The Reel World of Zachary Hayes

Pretentious Film Student

2012-02-07T14:55:00.000-08:00

Memes are all the rage these days and I've thoroughly enjoyed wasting hours of my life reading them. As a kind of joke, I started a meme of my own based on the people I've had the pleasure of meeting at the University of Iowa. My friend, Brian, and I love pointing out who among our classmates are overly pretentious—so I used Brian's face as the template of a new meme called Pretentious Film Student.

Any film student will recognize these people, and if they don't then they probably are one. There are the kind who see themselves as creative geniuses capable of becoming big league film directors directly out of college; and the kind that hate the industry and think film theory is an important field of study and consider their incomprehensible "experimental" films to be their godly gift to humanity because their films are rich with "theory". If that run-on sentence doesn't have you convinced, then why not just check the meme out yourself?

Check out the Quick Meme Page to see the latest memes, make your own, and vote for the ones you like.

Also, there's a new Facebook Page so you can 'Like' the meme and have the latest show up directly on your feed.

Junior, Part II

2012-01-24T16:44:00.000-08:00

So starts the new semester of my Junior year and after hours of work to add/drop classes until my schedule is perfect, I have finally gotten rid of the boring theory class which I would not have survived through in order to pick up two production classes, which the department frowns on almost as much as run-on sentences. I shall be taking an advanced short-form screenwriting class being taught by Facebook friend Chris R. and an "alternate forms" class, whatever that means, with Avi who is the grad student I'd previously worked for. Essentially, the class kills out two birds with one stone. We the students gain the necessary experience in an actual production team environment while Avi gets his latest film completed with free, mandatory labor. Every student will assume a role on the set of Avi's film and we will work together like a production company of sorts to see the project through. Very excited about this class.

The role I applied for and received is Special Effects Supervisor. Working with the "art department", I'll be in charge of designing the necessary special effects for the film and making sure every shot is set up for that effect. Most muzzle flashes and chroma keying, but I might be way over my head with some of the advanced motion tracking he's expecting. We'll see.

At any rate here is a thing I through together at 6am one depressing night so I could test out some special effects. Just for funnsies.

'Thunder Bay' teaser trailer, already!

2011-12-21T17:06:00.001-08:00

To compete with the recently released 'Dark Knight Rising' trailer.

ATTACK of the ALIENS from OUTER SPACE!

2011-12-16T18:12:00.000-08:00

The showcase was a big success. In case you missed it, here is my film 'ATTACK of the ALIENS from OUTER SPACE!' A homage to classical 50s styles alien films, such as Ed Wood's 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' as well as references to more recent films like '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Independence Day'. Shot on 16mm film with a Bolex. Laugh and enjoy.

16mm Class Showcase on December 15th

2011-11-29T19:23:00.001-08:00

Come to the Material of 16mm Film Class Showcase on December 15th, 7pm, at the Samuel L. Becker Building, University of Iowa. My class is premiering their 16mm films and would love an audience. Join the Facebook Event for more info.

The Next Ed Wood

2011-11-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

I'm working on my 16mm project for my film class final. It's called 'Attack of the Aliens from Outer Space'. It's a stereotypical 50s style alien invasion film. Almost finished shooting it so I can send it off for expensive processing. Then I'll edit it digitally. Expect it in December!

Weather

2011-11-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

It is hard to predict. Luckily I have an iPhone that informed me that today would be possibly the last nice day of the year. Rob Tracy is graduating in December and he is supposed to be in a scene that takes place on a sunny day. So I jumped on my phone and got him and Austin to agree to do a last minute shoot. It wasn't easy. We had to do Rob's make-up and liquid latex work in the mall, then run to the river to shoot their scene together. Aside from the horrible wind, it turned out quite well.

Now in Production

2011-10-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the first day of production for the film 'Thunder Bay'. Half of the scenes for the future subplot were shot and completed, Demetrios Hadjis (as future Gavin) and Seth Miller (as Scott) were the actors involved. All-in-all the shoot went very well. We shot at a house in Cedar Rapids. This was my first time working with the Canon Rebel T3i and we ran into some trouble with the SD card and had to purchase a new one. Another $60 down the hole. The sound quality is also pretty poor so the rest of the film will be shot on sync sound which is sad because that's a lot of extra work for production and post-production. Let me recap what this project is about:

'Thunder Bay' is a drama film directed by Zachary Hayes and Austin Mooney. The story takes place in three different time periods, the past (1 year ago), the present, and the future (40 years later). The idea is that the periods in time interact with each other both metaphorically and literally. The characters are haunted by their memories, but in a very surreal way they also interact with their past or future selves.

The past: One year ago in the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario; to pay off his med school bills, Gavin starts a meth lab with his friend, Ronnie, and by mistake blows the lab up. On the run from both the police and his friend, Gavin takes refuge in his brother's apartment. Simultaneously, Tyler is dealing with his friend, Maddy's, addiction to heroin. Maddy contracts HIV from an unclean heroin needle and commits suicide, prompting Tyler to run away from his problems and accusing parents. Tyler comes across Aiden being beat up in an alley by thugs he owes money to. To save Aiden, Tyler pays off Aiden's debts and in return Aiden lets Tyler sleep on his sofa.

The present: Tyler meets Aiden's dealer, Gavin, who gives Tyler company while Aiden is off on a "date". Gavin introduces Tyler to a drug that takes them into a fantasy world. Together they explore the limitless possibilities of this lucid dream-scape. Aiden is arrested for using a fake ID that by chance belonged to a wanted felon, and Gavin and Tyler are forced to get him from the police station. This experience sparks a friendship between the two and Tyler moves in with Gavin while Gavin's brother is off protesting The Conscription Crisis. Incidentally, Tyler begins to get sick and Gavin, fearing the consequences of taking Tyler to a doctor, offers to take care of him.

During a high, Tyler and Gavin discuss what time is and conclude that time is a perception based phenomenon entierly reliant on the mind's ability to retain memory. This concept is exemplified throughout the film. As Tyler gets sicker, Gavin is forced to lie to Tyler to keep Tyler from wanting to see a doctor. Then, when Gavin finds out his old friend Ronnie was released from prison. Fearing that Ronnie is out for revenge, Gavin and Aiden plan to run away but are unsure of how to handle the Tyler situation. Tyler, as he gets sicker, uses the mystery drug to retreat to the fantasy world where he is not sick. But it does not save him from how fatal his illness really is.

The future: Gavin, now 40 years older, discovers that he has a brain tumor that costs him all of his memories from before a month prior. Fearing that he will die without any recollection of his past, and feeling that he "was born an old man, about to die from cancer", Gavin and his son go on a quest to uncover his past. Here he makes amends with mistakes he'd forgotten about.

A Mote of Dust

2011-10-18T23:26:00.001-07:00

I made this for two reasons, besides wanting to get the message out there. To test my Canon T3i (I just got a T3i for my 21st birthday!) in darkness before 'Thunder Bay' goes into production' later this week, and to test my "space helmet" which will be used in my 16mm 50's style alien flick.

Music: Us & Them as made famous by Pink Floyd
Narration: Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"
Found footage attributed their respectable sources and used without permission, ah ha!

Please watch and comment!

A Recording of a Recording

2011-09-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a recording of the showing of my Project 1 dream sequence. Shot with a 16mm Bolex, edited in camera (i.e. no editing, was shot in order, 1 take per scene), a few underexposed shots. Turned out a lot better than I imagined. Especially the stop-motion. A few scenes are underexposed, but I expected worse and, hey, this is my first time lighting actual film. Enjoy.

16mm Dream Sequence

2011-09-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

You know what's really scary? Besides the photo on the right, I mean. Shooting on film. This semester I'm taking a class on 16mm filmmaking and we just did our first project with the Bolex. First off, you have to lock yourself in a dark closet (which brought back frightening memories) and load the film reel completely blind. You won't know for sure whether you filled it correctly until you're done shooting and there are a number of things that ~~can~~ go wrong. Then you have to worry about closing the diopter, opening the ~~fade switch thingy~~ variable shutter lever, cleaning the trap, cleaning the lense, covering the filter slot, winding the damn thing... failing to do any of these things could ruin the film (which, btw, we have to edit in-camera). After that, all you have to do is light the scene with an impossible amount of light, meter the light, figure out the f-stops, measure for focus, focus, and shoot. Did the shot turn out? You'll find out next week. That's 16mm filmmaking.

The most fun part is not knowing for sure when you run out of film. It tells you how many feet of film you've run through, but I'm not sure I trust it! Hopefully, the reel didn't end prematurly. I wouldn't want my setup for the end credits, pictured below, to go in vain.

The purpose of this project was to shoot a dream sequence and my partner was Terry, who will likely be the Director of Photography on my drug film, so he at least had an idea of what he was doing.

What did I learn? I learned to love digital. There isn't as much payoff for success, but success is at least obtainable. I also learned that film is stored in refrigerators and sock drawers. I'm sure my roommate enjoys having to push my stacks of film aside to reach the milk.

Back in Iowa City.

Another Trailer? Where's the Movie!?

2011-08-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

Here is the short version of the 'Finding Genesis' movie trailer. The longer version may be coming soon, hopefully followed by the film itself.

Ten Points Deducted - 48 Hour Film Project

2011-08-07T12:31:00.001-07:00

Here is our 48 Hour Film Project entry, 'Ten Points Deducted'. I can't say it won anything but it got a lot of laughs at Fleur Cinema during the festival and that's what's most important to me.

Wholesome. Nutty. Fruity. Team Trail Mix.

2011-08-01T01:17:00.000-07:00

When my High School friend, Laura Fast, asked me if I was interested in starting a team for the Des Moines 48 Hour Film Project, I said ~~"No I'm not a fucking psycho!"~~ "Yes". And so, I began to help her put together a team of what turned out to be five people, together we were Team Trail Mix. Laura, Summer, Brent, Shawn, and myself kicked off on Friday, July 29th, and the 48 hours began at 7pm. Now, 56 hours later, I just woke up from my well deserved nap. But let me back up...

Friday, as soon as we got our genre, required prop, character and line of dialogue, we jumped right into writing and spent that entire day working out the story.

Here are the requirements:

Genre: Coming of age.

Prop: Marshmallow(s).

Character: Kelly/Kelli McBride the teacher.

Line of dialogue: "Open the door."

We finished the script at midnight, narrowing the story down to a funny story about getting one's license being the first step to becoming a man. The next day was spent shooting from 9am to 6pm. I only got an hour of sleep the previous night so I was a bit groggy but as soon as we were out and about that went away. After shooting, I had to take that footage and narrow it down to 4-7 minutes, the hardest part about the entire weekend. I stayed up the next night to edit and it was done right on time the next day when we rushed it to the finish line. Made it! I'm not allowed to put online until after the judging and screening, so since you're so excited to see what we came up with, you'll just have to wait.

Next week I'm on the set of Shawn's film, 'Claddagh'.

You've Got Production Office

2011-07-25T15:43:00.000-07:00

From the making of 'Finding Genesis' I learned that passing along information can be tedious. So, for the currently untitled film, I have created an online production office using facebook groups. Now our crew and actors have access to all the information they want, and only the information they want, so I can shorten emails to just what they need. Here is how the PO describes itself:

"As far as I'm concerned, this is the first online production office. The purpose of this group is to facilitate documents, schedules, and information about any Fall semester film projects being produced by our growing circle of University of Iowa film majors. If you have important information that you need a member to see immediately, contact them directly because it is unlikely that everybody will check in on this group regularly. This group should instead be regarded as a primary source and reference that one can be directed to for information on "current projects", scheduling reminders, and a forum for informal discussion.

This group is for active participants in "current projects", but does not require active participation in this group as long as you have it as a reference.

What are "current projects"?

Current projects are currently in the idea phase. The one project that is in later phases of pre-production is a film we'll just call The Untitled. Please browse the group's Docs for more information on this project, as it is likely that you were invited to this group for the sole purpose of working on it specifically (as either actor, crew, or both).

It will be beneficial for you to familiarize yourself with the calendar and Docs."

Among the things I've posted is the first draft to 'The Untitled'. You can read it here, or you can wait until the film's release and avoid spoiling the ending. Otherwise, here is the description of the film similar to the one I posted earlier. It is the same description posted on our online PO.

"What is time? This question is not only thoroughly explored in the film, but explained--leaving it up to the audience to decide whether they can accept the answer. This postmodern film, 'The Untitled' which has been called by many titles including 'A Dog Named Trixie', is a story of two college-age boys living in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Tyler, a naive and innocent runaway, is introduced to a magical drug-induced fantasy world by an intelligent, witty, non-stereotypical drug dealer named Gavin. Together they explore the boundaries of controlling perception over time, unaware of the severity of Tyler's illness and the little time he may have left.

This film is about time, friendship, forgiveness, and most importantly--how our lives are shaped by memories. The story unfolds non-linearly, switching between the present, recent past, and 40 years in the future. But, even with four decades between them, moments of the past and future interact in an original way that has never been done on film before."

I realize that when I type I sometimes sound ~~like an ass~~ pretentious.

The Dark Knight Rises Goes Viral

2011-07-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to see the teaser to 'The Dark Knight Rises' that premiered with the new Harry Potter. I've been following updates on Christopher Nolan's third, and final, Batman movie since seeing 'The Dark Knight'. So if you haven't seen it, here it is. Don't worry about it spoiling anything, half of it is reused footage from the past films. Comes out in one year, I'm waiting at the theater already.

It Has to Involve Drugs

2011-07-22T00:48:00.000-07:00

'Finding Genesis' hasn't been released yet, but I've already come out with the next film project that I've been secretly working on for the past couple months. Inspiration started for this untitled piece around the first few weeks of summer when I decided a few things had to be true about my next film.

It has to involve drugs, but not necessarily be about drugs.
The time-line has to be out of order, i.e. Quentin Tarantino.
Random stuff has to happen that doesn't push the story forward.
It has to take place in Canada.

And one night, as I lie awake at 4am, it hit me. But I can't explain without spoiling the entire film, so I'll tell you what I can.

With the running title, 'The Untitled', the story follows two college-aged boys living in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The innocent and preppy Tyler meets intuitive, non-stereotypical drug dealer Gavin who introduces Tyler into a drug induced fantasy world where anything is possible. The premise: "what is time?" This question is not only thoroughly explored in the film, but explained, leaving it up to the audience to decide whether they can accept the answer. Although the film is not as random as a Tarantino flick, there is a past, present and future that are revealed out of order as the characters learn more about each other. The first draft of the screenplay is completed. The actors have been contacted. All that's left to do is start shooting. Here is the up-to-date credits list.

Crew

Producer/Writer/Director: Zachary Hayes

Assistant Director: Austin Mooney

Director of Photography: Terry Quinn

Unit Production Manager: Ryan Shenefelt

Canadian Culture & Lifestyle Supervisor: Taryn Spitzer

Music: Michele McLaughlin

Graphic Designer: Patrick Crowley

Cast

Gavin: Austin Mooney

Gavin (Present): Demetri Hadjis
Tyler: Zachary Hayes

Aiden: Brain Healy

Ronnie: Rob Tracy

Xuan: Kim Cooper

Maddy: Joshua Preston

Scott: Seth Miller

Chloe: This roll has not been casted.

Extras

EMTs (2)
1st: Derek Tracy
2nd: Not been casted.

