Cheesy Effects = Epic Movie?

The race continues to create a short film by the end of January and with just over a month to go, progress has been made. I spent the first few days struggling with the plot. First I wanted to make something dramatic but that turned out being a little too complicated with the short amount of time I have. So I decided on a comedy. After several failed attempts to contact the festival administrators about music legality, I talked to Bradley who told me that I could use any music I wanted and almost came to the conclusion that I would just send 'Probed' instead of shooting a new film. That wouldn't be much fun though, would it? So, with the alien idea still in mind, I concluded that I would make a somewhat sequel to 'Probed'... kind of a comedy epic?

We're not going to say it's a sequel though because obviously the judges of the festival have never seen the first movie. The only reason that I'm considering it a sequel is because it has the same main character and the aliens look exactly the same. The plots don't rely on each other. Which brings us to the storyline. It won't be called 'Probed 2', I've not decided on a title yet so we'll call it that for now. I figured that having a mediocre screenplay and cheesy graphics wouldn't be so bad. 'District 9' had a terrible plot and the cheesiest of graphics but people loved that movie for some reason... how can I fail? I'm working on the screenplay and will put it up for download as soon as it's done.

Before I started I wanted to make sure the special effects worked. I don't have Adobe After Effects so I knew they wouldn't be great. They turned out better than I expected, although they are cheesy, if the shots are quick then the audience might not notice. Here is the test video I made for your enjoyment-

Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival

A friend of mine, Bradley, brought to my attention a film festival in Cedar Rapids that is accepting student films. I'm sure nothing would bug Bradley more than if I submitted a film of my own, so that's what I'm thinking about doing! The deadline for applications is January 30th, which gives me a month. I would submit something I've already made, however I have to take in consideration that I rarely use original music in anything I've already made. I wasn't able to find anything on the website saying that was a problem, so I'll just assume it is.

I don't want to commit to doing this, but it seems like something I should challenge myself with. I also don't want this to postpone the completion of 'Darkness Around the Sun'. If I do go through with it then I only have a month to conjure up a film. There is a plot idea that I've had in the back of my mind. It would be called 'The Dream Journal' or something along those lines.

This should be pretty interesting. My first blog challenge! This calls for a dramatic countdown clock, don't you think?

Countdown Clock by Zoodu.com

Future Filmmakers... of the Future!

Future Filmmakers of the Future yearbook photo.

Before I go on about current events in my life, I'd like to start with a "brief" reflection of my past. One of the most important periods of my life was High School. It's where I really became involved with filmmaking. I think some of the friends and teachers who helped me out the most deserve a bit of recognition. More importantly I wanted to mention my old film club.

History of the FFF

I started getting more involved in extracurricular activities around my Sophomore year. A few students started a film club that year called the Knights of L.A.M.E. I don't remember what it stood for, but I hated the name. After a few meetings of doing nothing, everyone but myself stopped coming to meetings. Instead of giving up on the group I invited a few of my own friends to the meeting and promoted myself to club president.

My first act as president was to change the club name to the Valley Film Club. It was very generic but we had to focus our creativity on writing a screenplay. Luckily one of my friends, Laura Fast, is a wonderful writer. Maybe too wonderful.

Through the rest of my Sophomore year we had about 6 or 7 members who attended our weekly meetings. On the last meeting of the year we decided what we would do for the next year. Our club sponsor was retiring so we'd need a new one and we needed a new club name. We decided on Future Filmmakers of the Future because it was the name of Valley's original film club. I wasn't going to Valley at the time that club was active so I'd never heard of it. Most people interpreted the name as being redundant but it was supposed to be funny. It means something more along the lines of "the future of future filmmakers" or "future filmmakers from the future".

Senior year we made the club official. I talked to the vice principal and he told me that he could put money in our clubs treasury if we made films for the school. The only one we ever made was a video about all the school's clubs that was played on the student center's televisions during the club fair. I set up a big display for the club fair to promote the Future Filmmakers of the Future with free popcorn, Mardi Gras beads and fake Oscars. We received over 50 signatures and 20 students showed up to the first meeting, which is a great turn out! We ended up being one of the top four clubs at Valley in terms of popularity.

