Top 10 Favorite Film Series - 4

#4 - The Bourne Trilogy

This trilogy has amazed me ever since the first time I saw it. It brings the spy/assassin/detective type movie genre to a whole new level. Possibly the most impressive aspects of the Bourne movies are the editing and the color grading. The look of the trilogy is stunning, and the unique and varied locations keep the viewer engaged, and the visuals never seem to drag or get old.

The last two movies in the trilogy, under the direction of Paul Greengrass, also began to incorporate shaky cam techniques. I've seen other films that have used shaky cam shots, and it just doesn't fit. But in the Bourne films, this technique is used in such a way that fits the movies perfectly.

And of course, Matt Damon is just plain BA. Not much more to say about that.

When I first saw this assassin fight where Bourne owns the other dude with a pen, I was hooked:

Short Film

Here's our final short film for editing class. Our group consisted of:

Nathan Corder
Josiah Wood
Lindsey Berggren
Robert Scheribel
Sam Doughty
Kelsey McCoy

From concept to render, it was a 4 day process. We had four weeks for the project, but things fell apart with our original story and plan and we had to get creative. Like Leeper says, limits can be a good thing... enjoy

Top 10 Favorite Film Series - 5

#5 - Pirates of the Caribbean

Although most people hate on a few of the titles in this series, I thoroughly enjoy all of them. After watching them all (including On Stranger Tides), I concluded that the third one (At World's End) was my favorite. And then I heard multiple people complaining about it, with the most common complaint being that it was packed and confusing. Pirates of the Caribbean? Confusing? Hmm....either a lot of people can't handle a more complex plot, or I got the wrong impression the first time I watched it. I'll have to watch it again sometime to see if my view changes.

Anyway, all four of the movies are perfect popcorn flicks with plenty of action and humor, and I wouldn't mind watching them many times. Johnny Depp is perfectly cast as Jack Sparrow, who has become an iconic movie character in our culture today. Of course the movies have their flaws as well, but I think they fulfill the purpose they were intended for.

Top 10 Favorite Film Series - 6

#6 - The Matrix

These movies are the very definition of BA. There is just something so appealing about dudes (and girls) wearing long, leather trenchcoats and sunglasses, toting around a bunch of machine guns, and kicking butt using martial arts. Add some electronic or rock music to these slow-motion action sequences, and I'm hooked.

Also, these aren't your typical sci-fi movies either. They are actually somewhat complex instead of the typical space war plot. You can take away so many examples and parallels from them, and they present some very interesting, albeit warped, philosophical views as well.

The greatest downfall of the trilogy though is some unfortunate casting and cheesy lines. The character of Neo was good, but it could have been better. Lets face it: Keanu Reeves is not a great actor. I've always felt like Christian Bale would have been a great alternative, as they are both kind of quiet, laid back guys, but Keanu Reeves is just lame.

My favorite out of the three is probably the first Matrix, because it's just so awesome and original. Matrix Reloaded has some of the best fight scenes in the trilogy, but also the stupidest scenes.

One of my favorite movie action sequences ever......the lobby shootout scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lus_uww3iaM

Top 10 Favorite Film Series - 7

#7 - Transformers

Yes, I know. The Transformers films are fairly awful. But still, they are entertaining and the CG Transformers and other effects are some of the best I have seen in live action film. They look SO good. You can't deny that. Just so you know though, I'm not at all defending the sometimes crappy dialogue, stupid humor, or obvious eye candy (Megan Fox and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley).

So, it's rather unfortunate I guess, but effects are the primary (or only) reason that Transformers hit 7th place in my line up.

Dark of the Moon was also probably the best 'theater' movie I've seen.

Top 10 Favorite Film Series - 8

#8 - Star Wars

Ah yes, Star Wars. This saga has many shortcomings and room for improvement, but it is still undeniably impressive. A few years ago I used to be a Star Wars fanatic. I would literally soak up any bit of Star Wars facts I could get ahold of. I knew pretty much all the types of Star Wars technology, ships, weapons, alien races, all the characters names, behind-the-scenes information, etc., and could even tell you all the actor's names. Yeah, it was a little sad. But I was amazed by this whole series.



