if you haven't seen the mighty boosh, you really are missing out. i was introduced to this show long before adult swim, by a girlfriend. initally, it felt like too much, but as i relived the episodes i realized just how right the show really was. every scene is well rounded, the humor is genuine and the chemistry between howard and vince is pricless. i saw them pull something from an old red skeleton sketch and was really touched. very well done.
great, great stuff. of course it's from the u.k.
the spirit of jazz with his hat on fire is absolute genius.
*****
Friday, June 26, 2009
what recession!
looks like i was wrong... kind of....
how families can afford to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars taking the kids out to a movie when the unemployment rate hovers around 9% is astonishing! well... during the great depression i believe the most successful business model was... salons?! i think.
forget that. where are the fresh voices? even what's remaining of the indie world isn't doing anything right now. the only thing selling in town is sequels, prequels and the like. that's it. how many scripts have sold this year.... twenty? thirty? it's a terrible time to be working in the dream factory folks. just an awful time. and as long as the Transformers movies keep doing $200 million dollar five-day weekends, michael bay will continue to make movies and scream at people. and isn't that what's wrong with the world right now? p-13 movies? michael bay? i know i'm not alone out there. and anyone who thinks that bay is half the filmmaker Clouzet is, then they are FOOLING THEMSELVES.
OK. here it is. i'm going to give you 250 million dollars. i'm also going to provide you with the most talented special effects people, demolition experts, stunt men and craft service in the universe. then, i'm going to give you talented actors, two years or so and all the resources of a multi-national conglomerate. just come back with something that works.
michael j. fox had a great line in 'the american president'. he said 'People don't have a choice!... People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.' of course the response is, "People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.'
politics, art, commerce.
people don't change.
********
DIRECTING A $5,000 MOVIE LESSON #55
don't overshoot it. work out the blocking sketches in rehearsal but be prepared for things to change on set! if you're using two cameras, make sure you have someone taking notes and pay the $100 dollars to get a guy to be binning and labeling everything (assuming you're shooting to disk, which you better be.) you don't need to make five clone copies of the movie once it's done. just make sure it's broken down into scenes so you and your editor.. or just you most likely... can find everything quickly. if you don't, you may spend three times longer in post then you expected. making money on movies is about making movies. so if you only make one movie every two years you're at a disadvantage. also, and more importantly, being a good director is about making movies. you have to make a lot of them. you just do.
looks like i was wrong... kind of....
how families can afford to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars taking the kids out to a movie when the unemployment rate hovers around 9% is astonishing! well... during the great depression i believe the most successful business model was... salons?! i think.
forget that. where are the fresh voices? even what's remaining of the indie world isn't doing anything right now. the only thing selling in town is sequels, prequels and the like. that's it. how many scripts have sold this year.... twenty? thirty? it's a terrible time to be working in the dream factory folks. just an awful time. and as long as the Transformers movies keep doing $200 million dollar five-day weekends, michael bay will continue to make movies and scream at people. and isn't that what's wrong with the world right now? p-13 movies? michael bay? i know i'm not alone out there. and anyone who thinks that bay is half the filmmaker Clouzet is, then they are FOOLING THEMSELVES.
OK. here it is. i'm going to give you 250 million dollars. i'm also going to provide you with the most talented special effects people, demolition experts, stunt men and craft service in the universe. then, i'm going to give you talented actors, two years or so and all the resources of a multi-national conglomerate. just come back with something that works.
michael j. fox had a great line in 'the american president'. he said 'People don't have a choice!... People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.' of course the response is, "People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.'
politics, art, commerce.
people don't change.
********
DIRECTING A $5,000 MOVIE LESSON #55
don't overshoot it. work out the blocking sketches in rehearsal but be prepared for things to change on set! if you're using two cameras, make sure you have someone taking notes and pay the $100 dollars to get a guy to be binning and labeling everything (assuming you're shooting to disk, which you better be.) you don't need to make five clone copies of the movie once it's done. just make sure it's broken down into scenes so you and your editor.. or just you most likely... can find everything quickly. if you don't, you may spend three times longer in post then you expected. making money on movies is about making movies. so if you only make one movie every two years you're at a disadvantage. also, and more importantly, being a good director is about making movies. you have to make a lot of them. you just do.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
the success of nitro circus
nitro circus is amazing. it's stunning. it's fantastic. i couldn't hope for better television. sure, i love godard. yes, i love atom egoyan. but nitro circus rocks my little world. first of all, people on the edge of death is fantastic entertainment. second of all, the music is amazing. and thirdly, the cinematography is great by itself but because of the editing. great editing. the tempo is strong. they cease to amaze and aghast with every episode, and that is what it's all about. like it or not, fewer and fewer small shows are getting made. it'd the big stuff that has a shot.
i had a manager tell me recently, "fuck the small stuff. go big. instead of 2 million, tell them you need 25. instead of two movies, tell them you want five. go big."
