Nicholas j. Robinson

I’m a geek at heart, and TED gets me through those hard days like today, so this was a welcome addition to my Wednesday.

THIRST has always had a refined version of this tech since a very early outline. This TED talk gives a glimmer but I highly doubt in 10 years we will be projecting on walls. Unless it is to facilitate dialogue with other people within physical proximity, all of this would be visible only to the user (Glasses, then contact lenses, then retinal implant) .

Note - Twitter updates to the upper right. I’ve been on the Twitter bandwagon for some time now but kept forgetting to add it here. Follow me at @NjRFilms

Do you have a folder where you save insparational images? You should.

I have these exact cars in my script for THIRST. How convenient.

Slumdog - 4 Stars - Caught it before the hype, thank god.

The Wrestler - 4 Stars - Took a week for it to become a 4 star. Left thinking 3, then it continued to seep in

Frost / Nixon - 4 Stars - Verbal boxing is cool.

W. - 3 Stars - Much better than I expected. Poor ol’ W didn’t mean to ruin the country, he just a simple folk.

Taken - 3 Stars  - I was hating on this film til I saw it. Now I get it and I take back the hate.

A Face in the Crowd - 5 Stars - Amazing. 1957 and it’s more relevant than ever.

I, Robot - 3 stars - Re-watch for THIRST research

Boy A - 3 Stars - Good, got very close to being great.

28 Days Later - 4 Stars - Awesome, scary in the way I like to be scared.

The Fall - 3 Stars - Visually amazing, story had problems (I would have preferred a more serious tone)

Miracle Mile - 3 Stars - I wanted more from it.

Flatliners - 3 Stars - Cool idea.

Double Indemnity - 4 Stars - Classic

The weight of not having a post in 2009 has caused me to lose countless hours of sleep. So here I am. What have I been up to? Writing my ass off, that’s what.

For the time being, Earthquake is what it is. It provided a solid push in the right direction. I am now on a new journey. A journey by the name of THIRST. Page 68 and moving at a solid clip. Target goal for draft 1 completion is February 28th and there is no reason I won’t make that goal.

2009 has been all about routine. Get up early. Write. Go to work. Write some more. Go to the gym. Eat. Sleep. I feel like a marine, minus the PTSD and suicidal tendencies. Those traits usually don’t set in until after the first draft is done.

That’s all I’ve got for you, so I’ll exit with a picture from my ‘inspire’ folder. I didn’t take it, but it’s not photoshopped so it’s got that going for it. Oh, and the picture is up top not down here. Don’t shoot the messenger. Even if it is said messengers fault. Badass though, right?

I’ve been watching a lot of movies of late. Mostly due to NetFlix Instant coming to OS X (Officially today, although it’s been out in beta for a while now). If you have yet to jump on that train I suggest you do so now. Many a great film to be found.

Here is a run down of what I’ve been watching:

NetFlix / Netflix Instant (Best thing ever)

The Crow - 3 stars - almost cool.
Dark City - 4 stars - This style works much better than in the Crow.
Primer - 4 stars - amazing, $7k budget
Mission to Mars - 3 stars - crappy movie until the end which is amazing and worth watching for.
Godfather II - 4 stars - Late to this party
Gattica - 3 stars - Love the concept, story execution was less than I hoped for.
The Fountain - 4 stars - Film didn’t get the love it deserved. Worth a look (or a second watch)
Panic Room - 3 stars - come on Fincher.
Zodiac - 3 stars - Good but not great.
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest - 4 stars - Classic
Rebel Without a Cause - 3 stars - Didn’t resonate with me
The Kid Stays in the Picture - 4 - Love Hollywood
Bound - 4 - Great seeing the beginning of the Bros style.
Storytelling - 4 stars - funny
2010 4 stars - holy underrated. Don’t compare it to the Masters 2001. Amazing story.
King of California - 3 stars - Nothing special
The Fifth Element - 3 stars - cool idea, absurd execution (Even though that’s what Besson was going for)

Award Screening:
Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 4.5 stars - Best Picture?
Slumdog Millionaire - Watching tonight but I’m going in with a 4.5 star rating.

Hitchock Awesomness:

The Man Who Knew Too Much
Rope
Vertigo
Rear Window

John August has released his Scrippet plugin to the masses.

Yep, it works! This is going to be great for my next Frame by Frame so I’ll be able to include sections of the script.

Blog updates: New Wordpress, new themes, new widgets (tag clouds, oh my).

Interesting updates: The network pilot for Earthquake LA is DONE.

I couldn’t be more happy with it.

So, now… time to begin the journey of SELLING.

Danger, originally uploaded by njrfilms.

Softbox in front 1/8th power, backlight plain strobe at 1/16th shot on my Canon 40D with the 28-70 2.8 L.

Say what you will about Michael Bay, the guy knows action and how to blow things up. We are going to examine, frame by frame, the below scene. I was going to do it all at once, but after spending 2 hours on 30 seconds I realized I’ll have to break this up.

We will start with the pre action sequence action sequence where Will Smith has been shot and Martin Lawrence and the woman (Blanking on her name right now) have to get him out.

Watch the scene here (Just the first 43 seconds)

Note: I say ‘we’ all the time because that’s how I tend to write. I was 14 when Bad Boys came out so, unfortunately, had nothing to do with its production.

In this 43 second scene we cut between Smith / smaller explosions in the hanger / Martin Lawrence / woman in the Porsche saying a variation of ‘get in the car’ .

Before we look at each cut, lets check out the two major camera setups. I can’t draw to save my life, but this gives an idea of whats going on.

This is the setup for when the car enters. There are 4 camera angles used, marked 1,2,3,4 in order of appearance. Note that at the end of the interior sequence (shots 23 and 24) cameras 4 and 3 are used again. 3 is used for when they drag Smith into the car, and camera 4 is used when the car reversed out. The same follow pan is used for the cars exit as was used for its entrance. 

This is the basic setup for the shots of Smith, Lawrence and the woman (S, L and W respectively. Yes that is an S and not a 5!) Note that there is one other shot, frame 18, that is a fourth setup not diagramed here. 
 
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