Until I finally realized just how awful the script was and how shallow the characters were. Don't get me wrong though, I still think the whole Star Wars universe is quite impressive, but they just didn't craft the films as well as they could have.

But the Star Wars movies are quite possibly the most recognizable movies ever, and they have inspired so many other stories, films, etc. They have definitely made their mark on our culture today. Not to mention the awesome theme, which is now probably the most recognizable in film history.

Top 10 Favorite Film Series - 9

#9 - Indiana Jones

Just for clarification, I'm basically just referring to the trilogy. While Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was rather entertaining, it was way too absurd and sometimes it felt forced. Anyway, the Indiana Jones trilogy is obviously a classic, fun-filled adventure. They successfully pull off a serious, yet humorous tone which carries throughout the films. I also kinda enjoy the sometimes crappy effects or cheesy angles/dialogue/etc., because it actually works.

Out of the three, I think Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite, although The Last Crusade is a very close second, mostly because of Sean Connery's hilarious performance.

And who could forget this scene?

Top 10 Favorite Film Series - 10

#10 - Toy Story

The Toy Story trilogy is just great. It's the only animated series I have in my Top 10 list, but I guess that's mostly just because it's one of the only animated movie series. But even so, the Toy Story movies (and in particular Toy Story 3) are some of the most skillfully animated films I've ever seen, in terms of computer animation. I was blown away the first time I watched Toy Story 3.

In addition to that though, they are skillfully crafted in other aspects as well. It's an engaging story and quite entertaining as well, and can be appealing to adults as well as children. I suspect it will be quite some time before these films are pushed aside and forgotten. Definitely some of Pixar's finest.

Here's the opening sequence from Toy Story 3, one of my favorites in the movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhXYBQDt_0c&feature=related

Sail Away!

Sail Away is now officially complete! The premiere went really well last night and it was great to finally see the finished product. Overall, I was pretty impressed with how the film turned out. It's amazing to think back on all the work went into making Sail Away those few months we worked on it. And as I was watching last night, I kept thinking of what I was doing during each shot, or how many crew members were actually in that seemingly empty room. haha

Anyway, great work everyone! Especially Sunshine, Miles, Alyson, and Cooper.



Yeah, making films is fun. I can't wait to make more.

Two Steps From Hell

If you have never heard of Two Steps From Hell, you are REALLY missing out. Two Steps From Hell is a music production company that basically makes music for movie trailers. Pretty much any mainstream movie that has come out in the past 5 or so years.....the music in the trailer is by Two Steps From Hell, or at least a part of it. Anyway, their music is AMAZING! The very best word to describe their music is epic. And the style of music is varied, being mostly orchestra/choir/soundtrack-type music, but they also produce music that is electronic, hard rock, or almost metal. Here are a few examples....

One of my personal favorites, Heart of Courage, is purely epic. I think it was used in the trailer for Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader....



Kickdown is one of the tracks that incorporates heavy guitar, drums, etc....



And Dragon Rider is just awesome.....



So, if you like this stuff, check out more of Two Steps From Hell's music on Youtube. They literally have hundreds of tracks.

Harry Potter

Many of you will be very pleased to know that I have begun to watch the Harry Potter movies. I had never seen them before, and mostly just because everyone is always talking about them, I decided to watch them. I watched Sorcerer's Stone on Friday, Chamber of Secrets yesterday, and I just finished Prisoner of Azkaban.

And I must say, I have enjoyed them so far. They were better than I expected them to be and I'm looking forward to finishing up the series. Although I was a little less impressed by the third one (Prisoner of Azkaban). I can't really put my finger on it, but I just didn't think it was as good as the others.

Anyway, thought I should let you all know....

