A few months ago, I took a trip up the coast of California to see a place I’d heard about but have never seen: the mountain home of newspaper magnate and movie mogul William Randolph Hearst.  The official name for it is La Cuesta Encantada but it was referred to by Hearst and others as “the ranch” or “San Simeon.”  Today it is simply and most appropriately called Hearst Castle.

As a Film Geek, my desire to see the Castle came from my love for the film Citizen Kane.  It is common knowledge that Orson Welles based the character of Charles Foster Kane partly on William Randolph Hearst.  (Some would argue that the character of Kane has many elements of Welles’ own personality and history as well.)

In the film, Kane built a lavish mansion on a mountain and filled it with antiques and sculptures from all over the world.  He called this mountain paradise Xanadu.  But Kane never finished the house because he ran out of money.  He died with it still under construction.

And that’s exactly what happened to Hearst.

Picture for a second growing up watching a movie like Star Wars and seeing the Death Star on screen, being incredibly fascinated by such an amazing location.  Then someone says to you “Hey, you know the Death Star was based on a real place” and you are able to go and visit it.  This was my experience going to see Hearst Castle.  It was like stepping into a movie.

We were shown where Hearst partied with friends and movie stars.  Where he played tennis with Charlie Chaplin.  Where a young animator named Walt Disney screened the first feature length animated film so Hearst could give his blessing.

The whole mountain top villa had an extremely creepy aura about it.  The art was amazing but thrown together in a hodge-podge.  Hearst didn’t care about keeping baroque elements separate from gothic.  And because of this, the entire decor had a schizophrenic feel.  Amidst all of this wealth there was something tacky about it.

In the end, I was saddened by all of the extravagance.  Here was a living testament to a man who had so much wealth and was never satisfied.  Just like in the movie Citizen Kane.

When I first watched Citizen Kane as a child, I didn’t get it.  ”Rosebud?  What does that mean?”  But now having walked in the footsteps of Hearst (and to some extent Kane), I get it more than ever.

Watch a clip of Citizen Kane that features Xanadu here.

To read more about the history of the Castle check out the Wikipedia page or go to the official site - www.hearstcastle.org.

And check out the pics I snapped with my iPhone:

Last month, after the final Harry Potter film was released on DVD/Blu Ray, my sister and I watched all 8 films over the course of a week and then took a road trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida. Technically, it’s part of Universal Studios Orlando in the Islands of Adventure park but the Wizarding World is a destination in itself.

My sister had never seen past the second film and has never read the books. Watching all 8 with a newbie was definitely an enjoyable experience but it does point out some of the flaws in the movies. There are parts that make absolutely no sense to those who haven’t read the books. Overall though, the movies are an incredible achievement with every single character played by the same cast member (except Dumbledore) over the course of 8 movies.

I don’t necessarily think all of the Harry Potter movies are great but there is one thing you can not deny: the world is amazingly creative and rich. That’s what I love about them and that’s what you experience by going to the Wizarding World.

The Wizarding World is a place for fans of Harry Potter. It’s very much like Comic-Con. People from all over the world congregate there and share their unashamed love of all things Potter. It is not uncommon to see people dressed up as their favorite characters. In line for the rides you’ll hear debates about various things relevant to the Potter mythos.

I must admit, I got caught up in the excitement. I spent way too much money on Butterbeer (a rich butterscotch/cream soda drink), Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, and Chocolate Frogs.

The unique element that the Wizarding World has that most Theme Parks do not have is that the designers chose to fully immerse you into the world as much as they could. The shops in Hogsmeade have regular doors rather than the double wide automatic doors that most theme parks have. They want you to feel like you are actually in a shop that Harry and his friends would visit. And you won’t find merchandise that says ‘Harry Potter’ in the shops. It’s all about the reality of the world — you aren’t in a theme park.

My favorite shop is Olivander’s Wand Shop. They sell all of the movie wands as well as wands that are specific to your birthday. The show in the wand shop is amazing, recreating the scene from Sorcerer’s Stone for one lucky park guest. This always has a long line so be sure to see it first thing in the morning. It’s a short show but it is NOT to be missed.

And yes, I did buy a wand. How could I not?

(Thanks to Ricky Brigante of Inside the Magic for taking this picture.)

By far the coolest thing to see is the attraction Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It combines the animatronics and sets of a dark ride with a great simulator ride. I won’t say anything more than that — I don’t want to spoil the experience. It is definitely my favorite theme park ride — and that’s saying a lot considering I’m a huge Disneyland/Disney World fan. Watch out for Dementors!

I had a great two days immersing myself into everything Potter casting spells and drinking Butterbeer. I felt like I was 11 years old.

Check out the pictures we took and go plan your trip today! You won’t regret it. If you want to know more about the Wizarding World, head on over to InsidetheMagic.net and see their comprehensive coverage.

The best TV sitcom ever to grace the small screen is The Dick Van Dyke show.  Created by Carl Reiner, it starred a cast of brilliant comedians including Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, and Carl Reiner himself.  Garry Marshall (of Happy Days fame) was a writer for the show.

If you aren’t familiar with the show: it’s about a TV writer who uses his experiences at home with his wife and son to inspire the comedy scripts he writes for the show.  Dick Van Dyke stars as the writer, Rob Petrie, with Mary Tyler Moore as his wife, Laura.  This show is important to me for two reasons — it’s partly to blame for my desire to write for TV/Film.  It looks like so much fun.  The other reason — Laura was my first crush.  Those capri pants and that 60′s hair… wow.

A few weeks ago, Josh and I had the pleasure of attending the 50th Anniversary of the show held at The Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.  Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, and Garry Marshall spoke for about an hour and they showed 3 classic episodes on the big screen.  (That was a rare treat.)

As we waited for the show to begin, a woman was wheeled into the auditorium and an applause errupted.  It took Josh and myself just a few seconds to realize who the woman was.  Rose Marie.  This woman is a living legend.  She’s been performing since she was Baby Rose Marie when she was three years old.  She always had a trademark bow in her hair, always on one side.

There were also a ton of guest stars and relatives of the cast and crew.  One of the most prolific directors of the show and cast member Jerry Paris’ sons were in attendance and sat a few feet from us.

The entire night was just another reminder that these shows and films we love aren’t made by the superhuman – they’re made by people.  And Josh and I are people.  There’s no reason why we couldn’t do what they do.

We recorded the hour long discussion and I’ve uploaded it for you all to listen to.  There’s a rare treat about 15 minutes in when Dick Van Dyke performs the theme song to the show with his a cappella group, The Vantastix.

Check it out.

And to show you how star struck we were, here’s a terrible picture of Carl Reiner leaving the men’s bathroom after the show.

One side note — my parents introduced us to this show when Nick at Nite ran a marathon of the entire show in the early 90s.  My family was camping that week — we had set the timer on our VCR to record the shows.  But the tapes always ran out with 2 hours left each night.  So, we’d pack the family up and drive all the way back to our home, pop in a fresh tape, and drive back to the camp site.  Every night.  At the time, we thought our parents were a little strange.  But after watching those tapes till they wore out, we now know why this was so important.  Thank God for DVDs.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk with John Sayles about his latest film Amigo. Amigo is an historical drama that opened August 19th. It’s a beautifully shot film set on a small, occupied island during the Philippine-American War.

Although the cast is mostly unknown to American audiences, the performances are exceptional, performed by an appealing cast led by Filipino actor, Joel Torre. With a story that centers on a small village thrust into a war they understand very little about, the film’s theme holds a striking significance for the modern audience given the events happening all over the world today.

When I first arrived at Du-Par’s at the Farmers Market in LA I had intended to ask Sayles about his filmmaking process, from the point in which he becomes interested in a project to the development and producing of the final product. I was particularly interested in this because Amigo, like most of Sayles’ films (Brother From Another Planet, Matewan, Lone Star) has a certain degree of social consciousness, and yet manages to maintain a high level of entertainment throughout the picture. I had my list of questions carefully planned out, but you know what they say about best-laid plans.

