The other day I was browsing my favorite local second-hand DVD store and happened upon a Blu-Ray copy of Baraka.
This was significant for two reasons.
The Dark Knight is an excellent film. Christopher Nolan has essentially made a modern Godfather or Heat staring Batman and the Joker. It is an intelligent film that doesn’t feel the need to spoon feed information to the audience. It deals with complex issues: Duality, justice, morality, terror. All while being confident that the audience is right there along for the ride and capturing every nuance. But this post isn’t just to praise The Dark Knight, rather to talk about the elephant in the room that no one seems to be acknowledging.
Perhaps “new” is a misnomer. The idea of ads that are longer than the typical thirty seconds has been around for some time, but I wonder if it’s making a comeback.
Taking into account the state of the thirty second spot today (some of which we’ve discussed in previous blog entries) the opportunity to do something a little different is presenting itself more strongly than ever before. Enter Jerry Seinfeld. » Continue Reading
I’ve been chewing on this one for a while. Recently IGN reported that Warner Bros. has decided not to make a sequel to Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, instead opting for a reboot of the series to make a “darker and more edgy” Superman film. This decision was reportedly based on the disappointing performance of Superman Returns at the box office compared with the record-smashing success of The Dark Knight.
Before I go any farther, let me clarify. I grew up a comic book fan. Batman is the hero for me. He was, is, and always will be my favorite character. Batman is dark. He is edgy. He’s a dichotomy and that makes him infinitely interesting to me. The Dark Knight was also a masterfully crafted movie and I have nothing but praise and respect for Christopher Nolan’s latest.
But, I’ve seen this mistake before. » Continue Reading
I’m going to go out on a limb with this post and make a prediction. Now in all fairness I must say that my clairvoyance skills have not exactly batted a thousand in the past, but this is a theory I’ve been working on for a while, and I’m reasonably sure that A) I’m right or B) I’ll be vague enough that I have plausible deniability if anyone ever calls me on it.
The story of American Zoetrope is an amazing one. For anyone not familiar with it I highly recommend a documentary called A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope. You can find a copy on the 2-DVD Director’s Cut release of George Lucas’s THX-1138. I’ll let you discover most of the details yourself, but as a primer for my theory you need to know that at this time the studio system of filmmaking was collapsing. Jack Warner and the big studio barons were retiring and corporations were purchasing the studios. There was a shift from storytelling to marketing. Even before that, Hollywood was on the decline. People were not coming to the box office at the rates they had been. Cookie-cutter pictures with the same actors that everyone had seen for the past however many years just were not sparking an interest with the film-going public. Students at USC and UCLA were told to find other careers. Entire departments at the big studios were closing. It looked bleak.
In the last two weeks I’ve written two and a half short scripts, read one short script, and read a rough draft of a feature length script. Scripts have been on my brain recently.
Normally for me the writing process is a slow one. I spend a lot of time chewing on ideas. Rarely do I start writing with a complete story in my mind, but I always have to have a solid scene.
What do I mean by that? » Continue Reading
Testing remote blogging.
Sorry for the lack of a new article for the last few weeks. Easy Water Films has been getting a few things together to bring some exciting announcements to you shortly. Things are as active as ever around here and rest assured that any silences are for a good reason.
One of the new technology additions is the ability to add posts and information to this blog from practically anywhere in the world. Technology … Amazing stuff.
Stay tuned!
Christopher Johnson, Director, Easy Water Films, L.L.C.
The world is buzzing with Wall-E chatter. Wall-E is one of the best reviewed film in recent memory. Everyone seems to unanimously agree that this film is terrific and something special. So I hesitated to add to the noise by writing about Pixar’s new film, but I simply couldn’t help myself. Perhaps these thoughts on Wall-E and Pixar in general will strike a chord that the others are not striking.
Pixar has never had a bad film (in my opinion). Even some Pixar titles that I didn’t care for as much are still really good movies with a deserved following. So in a climate in Hollywood where people perceive that quality is at a low point and people are begging for quality entertainment at the box office, how can this single studio constantly deliver every time they come up to bat? I believe that I know the answer, and it is shockingly simple. » Continue Reading
Easy Water Films, L.L.C. was started with two goals. 1. To offer outstanding video services to our clients. 2. To produce dramatic films. In this blog, we have seemingly explored topics related to goal #2, however to my mind there is no distinction. Let me explain.
We swim in a world of advertisement. According to The New York Times, January 2007 the average person living in a city sees 5,000 ads per day, up from 2,000 ads per day 30 years ago (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/media/15everywhere.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin). That’s an amazing amount of companies, products, and services vying for a piece of our attention. To be completely honest, it’s way past the saturation point. People are exposed to that much advertising per day, but people do not absorb that much advertising per day. We’re desensitized to it. Our brains don’t register billboards as we drive down the road. Our ears tune out the new jingle on the radio. Our Tivos filter out the commercials during our favorite shows. So in a world where advertising has take on the characteristics of white noise, how do companies actually reach their target market? » Continue Reading
I’d like to add that, for me, audio post production (where the Sound Design begins to be married to the picture) is really one of my favorite parts of filmmaking. That’s hard for me to distinguish because I love so many facets of the filmmaking process. I love writing, or revising scripts. I love being on set and shooting for twelve hours a day. I love watching the picture change form in the edit. So saying that audio post is one of my favorite parts, well, they’re all my favorite parts (except for rotoscoping … that may become a blog entry all to itself at a later date).
The magic in Sound Design is that it’s the point where the film comes alive for me. During the script phase I’ve got the vision of the film in my head and I think to myself “Maybe this time I won’t have to make any compromises and what I imagine will end up on the scene.” That never happens, thankfully, but that’s where I am during the script phase. During filming I’m relishing in the moment. Each take is a joy to see unfold, and even shooting in less than perfect conditions calling action and watching the actors unfold the story is remarkable. During editing I’m usually thinking “How could I screw the script up so badly?” I’ll cut and recut until that morphs into “Well, it’s pretty close to what I wanted.” When we get to audio and start layering in foley and sound effects and ambience it’s no longer just images on the screen. It becomes living and breathing and starts to feel like a movie. Add a score in there and I’m just being wowed at every turn. For the first time in the entire process, I can see the finish line
Christopher Johnson, Director, Easy Water Films, L.L.C.