Let me start by saying I am a sucker for an action film, and that said I am giving Prince of Persia an “eh”. The one thing I can say is that they did a great job choreographing the fight scenes, It felt like something out of “Iron Monkey” or “Hero”. The reason I liked that is because I felt it made the scenes feel real.
I loved the awesome urban running and the SPX, but the predictable and at times painstakingly impractical scenarios ruined the experience. Too many times I found myself saying, “No, way”. After talking with the group I went with this was the over all consensus. Plus watching a movie about the Persian empire that is all in English with white actors was a bit hard to buy into.
My advice, if you are a MEGAfan of the game series, then you should see this. If you’re not, wait for the blue ray.
Here is the trailer for those who haven’t seen it yet.
Did you see it? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought!
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Having worked in every camera department position from utility or loader to a camera operator and DP using both traditional film and new digital formats I thought I would just share a few things about the differences.
Ill start with film, this one gets me nostalgic because this has been the way the industry has done this for years. A lot of the greats used film and still do. The most classic movies of all time used film and it carries a “true to the art” feel because of that. Being a loader and have having to load each mag and being an assistant camera and loading mags into the camera, checking the gate for film shavings that could mess with the shutter, it just has this old school sense. I love working with film, because it forces you to get creative at times, with film you have only a certain window of viewable light. if you’re film stock only has a 3 stop range its tough to get different parts of your shot light, so you have to get creative!
On the other hand digital offers a lot that film can’t. Cameras like the RED, in which I have worked with quiet a lot, offer a range of services that make is much more cost effective. For one they do not need film stock because it records to a drive, they also do not need developing which is expensive. You can switch the ISO in the camera instead of needing to buy multiple film stocks to accommodate different scenarios. Probably the most immediate difference is the price of the camera. Some things are the same though, I have learned that you still need to have the footage professionally colored to look right, and that one is very expensive, but the pros out way the cons. Probably the best thing about digital is the ability to instantly playback and see a performance, this has also been a nightmare with certain King of Queen actors that need to see each shot before moving on, because if you question if that last take really was the perfect one, you can check.
As a director that is obviously one of my favorite things about digital and the fact that the quality of image you get is easily comparable to film. So my suggestion is that if you have the budget and want to get that old school, doing how Orson Welles did it feel, you should go with film. If you want to save some money and get the same look, maybe have some money for distribution, you should try one of the amazing digital options that are available. Here are some that I recommend:
1. The Red One - I have shot 2 films and 3 commercials with this and they use it on a series I was working on. The image quality is pretty comparable and the cost is low.
2. Cannon 5D (or 7D) - For the price and size you aren’t going to find something better right now.
Try one of these out. Leave a comment and let me know how it worked for you!
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Action is a tricky thing because on a page it can seem like a small paragraph but in AD terms(in 1/8s of a page); 1/8 of a page can end up being a full days work. When you write action in your script It helps to be overly descriptive in some ways, and vague in others. When you are dealing with pyro-technics it is good to explain how big of an explosion but thats as far as it can go. Long before getting to set you will have had meetings with pyro-techs and they are already working on getting the explosion you want.
Fight scenes are where you can get descriptive, mostly with the environment the characters are in. Stunt guys are very well trainined and letting them be creative with the fight and offer something to you is in my opioin much better than writing each punch, which trust me I’ve seen. It is a good idea to pick things that are unique to the story, and put those in. Say your movie is about a ninja-spy that is stealing data from Jean Claude Van-Dam; you are going to want to write in when a ninja star is used and when JCVD slams a steal beam into the ninja hurting him; showing his weakness.
A lot of times we can think when writing, as traditionally taught, that a page more or less equals a minute. The Reason I say this is that if you are working on an action script scaling 120+ pages with a lot of these fight scenes and explosion lines, you are looking at an easy 3 hour film. The reason this can hinder you is that people might start to get impatient waiting for the climax, and we’ve all heard the phrase “it was good but an hour too long”. If you have a lot of action through the film you need to have a grandiose climax.
