AFR Film Workshop
Posted by Josh on August 14th, 2008 @ 11:44 PM | Comments (1)

We’re leaving tomorrow to go out to LA for the AFR Film Workshop.  We’ll be there through Sunday and will be blogging/twittering as much as we can.  Stay tuned for updates.

Dangerous Calling Update
Posted by Josh on July 31st, 2008 @ 09:18 AM | Comments (0)

I know.  It’s been a while.  Sorry.  The big news is that Dangerous Calling will be playing twice at the Rome International Film Festival in September.  (Rome, GA not Rome, Italy)  This will be your first chance to see the completely finished film.  The score was just recently recorded, and we’re working hard to get the final mix finished.  It’s incredible.  Our composers have done an outstanding job.  If you’ve seen an earlier cut, you’ll want to see it with the new score.  It takes it up to a whole new level.

The two screenings will take place on September 6, 2008 at 11am and 9pm.  Please visit http://rome.bside.com/2008 for more information.  Tickets go on sale August 1st.  Seating is limited, so be sure to get your tickets soon.

Bob Ross
Posted by Jeremiah on July 21st, 2008 @ 11:09 AM | Comments (7)

I turned 28 last week. I don’t feel 28. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve aged past 1989. That was the best time of my life and I’m still living in that time period. I still buy G.I. Joes, I still play with my toy lightsabers, and my favorite movie is still Back to the Future. So I guess you could say I’m a 9-year-old stuck in a 28-year-old’s body.

Anyway, for my 28th birthday, I received a Bob Ross Joy of Painting paint set! I was so excited about this present. I know a lot of you out there have dreamed of trying to paint like Bob so I thought I’d share my experience with you. I for one have always wanted to try it. Painting appeals to me because it lets you create your own world in a visual medium. I’ve never been any good at drawing but I thought maybe I’d be good at painting.

Before I go on, let me explain that I have never painted anything in my life. I don’t consider myself an art expert. I told my cousin who was an art major in college what I am doing and he snickered. Apparently, Bob Ross’ style is ridiculed in finer circles. But I don’t care. He makes those clouds and mountains look more real than most paintings. (And no cracks about just taking a photograph.)

Before I started painting, I watched about 20 episodes of the show that I found online. I paid extra special attention to what he said and did in preparation for my first painting. The Bob Ross technique is a Wet-On-Wet technique - meaning that you first cover the canvas with a really thin coat of liquid white. This allows you to blend the paint right on the canvas.

My first attempt at doing the Bob Ross technique was a disaster. I used a small canvas - like a 6 x 8 inch canvas board. I used way too much liquid white. And if the canvas isn’t the size Bob uses, you don’t have enough canvas space to mix the colors enough. So my sky was drippy and too dark. I did 3 of these little boards before I realized my mistake.

I got really frustrated that the technique wasn’t working. I couldn’t get the paints to stick to each other and it all just blurred together. On the 2nd painting, I just got angry. Actually, the title of the 2nd painting is “I Got Angry.” The title of the 3rd is “Escape from Paint Island” because I actually quit. I didn’t want to try it again.

But after a few days of feeling like Bob Ross lied to me by telling me I could do it, I decided to try again, this time with a bigger canvas and painting along with Bob.

So the first thing Bob had me do was the sky and water. The blue is the easy part. The clouds were tough.

My biggest problem is getting the paint to stick to the underpaint. You have to use GOBS of white paint to make those clouds stand out. But in the end, I was quite happy. So far so good. I had made clouds.

Then came the mountains. This was cool. I used the knife to make the edges and then a clean brush to pull the shape.

Then the snow on the mountains. I did this with a tiny roll of paint on the knife. This is really hard. You can see where my hand touched the water and made dark spots. It doesn’t look this good up close. I still have to work on my snow.

Then I started with the trees. This is a SCARY point in the painting because I was so proud of my clouds and my mountain that I didn’t want to screw those up by messing up the trees.

