'Memento' returning to theaters for one night

Christopher Nolan's, Memento is showing one more screening in theaters one week from today February 17th in eleven cinemas in the U.S. and Canada. The film will be in new digital print followed by a never before seen Q and A with Christopher Nolan moderated by Guillermo del Toro. Also, a tenth anniversary edition of the film will be released on the 22nd. It will also carry a new featurette where Nolan discusses the legacy that his film has left. If any of you happen to be in New York City next thursday don't miss the screening at the City Cinemas Village. I randomly stumbled upon this on the internet and thought it was pretty cool that they are showing it in theaters again. But yeah. Hit it up if you get the chance!

Community

One of my favorite shows on television right now is definitely Community, which airs on NBC on Thursday nights, at 8pm. Having gone to community college for two years before transferring to IC, I can definitely say you meet some characters, but nothing compares to the professors and students who attend Greendale Community College. When lawyer Jeff Winger, played by the amazing Joel McHale, finds out his law degree is invalid he has no choice but to go back to school. During his first day at Greendale Jeff poses as a tutor and starts a study group with members from his Spanish class. From this point forward hilarity ensues as Jeff, Abed, Britta, Annie, Shirley and Pierce work toward their degrees while growing closer along the way. Although this show follows a storyline and most of the episodes build on from the last, many of the filler episodes borrow themes from iconic films. For example, the Halloween episode this season was filled with zombies, while the most recent episode revolved around an intense game of Dungeons and Dragons featuring music very similar to Lord of the Rings. I find this show intriguing because it demonstrates how film and television are not completely different. The storylines that made great films such as Goodfellas so unique, can be re-interpreted and used on TV. It just takes creativity and clever scriptwriting.

One More Thing

I don't know if anyone has ever heard of Andrei Tarkovsky. He's a Russian filmmaker who makes some very interesting movies. There an acquired taste (definitely not a date movie, unless that's what you're into), but some shots are so cool. I strongly recommend trying to brave through a couple of his films and study the photography.

If you ever feel like your shoot isn't going according to plan.

I think I'm one of the few people find the back story to how a film was made just as interesting as the film itself. A couple of days ago I was reading a little bit about the filming of the Palm D'Or winning Apocalypse Now. A few days into the principal photography, Francis Ford Coppola (the film's director) had to replace Harvey Keitel for Martin Sheen as the movie's protagonist. Sheen, who was struggling with alcohol abuse suffered a heart attack in the middle of the jungle by himself and had to crawl to a road in order to get help. A massive typhoon wiped out some of the sets which shut down production while they were moved and rebuilt. By that point, the project was six weeks behind and two million dollars over budget. Marlon Brando arrived in the Philippines for his role so out of shape that Coppola was forced to rewrite the ending, have Brando only wear black, photograph only his face, and have a taller actor play him for wider shots. Many of the extras playing Viet Cong soldiers were members of the Philippine police and military and kept leaving during shooting to fight drug lords. Several very expensive films were eventually cut from the final edit wasting even more of the budget. At first critics thought the film would be a disaster, but it ended up sealing a director's legacy (one who had already made the Godfather Parts I and II, the Conversation, American Graffiti, and had written Patton). So ever you're having issues shooting a project, just remember, one of the greatest directors of all time had so many issues with one film that it's amazing the movie was even finished.

Trick Shots

There is a video of UConn quarterback Johnny McEntee making ridiculous throws with the football.

I wonder how long this took to film, because I have a feeling that I would not have the patience for it. Also, how many times did that one kid get hit in the face?

Mr. Sunshine

A new show just premiered on ABC last night called Mr. Sunshine. It deals with the behind-the-scenes workings of a sports/events arena and stars Matthew Perry and Allison Janney. I just watched it and I thought it was really funny. I would definitely recommend checking it out, especially if you're into dry humor. Here's the link to it on Hulu if anyone's interested.

Location and lighting.

These are some examples of the type of room we kinda like for our movie. Also we decided that we wanted to use only one source of lighting (maybe use a gobo to simulate a Window) in each of the scenes to make it more creepier.

Batman

Well for my blog post this week i really wanted to talk about Batman: The Dark Knight and how it relates to our doorknob project. First of the Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan, is by far the best batman ever. It portrayed this rich crime fighter, in the most realistic way, and really symbolizes the true Bat. The scenery and the look and feel of the movie is what i in-vision out doorknob to resemble. I really like the way the city of Chicago looks in this film, and if we could copy this dark, yet epic setting, i really feel our movie could be perfect.

