In The Reel World

Director Jay Holben recently had two of his short films come out on DVD for sale exclusively through Amazon.com.

Descent is a 15 minute thriller about a woman who gets trapped in an elevator with the man who she saw kill her best friend. The cinematography is great, the music keeps you on your toes, and the ending… OH MAN! The DVD’s special bonus featurs include: the original trailer, a deleted scene, and commentary from both director Jay Holben and cinematographer/co-writer/producer Christopher Probst. Click here to purchase it.

The Night Before is a drama of three boys in the hospital before surgery, and the fears they go through while in wait. Another great job with cinematography and story. And the child actors are very good. The film’s run-time is about 19 minutes, and has bonus features including a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, and commentaries from both the director (geared toward other filmmakers) and writer James Cole. Click here to purchase this one.

Both short film DVDs are $12, and frankly, the commentary alone should make it worth every penny (and then some) to any aspiring filmmaker or anyone interested in how films are made.

And, if you just want to be entertained, you’ll love both these short films.

Again, a pretty slow week with new movies hitting theaters.  All you’ve really got are:

Live Free or Die Hard

Evening

Ratatouille

So an action flick, a chick flick, and a cartoon.  Might not be a lot of releases, but at least you’ve got variety!

I had a meeting today with a guy who writes short stories, and responded to my ad for actors. He showed me some of his stories to see if any would (in my opinion) make good movies. I found one that I told him is doable (the rest don’t seem to have enough visuals). He’s going to give me $50 to rewrite the story as a script. With the other stories, he’s going to give me $50 to re-type them and save them to a disk, because he doesn’t have digital versions of them, just the on-paper copies.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, I showed him both versions of the script for the short film I’m going to make. He LOVED it, and asked how much it would take to make such a film. I told him that I’m going to TRY to do it for nothing, but that ideally, I could make it for a bit over a thousand. He nodded, and said he wants to put money into making it!!!!! He told me to get the actual amount that I need to make it, and he’ll see what he can do about fronting the cash!!!!!

My first investor! And for a short film at that! WOOT!!!!!

I’m working on producing a short film entitled “Going Home”.  It’s a psychological thriller about a woman who while driving home and hearing about an escaped mental patient from the ward, narrowly avoids hitting a creepy character who knows a little too much about her.

I’ve got the script… well, sort of. I’ve currently got 2 versions and am still working on the “best” version.

I’ve got the director (me), the DP and camera person (a girl I used to work with who has a Canon XL2), and an editor (the girl with the XL2 also has AVID… she’s my editor as well).  Now I just need a location, actors, lights, and a sound guy.

I just placed ads on both Craigslist and Mandy for sound guys, as well as actors.

I hope to begin filming either in July or Early August.

If anyone has sound equipment and would be willing to be my “sound guy”, please get a hold of me ASAP!  I sadly cannot offer a wage, as I have NO budget for this, but I will give film credit, a free copy of the finished product, food, and gas money!

I discovered an old gift card from Hollywood video which had just enough money on it to rent one video.  I rented “Because I Said So” starring Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore.

This movie was great!  The story line was unfortunately realistic. It’s about a mother (Diane Keaton) who brings new meaning to “Empty Nest Syndrome” when she meddles in her three daughters’ lives, primarily her youngest (Mandy Moore). She goes so far to see that her daughter dates “the right guy” that she places a personal add to screen men before her daughter meets them, and then plays match maker in a devious way.  Mandy Moore knows nothing of this arrangement, and unwittingly ends up dating both her mother’s favorite (a successful architect played by Tom Everett Scott) and her mom’s least favorite (a tatooed guitar player with a son, played by Gabriel Macht).

This is a sweet romantic comedy that makes you feel for both Moore’s character and Keaton’s. The acting is superb (Mandy Moore’s best performance, and Diane Keaton shows off her brilliance), the scenery is beautiful (only the best parts of L.A.), and you should see the cakes!  This movie may have bombed at the box office, but I really recommend it!

The Detroit Film Center is putting on the Progressive Film Festival tonight and tomorrow night.  Doors open at 7, films start at 8. Tickets are $5.

FRIDAY, JUNE 22
B.I.K.E. (Jacob Septimus and Anthony Howard) presented by the Progressive Film Festival
Anthony Howard began to make a film about New York’s chapter of the Black Label Bicycle Club and found himself vying to become a member of the group. Black Label is known for living a lifestyle centered on building bikes together, riding together, eating together, and sometimes living together. Black Label is more than just a bike club or a lifestyle – it is life. This is a rare look at a way of life that may challenge your own.

SATURDAY, JUNE 23
REVOLUTION ‘67 (Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno) presented by the Progressive Film Festival
Revolution ‘67 is an illuminating account of events too often relegated to footnotes in U.S. history – the black urban rebellions of the 1960s. Focusing on the six-day Newark, N.J., outbreak in mid-July,
Revolution ‘67 reveals how the disturbances began as spontaneous revolts against poverty and police brutality and ended as fateful milestones in America’s struggles over race and economic justice.
Voices from across the spectrum – activists Tom Hayden and Amiri Baraka, journalist Bob Herbert, Mayor Sharpe James, and other officials, National Guardsmen, and Newark citizens –
recall lessons as hard-earned then as they have been easy to neglect since.

