round. 

I'm a terribly stubborn individual, who at times doesn't react well to authority. It seems, in this case, "the authority" I'm battling against is mass consensus telling me to believe the Godfather films are the best there is, and Led Zeppelin are the most influential rock band of all time. While I'm not required to buy into that exactly, I guess I need to open my mind, be less precious (and pretentious maybe) and assess things on an individual, independent basis...and ultimately make up my own mind. If I hadnt, I'd never have watched the Godfather. It didn't change my life, but I'm happier for having experienced it.

Its really not an attractive quality to judge a book by its cover...

...even if that cover is someone telling you what you should like.

What about you?

Humbly,  

A stubborn (but growing) Sara-aboard-the-train.