And then came the foreground. By this time, my blood pressure is WAY up and I’m telling Bob to shut up and wait. I tried doing it as fast as he did but there was no way.

And after about 3 hours of working on a painting that takes Bob 22 minutes, I had a finished painting. I show you this not to get applause (because it really isn’t that good) but to say that Bob’s technique really does work. But it still takes a lot of practice to perfect his technique. I need to work on my trees and bushes. The paint still sort of blurs together and its tough for me to put a highlight color on top of a darker color because the darker color comes off the canvas and sticks to the brush and then it all just goops together. Really frustrating.

And here is Bob and me, painting together. I gotta grow my hair out and perm it like his.

At one point in the process, the painting fell onto the floor. Fortunately, I had an old blanket on the ground. Let me warn you, paint gets everywhere. It gets all over you. And it gets all over everything that is near you. I got a few spots on the carpet and on some clothes that I shouldn’t have been painting in. They came out because I treated them before they dried. But next time, I won’t be painting in my room. It will be in the garage.

So that is my Bob Ross painting adventure. I strongly urge you to go out and try it. You can get the paint set for about $90. Aside from that, you need canvas - I got 3 large boards for $10 - and you need some odorless paint thinner - that’s another $20. So for $120, you can get started painting the Bob Ross way.

Directing Actors
Posted by Jeremiah on July 16th, 2008 @ 02:15 PM | Comments (0)

A few weeks back, a friend of ours and fellow film blogger asked us to write some articles for his blog. His name is Emmet Gibney and his blog is called Film School Student. We met Emmet when we went out to LA for the Ford event.

I had just finished reading a book called Directing Actors and had been thinking a lot about working with actors. So I wrote a post about it and sent it over to him. He posted it in two parts. Check them out.

Part 1

Part 2

The book is really good. It really helps open up communication between the director and the actor.

Scene Study: There Will Be Blood
Posted by Jeremiah on July 14th, 2008 @ 10:09 PM | Comments (0)

Josh and I have mentioned several times on this blog the film There Will Be Blood. This was my favorite film of 2007. We both were blown away by the storytelling and filmmaking in that film. There wasn’t anything flashy about the movie. Just pure filmmaking.

It’s been a while since I’ve directed anything and from time to time, I like to do an exercise to keep me sharp and to add to my directing bag of tricks. Today I pulled out There Will Be Blood and did a scene study of two scenes. This is something I was taught to do in Film School. I find it an extremely useful tool.

After I pick a scene to study, the first step is to watch the scene. The second step is re-watch it and time it. The third step is re-watch the scene and count the number of cuts.

Then I divide the number of cuts into the length of the clip to get the average shot length.

(The typical action film made today has an average shot length of 3 seconds. The Bourne movies are much less. Spielberg’s shooting style is probably around 5 seconds and Shyamalan’s films are like 8 seconds per shot. We tend to go at Spielberg’s pace.)

After that, I start to dissect how the director covered the scene - the camera angles. At this point, I’ve watched the clip 3 or 4 times so I’ve stopped watching the story and acting and I’m taking notice of the angles. So I watch it again and try to spot which cuts are cutting back to shots already seen in the scene.

Then I make a list of all the setups and try to spot exactly what they do. For example, shot 1 could be - MS on Daniel -> Pans down to his shoes -> Dollys back.

So after spotting all the shots, I count them and compare that to how long the scene is. If it is an action scene or a scene where there is a lot of moving around, the scenes typically have more setups. If it is a dialogue scene, it will have fewer setups.

The last step is to draw a diagram of the set (from what I can tell based on the scene.) Then I’ll draw letters on the set marking each of the characters marks and their blocking. Then I’ll go back in and place a number and an arrow indicating a camera and what direction it is looking. So now I have a bird’s eye view of where each camera was in the set. This helps me to grasp various ways of shooting scenes.

On a side note, this is a great way of seeing the 180 degree rule at work. Most of the time, you’ll see all the camera angles on one side of the set looking the other way.

