Friday, July 31, 2009

Ridley Scott returns to Alien

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So this is interesting. According to variety, director Ridley Scott will return to the Aliens series to make a "prequel" film. Ridley Scott directed the first (and truly the best ) Aliens film. Take a look at the clip below and tell me it doesn't shock you that this was filmed over 30 years ago (warning: this clip is graphic to the extreme-don't watch it if you have any sort of heartburn).




I'm hoping that with the return of the best director in the series, the prequel has a better time of it than the later sequels. we'll update you with more news as we hear it.

DIY Filmmaking tip

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This site has a great article about building your own softbox. An excellent tool for struggling filmmakers out there who don't have the dough to plunk down $200 on a professional softbox yet.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Bryce Dallas Howard

I'm well aware of the popularity of the Twilight books, and how they've encourage a generation of young women to stop watching gossip girl for 20 seconds and start reading books again. But let me make clear that I am not a Twilight fan by any means. They just seem kind of hokey and romance-novel-ish. These girls should be reading A Wrinkle in Time or Harry Potter instead. But my opinion on that is immaterial. What brings me to a conversation on Twilight is a story I read today thats been going around the internet. Apparently, one of the stars of the Twilight movie Rachelle Lefevre was replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard . As most people now Bryce is the daughter of Hollywood icon Ron Howard. And call me weird, but there seems to be a bit of nepotism going on with the roles Bryce keeps getting. This is the second time Bryce has replaced another actor in a really popular movie. She previously had replaced Charlotte Gainsbourg in the Terminator Salvation movie. How is she getting these parts?? I hope this isn't a case of daddy getting other actors pushed out of parts so she can advance her career. I don't want to believe that's the case, but usually when a fairly unknown actor lands a hot role, they don't just give it up to anyone walking by unless there's some strong-arming going on. Let's hope that we don't see Bryce Dallas Howard sitting next to Simon Cowell at the judges seat in the next season of AI, because then we'll really know something bads going on. Here's an interesting article on nepotism in Hollywood.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Monday, July 27, 2009

We are back...

and have lots of editing to do. We will have some new videos posted this week for your viewing enjoyment...but for now check this out...

Not sure what we think about it....I was among the few who liked Tim Burtons adaptation of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and of course liked the original but admit that I am skeptical about his latest effort.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Retro-lution


So we broke out our old Minolta Super 8 camera today to shoot a test roll. We will probably send out the footage to be developed next week and post the footage here on our site. Anyway, I know that there are a lot of film purist out there who still use Super 8/8MM to shoot music videos etc, but a lot of people outside of Southern California probably haven't heard of Pro 8mm. They are a great resource for film stock and camera rentals. Kodak remains a great resource for film stock, production tips, and labs.
Also, checkout what Fifty Foot Films has been doing with Super 8mm.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Basterds....

This is looking better and better.. with the summer movie season waning, this is definitely the most anticipated film left.

Monday, July 20, 2009

freaks and geeks are coming to town....

and yes Elvis in a Storm Trooper outfit...
Comic Con International returns to San Diego this week running from July 23-26. Not only is Comic Con overrun with Anime, games, and hordes of nerds, it is filled with filmmakers showing sneak previews of upcoming films to giving Q&A sessions and lots of swag. We would suggest picking up tickets if you haven't already but the convention sold out months ago...don't worry, there is always craigslist. This year the Comic Con International Independent Film Festival returns screening over 60 films...Now in its tenth year, the CCI-IFF is a juried event. Respected individuals in the fields of film and popular arts view the submissions and decide which films will be included in the four-day festival and those deserving of prizes and awards.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Whip it

Is a new movie directed by Drew Barrymore that follows an indie-rock loving misfit, who finds a way of dealing with her small-town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin. Whip it is Barrymore's first feature film. The trailer looks great...check it out.

Anyway, it was a productive weekend filled with filming interviews for an upcoming Citybeat project and of course editing...have a great night and try to enjoy your last few moments of the weekend.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

the walking dead....

So I checking out someone's photo stream on flickr and stumbled up this interesting event, which looks like a lot of fun to film.

In more zombie news.....film director Danny Boyle recently mentioned the possibility of a 3rd 28 Days Later film.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Sanders wants films in San Diego



It's long been a sore spot for me that when people mention film productions done in San Diego the best we can do is Top Gun. I know Top Gun is a classic that people love, but it seems that we should be able to claim at least one movie that has been shot within the last 20 years. I mean, even Anchorman which was set in San Diego was mainly shot in Long Beach!

