Marvel, The Punisher

"The Dead Can't Be Distracted" is a fan-made film based off of Marvel's character, The Punisher. Unfortunately, we'll never see this film because Marvel recently sent them a letter demanding that they cease all production and distribution:

“While we appreciate your affection for the character, we must demand that you immediately stop your unauthorized use, advertising, sale and/or distribution of any production of The Punisher or any other Marvel character-based films therefor, and any other use of the images, likenesses, artwork or other intellectual property owned by Marvel.”

“Your actions confuse consumers into believing that they are viewing an authentic Marvel production or one sponsored or licensed by Marvel, when they are not.”

“Marvel reserves the right to take whatever remedies are available to it at law and in equity, and shall do whatever best protects its interests.”

(Taken from this blog)

The creator of this film, Mike Pecci, was taken aback by this letter... many fan-made films have be released before. Wonder Woman and Judge Minty (based off of Judge Dredd), to name a couple prominent ones. Like these short films, "The Dead Can't Be Distracted"looks like an incredibly well done independent film. I mean check out this short teaser trailer:

This is no teenager-made film in a basement with a JVC 100 and flashlights. It's clear that he put a lot of time and effort into this. Mike Pecci is a big fan of Marvel and enjoys everything they've released. This made it that much harder when he received a letter from them to halt all production of the film.

On top of this he received full support from Marco Checchetto, the artist of The Punisher comic books, who said quote:

“HOLY SH$T!!!  I'm very impressed!!! I don't know how you did it, but you hit the full atmosphere of my pages!”

(taken from Mike Pecci's blog post)

So why now? 

Fan-based films have been released before, so why did Marvel choose to tackle this one? Marvel said it would confuse their audience, but Pecci clearly states in the film that it's a fan-made piece. It's possible that Marvel has it's eyes on making another Punisher movie soon and wouldn't want it to mesh with their creation. After all, the Avenger series will dry out in another 5 years or so and it seems logical they would then move on to the Marvel's Knights (which includes The Punisher). Regardless of the reason though, this brings light to a bigger issue... 

Greed.

I'm not here to go on a boo-corporate rant. That's not what this is. But recently we have seen an immense increase in audience-made content. Cameras a cheaper, and special effects programs are easier to learn. YouTube and other sites enable videos to be shared with anyone. It's inevitable that the remaking and remixing of ideas will not only continue, but increase. Why? Because people like to see content they're already familiar with. 

Everyone loves the Harry Potter Puppet Pals video because of their familiarity with the world of Harry Potter. The creators of this video didn't come up with Harry Potter but they wrote the song and created the video. Do they deserve recognition for it? I would say so. If they made a revenue, would J.K. Rowling deserve a piece of it? I would say not. I love the woman dearly, but she put in no work for the creation of this video besides providing a stigma of an idea. She wrote her books, and made money off them that she deserved. She also assisted in the creation of all the Harry Potter films produced by Warner Brothers, and I would say she deserved a piece of that revenue too. But what about a Harry Potter board game that she didn't help out with at all? Yes, she provided the idea. But I believe people deserve money for the work they do. And the creation of that board game required no extra effect on her part. 

It goes something like this:

"Hey! They're making money off my idea! I deserve some of that money too!"

It makes sense on the surface, but compared to the work the "idea stealers" put in, did you really DO anything besides come up the idea? Some might say you deserve money for that, but I say you should stop being so greedy and just let the real workers get their pay check. 

Obviously there's a big grey area. It goes on a case by case basis because some "idea stealers" are just in it for the money too. In fact, most probably are. So what we have to bank on is the work they put in for it. The creative, physical, and intellectual work. It's a rough system and it would need a lot of clarification. But the clarification is necessary because this is an issue that is not going away. Yes we are stopping the stealing of ideas with the current system, but we are also stopping a lot of genuine creative talent. That means there's room for improvement. 

Let me bring is back to Marvel real quick. Harry Potter Puppet pals was created with no problem and gained all the attention it deserved. "The Dead Can't Be Distracted", however, will not. And this film is not some cheap viral YouTube video.... there was a cast, crew, and excessive hard work. 

Of course we all understand the value of copyright. Without that protection, there could be no industry. But we're not talking about stealing someone else's property. We're talking about a cooperate machine that owns thousands of characters, most of which were bought from the original artists. This isn't necessarily a bad thing... love it or hate it, Marvel has been keeping us entertained for over 70 years. 

But fan films are important. They're important for the fans to feel like they're apart of the story and for the company's brand (in this case Marvel) to grow stronger with the audience. I would love to see "The Dead Can't Be Distracted", and if you would too then please send @Marvel a tweet and voice your support of fan-made material. 

A Simple Story

Craig, Mike and myself are working together as the team "The Purple Cobras" for this assignment to develop a short film around a story about a teen who was struck with kindness of strangers when a man offered him a well paying job.  This man had heard about the teen's struggles to support his brothers and sisters after their mother passed away and how the teen had trouble getting a job.  This sounds like a good ol' heart warming story that can be turned into a film?  But can it really?  Does it have a 3 act arch and does it have character development?  We had to find some ways to creatively tell our story and still make it appealing as a film.