(Josh and I did a scene study of a dinner scene in The Aviator to help us understand how to shoot a table scene in Dangerous Calling. Spielberg did the same while filming Jaws. He had so much down time, he just watched old movies all the time and lifted scenes from them. If he can do it, we can too. Eventually you learn to make those scenes your own.)

The final step is to do an evaluation of what I have just discovered.

So here is an example of a scene study I did today.

(See the film before you read the rest. There aren’t any spoilers but you won’t know what’s going on.)

Scene - Daniel Plainview beats Eli

This scene takes place 1 hour and 12 minutes and 18 seconds into the DVD.
Length of the scene: 2 min 27 seconds
Number of Cuts: 17
Average shot length - 8.6 seconds
Number of setups - 10 setups

So this tells me the pacing of the scene is slower than most films. It also tells me that it took 10 setups to shoot, so they could have shot it in an afternoon as long as there weren’t too many logistical problems. The biggest problem I could see was the mud. If I were shooting the film, I’d have saved the last two messy shots to be the last two shots we shot. It seems intuitive but sometimes you have to shoot the end of the scene first. The final thing it tells me is that they cut back several times to pre-existing shots.

Shot list:
1) WS - Pipe - Eli walks in frame - pan up to reveal Daniel in distance
2) WS - Dolly with Eli walking left to right
3) WS - POV on Daniel - rough dolly forward at an angle
4) MS - on Eli - Dolly backward
5) MFS - POV on Daniel - rough dolly forward at an angle - dolly stops
6) MS - low angle up to Daniel -> Eli walks in -> dollys back as Daniel hits Eli -> pans down on Eli as he crawls away saying “You owe the church…”
7) MS - low angle up on Eli -> Eli gets slapped and falls -> camera pans down -> dollys forward as Eli crawls away - ends at the mud puddle.
8 ) MS - Daniel - low angle - dollys back - (Could be alternate take of 6 - looks like same setup that just didn’t pan down to Eli)
9) 2 Shot - ground level - workers in background - Daniel and Eli in foreground
10) WS - Eli in mud as Daniel walks away - still ground level

And my diagram of the scene:

Observations:

*The low angle looking up on Daniel makes him seem scarier and in control.
*The reverse starts as a low angle up on Eli. He’s a man on a mission. But before he can get going, Daniel knocks him out of the shot. The camera pans down as Eli takes his place on the ground. That’s exactly what is going on in the scene - Daniel putting Eli in his place. A beautiful way of telling the story with the camera. I usually don’t think that way. (This is why I do these exercises.)

So that’s how I do a scene study. I also did the scene directly following that scene where Eli beats up his father. But, I’m going to let you do your own scene study of that one. Post a comment and let me know what you learn.

And I couldn’t do a post on There Will Be Blood without saying - “I Drink YOUR MILKSHAKE!!!”

An Incovenient Tax
Posted by Jeremiah on June 9th, 2008 @ 05:09 PM | Comments (0)

I wanted to write a quick post about a new project that is being launched by our friends over at Life is My Movie Entertainment. They produced our feature film, Dangerous Calling.

Their new project is called An Inconvenient Tax. I am really excited to see this film. It is examining the problems with the Tax system in America. The plan is to interview several influential politicians and economists to figure out the best solution. The premise is based on a Patrick Henry quote:

“The oppression arising from taxation, is not from the amount but, from the mode… The whole wisdom of the science of Government, with respect to taxation, consists in selecting the mode of collection which will best accommodate to the convenience of the people.”
-Patrick Henry

The film asks these questions -

How does congress go about deciding what changes should be made?

What’s the solution and who will decide it?

They start production next week. You can find out more by going to
www.AnInconvenientTax.com.

D-Day: Remember
Posted by Jeremiah on June 6th, 2008 @ 07:10 AM | Comments (0)

“I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom.” -Abraham Lincoln. (Quoted in Saving Private Ryan.)

