Thursday, April 29, 2010

Exit through the gift shop...

We are going to see this movie tomorrow night and will be posting a review so stay tuned...


FILM TIP OF THE DAY:AFTER EFFECTS TIPS

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Escape from New York


In preparation of re-shoots on A's short film, we've been doing research on similar type movies set in the Post Apocalypse genre. A suggested we watch "Escape from New York", a classic post-apocalypse flick set in a very run down and very 80's New York. I'd never seen this movie before, but I can see where it gets its cult following. It's over the top enough to be a completely cheesy guilty pleasure. That being said this movie is so badly lit. Every scene was so dark I could barely make out what was happening even during scenes set in brightly lit offices. Oh well at least the music was totally amazing.

The video below gives some cool info on creating gunfire during an edit, something you'll be doing a lot of when trying to make a movie with a lot of post-apocalyptic zombies that need to be shot at.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Kick Ass Movie Review


So last Saturday we decided to stop weighing the middling to positive reviews of Kickass and see it for ourselves. Good thing! We actually loved it! It started it out kind of slow and predictable (notwithstanding a gruesome first scene), a normal awkward teen comedy. The main character is a goofy teen who longs to be a superhero and get the cute girl at his school. He decides to try it out for real and buys a green wetsuit and numchucks he doesn't know how to use, and names himself "Kickass". His first attempt of Do-goodery ends in hilarious but shockingly graphic violence. A that point you realize this is definitely a rated R movie, with Reservoir Dogs level violence. But its also superfunny and quirky. American Pie meets Scarface. Anyways Kickass eventually does a heroic stunt that lands him some youtube views and catches the eye of a vigilante "superhero" named Big Daddy and his killing machine daughter, Hitgirl. And they get him into loads of trouble with the local drug kingpin. Its a pretty predictable tale, but the movie is spiced up with enough wit and creative killing sprees, that you're either laughing your butt off or cringing every second. So go see it for sure. By the end of the movie our theater full of jaded adolescents were whooping in their seats (although I hear that's a pretty common phenomenon at Mission Valley AMC- obtrusive whooping for no reason-AMC 20 is the worst). We'll definitely be seeing a lot of KickAss' and Hit Girl costumes this Halloween.

Monday, April 26, 2010

The Alien Prequel...


is still in the works after Riddley Scott finishes up with his current project Robin Hood. Read more about this upcoming film here.

Film Tip of the day: Knife Throw Effect!!!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Breck Eisner to Direct Escape from New York Remake


According to an article on Film Junk, New Line has been working on an Escape From New York remake directed by Breck Eisner who recently remade George Romero’s The Crazies which was pretty decent actually. Stay tuned.


Film tip of the day: How to build a camera Jib/Crane on the cheap!! - PS, we are going to try to build this ourselves to use in A's God with a Gun reshoot in June.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Sight and Sound


If you don't have plans tonight you should definitely show your support and go to Sight and Sound tonight. Its definitely worth checking out.











Filmmaking tip of the day: Lighting Gells and Diffusers.

Filmmaking tips (Lighting Gells and Diffusers) from Glen Parkinson on Vimeo.


Checkout this collaboration between World Wildlife Fund(WWF), Ben Lee and Leo Burnett, titled "Space Monkey."

Space Monkey from Leo Burnett on Vimeo.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Hard Drives for Video Editing

So we plucked down some cash and picked up an external hard drive. We have really needed the additional space since we added another hd camera to the mix. Checkout this article about the best hard drives for video editing. Click Here.

Film Tip of the day: Film Editing Techniques!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Kick Ass Trailer


We've heard a lot (good and bad) about this new comedy. We're planning to watch it this weekend, and let you know what we think.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Malcolm McLaren

"To create a magnificent failure is to create the best kind of picture: a picture that really drives and changes things. Because when you see a picture and you say, “That’s a very beautiful picture,” it is instantly forgettable. A picture that is a magnificent failure actually breathes life and allows the culture to change. If you have perfection, there is nowhere to go. With perfection there is no communication. You have nothing to access. The disasters are what bring life and allow us to connect. That’s the magic." - McLaren, 2006

After I read about Malcolm McLaren's passing when I got back into the states I talked to C about his influence on art/music/popular culture and his almost collaboration with Roger Ebert on The Great Rock and Roll Swindle. For years I heard about Roger Ebert's involvement in the project but have never heard him comment publicly about it... Here's what Ebert had to say about the first time he met McLaren. RIP Malcolm. Read more about Malcolm here.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Monday Monday....can't trust that day

This looks pretty decent. We are looking forward to a lot of the films that Oscilloscope is producing.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Everyone is planning to use it now....


