Ryan Playground

It amazes me how many times I go into a project, and how many lessons I take away from it in the end.  Because I have fallen in love with music videos, and want to pursue it as a career I am trying to collect the ones I love the most. This video by Ryan Playground catches everything I wish I did in Miami and more.

Here are some:

1. Take way way way more shots of random things (B Roll) 

2. Slow the fram rate down (60 fps) for slomo 

3. Utilize the artist whenever he/she is not singing. Just shoot them walking around. It will come out nice in the long run

With every video I watch, I learn that there is always a certain style that I can take away from it.

Safe House

For some people, movies where Denzel Washington plays a modern day gangster are getting old. For others, watching Denzel out-smart and out-gun everyone else in a fast past action thriller never gets old.  I'm definitely part of the Denzel fan club. I thought in the movie "Safe House", Washington made up for what was another terrible performance by Ryan Reynolds to take what was a cool plot, and it make it into a decent movie.

What makes "Safe House" a good movie is also about, what I thought was, a great script. Although we have seen Washington in this role many times before, this time, the multiple twists and turns that this movie takes make it good. When the movie begins, Washington's character is a rogue agent that is wanted by the CIA. for many different crimes he has committed. As the plot unfolds we soon learn that Tobin Frost (Washington) is actually running from what is one of the biggest cases of corruption in CIA history.

Of course there is a fair share of Denzel shooting his way out of sticky situations and also out-smarting everyone that he comes across. However I thought the best part of the movie was the major plot twist at the end that has the head of the CIA's mission to capture Frost, actually being the corrupt individual all along. Despite acting like a good citizen the entire movie, David Barlow ends up being the reason why Frost went rogue in the first place. All of this is well over Ryan Reynolds' characters head, and he doesn't know what he has gotten himself into, until everything is finally revealed at the end of the film. Since we see the movie from Reynolds' prospective,  the audience is kept in the dark the entire time as well. The ending really ended up being one of the better endings I've seen in this types of action-mystery movies recently.

Despite getting Denzel Washington's typical performance, I don't really understand why Ryan Reynolds continues to try to break into the action movie category. Not that he was terrible in this movie, he just isn't an action movie star. It's not my taste, but he belongs in those romantic comedies that we typically see him doing. He really is pretty decent in those roles. He wasn't a terrible choice for this role, but he clearly didn't belong in an action movie with Denzel Washington.

All and all I'd recommend this movie to someone looking for something new. It's not an unbelievable movie, but Denzel Washington movies are always great to watch.

Making Film Scores

     The music  of a film creates a huge part of the emotion that is seen on screen.  This makes the score a very important part of the final product.  A good score and make your movie perfect or detract from it, Saving Private Ryan for example does not have much music throughout it, but the lack of music and the parts where music is present creates the fantastic feel of the movie.

     I think that it is interesting that for such an integral part of a movie, not much time is given to craft it.  John Williams for example only had six weeks to create the entire score of the first Star Wars.  Not much time for one of the most recognizable themes in movie history.  John Williams also creates his music very mathematically, making sure that all the hits in the music line up perfectly with the action. (All six parts of the video are awesome).

     Hans Zimmer on the other hand, worked differently on the score for Inception.  Chris Nolan gave him the leeway to just make the score, not worrying about wether it fit perfectly or not, and then they would see where the hits naturally met up.

    No matter how one goes about it, making the score is a huge process that takes true talent, which is why these guys are so famous.  I know my hat is off to the composers who work so hard to bring emotion to the viewer.