I am McLovin

As I am sure all of you know, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and the Funny or Die crew came to teach a class here this Friday. This was part of a seven day tour around the country, sponsored by LG, where Chris and Dave go on a quest to accomplish things they have always wanted to do. They are going to prove "It's all possible." They have been sky diving, broken world records, and have now taught a college class here in Ithaca. Check out the intro here.

The news that they were going to be coming, and less than 200 students were going to be able to attend the event, caused some stress. The administration sent an email to the 2,000 Park Students explaining that the event would be first come first serve in the Park Auditorium. How did they think that was even remotely a good idea? That would have turned out to be nothing but disorder and a free for all. There would have been hundreds of students lining up in park early in the morning, crowding the lobby, all while the normal class schedule is taking place. Thank god they realized what a mess that would have been before this Friday, and changed the admission to a ticketing system. The tickets went fast, and some students started to line up at 5:30 in the morning on Thursday.

Chris and Dave talked to the audience about how they got into the industry, and how important it is to work collaboratively with other people. They both love making their own material and encouraged everyone to do just that: get out and make content, don't worry about if people see it or not. They were very funny, and answered everyone's questions. At the end of the event Dave and Chris came into the middle of the audience and took a picture with all the students around them. The event was filmed and is going to be used in the Funny or Die video of the tour. 

#42 A Legend

I'm a really big sports fan, especially sports like baseball and football. When it comes to baseball, I'm a big fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and their history in the Major League Baseball. The experience of baseball changed forever when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and became the first African American to play professional baseball. Jackie was born in 1919 in Cairo Georgia. Jackie became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, football, basketball, and track. In 1945, Robinson played one season in the Negro Baseball League with the Kansas City Monarchs. In 1947, Dodgers owner Branch Rickey approached Jackie about joining the team and throughout his career, he faced much discrimination and abuse for playing baseball. After his first season with the Dodgers, he was the National League Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the year with 12 home-runs, 29 stolen bases, and a .297 batting average. Finally in 1962, Jackie Robinson was inducted to the baseball Hall of Fame.

With all of that said, director Brian Helgeland, director of 2010 Robin Hood, L.A Confidential, Mystic River, and Man on Fire, is directing a motion picture called "42," which gives audiences a visual of the history making moment when Jackie Robinson signed with the Dodgers.

When I saw this trailer, I immediately fell in love with it and agreed that I would go see this movie. Harrison ford plays Dodger owner Branch Rickey, Lucas Black plays Robinson's teammate Pee Wee Reese who took the famous picture with Jackie with his arm around his teammate. Playing Jackie Robinson is not a well known actor, but it is Chadwick Boseman, who is known for his roles in All My Children, Persons Unknown, and The Kill Hole. This movie is set to open April 12, 2013. 

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and definitely see this trailer. 

Words of Wisdom.

As mentioned earlier in the year, I love to watch sport movies because they can be inspiring to a lot of audiences especially to the minds of younger adolescents. What makes the sport movie worthwhile besides the adrenaline of the action is the quotes that come from the movie that are inspirational besides just being plain AWSOME. Inspirational quotes from sport movies give the movie that extra boost in what inspires kids and could teach them moral values.Here are some quotes that I love to hear when I watch sport movies...

1. "Heroes get remembered, legends never die"- Art LaFleur as Babe Ruth in The Sandlot.

This was a great movie watching as kid that followed nine boys who played baseball on their old beat up looking sandlot field. It was a summer film and these kids did nothing but play baseball all summer long. However, when a ball signed by Babe Ruth is hit over the fence of a neighbor with a supposedly killer dog their summer of baseball turns into a thriller as they do everything in their power to get the ball back. When all seems lost, the leader of the group, Ben Rodriquez, has a dream that Babe Ruth visits him and tells him to jump over the fence to retrieve the ball and says this quote that inspires him to do just that.

