In 2008, Oliver Schmid, an I.T. consultant based in Los Angeles, lost his job with a German technology company. Jumping into the job market for the first time in 20 years, Mr. Schmid did what job seekers have always done ….

Read more about my experience and what I learned and have to say about it at the New York Times in “Social Networking Your Way to a New Job”

CAP_Assessment <- click here

The test assesses fundamental abilities that have proven to be necessary for successful business performance. Scores in the Very High and High ranges denote your strongest abilities; scores in the Low range may indicate abilities that may be in need of development. Numeric scores range from 7 (highest) to 1 (lowest).

I am not talking about documentaries here. The best films about Apartheid are documentaries. About that another time.

But back to fiction films.

Case in point: Shamim Sarif’s “The World Unseen,” shown at festivals and having some public showings. Writer Sarif decided to adapt and direct the feature film version of her own novel. The film has a lot going for it. It’s the story of a 1950s lesbian affair between two Indian woman in Cape Town. “There’s no denying the richness of the material or the uniquely Indian perspective on a story traditionally told in either black or white,” writes Kamal Al Solaylee in Toronto’s Globe and Mail.

However, as both Solaylee (“surprisingly lacking in drama,” “unseen, unfelt, undeveloped”) and Jeanette Catsoulos in a short review in The New York Times (“trembling soap,” “characters drawn so thinly that they’re almost transparent”), suggests the film is a disappointment.

Sadly, I will have to keep on waiting for the cinematic heirs to Come Back Africa and Mapantsula.

Two years ago a friend and colleague asked me to write a soundtrack for his upcoming movie, which he produced just with the little help of a few friends. Meanwhile he has really finished a lot of scenes and is presenting them on youtube. The preview promises the rebirth of a genre called “giallo”, which was made famous by Dario Argento and other mostly italian directors. A “giallo” contains a serial-killer, young women as nude victims and of course gallons of blood, which are spilled over everything. The simple action is made worthy and enjoyable by an artistic use of camera-movement, interesting and creative light and changes between very slow and very fast action. The high contrast between the meditative camera-drives during normal scenes and the exploding action during the slaughter-scenes gives the “giallo” his special flow. While I admired a scene of this new giallo it came to my mind, that modern movies have lost that sense for slowness and also the sense for light or use it in a more subtle way. Especially the slowness is gone, because our modern times are fast and the directors can not expect so much patience. I have really enjoyed the work of Oliver and I wish him and me good luck to bring the old “giallo” back to life.

I guess, that I will start to work on the soundtrack soon and I am thinking on combining electric and acoustic instruments. Of course I will inform here about any further developments.