May 14 09

Link Dump: Web Shows & Eclectic

Yes, my link dumps are almost all eclectic, but there’s more than just web show type stuff in this one, but nothing I could categorize under one name that fit it all nicely. Anyway… it’s a pretty light dump this week, but there’s some good stuff in here, I promise. I’ll dispense with the usual sell-you-on-my-post type stuff this time and simply get to it…

Gimme the goodies…

Oct 27 08

Showcase: Various

Alrighty… I think I stop trying to come up with meaningful titles for the topic part of each entry, since most of my posts are so scattered.  Hopefully there’s some good stuff in there for you guys though.  Anyway…since I didn’t get to it last night, here’s this week’s showcase entry. Gimme the goodies…

Oct 25 08

Link Dump: Eclectic

Alright, here’s a pretty scattered entry, and I’m sorry for it being late, but I’ve gotten home at midnight the last 2-3 nights in a row and haven’t been in much of a mood for more than sleep by that time, so here’s the entry, I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Gimme the goodies…

Oct 16 08

Link DUMP #2

Alright guys…another pretty massive list of links for your researching and learning pleasure.  That being said…I’ll get started. Gimme the goodies…

Oct 06 08

Showcase: Virals & Ads

Alrighty…so here’s this week’s showcase.  I’ve noticed as I become more entrenched in the industry-bound mindset and more into the tools and techniques and whatnot of the professional side of things, I’m introducing more of that into my blog posts.  I hope you guys don’t mind, but I’ll try to keep this low-budget aimed anyway, since that’s the purpose of the site in the first place.  Now, that said, let’s move into the good stuff… Gimme the goodies…

Aug 23 08

Link Dump

Alright, I know it’s late, but it’s the first week back at school, getting back into the swing of things, and, quite frankly, feeling more like spending as much time away from the computer as possible, given the amount of time spent on it while at school. Nonetheless, here’s my promised post-after-vacation (which was a great one, by the way).

To start it off with, this article, which I might have posted before, is all about The Dark Knight‘s effects, and offers some pretty crazy insight into the making of the thing. I’m heading off to see the IMAX version tomorrow. Should be fun. Next up in industry-related articles, I found but haven’t read this interview with Simon Reay, DP on the show Man vs. Wild (which I love), which should be interesting.

Among more indie resources, I came across this site, a sort of database of free sound effects. I know nothing of its value or quality or library, but it’s always nice to have one more place to look for that hard-to-find sound when you’re in a crunch. As always, IndyMogul came out with a few new episodes, and apparently are doing a steampunk combo episode with Threadbanger soon, which I’m pretty psyched about. One last thing I actually found quite a while ago but researched again for possible involvement is MobMov, a mobile movie theater group that basically promotes and premieres films in public places via projectors on cars and creating a mini drive-in theater. Sounds great, though their groups in my areas have always been small or nonexistent (though this is the only actual city I’ve been in while trying to get involved). Definitely worth checking out.

Jul 21 08

New Resources!

Alright, it’s been a while and the site’s design is still in the works, but I’ve got some good news to share.

Firstly, in recent events, today I went to a screening of Apocalypto followed by a discussion and Q&A session with Dean Semler, the DP on Apocalypto and many other great films (Road Warrior, Beyond Thunderdome, Waterworld, Dances With Wolves to name a few). It was interesting to hear stories from the set and listen to someone talk about their business from a still-active, first-person point of view.

On to things I can share with you… Andrew Kramer’s done it again with TWO great new tutorials from Video Copilot, the 3D Offset possibly now my favorite of all his installments. So definitely check those out, even if you’re not an avid or current After Effects user. A basic interest will surely be inspired by this guy and his knowledge. Among other online tutorials, I checked out CreativeCow.net today and found this one by Grant Swanson, which is absolutely brimming with tips and tricks and knowledge surrounding the main theme of the tutorial: making DV footage look more cinematic. It’s basic, quick, and works beautifully. Best of all, most of it could even be done in other programs like Premiere or Final Cut, if After Effects isn’t available where you are.