As you will hear from the recording below, I didn’t get around to hardly any of the questions I had in mind. Instead, the conversation took on a life of its’ own. And well, I was enjoying listening to Sayles so much I just let the topic go where it wanted. As you’ll soon hear that’s the best thing to do when interviewing a master storyteller, because what they have to say is far more interesting than anything you may want them to say. And man, can Sayles talk. From observations about bicycling in LA, to the use of locals in his films, to memories of going to the drive-in as a kid, and more, Sayles can tell a fascinating tale.

What you’re about to hear starts off with Sayles mid sentence reacting to the fact I rode a bicycle to the interview, and it just flows in all directions from there. If you like Sayles (or even just listening to an intelligent director) you’re going to like listening to him as much as I did. And if you don’t know Sayles, you’re going to want to after listening to this recording. I recommend starting out with Amigo since it’s in theaters now, and follow up with putting Lone Star and Eight Men Out on your NetFlix list. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

As I posted earlier, on June 2-3, Josh and I were invited to cover the Grand Re-Opening of Star Tours at Disneyland as well as the Grand Opening of the new The Little Mermaid attraction at Disney California Adventure.

Today, I wanted to share with you about The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.  We were there for the opening ceremonies where none other than the voice of Ariel, Jodi Benson, was on hand to perform a medley of songs from the film.  This was an experience that I’ll never forget.  She’s still got it!  Check out the video:

This new attraction is the next generation “dark ride.”  Picture any of the attractions in Fantasyland injected with steroids.  It’s the same idea — floating through various scenes like you would in Peter Pan, Snow White, or Pinnochio.  But instead of small rooms, with half size figures, The Little Mermaid ride is MASSIVE with life-size characters.  The Ursula is especially large and foreboding.

If you are a fan of The Little Mermaid, you’ll love the ride.  If not, it may not be your thing.  No thrills.  What you see is what you get.  But I liked it very much.  And I was excited to see how the Imagineers used new technologies to achieve the same “dark ride” experience on a bigger scale.

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We teamed up with Ricky Brigante of Inside the Magic to cover the event.  Head on over to InsidetheMagic.net to view full coverage of the events including video and pictures.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure

A few weeks ago, Josh and I attended Comic-Con in San Diego.  Thankfully, because of our status as filmmakers, we were able to score Producers Passes — free.

We had a wonderful time both inside the convention hall and outside roaming the streets of beautiful San Diego.  I thought I’d share a little bit of our experience.

I started each morning riding the San Diego Trolley along with several hundred other geeks.  The sense of community is thick.  We’re all there because we love elements of pop culture.  Sometimes those things overlap and sometimes they don’t.  But we can all respect each other.

The convention is held at the San Diego Convention Center right on the water and adjacent to the Gas Lamp district.

Advertisements can be found everywhere.    They were really pushing Cowboys & Aliens hard.

Part of the fun of Comic-Con is seeing geeks dressed up as their favorite characters.  Here’s someone dressed as my favorite character – Marty McFly.

But I’d have to say the best costumes I saw were The Frogg Brothers (played by two teen girls) from the movie Lost Boys.

Another fun element of Comic-Con are the random promotional stunts that are pulled.  As we were walking the streets, we saw a long line of people at an ice-cream truck.  Upon further investigation, we found that Seth Green was giving out free Ben & Jerry’s Ice-cream to promote Robot Chicken and Adult Swim.  I snapped this photo.

With so much going on in the streets and on the convention floor (seems like MILES of booths to peruse,) it is easy to get distracted.  But once I focused, I set about getting into the mythical Hall H.  This is where they have all the biggest panels.  It’s fairly tough to get into because once you are in, you’re in all day.  The catch is, if you leave, you can’t get back in without waiting for hours and hours.

On Thursday night, I saw a discussion between Jon Favreau and Guillermo Del Toro.  It was fascinating.  And for any Disney fans, be sure to listen to the audio — they talk about their future projects based on Disney Theme Park attractions.  You can listen to that audio here: Jon Favreau and Guillermo Del Toro.

But by far, the most amazing part of Comic-Con was seeing Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson live.  They spoke about Tintin among other things.  Here’s a picture of them with a fan who wore a shirt that said something like “It would make my day to shake Steven Spielberg’s hand.”  So they invited him on stage and took photos with him.  It was very sweet.

You can here the audio from their talk here:  Spielberg and Jackson

I attended for 2 days.  The con went on for another 2 but I had had enough.  The crowds were almost unbearable.  But looking back, I wish I had stayed longer.  It’s incredibly fun.  I highly recommend getting tickets… though getting tickets seems to be extremely difficult nowadays.

On June 2-3 of this year, Josh and I were invited to cover the Grand Re-Opening of Star Tours at Disneyland as well as the Grand Opening of the new The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure attraction at Disney California Adventure.  And let me tell ya, Disney sure knows how to throw a party.  We had such a fun weekend.

Today, I’ll give my review of Star Tours.  Check back soon for my review of Little Mermaid.

The opening Ceremony for Star Tours wasn’t as impressive as I’d hoped it would be — George Lucas did not show up.  But it was cute, including the Disneyland Resort president, Tom Staggs in the theatrics.

My thoughts:

The day the original Star Tours closed last year, I drove down from Santa Monica specifically to ride one last time.  I waited in line for an hour along with many other like-minded geeks.  I stood in line in silence saying goodbye to an old friend.  To be honest, I didn’t trust George Lucas to reopen this classic attraction with anything that would live up to the original.  I took my last trip to Endor and left the park, grieving.  (I know – pathetic.  But there is something so final about extinct Disney attractions.)

I can honestly say, I am blown away by “Star Tours 2.”  I love it.  The geniuses at ILM and Imagineering lovingly updated this attraction.  They kept the traditional Star Tours jingle and even found a place for the original pilot, Rex.

The Queue – I was afraid they’d take away the giant Star Speeder, R2-D2, and C-3P0 but thankfully, they didn’t.  Just spruced them up.  The second room, the Robot Room, makes more sense — it’s more of a baggage handling area rather than some weird trash conveyor belt area from the original.  I never quite got what was going on in that room — or why we were seeing behind the veil of Star Tours.  The new security scanner at the end of the queue is hilarious.

The Ride – AMAZING.  And so many variables.  Over 50 different ride variations?  Wow.  I was a little worried about the 3D aspect but I am very impressed with it.  Probably the best 3D and the best use of 3D I’ve ever seen.  The destinations are great, even those revolving around the prequels.  And making C-3PO the pilot actually works really well.

My only minor complaint is how the story exists in this strange in-between — there are elements of the prequels and the original trilogy in the ride.  The timeline doesn’t quite work but I don’t mind.

The bottom line:  Head on down to Disneyland or Walt Disney World and get in the two hour+ line to ride Star Tours: The Adventure Continues.  You’ll love it.

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We teamed up with Ricky Brigante of Inside the Magic to cover the event.  Head on over to InsidetheMagic.net to view full coverage of the events including video and pictures.

Star Tours: The Adventure Continues

Some of you email us from time to time asking how to break into the industry. Here is a pretty cool way to try. Brett Ratner is holding a short film contest. The winner gets to work as a PA on his next production.

No matter what your opinion of Brett Ratner and his films, you have to respect the fact that he is working in the business and doing extremely well. I recommend anyone who is just starting out on their path to give it a try. Working on a big-budget blockbuster film would be a GREAT experience.

Saturday, July 2nd at 1:45 in the morning Turner Classic Movies will be airing an Ernst Lubitsch comedy classic, “To Be or Not To Be”. I don’t expect anyone to stay up late for this one, but I highly encourage you to set your recording devices for one of the funniest films ever made.

This 1942 classic stars Jack Benny and Carol Lombard as the husband and wife leads of a theater troupe in Warsaw. He’s incredibly vain and insecure while she is likely the biggest flirt in Poland. After Germany invades their country, they and their company of actors use their collective talents to dupe the Nazi’s and rescue a Polish flyer as well as their own skins.