Also dont forget about the new Batman, The Dark Knight Rises, coming out in 2012. Just signed actors Tom Hardy from Inception, Anne Hathaway from Princess Diaries...lol, and Joseph Gordon Levitt from 500 days of Summer.

Reformed Doorknob Idea

So we just met to talk about our doorknob and we have reformed our idea a bit. We made ours much more of a thriller now. So we have Leesa who is going to her first day on the job at a large corporation. Along the way she hears a man names Stanley Kirkland has gone missing. She meets with the CEO who explains he needs trust in his employees. She's shown to her office where a lady is franticly cleaning out the office and placing things in a cardboard box. As she makes her way out of the office we see the name tag on the top of the box, it reads Stanley Kirkland. Leesa finds a flash drive in the empty desk and tries to catch the women and give it to her before she's gone but fails. She's tempted to see what's on the flashdrive and holds out until she finally gives in. When she inserts the flash drive it sends a signal to the CEO who watches her every move as she riffles through the files on the drive that pin the company to horrible crimes. Lunch time comes around Leesa puts the drive in her purse and heads for her car. Before she gets in she's cloraformed. She wakes up in a white room yada yada she trapped in there The CEO comes in and tells her what situation shes in. She stays in there for a while until she gives up on life, the only hard object in the room is a doorknob so she bashed her head against it until she dies. Then the whole movie rewinds and starts from beginning a new employee walks in to the front desk to start her new day on the job, she will suffer the same fate as Leesa if she makes the wrong move.

TV Tropes

Don't forget this exists. It actually really helps with writing if you know how to make the different elements they mention work.

An interesting music video

I recently stumbled upon this music video. There are some really interesting sound effects going on here, not too mention interesting topics and lyrics. But Arturo I wanted to hear your take on this and maybe some inside info on how something like this would be put together as I would assume it would require green screens and you mentioned how you could help with that.

DISTANT RELATIVES "Patience" from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

So I've been trying to kill two birds with one stone (or two projects with one, er, computer?) by writing this blog and in some way linking it to my vlog channel on YouTube. Right now, the case has been that I choose a random song, or someone suggests a song, I record it about a million times, hate it, post it anyway, then write this thing. So this week, I decided to choose a song that I could also write about, because I think its important to be inspired by EVERYTHING you do, not just one thing. That's lame. Fo realz.

Anyway, here's my newest vlog. (Right there. Click it. Do ittttt.) It was a special request from a family friend. This woman is one of the most amazing people I've ever met. She's the single mom of two boys, and despite all the crazy stuff that happens to her, she's still one of the sweetest people I've ever met. I mean, I'm grouchy just having to wake up for class (haha), but on a bigger scale, that's nothing! Anyway, she's pretty inspiring, so this one goes out to her. Enjoy, and I'll see you kids bright and early Thursday morning :)

Lighting examples

In looking for examples of how we would like to light our project, we came to "The Prestige" and really liked how it was lit.

Kyle, Nick, Julia

Stand By Me

So even though it's not a recent title, I thought I'd throw this one out there: if you haven't seen Stand By Me, watch it. It's about four boys who go looking for a dead body just for the adventure of it. My brother got it for Christmas one year and my parents were super-psyched to watch it as a family, even though my brother and I were like "yeah, yeah, okay, this looks kinda meh." For the first fifteen minutes, I was convinced it was a horror movie and something was going to jump out and eat the kids only because I knew it was based on a Stephen King novella.

Oh my God my family was DYING during the whole thing. We couldn't stop quoting it for weeks, and it's a major family favorite now. It has Kiefer Sutherland in it for a bit. Oh, and if you watch it, look up what the character Verne looks like today. It's insane.

Production roles and their stereotypes

Hi Everyone, Joe Killeen here. Here is a video from youtube. It is part of a series of videos (the link is below) offering comedic commenting on Director/DP/Producer/SFX work relationships, challenging the criteria one must meet in order to be considered successful in their given production role. Very funny, and (I warn in advance) plenty of swearing, but it is something to keep in mind when we ourselves fill these various roles.

Need Names?

So I figure as we're writing scripts, it's going to be hard to come up with some good names. If you're stuck for ideas on what to name that spunky alt chick character who kills serial killers and likes Captain Crunch, check this site out:
NAMES

You can pick gender, countries of ancestry (such as English, African, Turkish, etc.,) and even time period. There's also options for different categories of beings and behaviors. There's an option to make hippie names. This generator doesn't screw around; you're going to get some pretty kick-butt results.