2. Death Crawl from "Facing the Giants"

I couldn't come up with the words to describe this scene, but when you watch this scene you can very well be inspired as I was. This is the story of Grant Taylor who is going through a tough time in the community. Not succeeding at being the greatest coach, the parents and student are through with his coaching and want him replaced. He is struggling financially, and him and his wife are struggling to have a kid. In this particular scene he teaches his players especially his captain the importance of giving all you got and not giving up until you can go as far as you can go. There is no telling how far you will go, but give everything your best and hardest and don't quit.

3. Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gaines halftime speech in "Friday Night Lights"

I love this scene from Friday Night Lights because it can describe a moment from experiences I had on the field playing football in high school. When our team made it to the semi-finals in the state tournament, we were losing pretty bad at halftime and we came away losing 66-8. We played a rough but great team, but at halftime our coach told us almost exactly what Billy Bob Thornton told his players in this scene. From our coach he said "Being perfect is not what we accomplished this year, it's how you all can look into your teammates eyes and tell each and everyone of them that you did your best and didn't let them down. Being perfect is how we accomplished where we came this year by playing as a team, a family."

4. Denzel Washington as Coach Boone in "Remember the Titans"

Save the best for last I always say. Probably my favorite sports movie of all time and my favorite inspirational speech of all time comes from Denzel Washington as Coach Boone in Remember the Titans. Throughout the beginning there was problems with the team as African Americans joined the once all White titans team. There was much discrimination and fighting in the movie until Coach Boone takes them on a run to the site of the Battle of Gettysburg and makes his famous speech about coming together and playing as one. My most favorite line in the history of motivational speeches as to be when he says "If we don't come together, right now on this hollow ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don't care if you like each other or not, but you will respect each other and maybe...I don't know maybe we'll learn to play this game like men." I can't tell you how much this movie amazes me every time I watch it how they overcame their differences and learned how to play together.

Motion Graphics and Animation!

So this post isn't really entirely Fiction Field Production related, and I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me. BUT it is about Motion Graphics and Animation, so it'll be super cool, I promise.
I ended up enrolling in not one, but two of Arturo's classes this semester and I decided to post today about the other one, Motion Graphics, because we're all thinking about registration about this time of the semester.
SO. The class, which meets twice a week, deals with learning animation and effects in Adobe After Effects. We've also spent some time discussing other programs, including Photoshop and Maya, but we spend most of our time learning After Effects.

After Effects Launch Menu

So far this semester we've learned various elements of After Effects, including how to use rotoscope, motion tracking, green screen, color correction, and we've played with many of the effects that come with After Effects. 

Our first assignment that we completed on our own was a music project. We had to pick a song that we liked and make a graphic video to accompany it. Some people made lyric videos, which are becoming very popular on YouTube. Others made more interpretive videos, but all of them were really cool, and it was interesting to see how everyone interpreted the assignment. 

For my project, I did the song "Radioactive" by a band called Imagine Dragons. I really liked the feel and the beat of the song, and I used it to create my general theme of "red" and "sparks." 

My Lyric Video Project

I really liked this project because it gave me a chance to figure out After Effects for myself, and use the information I learned in class. I used many of the effects I learned in the class, but I also utilized one of our class resources. This great website, Videocopilot.net specializes in 3D effects in After Effects and other various motion graphics software.

If you're interested in motion graphics and animation, feel free to ask me about the class! Good luck with registration :)

Student Work

The other night on The Directors Chair, I interviewed a friend of mine Brando Benetton who shot this in Kenya over Christmas break last year. A sophomore in Film, Photography, and Visual Arts here in the Park School, Brando has made some great films and has remade a number of different trailers from motion picture movies today including Inception like so....

He has made trailers for Knight and Day, Easy A, Dinner for Schmucks, and many other great movies. A talented guy, Brando is following his dreams here at Ithaca College to work with movies and create great films that will draw the attention of audiences everywhere.

