Summer 2007 - One Last Hurrah
How did summer end so quickly? The summer of 2007 has ended (for me), because classes begin today. Last night, my dad and I went to see Live Free or Die Hard at the local discount theatre -- my last chance to see a movie or do anything late on a "school night" for a while. School starts back for my kids next Monday, so I can at least work my way up to getting up before the sun.
Incidentally -- the crowd for the late show at the Starplex Super Saver Cinemas? Weird. I'm not going to go into too much detail. Just weird.
The new Die Hard was a decent movie. I'm not in the mood to do a long review here, but it was an appropriate send-off for a series that is really one of the reasons a lot of today's action flicks even exist. Bruce Willis can still play John McClane in his sleep, apparently, and he still tosses off one-liners better than any action hero in recent memory. They effectively introduced his character as a dinosaur, an "analog guy in a digital age," and made good use of that theme throughout the story, with McClane kicking butt analog-style against digital baddies. And the production made use of "old school" special effects as well, employing live stunts instead of a lot of CGI. I'm not telling you anything you couldn't read in another (better) review. I'm just saying that they made it work, and dad and I had a good time.
As I said, classes start today. I'm looking forward to the semester, but it also brings a lot of chaos with it. With the kids in school, and me trying to make one film while prepping another, well, let's just say the next month or two should be a challenge.
In American Messiah news: as we wind down the festival run, we are screening in September at what may be our last film festival -- Southern Winds Film Festival in Shawnee, OK. And I found out last night that the film was nominated for two awards at the fest -- Best Feature (Narrative) and "A Ridiculously Good Film (Feature)" (which I presume is the fests "comedy film" category). So I'm honored -- and pleased to be potentially going out on a win. My wife and I (and the kids) are going to try to make the trip out there for the weekend of the fest, figuring we can shoot on over to Oklahoma City to see the memorial site there, which I've wanted to see in person for a while. We'll see how the next few weeks go.
In OTHER American Messiah news, I recently signed off on the distribution company's DVD-case art, disc-face art, and the DVD itself, with all the extras. They used a modified version of our design for the case (another thanks to Josh Marshall, the film's excellent editor who also designed all our art), and a modified DVD menu/navigation design, so I'm pleased that we did such a good job on our own that our stuff merited being used by the company selling the film.
And, finally, in a little bit of Endings news: I had a lengthy discussion with an actor about playing one of the key roles in the film. Nothing is set yet, but I feel like we're making progress. People are signing on for crew roles already. I've had discussions with people in the department about using our new Silicon Graphics 2K (HD) camera, for which we have true 35mm lenses we can attach with adapters -- some really nice looking glass that should really improve the look of this film. So we're on our way.
Now all we need is some money.
Incidentally -- the crowd for the late show at the Starplex Super Saver Cinemas? Weird. I'm not going to go into too much detail. Just weird.
The new Die Hard was a decent movie. I'm not in the mood to do a long review here, but it was an appropriate send-off for a series that is really one of the reasons a lot of today's action flicks even exist. Bruce Willis can still play John McClane in his sleep, apparently, and he still tosses off one-liners better than any action hero in recent memory. They effectively introduced his character as a dinosaur, an "analog guy in a digital age," and made good use of that theme throughout the story, with McClane kicking butt analog-style against digital baddies. And the production made use of "old school" special effects as well, employing live stunts instead of a lot of CGI. I'm not telling you anything you couldn't read in another (better) review. I'm just saying that they made it work, and dad and I had a good time.
As I said, classes start today. I'm looking forward to the semester, but it also brings a lot of chaos with it. With the kids in school, and me trying to make one film while prepping another, well, let's just say the next month or two should be a challenge.
In American Messiah news: as we wind down the festival run, we are screening in September at what may be our last film festival -- Southern Winds Film Festival in Shawnee, OK. And I found out last night that the film was nominated for two awards at the fest -- Best Feature (Narrative) and "A Ridiculously Good Film (Feature)" (which I presume is the fests "comedy film" category). So I'm honored -- and pleased to be potentially going out on a win. My wife and I (and the kids) are going to try to make the trip out there for the weekend of the fest, figuring we can shoot on over to Oklahoma City to see the memorial site there, which I've wanted to see in person for a while. We'll see how the next few weeks go.
In OTHER American Messiah news, I recently signed off on the distribution company's DVD-case art, disc-face art, and the DVD itself, with all the extras. They used a modified version of our design for the case (another thanks to Josh Marshall, the film's excellent editor who also designed all our art), and a modified DVD menu/navigation design, so I'm pleased that we did such a good job on our own that our stuff merited being used by the company selling the film.
And, finally, in a little bit of Endings news: I had a lengthy discussion with an actor about playing one of the key roles in the film. Nothing is set yet, but I feel like we're making progress. People are signing on for crew roles already. I've had discussions with people in the department about using our new Silicon Graphics 2K (HD) camera, for which we have true 35mm lenses we can attach with adapters -- some really nice looking glass that should really improve the look of this film. So we're on our way.
Now all we need is some money.
posted by Chris Hansen at 7:27 AM
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