Change Your Image
jasonkraley
"I have a vision of how things could look and sound, whether it's through filmmaking, web/graphic design, visual packaging and other forms of artistic (and pragmatic) presentations (art, music and film). In 2004, I started working with a Canon MiniDV camera, and have worked with broadcast cameras and self-taught film editing... venturing into dedicated video and film creation and editing exploration. Suddenly I had so many projects that spanned various realms of media, I realized I needed a professional production identity for everything I created artistically, both personally and professionally, and let it evolve on its own. Hence I created a second studio. One for video and one for music. All in my own home." -Jason Kraley, 2007
Jason Kraley, native Clevelander born in Ohio (USA), has worked on multiple films, both in filming and editing pieces for his own work as well as creating music for himself (under the name "Still Inertia") and creating pieces for other movies and exhibitions.
In 2007, his work intertwined to produce his first visual art piece entitled "Perceptions". This movement was assisted by the musical interfacings of ambient musician and filmmaker, Jason Popejoy (and his musical identity "Roto Visage") to finalize the piece on its own in 2009.
His visual and audio work has assisted many prominent and well-accomplished musicians, playwrights and directors, including Shahin Ahnan (director), Gooding (musician), 1812 Productions and Azuka Theatre (local Philadelphian theatrical companies), and some editing work with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
November 2009: He is currently focusing on a new project with musician Pepper McGowan for a joint musical album release slated for 2010.
You can learn more and contact him through www.jasonkraley.com.
Reviews
Uncharted (2022)
Uncharted could've been...
4 years ago, Allan Ungar created/directed w/Nathan Fillion (who amazingly looks like the games' Nathan Drake) a high-class, short live action fan film for "Uncharted" (re: Youtube), & it was excellent!
Sadly, this full "official" film managed to mangle the games' legacy: from attention to aesthetics to the characters to the age differences & even the humor-layered characteristics & flow that we fans grew to love.
I started off playing the "Uncharted 3" game first, which interestingly started with a flashback to when young Nathan met Sully, & I became emotionally invested in, not only the game franchise, but the characters & their traits & stories alike!
This movie (perhaps because of my years-long investment in the anthology of the four games from beginning to end) was a tragic disappointment. I truly wanted to enjoy at least some of it, but it was like watching the memories of your entire life completely corrupted & out of sync w/reality.
Every game installment/"volume" never focused on a singular goal w/the same artifact to its very end & suddenly - poof - end of story, mystery solved. Nope! That's only what made the adventures (plural) of each game's installments so immersive & enjoyable - which this Hollywood movie was not.
What I saw was an intent to copy a template of a "typical Point A to Point B to Climax to Resolution" corporate franchise movie plot structure onto the games' concept in order to encapsulate a fraction of what the "Uncharted" series of games strived (successfully, in my opinion) to achieve. That made the movie's laziness so much more obvious to me - splashed all over its surface like a Jackson Pollock painting. Regurgitated "action/adventure" movie while abandoning what made its legacy/roots supposedly intended to "embrace" & "reflect" in the art of cinema.
The actors were predictable in "plot & line deliveries" structure, & as an original "Uncharted" fan/player: I can't decide between whether this movie portrayal was insulting or just embarrassingly unrepresentative of the games' special magic that made me the loyal fan I am today. That is this movie's ultimate downfall, letdown & shame as to why I honestly feel bad as I write this review. I went into it trying to just allow a suspension of bias to see were it went.
I felt nothing; no magic spark of what the games gave to me. Aside from odd flag forward/backward attempts to recreate Uncharted 3, then 4, then 3, then go off the theoretical canon timeline rails...?
The studio should have thoroughly reviewed & taken notes from the 15 filmic-quality minutes of the "Uncharted" short fan film by Allan Ungar w/Nathan Fillian. They would have had a definitely possible sequel or more...
This is where some matters point to the painfully obvious & intentionally foremost "(barely) post credit" cut away scenes that are synonymously typical signs of this century's past 2 decades in hopes for a "to be continued" vibe conveyed to the audience.
Honestly, if you think I'm exaggerating or being unfair, have a free viewing for yourself to compare the vast difference between that 15-minute professional fan film take & the now "new" 2-hour long movie.
There's something very much lacking between the two, & it's not a matter of duration but of quality & delivery.
Just my $0.02 worth, but I'm glad i didn't spend any actual money to watch the "official" movie.
"Greatness from small beginning" this will not be...
All Summer in a Day (1982)
I saw this when it aired...
Yep. I guess I'm dating myself, but my mother recently lost her husband (my stepdad) Oct 2020, and with the many hours of recollection, remembrance, and even nostalgia delving future past to my very early childhood: she and I have repeatedly been mentioning every couple years about "that film where people only saw the sun every several years, and the girl was intentionally diverted from that shared experience... Right?" Did we see it, did we see the same thing (so long ago)? And shockingly to my 38+ish years involved in helping test protocols to possibly "enable" the World Wide Web, I had never thought until tonight (2021) to look up the plot, discover the title by (Ray Bradbury), discover the "30-minute television adaptation originally broadcast on the PBS' children's series 'WonderWorks' in 1982". So I find it in its entirety saved/archived on YouTube (go figure, sigh). Though stunningly "antiquated" by today's storytelling and "special" effects standards, it is a fascinating thing to flicker an old memory in the brain to "re-remember" itself freshly again. My mother will be quite taken aback so many decades ago to validate what we both saw with our own eyes - broadcast live on an old cathode ray (CRT) television at the right place, right channel, unexpectedly at the exact right time. Enjoy for posterity, because Ray Bradbury has created foundations in several unexpected modern cinematic stories, television scripts and movies... Enjoy those rare moments in the sun every 7+ years in your life - however you interpret that! You never know how many you may have left...
Stargate: Atlantis: Hot Zone (2004)
Rewatching in 2021
Well, I hadn't rewatched this series in years, but this episode is unexpectedly one of those "moments" which you weren't exactly prepared to rewatch during a continuing global pandemic...
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)
"This is my witness statement."
"This film is my witness statement." This opening quote hit me hard, as it should you, if you "enjoy" the rare moment of living on this planet right now... David Attenborough intentionally breaks the fourth wall from his decades of documentaries to record (and express) his emotions, ideas, inspirations, and possible future to help guide us, instead of simply educating us, on what (still) exists on this planet (our shared singular planet) currently in our collective lifetimes. It is not absent of deep emotion, wise reflection, and determined concerns without presenting an archival presentation of what is still possible to pull us all from the brink he had personally witnessed in his lifetime. With a currently living 101 year-old grandfather, this kept my attention and drew my focus to every word of wisdom he had to share (just as I have, personally with my inevitably aging grandfather) whilst still able to share it with us all - with a hope of sharing wisdom behind our own age. These are rare moments to be thankful to be able to listen to our living elders while they are still alive: to relay and share their wisdom. Pure and simple, deep and complex.