TELEVISION MARKETING LESSONS
someone will pay me for this stuff someday. i'm sure of it.
PAY ATTENTION TO MTV. a few weeks ago, during the mtv awards, some genius in marketing suggested that the company run adds for the ceremony during the most intense moments of the most interesting programs. voila. that's it. now television is completely run by advertisers, controlling and manipulating the most sincere moments you, the audience, can have in your viewing time. very soon we will have adds for tylenol during the death scene in house, coca-cola adds over the bomb scene in 24 and ebay adds during the ribbon crossing moment in the olympics.
mark my words. it will happen.
pay attention to mtv.
public enemies / hurt locker
just as i suspected. sponotti, in the july issue of asc, talks extensively about mann's love the smaller chip size, deep depth of field and neo-realism of digital cinema. i just don't think he could be further off the mark. why would anyone want to make movies look as flat as possible? i thought the wrestler did it well for a docufiction, and it had great effect. but a period piece? come one now. albeit, butch cassidy used modern music to take the western genre somewhere else but they balanced it by using that aged photo montage and connie hall's images are just golden and filled with longing and reminiscing. and the the latent zoom thing... after galactica, it's just annoying. does anyone seriously like the jittery camera anymore. it's just been done. why our our cinematic innovators replicating ideas from five years ago? mann is making 'vice' all over again, and it breaks my heart. in all seriousness, i think a lot of these washed-up directors are in a money grab right now. just trying to make big movies cheap and just cash those checks. i really don't think they love it anymore. could they? does spielberg or scorscese? i just don't know. i don't know if they CAN.
on a positive note, ms. bigelow is making movies again. she had a stint doing tv stuff but she's back to the silver screen and i really think 'the hurt locker' looks like a good ride. shot on 16mm, it's based on a true story of army demo guys who, in 2004, we taking down up to 50 ied's a day. yes, a day. sounds like a great story and honestly, i love where kathrine puts the camera. her pov thing really worked for me in 'point break' and 'strange days', one of my guilty pleasure movies. and, forget the rest, she's always telling the story and she always loves her characters. all of them. she doesn't judge them. they all, even the small ones, have something to say and a role in the narrative. wouldn't it be hysterical if 'hurt locker' did better numbers (in budget ratio) then 'avatar'. god i would really, really love that.
i'm guessing transformers numbers are going to be right around $135 million for the five day total. we'll see how much disposable income americans have left in the coffers because, for a movie that has the biggest explosions of all time, it would have done $170 million two years ago.
********
DIRECTING A $5,000 DOLLAR MOVIE LESSON #67
casting is 70% of the process. don't cast for type, cast for depth and range. get an actor who really wants to explore the part and every scene will be going somewhere. and sometimes, that's all you can ask for.
Monday, June 22, 2009
bronson
ok. here is an example of companies/producers/providers missing the mark in the world of entertainment today.
bronson is a british movie that really works. it's fairly obvious to even the untrained eye where the director's influences come from. but hell, before 'silence of the lambs', demme was widely seen as a goofball director (married to the mob, crazy mama) but that picture really solidified him as an auteur(1). why this movie was released almost FOUR months ago, and i haven't seen a single commercial during any spike tv show is beyond my comprehension. there had better be some brutal legal battle being waged behind the scenes at vertigo because this movie could be HUGE with the 18-35m demo. huge. who cares if it's artsy. the trailer is awesome and people will react to it. ok, here's an idea... offer the movie for $5.99 during the next big ufc event on spike. (yes they get 3 million viewers at times according to neilson which means something closer to 5 million if you ask me). don't include shipping and handling. charge 12 to their visa cards, paypal accounts or itunes accounts. they would clear 12 million in six months, easily. people will pay 6 bucks for something that looks awesome. but you can't go to the festivals and wait for lionsgate to pick up you movie! it'll happen with this one but dammit guys, go make money and go make more movies. we are starving for content. starving.
the distribution models have CHANGED! they have changed.
get with the program or get out of the room. that movie couldn't have cost $6 million. they cut all the right corners and used the stage elements in a brave way but did it cheaply. that's the key. check out this scene. now here is a director that knows what he's making and how to make it better with less money and not more.