Police Officer: Not been casted.

Unnamed friends (2)
1st: Not been casted.
2nd: Not been casted.

Druggie (2)
1st: Not been casted.
2nd: Not been casted.

Finally, Special Effects

2011-06-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

While editing scene after scene of stagnant dialogue is reeeaaaalllllllyyy fun, I decided to skip to the scenes in 'Finding Genesis' that I was most excited about--the special effect scenes! Here is a vague tutorial on one way to make a crater like the one in 'Finding Genesis' (spoiler alert?).

Step 1: Record a field. If you're insane, don't put the camera on a tripod.

Step 2: Make the crater. But have your local water company mark the pipes first.

Step 3: Composite. Blend the crater using smoke and fire. If you don't have smoke and fire, go out and buy matches and lighter fluid. Start a small fire in your basement and go outside. Wait until the house burns down, then use the insurance money to purchase one of many online pre-keyed element packs which include smoke and fire, and After Effects!

4. With some finishing touches, your crater is ready and looks just like mine! I'll see you in court.

Finding Genesis teaser trailer

2011-06-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

Was up all night animating this. Also have to get my money's worth out of the soundtrack. Enjoy.

An astronomer struggles to afford his fiance's life support when he discovers a message from an extraterrestrial intelligence. Starring Austin Mooney, Rob Tracy, & Joshua Preston.

Below the Line

2011-06-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

With two years left of school, the looming question for me is: what's next? Go on to grad school, or immerse myself in the industry. The latter can be pretty dangerous if you don't know what the f**k you're doing, and the former can waste time and money. While it doesn't hurt to have a good reel of student films, it won't help you get into the DGA. For that, you need to start off as a Production Assistant and work your way up the ladder. How else are you going to learn what a lockup is or how to read a call sheet and fill out an Exhibit G? (Maybe by buying and reading THIS BOOK). They are certainly not teaching us that at school. So, thinking realistically, I should balance my own projects with finding opportunities to build a good resume. Anything that will make it easier for me to get that first PA job. The catch 22 is, you typically need PA experience to be hired as a PA. So, as of where I am, the best thing I can do is be involved in the works of grad students.

I jumped at the opportunity to work on the set of my former screenwriting TA, Avi Michaels, who is directing a project he wrote called 'The Whistleblower'. This was a great start. I learned a lot, got hands-on experience, and worked 14 hour days with 4 hours to sleep in-between. Our crafty was all vegan, so I got a taste for all the foods I love except made of beans. I've never felt healthier. Hell, even the apples were made of beans. Most importantly, I met a lot of new awesome people at and above my level who I hope will be future contacts. Networking and experience are worth more than a paycheck until I get my first "professional" gig. I'm not really sure how I would define "professional", since we did everything as professionally as possible in this production.

Thanks to Ryan and Turk for letting me crash at their place this past week, my mom for letting me use her car, and all the people involved in the production!

Save The Date!

2011-06-10T02:02:00.000-07:00

Here is the time and date that my film, 'Waiting for Eternity', will be shown at the Interrobang Film Festival (Des Moines Art Festival). Friday, June 24th; 5:00 in Room 2. It will be the third of three short films being shown at that time. I hope to see you there! If you can't make it, watch it online here.

Here is the trailer I don't think I ever posted:

Production Stills

2011-05-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of my favorite production stills from 'Finding Genesis'. Click them to enlarge the photo.

See My Film at the Des Moines Art Festival [June 24th-26th]

2011-05-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, come see my film 'Waiting for Eternity' at the Des Moines Art Festival. I don't know when my film will be shown exactly, but I will hopefully find out soon. I can tell you that the art festival is between June 24th and the 26th in downtown Des Moines. My film will be part of the Interrobang Film Festival. Here is a promotional video that they asked me to share:

'Finding Genesis' Poster

2011-05-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

Here is the first poster to promote 'Finding Genesis' which we will finish shooting Monday, May 9th. It is scheduled for release this summer!

The American Racial Hierarchy in Contemporary Cinema

2011-05-04T12:53:00.000-07:00

First year critical theory class, please give me a break!

'The Blind Side' is a 2009 film written and directed by John Lee Hancock that was nominated for an Academy Award for being an inspirational movie following the true story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) and his adopted family. Michael Oher is now an NFL football player with the Baltimore Ravens, but at the age of seventeen he was barely educated and lived, homeless, in the Memphis ghettos. Given the circumstances he is born to and the fact that he is African American, Michael Oher would be considered a hopeless youth with no contributable niche to society whatsoever. That is until on one November night when the Tuohy family by some fortune encounters Michael on the rainy street with no place to sleep; Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) offers Michael their sofa for the night. The Touhy's are a typical white, upper class, Christian family and huge fans of football. Michael slowly becomes a member of the Touhy family. They feed him, clothe him, give him his own bedroom and eventually adopt him. Most importantly, they care enough about his well-being to help improve his grades and get him on the school's football team. There he finds his niche, and by graduation, just about every College University wants to give him a scholarship to play for their school. Leigh Anne is there every step of the way to couch him and give Michael everything he needs. Thanks to the Touhy's, Michael Oher is saved from poverty to become a wealthy and successful member of a white family.

Michael Oher's story is touching and miraculous, and the movie is meant to demonstrate the beauty and what can be overcome with racial harmony. However, after giving the premise of 'The Blind Side' some exploratory thought, there is something deeply troubling about this film. Troubling, because it is not a story about a young black boy who overcomes poverty, but rather about a white family who intervenes and becomes a black boy's only means of escape from poverty. 'The Blind Side' relies heavily on race/class stereotypes, even given that it is based on a true story, so the question remains: Why is this the feel-good story that we take pleasure in being told? This trend of narrative where the white man becomes the black man's only hope for escape from their "inferior culture" is reflected frequently in modern cinema. Notable examples include 'Freedom Writers' (Richard LaGravenese, 2007) and 'The Soloist' (Joe Wright, 2009). Since the filming of Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird' (Robert Mulligan, 1962), it has been a popular notion, and cultural trend, that white culture can redeem itself for over 200 years of slavery and the ongoing racism in America by displaying the hero in the cinematic apparatus as being selfless and moral by saving the African Americans from themselves.

In her essay, 'Feeling in the Dark: Empathy, Whiteness, and Miscege-nation in Monster's Ball', Aimee Carrillo Rowe analysis the film 'Monster's Ball' (Marc Forster, 2001) similarly. 'Monster's Ball' has been celebrated for becoming the benchmark of racial tolerance in cinema. In this film, Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton), a discontented racist, has by midway through the film given up on life until encountering Leticia (Halle Barry), a black woman living in poverty. After a love affair with Leticia ensues, Hank learns the error of his ways and undergoes change. When Leticia is evicted from her house, Hank offers that she move in with him and buys her a car and gas station. In other words, as Rowe argues, Hank seeks redemption for having been a racist through miscegeny and by saving Leticia from poverty. The racist, white supremacist is treated as being a victim himself of a discriminatory trait over which he has no control. However, despite his wrongs, the white man is still treated as being racially superior because by rescuing the subordinate African American from poverty, he is both showing that he is superior and proving that he is worthy of that superiority. "The nation as an imagined community governed by particular ideologies, practices, and legislative norms, provides the condition of possibility through which rights and wrongs are rendered intelligible," (Rowe, 124) so given that the power over whether racial discrimination is right or wrong lies with the nation controlled by the white man, he redeems himself as being a self proclaimed, justified superior capable of balancing past failings. The African American subculture has no say over the effect of the reparation and is continually treated as being inferior, and a nuisance.

This American racial hierarchy is similar to the theory of Orientalism. C. Edward Said describes the history of Orientalism as beginning when Europeans first came across eastern cultures, the orient. These eastern cultures were considerably less developed relative to the Europeans, so they were considered uncivilized. This attitude has carried on to today when eastern cultures are often viewed as exotic. Arabs, for example, are considered an uncivilized culture and their religion, Islam, is violent and wrong. Cinema has played a key role in shaping Orientalism. Shohat and Stam theorize on how Imperial Imaginary, the illusion of a racial hierarchy, in films has naturalized western European countries as being dominant over the east. Films like ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ (Spielberg 1984) follow the western European hero who arrives in an eastern country where the uncivilized natives need the help of the white hero. Take this concept and apply it to African American culture. Everything about their culture in America is considered wrong, such as the status of where they live, how they talk, dress, and walk—all characterized as uncivilized. They are the Other, and therefore substandard or in need of change.

The Imperial Imaginary is evident in 'The Blind Side' even though the film is meant to show racial harmony. The Touhys are meant to represent the perfect family; white, very Christian, very conservative, athletically involved, and wealthy. Even the atheist, democrat tutor they hire is made to be apologetic for her beliefs and submissive to the Touhys' implied dominance. Being the superior, the Touhys might subconsciously feel obligated to earn their status and do so by using Michael Oher as an object of redemption. In one scene, Leah Anne Touhy is confronted by her clan of rich, white girl friends who fear that Michael might take advantage of Leah Anne's daughter. Leah Anne is disgusted that they would even suggest that because it is an extremely racist and prejudice thing to say. This scene almost counteracts the idea that this film misrepresents African American culture, until later in the film when Michael runs away and returns to the ghetto. There, his friends, who are stereotypical black hoodlums, ask Michael whether or not he "tapped that", i.e. raped Leah Anne's daughter. This scene is by far the most morally repugnant in the entire film because it implies that black men do in fact rape white girls, unless they have been rescued from African American culture by a white family.

This kind of attitude is not only present in films, but alternate modes of media as well—including video games. Paul Barrett discusses critical race theory applied to the video game, 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' (Rockstar Games 2008) in his thesis 'White Thumbs, Black Bodies: Race, Violence, and Neoliberal Fantasies in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'. One aspect that Barrett mentions is how the urban area in which the main character, CJ, lives offers no explanation for why the conditions are so terrible, why CJ's friends are unemployed and parentless, and why one cannot walk down the street without being shot—which naturalizes these conditions as typical for African American lifestyle and without any alternative. "By disconnecting the poverty that San Andreas claims to represent from any historical context, the game, by default, reinforces the neoliberal line of an absolutely isolated sense of agency," (Barrett 101). This is exactly what movies like 'The Blind Side' are doing. The condition of the ghetto where Michael was raised is made to be the norm of African American culture. It is represented as a dangerous place full of bad black people, but the perfect white family who knows no wrongs can save the black children from this subsidiary culture. The entire premise of 'The Blind Side' is to make a white person feel obligated to save African American children because the white person seeks redemption for how African Americans are treated.

Towards the end of 'The Blind Side', Leah Anne Touhy lists a number of young African American men along with a montage of news clippings of their ultimate demise. She says that each of these boys had something to offer the world, but they couldn't because they were killed, usually murdered by another black boy. What is she really saying? This is a call to action claiming that because these African Americans were not saved by a white person like herself, they were inevitably killed by their own culture. These racial binaries should not be acceptable in modern cinema because they only fuel the idea of a racial hierarchy. To change the power relations which produce discrimination between races, narratives like that of 'The Blind Side', whether true or fictional, should not be show cinematically. African Americans are not objects of redemption, they are human beings and their culture is just as valid as that of any other race.

Work Cited:

1. Barrett, Paul. "White Thumbs, Black Bodies: Race, Violence, and Neoliberal Fantasies in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, Taylor & Francis Group, 2006. (pg. 95–119).

2. Carrillo Rowe, Aimee. "Feeling in the Dark: Empathy, Whiteness, and Miscege-nation in Monster's Ball," Hypatia vol. 22. Aimee Carrillo Rowe, 2007. (pg. 122-142).

3. Said, C. Edward. Orientalism, 25th anniversary edition, New York: Vintage Books of Random House, 2003. [Original: 1978]. (pg. 1-26).

4. Shohat, Ella and Robert Stam. "The Imperial Imaginary." Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media. London and New York: Routledge, 1994. (pg. 100-136)

Audio-Visuals:

1. The Blind Side. Dir. John Lee Hancock. Perf. Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron. Warner Bros. 2009.

2. Freedom Writers. Dir. Richard LaGravenese. Perf. Hilary Swank and Patrick Dempsey. Paramount Pictures. 2007.

3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Rockstar Games. 2008.

4. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Harrison Ford and Kate Capshaw. Paramount Pictures. 1984.

5. To Kill A Mockingbird. Dir. Robert Mulligan. Perf. Gregory Peck and Mary Badham. Universal International Pictures. 1962.

6. Monster's Ball. Dir. Marc Forster. Perf. Billy Bob Thornton and Halley Berry. Lee Daniels Entertainment. 2001.

7. The Soloist. Dir. Joe Wright. Jamie Foxx and Robert Downing Jr. Dreamworks. 2009.

"Award of Achievement"

2011-04-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend I received the "Award of Achievement" for Student Production Long Form at the 2011 Iowa Motion Picture Awards. It was a great honor and I had a lot of fun attending the ceremony with my dad and meeting Iowa's best of the best filmmakers. I will definitely be seeking a nomination next year for 'Finding Genesis' if that turns out. Here is my handsome trophy! I put it up on the shelf next to the "Best Director" trophy my parents gave me when I was 12.

Iowa Motion Picture Award Nominee

2011-04-10T22:18:00.000-07:00

That's right, 'Waiting for Eternity' was nominated for an Iowa Motion Picture Award, Student Production category. Hey, I'm a student, that's like an Oscar for me. I will be attending the ceremony on April 23rd, but however that goes, at least I know I'll be able to label my film with "Iowa Motion Picture Award Nominee/Winner" and that'll make me feel pretty accomplished. Especially after that damn Cedar Rapids Film Festival denied the hell out of me. Lazy "experimentalists".

In related news, I'm one of the IMPA's spotlight members. This isn't really a big deal, any IMPA member can achieve this, but I'd like to post what they sent out to all the other members since only members can read it. The information comes from a fancy questionnaire I filled out for them a while back.

Member Spotlight
Zachary Hayes
Where are you located?
Iowa City, a sophomore at the University of Iowa.

Provide a brief bio of yourself. Include both personal and professional.
My name is Zachary Hayes, I'm 20 years old and a student at the University of Iowa studying to become a filmmaker. Born and raised in Des Moines. My goal is to become a director of photography, though I thoroughly enjoy every aspect of the industry and feel I could be proficient almost anywhere else--so there is room for error and I'm still young. I currently work at City Channel 4 in Iowa City as a camera operator. While I'm always working on my own projects, I love being part of other filmmaker's projects as well.

List your credit highlights and/or area of work.
My "best" short so far is probably “Waiting for Eternity.” It's as cheesy as it sounds, a story about a vampire that falls in love with the corpse of his victim. Short, sweet, and trendy. Lots of visual effects. Besides the countless amateur shorts I've made since I was 11 years old, my other "professional" work would be the commercials I made for Affinity and a local bakery. Each won a contest, so that's good.

Why/how did you become involved in the motion picture industry? Where did you train/study?
I got my first camera when I was in elementary school and filmmaking has since been the only thing I'm interested in. I'm still studying at the University of Iowa and meeting a lot of great people here that share my passion.

What is your most satisfying professional achievement? Most embarrassing?
Conquering my fear of eating Ramen noodles and tuna for the rest of my life by attending film school. It was also satisfying winning a video contest for Affinity. Although looking back at that video, the quality is embarrassing!

