For all you serious movie buffs out there, check out our Fan Mail section.  One of our fellow achievers has achieved in the modest, self-assigned task of figuring out the Average Shot Length (ASL) of the movie.  Shot length is how long the "shot" lasts until you cut away to another camera angle, scene, etc.  Sixty and seventy years ago, the average shot length was over 10 seconds.  Now most blockbusters these days are around 2 seconds.

"What does this mean?" you might ask.  A lot of people will say this is indicative of our culture in general.  People don't have very long attention spans.  We want action and we want it now.  People can really multi-task and handle 18 different things at once.  One of my own personal theories is that this is also indicative of the progression of film moving away from theater.  If you've watched some of those classics from the 30's, 40's and 50's, you'll notice that many of them last very long.  I'm talking in the 3hr range here.  They also have an Intermission built into the middle where the word is placed on the screen and ran for about 5 min or so while you go to the bathroom and make another sandwich.  When film first started out all we had was the theater to base it off of.  Now with our fancy cameras and equipment, we can handle taking 20 takes of one scene.  The setup isn't as much.  People shoot on digital film, which is much cheaper, and editing is much, much easier.

Lofton, and maybe Gunner, should be posting on the blog while Liz and I are away.  We'll be sure to wear our Lebowski Podcast t-shirts and quote lots of memorable lines to all the strangers we meet.  Maybe we'll even find run into some fellow Achievers.

If you didn't know, the Lebowski Festival in London kicked off yesterday.  I'm sure all those chaps across the pond are living it up.  There's also a Lebowski book coming out in September from the BFI, BBC Film Institute.  It should be a good read.  I'm hoping to check it out soon.  Well, that's about all I have for now.  Until next time, The Dude Abides.

Chalupa 

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