We have decided that the story it's self will remain the same, but will be the middle chuck of our film.  We still need a solid beginning and end.  Without these our project might as well be useless.  Without the beginning we wouldn't be able to get into the characters situation and learn about his life and the hardships he goes through.  We need a reason to root for this character and learn a little back story about him and his family before we can develop the plot.  On the opposite spectrum we also need to wrap up the ending with closure.  We can't just leave the audience wondering what happened because we ended our film in the middle of the story.  We have to show the effect and reactions to what happens in the plot and how everything turns out.

I love writing but this should be an exciting challenge for me as I write the script.  My writing excels in scriptwriting for television.  I love how the characters have room to grow and develop over a broader sense of time and how intimate you can make certain situations that would be cut from a film.  I'm very lucky to have such hard working and brilliant team members to help me develop the story and change/add things to the script.  I look forward to writing it this weekend.  But it will not come as easy to me as if I were writing an episode of TV.  We have to tell an entire story in a very short amount of time and still develop strong connections to the characters and produce a heartwarming story.  It will be a good challenge for me and I hope I can do this story justice.

Bones Camera Movements

So on the last episode of Bones, they decided to use a very interesting camera view for the entirety of the episode. They had found a skeleton in a green house and as they were investigating it, you saw it as if we were the skull looking at the characters. At first I thought this would only last a few minutes. Oh boy was I wrong. It ended up lasting all 44 minutes of the show. This POV camera movement was quite interesting in the fact that this is the first time they had done something like this.

Now don't get me wrong, I thought it was pretty cool and interesting how they decided to make it in the eyes of the victim rather than a God's Eye View over the entirety of the episode. It truly put an artistic feel on the episode and made it as if we were the victim and how the characters became emotionally involved because the victim ended up being a 14 year old. Using this type of camera "angle" made the episode much more dramatic and brought the characters true feelings out into the open during a case that they became emotionally compromised in.

I liked this idea of using this camera POV and I wish that more television shows would do it because it truly shows the emotions and characteristics of the characters in the television show.

Sketch Comedy

   Next year, I plan to create an online sketch comedy show. I think that many sketch shows are truly hilarious (to me) but unfortunately, most of them get cancelled. For example, one of my favorite shows on MTV was Human Giant. This show was on from 2007 to 2008 and was written by comedians Aziz Ansari, Paul Scheer, and Rob Huebel. In a standup special, Aziz Ansari said that MTV let them have the creative control but then said,"Some shows on MTV are not my cup of tea. Mainly because I don't like huge pieces of shit in my tea." Human Giant was comprised of short skits that I found hilarious and compared to SNL, Human Giant was by far, higher up in the humor department.

    Nick Swardson's Pretend Time, another sketch show, premiered on Comedy Central but was then cancelled after only two years on the air. Nick Swardson's standup is hilarious and he changed his jokes into skits. The skits were quite immature but humorous nonetheless. Nick Swardson is still well-known in the stand-up community but he's yet to star in another Grandma's Boy type movie.

    Chapelle's Show was one of the greatest shows ever made in my opinion. It was only on for three years prior to Dave Chapelle's strange hiatus. The show was filled with hilarious skits and characters and Dave Chapelle would do stand-up bits during each episode. He poked fun at racial tension and his skits pushed boundaries and some would claim they went too far. The show made fun of real problems in the world and forced people to look at them differently.

Now, my new favorite sketch show is Comedy Central's Key And Peele. The shows stars comedians Keagan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. This show is similar to Chapelle's Show because it pokes fun at racial problems and stereotypes. Once again, it is boundary pushing comedy that causes people to think and pokes fun at problems to show the ridiculousness of their real life nature. The Nick Kroll Show, a Comedy Central sketch show, airs sometime next year and looks promising. The only downfall of sketch shows are that sketches can either be hit or miss. I would say that 1/3 of sketches during a sketch show are well written and humorous.

Parks and Rec

For the last six months, the one show that kept popping up in random discussions, class, and even on the Netflix "Recently Added" list, was the show Parks and Recreation on NBC. I was very hesitant to watch it, especially since I'm more of a fantasy/sci-fi girl, but I eventually caved in. So over the last week and a half, I have been on a Parks and Recreation marathon, and I have to admit: I actually love it.

For some reason, I have always found it hard to watch and even read anything in the realistic fiction genre and enjoy it. Yet, this show is definitely one of my top favorites. The mix of characters is combined in a way that is refreshing and incredibly funny. The dialogue (delivery of lines) and the way the show is presented (scenes intermixed with "interviews," and the actors breaking that "fourth wall") took some getting used to, but in the end it is what makes the show so great. I didn't think I would even like this breaking of the "fourth wall," but I have found that it is great to have the characters speak directly to the audience (staring straight at the lens) because it truly brings the viewer into the story with them.