The Kenya video above is a music video with the music Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin. Brando used a Canon T3i and shot this when he went to Kenya to explore and experienced many animal sightings.

Brando's trailers were also shot using a Canon T3i. A process he loves, Brando loves to get to the movies early to see the trailers to get ideas for which ones he wants to shoot next. Brando uses his own cast and crew and will often make appearances in his own trailers. There have few trailers in which Brando has had random appearances from Hollywood actors like Dylan Baker http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0048414/ and Alan Rickman http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000614/.
If you want to see more of Brando's work, you can go to youtube and type in BBB pictures and click on BBB Pictures "Trailers" Remakes.

My Favorite Movie

Over my break thus far, I have sat down and watched my favorite movie Inception directed by one of the most notable directors in the industry: Christopher Nolan. I mean not only was this movie well written, but the special effects and visual effects were tremendously well done. The first time I went to watch this movie I wasn't to intrigued to see it after watching the trailers. However, when I saw the movie, I left the theater totally mind blown. LITERALLY. I was so confused about what happened, but the story kept me on my seat and each minute that passed through the last scenes was a total nail biter more me. I watched the movie again and again and began to understand more of it and the hidden messages through out. I thought the characters were well picked for these roles. Leonardo DiCaprio played Cobb, the dream extractor and played an excellent leader of the group. Learning about his life through the plot made it even better and the story entertaining. Ellen Page showed true maturation through this film. After seeing her in Juno, I didn't expect her to do as well as she did, but she pulled off the part well. What can I say about Tom Hardy? An amazing actor with a lot of talent. I found his acting to be tremendously well-done and thought he did well playing the "bad-ass" of the group. Finally what movie isn't complete today without Joseph Gordon-Levitt? I remember watching him as a kid in one of my favorite child-hood movies "Angels in the Outfield." He has also grown up to become a really mature actor with the potential to do many different parts. I've enjoyed his roles and look forward to seeing more of his work in the future.

After a few awards at the Oscars in 2011 including best achievement in Cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing, and visual effects. I have to agree on all these awards because this movie produced excellent sound that followed the movie well. One of my favorite effects from the movie was the rotating corridor scene when Joseph Gordon-Levitt was fighting off an assassin. The scene consisted of a 120 foot long by 30 foot wide revolving corridor. The corridor was constructed of wood and was backed by steel tubing. I-beam rings with roller wheels were placed every 16 feet along the length of the corridor. The wheels were connected to two 55-hp electric motors, which were synchronized by a computer. The corridor would rotate every 10 seconds clockwise and counter-clockwise. The cameras were placed on tracks that were placed in the corridor to shoot the fighting scene. 

  

Are You Kidding Me? REMAKES!

What annoys me more than awful sequels/ trilogies is when a motion picture studio decides to make a "remake" of an original movie that came out years ago. Like sequels/trilogies, there are few good remakes, but most ruin the reputation of the original film. It makes audiences appreciate the original movie that came out years ago. There is nothing like a huge slump in the box office when the oldest edition of a film does better than the newest edition. Below are 2 of the many remakes that I left thinking "Really!!! Come On"

1. Total Recall

Before I watched this years newest edition of Total Recall with Colin Farrell, I watched the 1990 version with Arnold Schwarzenegger. While I thought this was a decent film to sit through, after leaving the theater I thought the 2012 was nothing compared to the original. Ok maybe the special and visual effects were much more advanced, but I followed the story and characters better in the original story. Here is what I want to emphasize about above when I said "slump in the box office." In 1990 when Total Recall, it made an overall gross of $119 million with $26 million opening weekend. 22 years later, the Total Recall's overall gross slumped down to $59 million with the same opening weekend around $26 million.