I’ve got a few more resources lined up to check out, but not having done so yet, I’ll hold off on posting about them until I’ve reviewed their quality. However, one’s a video on DVD vs. Digital distribution, a hot topic these days, and the other’s a video of John Knoll, VFX Supervisor on Pirates of the Caribbean talking about the role of VFX Supervisors in modern cinema. IndyMogul‘s posted some good stuff in the last few weeks and are always worth checking out, and though I haven’t read it yet, this article on Color Correcting might be good for anyone interested in the idea. I’ll be sure to post at some point about other findings I come across as I come across them, but for now, enjoy the wealth of stuff I’ve posted this time and best of luck in your films. Happy filmmaking!

Feb 21 08

A Note on Shaky Camera Work

Earlier today I got an email from StudioDaily, a pretty fascinating online industry magazine and resource website about filmmaking, visual effects and editing.  In the letter,one of the headlines was this:

Over at Film & Video, Bryant Frazer talks with director George A. Romero about his return to low-budget filmmaking with Diary of the Dead using Panasonic HDX900 and HVX200 camcorders.

So naturally I emailed that quote off to the first friend I thought of when I think of zombie movies, and he responded pretty quickly saying that he didn’t like the new “Blair Witch sort of style that’s coming back.”  That I can completely understand, so I responded with the following passage, which is the basis for this post:

I kind of like the shaky cam style that’s on the rise, it’s more viral and amateurish, and it blurs the lines between amateur films and professional ones, making it so that it doesn’t matter as much anymore to the audience if it’s a “real movie” because they can’t always tell, so it’s not worth bothering about.  If it’s good, it’s good, and it deserves praise, if it’s bad, well, they leave it alone (or flame it, the bastards).  Sometimes it’s hard to see or hard to handle (I got mildly nauseous watching Cloverfield), but I think it’s a cool way to kind of get the super-hype of paying high attention to lighting, costumes, and even set design a little bit out of the way, and letting amateurs get more into the field, simply because the cheapest way to film (handheld and shaky) is often the most real feeling, because it’s not completely stable like a statue, nor is it to the extent that Cloverfield was (though that was pretty wonderfully done).  Basically, it give me even more of a chance to go out and shoot random stuff, put it all together in some sort of cohesive, understandable and entertaining story, and then market it and get attention because it looks real, it could be real, and if it’s good, people will appreciate either the documentary-ness of it or the realistic acting and detail of the thing.  So basically I don’t put anywhere near as much effort into the preparation of the film that Hollywood does, and I can still come out with a viable film to show at festivals and gain a reputation among the biggies of the business.  So that’s why I like it.  As a style, though, you’re right, it’s hard to take sometimes.

Now, that being said, I haven’t seen the trailer for this, but I’m going to look it up and see what I can find, heh.

NOTE: You can see the trailer here.  And I actually was a little disappointed with it when I watched it.

Dec 28 07

VFX Freeware!

Alright, I found these sites today pretty much all at once, and it blew my socks off.  Quite literally… I was shocked and excited beyond words for a few moments.  I’d found everything from free VFX and particle generation and animation software to a substitute for an already brilliant Terragen 2 all the way to a huge list of freeware/shareware/GPL-licensed software that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on.  I’ve posted some of the links here, but this doesn’t even begin to list what I found today.

Some awesome Linux/freeware-related sites:
http://linuxmovies.org/
http://linuxmovies.org/software.html

Some purely VFX sites:
http://www.tml.tkk.fi/~tilmonen/vee/home.html
http://www.reptilelabour.com/software/flow/index.htm
http://terraform.sourceforge.net/tf_animation.html
http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/