The more episodes I watch the more I love this show!
~Amber Capogrossi

Novels vs. Screenplays

I love reading books. All kinds of books. I have had this passion for since I was probably 9 or 10, but it wasn't until tenth grade that I discovered a passion for creative writing. One of my closest friends in High School did a lot of fan fiction and wrote her own short stories, and because I love to read, I was her captivated audience whenever she wrote something new. It was during this time that I thought, "Hey! I should try to do this!" And so I did... only I wasn't as successful at first. I think I have around five or six stories that I started writing or have notes on that I just never finished. I guess I just never realized how much went in to telling a story: Characters have to be discovered and developed, the plot should twist and turn in ways that are both unexpected, yet make sense, research has to be done in period pieces, etc. This is true for novels, non-fiction, screenplays, and theatrical pieces. 

I tried to write my first mini-script for the stage just before my sophomore year in high school. Let's just say it wasn't the best piece of writing I have ever done, and I didn't really enjoy it. I have taken several creative writing classes in both high school and college that I have absolutely loved. Right now I am even working on a novel that I started in a class that I took last fall. It will probably be a long time until it is finished, because the more I write the more I find out that I need to still do more research. Since I was so unsuccessful in playwriting, and I loved creative writing for novels, I thought that was the only writing I would or could ever do. Hence why I was so nervous for the course Developing Story Narratives that I took last semester. 

It seemed a little rocky in the beginning of the semester. The first couple practice scripts seemed to be going okay; they weren't great, but at least they were ten times better than the "play" I tried to write when I was a part of the Hanger Theatre summer camp. For the course we had three major scripts to write: a story based around an important event in our own lives, a story based on a character that we create, and a story centered around a theme. The first one was okay. I based it on the events that took place during and after my grandfather's death. The second one, I fell in love with. It is a story based on an orphan named Henry who is, in many ways, searching for a place where he belongs. I won't go into too many details, but this piece turned out fairly well, to the point where I would LOVE to film this here at Ithaca College. I want to do it right though, and the first step is making sure the script makes sense. Currently, I'm in the process of changing around a couple of scenes because the events that occur don't quite fit. The interesting thing about writing a script versus a novel is that you have to keep in mind that you are writing for a visual medium. Every emotion or internal dilemma has to be able to be seen in some way. It would be easier for a writer if subtext could scroll across the bottom of the screen, but then it wouldn't be much fun for the audience. Besides, sometimes there aren't words for certain emotions. On top of all this, the character has to move or flow from one point to another in a way that makes common sense. This means looking internally into the character to decide what is exactly going on there, so that the actions don't seem forced. 

Details, details, details. They are so important in creative writing for novels. Not so much, or at least not in the same way, for screenwriting. My professor said that you have to imagine each line as a shot in the film. That is a lot harder than it sounds. Well, I will keep plugging away at it and hopefully I will find the best way to tell Henry's story. 

~Amber Capogrossi

Awkward.

My new favorite show on TV right now is MTV's Awkward. It has some kinks that it needs to work out but I just can't stop watching. It's about a high school sophomore, Jenna, who is (you guessed it) a little awkward. I'm not a fan of how the series starts out... when she reads a nasty letter instructing her on how she needs to improve herself, she has an accident that makes it look like she committed suicide... a little far fetched but whatever.

Besides that and a few other little things, this is easily the best high school scripted show I've seen in years. You knew all of the characters in high school, and you want Jenna as your best friend. Her problems are real, and you cringe right along with her during all the awkward moments that happen to every teenager in high school.

One of the best characters in the series is Sadie, the mean popular girl. She's a little over the top but she seriously combines every mean girl I ever knew in high school into one hilarious character and coined the series's catch phrase... 'you're welcome'.

MTV Shows

Every episode has me laughing and rooting for Jenna, especially in things concerning her popular crush, Matty.

Awkward. - MTV Shows - Full Episodes

So if you decide to try Awkward out... I promise she's out of the stupid brace by the second episode! But you'll probably be hooked right away just like I was!

Casting needs

A colleague from the Cinema Department asked me to relay these casting needs in case you know someone who might fit the bill based on casting you have already done:

George (20’s, M): A college student could fill this role. He is an intelligence operative in the company. In his discussion with Veronica, he is trying to deceive her into dropping her pursuit of the truth.

Jensen (20’s, M): I am looking for someone who is built like a track runner for this part. He initially toys with Veronica in the interrogation scene. As soon as a weapon is introduced to the scene, he becomes terrified. It doesn’t take long for Veronica to break him.

Vlad (30’s M): His role in setting the trap is to entice Veronica into falling into the trap. He slyly gives up bits of information until he has her hooked. Once he has Veronica in his bag, he sends Veronica on her way.

If you can help post a comment mentioning for what character you are suggesting someone and I will relay the information to the director.

Shooting schedule is form March24-31

Big Bang Theory

So my recent love of tv has been spent watching Big Bang Theory. I've watched it before and I've loved it but I never watched it with my full attention. This past week I started from the beginning episode 1 season 1 so that I would fully understand who the characters were. Big Bang theory is absolutely hilarious and the writing is awesome. I never thought humor and scientific theories could be combined to make a great show. The awkwardness of the characters is the main humor of the show and it works perfectly.