Who/what are your greatest influences?
Peter Hedges is a big influence of mine because we both attended the same high school so I felt like I didn't have to be born in LA to be a filmmaker. Also my dad, although he probably wishes I'd become a doctor.

Why did you join the IMPA?
To network, stay informed and fill out questionnaires.

What's your favorite movie?
That's probably the hardest question I'm ever faced with; I'd have to say “Chaplin” starring Robert Downey Jr.

What are your interests outside the production world?
For the longest time, I had a comic strip called Hysteria Syndrome that was featured in a couple publications.

What would you be if you weren't working in production?
A magician.

What's something your film colleagues wouldn't know about you?
That I'm giving them deffered pay working on a film that probably won't make any money.

What's up next for you?
I'm making a movie with the working, maybe official, title “Finding Genesis.” It will be between 30 and 45 minutes, essentially about an alien race who come to Earth in search of "god." There will be explosions, romance, and an epic soundtrack. This is not a class project, but a lot of other Iowa students will be helping me out. I'm excited! You should be too.

Lights & More Testimonial

2011-03-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a new sample of some of my professional work. I did this simple testimonial video for Lights & More in Urbandale, Iowa.

Day 1 of Production!

2011-03-05T17:39:00.000-08:00

I made the executive decision to start production on 'Finding Genesis' yesterday (March 4th), with a pretty well drafted screenplay but only three months left to finish shooting. All scenes have to be shot by mid-may before we lose our primary locations and head home for the summer. We spent the entire day preparing and shooting a minute and a half scene, which was all we planned on shooting that day, but we did not plan on it taking from 4 to 10 PM. Problems arose when the neighbors decided that Friday night, in a college town, was the best night to play very loud music--how did we decide this was the best time to shoot? In the end, it went very well and we conquered all obstacles.

Rob Tracy

Rob Tracy is my assistant director. He will also be playing the deadbeat, drunken stepbrother--Hank. To keep his character real, we decided the best method would be to actually get him drunk. It's okay, he is over the legal drinking age. Him, along with a few cast members and production assistant, and I met in our Modes class (an introductory course to filmmaking at uIowa).

Austin Mooney

It is officially official that Austin Mooney--known for his comical acting in 'DEVIN! The Dick Prop Comic: A Life' which he also wrote and directed--will be playing the lead role of Ben in 'Finding Genesis'. This is good, because I had him in mind when I created his character. Next day of production won't be until after Spring Break.

'Finding Genesis' is Sci-Fi Drama about a young astronomer trying to get enough money to afford life support for his comatose fiancee. In the process, he uncovers a message from an extra terrestrial race who are searching the Universe for 'The Creator'.

Concept Art 'Finding Genesis'

2011-02-26T21:50:00.001-08:00

Here is some concept art for the alien encounter scene in 'Finding Genesis'. This is what the alien figure is predicted to look like, although he will end up as less of a physical humanoid--as in made up of energy. There will be three of these glowing figures, each with "wings of light" and pitch black eyes. The screenplay describes them as angelic. The man in the lower right is the main character, Ben, played by Austin Mooney.

Click to Enlarge

Marxist and 'The Matrix'

2011-02-16T22:40:00.000-08:00

'The Matrix', directed by the Wachowski broth-... the Wachowskis, is an ideal representation of the social construct proposed by Karl Marx. Marxism¹ describes our economic and socio-political build, how the struggle between classes historically brings social change, and calls for revolution from the proletariat. As citizens, we have a veil of false consciousness which blinds us from the true nature of our class with the belief that we can move upward to a higher class if we work hard and follow the system. Horkheimer and Adorno's similar ideologies are of dominance and social hierarchy being fueled by the industry that is culture. 'The Matrix' represents these ideologies metaphorically through its clever story telling.

The premise of 'The Matrix'² is that robots, in order to survive, harvest humans like batteries and have put them under a false consciousness to sustain them. This reflects how our increasingly mechanistic society is reliant on the proletariat doing their job as part of the system. For the system to work, the citizens must remain under this false consciousness otherwise they'll reject the oppression brought on by the dominant class (robots). The dominant class needs the proletariat to be falsely conscious so that they, the lower-class, aspire to the dominant class and view it as a good thing and as a necessity. If the proletariat were to come out of this zombie trance... well... let's just clarify that the word "Apocalypse" is Greek for "The Unveiling".

Revolution is what is required to have social change. Neo meets the group of enlightened revolutionists and they offer to unveil him. In the process of being awaken, Neo faces a mirror. A likely reference to Lecon's Mirror Stage. Neo sees himself as he is in the matrix. A representation of his ideal self. A split-subject. But he is soon awaken to the "real world", where he sees his real self for the first time after the veil of false consciousness is lifted. In the real world, the true nature of their oppressor is clear—power and control over the human race. To the humans of the real world the matrix is nothing more than binary characters encoded and decoded, like Hall's theory, onto a computer.

Cypher has a very important perspective on the situation. "Ignorance is bliss," he says. If we are falsely conscious, do we really want to be awaken? Is the truth better than the lie? If society is as it was before the robots took over, what is the issue? As sentient beings, we're not okay with being controlled. If we know about it, we can not just ignore it entirely. Cypher wanted to forget or to never have known the truth. Knowing is not enough to overcome the oppression. There has to be a successful revolution because until there is change, the citizens will reject or ignore the issue.

Agent Smith offers another key perspective. The original matrix was designed as a perfect world. Agent Smith explains that the citizens rejected the utopia matrix. They were unable to accept it as true, and as a result—entire crops of human battery power were lost. This is very much true in the real world. Humans have the capability and means of creating a utopian society, yet they haven't. Utopian socialism, as proposed by Marx, is an model that has yet been perfected. The aim is not necessarily to create the perfect society, but to create a rational social and economic system based mainly on socialism. It is possible that our false consciousness causes us to reject a perfect world because it is meant to blind us from what the world could be in addition to what the world is.

Horkheimer and Adorno³ say that the culture is like an industry producing goods which manipulate people into passivity. Popular cultural goods—like movies, music and most things media related—only contribute to the false consciousness of the proletariat because it makes them content with the difficulties of their economic situation. This need to feed into the culture industry, which supports and makes capitalism possible, replaces actual human needs like freedom, creativity and happiness in the subjects’ minds. Horkheimer and Adorno considered this a danger to fine arts, which today includes cinema. “Hollywood” cinema gives into the culture industry by producing films which only add to this veil.

It’s a bit of a contradiction to this idea that the Warner Bros. produced movie, ‘The Matrix’, should call this false consciousness to its audience’s attention. The film has a lot of elements of an independent film which gives it the essence of higher art cinema and not just an ordinary money-making blockbuster.

The Wachowskis also directed ‘V for Vendetta’ which directly places the blame for the oppression of the proletariat on its corrupt government, so it is safe to say that the Wachowskis speak out on cultural issues and the premise of ‘The Matrix’ being related to cultural constructs like Marxism is not just a coincidence. “Matrix” is even an anagram of the word “Marxist” minus the letter s. With references to Lecon, Hall, Horkheimer and Adorno—the film is a clear metaphorical expression of the Marxist ideology.

Sources:

1. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture, Marita Sturken & Lisa Cartwright. Oxford University Press; 2009.
2. The Matrix, The Wachowskis. Warner Bros. Studios, 1999.
3. Dialectic of Enlightenment, 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception', Horkheimer and Adorno. Frankfurt School, 1947.

IMDb Official

2011-02-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

I always thought that the milestone in my life which would declare, beyond a doubt, that I've reached fame would be the day I get a page on IMDb without having to pay people off. That day came a little sooner than expected, as I am now officially IMDb approved. Here is my page.

This occurred as part of a WithoutaBox deal, a page for my film and all its contributors would be made for submitting my film to the San Fransisco LGBT film festival--which I have no delusions of getting into and only did it because it was free. Doing so did pay off with this fancy IMDb page!

Now here is my dilemma. How will I know if I've become famous? Will it be the day I no longer have to eat Ramen noodles and peanut butter? Perhaps now... the day will never come.
__________________

In other news, I sent out a Crew Call which means any day now 'Finding Genesis' will official be in production! Starting a little earlier than expected to make sure we finish on time. Draft 1 of the screenplay is complete, now I just have to make it not suck.

Petition to Reinstate the Iowa Film Office

2011-02-03T13:29:00.000-08:00

From the Iowa Motion Picture Association:

The IMPA is dedicated to the pursuit of reinstating the Iowa Film, Television and Video Promotion Program due to our belief that the program provides a positive economic impact to our state and that the reasons for creating the program are still as relevant today as they were in 2007.

The Iowa Motion Picture Association has actively advocated for the suspension to be lifted. We continue to be optimistic about the future of the program and will advocate for a program that provides a net economic gain and maximizes cultural and social benefits to the state of Iowa while encouraging growth of the Iowa Production Industry.

For more information about the program, visit our Incentives page.

Please contact your state legislators and the Governor and ask them to support the Iowa Film, Television and Video Promotion Program and share the IMPA's talking points, economic snapshot and program recommendations document.

The Next Great Film Composer

2011-01-24T18:01:00.000-08:00

This isn't an advertisement, just part of me returning a favor. Not because I have to but because I feel it's necessary. After some unfortunate issues regarding my short film's soundtrack that arose the day before it was to be shipped off to festivals, I was very lucky to have the help of a very understanding and immensely talented composer, Christopher Hanson. Although I don't know him well, I've been a fan of his work for longer than I knew (I realize that doesn't make any sense but I won't go in depth about the situation). From what I do understand, Chris' dream is to one day be a film composer and he doesn't live too far from me. Quite the coincidence.

As all of us in the independent film business know, great composers are hard to come by. So if you're looking for one (or you're a fan of good music), might I suggest giving Chris' YouTube a gander and maybe then you'll feel inclined to purchase his CD from his website or iTunes (Christopher Hanson, album: Now and Forever) or better yet, get in contact with him and hire him for your film. He didn't ask me to say this, so I can't guarantee he'll want to.

Now I'm a student filmmaker, I can't pay a composer. All I can offer is experience and an ad on my blog (which does get 200 views a week). If you're wondering how I'll be coming up with scores for my film for the rest of college, I've got a secret weapon up my sleeve called Pro Scores. I'm very excited about it!

Bane to be the Next Batman Movie Villain

2011-01-22T00:33:00.000-08:00

It has finally been announced that Bane will be the villain in Christopher Nolan's next Batman film, 'The Dark Knight Rises'. This comes as a shock to many, as all you have to do is Google the anticipated Batman sequel and you'll find dozens of well-done fan movie posters depicting The Riddler, who it was widely assumed would be in this one. However, anyone who is upset needs to keep in mind that Christopher Nolan knows what he is doing.

Bane, who is a cunningly intelligent villain with super strength, will be played by Tom Hardy (Inception). Anyone who isn't a big comic book reader will probably remember Bane mainly from Batman & Robin. In that movie, the actor portraying Bane, Jeep Swenson, died before filming was over from over using steroids or something like that. He wasn't a very popular character in that movie, so it will be interesting to see how Nolan reinvents him.

Anne Hathaway will be playing Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman. It isn't mentioned that she will appear as Catwoman in this film but considering the appearance of two villains in Nolan's past Batman films, I assume she will. And as I mentioned in my previous blog which discussed the possible villain candidates, this sequel is the perfect opportunity for Bruce Wayne to mourn his dead girlfriend by rebounding off a certain jewel thief, since all of Gotham now considers him to be the villain.

Re: Not complete script

2011-01-10T01:28:00.000-08:00

My dear friend, SETH (right), has started working on his screenplay. He usually writes in novel form, so this is his first time formatting a screenplay. Format is very important when you want to sell your script. So he came to his best friend in the entire world who has *ahem* perfect screenplay formatting--ZACHARY HAYES. Well, okay, maybe not perfect. We will find out for sure after this semester. A week from now I'll start my screenwriting class. But I'm still qualified to give amateur to amateur advice. The email is really long and is full of information that anyone can use so I decided to post it. Because Brayden... erah, I mean SETH, is going under author alias Seth Nielson because that's the sexy thing to do these days, I've replaced his name with SETH to keep his identity hidden. His real name is most certainly not Brayden.

From Brayden
To Zachary Hayes

Subject- Re: Not complete script

Dear SETH,

Wow you came up with 13 pages so fast? That's very impressive. The dialogue is good. Who is Seth Nielson? An author alias? I like it lol. I think it makes you a true author when you write with an alias because it shows that you're not in it for glorifying yourself, you're writing for the people. Unless that's not what you meant by having that as the author. Or maybe that has been your name all these years and I haven't paid attention.

Here are my notes on formatting. There are some grammatical errors but those aren't important right now because you probably only made them from writing fast.

INT. CAR NIGHT TIME (Scene 16) In the bottom action bar you say "collage" when you mean "montage". I use to do the same.

When formatting the scene heading, use this for example: INT. THERAPIST OFFICE - DAY Notice the - between place and time. It is superfluous (lol) to put TIME after the time of day. This is just semantics. You can do it however you want unless you plan to send it in to a Hollywood producer because they DO mind. They're pricks.

There are some scene, especially towards the end, where you break up a characters dialogue with an action. This is good, but when you go back to their dialogue put their name before it and then (Cont.) in parenthesis beneath that. This can be acheived by pressing Tab while on a Dialogue line. Por ejemplo:
-------
ZACHARY
I'm a douche.

Zachary begins eating shit.

ZACHARY
(Cont.)
I like to eat poo.
--------

The scene description doesn't have to be in capitol letters. Only the Scene Heading. You can merge your scene descriptions with the action you put after it. Scene descriptions will include a complete description of the location, characters, props and what the actions of the characters is. The reason you don't want to capitalize this is because you capitalize SOUND. Sometimes certain ACTIONS, camera movements (such as PANS and ZOOMS and ANGLE), and PROPS are capitalized but don't worry about those.

I think there is only one part where you describe a camera movement. This is good. You only want to describe the cinematography when it is crucial to the story/mood. You also only want to refer to story from a second person perspective ("You see this or that") when it is crucial. You only do that once, so that's good.

For example:

CAMERA FOLLOWS HIM ALWAYS BEHIND HIM AND ABOVE IN HELICOPTER PERSPECTIVE.

Should be more like:

CAMERA follows Arthur from behind from helicopter PERSPECTIVE.

In scenes like scene 3, you have Arthur's over voice describing the action. You should still write a scene description and describe the action even if it is exactly what the character is saying.

Because Arthur's speaking in the beginning is non-diegetic, you want to put (Over Voice) below his name.You would do the same thing if the character speaking is (Off Screen). Do this for the first DARKEND SCENE and then every time it is an over voice after that, use (O.V.). And after the first time you use off screen, use (O.S.). For example:

----

ZACHARY
God, will I be a successful filmmaker?

GOD
(Off Screen)
No.

ZACHARY
(Over Voice)
It was then that I realized, I wasn't ready to grow up.

FADE IN DRAMATIC MUSIC
-----

This is also a good technique for showing how a character says something.
------
ZACHARY
God told me I should find a new career path.

BRAYDEN
(Sarcastically)
Yeah, I'm sure.
-------

Parenthesis should not exceed one line.