And finally the big kahuna of them all…
http://www.digitaldarknet.net/thelist/

Oct 29 07

Fund-Raising

Again, while perusing the articles on Microfilmmaker Magazine’s website, I discovered this article on fund-raising.  It was less creative than the other articles I’d found, being more a business aspect of filmmaking than a creative one, but I think that was a little bit the point of it.  Most people I know don’t realize the fund-raising part of filmmaking even exists.  It’s very glazed over or even just avoided completely in amateur projects especially.  I watched an interview once with Bruce Campbell where he said “You’ve gotta put on your businessman’s hat for just a few minutes and work out how your business is gonna work,” basically that the investors get a certain amount of money back, if you had investors to start with.  Essentially, the point was that money is used and hopefully made at the end of a project, and what happens with that money needs to be clear from the beginning and you, as the head of your project, need to be careful to abide by those rules you set out for yourself from the get-go.  It’s a very important part of filmmaking that I’ve barely even touched.  We did have to raise quite a bit of money for LATENT(CY), the feature I directed last year, but before that I’d not fund-raised for any project I’d worked on.  It was surprising how much effort went into just raising money and how much more work was added to the whole project when we began thinking about raising money.  Not only through donations and helpful family members and stuff bringing food or offering gas money and what have you, but screenings of our older films with non-free tickets and such.  Other things to do would be things like DVD pre-sales, or other merchandise you can easily make or acquire that’s related to your film and is legal for resale (T-shirts, coffee mugs, the memorabilia stuff that’s easy to get made in bulk or make yourself).

One thing I always wonder is why Hollywood movies cost so much money.  It’s obvious that lots of it goes toward transportation costs, as well as paying the actors ridiculous amounts of money, and the directors and producers as well.  They also have tons of people working on projects from the writer(s) all the way to the marketing department, comprised of most likely more than just a few people.  I would also think that some of it goes toward locations, lots toward costuming, props and sets, if there’s much of that in the film, depending on when the film takes place and what it’s about.

The interesting thing now to me, mostly, is that when more and more effects are involved in a movie, it seems like more and more money is called for, only us low-budget guys often prefer films with digital effects (simple ones, for the most part) that can enhance the film because they’re easy, cheap and accessible.  There are tons of people these days wanting to go into visual effects, 3D animation, graphic design, and all those fields, and often, filmmakers either double as effects artists or know enough about the technology and have friends or favors owed to them by people who work in the field that it’s often either free or super cheap to get some good effects on a low-budget film.  For example, I’m a filmmaker, much more of a storyteller and writer/director type, but I’m going to visual effects college starting in February to learn the Hollywood techniques using big-budget tolls and resources for basically learning how to work in a studio right out of the program.  All of that knowledge is mainly universal, in concept form, so it’ll be easy to go home and on my much lower budget machine figure out how to do what I’d learned that day in classes on my own stuff.  Not only will I have the capability to shoot, edit and finish a film all with my own equipment, I’ll have deep, professional-level post-production visual effects background and know-how for my projects as well.  It’s an incredibly useful “double-major,” as it were, to have in this day and age where digital is becoming so much cheaper, easier and more accessible to the average Joe.

The saddest things to me, really, is the fact not that the sets get torn down at the end of every movie, but oftentimes they just get thrown away, all the pieces and equipment and stuff that’s not going to get used by the crew anymore, since the film’s done, often just gets thrown away.  That’s like taking half the budget and flushing it down the toilet!  It’s incredible!  If I ever made a big-budget movie I’d at least sell as much as possible, if not to make back the money then to at least know that the stuff wasn’t just going to waste.  It’d be a wonderful way to make back the money that was used in the making of the film, and since ebay’s here, we can pretty much sell anything we have to anybody around the world.  If you’ve got something like a candlestick that was in a movie selling for 5 bucks, somebody would take it.  The huge wastefulness of Hollywood is just one more thing about the industry today that bugs the crap out of me.  It’s so illogical, so immoral and irrational that I don’t understand how they continue to get away with it, especially with the climate, social, economical and other crises we have in the world right now.  That money, if for some incredible reason the production company decided they didn’t want it, could be used for charities, could be used to help someone else make a movie, could be sent somewhere and put to good use.  Actors don’t need to get paid millions of dollars, that’s ridiculous.  Actors in low-budget movies are often just as good and don’t even get paid a quarter that much, and they’re probably plenty happy with their jobs.  If you could cut the salaries in a film’s production in half, use it all either for other stuff for the project just to sell the idea better (make it more believable) or even just cut the budget in half that way, there would be a lot of money to go around for other things, not to mention a ton of talk about the film cutting costs way, way down and still coming out great.  Because who ever heard of a film that’s super cheap making it into the Hollywood distribution circuit?  Oh wait… Rodriguez did it and it made his career.  Oh, right.  So why doesn’t anybody else?  I would love to see someone take a real, full budget for a big-time Hollywood movie, rework it and get it as cheap as it could go without sacrificing the quality of the project, and see what the ending difference would be.  I think it would be an incredible eye-opener into the wastefulness of Hollywood, the talent and creativity that needs to be in movies (yes, even in the business aspects of them, like fund-raising), and the fact that you can make something great from nothing and still be OK by the end.  I think it would be a wonderful realization, if somebody would actually do it.