Both Benny and Lombard are at their comedic best as they skillfully handle Lubitsch’s well-crafted words like dueling weapons, first as the playful banter of a husband and wife and later as loyalists armed with sharpened wits against their enemies. Particularly notable is Benny’s famous ability to comically affect indignation, and Lombard’s deadpan delivery of one straight line after another – no one should be that beautiful and that funny. Of course, as they improvise themselves out of one situation they only find themselves getting stuck in something even more difficult, requiring them to be more and more clever every step of the way. Benny’s near escape from being discovered as an imposter is comedy brilliance at its best, matched only by Lombard’s reaction to being trapped in a corner you don’t think she can possibly escape.

Much like a thriller or complicated espionage film you’re going to want to watch this film again and again just so you can go back and figure out exactly how they managed to resolve everything. Lubitsch keeps the pace that quick and snappy. And even though he never lingers on the political aspects for too long, Hitler himself plays a major part in a significant and hilarious plot development. Only Lubitsch could pull that off.

About a month ago, a friend asked me to act in an online commercial he was directing. He wanted me to play the role of a comic book nerd. If you know me, that’s a huge stretch.

(Sarcasm.)

Though I’m not a comic book fan, I do like all things nerdy — and my glasses and skinny frame help sell the part.

I’ve acted a little in college in student films. I even took an acting class. But I don’t consider myself to be an actor. Thankfully, I had only one word of dialogue.

I thought I’d do the video, get paid, and forget about it. I don’t really enjoy being in front of the camera. But instead, the commercial went VIRAL. At the time of this writing, it has 78,000 views. Insane.

Within a view days of posting, it was picked up by various comic book websites, each with its own opinion on the message of the video. Some appreciated the commercial’s portrayal of comic book nerds and others didn’t. My favorite review is found on ToplessRobot.com. I am called “reasonably attractive.” I’ll take it.
(Beware – That site is sometimes NSFW)

Check out the video here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

In April of this year, I celebrated my 2 year anniversary of moving to Los Angeles.  It was a huge risk to pack all my belongings into my Honda Civic and head out with no place to live, no job, and no friends or family.  All in the hopes to work in this crazy business we call “Hollywood.”

In March of this year, I was hired as an assistant editor on a feature film written, directed, produced, and starring a famous child actor from the 1980s. He was on a sitcom that my family and I watched every week. No, I won’t share with you who it is.

After two weeks of organizing the footage during production, I was asked to cut a few scenes while the editor was out of town. This director came in one day and asked to see some of the film. I showed him what I had been working on and he seemed to be pleased with my work.

When the editor came back in town, he announced that he wasn’t going to be able to finish the movie. As bizarre as it sounds, the director asked me to cut the film.  What a moment.  (BTW, I was at Disneyland when I got the call.  How awesome is that?)

It has been a great pleasure working with this director. The film is lower budget and I’ve really enjoyed the challenge.

It wasn’t my first rodeo. I cut Dangerous Calling along with Josh. And I’ve cut numerous short films over the years. But this was my first shot at cutting someone else’s film. Serving someone else’s vision. And I have to say — I LOVE IT.

It sounds like one of those stories you hear about. Being in the right place at the right time. I call it the hand of God. But whatever you want to call it, it happened and I now have a second feature under my belt as the editor. It feels great.

I get paid to make movies!  I would never have had this experience if I hadn’t taken a risk.

Here are a few quotes I recently discovered on risk:

“One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum” ~  Sir Walter Scott

“No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause.”  ~ Theodore Roosevelt

“We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success.”  ~  Henry David Thoreau

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”  ~ Robert Kennedy

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”  ~  Mark Twain

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Take a risk. It’ll pay off.

Last year in 2010 Turner Classic Movies chose director, George Cukor’s 1954 version of “A Star is Born” to be the film to kick off their first ever Classic Film Festival. This Friday, June 10 at 12:15PM (PST) you can see for yourself exactly why the iconic film was such a perfect choice for establishing the tone of a festival dedicated to the celebration of great classic cinema.

Judy Garland stars as a struggling, unknown performer who becomes the protégé and love interest of a difficult and egotistical Hollywood star played by James Mason. The two become devoted to each other, but, sadly, as her star goes on a meteoric rise his life spins completely out of control until he becomes a hopeless has-been. Set amid the exciting yet brutal behind the scenes world of Hollywood the story is deftly presented with all the skill and drama one would expect of the collective talents involved. The relationships feel authentic, and the chemistry between the two stars is a uniquely palpable one that sustains itself right up until the heartbreaking conclusion. The supporting cast is equally exceptional, led by the always charming Jack Carson who plays an insider who does his best to help the two people he cares deeply for until it hinders his own career opportunities – he may be a pariah, but you feel for him as he struggles with his conflicting loyalties.

Along with the performances the overall production is absolutely stellar. The glossy and saturated look of the film drenches you with the feel of 1950’s Hollywood, providing a heavy atmosphere to the dingy after hours clubs, and an extra sparkle to the glamorous side of a movie star’s life. And the song and dance numbers are so well integrated there’s never a moment that doesn’t feel completely organic in origin, especially the more intimate scenes between Garland and Mason. The scene where she entertains him with a one-woman show at home is absolutely inspiring, and a great moment in movie history.

I promise you, if you haven’t seen this version of “A Star is Born” you are missing out on a seminal example of cinema at its absolute best. And if you’re already familiar with the film, why would you miss out on the chance to see it again? I know you’ll agree, it’s that good.

As posted before, Josh and I had the pleasure of attending the 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival.  It was held in Hollywood with screenings going on at the Chinese Theater and the Egyptian Theater with the festival headquarters in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Thursday, April 28th

The opening night movie was An American in Paris which we did NOT get an invite to.  It was pretty exclusive.  One of our bloggers, Carrie Specht went to the Red Carpet and was able to speak with several old and new stars.  Check out her coverage here.

We started the festival on Thursday evening by seeing a collection of Walt Disney’s earliest animated shorts called the Laugh-O-Grams.  He was only twenty years old when he formed this venture.  He made seven in all before going bankrupt and heading west.  (I”m so glad he did.)

We’d only seen bits and pieces of the Laugh-O-Grams on various Walt Disney biography specials.  There is one famous Laugh-O-Gram that many might recognize.  It actually shows Walt at the animation desk and his drawings come to life.  We were very excited to see the complete short.

The screening was emceed by Disney Historian JB Kaufman.  You can hear his commentary here:

LAUGH-O-GRAMS

Next, we were able to see A Night at the Opera — starring the Marx Brothers.  It was a rare treat to be able to screen the film with Groucho’s grandson, Andy Marx, and hear stories of what it was like growing up in the Marx family.  Producer Robert Bader provided great commentary as well.

I had never seen this particular Marx Brothers film.  It is definitely one of their best.

You can hear the audio here:

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

Friday, April 29th

On Friday, we started early in the morning with a screening of A Streetcar Named Desire at Grauman’s Chinese.  Leonard Maltin was on hand to introduce the film.  You can hear the audio here:

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Immediately after, we watched The Godfather also at Grauman’s Chinese.  That experience was like none other.  A film historian (whose name I don’t remember) gave a quick intro to the film:

THE GODFATHER

After that, we had a tough decision to make but ultimately landed on seeing Girl Crazy.  The thing that put this film over the top — Mickey Rooney was in attendance.  He gave a long introduction to the film and it was delightful!

You can hear the audio with Mickey Rooney and Ben Mankiewicz here:

GIRL CRAZY

On Friday evening, TCM hosted a party at The Music Box on Hollywood Blvd.  A swing orchestra called Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks played the event.  They are famous for being the on screen orchestra in The Aviator (among other things.)  They are the best swing orchestra I’ve ever heard.  And I’ve heard several play.  (About a year ago I took up swing dancing.)  It was an extremely fun evening.

At midnight, we went to a screening of William Castle’s The Tingler.  I had never seen this film before.  When it originally ran during the 1960′s, William Castle would have special in-theater effects to enhance the viewing experience.  We heard a rumor that they were going to recreate some of these effects.  And sure enough, toward the end of the film, there were in-theater actors running around screaming plus a skeleton on cables flying around.  Such a cool experience.

You can read what I wrote about William Castle last Halloween here.