Introducing a character. This is very important. I have a hard time imagining the characters. The first time a character is seen on screen, introduce them in the scene description. So start with Arthur and the Therapist. The more important the character, the more you say about them. You won't have to say much about the therapist. Age (range) and gender are important. But for main characters like Arthur you should describe their age, gender, hair color, body shape, height, clothing style, mannerisms, facial deformities, penis size, and preference of Pepsi or Coke. The first time you introduce a character, capitalize their name. After that, don't. That way we know it is the first time we are seeing this character. Here is an example of roughly how much you need to know about a main character. You can format it many ways.

ZACHARY; 20 years old, 145 lbs, very tall, hansom, short sandy-blond hair, wears clothes that are either too wide or not long enough, always smiles but looks retarded when he does so.

That's one way, here's another.

CALEB is very very gay. He is 20 years old, but could pass as a 16 year old. His hair blond and shaved. He has a long scar stretching across his eye the width of a tiger's claw. When he speaks, his jaw TICKS from having been dislocated. He stands naked before Brayden, waiting for Brayden to touch his long and supple dork.

I think that reads a lot smoother than the first one. But I have my own way of formatting character introductions using an em dash -- Here I will use it to describe an unimportant character.

BRAYDEN--20, fat, brunette, wearing a DQ uniform, his smile says 'Can I take your order?'--stands behind the cash register at DQ.

That's my style, no stealing.

Last thing, the text message scene. Typically, things that are read are capitalized and kept in the action bar. I have a bit of trouble with that because what if I want the text to be capitalized or not capitalized for a reason pertaining to the plot? And how does the reader know they're reading text? So I put mine in quotations.

Example!

Zachary opens up the email reply from his good ol buddy ol pal, Brayden. 'FUCK YOU, ASS HOLE!' it reads.

Now how do I know whether or not the email was actually capitalized? In modern text-speak, there is a huge difference between FUCK YOU and fuck you. The world may never know now. So don't worry too much about that.

I think that's all my notes. Just remember, you don't need to have this in real time. We don't always need to know how a character gets from one scene to another. The movie would make sense if it cut from the therapist office to him picking the sister up from the polar bear swim the next day. I'm not saying you should do that, don't! You'd cut your movie down 10 minutes and lose important dialogue. That's just an example. Also, the fact that this email is so long doesn't mean you did a bad job formatting. There are a lot of books out there about screenwriting, and now I know why. It's easy as fuck to talk about! lol. Write 20 more pages and send it again. I have to write 60 pages for class. Considering you're halfway to 30 after a day or so, you should consider transfering to the U. I'm working on something I'll be making this semester along with my class screenplay which might be a rewrite of Citizen Prophet. Except it will be a lot more action and less boring because I can write whatever I want without worrying whether I can actually shoot it lol. (No, we're not remaking Citizen Prophet. Just reviving the idea.)

The best advice I got on screenwriting came from Bret Stern's 'How to Shoot a Feature Film for Under $10.000* *and Not Go to Jail'. He said that before you start your screenplay, take 5 note cards. The first note card is the beginning of the movie, the last note card is the end. The 3 others are plot points. Figure those 5 scenes out, and then fill in the gaps between them with 25 more note cards, a scene per card. Then you can reshuffle them, edit them and move them around until it all comes together. It actually works quite well. Because I spent so much time writing this email, more time than you spent reading it, I'm gonna post it on my blog for fun. Peace.

Zachary Hayes MD
http://www.zacharyhayes.com

To Be Released: 2011

2011-01-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

It's a new year, which means a new era of movie releases. Here is a preview of what's to come. Good and bad.

Your Highness - James Franco and Danny McBride star in this medieval stoner epic directed by David Gordon Green ('Pineapple Express'). Natalie Portman will also be in it--so my best friend, Patrick, will really like this one. Estimated Time of Release: April 8th.

X-Men: First Class - The X-Men saga continues back in time with Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy taking on the roles of young Professor Xavier and Magneto. Check out the sexy cast. ETR: June 3rd.

One Day - A story about two best friends who find out that they're meant to be together starring Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway. If you've ever seen a movie, you've already seen this one. ETR: Not listed.

Cowboys & Aliens - An alien movie taking place in the old west starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde. This is based off a graphic novel, but still the most original movie of the decade. ETR: July 29th.

Captain America: The First Avenger - Christ Evans, aka The Human Torch, has taken on a second alter-ego as Captain America. Also, Hugo Weaver plays The Red Skull. This will be an amazing movie, see it. ETR: July 22nd. Not soon enough.

Breaking Dawn - Finally, the Twilight series draws to a close. Thank God. I've only seen the first two movies but I'm pretty confident she'll pick Edward. If you're a fat girl who shops at 'Hot Topic', you'll see this movie. ETR: November 18th.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Probably the most anticipated movie of the year. This series has taken up a decade of our lives. That's half my life! It's like half my soul is being torn out. Who will live? Who will die? Who will get to touch Emma Watson's breasts? What happened to Richard Harris? Find out July 15th.

Other movies: The Hangover 2, The Green Lantern, Of Gods and Men, Rango, Scream 4, Thor, Winnie the Pooh, The Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks 3D, Final Desination 5 (why?), Paranormal Activity 3, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Spy Kids 4.

See a trend? The movies that stick out the most are familiar titles from comic books or cartoons, or they're tired teenage slasher sequels. In 2012, we will run out of reusable ideas and be forced to use our creativity. Then the world will end.

The Two of Us

2010-12-29T02:30:00.001-08:00

For Christmas, I got a ZOOM audio recorded, dolly and Action Essentials 2. These will be a big help when I make my 45 minute movie next semester. But I needed to test this equipment out before relying on it, so Matt James and I decided on a whim to make a new short--'The Two of Us.' Right now it is only available on Facebook.

The sound quality is a huge improvement using the Zoom. Although it would help to get a slate, which is being shipped and will get here tomorrow. Kinda late now. So some of the sound is a little off sync and I didn't have the settings high enough so its very quiet AND half the short was recorded without the digital recorded and you can tell because it's fuzzy. So there you go.

When you pull a movie out of your ass, you're gonna get shit. But it served its purpose and we had fun doing it! 'The Two of Us' was improv'd scene-by-scene and completed in one night. The purpose was to test out my new equipment. So it's a bit rough. But that's okay, it's nothing serious and was made for FUN!

No TVs were harmed in the making of this film.

'Waiting for Eternity'

2010-12-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

Living up to its name, it almost felt like waiting an eternity for 'Waiting for Eternity' to be released--and now that time has come! What can I say about it? The project was to make a portrait about a person or place and I did a vampire. Is that a bit cliche? Yes. Which is why I like it. Nobody would expect me, an anti-Twihard, to contribute to the vampire cult. But here it is. And people seem to love it for the most part--at least my targeted audience does. Watch it now on Vimeo.
So, what lessons did I learn since 'Citizen Prophet' that keeps this particular movie from being a flop? Well, it still isn't the greatest film in the world but this is an introductory, first-year course final and coming out in the top 20% of students is something to strive for to make a good first impression.

White-balance-- how did I not figure this out on my own? It's so simple.

Cinemode-- My camera has a feature that mimics the looks of feature films and I'm just finding this out!!!

Exposure-- A huge problem in 'CP'. My camera didn't react well darkness. But I came up with a simple equation to solve that. Open iris to 30 minus 6 exposure.

Lighting-- A pair of $9 flood lights from Walmart makes a huge difference.

Bullshit-- Knowing crap like what NTSC, codecs and other rendering related stuff is helps with quality.

Acting-- If they're not professional, don't give them lines. No dialogue = no problem!

Special Effects-- They double your resources and catch the audience's attention. I went all out with the green screen this time.

Time-- If you have it, use it.

Now that it's all over and done with, I'm stuck on a horrible sleep schedule with nothing to work on. So I guess it's time to start working on the next project. This time I might need some help from the great people I've met here at the U. Happy Finals Week!

Waiting for Eternity from Zachary Hayes on Vimeo.

'Welkin's Gate'

2010-12-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

'Welkin's Gate' is finished and up on Vimeo! Two months of hard work finally paid off. Although, the original concept for 'Welkin's Gate' came about a year ago and was supposed to be a comedy about how Heaven is a socialist society. That idea was scrapped because it would be too similar to 'Citizen's Prophet'.

As mentioned in previous blogs, 'Welkin's Gate' is based off a poem I wrote in High School called 'I'll Be Waiting in Heaven' and is dedicated to my friend, Trevor, who passed away this year. When I came to the University of Iowa, I was exposed to a lot of avant garde/experimental films so I decided to attempt one for my final project in my Intro to Film Theory class. It isn't really my specialty, but I managed to produce something worthwhile. Avant garde is a fancy way of saying that nobody will get this film, but they'll assume it is a masterpiece that they can't understand because they're not sophisticated enough. They are typically made by people who pray for subtitled, non-linear films that personify objects and emotion.

I asked my dear friend, Zach Bird, to be in 'Welkin's Gate' and he did a great job with his expressions and fake crying. Stephen Hueholt helped record the car crash scene and I forgot to put him in the credits but I suppose this makes us even--since he broke one of my swirly, florescent light bulb.

Now all I have to do is write a paper about why this film exemplifies theories we learned in class. That should be fun.

Watch 'Welkin's Gate'

Welkin's Gate from Zachary Hayes on Vimeo.

Coming Soon(er or later)

2010-12-03T14:51:00.001-08:00

So a lot of people ask me, what's next? Okay, nobody really asks me that besides myself. But it is a valid question! 'Waiting for Eternity' and 'Welkin's Gate' come out next week, and then in a month starts a new semester of classes. Sadly, I will not be taking any classes that involve making a film. They filled up before I was even capable of registering. I did, however, get into a film festival class in which we learn to produce film festivals. Yay? Why not! Seems like a good skill to have. And it won't stop me from making movies. I came to college to build a portfolio after all.

Sometimes I promise I'll be making a movie, and I don't keep them. Not that anybody but myself cares, it is still a bad habit! So this time I am going to propose a bunch of film ideas, and then maybe at least one of them will be made.

Sci-fi/Fantasy- You could say 'Waiting for Eternity' is a fantasy portrait about a vampire who falls in love with his victim--because that is what it is. But having vampires and fairies in a story together is sooo True Blood.

Idea 1: So it's time for an epic Sci-fi showdown between humans and aliens. Yes, this sounds a lot like Probed and Xenophobic, two flops. This is different! With new technology allowing me to use stunning graphics and such, I'm finally able to make the alien film I've always wanted. The title is in the works, but it is about a NASA-like company discovering a wormhole in outer space, and in close proximity with our solar system. So using a new space probe that is capable of going further than any spacecraft before it, they send two chimps out to collect data. But the probe disappears! But even more surprising to our head-of-NASA-like protagonist, the signal from the probe returns and heading straight for Earth. But instead of the probe, an alien ship comes out of the wormhole and reaches the outer atmosphere of Earth and begins orbiting it, sending out radio waves with a shocking, encoded message. Who or what are these extraterrestrials looking for? The answer is almost too much to bare.

Problem with this idea. It will require actors who are at least in their late 20s and who are willing to work for coupons to Village Inn. Although they wouldn't have to commit much time to it since it is a short films (Approx 30 minutes), it will still be hard finding good enough actors of that age around here. In Citizen Prophet we were able to come up with a reason why the police inspectors were played by young guys, but that won't work this time. And hopefully the acting will be better.

Idea 2: This idea has always been on the table. 'Super Fluous the movie'. An epic adventure of our favorite super hero and his super friends. It would be a dual story about Super Fluous fighting his adversary, Mask-er-Raid--and Cockatoo Kid taking on The Hypnotist (as in a remake of 'Cockatoo Kid vs. The Hypnotist' being the subplot.)

When a few friends come together for the first time to take down an evil, faceless crime lord--The Genie--they save the town and become heroes. But Super Fluous, who doesn't like that he has to remain masked and his true identity doesn't get the credit for saving the city, unmasks himself to the public. As a result, his house is raided by thugs who kill his mother and his twin brother (thinking it was Super Fluous). Not being able to find who killed them, Super Fluous gives up being a hero out of guilt. Years later, his brother's killer resurfaces forcing Super Fluous back into crime fighting. Meanwhile, Cockatoo Kid investigates the disappears of the chief of police and meets his arch-nemesis, The Hypnotist. The Hypnotist's plan is to put all the heroes under a trance and take over the city.

There's the first two! More to come?

Work in Progress

2010-12-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

Since my film, 'Waiting for Eternity', has had an early start--I took some "work in progress" footage into class. Check it out. The first 3 minutes is behind the scenes stuff and the last minute is the fully edited scene.

'Waiting for Eternity' will be released later next week.

Progress on Final Projects part II

2010-11-15T23:04:00.000-08:00

'Waiting for Eternity' is almost entirely shot and ready for post-production, so it was either now or never with the poster. It isn't nearly as good as the 'Citizen Prophet' poster, but the resolution is equally as bad. Patrick Crowley made this poster because my version had a poor choice of font. His also has better color and he managed to hide the bad resolution of the picture better than I did.

Since 'Waiting for Eternity' is done so early, it is possible that I'll throw in a few scenes. The teaser trailer has had responses like "I jumped" "I screamed" "I wet myself"; but the final product could never live up to that at this rate because it isn't a horror movie--it's a portrait of a vampire struggling with his humanity who falls in love with one of his victims. Not scary. So, I could possibly come up with some scary scenes.

Release date is mid-December.

I'm a Tease

2010-11-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd throw together a teaser trailer for 'Waiting for Eternity' to assist my presentation with the Modes class on what my movie will be about. Sadly, even after staying up till 5am, I wasn't able to get the thing rendered before class. But here it is anyway!

Humorous story--while filming I mixed up the tasty mint flavored blood with the vile not-as-edible blood. Gross. Okay, not that humorous. But this is my blog.

Batman Sequel Unmasked

2010-11-07T12:49:00.000-08:00

Christopher Nolan has finally come out to reveal his plans for the 2012 sequel to his Batman series entitled 'The Dark Knight Rises'. Could this title be foreshadowing that Nolan plans to go all out creatively this time? Seriously, all out. Nolan hinted that the Riddler will not be the villain--quote "It won't be the Riddler". Could this mean that the Riddler won't be the villain... OR is it actually a cleverly disguised riddler?

This will surely shock the millions of people who were convinced it would be the Riddler. And why shouldn't they be? The Riddler is the most practical choice if you go by his trend of realism. That, and the majority of viewers probably aren't familiar with any other Batman villains besides Joker and Riddler. Such as Mr. Freeze, Killer Crock, Bane and Man-bat. All very practical.

From what we know about 'The Dark Knight' and 'Batman Begins', lets take a guess. 'The Dark Knight' ends with Batman literally taking the fall for two-faced Harvey Dent. Batman is now, in the eyes of Gotham, a villain. So introducing a villain wouldn't push the plot forward, nor would reviving Harvey Dent (as some people theorized). This is where Christopher Nolan's quote actually being a riddle comes in play. What made the Riddler so practical is that if any villain could trick the city into believing he is a hero, it would be him. Citizens of Gotham would think he is the hero and Batman is the villain. Ingenious! So, Christopher Nolan wasn't lying when he said that the Riddler wouldn't be the villain. Or is that just wishful thinking? At any rate, that is such a good plot twist that I think I'll use it in my own super hero series, 'The Adventures of Cockatoo Kid and Super Fluous'.