Link: http://www.microfilmmaker.com/tipstrick/Issue17/FundRai1.html

Oct 29 07

Micro-Budget Light Kit

Here’s an article written by Cinematographer Scott Spears about assembling a very thorough light kit with very little money, compared to a Hollywood or even some indie film budgets.  In the end it comes out to about 265 bucks, however, if you find deals and buy in a state where there’s little or no sales tax (like New Hampshire, as far as I know), then you’d cut down on some prices.  Light stands can be made (though I’d recommend having at least one professional one, used probably, since it’s much cheaper), and lots of diffusion and gels can be made or improvised for free as well.  I’d also like to point out that gels aren’t crucial anymore in this digital day and age where you can do almost anything with a computer and some decent software in post.  I’m not in anyway telling you to wait until post-production to think about your shots, that would be suicide, but plan out your production down to the last little snack break so you know everything about every shot and you can save time and money (if you’re paying cast or crew, heh) by not spending a lot of time on set fiddling with settings and angles of lights with gels and stuff.  While in one sense this can be useful, if you watch the extra feature on Robert Rodriguez’s DVD for Once Upon A Time In Mexico on working fast and cheaply but staying organized and in control, it’s most important to do just that – stay organized and in control so that you can move very quickly, cheaply and efficiently, but also get all the footage you need to the project before you wrap shooting.  It’s a bummer to have to go back and do reshoots, but it happens, and it’s best to be as organized as possible so you not only don’t have to, bu you can add easily and quickly to the shots you did get while in your super-productive phase of organized low-budget filmmaking.

Going back to the article, it describes quite a few different types of lights that can and should be used on sets and locations, many different ways of plugging things in, adapters, cables, diffusers and all types of stuff related to lights and getting you to light your stuff well so it looks good in the final edit.  It’s a very good read for anyone interested in lighting, or filmmaking at all, and it’s definitely a must read for those of you who are making a film or going to make a film soon.  Keep it all in mind for your next film and try to budget in a lot of the things on the list.  Search around for deals and tips for DIY solutions on the cheap or for free, since there are definitely some for some of the things on the list.

The thing that got me the most excited was the spirit of “We don’t have the money but we’ve got the creativity” that permeated this article.  It’s all over the place in independent filmmaking, since most indie films are low-budget, done quickly and with as much creativity as possible.  It’s not really a communal thing exactly, but it’s the fact that lack of money doesn’t stop people from doing what they love to do.  That’s the coolest part.  It’s so fun to read an article like this and watch low-budget indie movies because they represent, to me, what filmmaking should really be all about and what Hollywood’s been losing in the past years.  There are so many good low-profile movies coming out and so many huge-budget effects-driven trophies paraded around the marketing world that are just so obnoxious to me.  Spending as little money as possible, getting the utmost in results and solving any and all problems creatively is the best way to do things, I think.  This spirit is not completely lost in Hollywood, I know I’ve mentioned him before but I’ll do it again, Robert Rodriguez finished one of the Spy Kids movies in about six months, and can’t even keep track of the number of setups he does in a day.  That is cool, I think, because he’s working as quickly and efficiently as possible so he can get the most done in a short amount of time and still have fun and get some awesome movies out there when they’re done.  Typically, films take almost six months just to shoot, in Hollywood, but in the indie world, in my world, I took 4 months with cast and crew to make LATENT(CY), from concept to completion.  It was a hell of a ride, and incredibly stressful, but it was my first feature, and it was with a crew of five and cast of about four, with a lot of learning curves all going at once.  Next time, I’ll know a lot more about what I’m doing, and so will the rest of the people involved.  Hopefully that means a more productive, faster, better piece with high quality, low or no budget and some huge efforts on the parts of both cast and crew.