So our mayor, bless his heart has gone out to all the major studios and basically pleaded with them to look into filming production in our city. This is great, and basically I'm surprised that more film productions don't happen here. San Diego is a gorgeous city, with beautiful beaches, a respectable downtown setting and perfect weather you never have to worry about. You can read a whole article about it here. Let's hope that we get some film business down here. You can bet we'll be the first ones to sneak into the set and stalk Sam Mendes while he's working..

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Harry Potter and the Box Office


An interesting story we found on Variety today..it looks like that money-grubbing decision by the movie execs to delay Half-Blood Prince almost 8 months after its original release date paid off. The movie is making tons of money already. Can't wait to see it! we'll be sure to review as soon as we see it this weekend :)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

You be the judge


This year the San Diego Film Festival is hosting the You be the judge event at the Pearl Hotel in Pt.Loma. This event is a great opportunity to participate in selecting the films that will be showcased in the San Diego Film Festival September 23- 27. And for a $8 donation, you get a beer courtesy of Stone Brewing Co and a raffle ticket....sound's like fun...

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Happy Sunday

Today we are working on finishing the SD Wax Queen commercial. Also we are preparing for a couple of upcoming shoots this next week. We promise to have some new videos posted in the over next couple of weeks.

Anyway I saw Bruno last night and we promise to have a review posted in a day or two....

Thursday, July 09, 2009

White Balance

Checkout this great final cut pro resource guide about Correcting White Balance. Here is another one about fixing exposure.

This could be interesting...

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

This could be awesome-or awful..


It looks like Lorne Michaels is in talks to turn the MacGruber SNL skits into a feature film. I dunno about this. Don't get me wrong, I think the Macgruber skits are pretty funny. And there have been some funny movies built on SNL skits. But for every Wayne's World hits, there's 7 Ladies Man bombs..Hopefully this is one of the former..

Val Kilmer and Ryan Phillippe in talks for 'MacGruber'

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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Harry Potter



I was a late joiner to the Harry Potter phenomenon; having subsisted on books like The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The House of Mirth since I was 13, I'd assumed the Potter books were far too juvenile for my refined, upper-division community college level tastes. Boy was I wrong-they are humble, imaginative books with a warm cuddly heart that gave me that same feeling of excitement and wonder I had when I first read C.S. Lewis' Narnia series. You don't get that feeling often as an adult reader so I appreciated that reminiscent quality. By the time I'd started reading the books, the Order of the Phoenix movie had already come out. So I kind of got to cheat a little and see the movies after I'd read all the books. So as you can imagine I am super-jazzed that the New Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie is coming out this month. And I found cool slideshow that gives you over a hundred photos from the movie to tie you over until it comes out-Enjoy!

Monday, July 06, 2009

Film Festival..



Check out this incoming film festival in Denver. Looks interesting and fun :)

Sunday, July 05, 2009

the Dead Weather

This looks interesting....its a short film/video directed by Jonathan Glazer who has worked with a lot of peeps in the musak biz....

Along with the the Dead Weather, Glazer has worked with the likes of U2, Radio Head, and Unkle. Glazer always employs a theme/narrative in his video work rather than just footage of the band performing, which we feel is far more interesting...Can't wait to checkout his latest work.

Friday, July 03, 2009

Screenwriting Contest


Hey, there's a cool screenwriting contest out right now..check it out.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Soderbergh's second try

With the lukewarm response to Soderbergh's most recent experimental film the Girlfriend Experience, he's quickly followed up with a more mainstream Matt Damon flick called Informant. Soderbergh's a very diverse director who punches out an equal amount of controversial indie films for each Hollywood popcorn flick he makes. I'm guessing he's one of those directors who uses his mainstream movie earnings to fund smaller more creative fare. Kudos to him for making the system work for him. Anywho, the movie contains Matt Damon playing an FBI informant on a corrupt American corporation:



Looks interesting and kinda funny, although I'm usually not one for corporate intrigue movies. Once again Matt Damon has undertook a drastic physical change to match that of his character gaining 30 pounds for this part(compared below to the 40 pounds he lost from his normal frame during "Courage under fire").

But that's nothing new to him. Mat Damon is known for gaining and losing drastic amounts of weight for roles. Still I don't think anyone can match Christian Bale's sheer disregard for personal health when it comes to losing weight for a role.

Here's a cool article with a list of famous actors who've hit the pancake batter or stairmaster for the sake of a role.