And check out the audio from Bruce Goldstein who produced the night’s screening and in-theater effects:

THE TINGLER

Saturday, April 30th

Early Saturday morning, we saw one of our favorite classic Disney films, Summer Magic.  It’s not as widely known but anyone who has ever been to Disneyland or The Magic Kingdom in Orlando has heard the music from it.  Most of the songs are played on Main Street.

Becky Cline, the current Disney archivist, introduced the film:

SUMMER MAGIC – Part 1

The film stars Hayley Mills and she was on hand to do a Q and A afterwards.  You can hear that here:

SUMMER MAGIC – Part 2

Josh and I parted ways only once during the festival.  He went to see The Outlaw Josey Wales while I saw Cabin in the Sky.  I chose this film because I had heard it had swing dancing in it.  I didn’t like the film but I get why it is historically significant.  You can hear why in the audio I recorded:

CABIN IN THE SKY

Next we went back to the Chinese Theater to see Citizen Kane.  What can one say about that experience?

Norman Lloyd, a frequent collaborator with Orson Welles, was on hand to give an introduction:

CITIZEN KANE

We ended our Saturday night with a screening of the great silent film star Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman.  Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks played the score for the film live.  I have never laughed this hard in a movie theater.  Keaton is a genius.  I’ve had a limited exposure to Keaton but after seeing this film, I want to see more of his movies.  I highly recommend this one.

Check out Leonard Maltin giving the introduction:

THE CAMERAMAN

Sunday, May 1st

Our church meets in the old Pacific Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.  After church, Josh and I drove west on the Boulevard to experience the final day of the festival.

We started by watching Goldfinger in Grauman’s Chinese.  I’m embarrassed to admit it but I had never seen this Bond film.  (I haven’t seen a lot of them.)

It was pretty silly but had some fun iconic moments and was generally a fun ride.  Ben Mankiewicz gave an introduction to the film:

GOLDFINGER

For me the highlight of the film was seeing A Place in the Sun on the big screen at the Egyptian.  I had seen this film once before but even so, I was equally moved by it.  I always leave it feeling incredibly conflicted about the outcome.  If you’ve seen the film, you know what I mean.  If you haven’t I highly recommend it.  I’d put in the top 10 films ever made.  Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift give incredible performances, as does Shelley Winters.  CHECK IT OUT.  NOW!

Rose Mcgowan introduced the film:

A PLACE IN THE SUN – PART 1

After the film, Robert Osborne interviewed Eva Marie Saint about Elizabeth Taylor:

A PLACE IN THE SUN – PART 2

The finale of the event and the highlight for Josh was Fantasia at Grauman’s Chinese.  We were shocked to find out that Walt Disney’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller, was in attendance.  Josh and I walked right past her in the lobby of the Hollywood Roosevelt.

Walt Disney’s daughter!  Wow!  Experiences like that make this whole thing seem so real.  These people you read about and see on the screen aren’t just characters but real people.

Hear Robert Osborne close out the TCM Classic Film Festival here:

FANTASIA

Hopefully we’ll make it back to the 2012 festival.  I wouldn’t miss it for the world.  You shouldn’t either.  I just can’t emphasize enough how amazing it is to see all of these classic films in the heart of Hollywood at the most iconic movie theater in the world.  Plan on joining us next year.

TCM (Turner Classic Movies) kicked off its 2nd annual Classic Film Festival with a bang by screening a newly restored print of “An American In Paris”. The 60th anniversary world premiere restoration brought out some of Hollywood’s greatest names, old and new for a spectacular red carpet event.

For the second year now TCM has strived to bring to its Classic Film Festival a variety of films that will satisfy the tastes of the multitude of classic film fans that throng to Hollywood for this unique festival. Once again they have gone above and beyond, succeeding in scope as well as notoriety. And that is especially true of the opening night film, “An American in Paris”. The Gene Kelly musical about a painter finding art and romance in the City of Lights is undoubtedly one of the most beloved films in cinema history, possessing mass appeal to all types of moviegoers without known exception. With the young and perky Leslie Caron as co-star, a musical score packed with Gershwin classics, and dance sequences that are among cinema’s most memorable what’s not to like about director Vincente Minnelli’s Oscar winning film?

Lucky me, I was one of the press representatives lined up along the grand walkway leading up to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre for the gala presentation. It was still bright and sunny out as the special guests arrived and made their way past the photographers to the eagerly awaiting reporters. Being a little farther down the line I lost out on speaking directly to many of the stars who arrived late and had to rush in, but the one’s who did stop and chat however briefly made the event a very memorable one for me. But no matter how late any one was they all stopped for the bleacher of fans located just before the theater’s entrance. This was much appreciated by one and all.

Some notable celebrities did make the effort to heed my pleas for a moment of their time. Among them was TCM weekend-daytime host Ben Mankiewicz who had the time to stop and talk about a well-known contract rumor about his facial hair, and his luscious locks of hair. The famed film critic Leonard Maltin graciously paused to hear me express my adoration of his work at last year’s festival even though he was in a big hurry to get to a class he was suppose to be teaching that very moment at USC. Right after that “Leave It to Beaver” star Jerry Mathers spoke briefly with me about his start as a child actor at two-years of age. He was present to serve on a Q&A for Hitchcock’s “The Trouble with Harry”. After him another child star, Hayley Mills and her sister Juliet Mills took the time to reflect on playing one’s own twin in “The Parent Trap”.

Then a star you may not know by name but certainly by voice, Marni Nixon appreciated my recognizing her work as the singing voice of Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn, but reminded me (good-naturedly) that she has been seen on screen as well in the role of Sister Sophia in “The Sound of Music”. I was particularly excited to see 1930s child actress Jane Withers who was very pleased to talk about her time on the set with fellow child star Shirley Temple. Lastly, Eva Marie Saint gave me a very warm smile and wave as she passed by. She and her husband gave me a good look over as they passed, but I believe this is because my twin sister, a member of the Actors Studio, sees them both regularly at the West Hollywood studio – I’m guessing they just couldn’t quite place the face out of context.

Even though some stars did not stop to be interviewed the mere fact of having them within reaching distance was very exciting. The experience gave me a good sense of how other classic movie fans attending the rest of the festival were going to feel when they too found themselves so close to the actors they know and love, which of course is a huge aspect of the TCM CFF. Among the night’s notable red carpet attendees who could not stop for me included the female lead of “An American in Paris”, Leslie Caron, TCM primetime host Robert Osborne, Marshall Allman of TV’s acclaimed vampire series “True Blood”, Academy Award winner George Chakiris who was the Best Supporting Actor of 1961 for “West Side Story”, “Show Boat” dancing legend Marge Champion, actress and granddaughter of screen legend Melvin Douglas, Illeana Douglas, “The Office” slut, Kate Flannery, Hitchcock discovery Tippi Hedren, timeless playboy Hugh Hefner, one time “Essentials” co-host Rose McGowan, living icon Peter O’Toole, the ever youthful Priscilla Presley, entertainer extraordinaire Mickey Rooney, Richard “Shaft” Roundtree, and a strikingly beautiful Jennifer Love Hewitt wearing the cutest gold toned cocktail dress I have ever seen.

It’s hard to describe the overall feeling of absolute movie magic that filled the air that evening, but I think you’ll understand better when I tell you that even the most jaded reporter along that red carpet was at one point or another completely star-struck. The feeling on our side of the rope can only be described as giddy as the last star had come and gone, and we were left with a sense of awe and admiration in their wake. That is exactly what I expect from the TCM Classic Film Festival, and by example of the opening night alone I have no doubt that the expectation has been well fulfilled this year, for myself and every other classic film fan in attendance. Viva la TCM!

Tuner Classic Movies highlight’s one movie every week as an “Essential” must-see. This week I couldn’t agree more with their choice. “Ball of Fire” is an exceptional Howard Hawks’ comedy, which is really saying something considering the acclaimed and much-revered director’s lengthy resume includes “Bringing Up Baby”, “His Girl Friday”, and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”.

