Here is my commercial that I made for my class a few weeks ago. I mimicked a ONE campaign commercial, but used regular ordinary people instead of celebrities. We have just as loud of a voice if you ask me.
The version I made for class didn't have credits or the song at the end. Sorry about the audio being a little off...
I can't believe a week from now I will have a cabin at Frontier Ranch. Such a weird thought. This was a hard working, but good weekend. We shot my final project on Saturday all day with some actors, and it was a lot of fun. I think it turned out pretty well, we're going to edit it tomorrow, so we'll see. Then today we went to the Zemeckis center and shot Tony's project in front of a green screen all day! It was a long shoot, but good experience, I had never worked with a green screen before. Should be interesting to see how it turns out. I also went to Mosaic for the third and last time tonight. Erwin Mcmanus spoke, (apparently he's pretty famous) and it was great. It sounds cliche, but he spoke about knowing God rather than just knowing his reputation. He had a great metaphor: Our relationship with God is more than just downloading all the "information", it's about making the connection. Ha, that should resonate well with out tech friendly generation.
We are in the final week, which means that everything will be wrapping up. Tomorrow my final project should be finished, and by Wednesday our Warner Brother's projects will finally be finished. They are turning out great. I'll be sure to post all of them here whenever they find their way onto youtube. Thursday is our last day of class, when we are screening all of our final projects and Warner Bros. movies. Two of the execs that were with us the whole time at WB are coming to screen our WB movies, which is kind of nerve wracking, but exciting! After class I get to finish the program by getting to go to a free pre-release screening of The Bourne Ultimatum, which I am REALLY excited to see. I LOVE those movies. Friday is the entire summer program BBQ, where each of the classes from the summer program, (there are like 15-20 or so) submits ONE film that they feel is the best from the entire class. I wonder which one will be our pick... After all of that, I am driving to Santa Cruz to make a major transition from the Film capital of the world to the beautiful quiet mountains and up into the camp bubble. I've loved being surrounded by the film world, but I can't wait to get to camp! I can't wait to be able to breathe fresh air and get to see some old friends, and sing at campfire, and make fun of little kids... It's going to be a great two weeks and a great way to end the summer. But before that all happens, I'm going to make the most of my last week here!
Just cause I feel like it, I want to rank the summer movies I've seen so far, from best to worst, in my opinion. (Just because something is at the bottom doesn't mean it was a bad movie, it just means the others were better!)
Ratatouille
Ocean's 13
Live Free or Die Hard
Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix
Transformers
Surf's Up
Spider Man 3
Shrek 3
Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End
Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer
Still need to see: Bourne Ultimatum, Rush Hour 3
Will wait for rental: Evan Almighty
Okay after writing that list, I realize how hard it was to make that list. It's hard to compare the animated movies to the big action blockbusters. I think Ratatouille's story was just amazing, and Pixar is always the cream of the crop. (except for Cars.) Die Hard had some amazing action, but I think it will be topped by Bourne Ultimatum. I would actually put Surf's Up higher, but something just isn't letting me... but seriously, not a bad movie, it was a lot of fun. Spider Man 3 wasn't as bad as a lot of people say it is, but the infamous "emo" scene, was definitely interesting. Fantastic Four was the worst movie by far, just a lame, lame story with bad acting. Pirates was the letdown of the decade, and was a trilogy that was clearly made just for the money, not for the story. The first one was so much better than the other two it's not even funny. Harry Potter was visually great, and had better acting than any of the others, but it was rushed, not very well directed, and left too much out from the book. Transformers: Great visual effects, fun action, story lacked a little, it relied to much on its visuals and action, but not too horribly. I think I liked Ocean's 13 better than most people. I think these movies are just genius, and witty and clever. This one was better than 12 and just below 11. 11 can't be topped, it's the classic original (of the new Ocean's.) I loved the "lets get even and get revenge" motive of 13, and the casting of Al Pacino.
So there you go, my very brief, quick summary of how I think this summer did for movies. Looking forward to see Bourne, Rush Hour 3, and The Invasion (since I saw some of the final sound mixing at WB) to finish out the summer movies.
If you are bored check out the new Will Smith movie trailer for I Am Legend that comes out on my birthday. Looks pretty good...