We had two teachers sponsor our club-DeVris and Englemann. Both teachers were very supportive of my career choice and they were so helpful. Englemann taught film appreciation and DeVris taught multimedia applications (making videos and animations). It was an awesome year because we had a meeting every single week no matter what the turn-out, even though we never technically finished any projects.

Projects

The only problems that we faced were finishing what we started. We had amazing and talented members but it was impossible to get everyone together at once and get stuff recorded. In the end the only film we recorded as a group was School Spirit which was based on one of my Hysteria Syndrome comics. Along with being the president of Valley's film club, I also made comics for the school's paper and we based a short funny movie around one of them. However; we had written two 50 page scripts and tried our hardest to finish them but it was impossible. The scripts were great but they were too complicated to shoot when our actors' availability was so tight. Both screenplays were written by Laura Fast.

The first movie we worked on was 'Valley High School Musical'. We started production during my Sophomore year but by the time it was written, there was no time to record the entire thing. The plot pokes fun at 'High School Musical' but also makes fun of Valley and it was hilarious! We rewrote the lyrics to a few songs so instead of finding a musician to play the instrumentals, we could just put the singing to karaoke. Download the VHSM Script Draft.

Over the summer between my Sophomore and Senior year I saw Good Charlotte performing live and my favorite song of theirs was "Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous". Whenever I listen to songs I think about how I could turn them into a music video or film, and this song gave me a great idea for a Future Filmakers of the Future feature film (I love saying that). The idea was to make a modern Robin Hood movie. I emailed Laura the idea so she could start writing the script early. That way when school started we could cast the different parts and start shooting right away. That, however, didn't happen. With the school year being especially busy, it wasn't easy to get everyone in the same place at the same time and get stuff done. Laura came up with some great characters and was able to write a fourty page script. It was to be called 'Robert of the Neighborhood' because supposedly the original Robin Hood stories were called "Robin of the Hood". The main character would be played by Abby LeBlanc. Abby (formerly spelled Abi) is used to playing male roles and she was perfect for the part of Robert. Other characters were Mayor John King (King John), Mariana King (Marian), Sheriff Lewis McArthur (The Sheriff), Tucker the McDonalds Fryer (Fryer Tuck), Scarlet Wilson (Will Scarlet), and it was planned that Guy Gisbourne would be in the sequel. Another great screenplay that'll never be made.

Vaudeville Films

Sure we didn't finish any feature length movies in the Future Filmmakers of the Future, but that doesn't mean we didn't film anything! Towards the end of my Senior year, Abby LeBlanc and I decided to branch off and make some short films of our own. We had become big fans of Charlie Chaplin, so we wrote our own Chaplin script (Abby wrote it, I directed) and planned on filming it with Abby as the Tramp. We figured that since we are starting our own film careers, we should start by making a movie much like the first movies ever made in the early 1900s so our talent would evolve just as the film industry had. We called our little production company Vaudeville Films, a title which you will only see in the credits of two of my short films because when I left for college, Abby and I parted ways. Abby never got the chance to play the Tramp in our Chaplin-esque film, 'A Summers Day', because she wasn't able to come to the shoot. I took her place instead. We intended on reshooting with her as Chaplin but we weren't able to because of time restraints. The other Vaudeville Film didn't involve Abby. 'Probed' is one of my favorite films that I've made so far. It is too long to put on YouTube but when I find a way to post it on my blog, I will! For now, here is Abby and I's Chaplin film, 'A Summer's Day':

James Cameron Creates the Breathtaking World of Avatar

The first thing I heard about 'Avatar' before it was released was that it would be like 'Dances with Wolves'... in SPACE! James Cameron even admitted that the stories were very similar; however I just saw 'Avatar' and I've seen 'Dances with Wolves' and they're nothing alike. For one, 'Avatar' doesn't make the huge mistake that I believe 'Dances with Wolves' makes. In 'Dances with Wolves' John J. Dunbar (Kevin Costner) falls in love with Stands With a Fist (Mary McDonnell) who happens to be a white woman that was captured by the Sioux tribe when she was younger. Wouldn't it have been a far better love story if he fell in love with a full blood Native American? If John Smith could do it, I'm sure John Dunbar could too. 'Avatar' doesn't make this mistake, you'll know that just by watching the trailer.

