Topic: The Movie Thread

@GirlVersusGame well, The Guest isn't really a horror but you will have to watch it to understand what I mean (winkyface) It will be reminiscent of early Halloween movies, and the slasher genre, but it is also like a classic 80's/90's Arnie action flick. It is a movie that wants to be what it wants to be, and it achieves that. And it is pretty unique because of it. This is why I love it. For the longest time people making movies forgot what made this kind of movie fun and would just make lazy cgi fare and forget all about style, suspense, and the art of cinema. So it isn't the best movie ever, but it is incredibly watchable and super cool.

@Ravix That sounds mysterious, and Halloween is probably my favorite horror movie of all time so we are definitely speaking the same language. I'm supposed to watch a movie later this evening but it's looking like it will be Badlands for the third time because they haven't seen it yet. Or Zootopia 2 again, that Dust Bunny description caught my attention too. I'm trying to speed run Paw Patrol at the moment. How's your Star Wars?

@GirlVersusGame I hope Return to Silent Hill is good too, I’m just not expecting it to reach the heights of the game, much like the first film. Gans is back in the saddle, so surely it will at least be better than whatever Revelation was.

I’ve got a soft spot for those weird mid-nineties adaptations in a ‘so bad they’re good’ sort of way. I love the aesthetic. My creative partner and I are just in post production on a film where we tried to capture that late eighties to early nineties indie look.

There’s a gritty softness that I quite like.

Bone Temple is amazing, by the way. DaCosta’s approach is bringing something refreshingly different to the story and Garland is operating at genius level as a writer. Performances were outstanding across the board. The film left me with a lot to chew on. Curious to see what folks make of it!

@Metonymy That's looks great. What are you shooting on? The first image reminds me of Night of the Demons. There's so much lovely grain in your shot, I can't tell if you added it in post or if you did shoot on film. It almost looks like high ISO too but you preserved the sharpness on their face so it's throwing me off unless you used a 50mm lens. The second image especially looks like stock and not post. I love the red. Slayer were one of the only bands I shot that ever stuck with traditional red/green and blue. I had to learn to either balance the skin colours or stick with black and white. I loved the red, the blue and green shots never saw the light of day. The red ones did, and all of that lovely grain. I deliberately pumped the ISO even-though I didn't need to. I was using a Nikon D4 at the time, it can shot in near pitch-black. It was my first full frame workhorse, it never let me down once. I'm also getting Raw Head Rex vibes and a little Pumpkinhead from your shots. Don't tell your friend about the Rex vibes, unless they are of culture and understand that it was so bad that it was good. Most don't.

@GirlVersusGame Thanks! You’ve pretty much nailed it. Shot this on a Blackmagic Cinema 6K, around 1200 (dual) ISO but the special sauce is the old OM Zuiko glass we found. The third image I filmed open gate (50mm - good call) which I felt worked best as that part of the film takes place entirely from first person perspective.

Slayer sounds fun to work with, and pretty cool you’ve have that opportunity! That RawHead Rex clip looks awesome. The shot where the monster is jumping up out of the dirt with all of the lightning (chef’s kiss)!

@Metonymy There were a few moments like that which stood out. Mainly because they were bands I'd admired and then found myself aiming a lens right at them. Slayer for Angel of Death was one of them, Last Resort for Papa Roach was surreal, a band you won't know called Sabaton, Children of Bodom definitely, just so many. Easily over one hundred, I listened to Metal for so long and had no desire to even try to enter the industry.

I was half way out the door of the film industry (really bad fit) when someone invited me to sit in for a music video. It was being recorded to accompany the movie and they'd been using the dailies to splice into the shoot. That was when Metal labels and studios understood that Various Artists soundtracks didn't just sell, they introduced people to that roster too and bands like Killswitch Engage, Devildriver, even Rammstein gained a lot of new fans. I find very few new bands unless I look through some of the press kits and things the labels still send me. The genre is still alive and evolving, it's just a lot harder for new bands to get picked up.

I can listen to all twenty one hours of that playlist and be one hundred percent sure that most of those bands were only known to because of each soundtrack. That Iceberg guy knew what he was doing when he compiled that playlist.

The band turned out to be one I'd followed for years. Everyone was incredibly nice, especially when I told them why I'd left that film side. It was about two weeks later that I was invited on my first tour. I already travel a lot, it just meant lining up some dates and syncing where I'd be. Then it turned into two two years of 'running away with the circus'. All in all it was about one hundred of my favorite Metal bands but I found out it was nepotism so thanked certain people for the opportunity and stepped aside. I didn't earn my access to the film industry either, I thought I did with music but the more I talked to people in PR the more I saw something wasn't right. I learned a lot though. So much of the entertainment industry is not what you know, it's who you know. As much as I don't like streaming it's at least giving people a chance for recognition, it's needed especially with Netflix and others being a lot more approachable.

