Day Four of Five Completed!

Yesterday, we finished the fourth day of our shoot. Other than a couple of bumpy areas, it's been going like gangbusters (to quote Shawn McBee) and I thought that in advance of our last day of filming (January 4), I'd post all of the photos we've taken so far.

I was sad that we didn't have a whole lot of photos from the first shoot and resolved that on my next flick there would be as many as possible and set Shawn to the task of taking them. This time, I'm so happy! We have over a hundred photos!! With one day's shoot left, too!

After the pick-ups, I'll post about the shoot as a whole, but for now, enjoy the photos!

Photos and updates and lots of bandwidth-eating stuff....

I uploaded my proof-of-concept greenscreen build photos today and remembered that I never shared the links to the Modesto trip! Sometimes, I have a fantastic memory. Other times, not so much. I know, you've all been holding your breath for these photos!! lol

First of all, here is my latest eye test. This is about one and a half steps from what I want... My usual complaints, the blinking, the tracking...blah, blah, blah. I've had some ideas, but I've put aside the effects tests so I can focus on the homestretch of pre-production on the new flick.



Here is a slideshow of the p-o-c greenscreen build:



And here is a slideshow of my trip to Modesto!

Cause and Effect

As the start date for my new short flick looms ever closer, I find myself torn in millions of directions whereas even a week ago, it was only a hundred or two. I'm not a fan of the Producer part of this level of filmmaking. This one is far more complicated than anything I've taken on before, even as just a camera person for my friends's flicks. I'm talking about the effects. The digital stuff. I prefer practical effects, but at my level, there's just no affording such a thing. I hope to have some practical effects on this one, but I'm not counting on them as I only know one local effects artist, but I don't have his number and one who is a friend of one of my actors is busy with a zombie flick in Tampa. As a zombie fan, I say, "ZOMBIE FILM MORE IMPORTANT!!" Thus, I'm learning how to do some stuff digitally.

If I can, I will be doing some of the practical effects myself. I'm no professional, but I gotta try. However, for everything else...I have to go digital. I have one character who is barely going to be on set except for actual interactions with other people. For him, I will be doing greenscreen work. (see my test for greenscreen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=340Dg2uiHcg) Several of my characters have special eye effects. Two of the characters aren't complicated, but two of them are massively complicated and I've been doing a series of tests involving the eyes (all of which can be found on my youTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/KimyooFilms).

I'm getting closer, though, going by a test I did today.



This is getting pretty close to something I can be happy with. Originally, I wanted something more organic and was going to try to recreate the replicant eyes in Blade Runner. I know the theory behind how, I've read snippets of what the late Jordan Cronenweth, ACE, has written about the eyes, and I've tried it several times, but so far I haven't done it. Even after I finish the film, I'll keep trying because it looks so darn cool, but I don't think I'll be able to figure it out in enough time for the shoot.

Meanwhile, I keep going over in my head how I want certain things to look. My storyboards are...lacking in that department because I use stick figures. Once I'm in post, I'll put them all up on my Flickr account so people can point and laugh (I know I giggle every time I look at them), and I'll do a special storyboard-to-scene comparison, too. I always see these amazing storyboards for movies, it'll be awesome to offer up my stick figures!

As for the practical side of things: actors, locations, my crew, I've adopted a strangely serene attitude. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. One can't force Ka, if one were as geeky as I to reference Roland of Gilead. I'll take my geekiness one step further and quote him: "There will be water if God wills it." I just have to try and apply that to my feelings about the effects.

Nobel Son, Clean, Black Sheep, Tokyo Mater (short), and Nothing Like the Holidays.

Whew! This is going to be one loooooong review dump. I'll try to make it short. My fault. Been really busy with pre-production on the new flick. Right now, I'm at the point where I know I have something I need to do (other than re-storyboard a couple of scenes), but I'll be damned if I can remember what it is. Anyway, onto the reviews!

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Nobel Son was written by Jody Savin and Randall Miller (their blast-off flick was Bottle Shock based on the true story of California wine) and directed by Miller. It's about the kidnapping of the son of a philandering, egotistical Nobel prize winning chemist (brilliantly played by Alan Rickman.)

The cast were all fantastic. There's the formerly mentioned Rickman, Bryan Greenberg as his son, Mary Steenburgen as his wife, and a host of other recognizable faces if not considered stars in their own rights: Ted Danson (Steenburgen's husband), Ernie Hudson, Bill Pullman, Danny DeVito, Eliza Dushku, and Shawn Hatosy. It's simply too bad that the script wasn't up to snuff.

You see, it was a great story with lots of twists and turns. If the writers had spent even half the time on the characters that they spent on the story, this would have been an amazing little flick. Unfortunately, the characters all fall flat. In the end, I didn't care about any of them. And the attempts at black comedy were painful at best.

If you don't mind that the characters aren't all that well-rendered, then I recommend the flick because the story is well-written. 

