Archive for the 'Film School' Category

Review: August

Published by Administrator June 20th, 2008 in Digital Technology, Film School, HD Cameras, News bits and Video Production. 0 Comments

review augustI tried to enjoy August - it’s really the only portrayal of the dot com bubble I can think of.

I’ve read quite a few (good) books about it and I have been a part of it in a minor way, so I expected to empathize with the protagonists. It proved to be rather difficult as right from the start, Josh Hartnett is tough pill to swallow. He’s too good looking (too sexy for our lady viewers too) to picture him as a real CEO. Don’t get me wrong, there are good-looking CEOs but that happens only AFTER the VCs take over the company and put their own puppet to run the show.

Now, despite Josh’s appearance, you can tell she’s trying hard to pull off a convincing portrayal. My problem with the support cast is that as out of place as Josh is, there’s no one else that steals scenes. I recently saw Charlie Wilson’s War and I watched in awe how Philip Seymour Hoffman steals EVERY scene he’s in.

I guess the moral of the story is: no matter how sexy you make a business guy, he always falls short of keeping the interest in the cinema. If only I didn’t have Wallstreet as a perfectly good example of a business movie!

None: The movie looks good and has been shot digitally with a Sony CineAlta rig!

Dr. Uwe Boll’s Postal

Published by Administrator May 26th, 2008 in Film School, News bits and Video Production. 2 Comments

Postal is finally out in the USA! Unfortunately, it seems that no one cares much…

According to Los Angeles Times:

Boll, who said even his German investors were “80% upset with him when they saw it,” claimed “Postal” was too much of a political hot potato for AMC or Regal to touch (its opening sequence has two 9/11 hijackers arguing about the virgins coming their way and a simulated explosion on impact).

The IMDB forums are quite active, with some real doctors (MDs not Dr like Uwe) prescribing Venlafaxine so that Uwe can get over his most recent flop. They warn that the possible side effects could be: muscle twitching, weight gain, and finally, problems with orgasms.

I say No way!. This could very well affect Boll’s performance in the upcoming box match between him and Michael Bay.

Review: Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls

Published by Administrator May 24th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, Movie Reviews, News bits and Video Production. 0 Comments

I have just seen it and I must say I’m not impressed. The two previous movies (with Richard Chamberlain as Allan) were not perfect but at least they have stuck to the original books.

If you have any doubt that this is exploitation film, supposed to ride on the back of Indy 4 - just check out the trailer. Even the title letters at the end copy Indiana Jones.

Back to the movie. Shot on location in South Africa with (mostly) local actors, Sean Michael is Allan. The sound mix doesn’t cut it - background noises often obscure speech because they are too loud.

The camera’s panning movement takes forever (the opening sequence and elsewhere). There are multiple repetitive shots, e.g. first guy riding, second guy riding after him, rinse and repeat 5 times.

The villain is ridiculous - and you know he’s the bad guy immediately because he’s showcasing a nasty grin and an ugly set of teeth. We’re 50 minutes into the movie before we see natives - and they remain on screen, singing and dancing, for at least 15.

Finally, at the end, when Allan finally finds the Temple of Skulls - guess what - it’s simply a cave with lighting that’s worse that most of tourist caves I’ve been too. A stalagmite and a skull next to it = Temple of the Skull.

Bad guy is there already - holding the girls as a hostage. Boom boom and the girl is reclaimed but the temple crumbles to pieces. Cue more native songs and dances.

THE END

Boll vs Bay

Published by Administrator May 2nd, 2008 in Film School, News bits, Storytelling and Video Production. 1 Comment

Uwe Boll has gone Postal. First, he goes to Blizzard, asks them for the movie rights to World of Warcraft. Then, he said Postal will beat Indy 4 at the box office.

Now, he’s fighting Michael Bay in a box match!

Uwe Boll goes Postal

Published by Administrator April 23rd, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, News bits and Storytelling. 1 Comment

Apparently, the much anticipated (not!) premiere of Postal, has made Uwe even more beligerent. An unfavorable review by Wired had him sent this email to the reviewer Chris Kohler (read the whole drama here)

chris
your review shows me only that you dont understand anything about movies and that you are a untalented wanna bee filmmaker with no balls and no understanding what POSTAL is. you dont see courage because you are nothing. and no go to your mum and fuck her …because she cooks for you now since 30 years ..so she deserves it.
people like you are the reason that independent movies have no chance anymore.
uwe boll
PS: POSTAL is R RATED . The MPAA understood the satire — you not — you dumb fuck

In a totally unrelated story, Uwe Boll has gone to Blizzard with an offer to purchase the movie rights for a World of Warcraft movie (source: WoW Insider).