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
One last hurrah!
Went to Target today, it felt a little like home for some reason...
I can't believe that I only have one week until my class is over at USC. A week from now, I will be packing up getting ready to leave to drive to Santa Cruz for two weeks of CAMP! Let me tell you, I love being in the film world, surrounded by the at that I truly adore, but I really am not a fan of living in South Central LA. I'm really getting tired of all the concrete, smog, traffic and general lack of green around here. And it's only been 5 weeks! I mean I know someday I'll be living in LA to pursue film as a career, but hopefully it will be in a different part of LA, like Burbank or Beverly Hills or something. (yeah right, like iIcould afford to live in those places...) So needless to say, I can't wait to get to beautiful Scott's Valley. Seeing the ocean and the forest is going to be amazing after living here. I can't even imagine sleeping in those cabins. I lie in my bed here and I hear traffic in the distance, cars zooming by, people yelling, the buzz of all the neon lights around me. I look forward to lying in a cramped sleeping bag in a bed to short for me surrounded by 8 little buggers (ahem, children) in the cool air listening to nothing but pure silence in the beautiful Santa Cruz mountains... But hey, I'll enjoy what I've got while I'm here...
I am shooting my final project this weekend, which I am directing and I'm really looking forward to. I finished the script with Tony today, and I think it is turning out pretty good. It is a short, sweet little music video that should make you smile when you watch it. At least, that's the goal. I'm still trying to come up with a song for the video...so hopefully whatever I choose will fit the story well.
Sad news: My digital camera crapped out on me and I had to send it home so that it could get fixed, so no more pictures from around here... which, if you know me well, is very sad for me. Good thing this came at the end of the program after I had been to WB a bunch.
I should put posting my commercial here very soon, so look for that.
Allright, our last real day of class is tomorrow. We're starting off with another guest lecture from David Weitzer, the guy who did marketing for the original Star Wars, E.T. and Alien! So rad! (He's the guy who came up with the tag line "In space, No one can hear you scream." for the Alien movies... pretty sweet.) He's going to be talking to us about the marketing for our WB movies...so cool!
I can't believe that I only have one week until my class is over at USC. A week from now, I will be packing up getting ready to leave to drive to Santa Cruz for two weeks of CAMP! Let me tell you, I love being in the film world, surrounded by the at that I truly adore, but I really am not a fan of living in South Central LA. I'm really getting tired of all the concrete, smog, traffic and general lack of green around here. And it's only been 5 weeks! I mean I know someday I'll be living in LA to pursue film as a career, but hopefully it will be in a different part of LA, like Burbank or Beverly Hills or something. (yeah right, like iIcould afford to live in those places...) So needless to say, I can't wait to get to beautiful Scott's Valley. Seeing the ocean and the forest is going to be amazing after living here. I can't even imagine sleeping in those cabins. I lie in my bed here and I hear traffic in the distance, cars zooming by, people yelling, the buzz of all the neon lights around me. I look forward to lying in a cramped sleeping bag in a bed to short for me surrounded by 8 little buggers (ahem, children) in the cool air listening to nothing but pure silence in the beautiful Santa Cruz mountains... But hey, I'll enjoy what I've got while I'm here...
I am shooting my final project this weekend, which I am directing and I'm really looking forward to. I finished the script with Tony today, and I think it is turning out pretty good. It is a short, sweet little music video that should make you smile when you watch it. At least, that's the goal. I'm still trying to come up with a song for the video...so hopefully whatever I choose will fit the story well.
Sad news: My digital camera crapped out on me and I had to send it home so that it could get fixed, so no more pictures from around here... which, if you know me well, is very sad for me. Good thing this came at the end of the program after I had been to WB a bunch.
I should put posting my commercial here very soon, so look for that.
Allright, our last real day of class is tomorrow. We're starting off with another guest lecture from David Weitzer, the guy who did marketing for the original Star Wars, E.T. and Alien! So rad! (He's the guy who came up with the tag line "In space, No one can hear you scream." for the Alien movies... pretty sweet.) He's going to be talking to us about the marketing for our WB movies...so cool!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Ending and Beginning
It's 2 in the morning, I'm dead tired, and don't have the energy to write a full post here. I will write all about the WB experience and shoot later, but it was amazing.