Digital has thankfully given real independent talent a chance now especially with online distribution. Are you and your friend looking to get into the industry? or just experimenting? You are off to a good start if it's just for fun. I'm trying to remember what bands shot on the kit you are using, I think some Lamb of God tour work (Randy is a photographer himself, I don't think I can share his page it's under an alias. He does a lot of street photography when on tour) maybe also Korn, Pierce the Veil maybe too, their camera guy had one on their last tour. Maybe Five Finger Death Punch. It's popular for size and quality and very manageable for the pit. 50mm will always hold a place in my heart, it's probably one of my favorite lens, next to a 24-70mm. 50mm was my first introduction to 2.8, then my eyes adapted to it so much that I can now pick it out when viewing other peoples work, the ISO sometimes too, but that's mostly from shooting so much in the dark for so long and refusing to remove noise in post. What kind of lighting did you use?

@GirlVersusGame You’ve been on a fascinating journey by the sounds of it! Don’t sweat, the ‘who you know, not what you know’ thing is true just about everywhere. Nepotism aside (this such a hard thing to fully judge with such little information), there’s only one real way to hone your craft, and surely you’ve gained a lot of invaluable experience on your travels.

I don’t have a lot of interest in breaking into Hollywood or any such thing. At our age, we’re content to continue doing our own thing. That’s not to say we would shy away from a good opportunity but, however that might look, I’d like to think it would be an artistically driven decision. We’re completely independent and do everything ourselves and kind of like it that way. As you know, it’s the process that really matters so we’ll just continue to build our team and see where things go as we build the community. It would certainly be nice to be provided the opportunity to dedicate more time to it all though!

As for lighting, just led’s. We operate on pocket change. That third image is literally lit with dollar store leds. I like to believe it’s more how you use something, not the something itself!

@Metonymy Consider film school, I enjoyed my time there, if even to network. A lot of the people in my year were industry kids but some weren't, those were the ones who made something of themselves because they didn't have connections. Instead they had heart and they worked for what they had. I preferred talking to those people. I like your approach, it's reminiscent of Sam Raimi. He had little to no budget and look what he's achieved, his home movies were great too.

I think even Rob Zombie made home movies with his friends. Most of my favorite directors did, it's great to see people just going for it and one of those things that you won't forget. What's the premise of your piece/short/film? Have you approached anyone for some music? We had bands throwing music at us for those film school projects, everyone needs exposure. It's worth considering, just be upfront and tell them it's your own small project. They'll jump at the opportunity.

@GirlVersusGame It’s like you said. The digital age has given real independent talent a chance. I often think to myself what we could have done as kids if we had access to even half the technology that is so easily available these days. It’s very empowering as artists.

I did film school about 20 years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. As for music, I usually handle those duties but am always open to collaborating with others when it makes sense. For instance, on this latest project, an artist let us use her song for what we could afford. It’s such a rad song and we’re pretty stoked about it.

As for the direction of this project, it’s kind of straddling the line between short and feature. We’re pretty much locked at 48 minutes now, but it’s a weird one. It’s more of an anthology/trilogy, three stylistically distinct short films, each telling their own story but with thematic through lines that connect it all together.

And Sam Raimi is amazing 😄

@Metonymy See I read your age wrong, first I thought (he sounds around forty) then today you mentioned age and then I thought (he sounds nineteen) but now you mentioned film school twenty years ago. I thought you were older the first time because you summed up something about God in a few short words and it made a lot of sense, it give me a lot to ponder. I think you also mentioned Billy Talent, that's when I hit on Canada. I hadn't been looking at peoples profiles. I found that band from a Canadian, I'd mentioned them to people before in Europe and 'who?'. I got hooked on them almost overnight. I was just listening to February Winds again. One of Canada's best exports.

Film School definitely changed, I watched the change in editing software in just one year. Now people are shooting on phones and I die a little inside when I hear that. Forty eight minutes is good going, especially if that's edited footage/post. Glad to hear it's a weird one too, those are the best types. Three in one sounds a lot like Body Bags. It's a really good nineties anthology featuring three separate stories by individual directors. So John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper and Larry Sulkis. It's sort of like Creepshow but more raw. You most likely know it, Sam Raimi and Wes Craven even sneak in some cameos. If you ever put your work online I'll be sure to watch, it's exciting to hear that people are still doing what you are doing.

It's interesting I was talking to someone over the weekend about a podcast from Canada that I hadn't heard in years. I thought it was really creative, it was just two guys with a passion for what they were doing and I preferred them to the professionals.