Rough Groove

Movies watched: September 08

The 11th Cine Europa was held last month at the Shangri-la Mall and the films screened were exceptional. Of the 16 that were shown, I was able to watch seven of which I really find Hîrtia va fi albastrã & Efter brylluppet very good. The rest are US films mostly watched in theaters. On the other hand, the original Bangkok Dangerous (1999) in Thai by the same directors is way better than the Nicolas Cage starrer.

Les chansons d’amour (Love Songs) - Christophe Honore, 2007 (France)
Colorado Avenue - Claes Olsson, 2007 (Finland)
Nachtrit (Night Run) - Dana Nechustan, 2006 (Netherlands)
Hande weg von Mississipi (Hands Off Mississipi) - Detlef Buck, 2007 (Germany)
Mondscheinkinder (Children of the Moon) - Manuela Stacke, 2006 (Germany)
I Cento Passi (100 Steps) - Marco Tullio Giordana, 2000 (Italy)
Efter brylluppet (After the Wedding) - Susanne Bier, 2006 (Denmark)
Hîrtia va fi albastrã (The Paper Will Be Blue) - Radu Muntean, 2006 (Romania)
Hellboy - Guillermo del Toro, 2004 (US)
Hellboy II - Guillermo del Toro, 2008 (US)
Babylon A.D. - Mathieu Kassovitz, 2008 (US)
Election - Alexander Payne, 1999 (US)
Bangkok Dangerous - Pang Brother, 1999 (US)
Bangkok Dangerous - Pang Brothers, 2008 (US)
Seelai ng yi cho (My Mother Is a Belly Dancer) - Kung-Lok Lee, 2006 (Hongkong)
Quinceanera (Sweet Fifteen) - Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland, 2006 (US)
Eagle Eye - D.J. Caruso, 2008 (US)

Bloody Mary Wordpress Theme

This three-column ad-friendly Wordpress theme was specifically designed for use by my friend’s new movie blog:

The View Room

The type of content demands that it be presented in such a way that is easy to navigate and, at the same time, readily viewable without giving too much detail. The widest column at the left is reserved for the posts. The middle, which contrasts in color is intended for the post categories while the right is for other uses like tag cloud, subscription form and ads to mention a few.

The design is innovative as it does away with the usual top-down display of entries in the index page but instead, resorted to a grid layout and employed custom fields to pull the movie poster as well as its rating. Each poster is clickable and will open the relevant entry. The number of posts can be manipulated by setting it within the index.php file and is independent of the Wordpress setting.

As much as possible, linear borders are not utilized, except in one instance where a light almost indiscernible line was used to divide the main content from the rest in the single.php file. Trackbacks are also separated from the comments to have a neater appearance.

Upon implementation, the major challenge of the blogger is the preparation of the poster image to be used in the index page. For a fact, movie posters are not in standard sizes and for the design to work, a fixed, in this case, 130×192 image pixel is needed for uniformity. Some are just wider than others.

Color is also a dominant aspect of the theme and I opted for an analogous palette.

I’m a novice when it comes to designing Wordpress themes and it is also my first time to do this kind of work. To give credit where credit is due, the design was based on two wonderful works: Michael Jubel’s Arthemia which is the basis of the underlying code especially the main page and Derek Punsalan’s The Unstandard where he implemented images to represent posts. Thanx guys for the inspiration!

Mapping Invisible Cities exhibit to open in Manila

Mapping Invisible Cities Exhibit will finally open in Manila this 17 October at the 3/F of Shangri-la Plaza in Edsa, Mandaluyong City and will run until 7 November. After opening in Jakarta last 3 June and showing in Singapore after, Filipinos will finally be able to see the 96 photos that are the result of the Peter Bialobrzesky workshop.

Everyone is invited to come.

Movies watched: August 08

Condo -Martin Cabrera, 2008 (Philippines)
Elizabethtown - Cameron Crowe, 2005 (US)
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor -Rob Cohen, 2008 (US)
Munich -Steven Spielberg, 2005 (US)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - , 2008 (US)
Wall E - Andrew Stanto , 2008 (US)

Rough Groove is four years old

If I haven’t checked my first post I wouldn’t have known that 21 September, today, marks the fourth year that I’ve been blogging here in Rough Groove. Now, about 930 posts later, and having formed various niche blogs, this is still alive and kicking!