****
(1) - Auteur theory draws on the work of a group of cinema enthusiasts who wrote for the Cahiers du cinéma and argued that films should reflect a director's personal vision. They championed filmmakers such as Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock and Jean Renoir as absolute 'auteurs' of their films. Although André Bazin, co-founder of the Cahiers, provided a forum for Auteurism to flourish, he himself remained wary of its excesses, as he explained in his article "On the Auteur Theory" (Cahier # 70, 1957).
directing lessons from the best
for anyone out there looking for a quick film school lesson in what actors should ALWAYS be bringing to the set, and what directors should be trying to do inside a frame, check out the directors commentary for the original 1971 version of 'get carter'.
michael cane really, really lays it down in here. he talks about, among other things; characterization, eye movement, pacing, tempo, inner monologue, and why he doesn't mind dying in his movies. poor mike hodges really solidifies himself, in my mind, as a wonderful guy who tried his best to elevate his material the best way he knew how. he was just hired by the producers to come in a make a british gangster film in 38 days. it's quite remarkable really, though there is a 15 minute scene that really slogs down the second act. he discusses, amongst other things; how to shoot a sex scene, why you show the money men the good stuff first (seems obvious) and what makes a movie actor different from a tv actor.
three things hollywood can take from this movie now over 25 years old;
1.) market the small movies small and the big movies big. the market is fractured, don't get caught up worrying about making every small movie a huge hit. if it works, it works and if you build it, yada-yada-yada.
2.) violence really works when it plays real. on a side note, i still think that little spielberg film 'munich' had some horrifically violent scenes that i just haven't seen recently in movies. why not? why isn't violence being shown 'real'? (i'm sure there's some simulacra/post-modern discussion here but i'm not in the mood for that right now.)
3.) packaging is everything. the movie almost disappeared into nothingness because it was released as a double feature with a feel-good frank sinatra film. THE MARKET IS FRACTURED!!! find your audience and market to them. it's not hard folks. it just isn't.
****
michael cane really, really lays it down in here. he talks about, among other things; characterization, eye movement, pacing, tempo, inner monologue, and why he doesn't mind dying in his movies. poor mike hodges really solidifies himself, in my mind, as a wonderful guy who tried his best to elevate his material the best way he knew how. he was just hired by the producers to come in a make a british gangster film in 38 days. it's quite remarkable really, though there is a 15 minute scene that really slogs down the second act. he discusses, amongst other things; how to shoot a sex scene, why you show the money men the good stuff first (seems obvious) and what makes a movie actor different from a tv actor.
three things hollywood can take from this movie now over 25 years old;
1.) market the small movies small and the big movies big. the market is fractured, don't get caught up worrying about making every small movie a huge hit. if it works, it works and if you build it, yada-yada-yada.
2.) violence really works when it plays real. on a side note, i still think that little spielberg film 'munich' had some horrifically violent scenes that i just haven't seen recently in movies. why not? why isn't violence being shown 'real'? (i'm sure there's some simulacra/post-modern discussion here but i'm not in the mood for that right now.)
3.) packaging is everything. the movie almost disappeared into nothingness because it was released as a double feature with a feel-good frank sinatra film. THE MARKET IS FRACTURED!!! find your audience and market to them. it's not hard folks. it just isn't.
****
Sunday, June 21, 2009
michael mann's demise
alright. my first movie blog. lets get things get started right.
michael mann's new film 'public enemies' looks terrible. seriously, it actually looks terrible. it looks like it was shot on VHS-C. i haven't read the asc article yet but i see what they did and i don't like it. movies are movies and tv is tv. you can't get more views making your movie look like a reality show. you can't. the six million people that tune into 'rock of love 2' won't tune into your movie just becuase the 60 frames per second looks familiar. they won't! but god bless johnny depp. there aren't many movie stars left, but he is one of them. in some of the new high resolution pictures released he doesn't even look like himself. that's talent. that's real talent.
if i'm wrong, and i won't be. i'll eat my words. i'll say sorry and walk away licking my wounds, but michael mann doesn't need to make movies. he doesn't need to do anything. he's michael mann. after 'heat' where do you go? that movie is a masterpiece on almost every level. good, slow, storytelling that leaves you shaken and upset and totally satisfied. but after 'miami vice' he shouldn't be allowed behind the lens again... for a little while at least.
*****
michael mann's new film 'public enemies' looks terrible. seriously, it actually looks terrible. it looks like it was shot on VHS-C. i haven't read the asc article yet but i see what they did and i don't like it. movies are movies and tv is tv. you can't get more views making your movie look like a reality show. you can't. the six million people that tune into 'rock of love 2' won't tune into your movie just becuase the 60 frames per second looks familiar. they won't! but god bless johnny depp. there aren't many movie stars left, but he is one of them. in some of the new high resolution pictures released he doesn't even look like himself. that's talent. that's real talent.
if i'm wrong, and i won't be. i'll eat my words. i'll say sorry and walk away licking my wounds, but michael mann doesn't need to make movies. he doesn't need to do anything. he's michael mann. after 'heat' where do you go? that movie is a masterpiece on almost every level. good, slow, storytelling that leaves you shaken and upset and totally satisfied. but after 'miami vice' he shouldn't be allowed behind the lens again... for a little while at least.
*****
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