Barbara Stanwyck stars in this 1941 gem as a mobster’s moll hiding out amongst a gaggle of straight-laced elderly professors led by a younger man, the ruggedly handsome Gary Cooper. Cooper is a serious scholar who naturally falls for Stanwyck (at her brassy best) during his pursuit to understand modern culture. Stanwyck in turn falls for Cooper’s modest and old-fashioned ways as he pumps up the “ah, shucks” personae while he stumbles and blushes from her wisecracking entendres. Likewise, the professors have grown found of the brash young thing and jump to her rescue when her gangster boyfriend, played by the devilishly handsome Dana Andrews tries to take her away. It’s not the most complicated of plots, but it’s an adorably cute tale without being saccharine. It’s well put together with a cast that performs in top form without exception down to the smallest bit part. It’s sure to amuse even the most jaded of modern movie watchers. With such sensational stars, a boat load of charm and a supporting cast to die for I can’t see how anyone wouldn’t like this timeless comedy. Honestly, this is the Golden Age of Hollywood at its comedic best, if you don’t like this film I won’t to know why.

As an added treat “Ball of Fire” will be introduced and discussed by evening on-air host Robert Osborne and series guest host Alec Baldwin. These two highly regarded cinephiles will share their thoughts and insights on the film shortly before it airs, Saturday, April 16th, at 5PM (PST).

After training for months, on Sunday, March 20th, Josh and I ran in the LA Marathon.  26.2 miles in the cold and rain. It started at Dodger Stadium in Downtown LA and went all the way through Hollywood and Beverly Hills and ended in Santa Monica by the beach.

We started running less than two years ago.  After we ran the OC HALF Marathon, we posted some life lessons we learned from running.

The most important lesson we’ve learned from running a FULL marathon:

We are capable of achieving way more than we think.

Running a marathon always seemed to be something that other people did but not anything I could do.  It always seemed impossible.  But it wasn’t.

I wonder – What other limitations am I accepting without cause?  What other lids are limiting me?  I sure hope I discover them and shatter them to pieces.

All during my training, I said I’d only run one marathon.  Now that I’ve achieved it, the thought of doing another one seems not only possible but inevitable.  My frame of reference has changed.  It IS possible for me to run 26.2 miles.  Of course I’ll have to train for it and put in all the hard work necessary but it IS possible.

Since this is a filmmaking blog, let me tie this all in.  After being out in LA for just about 2 years, I’ve discovered I used to have the same view of the film industry as I did a marathon – only a special breed of person can do those things.  But the truth anyone with a little bit of talent and a LOT of hard work can break into this business.  Don’t accept limitations.  Don’t mystify the business.  Don’t put it on a pedestal.  And don’t sell yourself short.

My favorite quote that I used to say to myself while training for the LA Marathon is from the movie The Edge starring Anthony Hopkins -

“What one man can do, another can do!”

So true.

Heralded as the film in which Greta Garbo laughs, “Ninotchka” is a supremely delightful comedy centered on an unlikely romance between a ne’er-do-well French playboy (portrayed by the dapper Melvyn Douglas) and a deadly serious Bolshevik aptly cast with the Silent Screen’s queen of drama. Although sent to Paris on government business, the icy beauty melts when she finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she has learned to detest. Likewise, the roguish aristocrat who was merely playing around for sport is sent for a loop when he finds that he has truly fallen in love for the first time in his life.

Director Ernst Lubitsch draws the comedienne out of the notoriously dramatic Garbo who plays the unemotional Russian official as a pitch perfect “straight man” for the better part of the film. Known for a terribly serious persona on and off the screen, it is an absolute revelation when the Swedish beauty finally bursts out into uncontrollable laughter. It is one of the most contagious moments in screen history, helped along by the amusing charm of Douglas. This scene alone is reason enough to place “Ninotchka” on your list of all time favorite comedies.

This 1939 masterpiece airs Thursday, March 24th at 7:00PM (PST).

Choosing the TCM Pick of the Week is always difficult for me, however this is a particularly challenging task during the cable station’s annual 31 Days of Oscar. For me, it’s the most wonderful time of the year (well, it’s a close tie with August when TCM hosts Summer Under the Stars). February (yup, the 28 day month) is jammed full of some excellent viewing choices, and with a week with the likes of “Marty”, “12 Angry Men” and “Network” it was going to have to be something pretty spectacular to warrant a recommendation above all others. And “The Westerner” is just that: an exceptional film.

Just as the title suggests, “The Westerner” is a good old Western starring Gary Cooper as a lonesome drifter who stumbles into a none too friendly town where he is accused of the lowest crime of the west: stealing a horse. Coop faces off with the notorious Judge Roy Bean portrayed by the era’s top supporting actor, Walter Brennan who is superlative as the most dubious judge in the west. Brennan earned a well deserved third Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for the role of a lifetime that placed the beloved character actor in the shoes of possibly one of the most conflicted characters in all of Westerns – he admires Cooper while he is doggedly determined to execute him.

This is fine, low-key drama at its best, with plenty of moments of comic relief backed by an extremely moving and satisfying ending. This is definitely one of the most unique buddy moments in all of film history. “The Westerner” airs this Saturday, February 19 at 12:30PM PST.

Josh and I have been writing screenplays since I started taking film classes in 1999 – we’d work on my homework together.  Before this time, the short films we would do were always on the fly.  “Now say – ‘You will die like dogs.’”  Basically just kids recording their play time on video.

We starting writing features when I graduated in 2004.  Over the last 7 years, we’ve learned a lot about screenwriting and have picked up many tips and tricks.  But one of the best things we ever did to improve our craft and our output was to join a Writers Group.

At first we weren’t too keen on the idea of paying to be in a group of people who we didn’t know and weren’t too sure of their “ability.”  What if we were the smartest people in the room?  (We screenwriters can be so naively arrogant.)

But after our first meeting, we were hooked.

The way our group works is this: every week one member of the group brings in a project they are working on. It can be a full screenplay or only a partial.  It can be a treatment, an outline, a TV pilot, a pitch, etc…  We assign characters to the room and then read the script aloud.  Afterwards, we spend about an hour giving feedback and spit-balling ideas on where to go.

And I’m not talking about the “that was good” or “I didn’t like it” kind of feedback but really helpful and constructive tips on how to improve your writing.  These people speak the language of cinema.

We’ve brought in our script 4 times over the last 7 months.  The first time was the first act, then the first half, then the first two acts, and just recently we brought in a complete draft.  (To call it a first draft is inaccurate since we’ve rewritten 50% of the script about 30 times.)

The benefits of joining a group are huge.

1.  Honest feedback

Your Mom and your spouse love you too much to tell you that your work is anything but brilliant.  If we listened to them, our latest script would have been sent out to the town with only the first ten pages written because it was SO brilliant that no one needs to read more than that.  They’d pay us to finish it.  Uh huh.  Moms and Spouses can be naive too.  But we love them for it.  We need someone in our lives who makes us feel like we are brilliant.

Your friends have too much at stake to tell you the honest truth.  I try to give honest feedback when a friend passes me his screenplay but it is really hard.  I don’t want to hurt their feelings.

A writers group provides you with a room full of strangers to tell you the truth.  They have nothing to lose by telling you how terrible your script is.  (Though our group is very nice about it.)

2.  Deadlines!

Every 10 weeks, we have to schedule when our next reading will be.  Because we don’t want to waste the time of these people we’re in the room with or waste our own money, we want to bring in something drastically improved.  Having a deadline and incentive to improve does wonders to keep us writing.

3.  Guidance

I couldn’t imagine trying to get something “industry ready” without honest feedback from people who know what industry ready IS.  We’re usually way to close to a project to look at it objectively.  A writers group full of professional writers (or hopeful writers who have been doing it for years and years) is a sure way of double checking your work.  They make you ask the hard questions.  Is this the best that it could be?  Because if it is not, no one will notice you or your script.  The odds of selling a spec are tremendously against us.  I don’t want make it harder by sending out a mediocre screenplay.