Make plans to watch The Longest Day, Saving Private Ryan, or the first couple episodes of Band of Brothers tonight.

Remember what they did.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Crap
Posted by Josh on June 5th, 2008 @ 08:30 AM | Comments (0)

I guess you can tell by the title of this post what I thought of the new Indiana Jones movie. I’m honestly baffled that it’s getting any positive reviews at all. In my opinion it’s much worse than any of the Star Wars prequels which are pretty much universally loathed. If you haven’t seen it, my advice is to skip it. Your life will be better for not having seen this steaming pile of dung. However, if you plan on ignoring my advice, be warned. There be spoilers ahead.

Still with me? Ok. Here we go.

First problem. The beginning. The first three movies start with the end of some other adventure Indy was on. It didn’t have anything to do with the movie we were about to see. The idol in Raiders, Nurhache and the diamond in Temple, and the Cross of Coronado in Last Crusade. This latest movie, starts right into the story. (I use this term loosely as there really is very little story.) Now, some may say I’m just being nostalgic here, that there really is no reason to stick to the established form of the previous movies, but I would disagree. The openings of the previous movies helped to establish our hero as part of a larger world. They added mystery to the character. We never really knew all that much about Indy. The new movie, missed an opportunity to show us what Indy’s life is like 20 years later. Sure we’re told he was in the OSS, but why not start it off by showing us that.

Next thing that really bugged me was the complete and utter implausibility of it. I know all the critics are saying that the old movies were just as silly and unbelievable, but that just isn’t so. The original movies would go just up to the edge of believability and then take one step over the line. In Raiders and Last Crusade, nothing supernatural happens until the end. In Temple, the heart scene and Indy under mind control happen in the middle, but are the only examples of anything mystical. These movies presented our world as a great big mysterious world where magical things just might really happen. The new movie went so far over the line of believability that I was fully aware that I was watching a movie. It never sucked me in and made me believe in magic like the original movies.

Then there was Indy himself. In the original movies, Indy was human. That is what made him so great. His plans never worked. He was always a step behind. He frequently got caught, but always managed to make it out just in the nick of time. He always seemed to be in danger. In the new movie, at the very beginning, he survives a nuclear blast! Let me say that again. HE SURVIVES A NUCLEAR BLAST! It was at that point in the movie that I lost all interest. Where is the danger? If an atom bomb can’t kill him, why on earth should I be fearful that the Russians might kill him

Then there was the confusing story. There were setups without payoffs. Pointless plot points. A confusing macguffin. Does anyone know what the skull was supposed to do and why we didn’t want the Russians to have it? I haven’t a clue. Why not let them take it to the space ship and get destroyed, which is what happens anyway?

I could go on and on about how much I hated this movie, but I’ll leave it at that. I’m going to forget it ever came out and pretend I live in a world with three Indiana Jones films instead of four.

What did you think of the movie?

The Score is…
Posted by Jeremiah on June 2nd, 2008 @ 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

awesome!!!

Josh and I just got back from Los Angeles, California. Or for those in the know - L.A. And we both LOVE it out there. But sadly, we aren’t moving out there just yet. We had an awesome meeting with our composers. They have been working very hard on the music for Dangerous Calling. We got to hear about a third of the music and we really like it. They have done an outstanding job.

It was so exciting to see our film with brand new music over it. So far, we’ve only seen it with James Newton Howard music from Signs and The Village. The new stuff really adds a lot to the film. We are so excited to hear the final music. We are going back to L.A. in a few months for the recording sessions with live musicians!!! I can’t wait.

Our composers have all three won Emmys for their work on Batman The Animated Series. Here is a picture.

Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis, and Kristopher Carter. (By the way, we asked them to hold the Emmy. They are really very nice and down to earth.)

We also took some time to go to Disneyland while we were out there.

The pretty and pregnant lady in the middle is Josh’s wife, Becca.

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.