NPCC Film Festival 2010

Let’s keep this short and to the point. We need to get organized and get some projects in motion in time for May’s Film Festival. I already missed out on one last year, and I don’t look forward to skipping another one. So what do we have in the pipeline at present?

Tangled Threads(in post, probably 95% done) – Directed by Ricky

My Zombie Brother(in production, % unknown) – Written by Nathan, Directed by Tommi

The Carl Jr.(done) – Written and Directed by the entire spring 2009 Video Production 2 class

A lot of people have talked about pitching new scripts, but so far, nothing’s really happened. I am in the process of revising a short film based on a short story I wrote for Creative Writing class. A few guys are thinking of meeting up to write and shoot several short episodes for The Early Birds, which could be scattered throughout the festival between the bigger projects. Patrick is determined to make 1.5 happen this semester – it probably can be done, but people really need to commit.

Come on, guys, let’s make this happen!

Movie Review: GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Well after watching this movie i decided to rip it a new one. First off, to the writers please go back to basic writing classes and learn how to tell a GOOD story. The slogan, “Knowing is half the battle”, half the time i was either guessing(correctly) what was about to happen or not getting the story at all. If one word was to describe this trash would be abomination. Or to elaborate the abomination of good actors, time, money, and effort or lack there of. Dennis Quid for one was just a waste of talent and most of the other actors like Marlon Wayans and Brenden Fraser were bit characters or just shooting off one-liners constantly. Another thing the plot, villains, etc. were SO generic. Basic bad guy threatens the worlds biggest cities or landmarks and just does it to be evil. Also has the classic former lover fighting for the bad guys and  the “Hero”, if you would call him that, tries to sway her back to the good guys. Like I’ve said I could see most of the twists and turns coming at least 5mins before they happened. All in all if anyone wants to see a  movie just for guys and gals in leather and armor or want to see the Eiffel tower fall then this movies for you. If your like a “normal” human being this will make you want to throw up everywhere and then wash your brain of such filth. I give 2 out of 5 stars just to be nice.

Oh, one last thing. Movie makers did you even TRY to make the Graphics look good. I mean a syfy channel movie could look better than what you had. It becomes an eye sore when you can tell whats real and what isn’t and takes you out of the movie. Bad, bad, shame on you.

I’m sure this will get a sequel like all big budget summer films do and will likely have many people go see it. I for one refuse and the ONLY reason I watch it is so C.W. would stop saying that I haven’t and that i just don’t know how good it really is. Well now i do and

“Knowing is half the Battle”

:p

Love Never Ages – Info.

Directed By:

Richard Gragson

Written By:

Richard Gragson

Tagline: (none at the present)

Plot: Man who ages 1 year every 100 years meets the women of his dreams and they go through life together.

Genre: Romantic/Sci-fi/Drama

Production Status: Pre-Production

Release Date: Who the F*** Knows!!

Cast:

John Bryce … Unknown

Martha Enderson … Unknown

Joon Demitre/Nurse … Sam Proffit

Wayne Simileo … Unknown

Issac Treegdy … Cody Wilson

Joanna Cosrove … Unknown

Secretary … Unknown

Produced By:

Richard Browne

Edited by:

Richard Gragson

Unknown

Music By:

Cody Wilson

Cinematographer:

Unknown

Length: -

Rating: N/A

Companies: NPCC Films/Hidden Siblings Productions/ Kissogram Productions

Movie Stuff of the Week – Episode IV

Quote of the Week: Aldous Snow: “[holding a single sandal] Excuse me, missus, I’ve lost a shoe… like this one. It’s like this one’s fellow… it’s sort of the exact opposite in fact of that – not an evil version but just, you know, a shoe like this… but for the other foot.”
Forgetting Sarah Marshall

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Director of the Week – Richard Attenborough

Sir Richard Samuel Attenborough, CBE, was born on August 29. 1923, in Cambridge, England. Though possibly best known for his acting career, that’s not the topic of discussion for today. That’s not to say that his acting career is not worth discussion. Richard Attenborough has appeared in over 70 films, and was even Knighted in 1976 and again in 1993 for his work as a thespian. But today, I’m not going to talk about Richard Attenborough the actor, but Richard Attenborough the director.