The entire movie takes place on the planet Pandora. Like I mentioned in Darkness Around the Sun, James Cameron created the entire landscape of Pandora so that he could move through it on a computer and capture the breathtaking scenery. From the floating mountains to bioluminescent forests, Pandora is one of the most beautiful places you'll ever experience in a film and it's all in 3-D! Just about everything in this movie is computer generated except the humans but the graphics are so cutting edge that you wouldn't know it. Also, James Cameron takes 3-D to an entirely new dimension! ...which would be 4-D, but not really... you get my point. Cameron wanted to destroy the fourth-wall so the audience would feel as if they were on Pandora and being part of the action. You can read about his 3-D process in a POPSCI article, titled Inside the Scene-Stealing 3-D Technology Behind James Cameron's Avatar, or if you're one of those people who doesn't like to spoil the secret behind magic tricks that's fine too. At any rate, if you plan on seeing Avatar then see it in theaters and in 3-D before it's too late!

Sigourney Weaver, who became famous as Ripley in 'Alien' and James Cameron's 1986 blockbuster 'Aliens', gave a fabulous performance in 'Avatar' as the leader of the Avatar program, Dr. Grace Augustine. For just turning 60, Weaver is looking young and still has the attitude but this time with a little more depth in her emotion. Sam Worthington is another very familiar actor who we have seen play Marcus Wright, the half-robot man in Cameron's Terminator: Salvation. Worthington now takes on a well-deserved leading role in 'Avatar' as Jake Sully who is an ex Marine now turned paraplegic. Although there isn't much background known about Jake or Grace, both of their character's development is astounding because their emotions are so well portrayed.

'Avatar' has a very rare and magical balance of graphics with the story. Many directors *cough*Lucas*cough* make the mistake of overwhelming their movies with amazing graphics but have poor plots. James Cameron has created this entire world of magic creatures, plants and of course the native humanoid tribes of Na'vi. An entire language was created for the Na'vi by Paul Frommer. What is so great about this world of Pandora is that everything seems to have a purpose and it all makes sense. It would be easy to created animals and put them in some random landscape but the physics and biology of Pandora are explained scientifically and spiritually. For instance, the low gravity makes everything very tall. What I liked most about Pandora was that every living thing was mentally bonded. An energy flowed through roots from trees to plants and animals were able to bond with the Na'vi people through what I believe they called a "halo".

James Cameron may be a prick, but he knows his movie making. He waited years before finally making 'Avatar' so the technology would catch up with the idea and it was well worth the wait. 'Avatar' is only the beginning, however. Cameron's next film, 'Battle Angel', is in production. Allegedly 'Avatar' was just training ground for Cameron to test this new technology; meaning 'Battle Angel' could possibly surpass 'Avatar' when released in 2011. I look forward to seeing it. My rating for 'Avatar' is a brilliant 93 out of 100! It better win some awards so I don't look stupid.

A Great Review of A Bad Movie: The Phantom Menace

'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace' came out in 1999, I was 8 years old and saw it in theaters with my dad. I've not watched the entire movie all the way through since then. Although I didn't realize it at the time, the movie was very disappointing compared to the original trilogy. Not being much of an expert on Star Wars, I don't have a big opinion on the movie.

It isn't easy to find a review of 'The Phantom Menace' that actually can explain why the movie was so terrible but I ran into this great YouTube video which goes through the entire movie and says exactly what is wrong with it. In a sense, this video review is better than the movie it's reviewing. The video is 70 minutes long but it is hilarious! I was only planning on watching maybe the first ten to twenty minutes but it just kept getting funnier and Mike, the narrator, makes very good points about the Star Wars series and George Lucas.

Here is the article where you can find the seven part video, just scroll down. Enjoy!

Thanks to Bad New from Outer Space, where I initially found that link; and Mike of RedLetterMedia, who made the review.

Inglourious Basterds Review

I finally got down to seeing ‘Inglourious Basterds’ now that it is released on DVD though I wanted to see it in theaters because I’ve only heard good things. As far as Quentin Tarantino movies go, this one was probably my favorite with the exception of ‘Kill Bill: Vol 2’. I can’t say that I approve of the “Tarantino way” of spelling “inglorious bastards”, the only explanation that I was able to find was that the change in spelling discouraged people from believing that ‘Inglourious Basterds’ was a remake of a Enzo G. Castellari (who has a cameo in ‘Inglourious Basterds’) film called ‘Quel maledetto treno blindato’ which was released as ‘The Inglorious Bastards’ in the United States. Reading the plot for Castellari’s version I see no similarities.

