Film Strategy

World War Z | Marc Forster | 2013 | USA, Malta | Format: 35mm | 116 min     Within the overall filmmaking strategy that takes a project from development to distribution, producers need mini-strategies (like Matryoshka dolls ) to complete certain complex parts of the film.  One of those mini-strategies involves how best to create effective and convincing special visual effects (VFX).  Digital Arts Staff and Wired had behind-the-scenes access to the making of World War Z which gives us an idea of how the producers and director planned and prioritized their effects (granted their budget was ridiculous but still, resourceful and inventive filmmakers can still take notes and learn how to make amazing VFX even if they don't have the money... like this guy ). For the honors, MPC was tapped to provide the VFX using their in-house crowd simulation software, ALICE.    Led by MPC's VFX supervisor Jessica Norman, the house completed more than 450 shots for World War Z.

Captain's Log. Star date: 08.26.13 August 26, 1948 - Hitchcock's Rope released By 1948, Hitchcock was considered one of Hollywood’s most distinctive, if not finest, filmmakers. And Rope , being his first film from his own production company Transatlantic Pictures, was going to show audiences just what he could do free from studios and producers, like David O. Selznick. Hitchcock settled on dark (even for him) material. The film’s story is a loose retelling of the infamous 1924 Loeb and Leopold murder case in which two very bright, gay students murder a child to prove they can. Patrick Hamilton wrote the play which was adapted by actor Hume Cronyn and playwright  Arthur Laurents. The film ditched all the details of the original crime except the homosexuality and the homicide. In the film, the central couple (played by John Dall and Farley Granger) are two brilliant men who live together and, for all to surmise, are lovers. While the

Captain's Log. Stardate: 8.21.13 August 21 was a good day for rebels and innovators.  Today in 1932, Melvin Van Peebles, director of the politically and artistically radical film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971), was born.  Also, today in 1939, Orson Welles signed a 63-page contract with RKO Pictures that allowed him to write, direct, produce and act in two movies for the studio with an unprecedented offer: complete creative control .  This led to the production of RKO 281 better known as the innovative and artistically daring film, Citizen Kane (1941). Now that your artistic appetite has been whetted, consider this: What are some sci-fi storytelling script tips ?  What lessons can networks (and aspiring producers pitching episodic concepts) learn from Breaking Bad ? What lessons can aspiring producers learn from David Simon's pitch for The Wire ? How do you light dark skin ?  Do you want an introduction to After Effects? Then here it is. What are th

He just had your lunch... dinner is next. Captain's Log. Star date: 8.19.13 Forty years ago today, on.. 19 August 1973 - The Dragon Released The opening night of the kung-fu action film Enter The Dragon was a bittersweet celebration. It was the first martial arts film to be made by a Hollywood studio. Unfortunately Bruce Lee, the brains and brawn behind the project, had died less than a month before the film’s release. Lee, who’d carved out a career as both kung fu master and movie star, turned to Hong Kong after Hollywood shut the door on him in the late 60s. Although he’d had moderate fame playing Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet , Lee felt he was brushed aside for the lead in the Warner Brothers show Kung Fu . In China, Lee’s career exploded with a series of wildly popular kung-fu films that culminated in Enter The Dragon , a co-production between Warner Brothers and the Hong Kong-based production company Golden Harvest. For Lee, this film would

(from 2012, subject to change) Making a film is a constant battle against the odds; odds that you will finish the script, that you will get the money to shoot it; that you will actually shoot it; that you will have the money to cut it; that you will finish cutting it; that you will have the money to put it in festivals; that you will actually get it in festivals; that you will have the money to market it and get a producer's rep to sell it or four-wall it yourself; and, that you will make any money on it or just break-even. Maybe it's not all about the money but it's a damned good chunk of it. That's why getting to recoupment stage is rarefied air for filmmakers and must feel like raising the flag at Iwo Jima . Big budget films are expected to eventually make money but even a low-budget film can be made to recoup or break-even with creative financing.  Creative financing involves harnessing all the ways to raise funds for a film no matter what the budget using s

Captain's Log. Star Date: 8.14.13 "On August 14, 1945, film director Wim Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. Well, almost. Wenders’ parents wanted to call him Wim, however – despite this being over three months after VE Day – the authorities did not consider this (Dutch) name acceptable for a German baby, so instead he was christened Ernst Wilhelm Wenders. (“Ernst” was the name of his godfather, and “Wilhelm” was the closest Teutonic name to “Wim.”) While his parents were forced to conform, it’s something that Wim himself resisted: in the mid 60s, he dropped out of university to become a painter. He moved to Paris to achieve his dream, and while his quest to get into art school floundered in the City of Lights, he found a home at the Cinemathèque Francaise, where he allegedly watched five movies a day and fell head over heels with film. Returning to Germany, he was accepted into Munich’s newly founded Hochschule für Fernsehen and Film (HFF), and graduated in 19

Captain's Log. Star date: 8.12.13 I just had breakfast.  I'm full.   So I'm keeping it light this morning. So... there are more new rules of screenwriting? How does the architecture in a movie influence the movie? How do you find a great composer for your film? Just for fun, what would you make after you learn how to create WebGL animations ? Why and how do you make a film that's a rebuke to commercial filmmaking ? This looks fun... designing the title sequence to Spring Breakers ?