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Clean was written and directed by Olivier Assayas and starred the always wonderful Maggie Cheung as the heroin addicted aspiring musician wife of a heroin addicted rock star who accidentally, and fatally, overdoses in their hotel room. The movie is about her search for redemption and the strength to change herself.

It really could have been an amazing film except for one problem that I had with it and this is a major spoiler so if you don't want to know, skip the rest of this paragraph. She never, not once, admits that she was the one who bought the drugs that killed him. Even when her little boy, with whom she was amazingly honest all around this particular conversation, asks her if she bought the drugs, she denies it. If she had ever finally owned that one not-so-little detail, I would be praising the movie all over the place. Unfortunately, she doesn't and she gets to continue pursuing her dream, gets her son back, and lives free and clear, but not so clean as the title would imply. 

That complaint aside, Maggie Cheung was absolutely brilliant in the role which I think was made all the more difficult as she's required to speak three different languages in the course of the movie: her native Chinese (forgive me as I don't know the dialect...Cantonese maybe?), French (this is the main language of the film), and English. Everyone in the film was fantastic.

Another problem I had was with the music. It all sounded the same to me. And bad at that.

The editing was bad, too. Noticibly so because I don't often think about how well or not-well a film is edited. This was not well edited.

Overall: one missing card brings down the whole house, but it was filled with wonderful performances so that should count for something.

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Black Sheep was written and directed by Jonathan King and is NOT that Kevin Farley movie. This one is best described by the tag line, as provided by the IMDb: "Get ready for the Violence of the Lambs!"

If I'd grown up in a land where our main commerce was centered around sheep, I think this would have been funnier.  As it was, I giggled a couple of times and sighed when they Went There with some of their jokes. Some horror flicks can't help but be predictable and still be good. This was predictable, but in a bad way.

The sound effects and score were underwhelming, too. The music cues seemed off because the swells and stings didn't hit at the right times.

Great special effects from WETA workshops, those lovely blokes and sheilas behind Dead Alive and the Lord of the Rings flicks, though. Those guys are fantastic.

Overall, pretty disappointing.

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Tokyo Mater is a short film that will be added to prints of Bolt starting Friday. It's the third in a series of films called Mater's Tall Tales, the first two of which aired on the Disney Channel already. This one involves Mater (the rusty, clunky tow truck voiced by Larry the Cable Guy) going to Japan and being challenged to a drift race. 

I watched the 3D version, of course. I liked Cars and all, but it's not one of my favourite Pixar flicks. Mater is definitely one of my least favourite characters (I'm not a fan of Larry the Cable Guy, either), but the short was cute and the 3D was wonderfully rendered. I love that the Japanese cars have anime eyes.

Cute, but I'm not sure I'd pay the 3D price to see it if I'd already watched Bolt. If you haven't watched Bolt and you want to, again, see the 3D version. 

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Nothing Like the Holidays was written by Alison Swan and Rick Najera and directed by Alfredo de Villa. It's about a Puerto Rican family coming home for the holidays; the prodigal son coming back from Iraq with scars both seen and unseen, the actress hoping against all hope that she lands a role in a television pilot, the lawyer and his white wife who don't seem to measure up to their parents' expectations, various friends of the family, and the parents themselves who are going through a rough patch in their relationship due to his philandering ways.

It's my tradition, since i don't have to pay for the movies I watch, to catch one holiday movie a year at the theatre. I chose this one because of the wonderful cast: John Leguizamo, Elizabeth Pena, Alfred Molino, Vanessa Ferlito, Freddy Rodriguez, and Luis Guzman. This won't be replacing my normal traditional holiday movie Home for the Holidays, but it didn't leave me disappointed like the past five years worth of holiday offerings from Hollywood. In fact, I would even say that I loved it. 

However, it was a little too neat and convenient. It sort of tiptoed around all the serious subjects it touched, but it was well done throughout and there were times where I was laughing so hard, I thought I was going to split something (watch Debra Messing at the bar when she and Leguizamo are dancing. She's in the background and oh em gee, she was hilarious in that scene.)

The performances were wonderful. I thought Freddy Rodriguez was a little uncomfortable and awkward, but he was also an executive producer so I wonder if his mind was otherwise occupied. As a horror fan, and a fangirl in general, it was nice to see Planet Terror's Freddy Rodriguez (El Wray) and Death Proof's Vanessa Ferlito (Butterfly / Arlene) in something other than Grindhouse. :D

Overall, I thought it was very funny and well done all around. I don't know if Four Christmases is any good, I have no interest in seeing it, but I'm glad to have watched this as my at-theatre holiday flick.

Location scouting...