2. Psycho.

After watching Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, I literally peed myself and couldn't take a shower with the curtain closed. I thought Anthony Perkins played an excellent Norman Bates and I thought the overall quality of the film, despite in black & white was overall well done. After watching the 1998 film directed by Gus Van Sant starring Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche, I was in utter disgust of how they remade this movie, ESPECIALLY in color. I thought it gave it a more terrifying film in black &white. Talk about a slump, the first Psycho made a total gross of $32 million while the 1998 film made a total gross of $21 million.

In all, I feel remakes are an enormous waste of production money and we as audiences don't need to watch movies a lot of us have already seen. However, I cant say that about all remakes because some have actually turned out quite well and have done a great job in the box office.

Good-Good

Last week I posted about how good movies have lost reputation because they decide to make unnecessary sequels that bring low box office profit and draw viewers away from the movie itself. Well now I want to discuss a few movie sequels I thought WERE necessary to follow the story from the previous movie.

1. The Dark Knight & The Dark Knight Rises




















A 3 set series following the story of Batman, directer and writer Christopher Nolan stole Box Office records through these three amazing movies that have captured the attention of many fans around the world. A story that couldn't be told in one movie was told through three films about Bruce Wayne and his life saving the city of Gotham from criminals. Batman Begin's debut in the theaters made the film $48 million while the following two increasing dramatically ($158 million for the Dark Knight and $161 million for the Dark Knight Rises.

2. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

This amazing trilogy about a hobbit named Frodo who is on a journey with eight companions on a mission to destroy a ring on the fires of Mount Doom and the dark lord Sauron. These three movies were directed by the creative and masterminded Peter Jackson as his three movies were also able to bring in box office records and a large number of crowds to the big screen. In its debut, the Fellowship of the Ring made $47 million its opening weekend with The Two Towers earning more than 15 million more at $62 million and the Return of the King increasing eleven million to $73 million.

3. Spiderman 2 & Spiderman 3

With the new Amazing Spiderman movie that brought in good revenue in 2012, most fans turned away from the old set of Spiderman movies that brought in a number of box office profits. Directed by Sam Raimi, these stories follow Peter Parker who looks to save his city after acquiring special spider powers. While most thought the third was "corny shit," most were interested by the story and would agree that this series was a great series. Opening up in 2002, the first Spiderman brought in $115 million with Spiderman 2 at $89 million and Spiderman 3 at $151 million.

From Good-BAD

There are movies today that most people find entertaining upon leaving the theatre. They leave the theatre satisfied with the overall quality of the film itself, and feel they spent their money well on this film. However, when the second, third, fourth etc. movie comes out, they spend more money to go see the sequels and leave the theatre having a different opinion about the film. From my experience, I can agree that most sequels that come out ruin the reputation of the first film. Such films draw attention away from the films and tend to lose more Box Office money. Here below are three of the many worst sequels to movies that I found repulsive to watch.

After watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl I was very intrigued with the film and it drew me back in to watch the second Pirate movie "Dead Man's Chest. After this second movie, they got worse and worse to the point where I walked out of "Stranger Tides," the fourth one. The Curse of the Black Pearl had a total Gross of $305, 413,918 with Dead Man's Chest topping that at $423,315,812. After the second film the Total Gross decreased to $309 million to $241 Million. 

I saw Jaws when I was little and it scared the living s%^t out of me. I feared water for months and months. However, when i saw the sequels to Jaws, I was more afraid of NOT going into the water. These sequels in my opinion grabbed no interest in me. While the original Jaws had a Total Gross of $260 million, the sequels didn't make nearly as much dropping to $77Million to $45 million to $20million.

When I saw the Matrix I was entertained and I felt I spent my money's worth on this movie. However, I felt the sequels were absolutely horrible. I had no interest in these movies and it drew me away from further Keanu Reeves' movies. While the first movie made a Total Gross of $171 million, the second movie received more ($281 million) while the third movie slumped down to to $139 million. 

I could go on and on but this would take up a large portion of the post. I still love many movies, but sometimes I feel some sequels aren't necessary to a film. 