Some things I have done recently:
Ate at the Cheesecake Factory at The Grove in Beverly Hills tonight, got some great pasta!
Saw the movie Sunshine which was awesome. Haven't seen a good space movie for a while...great CG and effects, I would give the story a B...not bad, but could have been better. Got to go for a free, got a friend with hookups, and the theater was amazing, leather seats, assigned seating and digital projection screen....booyah.
Watched our Dailies from Warner Brothers. Initial reaction: A little disappointed with the final product, but the amount I learned from the whole experience was invaluable. The process is more important than the results in this case...
I came up with a good story idea for my final project for this summer program. It is a romantic comedy music video. I love that I get to hit so many genre's at once! Finally I'm doing something light and funny as opposed to all this heavy dramatic violent stuff! More details about it later...but it looks like my car (Lola!) will be a major starring role in the film! Allright it is way too late and although we don't have class tomorrow, I sure have a lot of work to do to prepare for this little film of mine...
Some things I have done recently:
Ate at the Cheesecake Factory at The Grove in Beverly Hills tonight, got some great pasta!
Saw the movie Sunshine which was awesome. Haven't seen a good space movie for a while...great CG and effects, I would give the story a B...not bad, but could have been better. Got to go for a free, got a friend with hookups, and the theater was amazing, leather seats, assigned seating and digital projection screen....booyah.
Watched our Dailies from Warner Brothers. Initial reaction: A little disappointed with the final product, but the amount I learned from the whole experience was invaluable. The process is more important than the results in this case...
I came up with a good story idea for my final project for this summer program. It is a romantic comedy music video. I love that I get to hit so many genre's at once! Finally I'm doing something light and funny as opposed to all this heavy dramatic violent stuff! More details about it later...but it looks like my car (Lola!) will be a major starring role in the film! Allright it is way too late and although we don't have class tomorrow, I sure have a lot of work to do to prepare for this little film of mine...
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Warner Brothers Shoot: Day 1
I haven't been this tired in a long time. Yesterday I was running around all over LA and Burbank getting equipment for today's shoot, and I didn't get to go to sleep until 1:30 or so. That would be normal for me, if I wouldn't have had to get up at 5 am. That's bloody early, my friends. That's so early I'm not even hungry. I don't like waking up before the sun does, it's just not right. We left USC at around 7:30 and drove a huge coach bus with our whole class and all the actors and unpacked all of our equipment and took it to our sets at about 8:30. We started shooting at 9 or so. We started with our flashback scene, which is the only exterior (outside) scene in the whole movie. We got that out of the way, and started setting up and lighting our interior scene, in our amazing location, which is this great wide open set that looks like an abandoned building on the inside. It had wooden beams and rafters everywhere, and is really tall. It's a great mobster hangout area, which is why we chose to shoot there.
Our actor's looked amazing, and it was really great to get to see Tony's script come to life. I really enjoyed working with these particular actors, they were a lot of fun and seemed to have a great time. It was fun to goof around on the set with them, especially with the prop guns and money. Our actor, Cal, who is this Australian guy playing the "bodyguard" also is really good at makeup (which we found out on set today, which was a totally bonus) which really helped us out. He touched up all the guys and made them look great for camera, and as for our only actress, Sam, she did all of her own makeup, because, well you know, girls already know all that crap. Cal also was really into taking pictures all over the set, and when we were setting up shots or working on lighting or something, he would take pictures of the other actors "in character". Here are a few of his pictures that he sent us, we'll get the rest up later.
(Cal is the one in the upper right, Nevada Vargas in the middle playing "Marco Sarlone")
This is Michael Vitiello playing "Tommy Sarlone":
Here is our Femme Fatale "Gloria" played by Samantha Colburn.
Here's a shot from the exterior flashback scene with "Tommy" and "Gloria."
Here's a shot of our crew in a golf cart at WB at the end of today. We were exhausted, but still not ready to leave the lot!