4.  Overall improvement

Every week, we hear screenplays and then listen as 10-15 writers give their thoughts on what worked and what didn’t.  THIS IS SO VALUABLE!  I can’t stress enough how much we learn by listening to these writers talk about how to fix a problem with the structure, characters, dialogue, etc…  It is so true what they say about who you surround yourself with.  It rubs off.

It is also incredibly valuable to share our own ideas in the group.  This can be incredibly intimidating.  What if it’s a crappy idea?  So what.  We hope to write for TV one day.  We’ll have to get used to quickly throwing ideas into the pot.  Bad ideas can lead to good ideas.

Looking at someone else’s script that has problems and trying to solve those problems helps us to improve our own problem solving skills and use that in our own scripts.

—

I highly recommend joining a Writers Group.  It will cost you money.  But it is incredibly worth it.  Make sure it has a mentor leading the group – you don’t want the loudest person in the room to dominate.  Having a mentor/leader keeps everything on the right track.  Our mentor has been in the business for over 30 years and is incredibly smart and talented.  Make sure to sit in on a group before you pay the money so you know what you are getting.  If you ARE the smartest person in the room, find another group.

Join a group!

And – Put your BUTT in the SEAT and start writing.  EVERY DAY.  Check out the post I wrote on this subject last year around this time.  It sure paid off.  We’re nearing a completed script that is almost “industry ready.”

It’s a New Year and a time for a New Direction.

Josh and I are getting ready to launch a brand new film review blog aimed at those of you who have precious little time in your lives and don’t want to waste it on “bad” movies.  We want to help you navigate the sometimes overwhelming list of movies you “should” watch by pairing it down into lists of those you’ll enjoy, those you’ll learn from, and those you’ll probably be bored with.

Stay tuned for more news on that.

As for Dawsbrothers.com, we’ll keep it around to be more of a personal blog about our experiences pursuing this crazy dream in this crazy city.  We spent six weeks back in Georgia for the holidays.  Boy, is life in the south different from life in Los Angeles.  I had almost forgotten.

But we’re back in L.A. now and bound to have many more ADVENTURES in 2011.  Stay tuned!

Recently, Josh (my brother and writing partner) and I took Josh’s son to a science museum in Los Angeles.  As we walked around I noticed something very interesting.  Josh gravitated to the science exhibits and I was completely bored.  When we came to historical exhibits, I was enthralled and Josh wasn’t terribly interested.

This reminded me of our writing process.  Josh is more interested in the nuts and bolts of how our story works (the plot) while I’m more interested in the moments in time that our hero is experiencing and his emotional reaction.  It’s weird how that worked out.

We compliment each others’ strengths.  It makes for a perfect partnership.  If you are looking for a writing partner, make sure he or she is a good fit.  I love the fact that where I’m weak as a writer, Josh is strong.  And vice versa.

For me one of the highlights of TCM’s first annual Classic Film Festival was the premiere of the extensively restored version of Fritz Lang’s 1927 Masterpiece. Now you get to see why, because the same restoration will be airing this Sunday, November 7th at 5PM (PST). Metropolis is an iconic example of German expressionism and really shows the misunderstood genre off to its best. The use of extreme (and sometimes surreal) set design relies upon black and white cinematography to show it off in a way that color just can’t, and the marriage between the two elements here is nothing short of stunning. The visuals alone are worthy of viewing in absolute silence.

Set in the future, the story revolves around a society where there exists only the extremely privileged and the over wrought working class that maintains the city. The some-what Romeo and Juliet story tells a good love story, while offering a virtual treaty on the state of humanity and man’s ill treatment of his fellow man. In general, Metropolis will give you an appreciation for the art of the silent film drama, and entertain you in a way you did think possible. Don’t be surprised if after viewing this gem you start watching more and more of the great Silents (which happen to be on TCM every Sunday night).

If you follow either of us on Twitter or Facebook, then this is old news.  For those of you that don’t (or somehow missed all of our tweets), we’re pleased to announce the birth of Josh’s second son, Hudson Alexander Daws.

He was born at 8:05am PST and weighed a healthy 8 lbs even. He was 21 inches long.  He and Becca are doing great.

With the arrival of Hudson, we now have a second set of Daws Brothers in the family.  Check out this picture of the “original” Daws Brothers with the “new” Daws Brothers – Grant and Hudson.

Finally!  A great director is blogging!  And what better person both because of his name and because of his sheer volume of knowledge than Peter Bogdanovich.

His website is simply blogdanovich.com

If you are unfamiliar with Peter Bogdanovich, check out my post about his most famous film, The Last Picture Show.

Josh and I had the privilege of hearing a discussion between Peter Bogdanovich and Leonard Maltin at this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival.  Check out my post.

And if you haven’t seen what I think is his best film, Paper Moon, do yourself a favor and rent it.  NOW!

Are there any other great directors blogging that I don’t know about?

Where is Spielberg’s Sprinklings?  Nolan’s Noodlings?  Scorsese’s Scratchings? (Maybe they’re trying to figure out good blog titles.)

Comedy is mostly without honor. Too often, comedy is treated as the bastard stepchild of American film. Rarely nominated for Academy Awards, or accorded the respect of a thoughtful newspaper review, comedies are considered the most disposable product of an industry dedicated to producing alluring but insubstantial goods. Drama, whatever its deficiencies, is granted the respect culture lends to noble intentions. Comedies, meanwhile, are seldom treated with the same deference.

And yet, comedy has always been one of the richest veins of American cinematic culture. Beginning with the silent era, when Charlie Chaplin was, for a time, the most recognizable face on Earth, comedy (alongside those other evergreen genres, the Western and the musical) has been what American films have done best. Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Ernst Lubitsch, Preston Sturges, the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Mae West, Cary Grant, Billy Wilder, Jerry Lewis, Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Eddie Murphy, Albert Brooks, Ben Stiller — the list of standout comedic performers and directors overlaps with the list of exceptional American cinematic performers and directors, period.

Without further ado, then, here is a starter list of great American comedies — a sampler box of goodies, with one film chosen from each decade. It is hardly meant to be complete list of classics: for that, see my book Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy, which has my selection of the 100 greatest American comedies ever made. Instead, it is an introduction to that most underappreciated of genres — the comedy.

1. The Immigrant (Charlie Chaplin, 1917)

The Immigrant, the greatest of Chaplin’s shorts, is a film whose herky-jerky rhythms match those of the boat the Tramp takes to America: the Cy Young windup Chaplin uses to throw dice, the soup bowls skidding from one end of the dinner table to the other, serving two diners simultaneously, the alternation of whimsical and heartrending sequences. As a director, Chaplin nurtures an irony and delicacy that complement his balletic physicality and otherworldly grace as an actor. Chaplin was just beginning to experiment with films that were greater than the sum of their routines — an effort that would pay off with future masterpieces like The Gold Rush and City Lights. But if a comedy was more than just a comedy, could it still be funny? The answer was an unambiguous yes.

2. Sherlock, Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)

Sherlock Jr., Keaton’s funniest, and arguably his most accomplished, picture, was a master class in filmmaking doubling as a comedy. Walter Kerr described it as “simultaneously brilliant film comedy and brilliant film criticism.” Buster’s motion-picture projectionist dreams himself onto the big screen, emulating his favorite detectives while solving crimes with panache. The effect would be repeated numerous times by other filmmakers (most notably Woody Allen with The Purple Rose of Cairo), but Sherlock is uniquely consumed by the fundamental oddity of the motion picture as an art form.

3. Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)

Too quick for their dim-witted persecutors, the Marxes had unleashed a barely controlled chaos over the course of four films. They had yet to meet a foil agile enough to parry with them, or a director able to corral their energy. Leo McCarey and Duck Soup would change all that. It is the Marx Brothers’ masterpiece, and one of the small handful of undying works of comic genius produced by the American cinema. It channels their peculiar genius and mobilizes it for prescient, biting satire. Battling paper tigers no longer, Duck Soup finds the Marx Brothers unleashing the dogs of war.

4. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)

If aliens ever come to Earth and demand a fuller understanding of the moving pictures that seemed to occupy so much of our time in the 20th century, it would be best if we cut directly to the chase and screen the inimitable Ernst Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner (1940) for them. The Shop Around the Corner is pure cinematic magic: the kind that, seen once, is indelibly burned into our brains, stored in the grottoes of recollection with the care and sentimental affection normally accorded only to our own fondest memories. The stupendous array of supporting characters in The Shop Around the Corner provide a milieu in which yearning lovers James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan insert themselves. The Shop Around the Corner is a melancholy romantic comedy that takes place on the brink of an abyss, and while Lubitsch is too much the comic raconteur to send his film over the edge, he pauses long enough for a sustained look. If you think you’ve seen this because you saw the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan remake You’ve Got Mail, do yourself a favor and see the real thing.

5. Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)

Perhaps it makes the most sense to think of Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), the itinerant musicians of Some Like It Hot, as the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in a free replay of Howard Hawks’ Scarface. Adrift in a gangster epic not their own, these comic fools have been cut loose from their moorings, left to their own devices in a distinctly hostile world.A deliriously gender-bending exercise in over-the-top comic mania, Billy Wilder’s film features the best-ever performance from that underrated comedic master, Marilyn Monroe. Monroe sparkles as a romantic heroine with a self-deprecating streak, and Lemmon and Curtis are an ideal odd couple, years before Lemmon starred in The Odd Couple. “Nobody’s perfect,” as the film deliciously reminds us, but Some Like It Hot comes close.

6. Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)

Dr. Strangelove is a Cold War comedy of frustration, whose scramble to avoid nuclear calamity is repeatedly spoiled by homegrown idiocy, knavery, and right-wing quackery — much of it in the form of star Peter Sellers, who plays three roles here. Director Stanley Kubrick once said of Strangelove star Peter Sellers, “There is no such person.” Seeing Dr. Strangelove, one begins to understand. Each character Sellers played bore so little relation to the others that it was nearly impossible to believe the same actor was behind them all. Possessed with a bursting enthusiasm for the glories of the post-apocalyptic, Sellers’ Dr. Strangelove is the dark angel of the mushroom cloud. Confined to a wheelchair, with an enormous upswept quiff of hair, and a single black glove, he is a lavishly ornamented peacock in a sea of buzzcuts.

7. Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)

Annie Hall (1977) had begun life as a loose-jointed mystery story before preview screenings decisively demonstrated that audiences preferred the relationship drama to the ostensible suspense plot. Even without the mystery story, Annie Hall is still two films in one: one a loose-jointed comedy in the vein of Allen’s earlier Sleeper, and the other a tender romance offering the first glimmers of Allen’s serious side. The looseness of Allen’s earlier work is unchanged, but the Marshall McLuhan cameos, animated sequences, flashbacks, and direct addresses to the camera are now all newly relevant, puzzle pieces for Annie Hall’s mixed-up jigsaw of human frailty. Annie Hall is one of the director’s funniest, and most touching, films, and the addition of Allen and Diane Keaton’s charming, messy, unsalvageable relationship to the template established by Bananas and Sleeper transforms Annie Hall into something entirely new for Allen: a somber comedy.

8. Lost in America (Albert Brooks, 1985)

The criminally underrated Albert Brooks takes that late 1960′s classic of rebel culture, Easy Rider, and turns it inside-out for the go-go 1980′s, crafting a parable of easily tempered yuppie rebellion. Distraught at the collapse of his ambitions — he’d picked out the new Mercedes and everything!  — Brooks’ brittle yuppie convinces his wife to leave Los Angeles behind and explore the wide-open spaces of America. What they find is tragically, hilariously meager. The more delusional his characters, the happier Brooks is as a filmmaker.

9. The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998)

Looking for the missing trophy wife of a wheelchair-bound industrialist also named Lebowski, Jeff Bridges’ Dude encounters the Coen brothers’ broadest-ever array of screwballs and cranks: vaginally fixated performance artists, sex-offending bowlers, and wandering cowboys, drifted over from some other Wild West. The Big Lebowski is a wormhole down which one can disappear and never return. Lebowski is a marvel, being essentially a single, film-length shaggy-dog tale enclosed within an astonishingly tight script. The Big Lebowski is Raymond Chandler refracted through the perspective of a drug-addled hippie, The Long Goodbye if Elliott Gould’s Marlowe had chosen not to refrain from smoking a joint with his neighbors. The Dude abides.

10. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Adam McKay, 2004)

Like Lebowski, another bottomless treasure-trove of quotable lines. Will Ferrell’s performance as a narcissistic San Diego newscaster is nothing short of brilliant, with notes of carefully honed self-absorption mingling with defensiveness, clumsy aggression, and a trace of wounded romanticism. Ron Burgundy is a marvelous caricature, half-cad and half-buffoon, the kind of guy who, when summoned onstage at a jazz club, professes surprise as he pulls a flute out of his jacket pocket. Ferrell is the ringmaster here for a glittering cast that includes Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and Christina Applegate, his parody of oily self-assurance putting the entire film into air-quotes.

© 2010 Saul Austerlitz, author of Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy
Author Bio

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Saul Austerlitz’s work has been published in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, Slate, and other publications. He is the author of Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes and Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy.

For more information please visit www.saulausterlitz.com and visit the author on Facebook and Twitter.

Today we have a guest post by our friend Nathaniel Thomas McGill.  He was one of the producers on our first feature, Dangerous Calling.  He’s also produced multiple short films and a feature length documentary called An Inconvenient Tax.

I love going to the theater in the summertime. As soon as the first blockbuster release date is announced I start getting excited. Sure, I get disappointed when movies suck, but I never miss the release of an awaited feature.  Even when in production, I’d find my opportunity to sneak away and double feature them if necessary. The rest of the year I try to focus on independents, documentaries, and films with more “significant” ideas, but during the summer I’m just a twelve-year-old boy that wants to hear a good story and see something explode.

There is something magically nostalgic about over paying for coke and popcorn, sitting in the dead center of the theater and falling into the suture of a summer blockbuster. Sure, it’s gotten pretty expensive over the last few years, but I’ve remained true to my tradition. That is, until this summer.  Sadly enough, the best movie experience I’ve had this summer is when I stayed at home and re-watched the 1st blockbuster - Jaws – instead, which celebrated its 35th anniversary this year.

Sure I was excited about Iron Man 2, but they just added 2 of everything.

Robin Hood was so bad it made me laugh and cry. (Laugh when Scott turned the film into Saving Private Ryan with bows and arrows, and cry that I paid 12 bucks to see it.)

While I had a great time with A-Team, isn’t it getting ridiculous the amount of TV and Video game adaptations we have to put up with?

M. Night lost it years ago, and the other films like Predators had such revealing reviews that I just didn’t give it the chance to waste my money.

I shamefully admit that I went to see Grown-ups and geez… now I am just depressed at what a suck fest this summer has been.

Of course, Toy Story 3 was a great time, but still, enough with the 3D thing. Let’s try to make something worth watching in 2D first.

I just don’t know that I can afford this anymore. I’ll see Inception, but its just too late in the game to not feel betrayed by this summer. Ticket prices are higher than ever and the movies are just horrible. So, I’ve found a new hobby for movie summer and if you’ve had enough, you should do the same. Go to NetFlicks or the Bluray/DVD store of your choice and marathon the summer films celebrating milestone anniversaries.

Celebrating 25 years, and possibly one of the greatest movie summers of all time is 1985. Listen and learn present day Hollywood! How is it that with no CG or digital effects you let this year kick the crap out of you? Tickets were like $2.75 back then. Take it in. All these films came out in one summer!

Brewster’s Millions, Rambo 2, A View to a kill (Roger Moore’s last Bond film), Fletch, The Goonies, Pale Rider, St. Elmo’s Fire, Back To The Future, Explorers, Silverado, The Man With One Red Shoe, Day of The Dead, European Vacation, Follow That Bird, Fright Night, Weird Science, Pee Wees Big Adventure, Summer Rental, Return of The Living Dead, Volunteers, Teen Wolf, Better Off Dead… just to name a few.

You know you are having a good year when the not so great movies to come out are The Black Cauldon, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Cocoon, and Return to Oz.

Our apologies.  We’ve been silent for a few weeks now.  But we have good reasons.

