Can you win an Oscar?

Oscar night was sort of a letdown for me. The hosts being probably the weakest since, well, The Oscars. Showing how Bob Hope hosted the early shows only emphasized the huge talent gap.

However, the highlight of the evening for me was Luke Matheny, the Brooklyn based filmmaker, writer and actor whose “God of Love” won the 2011 Academy Award in the Best-Live Action Short category.

The short film was Matheny’s thesis at NYU’s graduate film program. It had previously won the gold medal at the 2010 Student Academy Awards, a special jury recognition at Aspen ShortsFest and first prize and the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Film Festival.

He is of course not new to the festival circuit. His previous short film "Earano" -- a hilarious take on Cyrano de Bergerac's love exploits, won the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Festival, an honorable mention at the Angelus Student Film Festival, and Best Student Short at the Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, Nevada.

So, can you win an Oscar? Yes, you can. You just need to walk the walk...

Here is "Earano" in two parts:

Makeup Artist

If anyone is looking for a makeup artist let me know. This past weekend I shot a GDK and we needed a cut and bruise on our actors head. The makeup turned out really good so anyone who is looking for cuts, scrapes, bruises, gaping wounds, torn flesh or just some blood work get in contact with me and i'll help you get in touch with the girl we used!

Toy Story 3

While watching the oscars last night, I was amazed to find out that Toy Story 3 was nominated for best picture. I loved the movie. We all grew up with Toy Story and the 3rd one was a great way to end it. What surprised me was that an animated movie got recognition as being one of the best movies of the year. I wondered if it was the first animated movie ever nominated for best picture. I think it is really awesome though that an animated movie got that high of praise and I'm glad it did because in my opinion it deserved every bit of that praise.

Peach Castle

So, driving back from the doctor (in Syracuse) I took a different route than the usual one and I saw this place which seems perfect for the Peach is a Whore project. So I dropped a pin on the location. Just click on the title of the post and when in Google Maps click on the pin and choose "street view" where you can actually see the place.

It looks great and it happens to be a student housing, I think for SUNY Cortland. It is about 20-30 min from IC. Further down the same road there are other "gothic" examples. I think one of them goes back to 1880 or so. Once in Google Maps at street level you can actually "drive" using your arrow keys until you find those other locations just North of the one I am linking to. How's that for virtual location scouting?

casting call info

So our casting Call will be this coming week on Tuesday from 8-10pm in Studio C. we have a flier but for some reason I can't post it on the blog. We have our contact information, characters needed (with character descriptions), and some interesting pictures to catch the naked eye. I'll bring in one on Monday to show the class. We will be posting them up in Dilingham, the Park school, and residential halls. If you have any other good ideas for us, please get back to us.

thanks

Meat Freezer

So for our GDK, theres a scene involving a meat freezer looking room. Were hoping to find one very soon, because it would be amazing if we can shoot our scene in a meat freezer. So if anyone knows of meat freezers near campus, that would be so helpful. Also if anyone knows any nice looking office buildings in the area, with glass windows surrounded the office room.

Green Screen Background image for Golden Doorknob

I built this background today for our GDK from about 5 different pictures by clipping out buildings, expanding skies, adding the river and foreground buildings. This is going to be the background for our green screen shot when the CEO is looking out his office window. I added clouds and also a few layers and blurs to make the image look like its through glass. I'm going to work on animating the smoke some more and adding a flock of birds.

2 and a Half Men dropped..for now at least

The article is linked in the title,
but Charlie Sheens ongoing antics have finally gotten his show dropped. CBS has put a foot down and 2 and a Half Men is now on hold. Took them long enough. Too bad the show's hilarious.

Wanna see something COOL?!

Hey everyone!

Since I've been battling a cold all week, I decided not to do my weekly vlog. Instead, I'll take a moment to advertise a play I'm in! Yayyy for advertising yourself!

So I'm in this play called Veronika Decides To Die. Its a really deep show about a woman who attempts to commit suicide, only to fail and land herself in a mental institution. From there, she must figure out her life and decide whether or not she wants to live or die.

The play is presented through some abstract movement, but it will leave you really treasuring your own life. It's a pretty cool show.