Next time you're stuck, I suggest you guys give this a whirl.

~Will

PS: Forget elevator pitches; I'm doing escalator pitches.

Celtx upgrade

hey hey guys so I just found out today that Celtx has an upgrade available for $15 on their website. It really is worth while. There are all these pictures for different sketches and everything CHECK IT OUT! :)

GOLDEN DOORKNOB

So the rough draft of our project is pretty much completed. We (Gabe, Molly, and I) are still trying to think of an indirect way to inculde the murder without using the doorknob, or even maybe having a play on words to meet the requirements. Unlike other projects, our storyline is serious and probably won't have any comedy scenes. Its just the beginning of our pre-production and I'm sure many changes will be made throughout our planning. I'll make sure to let you guys know more when we do, or if I have any questions, you'll be the ones first to know.

Steve

Truth In 24

Hey guys, I just wanted to point you towards one of my favorite documentaries: Truth In 24. It follows the story of the Audi racing team in 2008 as they prepare to tackle the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It's also narrated by Jason Statham so you can't really go wrong. It's available for free download on iTunes and on their website (click me).

Black Death

So I found a movie that looks kind of cool and the trailer is in the link. I think the thing i find most interesting about this film is its choice of setting. It takes place in 1348 during the time of the plague so in a way its post apocalyptic but not the kind we are used to like in I Am Legend, or games like Fallout. Post apocalyptic movies are cool because they show how people choose to start their lives over and what they do to stay alive, pretty much starting at square 1 of humanity again.

Golden Doorknob

Just wanted to drop by and share our idea (molly and steve MW 8am) for the golden doorknob. One of our ideas is a young couple maybe in grad school or working in a bad neighborhood. Basically their house gets broken into and they go to a locksmith to replace their door/lock (with a golden doorknob). Then the locksmith sells a copy of the key to some bad guys that then go and rob the house...basically.

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

I watched a documentary the other day titled Easy Riders, Ragings Bulls. It was really good and went into how the film industry in the 60's saved Hollywood. It looked into how Francis Ford Coppola got his start, other filmmakers in the 60's who were making B rate movies, and how the drugs and rock era saved the art of filmmaking. At one point in the movie one of the directors was talking about how they went to a ceremony where Alfred Hitchcock was being honored. In the bathroom there were 2 stalls and in each stall there were 8 pairs of legs. The people in the stalls were sniffing cocaine so load that it sounded like pigs feeding at a trough. So, if your into cocaine or movies check this doc out its worth a watch.

Reliving Childhood

So i was hanging out with a few friends this afternoon, and we decided to watch some old nick shows. The first show we watched was Rugrats. Re-watching them i realized that each episodes theme revolves around some aspect of society, such as the criminal justice system, the hidden identity of celebrities/icons, and even potent historical facts. Rugrats was not the only show that we ended up watching though. Afterwords we also watched a few episodes of Rocco's Modern Life. Until now, I never realized what actually slid into the show that young children would never understand, such as Cougar-ism, cheating on one's spouse, and so on. I suggest going back and watching some of the old cartoons that we watched as kids to see what they are actually saying. A few shows are on netfix instant watch. The title links to the cite.

Another Good One

Another awesome movie everyone should see if they haven't already is The Bicycle Thief. The climax of the film is really interesting to analyze.

Blue Valentine Trailer

Blue Valentine Trailer

Blue Valentine

Last night I went out with my boy to Cinemopolis and we saw a really beautiful indie film called Blue Valentine. It's a dark love story and at some points is immensely overwhelming. I love the way it was filmed and they portrayed the emotions of the characters to the audience very well. I felt as if I was in their shoes and I could feel how each of them felt. You can also have many different perspectives on this movie, which I like as well. My boyfriend for example saw it from the male point of view and criticized his female partner. But I saw it from the female point of view and felt more of a connection with what she was feeling and why. It really is an intense story of love and love lost.  Another thing that I really enjoyed was the fact that it was edited out-of-sequence and that really adds to it. So if any of you are looking for a good flick I highly suggest checking it out! (:

Road to the Winter Classic

I recently watched the HBO 24/7 Road to the Winter Classic. There were some things that stood out to me. The largest difference was the mood in the two different locker rooms. The Capitals were on a five game losing streak and there attitude was terrible, they always had there heads down and seemed depressed. Pittsburgh was on an 11 game winning streak and they were goofing around. I know that there may be a difference in tone, but I was surprised that the difference was this large because both teams are professionals so they know that teams get hot and cold throughout the season. I was wondering if HBO just exaggerated the difference through editing. What do you think?