The spirit of do-it-yourself(-with-no-money) in my version of filmmaking I think is what makes it so exciting for me.  I spend as little money as possible making as good a product as possible, and when it’s you and your friends who all love to make a movie, that’s easy, and it’s even fun.  I don’t understand the Hollywood way of thinking they can solve problems by slapping money on the budget for some enhanced effects work in post or something when they could have just organized or done it right on set and not had to worry about it at all.  Also, one thing I think is kind of funny, and this is very unrelated, in the fact that a lot of indie actors are often, I’ve found, as good as or better then big-time Hollywood actors who get all the attention, and the indie actors don’t get anywhere near as many jobs.  Doesn’t really make sense to me but hey, it keeps them available to the small-timer who wants a good movie made with barely any money… like me.  Bruce Campbell said something once, comparing indie filmmaking to Hollywood filmmaking, “indies can always slow down with more money, but Hollywood can’t speed up with less money,” and I think that’s perfect that he said it, but really, really stupid that it’s true.  How sad is it that Hollywood can’t creatively solve their problems in production on a movie and save tons of money while indie filmmakers do it all the time, creating just as good of a final product, but they don’t get even half the distribution deal at the end.  I guess now it’s just name recognition, but that’s a pretty depressing world then.  If we depend on names to watch a movie, that’s pretty sad.  Sometimes it’s nice to see a familiar face in a new role, or even a sort of familiar role, since actors nowadays are becoming more and more typecasted, but I’d personally rather see someone I’ve never heard of before pull off the performance the character they’re playing deserves.  When that happens, it’s awesome to watch a film, even if I don’t know about anybody involved in the movie, it’s worth it.  I think it’s the talent and the effort that counts, the final film doesn’t matter if there’s no point, if there’s no value in the story or there’s just a lot of flashy effects with a really weak storyline to it.  If it’s got even the simplest of plots, like Cashback or The Big Bad Swim, it can be told in a way that makes you just love the entire thing, simply because of the obvious effort that went into the whole project.

As for the article, it’s definitely worth reading and thinking about and remembering on your next project, for all you filmmakers out there, definitely read it and keep it in mind.  Best of luck, and keep on making things nobody’s ever heard of, that’s when it gets cool.

Link: http://www.microfilmmaker.com/tipstrick/Issue1/lighting.html

Oct 21 07

Complete 4K Workflow Video

Well, Studio Daily delivers again with this really cool short video about 4K, the new technology that’s been taking the place of 2K, HD’s cinematic rival.  Essentially, they say that they don’t want digital to be a compromise for filmmakers who want as crisp an image as films that were shot in the 30s on film, because we always have the capability to go softer on the film, but not sharper, unless we then compromise the image.  For me, it’s not a big deal, since I’m still a super low-budget MiniDV filmmaker in part-time college and soon to be starting at VFX school.  However, for the big-hitters and even the local theaters in your area, the emergence of 4K (ant not only that but cheap 4K workflow solutions – including projectors) means that the theater experience could very well be livened up a bit from its current state and that the quality of a cinematic, big-budget motion picture could very well build up some strength with enhanced quality of image.  The new format is still pretty much unknown to me, and I do know that I love the digital format of filmmaking, simply because when you know what you or others can do, you can make so many quick decisions on set that you don’t waste time and money (if you’re paying people on set hehe) by wondering what to do or reshooting multiple versions of the same take so you can experiment with it afterwards.  Robert Rodriguez does a great short video on this on the DVD for Once Upon A Time In Mexico, where he talks about the necessity of knowing technology and special/visual effects so that you can be quick and efficient and in control on set at all times.  This is the huge gift of digital for me, because if a shot is slightly shaky but it works otherwise, I don’t have to worry about reshooting it because it can be stabilized later on.  I don’t have to go overboard with makeup because I can add some creepy color correction and a bit more distortion to people’s faces if needed in post.  I can do background explosions, liven up whole sequences that may have been shot in a short hour with someone running around by putting all sorts of crazy action behind them just to sell the shot.  There are some good examples in the extra features of the newly-released Planet Terror DVD that talk about Rodriguez’s shooting quickly on a low budget and then enhancing the experience with digital tehcnology and visual effects guys who just know what they’re doing.  This is the gift of digital, and it’s nice to know that not only do we now as filmmakers have this ultimate flexibility to utilize on our productions, but that the quality of image and the undeniable progress in the quality of the technology is coming along for the ride as well, giving us basically the best possible stuff to use while making a big budget film so that it can be the ultimate entertainment experience.  The only problem now is that it’s still way beyond the price range of any low- or no-budget filmmaker, and probably lots of indies out there too.  However, if there’s a good story, lots can be forgiven.  Oh, and sound, that’s pretty crucial too.