Anyway, it'll be running tonight (Friday, February 25) at 8 and tomorrow (Saturday, February 26) at 4. It will be held in the Clark Lounge in Campus Center. Admission is $5. Spread the word!!! :)

I hope to see some of you there :)

--Rhiannon

Best Steadicam Operation I have ever seen.

http://www.wimp.com/steadicamshot/

I'm just going to leave this here.

Story-boarding: Is It Art?

Since we've been talking about storyboard drawing and all the different ways one could it (simple stick figures, second-life, et cetera) I thought I would introduce everyone to a pretty cool sample of storyboards. Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's first career was as a painter, so when he began making films we would paint his own storyboards. Some of them have actually become well-received especially the storyboard for his film Throne of Blood because of its similarity to the actual film. I know that it would be really time consuming to storyboard this way for this class, but here is an example anyway.

RAN

banksy steps up

the 2011 academy awards will be broadcasted this sunday feb 27th. the nominees for best documentary include Inside Job by Charles Ferguson and Waste Land by Lucy Walker. BUT the documentary that had me interested from the start is Exit Through the Gift Shop by Banksy. we all know him as the the british guerilla graffiti artist with an international reputation. his film was an unbelievable story that followed many guerilla graffiti artists of our day. the main portion of the story has to deal with the man who followed these artists around with his video camera. he scaled walls, climbed up onto roofs, did anything and everything possible to get the shots he needed. he traveled from place to place, artist to artist. and eventually he became an artist himself. by the end of the film we see him putting up his own tags at night and even opening a show for others to view his work. banksy has multiple interviews within the film and in every one he is disguised and his voice is altered. Banksy's representatives stated that if he is to win the award he will still appear disguised to receive it. he even left his mark with new artwork in LA and beverly hills. i think that you should all check out the documentary. it is really exciting and fun. i really enjoyed it.

his three new works are on his website in the link under 'outside' 

they are the dog pissing on the wall, the child soldier with crayon machine gun and drunk mickey and minnie mouse on the billboard. enjoyyy.

Apollo 18

So I was doing some cruising on apple trailers and stumbled across Apollo 18. This movie is basically paranormal activity on the moon. In a way it makes me mad because its literally the same exact thing. It's two astronauts on a secret mission to the moon and they're documenting their mission through a video camera and then theres aliens and such and they die.

2 People + Scary Noises + Video Camera +Demons = Paranormal Activity

2 People + Scary Noises + Video Camera + Aliens = Apollo 18

Foley Artist

Hey guys, the title is a link to this video that I just watched about foley artists. It's basically a video of this foley artist who apprenticed on Empire Strikes Back demonstrating some foley techniques, showing the camera around his workroom, and talking about how they put together the individual sounds for a scene in a movie. I thought it was pretty cool, and if you're interested in working on sound as a career, it looks like it'd be a pretty sweet job.

SoundWorks Collection: Gary Hecker - Veteran Foley Artist from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

Creepy Building

So we are looking for a place to shoot the inside of Bowser's castle. We have an old church near the commons for the outside but we do not want to use this for the inside. Does anyone know of a building that has a creepy inside that we could use.

Thank you

Matt Walker

dropping by

hey so i think were doing really well with our goldendoorknob project and casting tmrw and monday for a couple main characters and a couple non-speaking ones (sorry youre still important). other than that im thinking were gonna start shooting soon we got some good spots to shoot but we gotta start doing some paper work to shoot in the commons.

New Upcoming Movie!

Also, i saw this trailer for a new movie coming out this year called "Source Code" it looks really good! I linked it in the title.

Animation

So since we were all fasinated with animation today, i thought i would post this video of an animated news story. i read perez hilton like it's my job and he puts these up sometimes. they're funny depictions of celebrity shenanigans. i actually don't find them all that funny, but some people might. they're from some taiwanese company called next media animation tv. i'm putting up one about miley cyrus, because her recent scandal was just hilarious. so here it is. if you want to see more you can search "animated" on perez or they give a facebook link at the end of the video.

http://perezhilton.com/2010-12-13-miley-cyrus-taiwan-animated-spoof-video

WOMP WOMP

So our team/group/clan (me, Travis, Alex, and Marlee) are having our casting Thursday and Monday from 7-10 in Park 277. You should all come and chill. Any extra cast auditions would be great. I'll bring cookies. Maybe? I don't know. Hmmmmmm. Marlee will bring cookies. Yeah, that's right. I volunteered her. Trololol.

