Everyone knows Youtube. It's one of the biggest sites on the internet and for many, it's their first introduction to web videos. It's also annoying and only suportive to people in its partner program. Of course, if it wasn't for Youtube we might not have this wonderful site so we can thank them for that. I've also found youtube to be home to some of the stupidest humans beings on the face of this planet and it seems a miricle beyond miricles that these people actually type. True, some can't type very well and usually its something like "You suck" but then that's something original that no one has ever heard before. People who actually think the Nerd and Critic are real people, people who think the whole "feud" is real and people who are even challenging The Critic to review movies. Why? No idea. Like I said, it escapes me to believe that they can even get dressed in the morning.
This is my second installment of the Classic Moments In Movies, this time without it being set to music and is shorter then the previous one. The six scenes (clips) are from E.T., Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, Casper, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Spaceballs and Young Frankenstein.
The product of a souped-up video editing program and humor, spanning from sharp sarcasm to goofy randomness, Snow White Remix is a 12-part personal project I did myself and uploaded on YouTube, which netted favorable reviews, despite fears that I may have violated many a childhood (but no worse than what Hollywood does).
Now, I'm playing for a tougher audience; an audience that cares about their memories of youth, but no matter. Part of being a writer/creator of anything is having people on one side saying "You rule!" while the other side says, "You suck!"
I present parts one to four of this piece to be watched and critiqued (just copy and paste to the address bar if you can't click on it):
Sorry I haven't been around for a while, those 13-hour shoots are killer. Especially for three days in a row, some nights I couldn't physically move long enough to get my things sorted for the next day. It did help me get to sleep quicker than I had been able to in months, but I'm definitely not going to miss the hours. I decided to just combine the final shoot weekend into one piece, rather than dwell on it too long in many blog posts. I was able to take and upload some pictures from my cell, so finally I'll be able to post pictures of what it exactly looks like to film with my company, rather than just doing a Google Image search. This is going to be another long one, but hopefully alot more interesting than a vocabulary cheat sheet.
a costume rack, because I couldn't find any other place to put it
Diary of an AD - Day 3
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
here is the hangar we used as our main set, down in Arlington in Riverside, California, took this photo on Saturday, when we were filming the helicopter sequences
For the next three days I would be required to get up around six in the morning and be driven to the set by my assistant AD, Kari, while listening to her vast collection of Bollywood music. It grows on you after a while, I'll admit. We stopped at a gas station for me to pick up some Gatorade for us both (5 bucks for two bottle?!?) and hit the freeway down to Arlington Road to the set. For the morning shots today, it was an early scene in the film with two of our lead cast, Locke and King, played by Farid Pourgadhiri and Wayne Stribling Jr., respectively. The afternoon would be devoted to the longest scene in the film, the one with the heaviest dialog and most shots needed to be taken. The location for this and most of the next few days was an airport hangar two blocks from where we shot our first big film, complete with helicopters and all the neat aeronautical gadgets one could expect. It was fascinating, taking time out of my duties to check out all the devices inside the helicopter on set (this one would not move, but would be within the shot as set decor,) not that I know anything about scientific equipment, but the pretty lights and various dials amuse me.
from the front angle, the copter looks like a bug...
Kari and I arrived somewhat late to the shoot, as the majority of the crew were buzzing around the set with their various jobs in preparation for the first shot of the day. We set up shop in the adjoining weight room of the hangar (all of this owned by a man named Jim, who was the epitome of awesomeness for allowing us to use it), all of the personal items of the crew would be stored here during takes, and it acted as a rest area for actors not on standby. The air conditioning would draw many of those on set to new levels of laziness during the day, as could be expected when temperatures in the hangar reached groggy heights around midday. Once we had coordinated the schedule with Richard Zapp, our producer and location manager, we headed out and began our duties.
this was a small little gym, with not a lot of seats, but with the AC and the lack of directors inside, it was the best break room ever
I assigned Kari to follow our co-director Brian Tan (he prefers to be known as BLT, as he hates his name, I call him BT because I won't refer to people as sandwiches) directly outside the hangar to shoot the opening scene, while I remained inside with the majority of the other actors, the second co-director Kevin Theal, and our set manager Bradley to choreograph the blocking and rehearse the lines for the scene being shot next. I enjoyed this part, like I did for much of the time I felt like I had something reasonable to do, as my expertise with actors (having been one all through high school) gave me a lot of say in how the scene would look. Once filming outside began we had to be silent, but the scene had a good number of run-throughs by shoot time.
