Category: Blogger Archive

These posts were made before the blog switched to WordPress, therefore links and images may be faulty.

Big’s Movie Review

Memento
This movie written and directed by Christopher Nolan stars Guy Pearce, that will make you really wonder until the very end. The movie is presented in black and white and color. Guy plays a man, Leonard, who has anterograde amnesia and is trying to find his wife’s murder. Anterograde is where you can form new memories, so how he tries to deal with it is by taking photos and tattooing important things onto his body. The movie is in black and white while it explains part of his problem and how there was another man that had same problem, Sammy, Leonard worked with Sammy before Leonard came into his current state. The color scenes are show in reverse order starting with him killing a man named Teddy, Joe Pantoliano. The plot goes from the present to a few days ago with the color scenes playing through until he loses his memory again that is when it switches to black and white. It is a confusing story line because you see the second part of every part of the story. So it gives you B to A then Black and White then C to B. You soon realize what is going on and it becomes easier to follow. Eventually you figure out what happened and it blows your mind. Carrie-Anne Moss’s character, Natalie, messes with Leonard to get what she wants. Leonard has no idea what is truly going on so he follows his photos and tattoos religiously, believing whatever is written by him self. The movie is very well written and has a great plot and ending.
I am giving it a
4 out of 5 on the BigBerry Scale

TItans Clash, but is it a Smash?

Short answer: No.

Slightly longer answer: Clash of the Titans* is a decent entertainment package that is entertaining to watch but doesn’t push any boundaries like the original film did. Nevertheless it is worth the time to watch and I honestly have more good than bad to say. But a smash hit it is not.
 


 Really long answer: If you haven’t seen the original 1981 flick I highly recommend you do so. The special effects were astonishingly good for their time and the movie is entertaining. Not to mention you get to see a lot of Bubo, Athena’s mechanical owl which follows Perseus around on his quest. In fact, all the monsters in the original were made the old fashioned way, no CGI rendering. All the monsters are excellently made by Ray Harryhausen This gives the film a classic feel. Anyway, go watch it. It’s an “Epic Entertainment Spectacular!”

I did not see the new movie in 3D because Augusta has nothing fancy despite being the capital of Maine.  Going into the film I was expecting a large crowd seeing as it was opening day. There were only a few dozen in the showing I went to, displaying once again what tough economic times we are in. Since this movie really kicks off the summer blockbuster season I wasn’t expecting a deep storyline or phenomenal dialogue. I was expecting giant scorpions snipping people in two, Medusa making lifelike statues, and a giant turtle…..I mean Kraken. Seriously though, it looks like a cross between your typical squid-like Kraken, a turtle, and the Rancor from Star Wars. The old one looked laughably like a swamp monster. The movie delivered on the action front but skimped on story. Character development was okay but nothing special.

There were two guys in the film who apparently were supposed to be the comic relief. They were hunters, claiming to be capable of killing anything…unless it’s in the underworld. Their characters were underdeveloped and weak, lacking any real value in either comic relief or story and only moderate value in action.


The biggest problem I had with the film was they needed MORE BUBO! I mean COME ON! Bubo was the coolest part of the original film. A fully animated mechanical owl with a heroic side. He only appears once as a brief homage to the original film and he isn’t even animated.

Even if Bubo didn’t get the screentime he deserved, the film did do some really cool updates to the old movie. Mount Olympus was very impressive, though a nice full CGI shot would’ve been cool. The underworld and the medusa scene were well done and added the urgency that the original film lacks. Overall the film was very entertaining with an appropriately epic soundtrack.

Rating?  87%**. The movie did what it set out to do, did it well, and didn’t leave me with a feeling of dissapointment. That’s all I ask.

*Side rant: Why do they always make movie-sites so large it takes three hours to load them? Darn it all. However, you can do one of those neato 3D card things with the kraken here.
**I’m switching to a percentage rating system because it allows me to be more precise. Otherwise I’ll feel like I’m giving too many films the same rating that are really on different levels.