Uwe himself quoted Blizzard’s response: “We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…. especially not to you.”

I wonder if Uwe had the brains to ask for the Diablo movie rights? Blizzard have all but forgotten the Diablo franchise, so maybe a handful of expensive euros will stand a chance.

RED Camera unboxing

Published by Administrator March 9th, 2008 in Digital Technology, Film School, HD Cameras, News bits and Video Production. 1 Comment

Mike Curtis has a sensual (no other word could describe it) unwrapping session with the unique RED camera.

Mike has endorsed the RED camera before but this time he actually gets to unwrap his very own RED cam.

Conan The Barbarian great scene

Published by Administrator March 6th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Storytelling. 0 Comments

I was browsing Google Video and I came across my favorite scene from Conan.

The music from Basil Poledouris is simply amazing. Barely a word is spoken… what an amazing soundtrack!

Review: Mongol

Published by Administrator February 25th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Digital Technology, Film School, Movie Reviews and Storytelling. 0 Comments

MongolI saw Mongol almost a week ago. I wasn’t even aware it was nominated for an Oscar (for Best Foreign Film). It didn’t win but I’m hardly surprised.

The movie aspires to portray Ghengis Khan’s early life. I understand there will be 2 more movies to follow. It does a decent job of portraying the 12th century nomads of Mongolia. It was shot on location in Kazakhstan and Inner Mongolia (a Chinese province).

I guess this first part was intended to show why Temudgin (played as adult by Tadanobu Asano) became who he became. It focuses on several important episodes - his choice of bride, the poisoning of his father, the relationship with his half-brother, and the numerous captures and escapes.

The photography and the art direction are excellent - they really contribute to an epic but authentic feel. The characters do not disappoint either.

My only problem is that the movie seems incomplete - maybe because it’s intended as a part of a trilogy. We don’t get to see Ghengis Khan and his Golden Horde until the very end, the last battle scene.

Review: Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Published by Administrator February 6th, 2008 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Movie Reviews. 1 Comment

Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn TwilightI was a big Dungeon & Dragons fan. I’m not anymore not because I grew up (which I did) but because it seems that every book, movie, etc. based on D&D is excruciatingly bad. So bad in fact, I’m not sure I’ll be watching another D&D movie any time soon.

I have read the Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight book back in my college days. It wasn’t Tolkien, but it worked. Since I was playing D&D at the time, it was interesting for me to see what an “ideal” D&D party would look like. I even liked the tale about how the mage got his power but that crippled his body (constitution, baby!).

In short, it was a fun book. Not so with this movie though. The adventure is more or less the same. There a couple of points which bothered me so much, I couldn’t focus on the story.

Let’s start with the production values (source):

Produced by Toonz Animation India, South Asia’s largest and self-proclaimed “most admired” animation studio, Dragons of Autumn Twilight is an absolute mess. This mix of traditional 2D animation for principal characters and backgrounds does not mesh at all with the 3D animation used to create the various Dragons, Draconians, and other evil creatures.

Wow. This probably explains why the movie looks like a mess. I have seen WoW machinima’s that are ten times better than this movie.

The next point is the script. Although the lines are read by the likes of Kiefer Sutherland, Michael Rosenbaum, and Lucy Lawless, they’ve lost a lot in translation from the book source. Furthermore, the writer has galloped though the book’s 400 pages. Scenes and characters are missing. By the end of it all, I didn’t care about any of the nine characters.

It’s a shame that the D&D universe gets another slap in the face by Hollywood. The Dungeon and Dragons movie had the excuse of a poor budget (or something to this effect). When you’re doing animation, however, it costs the same to draw a bad cave and to draw a good cave! Anyway, if you’re a D&D zealot, you could rent it but you’d better off reading the book again.

Dr. Uwe Boll returns

Published by Administrator December 13th, 2007 in Film School, News bits and Video Production. 0 Comments

It looks like Uwe is on a mission to convert all video games into third-rate action flicks. This is the trailer for his next installment - this time it’s based on Dungeon Siege.

I wonder how he did the leveling aspect of it. All the boring grinding and farming and so on.