There was a hitch early in the day with a clash between BT's shooting style and our cameramen's preferred method. BT is a man that utilizes what I call rapid fire direction where he wants to get angles rather than takes. Not a bad style for the larger scenes in the film, but not the most efficient way to capture this line-ridden scene. Eventually, after a headed camera crew meeting off to the side of the set, a compromise was reached and the shots began to take much less time to be captured. My main duty during this time was to follow BT around with the storyboards for the scene, to which he would consult in between shots and use to set up the next one. I would eventually be overshadowed and replaced with this job the next day, mostly because my services were often demanded with the actors during takes, making it impossible to do both.
Alka, our makeup designer, touching up Mr. Wayne Stribling Jr., who played King
Despite being a fascinating spectacle once edited, the actual film-making is an incredibly tedious process. To simulate it for yourself, use any sort of camera (even on your cell) and take a picture of a dime falling on a table. The dime has to be lit so it can be seen on the camera, in the middle of what you see, the sound must be heard clearly, and there can be no other noise in this 10-second clip. Just capturing this correctly will take more effort than you think. During this grinding, Kari was assigned one of the most recognized jobs on a film set, the clapper. She would put the clapboard up for the camera to see and snap it shut before each take. Aside from storyboard and actor duty, I was the guy that yelled the instructions before BT or Kevin would yell action. Contrary to popular belief, lights! camera! action! has rarely even been used on a film set, especially now. How I say it is roll cameras! [for the cameras to be turned on and positioned] cameras speed! [a cue for the cameramen to start recording] quiet on set! and then one of the directors would yell action! and begin the take.
what we basically drank for three days
Lunch was, and would be for the next few days, a dozen or so pizzas from a local pizzeria (we got a great filmmaking discount too: 6 bucks for each large, including delivery!). Kari really shined here when she organized a streamlined process for our cast and crew to get a few slices, a drink, and a spot to sit without much crowding or shoving. This was the high point of all three days, were simple things like AC and liquid made you glad to be alive, if sore.
what we basically ate for three days
The rest of the day began a vast blur in memory. I took some camera phone footage that'll be spliced around this blog, and eventually Thomas Marquez (my former roommate and our special effects artist) was called out to set some blood in a character's face who had been hit in the scene. Other big effects shots for the day were a wine glass breaking when our lead fell into frame after being poisoned, and the actual poisoning shot, where we had our actor prepped to cough up blood. The one that kept in our minds, however, was a rigged shot by Thomas that had our supporting character Clancy, played by Nathaniel Overlay, falling out of frame after his knee-cap exploded from a shot by King. Fuuuuunnnn stuff. Thomas basically rigged up some pipe and an air compressor and used to to simulate the gun blast and blood burst, to great effect.
can't see it very well, but the guy is hurt bad.....fake, but baaaaaaad
Occasionally I was sent into the break room to get our makeup designer (named Alka) to touch up a sweaty actor or anyone that was called on set. The more embarrassing tasks usually included getting beverages for the directors or props for the set. At the end of the shoot that day, we had gotten 67 out of 104 shots for the scene (higher than our expectations) and we left the set in the hangar for the next day. We ended, on average, between 6 and 8pm every night. My feet were killing me, as my only suitable footwear for the shoots was a pair of Converse, and those have barely no arch support, which can be killer when walking/standing for so long. After a quick debrief from BT and Kevin, we all head home for some sleep. I spent a couple of hours on my laptop and fell asleep instantly when I later laid my head down on the pillow.