Supreme Scriptness!


With all the buzz about Script Frenzy and the idea that any individual can write a interesting script all their own I decided to research a few programs through Videomaker’s website, in hopes of finding a good review on an impressive script-writing program. Alas I stumbled upon an article reviewing Adobe Story an online script writing program. This program can be run through a browser such as… well anything but Safari. This means no download which can be great, however if you wanna run it offline, a download is available. The program has a rather classic user interface, which a lot of people will come to appreciate, and is sincerely useful when it comes to sorting projects with an “on the go” sidebar. Personally I believe this could be extremely useful for our Video Production class. We could fully produce a number of great films whether shorter or longer, by accurately planning out their scripts, and the fact that this program is incredibly user-friendly only makes it a greater class room tool. Overall I would give this program 3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars, for it is extremely useful, and simple at the same time.

MIBII

Joey Brennan

When to Move the Camera
This article tells you a little about the early history of film making and why directors did not move the camera. Most directors did not move the camera in there films because they thought it would make it confusing for people to follow the story line. It is very obvious now that it is very important to have camera movements in your movie, short film, montage, or whatever you may be doing. Of course there are exceptions.
They describe a James Bond film and how the tilt shot is used effectively. This shot allows the viewer to see every foot of his decent. After he leaps they are able to use a number of cameras so you see every foot of his fall. In this article they will tell you about a number of different shots that you can use to really help the effects of your film. One shot that stood out to me that James Cameron is also a fan of is called the Pedestal. They use an example in the terminator where Arnold goes into a bar and takes someones clothes. you do not see him physically take the clothes but it when he is walking outside all you see is his boots. The camera slowly pans up showing you his full attire. An outstanding but very hard to do shot which is called the “zolly.” This shot which Steven Spielburg used in the popular movie jaws allows the character or object to stay in place while the background is moving closer or getting farther away. To do this effect the zoom and the movement must be perfectly nsync. You zoom in while moving the dolly backwards or vice-versa.
This article was very interesting and I actually learned a good amount of new shots.

Surplus of Space

Hey y’all, Chris Balcer here again. Just because I can’t talk, doesn’t mean I can’t blog. Anyway, let’s get to it.
You’ve all undoubtedly run into the issue of not having enough space. Whether it’s an iPod, a mini DV tape, a computer’s hard drive, or your own head, you’ve had storage issues before relating to not having enough space. Well, these guys say that’s not a bad thing. Storage limitations create boundaries. You try to be more concise, more efficient, more competent at using what limited space you have. However, with some new inventions like the Flip Video, you literally never run out of space. The thing offloads all the video you shoot onto some parallel plane of infinite storage capacity simply known as “The Cloud”. (The Internets are completely unhelpful in this regard, as well. I still have no idea what “The Cloud” is specifically.) Anyway, this infinite amount of space available for as little as $130 for the common man is actually detrimental to the video industry. People are getting lazier with what they edit out, and home-made films are getting longer and longer, with no actual meaningful content being added. This leads to an oversaturation of media, and… well, nothing really good comes of that. So remember, keep your content meaningful, keep it simple, and keep it short. That way, you can use the infinite supplies of storage space wisely.

MISSION: CABARET 2010

Cabaret has to be finished by the end of this week. No exceptions. Shaw has put a lot of emphasis on this project being completed, and with Anna, Pat, and I working on it during our class time it should be done by the end of the week. The sooner we complete it, the sooner it can be sold and distributed and we make money!
I’m putting most of my projects on hold right now to get Cabaret 2010 done. Im almost halfway through the first act and most song shouldn’t be a big problem because the singers are stationary for the duration of the song. Songs like “Sweet Tangerine” and “Around the World” are another issue…


Review for War of the Worlds (2005 Steven Spielberg Film)