Just a note for readers, sorry I haven’t been posting that often, things have gotten quite busy around here, and I know I mentioned that page for my films a while back and.. where is it?  Well no fear, there’s a film in the edit bay right now and another being worked on in the writing and casting stage at the moment, so those two hopefully will be done by January and online and sent out to festivals, but right now I’ve got school, work and some of my own things I’m dealing with and working on.  However, you can look forward to updates on the progress of those films as well as a stabilization device that I’ve been planning and working out the details of so I can have a vest-mounted rig that’s easily detatchable but used springs and whatnot to stabilize a camera with the weight of an XL-1.  More info on that once it’s in the works, but for now, keep your heads on and bear with me.  Enjoy the video below and go check out some low-profile movies at your local video store.  I watched The Insatiable the other night and loved it.  It’s a cross between a Vampire drama and The Office.  Yea, pretty brilliant, huh?  Best of luck, and happy filmmaking.

Link: http://www.studiodaily.com/main/videosplash

Oct 10 07

Video for a Cause

Here are two contest opportunities I’ve found recently that have both been unused tabs in my Firefox window for a week or two now.  One is being put on by Sony, in their effort to combat cyberbullying and another by Cooley’s Anemia Foundation, as a grant competition to make the best film relating to thalassemia, or Cooley’s Anemia, a “fatal genetic blood disorder that disproportionately affects people of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Northern African, Chinese, South Aisian, Southeast Asian and Caribbean descent,” says the article on Studio Daily about the effort.  It’s purpose is to raise awareness about the disease by sponsoring a competition of film and videomakers to come up with a very effective and informative idea for a short spot about the disease, or other things listed on the site.  Humanitarian effort not enough, well listen to this:

“Five grant winners will be selected to receive — courtesy of program
sponsors Panasonic Broadcast, Abel Cine Tech and CAF— the use of a full
Panasonic P2 HD camera package, including an AG-HPX500 P2 HD camcorder,
Fujinon lens, four 16GB P2 Cards, an AG-HPG10 P2 Gear, and $2,000
towards production costs to create a three- to six-minute, documentary-style video. One grand prize winner will be selected to
receive an equipment/cash award valued at $10,500 (including $5,000 and
a P2 HD equipment package consisting of an AG-HVX200 P2 HD camcorder
and two 16GB P2 cards).”

Now if that isn’t some incentive!  The next competition is the one sponsored by Sony, the Ad Council, and the National Crime Prevention Council, and is more similar to your typical make-something-get-rewarded competition.  Their goal is to “create a video for a public service announcement on the awareness and prevention of cyberbullying.”  This one’s more of the usual all-or-nothing deal, where you make something and then submit it, wait for a response and you either get one or you don’t.  However, the prizes for this contest are very impressive, not only is it yet another humanitarian effort, it’s over $18,000 worth of equipment you win if you’re an independent producer, and over $25,000 worth if you’re part of a school group!  Now if that’s not some freaking incentive, then I don’t know what is!  Best of luck to any and all who decide to pursue this, and post your videos online, send links here, I’d love to see what you came up with!