Spielberg's Lincoln

For many years as I can remember I have always been a fan of Steven Spielberg's films including Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, E.T, Indiana Jones, Artificial Intelligence, The Goonies, and many other great films. He has been a great inspiration to me as well as many other people. He has directed, and produced some of the greatest American films that most people watch today.

His newest movie "Lincoln" stars three Academy Award winners including Daniel-Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens.

One reason this movie was attractive to me was because it's about Abe Lincoln, one of America's most influential presidents and surely one of my favorites. I remember as a kid in high school loving to learn about Lincoln in the Civil War and what he did to abolish slavery. This movie takes place some time near the end of the Civil War which is sometime in 1865. As the movie progresses it explores Lincoln's tactics and techniques as he works with his cabinet attempts to abolish slavery.

I also chose to post about this movie because it is another movie that is based on a true story, movies I tend to watch more than others. Like I mentioned earlier, in school, i loved learning about wars, presidents, and other moments in history. One of my favorite topics was the Civil War and how our country worked to abolish slavery in the south.

From the love of this historical moment, I am interested to learn more from this film and see it on the big screen.

The Morning After

The morning after, or rather the day after, I directed my first project for this class might have been as much or more stressful than the day of shooting itself. I think we certainly have proved Murphy's Law: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." After all of the mishaps of the night before, I was actually very pleased with how the footage turned out. The next day, however, I had a problem: I could not get the audio files from the Tascam. Yesterday it took me from 12-5pm to extract the audio data. I think I am the first and only Parkie to have had this problem. Because of how the data is organized in the Tascam, it turns out if even one file goes astray and is not in a new project, but is just a new file, Macs cannot find it. So when I took out the fire wire adapter, I discovered that my project was Project1s, but I could not access the files. It said that there was no data. I freaked out and went to PPECS and luckily Phil was there to help me out.

He told me that the only way to get my files was to find a Windows or PC computer with a fire wire port. This was no easy task. After going through Park and multiple computer labs, I went to the IT desk in Friends, but they told me there were no computers with a fire wire port on campus that I could use. Having to sit through an Intro to Theatre lecture after that was really tough. Then I remembered my friend Sean, one of my actors from the night before, has a laptop with both Mac and PC software. I met up with him and we were able to extract the files. Another problem, since my hard drive is mac oriented, I was unable to copy the files to my hard drive while he was using the PC software. He had to upload the files to Google and share them with me so I could get the files. What a day. All of this happened before I had to turn my equipment in at 5:30 before the files were lost forever. It was pretty nerve racking, but I'm glad at least that at the end of the day, I got my audio files.

After 5pm, however, my day wasn't over. I also had to return all my equipment to PPECS and then return borrowed props back to their owners. Having a cold on top of everything did not help either. I was exhausted because even after this whole debacle, I could not rest. I had to teach a Zumba class from 6-6:45, go to an ICTV post-production meeting from 7-8, and then from 8 on I had test shooting as a 1st AC for a thesis. By the end of the night, I was drained.

Luckily, today is a new day, I'm well rested, and I'm ready for more.

Based on a True Story

For as long as I can remember, I have always been entertained and attracted to movies that are based on true stories. I know many of them tend to change or over-exaggerate the story line from what actually happen, but when I watch true story movies For as long as I can remember, I have always been entertained and attracted to movies that are based on true stories. I know many of them tend to change or over-exaggerate the story line from what actually happened, but when I watch true story movies I find myself interested in the life of the individual or group of people the film is portraying. I especially tend to be attracted to true stories about history like movies about wars, presidents, conspiracies, etc. Below are a few of the many true stories that grabbed my attention, and that I enjoyed watching.