I went on walkabout yesterday for a couple of hours and discovered some things about the city in which I live. Firstly, Payne Park. I'd been to the auditorium there for voting purposes, but I never knew that the actual park part was HUGE! And it's in the middle of the city! Also, if you've ever played Infected on the PSP, it reminds me of that park, just minus all of the sewer accesses. Secondly, the gentrification of downtown hasn't reached ALL of downtown, and isn't likely to any time soon because of the economy. Good news for me as I want to use it for filming purposes.

Overall, it was a great days exploring! And here are the photos I took! I wasn't going for anything artistic, I just took some shots that I liked. The Exilim is a wonderful little camera, very handy.

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing items in a set called Anathema location scouting.... Make your own badge here.

In case the Flickr badge doesn't work or you can't see it, just go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimyoo_films/sets/72157604903848313/. :D

Why, yes. I AM doing a jig o' glee!

I recei​ved word today​ from the Briti​sh mag Morph​eus Tales​ that they'​ve accep​ted my story​ "​Warm Body in a Cold World​"​ for publi​catio​n in their​ Undea​d-​theme​d speci​al issue​.​ They'​re hopin​g to put it out in the Summe​r of 2009.​ When I get more infor​matio​n,​ I'll let y'​all know.​

I've also been doing some video tests. They're not that great since they're just tests, but I thought I'd post the link to my YouTube channel in case you wanna check them out...

http://www.youtube.com/user/KimyooFilms

Bolt 3D, Dante's Inferno and other such things (a.k.a.: Before I head back to the Calla...)

BOLT 3D is the new computer animated 3D flick from Disney that is NOT Pixar (like Meet the Robinsons.) If you're going to see it, and I recommend it as it's cute) see it in 3D. Yes, you pay a little more for the glasses, but if you're going to see it anyway, why not go for the full monty?

Anyway, the flick is about a cute little puppy named Bolt who is a teevee SuperDog. When he mistakes the other humans around his mistress, Penny, for villains who are kidnapping her, he breaks free from his tricked out trailer to rescue her, only to end up on the other side of the country and have to fight his way back to Hollywood and her loving arms. Along the way he takes a scrawny alley cat prisoner (her name is Mittens) and meets a brave, slightly wonky hamster named Rhino. And, of course, there are lessons learned.

Of course, Rhino is my favourite character. He's designed to be the favourite (kind of like Steve Carell's Hammy was designed to be the favourite out of the Over the Hedge gang) and it works. He's fully awesome! Most of his best quotes are in the trailers, though. I wish they'd leave the plucky sidekick's awesomeness out of the trailers. Seriously.

Anyway, it's a kids flick so I can't gripe about how it's predictable and all that junk. It does what it sets out to do and does it well in marvellously done 3D. It's so wonderful to see GOOD 3D after the eye-strain inducing horrors of Fly Me to the Moon and this is some of the best so far.

Overall: I recommend it!

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Dante's Inferno is a 2D paper cut out puppet performed modern updating of the classic first book of the Divine Comedy. They filmmakers managed to cram nearly all twenty some cantos into barely an hour and twenty minutes...but not without some problems.

Look, I dislike Bush and his cronies as much as the next liberal nut-job or wide awake American, but the political commentary in this film actually felt forced and like, "Yeah, these idiots are in power...see? SEE?! Aren't they stupid?! Let's laugh at their future in hell!" Well, Bush wasn't in there, but Rice and Cheney were. So, to be honest, that was lame and brought down the piece as a whole. They were doing a really good job of putting more contemporary figures into Dante's Aligheri's version of Hell although I don't know why they put Pope John Paul II into the Inferno as a scooter-riding lost soul looking for the gate to Heaven. He seemed like a really great guy, a great leader for his religion. He and I wouldn't agree on a few things, sure, but that doesn't mean that I didn't respect his work. Anyway, didn't get that one...

The main voices: Dermott Mulroney as Dante and James Cromwell as Virgil, were excellent. The background voices were good.

The puppets were well made and well performed.

On the whole, the adaptation was pretty good. Would have liked less ham-fisted political commentary, but I don't wish I had that hour and twenty minutes back so that must say a little something, right?

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For the past week or two, I've been listening to the album Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever by Explosions in the Sky. I'd never heard of them before Stephen Fry (I less-than-three him) mentioned them in a recent Tweet, but then I checked them out (I do that sort of thing) and man...the album is intense. Strangely, it makes me think of Roland and his quest for the Dark Tower. If I were to make a Gunslinger movie, I would try to get Explosions in the Sky to do the score and take some of the tracks from Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die... as well. I have to say that if anyone should make the Gunslinger books into a series of movies, it should be Frank Darabont. The Mist was a damn fine movie. Just, please Teevee Gods...not Mick Garris. 

Also, if anyone has a hundred grand they want to give me free and clear specifically to get this, I'd appreciate it... ;D

Anyway, after a full day of trying to figure out a certain effect and working on computer stuff, I'm going to go read Wolves of the Calla for a little bit. An actual book, made out of actual paper...archaic, but preferable to me. :D