The Detroit Film Center is located at 1227 Washington Blvd. Detroit, MI 48226
2 blocks west of Woodward, 1 block south of Grand River

Tuesday was DVD day. Admittedly, I didn’t buy any new DVDs on Tuesday (although I did buy the new Mandy Moore cd… it’s great!).

There really weren’t a lot of releases though, anyway. The following came out:

Bridge to Terabithia 

Reno 911!: Miami

I haven’t seen either of these yet, but Bridge to Terabithia might be good… at least if it even comes close to capturing the essence of the fantastic novel it’s based on.
And tomorrow is Friday, which means new movies at the theaters:

1408

Evan Almighty

A Mighty Heart

along with a few limited releases.  I kinda want to see 1408, which is based on a cool little short story by Stephen King. Evan Almighty is the sequal to Bruce Almighty, but I’m wondering if they went a little too hokey this time around. A Mighty Heart is a film I don’t know much about, other than it’s supposedly Angelina Jolie’s best performance to date… not that that’s saying much.

Every year, there’s a competition called the 48 Hour Film Project. It goes to cities all around the world and has filmmaking teams create a short film in just 48 hours. That’s all the time they get for scripting, preproduction, production, and post production. Then all the films are screened, and some of the best from each city will compete in world-wide festival of all the best 48 hour projects. One will be chosen as the best in the world.

And this year, for the first time in the 48 Hour Film Project’s 7 year history, Detroit will have it’s chance to play!

Not date has been set, but according to the website Detroit will get it’s shot “Probably in August”.

This contest should be TONS of fun. Along with the tight time constraints, the judges will pick your team’s genre, as well as assign you either a prop, character, or line of dialogue which MUST appear in the film. In addition, since Detroit is having it’s first year, there must be at least one landmark within city limits in the film.

And yes, you can bet I’m going to be trying this. That is, if I can get myself a cast and crew to take with me!

Four Eyed Monsters is an independent film. It’s 70 minutes long, and has won numerous awards at film festivals and can currently be seen online at Youtube.com ONLY until August 15.

It’s an interesting film based on the true story of the meeting of Aaron and Susan. They met online, exchanging e-mails before they met in person. Both were single and trying to figure out a direction to take in this world. They started an… interesting relationship which during the course of a year took on many twists and turns (not to mention obstacles and drama galore)! Then… after the smoked cleared, they made a film about it all. This is that film.

It’s pretty cool aesthetically, as the film goes between live footage and cartoonish drawings which come to life. The editing is superb, and the story is excellent. The dialogue is powerful and real. The pace of the film is a little slow throughout, so if you’re looking for car chases and explosions, this is NOT the film for you. But if you want a great little drama by two up-and-coming filmmakers, you should see this. If you visit their youtube account you can watch the full feature (until August 15th) as well as 8 behind the scenes episodes which delves into the making of the feature.

These two put a lot of effort (and maxed out a lot of credit cards) into making this film. If you want to help them out, you can join Spout (a film website) which is giving $1 to them for every person who signs up (up to $100,000). You can also buy the DVD which comes complete with extras including the 8 episode behind the scenes look, trailers, and their EPK (Electronic Press Kit).

Last night, I saw Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I gotta say, it was great!

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I read that the run time was a mere 89 minutes! X-Men 3 was short and NOT sweet, as they crammed WAY too many plots and subplots into it’s 104 minute runtime. I was worried the same would occur for this less-than-an-hour-and-a-half superhero film. Luckily I was wrong!

Even though there were numerous plots involved (including the marriage of Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Woman, The Silver Surfer readying the planet for Galactus’s lunch, the reappearance of Dr. Doom as he plots to steal Silver Surfer’s power, and The Human Torch’s molecular structure being altered in such a way he swaps powers with other FF members by touching them)… it was timed out VERY well. Nothing felt rushed or confusing!

FANBOYS BEWARE, however, as two big details have been altered: the source of Silver Surfer’s powers, and the physical appearance of Galactus. Both of which made me (and I’m sure other comic book enthusiasts) a bit annoyed (much like we were with Dr. Doom possessing cosmic-induced powers)! If you WANT to know those difference, scroll down past the dots. If you don’t want to know because it’ll ruin the film for you (more than my summary), then stop reading here until you’ve seen it!

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Silver Surfer gets his powers from his surf board in the film! They are able to stop the Surfer’s carnage by using some type of electronic pulse to separate Silver Surfer from his board, and he becomes powerless without it!

Galactus is (are you ready?) a giant cosmic storm! That’s right, no big planet eating giant with a helmet and purple costume, but rather an enormous cosmic cloud complete with lightning, tornadoes, a large glowing red nucleus, and tentacles tipped with spikes which vacuum out the contents of the planets he consumes!

I know, I was annoyed too!!!!!