Also, every Batman movie has had multiple villains thus far. So there can't just be one. Considering the death of Bruce Wayne's love, Rachel--Bruce is gonna be on the rebound and since he is now a "villain", what better opportunity for him to get mixed up with a female jewel thief?

The good news: Nolan will not be shooting 'The Dark Knight Rises' in 3D. Thank God.

So there you have it. I've just contributed to the thousands of blogs buzzing about the next Batman movie with absolutely no evidence. Christopher Nolan knows what he is doing and if he doesn't want the Riddler then he has a better idea.

Here are some of my favorite fan made movie posters that have just become invalid:

Progress on Final Projects

2010-11-07T01:18:00.000-07:00

As mentioned before, I have to complete two films for different classes as my final. The first class is Modes, the production class, and for that I'm making my vampire noir--'Waiting for Eternity'. It is partially inspired by our class project which invented the genre of vampire noir. But I'm also making a movie for my film theory class called 'Welkin's Gate', which is actually a concept I've been working on for a year now. Because it is a theory class, it will be somewhat experimental. A lot of nonsense. But there will still be an intended meaning.

Above is the movie poster I just completed. It isn't really necessary to have one but I enjoy making them. I'm dedicating the film to the memory of my friend, Trevor Wasson. 'Welkin's Gate' is based off an old poem I wrote in high school called 'I'll Be Waiting in Heaven':

I’ll Be Waiting in Heaven
By Zachary Hayes

Don’t cry for me.
I miss you too.
This memory
is my gift to you.
My hands are cold,
and pale white skin.
Though new, my soul,
my time was thin.

I’ll be waiting for you,
Just know that I’m okay.
With this life that is new,
I’ll think of you ever day.
In heaven, I wait
now that I can fly.
The welkin opens its gate,
and angels foster the sky.

Bran & Park: Vampire Noir

2010-10-28T12:52:00.001-07:00

It is tradition that at the University of Iowa, all Modes classes produce 'Bran & Park'. It's a silly short screenplay that is primarily dialogue, so the class is allowed to interpret it however they want to. Each student is elected a role that would be in a real production--I'm the Assistant Director, which is the role I wanted because I get to yell at people--and we shoot our version of 'Bran & Park' in Studio A. Half the class wanted to make a noir film, the other half wanted to make a vampire film (not because vampire films are good, but because everyone hates them). I came up with the compromise--making a vampire noir. At least I think that was my idea... it's crazy enough to be...

So, rehearsal was a lot of fun. I took some photos. Don't we look so professional?

Reel World Production Logo

2010-10-28T12:42:00.001-07:00

For a while, I've been struggling with a production logo. Throughout my years, I've had a few fake production companies--Blooper Brothers (age 11), Vaudeville Films (age 16), Reel World Films (age 18). But now that I'm making movies that I plan to show off, those "production companies" won't cut it because they don't exist. I read that having a fake production company would reflect as childish. Also, if someone liked my movie and wanted to learn more about it/me, they'd probably Google the nonexistent production company instead of my name and they'd find nothing. So the smart and professional thing to do would be to not have a name for my production company and start a film off with "A Zachary Hayes Film" or something of that sort.

BUT it would still be nice to start my movies off with a production logo. So using the amazingness that is After Effects, I created this rough animation using the Reel World logo. This was entirely made from scratch, no templates. It is amazing what you can do with a flat image of the Earth, moon and various planets. I'm new to After Effects so I'm sure I'll be able to improve it in time.

Screenplay Project

2010-10-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

In Modes, we were assigned to write a 4 page screenplay based on a proposed dialogue. Mine was to be about a homeless person giving a student advice at a bus stop. It is one scene, because we weren't allowed to have any more (or less) than two characters, and there's no reason to have multiple scenes when it's just gonna be two characters talking. The goal is to have a natural flow of dialogue, while demonstrating good screenplay writing technique and having as much of three part structure as possible.

I didn't think much of my screenplay draft. Wrote it overnight and finished it before class. Thought there was a bit of a dark humor to it, but when my classmates acted it out--it turned out a lot funnier than when reading it. So it got a good reaction and I'm satisfied with it so far. This is just the draft, and I have to draw a storyboard to go along with it. So I'm looking for feedback, but don't be a tactless asshole. I'm not majoring in writing, and there were boundaries to what kind of plot I was allowed to write. It is unoffically titled 'Bus Stop'. I think that is a horrible title and I'd be open to suggestions for a new one. Keep in mind that I'm not a fan of one-word titles.

Here is the PDF. Enjoy.

F*ck 'em

2010-10-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

Film school is a funny thing. Some people say you have to go to the right film school in order to get into the industry--yet so many filmmakers suggest that college is not necessary, and that's kinda true. So am I to believe that because I'm not going to the right film school, I won't make it in the industry? But if I didn't go to school, I would? I'm going to film school because I don't have the right connections or a large portfolio to run away to L.A. Seems reasonable enough.

I'll admit, the University of Iowa is indie based. Many of the students see the industry, "Hollywood", as soulless and say "f*ck 'em". I disagree! It is certainly not soulless. Not with the collection of souls they accumulated over the past century. I owe Hollywood for making me passionate about movies. I didn't get that passion from 'Requiem for a Dream'. That's a indie movie isn't it? Or is it too successful to be indie? Why do I bother asking questions?

It takes a certain kind of person to pursue working for the film industry. Obviously, they have to have a natural talent. But it also takes persistence and dedication. Not having kids helps. It takes soul, because that is the equivalent of currency. It takes encouraging, successful friends and connections. It takes willingness to fail, but the ability to try again. It takes accepting parents who have a second child as a backup plan. I seem perfectly qualified to take a risk. And I do understand the risk and am willing to settle if it comes to that.

I never considered myself an artist until coming to the University of Iowa where they treat you like artists. I think that's because I see two sides of art. Pictorial art and narrative art. Pictorial art is typically painting, sculpting, etc. Narrative art would be like writing, music, etc; which consists of artists but they're more rarely referred to as such. Cinema can be considered both. I would come more from the narrative side because I'm more focused on the audiences' reaction to the story than I am the imagery (which is still very important!). The University of Iowa has so far had me focused on the pictorial element. White balance is something I never taught myself, and now that I use it, I'm in a whole new world! For instance, I work for City Channel 4 now as a production assistant. We record city counsel meetings and such, but I've focused more on the interviews for Community Voice. Setting up lights, the camera equipment, microphones and setting the white balance, focus, f/stop--this is fun sh*t! And I have to work on my dialogue project for my Modes class. Just thinking about writing that screenplay is getting me excited! The job possibilities are endless! As are the impossibilities.

And if I fail, I'll live my life watching movies, playing World of Warcraft and writing blogs nobody will ever read. It'll be like never leaving college! Artists, which I apparently am, are all about escapism. We're escape artists.

Nobody put me down about taking a risk with what I want to do with my life, and I appreciate that. But I can tell when people think I'm only dreaming. But there is nothing else I could do and I have nothing to lose. So I'm doing it. Refer to this countdown clock and when it hits 0, if I've gotten nowhere, I'll reconsider my life direction.

Fire Effect Fail

2010-09-19T23:19:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd try out some alternatives to After Effects, so I downloaded Wax 2.0. It's basically a particle generator, so I was able to make some cheesy fire effects. I threw this video together in under an hour. It's possibly a spin-off of 'The Mardi Gras Massacre' except it's featuring Super Fluous as the main hero instead of Cockatoo Kid. The reason we wouldn't really be making 'The Masquerade Massacre' is because Brayden and I are planning on redoing the entire Super Fluous & Cockatoo Kid series as a single film featuring both characters equally. But, this was fun to make, and it introduced Super Fluous' nemesis, Mask-er-Raid.

This Project is a Beach

2010-09-17T18:54:00.000-07:00

We're doing a one-shot project in my Modes of Film Production class. Along with my partner, Austin, we have to make a one minute single shot film. Doesn't sound too difficult. Except on the day we had to pitch our idea, we weren't entirely sure about what we wanted to do, so we improved the pitch and now I have to someone put a beach in my living room. Tomorrow morning we'll be putting together the beach set and shooting the partially improved film. This should be fun!

Some of you may be wondering what to get me for my birthday that is coming up. I know that I don't have to remind you that it is October 6th. Having you as a loyal reader is all the presents I'll ever need to make my 20th birthday special. I couldn't possibly accept anything from my Amazon Wish List.

This weekend I'd like to work on 'Welkin's Gate'. Not making much progress, but I have it mostly thought out.

Vimeo

2010-09-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

It seems like the majority of people in my film class use Vimeo instead of YouTube, so I decided to make my own profile. I plan on using it to post portfolio worthy work only. In other words, my "for fun" films are out. Here is the link!

Iowa City

2010-08-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

Here I am, finally, in Iowa City. As mentioned many blog posts ago, I was accepted into the University of Iowa's filmmaking program and that time has finally come. Iowa City is nice so far, besides the fact that you can't go 5 minute before somebody driving nearby honks.

Honk honk honk!

So rude. So I won't be driving here. Instead I'm taking the bus everywhere. The bus will be extra important, as I don't live on-campus. I requested to live on-campus but now I am somehow living off-campus. Go figure. I requested temporary housing, which is a hell hole, over living off-campus and didn't even get that. Luckily I love my apartDORMent at The Lodge.

From my bedroom, I have a wonderful scenic view of the Walmart across the street.

My film classes seem fun, but we're not being trusted with very high quality cameras or complicated projects. My first project is to take three pictures and write about them. I'm thinking about making three flip books to hint at the fact that I'm not a photographer and static images don't do it for me.

I'll also be working on an abstract film since I won't have the opportunity to do it for class and I don't want to wait till next semester. It is called 'Welkin's Gate'.

Last week, I was interviewed for a job at City Channel 4. They told me, based off my work, that I'm qualified. If for any reason I don't get the job it is because my schedule is so spread out. We'll see!

'Inception': Lazy People Beware

2010-08-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

Granted I'm not a huge fan of titles with one-word ('the' doesn't count), 'Inception' is an exception because the word is original. Also "inception" means original which is something that everybody in the movie theater knew except for me.

9 out of 10 critics say that 'Inception' is genius and an all around great movie. The remaining 1 didn't like the movie because they were "too lazy to follow the multiple, complex plots". Perhaps they don't know Christopher Nolan.

In Nolan's film 'Memento', the movie plays backwards like that episode of Seinfeld because the main character has short term memory. In 'The Prestige', a large portion of the story is a flashback from Christian Bale reading Huge Jackman's journal who is in turn reading Christian Bale's journal... AHHHHHHHHHH!!! I watched that movie six times in one day to catch everything.

I have so far seen 'Inception' twice. It was much better the second time because I followed it better. But that, and I always stress this, is what makes a great movie! Wanting to watch it multiple times and having a different experience. Having to think about the movie after seeing it.

But if you don't like movies that make you think, go to Twilight saga 'Eclipse' instead.

The first time I watched 'Inception' I was a little overwhelmed by the music. It seemed distracting. But the second time it fit a lot better. Probably because it was explained to me that a portion of the soundtrack was actually the "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien", which is the song they played to signal the countdown to the "kick", slowed down. Here is a video that will explain it further.

Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Cobb, was likely based off of Leonardo DiCaprio's other character, Teddy, from 'Shutter Island'. As a matter of fact, I watched 'Shutter Island' and then 'Inception' and they fit together quite well. Try it, I'm serious.

As a huge fan of Christopher Nolan's work, I can't help but to give 'Inception' a subjective, yet well-deserved, 91 out of 100.

How Movie Rental Stores Can Stay Open

2010-07-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

It is sad to see all these movie rental stores going out of business. Seeing how I'm moving to Iowa City for college in a month, I was searching for a job in the area of the campus. Specifically, I wanted to work for something relating to movies so I found their local movie rental store. Sadly, it is going out of business.

Of course, we could blame RedBox and Netflix... but the real culprit here is YOU! You just couldn't resist Redbox's amazing prices or Netflix's delivery and On-Demand features. Although I have used both Redbox and Netflix, I will not stand for it!

I've worked in the pizza industry for almost five years now, and the most important lesson I have learned is that people like things being delivered to them. So, Netflix got that right. But they take a day at least to deliver. Who decides they want to see a movie and is willing to wait a day? Nobody. That's why movie rental venues have an advantage over Netflix and Redbox. Get in your cars and deliver! In fifteen minutes, the customer could have a movie at their house and they would be willing to pay more for that. And they'd tip. There is no reason someone should have to wait for Netflix to send their movie via the postal service when there are rental venues in every town with capable employees who own cars (Unless you're one of those pricks who likes ordering movies that you can't find in a rental store). Pizza places do it, so Blockbusters should have no problem.

Instant Movie Delivery. Why hasn't anyone done it yet? I expect to be paid for this idea, as I don't want to work for Happy Joe's Pizza the rest of my life and have college to pay for. Looks like I'm doomed to work in the pizza delivery business forever. Oh wait, I'm going to college! University of Iowa, here I come!

Happy 4th of July

2010-07-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

'Citizen Prophet' is finished, as promised. The only issue is distribution. How do I let you watch my movie? I could put it on a website that you could download it from but I'm not confident that you trust me enough to download something from my site. The film is about 23 minutes, making it seven minutes short of the half-hour goal, but my longest movie still. This also means that it is 13 minutes too long for YouTube and THREE minutes too long for Facebook. The obvious solution would be to split it on in parts. If your division is good, you'll realize that I'd have to split it up in three parts to put it on YouTube. And that basically means that people will find the video, watch the first part and maybe the second, but before they get to the end they'll be bored with it.

Any ideas of non-sketchy sites that might solve this problem and wouldn't require my viewers to download anything? Maybe I'll just make one of those YouTube playlists.

Update: I'm using Vimeo now.

Post Production of 'Citizen Prophet'

2010-06-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

A lot of hard work finally payed off. Well not payed off in money, which would have been nice because this movie bankrupted me, but we finished shooting and the 'Citizen Prophet' is coming together. Now that the hard work is done, the harder work of editing will begin.

There are a lot of people to thank. Brayden van Rossum and Joyce Steinman for driving all the way from Kansas and starring in the film. Matt James, Jacob James and Lauren Morrissey for driving from Des Moines to co-star. Danny Ginger for his awesome performance as a shadow. The extras: Bryce Williams and Ted K. Stephen Hueholt, the costume picker-outer. Am I missing anyone?

'Citizen Prophet' Movie Posters!

2010-06-11T00:21:00.000-07:00

There are only 4 days left before we start shooting 'Citizen Prophet', and I've been rushing to finish the screenplay. I've been staying up till 4am trying to find the perfect ending to this movie, but I'm making slow progress.

The other night I was working on setting up my very expensive but rarely used XLR mic (from my imaginary rock band days) as a boom mic. It even looks like one. Sadly, I'm not so great with audio equipment, but the book I'm reading insists that audio is the most overlooked part of making an indie film. The book is 'How to Shoot a Feature Film for Under $10,000 and Not Go to Jail' by Bret Stern. My goal? $0. But that isn't working out so well.

As I was saying. The camera I am shooting with is a Canon Vixia. Not exactly professional, but the perfect camera for a guy like me. It has a very nice $200 external mic mounted on the top that I'd use for outdoor, action and car scenes—but I want to feel professional. So I thought, why not make my mic into a boom? I already spent several hundred dollars on it and the mixer. So I'd be putting it to good use. However, my little Canon Vixia has a 1/8'' mic jack. And my so-called boom has an XLR adapter and it can't power itself. So I have to run the boom through my mixer box, no big deal, it has a thousand inputs, outputs and nobs and I only need one, so what? Makes me feel that much more professional.