Review: Youth without youth

Published by Administrator November 5th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, Movie Reviews, News bits and Storytelling. 4 Comments

Youth without youthI saw this movie last night, so I’m still pondering most of the unanswered questions.

Let’s start with the good news first. The craftsmanship of the people involved is amazing, considering the low budget. The camera work was excellent despite the obvious limitations - most shots were static, taking full advantage of the meticulous set designs. The supernatural moments (if you could call them that) were traditionally lit in what I call blue-moon glow which definitely added to the scenes.

Last but not least, the editing was superb - as you might imagine when you see it was done by Walter Murch, definitely not a stranger to Coppola movies. Considering the amazing work he did sowing together the different pieces The English Patient, he doesn’t disappoint even though the plot is convoluted.

Which leads us straight to the bad news: the plot. Youth without youth is based on Mircea Eliade’s novella about an old professor who is hit by lightning. This leaves him not only physically younger but also takes his mind faculty to a level beyond that of a mere human. The story is set in 1940s in Romania, so the Nazis get involved almost immediately. Our hero escapes them with the help of the professor who started the whole “healing process”.

At this point of the movie, all kinds of plot devices break lose. First, he meets the reincarnation (?) of his fiance of some 50 years back. In short order, the girl is hit by lightning (talking about lightning hitting twice!) and discovers her own talent - she is aware of her previous lives. In fact, she’s “possessed” by a 7th century Indian girl who only talks Sanskrit. She’s taken to the cave where that girl lived some 14 centuries before …

Now, I’m not going to spoil all the “fun” by revealing all the plot twists from this point on. Frankly, I tried my best to concentrate but the last part of the movie was such an uneven ride that all the craftsmanship in the world could not redeem it.

This is what Variety had to say about the final act:

By the time this stage is reached, the serial-worthy plot has moved through any number of genres without holding onto any of them. Perhaps Coppola’s affinity for a character obsessed by unrealized projects was too close to allow him to see the piecemeal nature of his script, bogged down by endless chatter. Immortality and the ramifications of eternal life, on both ethical and emotional levels, have been dealt with much more effectively in works varying from “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (referenced toward the end) and Janacek’s superb, emotionally resonant opera “The Makropoulos Case,” a far more powerful analysis of the cruelty of time.

Amen. Although I secretly hope this isn’t the last movie to come from Coppola.

Review: Planet Terror

Published by Administrator October 8th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Movie Reviews. 4 Comments

Planet TerrorRobert Rodriguez is one of my favorite indie icons, so I was naturally excited to check out his “treatment” of the grindhouse theme. Death Proof has a few excellent scenes but overall was a bit disappointing.

A bit of background: I’ve enjoyed some zombie movies in the past (Night of the Living Dead, Army of Darkness, etc) but I’m not an avid fan of zombies. Survival horror is not exactly my cup of tea.

Back to the movie, the plot premise is simple: “After an experimental bio-weapon is released, turning thousands into zombie-like creatures, it’s up to a rag-tag group of survivors to stop the infected and those behind its release.”

Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) works as a gogo dancer at a club and she’ll be the one to kill the most zombies. Her accomplice (ex-lover, fiance, etc) is El Wray (Freddy Rodríguez), whose mysterious past (lost as part of a faux missing reel) has taught him to use everything from knives to guns with deadly efficiency.

You shouldn’t think it’s just two against the world… I mean the zombies. The zombie tradition always presents us with a “ragtag” group of survivors. All of them are well-developed, even ones that get only a few minutes of screen time.

Similar to El Mariachi (and Desperado), Rodriguez introduces an interesting weapon. When zombies run away with Chery’s leg, she’s fitted with wooden leg, which is soon upgraded to a M16. She mows zombies with bullets and destroys them en masse with granades. Reading it might not be fun but seeing it… is another matter. Even my girlfriend was laughing!

Conan’s amazing soundtrack

Published by Administrator September 19th, 2007 in Film School, News bits and Storytelling. 1 Comment

Conan composer - Basil PoledourisConan the Barbarian has one of the most amazing soundtracks. I was disappointed NOT to see it on this list of 100 Best Movie Soundtracks.

When I looked into it deeper, I found Conan on a a list of The 101 Great Film Score Milestones. This is an excerpt from the description, you can see the whole list here.

