Archive for December, 2008

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all have/had a safe night. I'm going to spend the evening with Guitar Hero: World Tour, hot apple cider, and my confetti gun, which I'll fire off at the stoke of midnight. So what movies are you looking forward to next year?
Here's my list:

Star Trek - Totally looks like a movie to see in IMAX. Looks like it could re-ignite the whole franchise. Go J.J. Abrams!
Coraline - I have a automatic bias towards anything stop-motion. And a new stop-motion in 3D directed by Henry Selick, with a story by Neil Gaiman, is not to be missed in my book.
The Brothers Bloom - It doesn't look like a masterpiece, but it does look like a pretty fun, imaginative ensemble "adventure" story.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - I know some are getting tired of this series, but I'm still looking forward to the new HP.
9 - It's really early, but the trailer looks amazing. It's like an animated version of Wanted set in a dystopian, Tim Burton-esque world.
Hannah Montana: The Movie - Just Kidding.
And here's Peter's list:

Watchmen - Of the two most respected graphic novels in recent memory, one of them is called The Dark Knight Returns. We know how that movie turned out (even though it was inspired by that other graphic novel, The Long Halloween). The other is a less commercial but no less enduring work called Watchmen. Some claim the upcoming adaptation, which looks admirably faithful, will make The Dark Knight look like soap opera. I say that's a possibility. But then again, of the two novels, Watchmen is my undisputed favorite. Heavy on dialog, wrapped in exposition, and spanning several eras of American history, Watchmen is at least ambitious for a "comic book movie."
Revolutionary Road - Sam Mendes' career seemed haunted by American Beauty. Oh sure, Road to Perdition was good, but Hall's cinematography and Newman stole the show. Next up was Jarhead, and that was a critical and near-commercial disappointment. Now we have Revolutionary Road. Not only is it an adaptation of the renown novel, but it pairs up Winslet and DiCaprio since Titanic, and allows Mendes to slip on the thematic glove he wore so well in American Beauty: empty suburban lives. This one looks flawless, and may prove that American Beauty was just a warm-up.
Public Enemies - You say that Michael Mann is directing a period gangster epic that stars Jack Sparrow and Batman, and features Doc Manhattan as J. Edgar Hoover? This movie cannot fail. While I enjoyed the Miami Vice movie (up to a point), I realize how much the majority disqualified it after the success of Collateral. Well, you have to admit that it had awesome gunfights. I expect no less from Public Enemies.
Shutter Island - I don't think Scorsese has ever done a "pure" period mystery/thriller. That leaves me intrigued. Nevermind that I've been meaning to read the book, by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone), which has a twist ending. I think Scorsese making genuine Hollywood entertainment, as straightforward as can be, is akin to those rumors of Kubrick making a porno: because the artist in question is so over-qualified to do such a simple job, the movie must be excellent, right? The Departed was Scorsese's "first film with a plot." This one looks to be his second.
Inglourious Basterds - I think Tarantino fell out of his quality writing period after his adaptation of Jackie Brown, which I love and consider to be superior than Reservoir Dogs. Kill Bill was all direction and performance, and nothing else, and I got bored. In Volume Two, I was merely less bored. Now we have Basterds, a homage to Spaghetti Westerns. I love Spaghetti Westerns, which is all style, all performance, in all the right places. I know Kill Bill was pantomiming those old Shaw Bros. kung-fu flicks, but I thought the fight choreography was tame and, well, a little boring. They were supposed to be the centerpieces, right? At least with Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino can ditch the tame fight choreography and return to what he does best: tell stories of bad people who do bad things in an atmosphere that encourages it. Amen.

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Hey everyone! Guess what? We've teamed up with the guys at Rootclip.com!

Rootclip is a very original site for filmmaking. They provide a short film (a "root" clip) with a cliffhanger ending. People can participate by continuing the story with their own submissions. It's a really fun concept and everyone over at their community is nice and friendly.

Our partnership makes a lot of sense because while we teach people about filmmaking, they get people to contribute with their own films. Oh yeah, they also give out prizes to the people who make the best continuation!

To start off our partnership, we created our very own "root" clip (I wrote and directed it) with its very own cliffhanger [see included video]. Rootclip's users will be competing for t-shirts, a book, and a few other neat things. And now we want to invite you guys to compete with them as well!

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We were about to post an ordinary tutorial this week, but...it's Christmas! What with some of our usual crew visiting family out of town, thus leaving Sean and I all alone, we decided to shoot this saccharine candy cane of a Sinatra song. It's not quite a music video, and it's not quite a skit. It's also not that good (but good enough). It's called The Present.

As to whether or not the present that's shown in the video is real or made-up, well, who knows, yeah? One thing is for sure: that first draft is one thick burger. That'd be one epic, three-hour movie or something; split into a trilogy nine-hours long (and I haven't even mentioned the four-hour Director's Cuts). Mmmmm...

Merry Christmas everybody!

So, I just got a copy of this book in the mail. And if you look inside and turn to page 31, there's a really nice little blurb about our YouTube page. For those of you who don't know, Michael W. Dean is a good friend of mine. He told me ahead of time and I knew we were going to be mentioned in his latest book. But even knowing about it, it's still really exciting to see your name in something that's published. So, if you're reading this Michael, thank you. It's things like this that make running this site worthwhile. You can get the book on Amazon.

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When you make a movie, a big part of it is getting other people to see your vision. You have a story and in order to get others to see it how you imagined, you use lighting and sound effects to guide their eyes throughout the filmed version.

Typically, this means you should use manual focus and iris and gain so you have the most control possible. Unless, of course, you're going for a certain style or effect.

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Adobe Soundbooth has come a long way since its early stages in beta (back when it was free), and we found that this CS4 upgrade, on top of giving the interface a tabbed makeover, adds plenty of useful features that edge it closer to being a fully featured pro audio suite.

For now, it's all remarkably easy to use, with enough presets for newcomers, yet also deep enough for those who want to get their hands dirty.