Director: Anne (middle)
Writer/Gaffer: Tony (left)
Producer/1st Ad: Me (back right)
Sound: Armando (right)
Director of Photography: Oscar (back left)
Tomorrow is the exciting day, we are shooting the fight scene, and then some more action. I'll get a lot more sleep tonight, but first I have to go get some more supplies for tomorrow's shoot.
Random sidenote about today: The cast and crew loved juice boxes on set. It was amazing, they were all gone in about an hour. I thought it was hilarious, all these tough mobsters, drinking their little juice boxes in this huge abandoned warehouse. Stuff like that cracks me up....
I'll post later about tomorrow, and will get more pictures up... I'm having a blast, doing what I love... that's really all you need to know. ;)
Our actor's looked amazing, and it was really great to get to see Tony's script come to life. I really enjoyed working with these particular actors, they were a lot of fun and seemed to have a great time. It was fun to goof around on the set with them, especially with the prop guns and money. Our actor, Cal, who is this Australian guy playing the "bodyguard" also is really good at makeup (which we found out on set today, which was a totally bonus) which really helped us out. He touched up all the guys and made them look great for camera, and as for our only actress, Sam, she did all of her own makeup, because, well you know, girls already know all that crap. Cal also was really into taking pictures all over the set, and when we were setting up shots or working on lighting or something, he would take pictures of the other actors "in character". Here are a few of his pictures that he sent us, we'll get the rest up later.
(Cal is the one in the upper right, Nevada Vargas in the middle playing "Marco Sarlone")
This is Michael Vitiello playing "Tommy Sarlone":
Here is our Femme Fatale "Gloria" played by Samantha Colburn.
Here's a shot from the exterior flashback scene with "Tommy" and "Gloria."
Here's a shot of our crew in a golf cart at WB at the end of today. We were exhausted, but still not ready to leave the lot!
Director: Anne (middle)
Writer/Gaffer: Tony (left)
Producer/1st Ad: Me (back right)
Sound: Armando (right)
Director of Photography: Oscar (back left)
Tomorrow is the exciting day, we are shooting the fight scene, and then some more action. I'll get a lot more sleep tonight, but first I have to go get some more supplies for tomorrow's shoot.
Random sidenote about today: The cast and crew loved juice boxes on set. It was amazing, they were all gone in about an hour. I thought it was hilarious, all these tough mobsters, drinking their little juice boxes in this huge abandoned warehouse. Stuff like that cracks me up....
I'll post later about tomorrow, and will get more pictures up... I'm having a blast, doing what I love... that's really all you need to know. ;)
Friday, July 20, 2007
Post Production and Fake Money
Today we went back to WB and got to scout our locations for where we will be shooting this weekend. We are shooting in this place called the "firehouse" with beautiful rafters and wooden beams going everywhere. It's going to be a great little hangout spot for our mobster characters. It's going to be a blast to shoot there. We got escorted around by the Director and Vice-President of Operations and WB (who have been helping us get around and do things the past 4 weeks). They are great guys and have a wealth of experience to share with us.
After that, we got our final tour at WB, the post production tour. We toured the Foley sound room (where they create and record sounds with all different kinds of things and toys and materials to recreate certain sounds), the orchestra room (where they record live orchestra's for movies' scores and such), the ADR room (where they record actors talking if they need to rerecord their voices in post, the same rooms that actors record their voices for animated movies), and multiple mixing rooms. The best part of the tour was when we walked into this huge room with a screen the size of a movie-theater screen, with sound proof walls, and a top of the line state of the art sound system. There was a HUGE mixing board, and we were told that the guys in there were putting he finishing touches on the new Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman movie, The Invasion. We got to watch the first 7-8 minutes of the movie, and it looks amazing. I have never heard sound that was that good in a movie before. It's not that the movie had the best sound, it was just the room we were in. I was hoping the producer, Joel Silver, would be there, because he might be my favorite Producer in the biz, after producing the Matrix trilogy and countless other awesome films. (IMDB him if you want to know....)