1)  Josh and I are working furiously on our new screenplay.

2)  I started a job last month as the lead assistant editor for a reality TV show on Spike called Scrappers.  It’s a great “day job.”  I get paid pretty well, I like my co-workers, and the show is really fun and well-made.  Working a “day job” in TV is great because it expands my contacts, pays my bills, and gives me experience.  Sure, I’d love to be paid to write and direct immediately but in the current economic climate, I’m thankful just to be working.

The only downside is that it eats into our writing schedule.  I have to commute from Burbank to Santa Monica.  For you Southern Californians, you know that isn’t fun.  Josh and I write from 6am till 9am and then I head off to work from 10am till 7 and then fight LA traffic back home.  Lately, as the show is nearing completion, I’ve been staying at work later -  8 or 9, or sometimes 10pm.

As you can see, this doesn’t leave much time for anything else.  At the end of the day, I sit down and usually fall right to sleep.  My roommates always quote Back to the Future – “Did you sleep in your clothes again, Marty?”

Josh and I try to live by a Bible verse found in Proverbs – “Do you see a man diligent in his business?  He will stand before kings.”  But I have to admit, it sure is exhausting being diligent.

You may be wondering what a lead assistant editor does.  Well, let me shed some light on the subject.

Every show has a production crew who shoots the footage.  Every show has editors.  Someone needs to get that footage to the editors in a format that they can use.  That’s where I come in.  My team and I get the footage into the computers and then organize it so that the editors can easily find all the footage they need to cut the shows.  (That actually makes us sound like “middle men.”  Haha.)

We also assist in technical issues as well as walk the show through the entire “Online” process (sound mix and color correction.)  I am one of the last people to lay eyes on the show before it airs.

Scrappers premieres on Spike tonight (August 3rd) at 10pm.  If you watch it, look for my credit at the end.  It will be on screen for 19 frames.  (1 second = 30 frames.)  Don’t blink.  You might miss it.

On Thursday of last week, Josh and I waited in line for almost 5 hours to be one of the first in America to own a brand new iPhone 4.  I was excited about many of the new features including Face Time (video chatting) and Multi-tasking.  But the most surprising new addition to this new iPhone is its ability to shoot and edit HD video.

Apple released iMovie for the iPhone the same day the new phone was released.  At first I was a scoffer.  For $4.99, how could this app be useful as a tool to cut video?  It had to be a gimmick, right?

Wrong!

Over the weekend, my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and I took an overnight trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and I thought this would be a perfect chance to put the new iPhone through it’s paces.  And boy did I.  I was shooting pictures and video almost the entire time.  (The battery life is surprisingly good.)

(Check out the photo quality.  This one looks like a Bob Ross painting.)

Because we spent a fair amount of time in the car traveling to and from the parks plus travel between them, I was able to start editing the footage right away and I’d like to share my thoughts on the iPhone as an editing suite.

iMovie for iPhone allows you to cut video determining the ins and outs with a fair amount of precision.  You can add a cross dissolve between the clips and determine the length of the cross dissolve.  You can also decide NOT to use a dissolve.

iMovie gives you a few different options for adding titles.   You select a theme that determines the overall look of the titles and can then choose from a few different styles within that theme for different kinds of titles.  Unfortunately, you can not easily create a full screen title.  I got around this point by creating a blank note and then typing up what I wanted the title to say and then taking a screen grab.

iMovie allows you to insert video, photos, and music all from your iPhone.  Any song from your iTunes can be inserted underneath the video track (with a few limitations.)  Also, you can select on the video track whether you want the selected video clip’s audio track to be on or off.  I love that you can determine that on a clip by clip basis rather than selecting all on or all off.  One downside to the music track is that you can’t add more music if the song ends.  And if you want to cross fade to another song, you can’t.

Overall, I’m VERY pleased with iMovie for iPhone and I’m excited to see what updates they release for the app.

Below you can see the videos that I cut for the trip.  The downside to uploading from your iPhone 4 is that it doesn’t send HD video to Youtube.  I hope they fix that.  Check them out -

Part 1 of our trip video:

Part 2 of our trip video:

What are you waiting for?  Go out and get the iPhone 4!  And for you Blackberry users – what cool things can your phone do?

This past Monday, Josh and I had the honor to interview Dave Smith, the founder and director of the Walt Disney Archives.  We met with him in his office on the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank.

We were there to cover the 40th anniversary of the Archives for InsidetheMagic.net.  We’ll be posting the majority of our coverage over there.  But I wanted to share with you Dave’s answer to one very important question.

I asked Dave what he had gleaned over the last 40 years of studying Walt’s life that would indicate what made Walt Disney so successful.  This is what he said:

“I think the basic quality about Walt is that he was a genius in knowing what the public wanted in entertainment.  He didn’t listen to all of his critics that tried to talk him out of doing things he wanted to do because he knew what would interest the public.  And that was proved true throughout his career.

He was always trying new things… things that other companies and individuals were afraid to do.  He was always willing to put up his money to do things that other people didn’t want to do.

Of course, most people were afraid that these things wouldn’t be successful.  He wasn’t afraid they weren’t going to be successful.  He knew they were going to be successful.  Now if only we all had that ability… but I think that was indeed where he was a genius and I think that was his most important quality.”

Some key points stuck out at me from what Dave said.

• Walt didn’t listen to the naysayers in his life
• Walt tried new things – always
• Walt was a risk-taker
• Walt believed completely in his projects

I’d like to share one more quote by Walt Disney himself which backs up what Dave Smith observed.

“Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making his dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C’s. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of these is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way.”

I believe that you and I can be just as big an impact on our world as Walt Disney.  I’m prepared to try.  Are you?

I’ve been having some amazing adventures since I moved to Los Angeles over a year ago.  Not all of them have been directly film related but they have been opportunities I wouldn’t have had in Atlanta.

Last week, I had the opportunity to cover a major media event at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.  They were unveiling their new night time water show, World of Color. I scored my invite through my work over at www.InsidetheMagic.net and because of the work we do here at DawsBrothers.com.

On top of the premiere of World of Color, the event consisted of a Red Carpet, a pre-show with a really impressive talking Mickey Mouse, and an after party.

The Red Carpet was actually blue – I’m assuming because World of Color is a water show.  Click here to see pictures from the carpet.  You’ll see stars like Vanessa Hudgens, Jason Segel, John Stamos, Geena Davis, and Terri Hatcher.  Plus, there are some really neat puppets.

The talking Mickey Mouse at the pre-show was amazing.  Disney had been testing this technology through private interactions with guests at Disneyland for a few months.  This was the first public use of the technology.  Check out this video:

After the pre-show, we saw World of Color and you can read my review of the show here.

The show finished and Ricky Brigante (from Inside The Magic) and I headed back to the Grand Californian Hotel to start capturing our footage.  Then we headed over to an area of Disney California Adventure called Paradise Pier.  That portion of the park had been completely emptied of guests and they threw a private party for all of us media and all of the celebrities.

And it was the best party I’ve ever been to.  There was free catered food, free churos, free drinks, free games, and most of the attractions in that area were running (and with no wait.)  There was a cover band doing mostly Black-eyed Peas and Fergie songs and the music wasn’t so loud that you couldn’t think.  It was perfect.  Even Mickey Mouse was there taking pictures with everyone.

At one point I found myself standing with The Bachelor on my left and John Stamos on my right.  It was surreal.  John Lassiter was also on hand with his family.

The party ended and I headed home glowing from such a magical evening.

The next morning I went back to Disneyland to see a press event called “What’s Next?”  During the show, they unveiled new changes to the Disneyland Resort and the Disney Cruise Line.  To check out those updates, click here.

The coolest part of the “What’s Next?” event was the fact that Jodi Benson, who was the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, performed live on stage.  You can see that video here:

Needless to say, I highly recommend blogging because it opens up some really cool doors.

I’m so thankful I decided to move to Los Angeles.  These opportunities are some that I treasure.  It’s all about finding joy in the journey.

What are some of life’s little blessings that you’ve gotten to experience along your journey?