The output on the mixer is a 1/4'' adapter. I need a 1/8''. I have a little thinger-ma-jigger that can transform 1/8'' to 1/4'', but not vise-versa. After ordering a 1/4'' to 1/8'' transformer off Amazon, realizing I didn't need it because I could just use a 1/8'' cord with the 1/8''-1/4'' transformer plugged into the mixer, not being able to send the Amazon transformer back because it'd cost more than I spent on the damn thing, making two trips to Walmart, realizing I didn't need what I bought at Walmart because I already had one—I spent $20.

Which brings us to today. I woke up, and began painting obscure messages on my front door with car chalk (which costs $6) at the risk of people thinking I'm schizophrenic. I took a picture of each message, half way through realized that the flash was leaving a glare, and started over. Then I went to Walmart, returned the cord I bought the night before and got my $10, and went to the camera section to get my photos developed.

Walmart doesn't have one-hour photo here. What happened to that? When, in this century, did people forget that: One-hour photo GOOD—War BAD? It was too late to go to Walgreens. Before leaving Walmart I spotted a camera case with a metal-frame and lock. It looked so professional, I had to buy it. $30. Are you keeping track of my budget? Am I boring you?

So the boom works, but I need to do a sound test. I still need to go to Walgreens. And I'm not quite finished with the screenplay. BUT despite all the things I should be doing, I made movie posters instead! They give pretty good clues to the movie's plot. Click to enlarge.

Like them? Maybe I'll take them to Kinkos this weekend and have them printed so I can hang them up. That'll only be another $50. Hopefully, by next Friday we'll have 'Citizen Prophet' completely shot and ready for editing. But knowing me, the screenplay won't even be done.

Shrek Forever After... the Final Chapter

2010-05-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since my last movie review, hasn't it? Patrick called me up and asked if I wanted to see 'Shrek Forever After'. Knowing that the last sequel were flops, I asked how many stars it got. He told me that professional reviewers gave it 3 stars and users rated it at 4. I like to go by the user reviews, however they tend to vote either 5 stars if they like it or 1 star if they don't and that seems rather... extreme and unprofessional. Although, the fact that the average user rating was 4 stars means that it got more 5 stars than 1, so I decided to go.

Firstly, I'm confused. Is it 'Shrek Forever After' or 'Shrek the Final Chapter'? Both names appear everywhere I search.

Suffice it to say, this sequel was original but... not. It's about as original as this blog post's title. There are very obvious differences, yet it doesn't introduce many new characters and use them in creative ways. And the whole "True loves kiss" theme is getting a bit stale. It did however take all the characters they already had and recreate them using the concept of a parallel universe, which is a very good idea. And Rumplestilskin brought back childhood nightmares, oh the nostalgia!

Rumpelstiltskin was my favorite part about this movie. And the fat Puss in Boots. Btw, he's getting his own spin off movie? He's more of a comic relief than a main character, but okay!

'Shrek Forever After' is probably the most memorable of the sequels. Case study: I can only remember the first movie and I just saw this one, so it is the most memorable of the sequels. I give it a green 53 out a 100. I guess that makes me fickle.

P.S. I also saw Iron Man 2. It was really good, but I had very little to say so I didn't write a review. I give it a 76 out of 100. Just cause Robert Downing Jr. is awesome.

Pre-Production of Citizen Prophet d

2010-05-17T00:45:00.000-07:00

My old film pal, Mr. Brayden van Rossum, is paying me a visit in June. When I say "film pal" I mean him and I made a lot of my first movies when I was 11 years old using a Hi8 camera. He also plays Cockatoo Kid in my just-for-fun super hero movies. Him and his girlfriend will be staying with me for a week, what a perfect opportunity to make a movie!

I'm heading off to University of Iowa in the fall and I don't want to go empty handed, so I decided that we will be making a serious film. As in no aliens, no super heroes, and no crummy special effects. Brayden is working on a potential movie idea of his own, and I've just finished the first draft of my short film.

It's called 'Citizen Prophet'. It is based around the old Freemason conspiracy of a 'New World Order' however that isn't mentioned in the film. It is kinda like that book series, the Shadow Children, except better.

Now that the first draft of the twenty page screenplay -yeah, it's short- is done, I'm working on casting and the final draft. Thanks to Tom Lazarus' book "Secrets of Film Writing", I've been able to format my screenplay professionally. I'll share one of my favorite passages from Tom Lazarus' book:

"Vomiting... Granted, this is more than likely a very personal issue but this is my book and I get to talk about this. If you write vomiting scenes, your script will never sell and you'll rot in Hell."

I took all his advice to heart. As a thank you to Mr. Lazarus, I'm encouraging everyone to buy this book. Anyhow, I'm no quite ready to release my screenplay for 'Citizen Prophet' to the world, but here is a passage you can enjoy.

The Equity of Man

2010-05-14T23:51:00.000-07:00

During my junior year at Valley, our U.S. history teacher gave the class an assignment to do an "artistic" project to represent race/civil rights/racism. Of course, I did a video and the class loved it. The teacher even said "wow!" after I gave my presentation. Being the psycho that I am, as the years went by, I became more and more unhappy with this video. It was very difficult to edit because I only had a week to finish and the video involves me interacting with myself. For instance, passing a crayon or an Oreo to myself and there is an epic lightsaber scene. I decided that it needed to be re-recorded but I never got around to doing that. So, just this week, I re-edited the entire thing, took out the lightsaber scene, used some techniques I didn't think of back then, and replaced the music with some of Rob Rodger's work. Still poor quality film, but I'm a lot more happy with it now. Check it out:

The Hurt Locker, Not Bad!

2010-05-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

Finally, my review of 'The Hurt Locker'. I just watched it a few nights ago but have been wanting to see it since the Oscars. To be honest, I was looking for reasons to hate it. It was a very unique war movie because it followed Explosive Ordnance Disposal team. My fear about war films is that it will try to take advantage of the drama of warfare. You can't make a war movie that is only dramatic because it is a war movie, and 'The Hurt Locker' didn't do that.

The plot follows Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner), who starts off a bit cocky but it grows on you. He is the leader of a bomb disposal team who encounter many intense, life threatening explosives with kill you!

There isn't much that I can say about this movie. Give it a chance. The ending was a bit of a cheesy let down, in my opinion. But it's an all around decent movie. I give it an explosive 68 out of 100.

Avatar & Pocahontas, So What?

2010-04-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

Many people like to say that James Cameron's 'Avatar' is a bad movie because it is exactly like Disney's 'Pocahontas'. I say, so what? Here is a great comparison by Matt Bateman (As if you or I know who that is) which puts the two together. Could this be the actual 'Avatar' screenplay? Ha!

Click to Enlarge

Give me a break. 'Pocahontas' is a boring children's movie. And like I always say, it isn't plagiarism if you make it better. Okay, I don't really say that. The point is that 'Avatar' was a great movie and I'm sick of people trying to find reasons to say it isn't. There are 75 movie remakes expected to come out this year!!! 'Avatar' should look like one of the most original films to be recently released compared to that. Yes, Hollywood is playing it safe by popping out movies with familiar, pre-established characters. Comics, video games, books-all being made into movies while the struggling writers with great, original ideas continue to live jobless. 'Hurt Locker', which beat 'Avatar' in the Academy Awards, is just a movie about those annoying Juggernauts in Modern Warefare 2 co-op mode. Duh!

See? But seriously let me make my point. Lay off 'Avatar'. 'Pocahontas' and 'Avatar' were made to target completely different audiences. IMHO-Zachary Hayes

Finals Week: A Horror Film

2010-04-26T22:06:00.000-07:00

Only a few more days left of class and I've been trying to work my butt off to get all these final projects done. 2 five page essays, one of which is a theoretical analysis of Darfur, as if I have know anything about that. Then I have 7 discussion papers to write, a poster presentation on prostitution which I titled "It's Been a Business Doing Pleasure With You" and a powerpoint presentation on Hollywood.

I've also started reading Secrets of Film Writing by Tom Lazarus and began writing my screenplay (still untitled) using a program I downloaded called Celtx. It formats the screenplay so I don't have to fuss with the margins in Microsoft Word, and it doesn't cost $200 like the other screenplay formatting programs.

So that's all the stuff I should be doing, but instead I'm playing a game I bought at Best Buy for $3.50! It's called The Movies. I don't think it's a very popular game but I like it a lot. Manage a studio with actors, directors, crew, etc that you hire and make movies using a bunch of sets, props and such. Here is the movie I made just for the occasion called 'Finals Week: A Horror Film' starring Sex McSexy, Anastasia Beaverhausen and Matthew O'Neil:

Like it? Here is another, 'Revenge of the Communist Robots'.

And the Winner Is..!

2010-04-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

Exciting news! A Snack in the Face, the caffeinated goods bakery that had the YouTube video contest to see who could make them the best commercial, as mentioned in an earlier blog post, announced the winner! Stephen and I won the grand prize, a years worth of free snacks, for our two minute animated hands commercial. They posted our video on their website (Here) and may have other uses for it in the future. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is for your enjoyment!

Peter Hedges & Jeff Katz

2010-04-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

It was my great pleasure to meet one of my idols since high school, writer/director Peter Hedges. Hedges gave a lecture at the Memorial Union building on campus at Iowa State University. He happens to be an Iowa native and graduated from Valley High School, the same high school which I graduated from last year. Peter Hedges has a new book out called The Heights. After the lecture, there was a book signing and my opportunity to finally meet him. Anyone who knows me well can tell you that meeting this man was something I'd hoped for since my junior year in high school (three years is not an obsession).The brief encounter didn't give me a chance to go over my life story with him, but we chatted about Valley and he signed my copy 'What's Eater Gilbert Grape', which was written by Mr. Hedges. He also wrote and directed 'Pieces of April' and 'Dan in Real Life'. Courtesy of Esther van Oostenrijk, here a picture of myself (left) with Peter Hedges (right). Click to enlarge.

Looks like the future me, right? The lecture was about Peter Hedges' success through failure. It was very inspirational learning that even successful people have to fail, although that also means one will fail before they succeed. Hedges began college pursuing an acting career and then decided that writing/directing was better fit for him. God forbid I have the opposite journey and end up becoming an actor. Hedges centered much of his lecture around the advice that one of his professors gave him. The advice was that it takes twenty years to get good at something. Strangely, my father gave me similar advice the other week when we were discussing my college plans. Twenty years to get good at something? This means I don't have to beat myself up if I'm not a good director before I turn forty. In the spirit of this theory, I'll begin counting down twenty years. When this clock hits zero, maybe it is time to try a new career.

20-Year Countdown (Started April 16th, 2010)

Iowa State had one other VEISHEA lecturer who also happens to be in the movie business. Jeff Katz is a producer and comic author. Having never heard of him, I didn't expect to take much from his lecture. He ended up becoming one of my new idols by the end of the night. Katz produced movies like 'Shoot Em Up', 'Snakes on the Plane' and 'X-Men: Origins'. Probably not the biggest blockbusters out there, but that is part of what made him cool. In my mind, a producer has always been some uptight guy with lots of money. Katz didn't fit this stereotype, if that is a real stereotype at all. He was very down to Earth. His goal was to shatter the myths of Hollywood, talk about how the movie industry is changing and how a young filmmaker like myself can take advantage of that. Maybe I will go deeper into what he talked about in a later post, but here is his website, check it out: GeekWeek.com

His advice was to make it into the business through making relationships. This sort of networking has always been my philosophy and something I count on. That's why I surround myself with friends who have the potential to be successful (that's you Patrick Crowley!). Jeff Katz talked about how Twitter and Facebook can be used to make these relationships, and he gave us his Twitter username. The way I see it, he is basically asking me to stalk him, right? Something Katz and I have in common is that we're both published comic authors; however, he makes comic books and I make my comic strip, Hysteria Syndrome. Pardon the shameless plug. During the Q&A, I asked Mr. Katz how important a college education is for a young film student. He encouraged me to stay in college and not run off to Los Angeles. Never hurts to have a backup plan, right?

P.S. Jack, my cat, came home. If anyone was wondering.

Accepted to The University of Iowa

2010-03-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

It has been a dreary week for me given that my cat, Jack, ran away over the weekend; but things started looking up today. I received an email congratulating me for being accepted to the University of Iowa. After four long months of waiting for an acceptance letter, my answer is finally here. I'm going to University of Iowa! Enrolled in their Cinema program, I'll finally be moving into a dorm and living like a real college student. DMACC was fun I suppose. I had a lot of great professors, made the Dean's list, and got to live with my brother for the year in our awesome apartment which I'll miss; but I need to be on a "real" campus with people I can relate to and working on my major. Tom Hanks went to community college (I think), so I'm not worried about it.

This is a great success for my blog as well. The purpose was to follow me through film school, and now I'm actually going to film school. Unless you count the movie appreciation classes I've taken at DMACC. So lets hope I don't blow this opportunity. Less than two months of DMACC left, I can't let my GPA fall now. Funny thing is, I haven't even received the acceptance letter from U of I. The internet ruins all the best surprises! What a great start to a new month this would be if I had my Jack back.

Finally, today is April 1st, and you know what that means? Script Frenzy had begun! Only thirty days left to write a hundred page script, so get started!!! I'll be working on my screenplay to be recorded this summer.

This blog post is dedicated to the memory of Jack. Jack, if you're reading this, please come home!

2010 Movies in the Remaking

2010-03-18T00:42:00.000-07:00

This year has become a huge year for remakes and it brings up the issue of whether movie remakes are necessary. A lot of remakes can't live up to the original because classics are classics for a reason. A timeless movie does not need to be remade because it is TIMELESS. But retelling a classic story so that it appeals to the modern generation could be refreshing and exciting to see how cinematography and graphics have changed. To determine how necessary it is to remake a classic film, we have to look at each of them individually. Does Hollywood really care to reestablish these classics or have they lost their originality and are looking to make money ?

'Clash of the Titans' is due to come out next month, 29 years after the original. Relative to how graphics have developed in that amount of time, it could be due for a remaking; however, any middle aged movie buff or older will still remember 'Clash of the Titans' coming out in 1981. Graphics have improved but that doesn't mean a remake is necessary. What is interesting about the "new" 'Clash of the Titans' is the change of plot (and this is judging by the trailer). The original was about Perseus (Harry Hamlin) who unknowingly ticks off Thetis (Maggie Smith) so Thetis punishes him by putting him in this random city where he falls in love with Andromeda (Judi Bowker). Andromeda was supposed to marry Thetis' deformed son, so Thetis gets even more pissed off and wants to kill Andromeda. Keep in mind it was all Thetis' fault for putting Perseus in a situation where he would meet Andromeda. So Perseus, for the love of the woman he just met, sets out to do a bunch of stuff so that he can save her. All while the king of gods, Zeus (Laurence Oliver), is going along with Thetis instead of smacking her and telling her to respect his authoritah! So my point is that this plot doesn't make much sense to someone like me who is of a younger generation. This is interesting because it appears that the remake has a less fickle Zeus played by Liam Neeson and Perseus (Sam Worthington) is on a quest to save humanity from the wrath of the Gods. These days, simple love stories are just not as appealing. And I find that very interesting, so that is why I'm looking foward to seeing the remake.