John Carter

Has anyone else seen the trailers for this upcoming movie, John Carter? I'm honestly not entirely sure what to think of it. I think it looks like it has potential to be super cool, but also to be painfully cheesy. I know this is based off a story written quite some time ago and before all these movies like Avatar, but what I'm seeing here is a mash-up combination of Prince of Persia, Avatar, and Star Wars. And if the content/substance is anything like those movies, it will probably be crap. I'm also a little hesitant because it's Disney, BUT....I'm not gonna blow it off just yet.

The Silence of the Lambs

Wow. I just watched The Silence of the Lambs for the first time this week. What a movie. I can't say that I was necessarily disturbed by it, but it was just straight up twisted for sure. A lot of the subject matter was pretty messed up, dealing with cannibalism, transvestites, violence to women, etc. Still, it was a skillfully executed film with a superb cast and I'm not surprised at all the oscars and other awards it won.



I'm not positive, but this movie strikes me as one that Professor Leeper would probably see as a quality film. Still, I'm curious as to what Leeper thinks of the content, in particular the violence to women, seeing as how we talked about this in class a few weeks back. I certainly don't condone it, and I find it to be rather troubling as well, and yet I thought it was a good movie. Which makes me wonder.....how much disturbing or degrading content will we accept before we say "this is a bad movie"?

Beauty Kill

So there we were, sitting in Kevin and Matt's room on Friday night around 10:30, thinking how incredibly bored we were. We started brainstorming about something exciting and adventurous we could do to remedy this. I had made a little video earlier that day, and everyone seemed to like it, so we thought about doing another video. Matt came up with the idea of something to do with paint and a simultaneous creative/destructive process. So Matt Nelson, Kevin Hast, Christina Espiritu, and I decided to head over to Becker and shoot it with my decent, but not-so-great Canon Vixia. On our way out though, we met Miles, who asked us what we were up to. After informing him of our plans, he asked if we would like his help, and his superior camera. Needless to say, we were thrilled to have the help of a professional, so Miles got his stuff and we headed over to Becker. Being a Friday night, we thought "what the heck, no big deal if we're up till 2 or 3 in the morning shooting this", and we began to shoot.

Fast forward to 7am, as we stumbled out of Becker, having accomplished our task. I climbed into bed at 7:15, woke up at noon, went to the DC for lunch, and headed back to Becker to start editing. I finished up editing around 6:00, grabbed dinner from the HUB, and eventually crashed around 10 last night with a pounding headache.

And after 11 hours of sleep last night I feel much better, and the finished video we came up with was SO worth it!

So here you go.......our short film: Beauty Kill.

The Hobbit

I'm not sure how many of you are are interested in or following the news on the upcoming Hobbit films, but words can barely describe how excited I am for these movies. People who have seen footage already have made comments to the extent of "the Hobbit films could possibly surpass the Lord of the Rings trilogy". Which would be absolutely incredible.

Probably the biggest buzz around the movies right now is the filming style: 48 fps in 3D. I've never really been a fan of 3D, but I am definitely going to give the Hobbit a shot in 3D. The techniques they are using are incredible and hopefully this will be the current pinnacle of 3D technology. The Hobbit's film set has 48 RED Epic cameras! And they have utilized them for use on cranes, dollies, steadicams, and handheld use. All with 3D capabilities as well. In the end, they are essentially able to film the same way they would with 2D cameras. Because they have to place the cameras so close together for the 3D effect and the cameras are so large, they are using mirrors to create the 3D effect. Also, they are even making the storyboards 3D, with a blue and a red copy!

And being 48 fps, it will look so much more lifelike on the screen, as opposed to the standard 24 fps for films. When they have shown preview footage, people who watched it said that because of the realistic looking 48 fps and 3D, it looks like a hole was cut into the back of the theater and you are looking out.
They still have a lot of filming to do, but now they are finishing up the studio sets and moving out to locations in New Zealand.


Needless to say, I am super freakin' pumped!

