Norah Ringma

Walker. Listener. Deep thinker ... Not the one with the quick rejoinder.

[norahringma]

Mitchell on Firth: "I wish Colin was on stage more now, as he has a good stage presence; he has a calmness about him."

Firth on Mitchell:  "Julian was the first writer I ever met: it was for my second audition, at his home in Chelsea, and it felt like meeting the Wizard of Oz. I wondered whether he'd come in like a tortured maestro – I've met those – but I found him delightful; he wasn't imperious, he twinkled, and he tried to put me at my ease. He probably thought I was awfully serious, because I was just terrified of a living-room audition."

from The Independent

[nprfreshair]

Architect and freelance illustrator Maja Wrońska  continues to amaze with her beautifully executed watercolor paintings of iconic cityscapes from around the world.

[nprfreshair]

via Colossal

[norahringma]

Image: @artsemergency

About Arts Emergency

[norahringma]

How would Shylock's case from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice have played out under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms? The Stratford Festival imported some of Canada's finest litigators to argue the case on stage to find out.

A really nice example of applied theatre on show at Canada's Stratford Festival. A great listen.

[colchrishadfield]

How can someone hear this well? A 1-man 80-sec tour of accents around the UK and Ireland.

[norahringma]

The Year

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1910)

What can be said in New Year rhymes, That’s not been said a thousand times?

The new years come, the old years go, We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light, We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings, We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed, We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear, And that’s the burden of the year.

[cinephiliabeyond]

O Captain! My Captain! A note from Ron Howard to his high school teacher.

You know directors, some of them — some of us are sweethearts, some of us are jerks,  some of us are talkative, some are very quiet. None of that really matters very much — although, you know, I always think it’s nice to be decent to people, but that’s me. It’s not imperative. The big thing is taste — taste and judgement. That’s what it’s all about. It’s understanding, you know, what exists in the possibilities in the story you’re interested in telling, and how many of those details can you capture, how can you sequence them in the editing? What does that add up to?

The great Ron Howard shares his directing tips, describing how acting is “a really great training ground” and “that taste and judgement [is] what it’s all about.” “If you create enough emotional context, that creates the tension” notes Howard as he explores a prolific filmmaking career and the development of his craft which has led to films including Splash, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind and Rush.

Discover more about directing on BAFTA Guru.

// <![CDATA[ // ]]>

[norahringma]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and editor -- on editing himself -- as heard on Kermode and Mayo's Film Review

"I've been making short films and little videos and stuff and editing them myself for a little over ten years now. It was for my 21st birthday I got myself my first copy of Final Cut, the video editing software. And since then I've made, without exaggeration, hundreds of little pieces, little clips and songs and shoot stuff.

A feature is different but the thing you're asking about, the ability to view yourself on screen and not be freaked out by the sight of your own face or the sound of your own voice, that is something that I think, by virtue of practicing for many years and many, many little projects of pointing a camera at myself, putting the footage on the computer, seeing what I get, that process allowed me, I think, to be objective and be productive when it came to editing myself."

Photo: guardianlv.com

[norahringma]

Remembrance Day 2013. For the long forgotten and for those near and dear to our hearts.

Needlework by my mother whose father and uncles all survived the carnage of World War I.

[norahringma]

Monday’s Mailbox — No. 44 in a series — Rural mailbox decorated for autumn with ready-to-be-harvested corn field as a backdrop.

[norahringma]

Eleanor Catton, 2013 Man Booker Prize-winning novelist -- on the difference between 'nice' and 'kind' -- as heard on CBC The Sunday Edition

"I recently saw the wonderful children's writer Patrick Ness at the Auckland Readers and Writers Festival and he made a comment that stuck with me where he said, there's a huge difference between niceness and kindness. And it's possible to be nice without being kind but it's also possible to be kind without being nice. And one of the things about children is that they know this instinctively. And children will value kindness above niceness. They just see through niceness in a second. I really like that idea. There are a lot of characters in children's fiction, actually, usually elderly grumpy types who are kind but not at all nice. They're such fixtures in children's fiction because the kids will know."

Photo: theguardian.com

[norahringma]

Jessica Lange, actor -- on what she needs from a director to do her job the best she can -- as heard on Studio 360 

"Well, it's interesting because a lot of these young directors probably don't realize this and they don't engage with you. This whole 'the video village' phenomenon that happened about a decade or so ago, where they're all sitting in another room watching a little screen. I remember, with the great directors, like Costa-Gavras, they were right there, as close to you as I am, and there was an exchange, there was this exchange of energy. You could feel like their almost love for you and what you were doing and this encouragement. Really it was an exchange of energy. And also there was a sensuality to it because they were right there with you. Tony Richardson would have like a little no-man's land zone where nobody was allowed right next to the camera and he would just move back and forth and follow you. I mean, it was really...and you could feel the presence of these men watching, and it wasn't...now it's very removed. Sometimes I've even heard directors yell from another room to an actor, giving direction, which to me is like...you...I don't understand it. I don't understand it. Because, when you're working, you want that exchange of energy. You want that kind of communication. And you want to feel they're invested in what you're doing and then that makes your work better."

Photo: ellentv.com

[norahringma]

St. Lawrence River as seen from Brockville, Ontario, Canada.  Opposite shore, New York State, USA.

[norahringma]

Ken Loach, film and television director -- on nurturing spontaneity -- as heard on BBC Radio 4 The Film Programme

"Well, you don't rehearse, obviously. You sort of set up the scene and the location and the furniture so that their moods will tend to follow the pattern that you want them to follow. It's like cutting a channel for water to run down hill. You cut the channel and water should run down that course. Sometimes it may burst its bank and go somewhere else. So, you have to direct for actors rather than direct actors. So, I would never tell a child, or an actor for that matter, I want you to be angry at this point or I want you to break down at this point. You'd play the scene in such a way so that would be their instinctive response."

Photo: indiewire.com

[norahringma]

A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and unseen.

Charles Baxter (via Goodreads)

[norahringma]

Monday’s Mailbox — No. 43 in a series — Canada Post's latest version of its collection boxes.

[natgeofound]

A woman in a yellow dress uses an umbrella to keep dry in Saint Louis, Missouri, November 1965. Photograph by Bruce Dale, National Geographic

[norahringma]

The movement, depth of field and colours in this photo are wonderful.