'A Nightmare on Elmstreet' was first released in 1984 and the remake is expected to hit theaters this summer. With the Halloween and Jason movies being brought back to life, it is no surprise that Freddie would come next. Jackie Earle Haley, who played Rorschach in 'Watchmen', will be playing Freddie Krueger. Why is this remake necessary? Same basic reason as 'Clash of the Titans'. There is a new standard for fear because teens just aren't as easy to scare as they used to be. Looking back at old Freddie Krueger movies, they are cheesy and boring and Freddie Krueger is a classical character who needs to be brought back to life and that is only possible if he is scary.

'Death at a Funeral' is an upcoming remake of a film by the same name... released in 2007. Why would they remake a three year old film? I'm seriously asking, because I can't think of a single reason. This remake is not necessary. It might be a good movie but that doesn't change anything because the original did pretty well.

Jeff Bridges returns to the game world of TRON as Kevin Flynn in 'Tron Legacy'. 'Tron Legacy' is a sequel to the 1982 'Tron' but many are considering it a remake because it targets younger generations regardless of whether they've seen 'Tron' which means the movies are not entirely dependent on each other. For its time, 'Tron' seemed like a much bigger impossibility; now the technology seems less than a decade away. This is a perfect movie for 3D!

'The Crazies' was recently released, 37 years after the original. The movie was shot not far from where I live so I felt inclined to see it and I did like it. Was it worth remaking? Well it is old and I've never heard of it, so sure.

'The Karate Kid' is back with Jackie Chan playing Mr. Han, who replaces Mr. Miyagi from the 1984 original. This version takes place in China instead of Japan which means it should be called The Kung Fu Kid if it intends on being entirely accurate. Will Smith's son, Jaden Smith, plays the kid, Dre Parker. Han is a very common Chinese name and Dre Parker isn't all that creative of a name either, but I wouldn't sell this one too short. It actually looks like a pretty good movie. It looks like they tried to change it up so that the movie's story concept and title are the only things similar to the 1984 original.

'Predators' is another upcoming movie that is more like a sequel than a remake, but because it plans on cleaning the slate of 'Predator 2' and the AVP movies, we can consider it a remake. The producers wanted to bring Arnold Schwarzasdfsger back into the series but from what I can see, that isn't happening. You can see from the title that it paradies the 'Alien' and 'Aliens' names. This is because, for the first time ever, the movie will take place on the Predator's planet. 'Predator 2' wasn't that bad or anything, but it would be nice to see a Predator movie that is as great as the first so the series can finally be as good as the Alien series.

There are a lot of other remakes coming out soon like 'RoboCop', 'Total Recall', 'Piranha', 'When Worlds Collide', 'The Wolfman', and so on. It is impossible to find a list of them all. 'Alice in Wonderland' has been remade for the fifth time and there is a rumor that 'The Thing' will have a third remake. Rumors of a 'Child's Play' remake have been spreading, hopefully they'll go deeper into the killer's past before he became a doll. The Three Stooges might have a come back with new actors taking over. The Spider-man series is starting over with Logan Lerman as Peter Parker. Good choice! As much as I love Tobey Maquire, starting the series over doesn't seem like that bad of an idea. Will these remakes live up to the classics? We'll find out.

Academy Award vs Reel World Awards

2010-03-08T19:06:00.000-08:00

It seemed appropriate that I should watch the Oscars this year so I'd be able to write about it. The night of the Academy Awards I worked, so I TiVoed it. Thankfully I did, because I could barely get through the entire three hours without fast forwarding. So I'll keep this short. Here are my thoughts on the Academy Awards and who the Reel World recognizes as best.

'Music by Prudence' got the Oscar for best documentary short. Never seen it, but my question is who was that crazy red head woman who jumped on stage while the man who got the award was giving his thanks? She babbled on about nonsense and took away all of that man's time. Allegedly, she abandoned the film project due to creative differences and thought she was entitled to the award. On her way to the stage, the man's mother tried blocking the crazy woman with her cane. Every award show needs its Kanye.

Ben Stiller dressed like a Na'vi from 'Avatar' and he didn't seem happy about it. Nor did James Cameron. Ever notice how Na'vi looks a lot like Native?

They managed to sneak Michael Jackson into the memorial segment, but not Farrah Fawcett.

Sandra Bullock received the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. I've never seen 'The Blind Side' so I have no choice but to judge it based on some great advice that Patrick gave me. Never make a film about a white person helping a black person. So, I have no choice but to give the Reel World Award to Meryl Streep ('Julie & Julia') because she is awesome and in the only movie I've seen from that list of nominees.

'Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire' received many nominees and won a few Oscars. It also hereby receives the Reel World Award for Longest Name.

My biggest surprise was to see 'District 9' had received so many nominations. 'Avatar' and 'District 9' both connected aliens to some oppressed culture but the difference between them was that 'District 9' sucked. It was full of plot holes and flat characters but everyone argues with me because the graphics were good (for a low budget film) and it reflects something happening in Africa. Maybe it wasn't a horrible movie, but how can you consider it deserving of an Academy Award when there were so many far better movies? Reel World gives 'District 9' the award for Most Overrated Film.

'The Hurt Locker' was awarded many Oscars including Best Picture. This is a movie that I've never seen nor heard of but if it beat 'Avatar' then it must be pretty great. There is one thing that I stress when it comes to war movies. It isn't hard to make a war movie dramatic and filmmakers tend to take advantage of that. War is dramatic by itself so when I see a war movie I look for what is creative about it. TIME Magazine described 'The Hurt Locker' as "the perfect war film". Because I've never seen 'The Hurt Locker' there isn't much I could say about it. The film was released in 2008 and the producer apparently emailed the Academy begging them to nominate it instead of "a 500M film" aka 'Avatar'. Fair enough. As soon as I get the chance, I'll watch and review it, but for now I have to give the Reel World Best Picture Award to 'Avatar'. I'm sure James Cameron feels like the king of the world right now.

Here is a list of the Oscar nominations and winners.

Tim Burton Takes Us Back to Wonderland

2010-03-06T10:10:00.000-08:00

In my poll for most anticipated movie of 2010, 70% of voters said 'Alice in Wonderland' so I jumped at the chance of seeing it before everyone else so I could write a review. Unfortunately, three hours before the movie's first midnight showing it had already sold out and a line was beginning to merge outside the theater. The same people in this line were the people I saw waiting five hours on the opening night of 'New Moon'. I was not there to see 'New Moon' fyi! But the line was occupied with many... um... Synchronized Nonconformists. It is amazing how much money Tim Burton has made for Hot Topic which is very sad because I love Tim Burton even though he is indirectly responsible for the fall of real punk. All blame aside, Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' is very fun and exceeds expectations.

Alice is played by Mia Wasikoasdfa. Remember her from 'I Love Sarah Jane' and 'Amelia'? Nor do I. Johnny Depp plays supporting actor as the Mad Hatter... Why is Johnny Depp playing supporting actor? It's okay, because he steals the show. Put him together with Helena Bonham Carter and you have yourself a classic Tim Burton film. Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, and Alan Rickman make up a really good cast of Wonderland creatures. I did not mention Michael Sheen, despite how well he did as the White Rabbit, he plays a character in the Twilight saga and that calls for a "shame on you, Michael Sheen"! I said it to Anna Kendrick in my review of 'Up in the Air' so it is only fair.

Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' is a very interesting chapter in the original 1865 mind-boggling story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. It takes place when Alice is 19 years old and must return to Wonderland. There was one huge distinction between Tim Burton and the original Dodgson tales. Tim Burton didn't make this movie CRAZY enough. Sure, it is crazy, but a lot of it makes far too much sense. True, it is a movie and there has to be a plot and throwing in random stuff would be superfluous however this is Alice in Wonderland and when it comes to Alice in Wonderland, one should be snorting Windex before they're able to make any sense out of what the characters are talking about. This, however, is not a problem. If Tim Burton wanted to, he could have made this movie more Wonderlandesque. His vision of Wonderland is truly marvelous, perhaps not as breathtaking as it could be, but Burton couldn't have made this movie at a better time. RealD (3D) is new big thing and Wonderland is exactly the kind of place that RealD should be used for. It takes you into Wonderland and livens up the outspoken characters. Tim Burton was right to go all out with the special effects.

In conclusion, for its stunning scenery, creativity and for being such a fun film- I give Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' a wonderful 76 out of 100. Most anticipated movie of the year, yes. But will it be the best? We'll see.

Let the Frenzy Begin!

2010-03-02T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here is a fun challenge: Write a 100+ page script in 30 days. Seems like a bit of a stretch, especially for someone like me who has been working on an unimportant screenplay for 3 months now and has only written 20 pages. Gimme a break, I've been busy! Anyway, this is the task that the annual Script Frenzy challenges you with. So are you in or not?

I first heard about the Script Frenzy a year ago when my good writer friend, Laura Fast, told me about it. Intrigued, I made an account but never went ahead with it. This year might not be any different, but I thought I'd expand the Script Frenzy awareness onto my readers (that's you even if you've only been on my blog for 10 seconds). Let me tell you a few things about the Script Frenzy.

You have all of April to work on your script (it can be a screenplay, graphic novel, stage play, whatever!) and as you complete your work, you upload proof to your Script Frenzy profile so people can see your progress. To be considered a winner and receive the official Script Frenzy certificate, you must complete 100+ pages in that time limit of 30 days. Failure is NOT an option... just kidding. I don't know what the certificate might be worth to you but it could go on a resume or cover that hole in your wall which you created from having a bad case of extreme writer's block.

So now I've interested you. What do you do? Well first, go to the Script Frenzy website. Make a profile and add me as your writing buddy if you'd like. Then you have 30 days starting now to come up with an awesome idea before the frenzy starts. I have my idea but it might be a little too awesome to rush through. I recommend that when the frenzy starts, you just write like a crazy person and save the revisions for later. Need help coming up with an idea? I'll post some random ideas on my Twitter this month, so follow me.

I realize that a certificate from Script Frenzy isn't that great of a reward for completing a seemingly impossible task so I'll make it a little more interesting by throwing in my own reward. If you choose to participate in this competition and are able to complete it by their rules and regulations... I'll give you an official The Reel World of Zachary Hayes certificate!!! Let me tell you why I'm being so generous. Creativity is a hard thing to come by. People need to get out there and just be creative without worrying about how it will benefit them. Therefor, I will give you a reward to encourage you to be creative without benef...uhm...So let the frenzy begin (in 30 days)! Here is that website again: http://scriptfrenzy.org/

Valentine's Day Review

2010-02-13T22:51:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Like the many of you who thought it was a good idea to see 'Valentine's Day' (the movie) to celebrate the day of love, I too attended this very anticipated movie on a triple date. Included in our group of six was my old best friend who moved to Kansas, Brayden van Rossum. Brayden and I co-founded my first movie production company, Blooper Brothers Inc., when I was 11.

So what made 'Valentine's Day' the must see of the season? It made $50+ this weekend which is no surprise because it starred a lot of awesome actors and Taylor Swift. It brings to mind the popular movie 'He's Just Not That Into You' which also had a great cast of many. The movies were actually pretty similar considering they both followed several intersecting sub plot lines which were hard (for me) to follow. I had trouble following the connections between characters in both movies. The only problem was that 'Valentine's Day' sometimes moved away from a character for so long that I would forget their role in the movie. Maybe that's just a personal problem?

Taylor Lautner proves for us once again that acting is attracting. Willy (Taylor Lautner) and Felicia (Taylor Swift) should receive an Oscar for most random characters in a movie. Of course, Taylor Swift will win best supporting actress instead and everyone will wonder why. The message behind Taylor and Taylor's character is that the hotter you are, the dumber you are; and dumb hot people don't have any problems in their relationship.

Come to think of it... all the characters were pretty attractive. I didn't see this as a smack in the face to ugly people on Valentines Day. In reality, the movie did a great job of having a variety of characters. They capture each age group and their perception of love. The one fault was that the teenagers talked a lot about sex. Teenagers do not talk about sex... they are too busy having sex.

Before I mentioned that it was difficult to follow the connections between characters. I should say that the movie will surprise you with how well they bring everyone in full circle. There are some parts that almost made me cry which I haven't done since 'Marley & Me'. Which brings us to our spoiler section!

Warning: The point of the following section is to bitch at people who spoiled the movie for me. I HATE when people spoil movies. So... ironically... in the process of bitching them out I may spoil a few things. A lot of people know this (thanks to the spoilers) so it's not like I'm letting out any big secrets. But in order to give those jerks a piece of my mind, I'm pulling a Nader. Does that make me a hypocrite? Probably... but at least I'm giving you a heads up. So feel free to skip just the paragraph following this one.

So here is what I have to say. There was a big hype over how the gay characters, Holden (Bradley Cooper) and and Sean Jackson (Eric Dane) weren't featured in the movie trailer. Those complainers figured it was because if they showed gay characters then less people would want to see the movie which makes them homophobic. Well if they are homophobic, then why did they put gay characters in the movie!? Unless... of course! There's a reason! It's a fricken PLOT TWIST. Do you think M. Night Shasldjfkarh's movie 'The Sixth Sense' would have had as affective of an ending if they revealed the twist in the trailer? No. The producers say that the Dane and Cooper relationship was supposed to be secret, but it wasn't very well kept.

Glad I got that off my chest and I hope it didn't ruin the movie for anyone. Overall, 'Valentine's Day' was a really great movie. If you haven't seen it yet then take a date! The great thing is that the movie also appeals to lonely people as well. The critics didn't give this movie very good reviews and there is probably good reason for that. But this isn't the kind of movie that is made to please the critics. It's all about the reality of love. I give it a hearty 56 out of 100. Enjoy the rest of your Valentine's Day!

With love,

Zachary Hayes

A Snack in the Face

2010-02-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

There is a bakery of caffeinated treats in the college campus town near where I live. A Snack in the Face is pretty popular among college students. Stephen came to me and said they are having a competition to see who can make them the best commercial. I'm not sure what they intend on doing with the winner. My guess is that they don't want to promise that it will be on TV or anything because there is a chance they might not get any good submissions. I'll make sure they get at least one!

The prize is a year of free treats. Not quite the Willy Wonka payload but close! Of course a years worth of free food can mean anything. We promised the same grand prize at the Happy Joe's Pizza I used to work at. A year of free pizzas actually meant one free pizza every month for a year. Lame. Anyway, Stephen has convinced me to go ahead and make a commercial for this competition. The rules aren't very clear... I don't know if there is a time limit on the video and they didn't give a due date. So I'll just finish it as soon as possible. Of course I'd give the prize to Stephen if we win because I'm more interested in the feeling of success and being able to say that I won this film competition and Stephen is probably the biggest fan of A Snack in the Face, which means they wouldn't be making money of their biggest customer for a year. This isn't the first time that I've entered a competition to make the best commercial. The Tour, a video which I directed/edited, got first prize for Affinity Credit Union. I'm not going to be cocky though because I have no idea who I'm up against.

Wish Stephen and I luck!