Sep 21 07

Sweet Fight Scene & Hollywood’s Disaster

I found this a few days back online and thought it was pretty awesome. Very low-budget, they didn’t do any complicated effects, and the production value was only high because of the obvious talent of the two actors. I watched it and thought “Why aren’t movie fights this cool?” It can’t be the money, because they obviously didn’t spend much on this, if anything, so what is it? They can’t find talented enough people? The choreographer’s aren’t good enough? This would totally be a crowd-pleaser as a big-budget fight scene, so what’s the deal? I don’t get it. I think these guys deserve some applause, just because of their talent, and I know editing can be tedious, especially editing action scenes, but they did a great job in all aspects of this video. I just wish Hollywood would take a hint from the growing wealth of internet film-related talent and try to step up their game. I don’t really get why they’re in such a slump right now. I’ve got a running list going with friends I work with at the movie store, and we’ve discovered so many recent movies that have been remakes it’s ridiculous. It’s like Hollywood has literally no original ideas anymore, it’s insane. It’s really not that complicated to come up with something new, I do it all the time. It might be based on other things, but that’s how we get inspired, so we can’t really help that. But what’s with continually remaking old movies? Is it the guarantee of success? Is Hollywood really so scared that they can’t just take a plunge and go for something new and fresh these days? I mean there are independent filmmakers out there making movies like Cashback and The Boondock Saints and Bubba Ho-Tep that are really just great films. What happened to that spirit of making something because it was a great, original idea? Why don’t they try that anymore in the big-leagues? Frankly, it’s ridiculous that so many movies these days are unoriginal, I think it’s wrong, really, and it’s getting to the point where I think the internet and rental programs aren’t Hollywood’s only competitors right now, destroying their box-office business; I think it’s them. If they keep making crappy movies, remakes, things that people have the attitude of “I’ll rent it when it’s out instead of going to the theater to see it,” spending another 5 bucks or whatever, then they’re only killing themselves, and then the independents come as a rise of talent again. That’s great for the independents, but Hollywood still has a huge market and most of the public’s attention, so how do we find out about Indie films if we’re not looking? If Hollywood keeps making movies that don’t matter to the public enough for the studios to make the big box-office money they need to pay back their loans, Hollywood’s going to go out of business, and though it won’t happen for a long time, if at all, it paves the way for new indie filmmakers and lots of smaller venues, which can be great. It can also be seen as a loss of independent thought in the industry that makes up probably close to half of the role models of our teen and pre-teen population. Hollywood needs to take some chances. Nothing was ever gained by being safe, but when you let go of your safeguards and go for something that’s really groundbreaking, just because of the newness of the idea, then you really make history. That’s when people fall in love with filmmaking again. That’s when people fall in love with the movies again. I think we need a studio revolution, maybe more than a filmmaking revolution. Freer thought in the studio will lead to more deals for indie filmmakers, more varied storylines, much more original content in films, and will open doors for casts, crews and all sort of positions in filmmaking for many more people than the current group of near-untouchable elites that actually make things we remember. And what’s with eh trilogy craze recently? Just because Lord of the Rings did it means everybody else can make fortunes too? No, that plays back to the originality idea. When you make a great movie, don’t go and ruin it by making a crappy couple of sequels like Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Matrix and other movies have been doing recently. Keep the original good idea and let the rest go. Leave room for others to come in and pick up where you left off, with something else, something new and different, and watch what they come up with, take chances for, and then you take your turn. I think if we could handle that, we’d be set for a new era of Hollywood filmmaking… where it wasn’t a minority of stares with a monopoly of the industry… it was a huge amount of people involved in making touching and important stories and characters come to life for everyone to revitalize the theaters and remember how to enjoy movies again. That would be beautiful. Like the Majestic… kinda…only without the whole Communism scandal. (If you haven’t seen The Majestic, you should, there’s another great original movie they didn’t make into a trilogy). Back to the link that got this all started… enjoy the fight scene below. And any comments are welcome too, this just got me excited so I went on ranting. Hope you enjoyed it .

Link: http://www.break.com/index/amazing-homemade-fight-scene.html