Here is a link to the fourth production video from set that they put out earlier this month.....

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150451523596807

Trailer Project

Well, I finally got done editing my trailer for Hartman's class. It took me a long time to work on though, which is probably just because I'm still inexperienced at this. But anyway, I still enjoyed it. I love the editing process and that is one of the avenues of film production that I'm considering right now.

As I was working on it though, I realized my choice of movie wasn't the greatest because it's super tough to make a trailer for Gladiator without giving away a basic idea of the plot. So....criticism is welcomed. I'd like to know what points I need to work on.

It's a Wrap!

Filming for Sail Away is complete! We finished up the final shots today, and it is going to look awesome when it's all put together. After about two months of shooting every Saturday (and a few Sundays as well), it feels awesome to finally have it done. And it also means more sleep on Saturdays. lol But for real, I LOVED working on the set as 1st AC. I feel like I've learned so much during this shoot that's going to help me in future projects. Big shout out to Miles especially for the stuff he's taught me.

So.....awesome job everyone involved with Sail Away! It will be premiering at Cinema Center in Fort Wayne on December 9th, so make sure to buy some tickets!

Here's Sam, our honorable slater, getting ready for the 'martini' shot.....

What makes a good trailer?

Because of our next assignment in Hartman's Digital Tools and Media Management class, we watched and discussed a bunch of trailers in class on Wednesday. Our assignment is to take a movie and create a trailer for it, so Hartman talked to us about what makes a great trailer, or even just one that captures people's curiosity. Some of the trailers that are considered to be the best are very simple, some are in your face "watch this movie" trailers, but somehow they work.

In the end, a trailer's main goal should be to present the tone, NOT the story. If you tell people the entire plot within a 2-3 minute trailer, they are not as likely to want to see it. Give people the tone, such as in the trailer for Alien, which has no dialogue, simply shows an atmosphere of terror, and doesn't even show the alien.

One of my personal favorites from the ones we watched was the trailer for Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedian". The trailer shows absolutely nothing about the movie, but instead just shows humor. Here it is:

Drive

I recently went to see Drive, and I loved it. I had heard great things about it, and also that it was kinda retro 80s style, so I expected it to be set in the 80s. Instead though, Drive had a modern setting, but also felt like 80s in parts. A really cool intigration of two in my opinion.

Drive has a really unique feel to it, and I'm not exactly sure how, but it doesn't really follow any stereotypical action or drama pattern. The film has a low-key, flowing feel throughout, with sudden bursts of action. Like, extreme action. If I didn't know it was going to have violence, I never would have expected those few scenes. The movie lures you into this rather calm flow, and almost without warning, this woman's head explodes from being shot at nearly point blank range. And then when Driver stomps on the guy's head in the elevator; you just really don't expect that level of violence. But somehow it just works. The only part I thought was completely unnecessary was in the strip club. That was totally out of place and would have been just as efective with a different backdrop.

The thing I loved most about this movie though was that it didn't reveal everything. You have questions at the end of the film. Some are overarching themes that are rather vague, while some specific points are also unrevealed. One in particular comes to mind, and that is when the girl's cell phone rings, Driver picks it up, and it somehow makes him aware of the guys that have surrounded the house. Yet it never reveals who the call was from or what they said.

Anyway, this movie was awesome, especially from a DMA perspective.

To Be or Not To Be Christian

This isn't directly related to film, but the subject could certainly apply to filmmaking as well....

When Switchfoot's new album Vice Verses was released last week, I thought about what I had heard regarding their stance on being labeled a Christian band. They don't want to be known as a Christian band. Why? Because they think it will box them in and discourage a larger audience, and also give them a certain 'reputation'. I guess I can understand that they want to reach a larger audience, but it is almost to the extent that it seems as though they're rather ashamed or undedicated to their faith. If that is what you stand for, why would you have a problem being associated with Christianity? Is it still possible to attract people as Christians, or do we have to mask it?

Here is one of their awesome songs from Vice Verses....