Jenna, Kelly and Leah's Golden Doorknob Idea

Hi! My name is Jenna and I am in a group with Kelly and Leah.

Our idea:

We open with cutaways of different people at different locations watching the biggest news story in history. President Obama’s daughter has died due to severely hitting her head on the doorknob in her room. He has declared that all doorknobs be replaced with child friendly door hinges. These doorknobs are soft, squishy and will not hurt someone if they bump into it. The International Locksmith Association will go door by door across the U.S. changing the locks until the project is complete. We then focus on a group of college kids waiting for the locksmith association who will be arriving soon. The group waits together as the locks in their homes are changed. Once the locksmiths are finished with the job they yell up that they are leaving. The kids try and get out of their rooms but the doorknobs are too soft to open and they discover they are trapped. At this point a news story comes on saying that everyone in the country is stuck because the new doorknobs won’t turn. The end.

Golden Doorknob

I'm working with Corinne and Matt on the Golden Doorknob project. Our idea as of right now is a live-action video game. I guess the general plot is that Waluigi locks Peach in a room and takes the doorknob away, so mario can't get to her. Mario has to chase Waluigi down in order to save Peach, but he has to go through different games (i.e. Pac-Man, Wii Tennis, and Tron) in order to do so. It's a little bit more complicated than that and there's going to be a real world and a game world, so we need to distinguish between the two. Anyway, we were talking about it and we think the biggest obstacle we are going to face is in post. If you guys have any suggestions of effects or filters to give it more of a video game look (sort of like Scott Pilgrim), we would love your input. Thanks!

The Dark Knight Rises + Joseph Gordon Levitt

Okay, so while doing my usual movie stalking I found out that Joseph Gordon Levitt has signed on for "The Dark Knight Rises." Honestly, who else squealed when they read that? I mean, I'm used to Christopher Nolan reusing his lead actors a lot, but this just got me really excited. Joseph Gordon Levitt went from Indie modern day film noir of "Brick" to romantic comedy "(500) Days of Summer" to "Inception" and now "The Dark Knight Rises." He's becoming a big name actor, and personally, I'm pumped.

The Sandlot

So I watched The Sandlot the other night. It is one of my favorite movies of all time. I had a different experience watching it this time though. For the first time ever, I watched it from a video perspective. There were so many little things I had never noticed before. At some points there are obvious voiceovers. At other points, "natural sound" is thrown in but it doesn't sound natural. Also, the fourth of july scene is pretty ridiculous with the fireworks. In short, I still love the movie but I now realize some of its flaws which I never saw before. In a way, it makes the movie even more endearing.

Golden Doorknob

I'm in Luke and Sean's group, and though I like the Pandora's Box thing better than this one, I figured I'd put up another idea our group had to fulfill my blog requirement. This other ideas was a generic crime-show like thing (CSI, NCIS, Bones, Law & Order, etc.) where we see a piece of a crime in the beginning (a murder or something) and then a team of investigators works to find who the culprit was only to find it was a doorknob.

Trailer For Every Oscar-Winning Movie Ever

So chances are you guys may have seen this. I discovered it a really long time ago. But I think its pretty funny how true this video is. There's at least one element of this video that's in Oscar winning movies/movies in general. What do you guys think this says about movies today?

PANDORAS BOX

An idea our group had during class for the doorknob project was if there was a doorknob, that was hailed as the greatest doorknob of all time. The first and original doorknob, created by leonardo, or some highly renown mind. This doorknob was said to have all the secret in the world, and contain powers both for good and evil. It was going to be like a greek myth kind of story, and hopefully this idea can be created into an amazing film. Hopefully no one steals this idea, and for those who dare steal this idea, you may face the wrath of the KNOB.


Peace and one love... and bee.tee.dubs. this is the TRAILER FOR RUBBER!!!

Rubber

This trailer was recommended to me by my good friend Sean Yoo. It stars a tire as a main character will psychic abilities. Hes on the run, I mean roll. Its completely ridiculous but well done so watch it. Possible Golden Doorknob mass murdering doorknob? I don't know......