Attenborough directed his first film, Oh! What a Lovely War, in 1969 – A musical about WWI, based on the play of the same name by Charles Chilton. The film was well received by both audiences and critics, and won several BAFTA(British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards, and was nominated for Best Film and Best Director. Next he directed Young Winston, a film about the early years of Winston Churchill. Though less positively received by audiences than his previous film, it was still given many nominations by both BAFTA and this time by the AMPAS(The Oscars). This film’s cast also included bigger names than ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’, like Anthony Hopkins and Ian Holm.

Then, in 1977, Attenborough directed the massive film A Bridge Too Far. I call this a “massive film” because, quite frankly, it was. It had a budget of $27 million dollars, roughly equivilant today to $97 million, and it had a runtime of three and a half hours. Not to mention it’s cast, which included some of the biggest names in film — EVER! And here of some of them now: Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan O’Neal, Laurence Olivier, and Robert Redford. The movie went on to win three BAFTA Awards, but Attenborough was again only nominated for Best Film and Direction.

It wasn’t until 1982 that Attenborough would win the awards of Best Film and Best Direction. This was the year he directed Gandhi. Starring Sir Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, and Martin Sheen, many consider this to be Richard Attenborough’s epic masterpiece. The film won 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Actor, along with 5 BAFTA Awards, with another win for Kingsley for Best Actor, and Attenborough finally winning for Best Film and Best Direction. Attenborough has gone on to direct many more Oscar Nominees, including Chaplin and Shadowlands.

I know this one is short, especially compared to my last one, but I’ve had a lot of things to do script-wise.  So, until next week, remember:

Life is Like a Box of Chocolates- MAY CONTAIN NUTS

Casting Call

On Thursday September 24 and Friday September  25, in LA 205, we’re having our first casting call for our first four movies:

Love Never Ages

My Zombie Brother

Recompense

Coping with Modern Times

So, tell, you know, people…

Coping with Modern Times – The Casting Poster

So, this is my first poster for Coping with Modernt Times.  And yes, I did this picture myself.  Aside from, you know, the American Gothic painting…

Just a status update on Tangled Threads

I’ve got around 20 minutes of edited footage in the Video Lab, which is quite a bit more than I had initially expected. Still, there are some missing chunks near the beginning. I also want to shoot one more scene for the ending, and I would like to figure out some way to fix the pacing issues in the long talkie scene between Gwen and Zvonimir. These, I remember, took roughly 8 minutes per take…Which is really amazing. Cassie is a tremendous actress; by far the most talented I have worked with to date.

There are some difficulties with that scene, though. I didn’t get enough takes from different angles to make it visually appealing on it’s own(considering it’s length), and there are some lighting issues(namely with Zvonimir) that bear some consideration. Ideally, I would like to have some sort of visual flashback cue to amplify Gwen’s pontification, but short of recreating the scene she describes, I am not too sure what to do. I was thinking that it might be interesting to flash to a child’s crayon drawings representing the events in question, but it’s really just up in the air.

I really need to get with Cassie again to shoot the post-credits scene, some fill-in-the-blank shots near the beginning, a voiceover, and, yeah, some music would be pretty nice, although the two tracks by Stemage are amazing. Other than that, I just need to make sure the edit is tight, and then I guess I should cut a trailer and make a poster. It’ll be pretty cool to see it finally done. Then the cast and crew can get together for a commentary!

…Oh, what the hell! Everyone else is doing posters, so I might as well toss up a quick dabble I did. Let it be said that I am not the poster-master, by far…

Teaser poster – Refined Version

So after I saw phillip’s I went back and redid my poster so that it would look somewhat like a real teaser so here it goes.

I like to think that me and phillip will go back and forth trying to outdo each other. well here’s the poster that may be posted for publicity for casting a week or so hopefully.

I changed a few things like the font of the title, Ricky you should appreciate that, and also it has the date for casting.

Inspiration

This was what inspired me to write Coping with Modern Times.  It’s an actual “Educational Film” about family meals, with the addition of some Mystery Science Theater 3000 commentary.  Coping with Modern Times will be a satirical version of one of these, satirising spousal abuse, murder, smoking, drinking and driving, and many other things that were much easier to get away with in the ’50s.  Just bear in mind, IT’S SATIRE!.  Not this, my film…

First Poster

I saw Richard’s and I just had too.  I may or may not have stolen that picture… I CAN’T DRAW!  I’ll do a proper one when I get an artist and some more names to put on there.