Diary of an AD - Day Four
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
Both today and tomorrow were a significant improvement over Friday. Once Kari and I arrived on set, we collected a few bucks from surrounding crew to get some donuts to perk us up. For the next two days, the morning shots would consist of those taken from a helicopter: aerial flights, taking off, landing, SWAT maneuvering, all the bloody fun stuff. I, Kari, and Kevin, however, were assigned to ground shots of police cars driving around the hangar. Fuck. It was small consolation, though, when I was able to do what I do best, keep actors and crew happy and entertained while we waited for the helicopters to take off and leave us to our uninterrupted shots. This time I used humorous stories from various points in my life to keep the flow going and no actors bored. I began a friendly relationship with one of our supporting stars, Kate Bridal, who played Lieutenant Nickles in the film, during this point, and I'm eagerly awaiting future tabletop gaming sessions with her (you can see where the conversation went.)
mrs. Kate Bridal herself, an Irish sweetheart, both on set and off
Most of our shots were simple, merely driving shots from a block away to the front side of the hangar used for the Locke and King scene on Friday. That left us enough time to play with angles and techniques, and we were able to get a good string of crane and dolly shots of cars driving. My favorite part was hooking up the car-mount cameras, the small device that suctions itself to the hood of a car, and holds one of our four cameras tight, so the car could take off and film its route up close and personal. I bloody love those shots, they are SOOO cool!
on set chaos, as it should be
BT later arrived on set and completely demolished our ideas, however, as he was newly imbued with asshole-ish tendencies from stress overload. It took some serious sit downs with me and Kevin to get him to cut the crap. Once the shots were taken from the outside of the hangar, all the crew were told to leave the actors in their action poses and leave the set. This allowed for the helicopters above to get some static shots of our little car party without all of our fat asses in the way. Once those were done, we were able to move back in and do some more conversation scenes.
just a part of our set, thought it looked interesting
Sadly, at this point I started developing a killer migrane, and that kept me inside the break room for far too long. Despite my hatred for film tedium, I hold a deeper loathing for anything that impedes me from doing my job (in this case, at least.) Kari had left for a dance class, so this was the point that I was replaced on storyboards. Again, it wasn't a big issue, as it was my least favorite part of the job.
our largest reflector we used on set
The second half of the day, in between my migrane and set work, was camping out in the break room with Kevin and Thomas and watching the dailies from the day before, in order to see if anything needed to be re-shot while we still had the cast and crew available. It was fun, as Thomas quickly found enough footage to quickly edit together a rough blooper reel to amuse us as we sifted through the 20-hours of takes and cuts. We replayed the Clancy knee shot to most of the crew and cast that walked in, as it turned out exceptional good.
one of our cranes, as it appears when not in use
My experience on set, then, was cut short for the day. but I returned triumphantly towards the end of the shoot to help out actor performance and other stuff. As the helicopter shots took a bit over schedule, we were only able to get from shot 67 to shot 87. We stopped short, and early, for because the blood effects for the final shootout scene took too much prep time for the day, and we couldn't go any further in the scene without it. BT begrudgingly sent us home, and once again I spent a couple of hours online before collapsing.
leave it in a comment, it can be anything from Metal to Classical, and i'm going to tally up the results and make it into a poll dealy, just out of pure boredom
I'm an amateur filmmaker. Nothing excites me more than turning my over-active imaginaton's ideas into shorts and/or drawings. Not only is it fun, but it's also extremely satisfying to see your ideas get represented visually.
The Sega Genesis. The glory days of when Sega and Nintendo were actually rivals. Today I present to a blog to compliment my video, The Top Ten Sega Genesis Games You Need To Play. Why not top eleven? Because unlike the Nostalgia Critic, I'm just too lazy to do eleven. What I hope to accomplish with the Blog portion is to give you more details then I can in a ten minute video. And, I hope to get you all to experiance a few games that were overlooked by the public eye.
In light of the new Dark Knight movie, I decided to rank the top 10 best and worst super hero movies that I have seen. Keep in mind, there are plenty I have not seen, but out of the ones I have this is how they ranked. And feel free to tell me what your favorite and least favorite super hero movies are!
BEST SUPER HERO MOVIES 1) Spider-Man 2 - This movie represents the ultimate comic book film to me. And no, not just because I'm a Spidey fan. The action is thrilling, the story interesting, and the characters are well developed. While Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst aren't too special, Alfred Molina steals the show as the charming tragic villain Doc Ock. But what truly makes this movie enjoyable for me is that it's not non stop action. It gives the audience time to relax and throws some great gags their way. A story that is enjoyable for audiences of all ages.
2) Dark Knight - A wonderfully dark and complex story, with an amazing cast. But perhaps a bit too dark which limits it's audience. Still, this did not stop me from enjoying it. This movie keeps it's audience on edge the whole time with spectacular action and sinister characters. I was personally a little more drawn to the under hyped Two Face, who got very little commercial focus after the late Heath Ledger. Yes, Ledger was definitely exciting to watch, but don't ignore other great characters and actors. The only thing that separates this film from Spider-Man 2 is that there were no moments where the audience could relax and laugh.