The Blindside got my eye because it's a sports movie and it had a number of actors/actresses that I love to watch. It's the true story of Michael Oher, who didn't have a home, a mother who did drugs and abandoned him. He was a warrant of the state who had no such records to his name. He became under the guardianship of Sean and Leign Ann Tuohy, graduates of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). A sensitive young man, who knew nothing about football started playing left tackle for his high school. Attracted by many colleges for his athleticism including Alabama, Tenessee, South Carolina, and many more, he became an all-star athlete. Today you can see him on the Baltimore Ravens as he was a pick in the 2009 NFL draft. It's a heart warming story that will leave audiences both happy, but can be a tear jerker. 

The Perfect Storm was another movie that got my eye that was based on a true story. Directed by Wolfgang Peterson, it's the story of a sword fishing boat called the Andrea Gail captained by Billy Tyne (George Clooney) and his crew of 5 men who went under during a fishing trip and was caught in the middle of a Hurricane (known as the perfect storm). 

The most recent true story I have seen is Lawless, which the true story about Forrest, Howard, and Jack  Bondurant, who were members of the Moonshine Conspiracy in Franklin Virginia in 1931. The Brothers were in a successful boot-legging business during prohibition. This movie kept me on the edge of my seat and the story was well written. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who loves action, suspense, and none than other TOM HARDY.  

First Film.....Old Camera.

Most modern technologists and filmmakers would laugh at the sight of this old 8mm Camcorder H460. While some may laugh, others will know that this was the first camera I used as a child to make my first movie. I spent the other night looking through old baby films and old childhood things lying around in my basement, but couldn't come upon the film I made with this old camcorder. It must be in my childhood belongings in California with my dad.

My parents bought this 8mm Camcorder H460 in 1991, two years before I was born. from what I have seen from old VHS' is that they would use this camcorder to record family events like Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, etc. When I was born, everything changed. The camera was used for nothing but for my "so called cute baby things I did." When I looked through these old films, I mean what I say that my parents recorded almost every little thing I did. Whether it was walking, sitting, sleeping, singing, laughing, playing, bathing, even going to the bathroom for crying out loud, they recorded every day of my child years till I was 4 when my parents got divorced.

4 or 5 years later, I borrowed the camera from my mother and made my first "movie." I say this in quotation because as a 7 to 8 year old, I just filmed two friends having a light saber battle from the film Star Wars. What wasn't a movie, but a long recording of a fighting scene turns into a "million dollar movie" in the eyes of a child of that age.

Since I was only 7 or 8, I wasn't aware of the different camera shots and angles that I have learned about the past few years. It was only a wide shot with a number of different pans that followed the talents fighting with their green and red light sabers. As much as I look back on it today, I laugh myself thinking "wow, I just made a fantastic scene from a movie and this will make me rich." If I was to record the same exact scene today from the famous franchise of all time, I would definitely be using more of the special camera techniques (shots, angles, etc.) that I have learned thus far in my college career.

Patron Initiated Reservations and The Criterion Collection

Thursday afternoon, I attended an ICTV producer’s meeting in which we discussed Park’s new Patron Initiated Reservations system. Being able to make equipment and location reservations online is an incredible convenience! I want to familiarize myself a little more with the PIR system, so I’ll begin to set up Game Over’s recurring reservations for the semester. 

After talking about silent movies in class, I wanted to find a handful of films to watch as a nice break from “talkies.” I decided to start by going online to The Criterion Collection, which is a wonderful resource that not only distributes classic films, but has information on films in the form of film essays, articles and photo galleries. I’m currently reading about the Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu and his silent film A Story of Floating Weeds, which he actually remade in color. Out of curiosity, I’d like to view both versions of the film.

Another interesting feature of The Criterion Collection is their assortment of various celebrities’ Top 10 lists. I looked at the musician Adam Yauch’s Top 10 list, who’s selections include films by Akira Kurosawa and Wes Anderson as well as Federico Fellini, who I believe was mentioned in class. After A Story of Floating Weeds, I think I’m going to watch Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria. Unfortunately, The Criterion Collection website lists it as being out of print, but I’ll see if I can’t find it somewhere!