'Darkness Around the Sun' Progress and Poster

2010-02-08T11:31:00.000-08:00

Click to Enlarge

A lot of progress has been made for the 'Darkness Around the Sun' movie. Finally scenes are being recorded and edited. It could still be a while before it is released but there may be one or two more trailers coming out. Thankfully I've figured out the updated plot so there shouldn't be any problems with the screenplay. I decided that for the hell of it I should make a movie poster so I through this one together. There are a lot of little hints towards the secret plot of the movie which makes it pretty affective but keep in mind I'm not great with graphic design stuff. Also a reminder that 'Darkness Around the Sun' is a for fun movie. I'm super duper cereal about that, you guys! The fact that it is being recorded on Warcraft already makes it ineligible for winning anything or making money so I'm just going ahead and breaking all the rules. Enjoy the poster!

Back to the Story Board

2010-01-28T23:54:00.000-08:00

I spent the last week recovering from oral surgery and thought it might be a good opportunity to work on a screenplay. Those of you who are loyal readers of my blog (and I know there are 45 of you, don't try to hide, 'Follow' me!) are probably asking "What happened to the 'Darkness Around the Sun' movie?" Well that's the script I was working on this past week but I didn't get much done. I will finish it, though! It was way too fricken cold outside to record anything new, so I'm stickin' to this animated film.

I did manage to get ahold of my old associate writer, Laura Fast, after trying three different emails. Laura wrote the two scripts for my old High School film club that I presided over, The Future Filmmakers of the Future. She wrote ingenious full-length comedy screenplays for 'Valley High School Musical' and 'Robert of the Neighborhood but this time I asked her to come up with some ideas for a serious, artsy plot so I could have it finished for the next film festival. That way I don't end up with submitting another bust like 'Xenophobic' but you have to admit it wasn't bad being written, shot, edited and distributed in half a month... I mean that was the point of it, right?

So far, Laura has come up with two great plot proposals that will inevitably be drawn out in a screenplay. I'll share one of the ideas with you because the other idea I'd like to save for next winter. I've not made a final decision on whether or not I'm making this into a film but I will if Laura doesn't have any more ideas for me.

The story revolves around a man who is in a horrible car accident which nearly paralysis him. He makes a full recovery thanks to an experimental treatment created by a doctor who makes regular appearances throughout the film. The movie will open after the treatment when the man is trying to live a normal life with his new wife. The man starts noticing strange occurrences such as a flickering moon and things disappearing and all sorts of crazy stuff. He has dreams about a blue room that echoes with a frequent beeping. The man goes to the doctor who tells him that it could be a result of post traumatic stress from the accident and perhaps something having to do with the treatment. Soon the man is driven crazy because he can't even understand his own wife. The ending is a doozy of a twist! For obvious reasons, I won't spoil it. But I can almost guarantee that it won't disappoint.

I'm casting new actors for this movie because in the past I've always used the same people and I need a change for this one because it is more serious and dramatic. I have a few people in mind to play the three main characters; The man, wife and doctor. Whether there are any other parts to cast or not will be figured out after the script is finished. Production won't begin until the snow is gone, like I've mentioned before.

Music will be by Rob Rodgers again. I'm using the same soundtrack he developed for 'Xenophobic' because I think that score would work better for something like this.

As soon as the 'Darkness Around the Sun' screenplay is finished, I'll have it up on my blog so you can download it. I'm not too worried about people stealing it because I'm already breaking enough laws by basing it in Warcraft. That's okay though because I'm making it for fun and friends, not festivals and attention.

Have a nice weekend, and stay warm! Unless you're warm and cozy in California... in which case we should network!

'Up in the Air' Review

2010-01-24T20:48:00.000-08:00

Jason Reitman received a "Best Screenplay" Golden Globe for his newest drama, 'Up in the Air' (Along with co-screenwriter Sheldon Turner). 'Up in the Air' received many Golden Globe nominations and a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor, George Clooney. In the end, it only received an award for Best Screenplay which was well-deserved. Despite the plot's simplicity, it wasn't the usual, predictable melodrama.

The bulk of the movie takes place in airports and hotels around the United States. My parents actually saw George Clooney in Omaha while they were filming there. There is even a quick scene in Des Moines, my hometown, but I'm not entirely sure whether or not George Clooney was actually there. The story revolves around Ryan Bingham (George Clooney). Bingham has mastered the art of firing people. With the recession causing massive layoffs around the United States, companies hire people like Bingham to fire their employees for them. Bingham is an independently happy traveling business man with very few goals for the future except to fly ten millions miles (or something like that). While he is flying from city to city, he also gives inspirational speeches about living without commitments which he calls "Ryan Bingham: What's in your Backpack?"

Ryan Bingham's boss is Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman). I like Jason Bateman for his work in 'Arrested Development' but he always seems to be playing the same generic characters in every movie I see him in. There is a rumor of an 'Arrested Development' movie? If that is true, I'm willing to forgive him. Sometimes I feel like the characters were written to be played by Bateman because his dialogue is all so similar. It bothers me, but it isn't necessarily bad.

Anna Kendrick plays Natalie Keener, a young woman fresh out of college and looking to improve the business of firing people. At first I found her voice to be shrill and unbearable but as the movie progressed she began to grow on me. Her character just seemed very real. There was very subtle character growth. Then I saw that Anna Kendrick plays Jessica in the Twilight movies. Shame on you Anna Kendrick!!!

'Up in the Air' captures our present day era while balancing comedy and romance. The plot is twisted, ironic and completely exceeds my expectations. I hate that I haven't written a single bad review on my blog yet, but the sad and unprofessional truth is that I don't watch bad movies. I rate 'Up in the Air' an "awesome" and "entertaining" 73 out of 100. Not a life changing movie, but worth seeing in theaters.

My Explanation of Inland Empire

2010-01-16T22:28:00.000-08:00

'Inland Empire' is a movie by David Lynch that I just watched and I wanted to get my theories on what the movie is about while they're still fresh in my mind and before I'm tempted to look up other people's explanations. Like any David Lynch movie, 'Inland Empire' is a psychological thriller. In other words, it is one of those movie that you have to figure out for yourself. I like those kinds of movies because after you watch it, you think about it for weeks trying to figure out what happened and usually there isn't a real answer. What's really fun about them is that you get to go online and share your theories. Which is exactly what I'm going to do!

SPOILER ALERT - If you intend on watching this movie, I wouldn't suggest you read beyond this point.

So allow me to assume that if you're reading this, you have seen the movie. I don't need to tell you that it is practically unexplainable. There is a 99.999999999% chance that my "explanation" isn't even close to what the movie is actually about, but I'd like to give it a shot anyway.

The title, 'Inland Empire', is more or less the setting of the movie. Inland Empire is sort of a nickname for the part of Los Angelas county that isn't touching the ocean (i.e. inland). It could also have a double meaning describing how everything in the movie is inside of something. There are rooms inside of rooms, and movies inside of movies, etc inside of etc.

Nikki (Laura Dern) is a washed up movie actress trying to make it back on the A-list but can't get back on her feet. The entire movie is sort of a premonition about her career and her fear that her acting career might be over. Nikki's career is depending on whether or not she gets the lead role in 'On High On Blue Tomorrows'. But, like she says to the old woman before the premonition begins, it is highly unlikely that she will get the part. When watching a movie like this, you have to assume that everything is true. So when she does get the part, something isn't right. That's how we know she has gone into a premonition brought on by the old woman.

Now Nikki finally has a chance to jump start her career. I'm making the bold assumption that Nikki is a method actor and most of my theory is based around that. A few times in the film, she asks people if they recognize her. She is kinda asking them whether or not she is in character. Basically, what I'm trying to say, is that the entire movie is about Nikki trying to become her character, Susan. She gets so caught up in her character that she starts confusing her life with Susan's. For example, Susan has an affair with Billy - So, Nikki has an affair with Devon (the actor playing Billy). As the movie progresses, she goes from being rich to living on the street. This is supposed to show how she is changing from Nikki to her character. She is slowly becoming Susan and by the last scene in 'On High On Blue Tomorrows' (the scene where she dies next to the hobos) she is Susan. That is the defining moment because Susan dies in that scene and when Nikki wakes up she is dazed and confused, no longer struggling to be Susan.

While Nikki is making this transformation into Susan, she is confronted by a group of women who make the same gradual changes that Nikki does. A lot of the time, Nikki is just watching them interact which makes me think she is studying them. These women each represent a different persona of who Nikki imagines Susan to be. I can't think of any better way to word it. Nikki is creating the character of Susan and those women are her different depictions of Susan. They run away when Nikki has "found" Susan.

Back to what happens after the scene where Susan dies. It is revealed that she is still on the set of the movie. Now Nikki is starting to come out of the premonition but before she can do that, she has to face her fears. Her fear is that her acting career is over and she'll end up on the streets just like Susan. She goes into a movie theater and sees herself on the screen. This sort of represents what she wants - to be on screen in movies. She then faces some guy... the movie was so confusing that I don't remember who that guy was but I'm sure he is of some significance. She shoots the man, but his face is replaced by hers. Symbolic in a way. Then she comes to room 47. Earlier in the movie it is mentioned that the number 47 was considered bad luck and was the original title of 'On High On Blue Tomorrows'. When I searched "47" on Wikipedia I found some interesting information:

"47 has been the favorite number of Pomona College, California, since 1964. A mathematical proof, written in 1964, supposedly demonstrates that all numbers are equal to 47."

Pomona is a part of greater LA that the hobo women talk about during the death scene. Coincidence? So Susan walks through this door and finally faces her demons (the rabbits). The rabbits are like a sitcom. Perhaps because Nikki is afraid that she will end up acting in a crappy television show instead of in movies? That's dumb, I know. Then some more crazy stuff happens and the premonition ends. She returns to where she started, facing the old woman and then it cuts to her sitting on the sofa across the room alone. Earlier the old woman said that Nikki would be on that sofa tomorrow. Anytime I see a character interact with a sofa in the movie I associate it with tomorrow. In the premonition, Nikki is on the sofa with friends. She gets a call from her agent telling her she got the job playing Susan on 'On High On Blue Tomorrows'. But at the end of the movie, she is sitting alone and she doesn't get the part but she isn't too upset about it because after having the premonition she has already faced the fear that she wouldn't. There is still a lot that I can't explain, but I don't think anyone has everything figured out. What's your theory?

That's a Wrap!

2010-01-15T01:08:00.000-08:00

For those of you who are new followers of my film blog, let me first say welcome to the Reel World! Furthermore I feel that I should get everyone up to date on what is happening so that we're all on the same page. On December 27th, 2009 I found out about the Cedar Rapids Film Festival. It was allowing student submissions and I saw this as an opportunity to send in a short film of my own so I can possibly gain a bit of attention. The only problem was that there were no films that I've made which I saw fit for the festival. So I came up with what was a fun idea. I would make a movie before the film festival's entry deadline, January 30th! It hasn't been such a fun idea. It sort of reminds me of that time I went on an all day bike ride across central Iowa - A horrible experience full of frustration, pain and stress, but after it is over I'm glad that I can say I did it.

First, I had to write the screenplay. I went through a hundred original ideas before concluding that I'd be making another scifi alien epic. It is almost exactly like 'Probed' (an alien film I made for a digital graphics project in high school) so the idea isn't really original... at all. However, I saw many advantages to making another alien movie instead of trying for something a little more serious. I knew I would be able to make it because I've made one before. If I had more than a month to write, shoot, edit and distribute this film then I would easily come up with something a little more original. The problem was that there wasn't time for experimenting. The other advantage was I'd have an opportunity to use more special effects. I can write a good screenplay, but not when I have a week to do so. Having the threat of a poor plot ruining my film, the best thing to do was to pull a Lucas and cover it all up with special effects. Yes, they are cheesy! But give me a break, it has been a long month. I spent a few nights staying up till 4am working on the screenplay before scrapping everything I'd written to write something more simple the night before shooting. The original drafts of the screenplay involved too many flashbacks and I was afraid that the audience wouldn't be able to follow along. I also found out that my boyfriend, Stephen Hueholt, would be coming to the shoot so I'd have an extra actor.

The shoot was even more tedious than the screenwriting. We had one day to film the entire thing. It was so freezing cold out that we had to shoot the twenty second outdoor scene in three segments so that we could go inside to warm up. I'm usually very cranky when I'm directing, but I was especially testy because I hadn't eaten and I probably yelled at Matt James after every take, even if he hadn't done anything wrong. You'll have the opportunity to see some behind the scenes stuff on the EPK when/if it is released.

Finally, editing. I just finished editing about an hour ago and it is rendering now. Editing is never a challenge for me, even though this time I had time restraints and a lot of special effects that I've never done before. Little did I know, Adobe Premiere Elements 7 - which I've always loved working with - would decide that on this particular movie it would completely f*** me over. I'm not one who enjoys cursing (if you consider that a curse) but really... come on... really? Adobe Premiere, you have been so loyal to me and now you decide to make my life so hard. Here are the issues I've had this month and just this month: It has frozen on me four times which forced me to shut down and do all my unsaved work over. It unsynced the sound and video in a portion of the raw footage. The footage does not look like it is in HD even though I shot the film with an HD camera. It alleged that half of my already edited media was "offline" and the only way to fix this was by going to each and every cut, moving the media in the viewfinder and pressing Undo... none of which made sense. If the media was actually offline, it would have meant that the original file was missing or corrupted. Also, when I played certain scenes back, it went really slow or would skip the scene entirely. In other words, playback is a b****. The best thing about the editing was the music. Thanks to Rob Rodgers, who I describe more in depth in the previous blog post, I had an original track which he composed and recorded in under a week while he was on vacation. Amazing!

So with another hour of rendering to go, the movie will be finished unless I see some mistake that must be changed immediately. I just sent in my application and payment to the Cedar Rapids Film Festival. If nothing else, I'll at least get a t-shirt out of this deal. As soon as I'm able to share 'Xenophobic' and the EPK online, I'll have it up on my blog first thing! Hope you check it out. Peace.

Screenplay Done, Let's Start Shooting!

2010-01-04T12:09:00.000-08:00

Twenty-six days to go before the film festival deadline and we're already starting production on the untitled alien 'epic'. For the past couple nights, I've stayed up until 5am working on the screenplay. Each night the script just got more complicated. Too many confusing flashbacks which wasn't worth how unimpressive the twist at the end is. So, knowing that today I'd be shooting the actual movie, I spent last night rewriting the screenplay and came up something a little less confusing but not as epic. Keep in mind, I'm still writing the 'Darkness Around the Sun' screenplay and I have to juggle between writing that and this.

Today, we are shooting the entire movie. It isn't very long but some of the shots are a big complicated. I plan on making an EPK (Electronic Press Kit) for my blog viewers. Basically, just a behind the scenes video but now that I'm doing film festivals I gotta use the correct jargon.

So, here is the screenplay, as promised. It is untitled, not proof read and probably hard to follow but I don't expect too many people to actually download it when they can just see the movie after it is released. Note: The characters in the screenplay are given the names Dillon and Tommy. In the actual short film, there won't be any names attached to the characters. That is just so the screenplay isn't as confusing as having 'Man 1' and 'Man 2'.

Download Screenplay

Cheesy Effects = Epic Movie?

2009-12-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-27T00:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-23T00:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-19T13:21:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-18T00:43:00.000-08:00

'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

2009-12-17T22:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-15T23:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-15T00:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-15T00:40:00.000-08:00

“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

2009-12-15T00:39:00.000-08:00

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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