I apologize for the poor quality, but nonetheless, it’s still quite entertaining to watch. Granted, although I’ve made multiple short movies before, this is the first one that I really consider to be semiprofessional and decent. Digg it if you enjoy it. Thanks.
I realize that Halloween actually transpired a few days ago, but hey - I’m still going to write about it anyway. I’ll be quick to let you know that I enjoyed giving candy to little kids in costumes as I usually do.
The Halloween assembly at school was also held a couple of days late as usual (yesterday). It was corny and redundant, as school assemblies usually are - anyone can admit that - and one of the regular traditions is to show student films that are craptacular at best.
Yesterday was no exception.
Because of it being a horror film in this case, it leads me to rant on a lot of the same issues that plague box-office movies as well as cheap student ones: It was uncreative. It had no character development. Most of all, it naturally ripped off almost every other horror movie in existence. While there was an abundance of unoriginality, there was a painful lack of any tripod-use. Now, you may be thinking, “What the crap, Dan? This is high school. No one really cares about character development.” My response is this: Exactly. They apparently didn’t care enough to make a half-interesting movie.
Have an extremely generic plot/storyline, combine it with poor cinematography, and the result is a movie that no one wants to watch.
With this, during lunch, my friend Nate and I discussed how we could make a great horror film (It’s nice to know someone who thinks on the same wavelength as you). We both acknowledged how poorly thought-out this year’s school halloween movie had been, and we came up with some pointers on making a masterful new movie that no one has ever seen before. I realize that this sounds fairly ambitious… yet I feel I can do it. In other cases, I may be able to criticize something, even though I can’t do anything better than it. In this case, however, I feel I can safely use criticism because I can make something better.
Am I bragging? I guess that’s what it sounds like. Before you go, however, check out my personal list of things to make a really neat and refreshing new horror movie.
Can you think of anything else? Perhaps I will add more when my brain is functioning better. All I can say is that if I am to make a good school horror movie for next year, it will not have the same, tired old elements. “Screamers” are an especially notable one, as this is the only way that most movies get their scares. My movie will be quite the opposite: Steady and slow-paced.
Wait and see.
Yes, yes, I know. It’s been a while since my last update. One thing I’ve noticed is that my website seems to have been demoted on Google’s indexes. Now, whenever you use the search term “lessthandan”, my site no longer appears first. Fortunately, this may change soon. Right now things are a bit iffy, only because of the way my domain name is set up (It creates non-canonical URLs for my blog, making it less optimized for search engines). My domain expires in a few days, and when it does, I will simply re-register it with my current webhost rather than using a DNS, which may improve some things.
In other news, I am enthusiastically working on a new short film for school. It’s called Open Source and it’s a horror movie with a geeky message behind it. I finished shooting it last Saturday, and I’m actually quite happy with the way the video turned out (the lighting effects and camera angles are impressive). As of now, I’m still in the process of editing it in Adobe Premiere Pro, which is an excellent piece of software. Hopefully it will be finished soon.
In the meantime, here is an extremely nerdy picture of me setting up a web server in my basement. Click on it for a larger image.
Edit: The domain issue has actually been fixed now, so now my blog strictly uses canonical URLs. Just thought I’d let you know.
Many of you may know James Rolfe.
Not only is he the driving force behind Cinemassacre Productions, but he is undoubtedly recognized best for his character “The Angry Video Game Nerd”. I believe that name singlehandedly reminds his fans of his crude, profane, yet delightful video reviews of retro gaming titles. I could go on for a while about how much I enjoy his work, but that’s not exactly what I wanted to discuss (I suggest checking out the AVGN page… as long as you are not easily offended).
One of the things I really admire about Rolfe is his philosophy in film making. Upon entering his frequently-asked-questions page, you get a nice explanation on how he works:
What does Cinemassacre mean?
Cinemassacring refers to the efficient way in which my films are made, without a ton of equipment or pre-production meetings, ignoring all the extraneous things that happen behind the camera, when all that matters is what comes up on the screen in the end.
The Cinemassacre is the lifeforce and driving power behind my work; the pure insanity to make these wild films. When the obstacles are stacking up and it looks like there is no way to finish a project, I just go on a rampage and “cinemassacre” my way to the end.
To cinemassacre is to let loose with what you’re doing. In doubt? Just “cinemassacre” it, the same way a crazy artist would splatter paint all over his work and let the art gods take control.
The cinemassacre is me, my one-man production company which I started when I first got my hands on a video camera, in 1989, making over 130 short movies that “massacre” both Hollywood and Independent trends, but with one main purpose: to entertain.
Bingo. I can’t really say a lot, other than the fact that I am reminded of myself. If you really know me, then you know that I hate planning. I don’t want to write a lame graphic organizer or some kind of chart before I even start the real thing. It sucks, no?
In a way, it comes to me as good encouragement. Because of my strong interest in movie-making, and because I am in a multimedia class at school, there’s no better way than to get a new digital camcorder for my films - schoolwork or not. Unfortunately, because of my financial situation, I am limited as to what kind of equipment I can use in my free time. For now, I have settled on something that can be afforded as a Christmas or birthday present. The Panasonic Camcorder you see to the left seems to be a great balance between price and quality. Of course, if I were rich, I would buy one of those slick HD camcorders with gigabytes of built-in hard-drive storage, but that’s not going to be happening anytime soon. Again, the Panasonic model will suffice because of it’s image quality, compact recording medium, and firewire capability.
With all of this, lately I’ve had a tendency to get excited about a future of independent film making. Here’s to good times.
Now if only I had a higher-end PC…
This is one of those rare instances where I really enjoy the movie, although it received mostly bad reviews. Despite this - and so I can also change your mind - I’m going to bite anyway and rave about this film.
I went and saw The Invasion on short notice, therefore having no idea what it was going to be about (well, except that it was probably related to an invasion of some sort). After watching this movie, I decided it had multiple elements - including science fiction and suspense - so it was fairly difficult to classify. Then I realized one word that describes this movie perfectly:
Intense.
Intense, as in, holy crap everyone is turning evil real fast and will that one lady be able to resist? If you haven’t seen this film yet, then that sentence probably didn’t make much sense (and at the same time, I hope it wasn’t too much of a spoiler).
The plot was very refreshing for me… and at the same time, there were parts that seemed cliché. I suppose this is understandable, because The Invasion is actually the second remake of an original film titled The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which is also based off of a novel.
Hopefully that’s enough encouragement. Go check it out if it seems interesting to any extent.
It’s not often that I go to the theaters to see mundane family movies, but remember, this is Pixar we’re talking about here. Last time I checked, Pixar kicks all sorts of butt in the movie industry, so naturally I had to go see Ratatouille.
Here in Utah, we have a holiday on the twenty-fourth called “Pioneer Day” so I thought that going to the movies might be a good way to celebrate.
So, my thoughts on the actual film? It was good - I mean, it was great. Pixar did a top-notch job as always. The story and character development was nice, and of course, the animation was beautiful - very dimensional - and was an impressive technical feat as expected. My mother, still new to the term “CGI”, had even commented on the amazing detail.
I’ll just leave it at that for now. This is a great movie for all ages, so if you haven’t seen it, then I strongly suggest you do.