Danger
Softbox in front 1/8th power, backlight plain strobe at 1/16th shot on my Canon 40D with the 28-70 2.8 L.
Frame by Frame with Bad Boys 1
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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Geoblocking
There has been some discussion floating around the interwebs about Geoblocking, especially with the splash that Gemini Division is making. This isn’t really the binary issue that many make it out to be. 99% of content viewers hate it. And rightfully so. If you live outside the US you can’t watch a handful of online shows (Foreign Body, The All-For-Nots and Gemini Division to name a few) plus Hulu doesn’t work at all.
No Hulu?
I’ve got a bit of a dipendecy on Hulu these days. Couldn’t live without it.
So is this Old Media butting their heads into what could World Wide awesomeness? Partially.
Fitting the square peg of traditional TV into the round one of Internet content is proving to be difficult. You want to make an online show with a real budget you need to get some big names behind you. Want to make it a bit easier you need to sell it internationally. These things take time and the online division of any studio is going to be run by a handful of people with a million things to do.
But saying “It’s this way because online studios don’t have enough people” is a total copout. There is more to it than the Crusty Old Suits not understanding. Generally, they understand more than we give them credit for.
More to say on the subject to stay tuned but I think there is a killer app waiting to be made. TubeMogul?
The Big One is Coming
There is a great thread over at DVXUser about Adamo P. Cultraro getting his film, Corrado, off the ground. It’s a fascinating and inspiring read that I suggest any budding filmmaker check out. The thread is over 170 pages starting with preproduction and ending with the distribution of the film.
Align your own stars. That’s my take away. And that’s exactly what I am doing. It’s not one big push (Which was my major short coming last February when I first tried selling Earthquake) it’s a loooong race.
So where does that leave me and Earthquake LA? First of all, I am abandoning my previous theory of secrecy behind the project. I plan on being Chase Jarvis about the entire thing (That will make no sense to 99% of people here. If you want to get it, click the first link and watch Chase’s hour long presentation. What’s a photographer have to do with filmmaking? You’ll get it after watching).
Here is my plan of attack:
Step 1: Come up with a kick ass idea. — COMPLETE – A big earthquake hits Los Angeles. It traps five people with interconnected pasts in luxury apartment complex. Things get all LOST like. The earthquakes don’t stop. The pasts of our five heros are slowly revealed as they try to escape. It only gets worse.
Step 2: Hollywood hates to read. Show them something — COMPLETE – You see the result of that one post below. We originally cut a 2 minute teaser pilot. Things have changed a lot since then (Story wise) so it’s not totally relevant. During production in November things were crazy and we were not able to shoot all 8 pages. 3 pages of dialog were cut. Those were 3 important pages that under normal circumstances would have been shot. Regardless, the teaser shows production value, tone and scope well enough that it should entice someone to read the script. That’s the point of it.
Step 3: Get it OUT- That brings us up to the present. The teaser and script to Earthquake LA has been sent around to most of the major online content players. I’ve also got some… less traditional methods I plan to employ. I’ll give more insight into that once it gets going.
Note that Earthquake LA was originally conceived to be a web / new media show. It’s big but contained enough to work for under $1 million for 120 minutes of content. The flip side of that, of course, is it can be totally let out of the bag and made for network TV. What remains is interesting characters and a high concept. I am hard at work, in between everything else, writing a network pilot. That’s 30% 80% done and fairly easy to write since everything is already mapped out. All I have to do is make it BIGGER. And that’s fun.
Stay tuned for a whole lot more.
Super Secret Project – Earthquake L.A.
Long time readers will remember Super Secret Project. I think the first post about that dates back two years. Super Secret Project morphed and evolved these last two years and is now something truly amazing. And ready for the world. While I started photography to keep my eye fresh I was always improving, rewriting and rethinking.
And now here we are. The Big One is ready to take on the world.
In the coming months I’ll reveal a lot more about the project and the inner workings of it.
But for now I leave you with this, a sneak peak at Super Secret Project AKA Earthquake L.A.
For the nice Blip version go here
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The Deadly Syndrome
The Long Walk
Getty MoodStream
Wow. If you don’t already know about it, check out the Getty MoodStream HERE.
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