One thing to think of when writing an action script is that people don’t go to an action film to think, so keep the story simple. You can still have great characters with arcs, and have a great plot where life changing events take place, but don’t make your audience hunt for answers. They will get frustrated very fast and eventually not like the film.
At the end of the day, everyone is different and being creative and compelling when writing is the simple key. So, have fun writing your explosions, car chases, fight scenes, bomb defusions, and building-wrecking action sequences, I’ll be watching!
What do you think? Leave me a comment and tell me know!
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Lately it seems that if a film uses CG (Computer Generated Images), it has a very weak story. I’ve had countless debates about the effectiveness of CG with other film-makers. Since CG is still so new and we are able to do things that we haven’t thus far, we tend to overdo it. The problem is, because we are creating so many new elements, we have been sacrificing the story.
For example, Transformers on many levels has revolutionized the way CG is used and integrated. I mean you have a 40 foot Automic-Robot standing in the same frame as an actual actor and it looks as real as the actor. The problem most film critics had with the film, was that the storyline was lacking just so that we could see more of the “cool” transformers; and let’s be honest they do look cool.
So how do we bridge the gap? I fully believe that using CG to create characters can evolve to a place where we can get the emotion out in a way that’s believable. I heard James Cameron talking about 3D and he said when color first came out in film, everything was over saturated just because they could, but eventually color was fully integrated to enhance the film. He believes that’s what is happening with 3D now. In previous movies, things would pop out at you just because that feature was available. He believes in the future, 3D will be used to add depth and let the viewer be fully immersed in the film. I believe the same idea applies with CG, as they are starting to make that change. I’m excited that CG has already started to enhance films instead of just being “cool” as we’ve seen in District 9.
Will there ever be the perfect movie that fully integrates CG while being intensely story driven? Probably not, but I’ll be watching!
What do you think? Leave me a comment and tell me know!
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What is a Director?
To know what a director is we must first break down what a director does. The director is accountable for the overall vision of the film. A directors job is to visually breakdown a script, interpret text, work with actors, lead a set, problem solve on set, camera placement, blocking, casting, and a bit of editing. Now, there are other things such as lighting and sound and in most cases editing(even though I count it as part of their job) in which it is not directly the director’s job but they still need to know a great deal about these positions because they all help make a dynamic and entertaining story.
Think about this, you have a love scene, a guy pulls his girl close in for the kiss and we can’t see any of it because it’s lit like a nior film. That is why a director has to know about all of the positions on set. Some of the director’s jobs are harder than others, and some can make or break your career.
Text interpretation is one of those make it or break it parts of a Director’s Career. The reason why this is so powerful is because this is where the director gets the vision for the whole movie, show, short, or whatever they are directing. The passions of a director and the way they interpret the script are going to define the message of the whole film. If Steven Speilberg would have interpreted the ET script differently it could have been a campy movie about an alien who ditches the little boy. It’s because he interpreted the emotions and feelings from the characters and felt the bond and then the sadness that we get the movie we do!
Okay so what’s the hardest part about the director’s job. I believe that the absolute most challenging part about being a director is leading the set. The reason I say this is because when you are on set and you’ve been shooting 14 hours, and you have about a hundred people getting tired and cranky with tempers starting to flare, it can be very tricky to navigate. I’ve seen this happen many times and have dealt with it myself.
My favorite part of directing is getting to work with actors. Working with them to get the emotion out and for it to read right! I love when an actor finally breaks the barrier and delivers a performance so powerful that you can’t help but smile, laugh, or cry with them.
While Directors have recently been getting a lot of glam, It’s not all fun and games! You can’t just show up and say action. There are many sleepless nights trying to figure out how to tie the story together because you’ve had to cut scenes and it can be very frustrating when you are on take 13 and still not getting the shot right. I will say though that it is one of the most exciting and fulfilling things to see your finished product on the big screen.
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