‘Inglourious Basterds’ takes place in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) is in charge of a Jewish-American group of soldiers whose duty is to kill lots and lots of Nazis. The group’s biggest rival ends up being the smooth talking “Jew-hunter” Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Col. Landa is the only character who interacts with virtually all the characters and he is also extremely easy to hate… keeping in mind that Hitler is in this movie. After seeing the movie trailer, I expected there to be a lot more Nazi killing and a little less talking. Germans and French talk pretty fast and the subtitles are sometimes hard to keep up with, especially for someone who doesn’t read as much as they should, like me. At first I was worried that I’d fall behind on the plot, but it wasn’t too difficult to keep up with. There was a fair amount of brutal Nazi-killing scenes and it is equaled out by long climactic scenes of compelling dialogue.

It is my firm belief that Tarantino’s brain is the portal between alternate universes. His movie’s complex timelines, intertwined story lines and - in the case of ‘Inglourious Basterds’ - extreme historical inaccuracies make his movies very hard to review because I’m not sure whether or not I completely understand what I just saw. If you’re looking for brain-bashing action and blood lust or it’s solid plots, great acting and characterization that you crave; ‘Inglourious Basterds’ will satisfy you. I'll rate it a fantastic 79 out of 100.

Darkness Around the Sun

The Concept:

My current project is something I’ve never done before. It’s very nerdy but it might be the future of filmmaking and it opens up a lot of doors because I’ve always had the basic idea of this plot but never could make it. Essentially what I’m doing is using a screen capture program, FRAPS, and I am going to record the entire short movie inside the World of Warcraft. This isn’t a new or original idea by any means. I’ve always wanted to do this but until now wasn’t able and there are hundreds of YouTube movies out there which do this exact thing.

World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. In other words, they created this entire world made up of (so far) four continents which you, as a character you create, can move through freely and interact with other real people. I joined a guild called ‘Darkness Around the Sun’ and have become very good friends with many of the guild’s active players. They know me so well that they know I love making movies and asked if I would make a movie about the guild. So I got FRAPS and started right away.

I had to play around with FRAPS so I wouldn’t have any technical problems while recording the actual movie, so I started by recording a teaser trailer. After thinking about the plot long and hard I came to the conclusion that nothing in the teaser trailer would be used in the actual movie, but I’ll embed it anyway.

I said before that this could be the future of filmmaking, and I wasn’t kidding. Stephen did some research for me and found out that James Cameron, the prick who we can’t help to love because he makes amazing films, used a similar technique while making Avatar. He created the entire digital world that Avatar would take place in and used a computer to move through that world and “record” the breathtaking shots he needed. Then, I’m guessing, he used chroma keying to put the characters in the digital world. This is very similar to how I’ll be making my first animated film. I’m just moving around this digital world and capturing myself and my online friends (or guildies but I hate that word) doing the actions. This is difficult because I am limited to the motions and such that a Warcraft character is able to do; however this gives me my first opportunity to make a movie taking place in a fantasy world with warriors and dragons and such. Many people, including my guildies, are wondering what this movie will be about and here is the plot so far. I’m trying my best not to give away the twist at the end.

The Setting:

Imagine this world completely torn by war… not too hard to imagine, right? In the icy oasis of Northrend, the magical city of Dalaran floats above the Crystalsong Forest. Dalaran was once located in the Alterac Mountains but after having already been destroyed and with the threat of another attack, the mages of Dalaran lifted the newly rebuilt city out from the ground and moved it into central Northrend where it continues to hover half a mile above the ground below. The two main Warcraft factions-Horde and Alliance-have joined in a temporary coalition against a common enemy, the Scourge, and share the city of Dalaran because it remains neutral. I chose Dalaran as the main location of this movie because of this neutrality. The city is virtually free of crime. As a matter of fact, I noticed there aren’t any real law enforcers for the city. So whether or not this is true to the World of Warcraft or not, in my movie we will consider Dalaran to be a utopia because it is such a haven compared to everywhere else.