(No cookies, actually. But come anyway! It'll be fun.)

(No but seriously, come. We need the extra support.)

(By we, I mean I.)

(Yeah.)

(Here's a puppy!)

Pretty cool video

I found this pretty cool video on youtube, apparently this guy is an NYU student. Maybe the Mario GDK can do something like this. pretty ballin' right?

friday night lights

So I recently started watching Friday Night Lights, starting from season 1. And I'm really enjoying it. I love the way that its shot, it's very realistic. They use a lot of close up shots which convey the emotions well. I'm a little more than halfway through the first season and I've been noticing that a lot of the time when two characters are talking they'll go from closeup shots to a very very wide shot that makes it look as though someone is watching them. I wasn't quite sure why they did it. For example, there was one shot where two people are walking into a store and they use a variety of medium/closeup shots then they cut to a really wide shot that's not only far away, but very high up. Just something I noticed!

We also NEED a location for our doorknob film. Just a plain room with 2 doors. Maybe we'll look into the realtors websites, that's a good idea.

Location Scouting

For those of you scouting for locations, it occurred to me that one of the best resources would be a local realtor. True, you do not want to rent a location, however they know all the available spaces for rent or for sale and they can give you the contact information to get a permit. They also know each other well and some specialize in residential, or business or industrial etc. So take some time to explore that option. I suggest you do a face to face as opposed to simply give them a call.

You can also search the rental listings yourself. Here is one of many resources: LINK

Another resource would be constructors, since they usually have houses or locales in different states of completion. My landlord, Bruno Schickel is such case. Check his website. He is a really great and helpful guy. You can tell him that you are my student. I know he has various houses in construction and other types of places as well. Here is his SITE

He has built or renovated homes, offices, clinics, restaurants, you name it.

casting call 2

I agree that during class would be too hard and really limit people to coming audition. But is there any other time we could get everyone together??

Casting Call

I guess no one else has started talking about the class-wide casting call (sorry if you already have and I didn't notice you), but it might as well get started. For the T/TH 8:00 class, if we are going to do it in the evening, it should NOT be on Thursday since a bunch of us have Newswatch 16 from 5:30 till whenever (normally 9:00, but there could always be live @ 10:00). If its going to a mid-day casting call, I personally could not do it T/TH or on the weekends, but any other day is good. I'm also down for doing the casting call during class, but it is early and some potential actors may have classes.

Bad Lieutenant and Other Things

I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when I saw that the first name that Cathy Michael, our library connection, typed in was Werner Herzog, when the night before I had been shown Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. A very strange cop drama directed by Werner in which Nicholas Cage, a very "bad Lieutenant" in the New Orleans police force who is trying to solve a murder case while juggling an addiction to almost all narcotics. He is also a pimp to Eva Mendes, a high class prostitute, and a friend to Xzibit, a drug lord and gang kingpin. A very interesting tale.

On a more productive note, Arturo mentioned how I was shipping up fake weapons from home. These would be airsoft guns which make great props for anyone who has a story that calls for guns. Basically for any weapon pistol or rifle ever created there is an airsoft gun that is almost identical, especially in video which doesn't communicate how heavy the weapon is or how it feels. Airsoft guns can be picked up at a Dick's sporting goods store, Walmart of the internet if you are looking for a more specific model. Just google cheap airsoft guns and you could find plenty of good deals that could fit a pistol or rifle that your script may call for.

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.

FIRST OFF I'D LIKE TO BRAG THAT I GOT THE 700TH POST

So yeah about that: Ha.

Also upon typing in the URL to the blog in the address bar I had to remind myself: "Oh yeah! It's not a Tumblr! Will, you're silly. The Fiction Field blog isn't on Tumblr. Ha ha ha. Ha ha haaaaAAAOHH GOD I'M ADDICTED, SOMEONE HELP ME-HEE-HEEEEEEEEEEEE"

But I digress. Let's move on.