All righty, time for another amazing review of a movie. I’m sure you are all familiar with H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. Well, this is the most recent video adaptation of it, at least that I’m aware of. Anyway, it starts out with Tom Cruise and two whiny kids hanging out with him (their separated dad.) So while that’s happening, there’s this weird storm, and something cool falls to Earth. It falls in multiple places, too. What could it be? Gold? Transformers? Health care? No! In fact, it’s a bunch of killer tripod robots, manned by aliens. (They are not from Mars, read the wiki.) They start laz0ring everybody, and woe and despair fills all. Mr. Cruise and bratty kids try to escape to Boston, but are defeated by an angry mob tearing their car apart. The bratty boy goes running off with the army to help die, and the bratty girl goes with Mr. Cruise to continue to Boston to get to mom. They encounter a few more surprises (which I won’t ruin for you), and then eventually reach the end, yay, happy ending. It actually followed the book somewhat well, I thought. I mean, it stayed within the general plot lines. But whatever.
The effects and camera work were fantastic (It’s Steven Spielberg here), and I thought that the fact that people got blasted into little bits of dust by a giant laz0r was AWESOME. (Also the part with Tom freaking out that he was covered in dust and that dust was people made me laugh). I give it a 4 out of 5, mainly because the bratty kids wouldn’t stop whining.

FMJ


It is the Vietnam war, American citizens are creating an outcry for peace and the army/government refuses to yield. Meanwhile, our young men drafted from across the U.S. are dieing to guerrilla warfare, in battles that are almost meaningless to our country. This is a prelude to Full Metal Jacket, written by Stanley Kubrick.
As the movie begins Joker, Pyle, Animal Mother, Rafterman, etc… are all attempting to make it through the USMC boot camp. However, they are quickly taken to Vietnam to help support our troops out there. Fraught with danger, they are dropped down and entered in with the Tet Offensive, making their way through I.E.D.’s, snipers and guerrilla fighters.
Throughout this, instead of a sense of excitement and adrenaline packed fight scenes, you actually get a feeling of depression as you slowly see a platoon of men getting slowly decimated for a cause which none of them really understand. Then we see Gunnery Sergeant Hartman’s predictions come to life, as he trains and leads them throughout the movie he foresees Pyle as being one of the best marines to be. Pyle lives up to most expectations as he starts becoming in himself a deadly weapon of war. However Joker seems to be a slight let down as he is afraid to act when the time comes where he is needed.
Now we find ourselves entering the second section of this two-part film. Joker then takes the lead roll yet again, as we delve into his personality and reasons for joining the Marine Corps. He describes how he wanted to be a killer, but when he was tossed head over heals into the Tet Offensive, he finds it difficult to kill another live human being. In total he must decide if he is the killer he wanted to be.
Reverting back to the Marine Corps. Training we see Pyle and Joker as they progress from untrained, unskilled men into somewhat fighting machines. Pyle is shown as being a slightly obese and very simple minded man, screwing up throughout boot camp, Pyle is then assigned as his tutor. Although this does help for a short time, It all comes to a head when group discussions and help turn into abusive sessions, where Pyle is the target.
Overall this movie is a great piece of American film and all should watch it. If you “enjoyed” Platoon, this movie is another good watch for you. Personally I would give it a 4/5 and I must say I am impressed how much it did affect me since I watched it for the first time around five years ago.

The Island Movie Review

The other night, I was with some friends and we decided to watch The Island. I hadn’t seen that movie in ages, and I forgot how much I loved it. Now that I’ve been watching movies with a critical eye, I knew that I might not like it as much.

Simply put, the movie has some amazing shots and effects, but the dialogue makes it suffer. If I can predict what the actors are going to say before they say it, something’s wrong there. I was able to do that multiple times. But there’s a lot of cool angles and breathtaking shots, so that makes up for some of it.

This isn’t going to affect my overall rating, but can I just say this: Scarlett Johansan has the voice of a MAN! You’d think that she was meant to be the male lead, not Ewan McGregor! We had so much fun just mocking her screams and whatnot.

I give The Island a 7 out of 10 for its cool effects, shots, and action sequences – the dialogue was almost painful to listen to.

Samstar