According to an article on Film Junk, respected filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Werner Herzog are planning on shooting their next films in 3-D. Scorsese was even quoted in saying that even films like Precious should be shot in 3-D. Yeah...I think I would have to disagree with you on that one Martin. Anyway what do you think?
I know, I know....all you need is another list of films to go checkout....but since you asked for it....here is the Yahoo list of 100 films you should see before you die......here is the List

Friday, April 16, 2010

Miramax Resurrected


Well it looks like the Weinstein brothers couldn't watch their baby get tossed out in the cold by Disney and left to die. According to an article on Gawker and the rest of the press world, the Weinsteins have bought Miramax back after selling to Disney years and years ago. Hopefully this new acquisition leads to a revival of quality independent films on the level of classics like Pulp Fiction.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Laughter, Tears, and Island Weddings


We're back! Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but we were on a remote vacation/work assignment filming a friend's wedding in Trinidad and Tobago, for the last week and a half. It was a trip full of amazing tropical adventures, some professional successes for El Roberto, as well as one sad mishap. But first the fun stuff. T&T was beautiful, exotic, and hot. So, so hot. We walked out of the airport at 9pm and were smacked in the face with 90 degree weather with 100% humidity. It felt like someone had thrown a hot wet blanket on our heads. But our bodies adjusted surprisingly quick and we had a blast taking boat cruises around the islands, visiting beautiful beaches and eating local cuisine like Bake'n Shark. We would often open our front door to find a wild iguana or rooster chilling on the front porch. And our friend's house literally had a giant tree dripping with mangos. Insane!

Anyways onto the the work part. So we came to attend our friends wedding and also film it for them. This was a big shoot for us, as we planned to produce a high quality wedding video we could also use as a highlight on our in-work website. Things we're going well...we had all the camera equipment we needed, and had written out our shooting directions and marks. Then during the wedding rehearsal at the church, we started having problems with the tripod. It wasn't locking down the camera very solidly. After some fiddling, it seemed to tighten fairly stiff so we began shooting the rehearsal, marking our spots and making notes. Suddenly, the attaching plate connected to the camera slipped off the tripod and our camera went crashing to the floor with a loud bang. You can imagine our horror. I attribute being in a church to the out-of-body experience I felt. We calmly picked our camera up, did a thorough inspection and restarted shooting. At first the camera worked fine but soon we noticed small blips on the camera monitor feed while recording. It was starting to fail. After calling Canon they advised something internal was jarred by the fall and it would need to be shipped for repair. We decided that we couldn't rely on using it for the wedding.
Tragic! Our beautiful camera wounded! Thankfully we had the number#2 Canon S10 which we promoted to our head camera for the wedding. And the Canon S10 worked EXCELLENT! The quality was literally as good as the XHA1. We were thoroughly pleased with the video image and it relieved a lot of our stress of making sure we could provide a quality wedding video.

There was still the problem of having a second camera. It is essential to have two cameras during a wedding a) to get footage of simultaneous events (such as the bride and groom getting ready) and b) to get reaction shots, during ceremonies, toasts etc. Well, we found that there are few things more difficult than trying to find a high quality HD camera in a foreign country. After endless phone calls and emails I found a few videographers who were willing to rent us their high-end camcorders, however, they wanted to charge us $800 plus! We decided it was smarter to just buy a camera. After scouring the entire island of Trinidad for hours with no luck, we stumbled upon a tiny, run down camera store named David's Filmvue that had one Sony HDR-CX100 HD camcorder in stock. So we plunked down our spending cash and bought it.

Eventually everything worked out well. The wedding was by far the most beautiful and enjoyable wedding I've ever attended. The footage from the Canon S10 looked amazing, and the Sony HD cam was a very efficient back up that did a great job. So after a lot of blood, sweat and tears, we were able shoot a beautiful quality video of our friends island wedding. When the finished product is available, we'll post a short excerpt for y'all to see how well the Canon works under pressure. We now have to send off our dear little Canon XHA1 for repair. Number one lesson from this experience: Always run rigorous tests of your equipment-especially tripods, and have back-up cameras! Ciao for now, sorry for the long post but we wanted to relay some of our experience. Time for some sleep before work!

Monday, April 05, 2010

Its a start of a new week and...

more crap being released from Hollywood. Sylvester Stallone’s, The Expendables looks awful. I have to admit that I actually liked his last outing as John Rambo but this just look reprehensible. Yes I know its just the trailer, but you can tell when its a turd. I am hoping that I am wrong. Besides Ahhnuld is in it!!!


DIY FILM TIP OF THE DAY: Super Cannon Arm

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Sasquatch!!!

Another interesting flick from the folks over at Oscilloscope.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Resident Evil 4?

That's right, director Paul W.S. Anderson has made another Resident Evil film and this time it was shot using the same 3D camera that James Cameron used on Avatar...aka the James Cameron / Vincent Pace Fusion Camera System. Not sure that this is a good thing.

Friday, April 02, 2010

The A-Team

After complaints from fans about the 1st Trailer making the 80s TV show retread look awful, Fox released the new and improved 2nd trailer...which actually looks a little bit better. What do you think?


Film tip of the day:Indy Moguls Blood Cannon Explosion!!!