I've been watching 3rd Rock From The Sun a lot recently. Let's go beyond the fact that the show was made in the nineties when TV was better and blah blah freakin' blah. It's well written in general. The idea of aliens landing on Earth and taking the bodies of humans seems so blasé and cliché and everything else with an "é" at the end; and yet the final product is charming, with every episode forcing you to laugh whether you like it or not. One scene with John Lithgow and Wayne Knight tap dancing with Jane Curtin almost killed me. This was due to me eating Nutella at the time. We all know the consistency of Nutella. (But it's so damn good. I mean seriously, if you go shopping again this semester, get Nutella. It's hazelnutty chocolatey goodness formed into a spread that you can eat anything with. ANYTHING. GO GET IT. NOW.)

Also I'm still plowing through Doctor Who. I'm on David Tennant's tenure as the Doctor right now. My mind blows every time he appears on screen. As much as I loved Chris Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, David blows him out of the water. This stresses the importance of good casting; if your actor doesn't fit the part, the character is going to suck. Big time. Can you imagine Gilbert Gottfried as the Doctor? I can, and it's not a pretty picture.

Anyhow, I'm going to pretend to watch this color correction presentation. Peace out.

Maysles and Ali

I forgot to mention that Albert Maysles, yes the same Albert Maysles that was here at IC a short time ago, did a 30 for 30 about Muhammad Ali. It airs tonight at 10 on ESPN. It is called Muhammad and Larry. I am psyched to watch it.

Without Bias

I'm a big fan of ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series. I just recently watched another one called "Without Bias." It is the story of Len Bias, a University of Maryland basketball player who was drafted second overall by the Boston Celtics in the 1986 NBA Draft, but died of a cocaine overdose only two days after. The story is told in a such a way that I really felt connected with what happened. There are interviews from teammates who were there the night of the incident, audio of the 911 call and other features that make you seem like you are reliving the story. Basically they do a great job storytelling in the documentary and I would recommend the 30 for 30 series for any sports or documentary fan because they are extremely well done.

JBiebs gets shot

For those of you who haven't heard, Justin Bieber got shot on CSI this week. To me, it looks kind of fake for CSI, but maybe that's just because they're shooting a teen sensation. Either way it's hilarious. Enjoy.

Kubrick

I am a huge fan of Stanley Kubrick films, the photography in his movies is absolutely amazing. I know he got his start in still photography and it influenced many of his film projects. In my opinion it's a good idea for people interested in filmmaking to study photography (even just casually) the practice can help you set up effective storytelling shots. One good example of Kubrick photography is his 1957 film Paths of Glory.

Golden doorknob character development

Our golden doorknob project will consist of five scenes and five characters. We have definitely built on our characters more than when we first pitched our idea in class last monday. Our story revolves around a family of three: two young parents in their late twenties, early thirties and their toddler son. The mother is a stay at home mom whose main priority is taking care of her son. On the other hand, the father works in an office and does not understand the work that goes into taking care of his son while he is at work. He is somewhat critical of his wife and grows more critical when he sees his son getting into more and more mischief. He feels as if his wife is not paying attention to the son enough and that is the reason he is getting in to trouble. The husband's view changes when his son gets into trouble while he is home. This is when he decides to change the doorknobs.

Scenes for Golden Doorknob

So for our movie, its hard to tell how many scenes we actually have. When I look at the script, it seems that 7 or 8 seems logic. However, some scenes tend to carryover into different locations. If anyone can help me with this problem, I would be happy to send you our script. (Molly and Gabe are in my group) Next, we will be holding tryouts for our cast. As of now we still need a creepy criminal (male) and his 2 of his friends that are sly and older looking. If you known of anyone, once again please get back to me.

thanks

Steve Kinslow

Facebook gone forever?!

According to the World Weekly News (and Mark Zuckerberg) facebook will come to an end the fifteenth of March. thousands, maybe even millions of people around the world complained because they actually believed, and i quote "Facebook has gotten out of control, and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.” - zuckerberg. The website also posted a petition that can be signed to "save facebook". 26,531 people signed it so far. hilarious. especially because Zuckerberg actually had to prove the weekly news was a hoax by telling CNN that he"didn't get the memo" about facebook being shut down. The report was started by a site known for its reports of impending attacks of alien spaceships and false reports of a Michelle Obama pregnancy. yet people still love to believe it. People will really just believe anything nowadays.

Super Mario FX

I think this is a cool example that relates to one of the proposed Golden Doorknob ideas.