Basics On Film

 The Three Different Types of Theater For the few in the audience who were wondering, I've just finished the first draft of my fourth play. For the even fewer in the audience who were wondering, it stinks. Naturally, that's how it happens. The first draft of anything is never great. It is never good. It is never even passable. It is always bad (though it does vary in how bad it is). Anyone who ever tries to tell you any different is either playing a joke on you or has been recently hit in the head with a big rock. If the latter is the case, get a doctor immediately. However, when you have written enough drafts to the point that you are satisfied with the play, then ideally you would've come to the point that you want to get it produced or even produce it yourself. But how does one come to that point? Before that question is answered, think about where your play or musical ought to be staged. For the average joe, the first thing they might think of is: Broadway! Contrary to ...

 Theater vs. Film Some may have been wondering why I haven't been uploading to this blog in a while... Well, I do that a lot. It's kind-of like a running gag here. I'm sorry, I upload when I can. However, for the minute few who did want to know, I am actually diverging into writing theater scripts. Whereas my film scripts were failures that I nitpicked endlessly and took forever to complete, for some reason, theater has been going well. Suspiciously well... I had never really considered going into theater before I wrote my first script. I always thought I would try to work my way up into film, however that would work. I then somehow got into writing a book, which I thought could be a good career that could also be quite profitable and yield more creative control. From there, I had read August Wilson's Fences  and I was enthralled. I realized I never considered writing plays and I tried my hand at it. Along the way I also indulged into a bit of Playbill and Broadway fina...

 Can You Support A Cancelled Filmmaker? In 1977... Roman Polanski was arrested for the sexual assault of Samantha Gailey, who was 13 years old at the time. The day before his sentencing, Polanski fled the United States for London and London for France, where he has lived in exile ever since. In 1992... Woody Allen was accused by Mia Farrow of sexually assaulting their then-seven year old daughter. He has not been arrested for the crime, with the New York Child Welfare Agency deeming the allegations unfounded. Of course, the list goes on: Mel Gibson, Brett Ratner, John Lasseter, Bill Cosby, Rob Cohen, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Jones (not all of them are filmmakers, but the point still stands). And I just have to bring up the question: Can we still support cancelled filmmakers' works? The Argument Against Supporting Cancelled Filmmakers' Works I feel like this becomes a lot more complicated when the movies are critically-acclaimed. So, whereas it's easier to boycott Brett Rat...

Uwe Boll And The Strange World Of Film Incentives Introduction Uwe Boll. Arguably the worst filmmaker in the modern filmmaking world and yet his films, despite being mind-bogglingly atrocious, aren't even the thing that intrigues me most about him. And despite the fact that he's worked with immensely actors like Burt Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Ben Kingsley, J.K. Simmons, and John Rhys-Davies among others, even that doesn't intrigue me as much as the budgets that Uwe Boll has managed to cobble together. According to IMDb, Alone In The Dark (2005) was reported to have a budget of $20 million. BloodRayne (also 2005) took it one step further by managing to rake in $25 million. And of course, In The Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007) had a whopping budget of $60 million! Of course, adjusting for inflation, that would amount to nearly $83 million! Now, you might say: "His films suck big time, but they make money and if they make money, that's enough for the stud...

  Exodus: Gods and Kings and Whitewashing in Hollywood For anyone who's reading this article, this is not going to be a review of Exodus: Gods and Kings . I haven't watched the movie and, judging from the trailer and people who have watched the movie, I don't plan to. This is instead about the whitewashing controversy of the film. Cheers. Prologue: Exodus: Gods and Kings : Whitewashing I remember reading about this movie quite a while back; I was browsing through Wikipedia on Ridley Scott's page because I was curious about his filmography. I, of course, went through his classic movies' pages (e.g. Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator ) and I also saw some of his not-so-classic movies' pages (e.g. Someone to Watch Over Me, 1492: Conquest of Paradise, The Counselor ). I was reading through them and when I got to Exodus, I saw the casting subsection and I was intrigued with what I was reading. Of the 7 main cast members, only 1 is a person of color (Ben Kingsley). And e...

 A24: The Saviors of Film A24. They were the legends behind Ex Machina, the directorial debut of Alex Garland. Then came Hereditary, A24's highest grossing movie and calling card for Ari Aster. The Lighthouse followed not too long after and it might just be one of the best films of the last decade. Of course, there are so many more amazing films that A24 is behind, but the message is clear: these guys really know what a good movie is. A Little Bit Of Background On A24 So A24 was founded in 2012 by three guys named David Fenkel (co-founder of Oscilloscope), Daniel Katz (who led the film finance at Guggenheim Partners), and John Hodges (who was the Head of Production at Big Beach). Their goal was to, "share movies from a distinctive point of view". The name, A24, actually comes from a motorway in Italy that Katz drove on when he was in Italy. Strangely enough, the A24 motorway is actually quite revered in the Italian film industry. The Business Model I think that the busine...