3) Spider-Man - A great starting point. Like the sequel, the action was good, and had a nice sense of humor. The sequel definitely built on everything this film already had going for it. And a personal side note, the scene where the citizens of New York tell the Green Goblin "if you mess with Spidey, you mess with New York" is very touching.
4) Batman Returns - This is why I don't trust critics. Batman Returns was criticized for being "too dark", but Dark Knight is praised for it's dark and sinister characters. MAKE UP YOUR MIND PEOPLE! Anyways, until Dark Knight came out, this was my favorite Batman movie. I liked it because it was dark, and the villains were incredible. And it has Christopher freakin Walken in it! How can you not like that? The score for this movie is also one of my favorite by Danny Elfman. It's dark, but adds a nice heroic touch.
5) Batman Begins - Well, Joel Schumacher screwed up Batman. Think we can fix the series? No, so let's just restart it! Which was a brilliant idea! Christopher Nolan had a lot of balls when he did this movie. Not only did he dare to make a movie about a super hero that failed before, but he chose to use villains the are not well known, and took his time in showing how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman. And somehow, he pulled it all off. My complaint about the movie was the villains. It seems like Scarecrow is the main villain, but then he gets discarded and Rah's Ah Ghul comes in again during the last 20 minutes. If it didn't work for Venom, it won't work for Liam Neeson. But other than villains, the movie is able to hold up very well on it's own.
6) Iron Man - I was never a fan of Iron Man or Robert Downey Jr. until now. When I heard they were making a movie about Iron Man, I figured it would be a piece of crap thrown together to make some more money. I have never enjoyed being wrong more in my life. Iron Man is just plain fun. My only complaint is the last part of the movie. The end fight was very anti climactic, which is just a nasty little tease. But then Samuel L. Jackson shows up and saves the movie after the credits end. Seriously, that man is good in anything. Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes in the sequel and we can expect another great movie.
7) X-Men 2 - I was not a big fan of X-Men 1. It just seemed too cartoony for me. But this film had a very nice realistic touch that by far surpassed the last film. I particularly liked that Magneto and the X-Men joined forces. The action scenes were nothing amazing, but the story is over all enjoyable.
8) Batman - I'm gonna say this right now. Jack Nicholson may not be the best Joker, but nobody ever complained about it until Heath Ledger commercials showed up! I'm telling you, if you put Heath Ledger's Joker in this movie it would not work! Stop comparing the two! They were both fine for their time and separate movie! With that said, this movie is a great 80's action flick. Lots of explosions and guns and cool machines for Batman. It's certainly not the best of the Batman series, but not the worst. It was good for it's time.
9) Incredible Hulk - never really liked the Hulk too much. He's not exactly a super hero in my mind, just a big green disgruntled guy that we are supposed to root for. This movie is interesting and fun to watch, but mainly it gets my vote for Edward Norton who I think is an amazing actor. Blonsky was a pretty cool villain too (up until he became Abomination and was just like Hulk). The fighting was fun to watch, but in the end the Hulk just seemed to randomly get the upper hand. It just did not make a lot of sense to me, but was still entertaining.
10) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer: I HATED the first movie. So I watched this one with the lowest expectations possible. And because of that, it actually seemed like a good movie. The characters were a bit more enjoyable this time and actually got along instead of always fighting with each other. Another reason I was a little more drawn to this movie is because Monsters 2 was filming when I watched it. A movie with 3 guys and 1 girl as super heroes hit home for me.
WORST SUPER HERO MOVIES 1) Spider-Man 3 - This movie single handedly managed to kill the franchise for me. They took everything good they had going for them and fucked it all up. The jokes were so over the top they weren't funny, the acting was terrible and stale, and the music was disgusting (that's what happens when you replace Danny Elfman). And the villains just were not interesting by any means. There was so much they could have done with the "black suit" but was never shown. There is no character progress except for Harry. In fact, the character lose progress. In Spider-Man 2, MJ and Peter are happy, but now their relationship has gone to shit. *Sigh* this movie had so much potential but it all failed. What really sucks is I assumed it would be so good, I bought tickets for two different days! I will constantly criticize this movie until Sam Raimi personally admits he wrong me and gives me my money back.