It was compiled by John Caps, in the November-December 2003 issue of Film Comment magazine in an article titled “Soundtracks 101 – Essential Movie Music: A Listener’s Guide.” The list was created to mark the 70th anniversary of the film score in 2003. The article also provided a brief history of film music in the introduction, and further details on each of the choices.

Predictably, one-fourth of the list was taken by the six giants of the Golden Age (Steiner, Waxman, Korngold, Newman, Rozsa, Herrmann). Yet the author also recognized some of the great, but seemingly forgotten, figures of the recent past: Laurence Rosenthal, Richard Rodney Bennett, Dave Grusin, David Shire, and Basil Poledouris.

OK, I feel better now.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Published by Administrator September 15th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and News bits. 0 Comments

Indiana Jones 4 is still in production but now it has an official title. In case you’re wondering what it is… you haven’t read the title. OK, official title will be Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Although I find the title a bit long, you gotta love a descriptive title like that. Oh yeah, for those who loved Karen Allen in the Raiders, she’s back.

John Rambo trailer

Published by Administrator September 12th, 2007 in Film School, Movie Reviews, News bits and Storytelling. 0 Comments

There’s an improvised trailer from the upcoming Rambo 4 (officially John Rambo). It’s not an official Rambo trailer but I think it’s worth your 2 minutes.

Most of the Rambo fans who’ve seen it are raving about it. After all, it has the right mix of improvised weapons, blood & gore, and of course Sly Stalone! With the production over, the movie should be out by Christmas.

Review: Interview

Published by Administrator September 10th, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School and Storytelling. 0 Comments

I saw Interview over the weekend. It was definitely worth the 84 minutes. Frankly, I was surprised to see a movie trimmed so nicely as most directors will never admit their movie is shorter than nine rolls.

The movie is dedicated to Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker who was tragically murdered by an Islamic extremist in 2004. It’s also a remake of Theo’s movie (Interview) which was shown on Dutch television. It seems that Theo originally envisioned a remake with Buscemi and Miller, so in a way they carried on without him.

Interview Sienna Miller Steve BuscemiThe movie’s premise is simple - a journalist has been assigned to interview a B-movie actress that’s also popular with the tabloids.

The journalist (Buscemi) didn’t do his homework (i.e. read the file, watch the movies) because he feels the interview and the interviewee are much below his usual game - polititians in Washington.

The B-movie star, Katya (Sienna Miller), comes an hour late and immediately starts complaining about the table at the restaurant. To cut the long story short, they are off to an awful start. End of Act I.

Acts II and III aren’t that straight-forward. There’s a lot of talking, flirting, drinking, smoking, and more talking. As the movie progresses the journalists loses more and more of his “moral highground”. It’s definitely an interesting movie and I recommend seeing it.

Review: Die Hard 4.0

Published by Administrator July 10th, 2007 in Film School, Movie Reviews and Storytelling. 3 Comments

Die Hard 4I know the movie’s title is different in the US (Live Free or Die Hard). In Europe, however, it seems living free is not that important as dying hard. Or harder.

Twelve years is certainly a long time to wait for a sequel. Not that third installment really had a lot going for it. My personal favorite is the original with Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber as the villain. IMHO, lacking a strong villain is an unsurmountable obstacle when it comes to dying hard.

Here’s the plot outline in a sentence: When a criminal plot is in place to take down the entire computer and technological structure that supports the economy of the United States (and the world), it’s up to a decidedly “old school” hero, police detective John McClane, to take down the conspiracy, aided by a young hacker.

The young hacker is Justin Long whose claim to fame is his “star” Mac role in Apple’s ads. In the movie, he’s also using a Mac which makes you think about clever product placement. You never see a PC, you just assume every other computer is one.

Kevin SmithWhen it comes to bad casting, it’s hard not to notice Kevin Smith. It would’ve been much better if his role was mute with Jay doing the talking but alas, Silent Bob talks. His War10ck is supposed to mock the hacker stereotype but frankly it doesn’t go anywhere.

If there’s one redeeming factor in terms of casting, it’s the female roles: both Maggie Q as the henchwoman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lucy kick ass and make me want to see more of them instead of the lame villains and sidekicks. James Berardinelli agrees that Lucy would’ve made a much better sidekick. Same thing for Maggie Q in terms of villain-hood.