Once I got back home, Tony and I went to the prop house 15 miles away and got some nice fakes money (two fad wads of hundreds) for our shoot. Now we have two very realistic prop guns and fad wads of cash...trouble could definitely follow if we aren't careful.... hehe. Tomorrow we have tons to do, rent folding chairs, coolers, organize our craft services (food) for the two days of shooting, get actor release forms, do a rehearsal/read through with the actors, go get a dolly and 30 feet of track, go to Burbank to get our mat box, make fake blood, go over our shot lists and call sheets....and I'm probably forgetting a few things. Tomorrow is the last hard day of pre-production, and then the fun stuff begins. Saturday I have to wake up at like 5:15 am! If you know me at all, you know this is not good news for me. We are leaving USC at 7:30 for WB, and starting to shoot at 8:30 or 9 all the way until 3:30. It's going to rock! We will be so exhausted by Monday, but will hopefully have great films to show for it! It sure is a good feeling to be exhausted at the end of the day doing something that you love. I hope all of you figure out whatever it is that will do that for you...I can't believe I'm 19 and already know what I want to do. I mean not have a lot of the means of money that a lot of people to do accomplish things, but at least I've got a bit of a head start!
Alright time to get some sleep before I start losing it again!
After that, we got our final tour at WB, the post production tour. We toured the Foley sound room (where they create and record sounds with all different kinds of things and toys and materials to recreate certain sounds), the orchestra room (where they record live orchestra's for movies' scores and such), the ADR room (where they record actors talking if they need to rerecord their voices in post, the same rooms that actors record their voices for animated movies), and multiple mixing rooms. The best part of the tour was when we walked into this huge room with a screen the size of a movie-theater screen, with sound proof walls, and a top of the line state of the art sound system. There was a HUGE mixing board, and we were told that the guys in there were putting he finishing touches on the new Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman movie, The Invasion. We got to watch the first 7-8 minutes of the movie, and it looks amazing. I have never heard sound that was that good in a movie before. It's not that the movie had the best sound, it was just the room we were in. I was hoping the producer, Joel Silver, would be there, because he might be my favorite Producer in the biz, after producing the Matrix trilogy and countless other awesome films. (IMDB him if you want to know....)
Once I got back home, Tony and I went to the prop house 15 miles away and got some nice fakes money (two fad wads of hundreds) for our shoot. Now we have two very realistic prop guns and fad wads of cash...trouble could definitely follow if we aren't careful.... hehe. Tomorrow we have tons to do, rent folding chairs, coolers, organize our craft services (food) for the two days of shooting, get actor release forms, do a rehearsal/read through with the actors, go get a dolly and 30 feet of track, go to Burbank to get our mat box, make fake blood, go over our shot lists and call sheets....and I'm probably forgetting a few things. Tomorrow is the last hard day of pre-production, and then the fun stuff begins. Saturday I have to wake up at like 5:15 am! If you know me at all, you know this is not good news for me. We are leaving USC at 7:30 for WB, and starting to shoot at 8:30 or 9 all the way until 3:30. It's going to rock! We will be so exhausted by Monday, but will hopefully have great films to show for it! It sure is a good feeling to be exhausted at the end of the day doing something that you love. I hope all of you figure out whatever it is that will do that for you...I can't believe I'm 19 and already know what I want to do. I mean not have a lot of the means of money that a lot of people to do accomplish things, but at least I've got a bit of a head start!
Alright time to get some sleep before I start losing it again!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
We have our actors!
I'll write more on it later, but we have been casting the last two days and have finally decided on our 4 main characters for our short film, A New Don. We are filming this weekend at Warner Brothers, which is definitely going to be the highlight of my time down here. The rest of the week is preparation for this weekend and our shoot. We have to get props, costumes, all kinds of forms and permits signed, catering, lighting and sound equipment, set design stuff and more just in a matter of days. This is "hell week" but is the most fun week. We are working from like 9-9 every day, but we all are loving it. I mean hey, this is what I signed up for, and I'm loving every second of it. I'm getting so much good experience. I've even met some amazing people. Yesterday we met some guy who claimed to be in the new Will Ferrell movie, "Semi Pro" and was working on a script with Ice Cube. Who knows if this guy was legit, but it was cool to talk with him with some other people for like 30 mins. Anyways, I need to get some sleep, I am exhausted already and it's only Tuesday! I'll keep you all posted on the progress...just be very excited for our film, it's going to be awesome.
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