2) Batman and Robin - Bat nipples and bat asses. Need I say anymore? The plot is just ludicrous. Freeze the world? Are you serious? This movie series has ceased being dark and complex and instead has turned more colorful than a Las Vegas casino. Many often criticize Arnold Swarchenager's ice puns, but in my opinion that is the one and only thing this movie had going for it. It was so bad, at least it knew it could make fun of itself.
3) Batman Forever - Many say they actually like Batman Forever. When they do, I ask them why. "Uh, Jim Carrey was good". I would like to set the record straight. Jim Carrey was not good. Jim Carrey was Jim Carrey! He was over the top and manic, which would have worked for the 60's Riddler, but not the modern one who is much more collected. And second, you should not say a movie is good just based off of one actor. The villains sucked, the scenery sucked, and the story line was "eh" which I guess is a good thing. Not only that, but they totally ignored the last two movies. In Batman, we see Harvey Dent. Yes, he is black, but none the less that is the established Harvey Dent. But in this one we get Tommy Lee Jones, with a totally different story. Actually, we never even see his story really. He's just kinda there. The only real reason this movie is number 3 on my worst list is because they kept Elfman around to score the film.
4) Dare Devil - I don't remember much about this movie. All I know is I hated it. It was just Marvel's attempt to get some more success like they did with Spider-Man. End of story!
5) Hulk - This movie was interesting right up until the Hulk's 3 appearance. By then it was nothing but 30 minutes of the Hulk jumping and smashing military helicopters and tanks. There was no real villain in this story until the very end. And for some reason, they made the final fight (which was very short) so dark you can't even see anything. This movie makes me angry. And you wouldn't like me when I'm angry!
6) Fantastic 4 - Yet another film that is trying to cash in on the success of Spider-Man. The heroes only fought the villain for 5 minutes. During the other hour and 25 minutes, they fought with each other! And why is it that these 4 can cause a major accident and then make up for it and are considered heroes, where spider-man is constantly hounded by people for doing good things? The only good thing that came out of this movie is my cousins "Fantastic Four in a nut shell" and the song Noots by Sum 41.
7) Hellboy - another movie I don't remember much about except the fact I did not like it. Many say "Guillermo Del Torro does good movies" and think this would be amazing like his other stuff. Something I've learned about movies. Don't think every movie a director makes is going to be good or bad just because one is. Judge each movie independently. I think I was one of the few people that was not looking forward to Hell Boy 2.
8) X-Men Last Stand - This movie isn't necessarily bad, but it's not very good. It focuses pretty much on Wolverine and only him (like we have not got enough exposure of him from the last films). Almost any other character takes a major back seat, but we're still expected to connect with them. The end fight could have been seriously epic, but wasn't. And Magneto got taken out in a matter of seconds. I think the only part that lived up to the hype was the infamous line "IM THE JUGGERNAUT BITCH!"
9) Superman - I don't think this is really a very bad movie, I just personally did not enjoy it. I can't really explain it, it just was not my cup of tea. Maybe I would have loved it if I was around when it came out, but I didn't.
10) The Spirit - This one is personal! There is already a Spirit in a movie, and that's The Spirit in the Monsters trilogy! FUCK YOU OTHER SPIRIT! FUCK YOU!
Well, since I'm cutting back a little bit on the blog, I might as well give you some links to get your fix of me. And boy, does it sound strange to type that.
So, you quite like my blog, huh? Well, that's very kind of you. Well, you know what you could do? You could subscribe to my blog! Actually, you can do this with all the blogs since there's an RSS feed hidden away for each blogger (see if you can find it) but since I'm shamelessly advertising myself, I figured I might as well put the notion in your head with the force of a shotgun blast to the head.
Recently, I updated my YouTube channel. It will be a bit more active than it has been of late. I'm hoping to fill it full of short films, timewasters, commentaries and everything. And if you get hooked to that, why not subscribe to the Bad Movie Gang, which is like Nostalgia Critic but minus the nostalgia. And there's three people.
Hello there. my name is SupergamerX. I have made my very own 5 second movie of the demented cartoon movie you may view it here. also, while your at it view any other vids that I posted there. I'm sure you will like them
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