Let’s keep it real though - if you’re after a summer action movie, this is as good as it gets. In fact, I have a new way to measure if a movie has a universal appeal. On my way out, I caught a glimpse of THREE cleaning ladies who were exiting in a hurry, I assume not to get caught by their supervisor. So once you see cleaning ladies joining in the “fun”, you know the movie’s good.

RED camera price and schedule

Published by Administrator June 25th, 2007 in Digital Technology, Film School, HD Cameras and Video Production. 3 Comments

There’s been quite a stir every time someone mentions the RED camera.

RED cameraFor one, its support for 4K video (4,096 x 2,160 pixels) made quite an impact last year when RED camera stole NAB 2006.

Another point is the price … point. The body will cost “only” 17,500. If you consider the average indie producer’s budget this seems quite high but at the same time, a good zoom lens could cost that much (and more). So considering the 4K capability, you’re getting an excellent deal.


So let’s go to the schedule part. The first batch of RED cameras (50 or so) will ship in August. From then on, it’s about 100 cameras per month. About 2000 have been pre-ordered already which means that if you order today, you’ll get yours in February 2008!

Which definitely is a long wait. Fear not, some of the guys who are buying it are OK to rent it for a week or two.

Review: Death Proof

Published by Administrator June 22nd, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, Movie Reviews and Storytelling. 0 Comments

Death Proof posterI’m still not sure how Death Proof is supposed to be “appreciated.”

My rule of thumb is that movies that need 10 things to go right just so you can “appreciate” them are usually movies not worth it. At the same time, my impression of Kill Bill (part I) was pretty negative but then when I saw the second part, I changed my opinon of the whole thing.

If you ask Tarantino, all you need in order to enjoy this movie is a passion for old movies shown in run-down cinemas. Movie that the likes of Roger Corman shot for a weekend on a budget that today won’t cover the light rental for a single day.

Death Proof screenshot

The plot is pretty simple, there are no abrupt turns, unless you count the car chases. Someone summed it up in a sentence: a psycho named Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) stalks and kills beautiful women with his car.

I found Tarantino’s famous dialog scenes dragging and the overacting unbearable (obviously it was meant as a reference to the cheeseness in exploitation flicks). So the cheese was a bit much when it comes to the static scenes which probably comprise 80% of the movie.

When he finally hits the car scenes, I wished there was a lot more of them. The stunts, the sounds, the tempo were all so perfect, I walked out of the theater happy. Would I see it again? Not sure… but I’ll sure buy the Death Proof DVD, if I see any of those get-three-for-just-$10 deals.

Review: The Boss of It All

Published by Administrator May 23rd, 2007 in Book/DVD Reviews, Film School, News bits and Storytelling. 0 Comments

The Boss of It AllI like Lars von Trier’s new direction. The movie is a closer to The Idiots than Dogville, and I liked The Idiots a lot.

The premise of the movie is also close to my heart: the IT industry and how a potential acquisition can sour relations. The plot is straight-forward:

The owner of an IT company wishes to sell it. But, for years, he has pretended that the real boss lives in America and communicates with the staff only by e-mail. That way, all the unpopular decisions can be attributed to the absentee manager, while all the popular ones to him directly.

But now, the prospective buyer insists on meeting the big boss in person. In a panic, the owner hires a failed, over-intellectualizing actor to portray him, and the actor proceeds to improvise all his lines, to the consternation of both the buyer and the company staff, who finally get to meet their ghostly boss.

I’ve never seen any of the actors before, with one notable difference - Iben Hjejle. The acting is OK, granted you have Dogme sensibilities. I especially loved the two guys from “Iceland” who were a perfect match of ice and fire. Excellent performance from the lead character as well.

A few observations that really question Lars’s “growth” since the Dogme days. First, the narration attracts attention to the director, while Dogme postulated that the director should remain uncredited. Second, I couldn’t escape the feeling that some of the random compositions - sometime cutting faces in half - were done on purpose, to mock this style of “indie” shooting.

Lars never claimed he would stick to Dogme. In fact, this movie “patented” a new mathematical formula and a process he called Automavision. Here’s what he means by that:

This entails choosing the best possible fixed camera position and then allowing a computer to choose when to tilt, pan or zoom. “For a long time, my films have been handheld,” he explains. “That has to do with the fact that I am a control freak. With Automavision, the technique was that I would frame the picture first and then push a button on the computer. I was not in control - the computer was in control.”

I think THAT explains the erratic camera motions. Anyway, if you have a chance to see the movie, go and check it out, especially if you’re IT!

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