Dangerous Calling update
Posted by Jeremiah on May 19th, 2008 @ 05:55 PM | Comments (0)

A few people have asked us about the status of Dangerous Calling. At this point, we have nothing to report. It seems like getting a distributor is just as hard, if not harder, than making the movie. We keep following leads and sending out screeners. We press on. I’m confident that this movie will find a distributor. It’s all in God’s hands - “and that is an encouraging thought.” (Gandalf reference.)

Our composers are working on the score and we are flying out to LA next week to meet with them and hopefully hear a little bit. (We’re also going to Disneyland for a day!)

In more exciting news, Dance of the Dead has been picked up by Lionsgate and Ghost House Pictures. Check it out.

Congrats to Gregg Bishop and his team. It is a really fun movie and they have all put in a lot of hard work. Kudos.

Cecil B. Demille’s thoughts on directing…
Posted by Jeremiah on May 8th, 2008 @ 08:10 PM | Comments (1)

I had to pass this along. One of the blogs I subscribe to posted a link to a speech that the great filmmaker Cecil B. Demille gave in 1927 at Harvard University. (He directed The Ten Commandments among other things.) He said something very interesting -

Take a scene where a man comes in, sits down, and picks up the telephone. The first-class director has the man come in, sit down, and pick up the telephone. Your highest class director says, “How on earth can I make that interesting, so it will hold an audience for just a second, so that it is not just a man. coming in, sitting down and picking up a telephone? What twist can I give that to make a little smile come to the audience? If merely the cord of the telephone catches in the drawer that little incident means a lot because the audience thought they were going to be bored and then they say, Oh! That little exclamation, Oh! has a great psychological effect.” That is the way every scene should be worked out in the mind of the director.

That’s what I want to strive for in every scene we direct: That little exclamation. Oh!

You can read the rest of this speech here. It’s really good. And still relevant.

You can find out more about Mr. Demille here.

The blog that posted this is called Film Directing Tips and Resources. It is the personal blog of a working Directing and Assistant Director, Peter D. Marshall. I have found his blog extremely useful. It’s nice to read the insights of a man who has been doing what I want to be doing. Check it out.

Stephen King says it’s okay!
Posted by Jeremiah on May 8th, 2008 @ 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

Josh and I watch a LOT of movies.

We’ve been keeping a tally going on how many movies we’ve both watched since the beginning of the year and I think we’ve both cracked the 100 mark. These can be either movies we’ve never seen before or movies that we have seen.

And yes, that does mean we’ve watched on average one movie a day since January 1st. (Though some days we watch none and some we watch 3. I guess that’s what the word average means.)

We used to feel guilty about this but then we heard a quote from Stephen King. He said something like, “Writers are constantly reading.” So we feel that filmmakers should constantly be watching movies. So take that, guilt. Stephen King says its OK!

Since the beginning of May, I have watched 9 movies. I’ll list them and then give you reasons why I watched them and my take.

1- The Golden Compass - I watched this movie because I have never seen it and I wanted to see what all the controversy was all about. I have to say it does seem to be a bit anti-Catholic church but aside from that, I don’t think it was a very good movie. Josh has some really good notes on the film explaining why he didn’t like it. Maybe he’ll post those.

2 - The Machinist - I had never seen this movie but I’m a huge fan of Christian Bale. Sadly, he lost all that weight for nothing. Completely dull and unoriginal. And NOT at all family friendly. Lots of pointless nudity. Skip it.

3 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - I just finished reading the 5th book so I wanted to re-watch the film. When I first saw the movie, I enjoyed it but all the die-hard fans didn’t. Now I know why. The book is PHENOMENAL. The movie just didn’t get it. (Though to be fair, the book was 870 pages.) The film should have been longer. But I still enjoy the movie.

4 - Iron Man - HOLY CRAP!!!!! This is the best Superhero movie ever made. Go see it. I can’t wait to see it again. I can-t wait for the DVD. I can’t wait for Iron Man 2!!!

5 - The Buddy Holly Story - This is the film that really made Gary Busey a well-known actor. He did all right. But the film is slow and unlike Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, Buddy Holly didn’t really battle personal demons. (Which is what we like to see in this type of movie, right?) Skip it unless you are bored and don’t mind being bored for a little while longer.

6 - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - Obviously I have seen this movie… A LOT. I started re-watching the SAGA about 3 months ago, slowly working my way from Episode One through Six. I have to say I don’t mind the Ewoks. I actually like them. But I was only 3 when this movie came out so that probably explains it. You can’t beat the last scene with Darth Vader… “Tell your sister, you were right about me.” And then when Luke burns his body… wow.

7 - Dick Tracy - I’ve loved this movie ever since it came out in theaters in the 80s and they had the cross promotion at McDonalds. I got so many free burgers and fries. If you haven’t seen it, you really should. So stylized and the music is great. Danny Elfman. Check it out. You won’t regret it. And so many huge stars playing quirky and somewhat bit parts.

8 - Singin’ in the Rain - Love this movie. I’ve seen it many times. It is a classic but I must say aside from the acting and musical numbers, the movie isn’t perfect. The story completely falls apart in the last 30 minutes… but the musical numbers are so great, I don’t care. I decided to watch this movie because I’m heading to Disney World in September with the family and it always gets me in the mood for The Great Movie Ride.

9 - G Men - I had never seen this particular James Cagney movie. It was made in 1935 and Cagney played a good guy. It has great action and lots of violence. And some really great performances. It’s not as good as Angels with Dirty Faces or Public Enemy but still a really good movie. I recommend it. This is one time those recommendations on Netflix.com really paid off.

There you have it. Please leave a comment and recommend some movies of your own.

Why you should be twittering
Posted by Josh on May 4th, 2008 @ 09:49 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Hyatt, President & CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing, has a great post over at his blog on why you should be twittering. Check it out. I completely agree with what he has to say.

Follow Michael on twitter at twitter.com/michaelhyatt. Follow me and jeremiah at twitter.com/joshdaws and twitter.com/jeremiahdaws respectively. Head over to twitter.com to sign up.