The Plot:

The story revolves around a few things; Dalaran, the ‘Darkness Around the Sun’, and the main character Trevalin (who is later known as Deathsting). All characters in the story are based off and played by characters in the actual Darkness Around the Sun guild. All of the characters are a vital role in the story but because I need a specific hero and the easiest character to record, taking availability into consideration, is my character-Trevalin.

Trevalin and his brother, Will, are young paladins-in-training who are recruited into a secret underground clan of vigilantes called the Darkness Around the Sun. They are the unknown protectors of Dalaran. Seeing how Dalaran is supposed to be a utopia but a city without crime is impossible, the Darkness Around the Sun is supposed to protect the city without the citizens knowing so that the citizens will believe the city is naturally perfect and under control. The Darkness Around the Sun is so secret that the guild’s leader, Grand Master Bregalas, is willing to go to any lengths to protect it for the good of Dalaran. The secrets begin to leak and Bregalas is almost certain that they must have been leaked by a former member and traitor, Dargath, who had only recently left the guild (which is the reason they needed to recruit new members). Bregalas and his second-in-charge, Elfsheena, work diligently to find out who Dargath leaked information to and assign members to investigate their suspects. Trevalin and Will go along with Jazeratle, a guild assassin, as part of their orientation. Their duty is to investigate the Scourge but in the process Will is killed by a Scourge grunt, Nyethun. Will’s final words describe the pain of death as a horrible stinging. Trevalin, in a careless attempt at revenge, is captured by Nyethun and transformed into one of the Scourge Death Knights but in the process he is saved by Jazeratle who then pursues Nyethun. After his human consciousness is returned, the Death Knight Trevalin (who is called Deathsting by Nyethun) returns to Dalaran…

I don’t want to spoil the ending but if everything works out as planned, there is a great plot twist. If you want to find out, you’ll have to watch the finished movie!

Conclusion:

I am casting a few friends to do the voices of the characters and will announce the final line up when I know for sure who will all be involved. I can’t put a date on when the final production will be released because I’m terrible with deadlines but if I’m able to get everyone to cooperate, it should be done in January or February. The hardest part will be getting people online when I need them and all at the same time! I might have to shoot some people individually and splice it together so it looks like we were recording together. So here is the teaser trailer! Keep in mind I made it as an experiment and it really doesn’t show what is going to happen in the actual film. But I still think it is kinda cool. There are a few shots which seem to be way longer than they should be, this is because I was planning on putting an over-voice but decided that I’d rather just get it over and done with so I could work on the actual film itself.

Father and Son

This is a picture of my dad and I on the set of a Wells Fargo video.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

My dad sent this quote to me via text message. I asked him where he heard it and he said he read it on a bookmark. I later Googled the quote and found that it was by George Bernard Shaw, an old Irish playwright.

It really defines my outlook on life. When I think back to elementary school I can remember having a career day during which we dressed up as what we want to be when we grow up. I brought a slate, a hat from some local production company, my old Hi8 and a fake Oscar award with “Best Director Zachary Hayes” engraved on the base. So does that mean I never grew out of my childish dreams? Either way, it doesn’t matter how far fetched my dreams may be because I’ve been working my entire life to make those childish hopes a reality. I’ve created myself.

The Search for a Perfect Movie

I’ve never been very good at this blogging stuff. Every once in a while I’ll blog something on my website but it’s just too hard to come up with things worth blogging about! My best friend, Patrick started a blog that focused on one of his many passions, music. Then Pat and I watched ‘Julie and Julia’ which partially focuses on how Julie Powell wrote a blog about making everything in Julia Child’s cookbook. It then became obvious what my blog lacked, focus.

So I decided that I would copy Patrick and make a blog of my own focusing on my biggest passion. Movies. Or more specifically filmmaking. I’ve been making short movies ever since I was eleven years old when my dad bought me my first video camera. My dad is something of a director himself. He has made countless commercials and… I don’t know what you’d call them… we’ll say infomercials. So I guess I have the director gene.

So here is the deal: From now on I’ll post films I’ve made, reviews about movies I’ve seen and keep tabs of my progress through college. However, there is one main focus of this blog! Coming up with the perfect idea for a movie. And if I do come up with it, don’t even THINK about stealing it from me!!! I’ll know. As a reader, you have an obligation as well. If I get back into the habit of not updating my blog… find me… Okay? Thanks!

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