You have two billion followers? That’s cute. I’ve grossed two trillion dollars. Talk to the hand.
Forgive us for being late to the party. Like many we were mesmerized by the transcendent display of athleticism of this year’s NBA finals.
Lebron James got a parade for bringing a championship to South Beach, but the king of the hardwood still trails the king of the box office.
It seems we can never run out of faces to stamp on our months. October is for Columbus, February for St. Valentine, December for a guy named Christ, and now June is for Bay. That’s right: The Miami – Dade County Commission has officially declared June, 5 Michael Bay Day in recognition of his financial and cultural contributions to the Magic City. They even gave him a fancy plaque.
Bay, one of the highest grossing directors in history, and the master of random explosions, drop-dead heroines, and gaping plot holes, shot his first feature film here back in 1994. You may know it as Bad Boys, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. It grossed over 140 million dollars while its sequel, Bad Boys II (also shot in the 305), generated over 270. Both films pumped more than 60 million dollars into the local economy.
The South Florida resident is currently shooting a third film, Pain and Gain, in the city. It stars Mark Wahlberg and Ed Harris and is expected to pour an extra 25 million into Miami’s economy.
Talk about gratitude! It would be really cool if we were treated to an annual holographic South Beach showdown (Tupac style) between Optimus Prime and Megatron, with state-sized asteroids crashing into Biscayne Bay as a backdrop. But we will settle for continued exposure and recognition as a premier destination for the film industry.
How a Youtube Sensation Leapfrogged the Audition Process
He looks like a clone of Tom Cruise, has a Harvard education, and is single handedly reinventing the Hollywood dream. And it all started from being afraid.
Miles Fisher ironically admits that his greatest fear as an aspiring actor was standing in front of a casting director. Can you blame him? Hollywood can qualify for Dante’s tenth circle of hell, a purgatory for thousands of servers and bartenders waiting for a break that will likely never come.
Conventional wisdom tells us to lower our heads and confront our fears. Miles had a better idea. Why not save time and energy and avoid them altogether?
Appearing on Mashable’s Revolution with Brian Solis, the Harvard grad breaks down how he used the ubiquitous nature of social media to broadcast his music and get his face recognized. The strategy has resulted in roles on shows such as Mad Men and Gossip Girl, as well as, a meaty supporting role in Final Destination 5, an unforgettable Tom Cruise impersonation in Superhero Movie, and a chance to work with Clint Eastwood in the upcoming J Edgar.
Miles treats his career as a brand ( a notion that may not endear him to his more snobbish “acting should be pure “ contemporaries), and he understands that the best products (or talent) don’t always get the most exposure because modern humans are drowning in content. As a result, time is a currency worth more than gold, and to get people to invest it, you have to “prove that you’re worth watching.”
His take on the Talking Heads classic “This Must be the Place” molds the song’s lyrics into a parody of American Psycho, with Miles doing a spot on Patrick Bateman impersonation. Its production value is more polished than the standard viral content most people produce; consequently, the videos are released less frequently but create a buzz of anticipation, making them an “event.”
Below is a promotional video for Final Destination 5 funded by Warner Brothers after Miles convinced them of its potential to reach a new audience for the franchise. They rebuilt the entire set from Saved by the Bell, a nineties classic many Youtubers may not even remember, and got the entire cast from the movie to play different characters from the show. What follows is a laugh out loud parody of pandemonious gore to the tune of Fisher’s own “New Romance. “ This video gets it. It exploits the potential of viral marketing and demonstrates that simply putting your film’s trailer on Youtube is already considered an archaic marketing strategy.
In a world where everyone can create content, the trick is to engage the creators.
That’s right kids: Never let your parents tell you that Youtube is a waste of time. It can make you a star. Viral is the wild west and as Miles says “ In any emerging platform, it’s really important to not only take risks but be an awesome consumer. Know the conversation and what other people are talking about.”
The entire interview is a bit lengthy, but worth the watch as it is filled with great revelations on the direction of film, media, and human culture.
The estates of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix are entering an arms race over the possibilities of generating their own holographic concert tours to cash in on the buzz that Tupac’s posthumous revival garnered earlier this summer.
People tend to respond to ghost sightings with psychotic breakdowns, or a neatly plotted series of epiphanies about life and death in the spirit of old Ebenezer Scrooge. But now it seems they are willing to pay cold hard cash to be haunted by the nostalgia of history’s most iconic entertainers.
Tupac wasn’t the first artist to perform from the grave. Who could forget Elvis’ passionate 2007 duet with Celine Dion on American Idol? Of course that was done using a body double and a technique known as “rotoscoping,” not the hologram technology developed by Digital Domain, who will also revive Elvis for his upcoming tours.
Elvis and Celine perform “If I Can Dream.”
There is something unsettling about the lengths people will go to profit from the dead, especially given how “realistic” these holograms are and how they can blur the threshold of reality. Just think of the intuitive way Tupac greeted the crowd: “What the F**** up, Coachella?!” (Coachella wasn’t even around until seven years after his death). Additionally, all of the above mentioned artists have one common denominator: Their deaths captivated the nation with a collective gasp of sorrow and paranoia that still fuels a vortex of conspiracy theories to this day, which likely says something about our obsessions.
Regardless of where you stand on the moral and ethical implications of this technology, there is no doubt that this new meme has the potential to restructure the way the audience consumes entertainment. The verdict is still out on whether this new fad will fizzle like ghost hunting shows, Charlie Sheen, and the Mayan calendar, or if it will create a new ballpark for the artist.
Coachella may have been for thrills, but the hologram technology can very well introduce a whole new generation to the work of deceased artists. But that’s just scratching the surface. Even artists who are still alive can utilize it by producing concerts without leaving their studios. These “micro” concerts can distribute their content at a discounted price for the audience (though it’s probably not financially feasible at this point), and raise the premium on actual live shows.
Eventually, like most technology, it may enter the consumer market and allow individuals to download (at a cost) performances of musicians both dead and living, and host their own concerts from the comfort of home. Think of the traffic your next wine tasting could generate if it’s headlined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers!
Music wouldn’t be the only medium of entertainment to be affected by holograms. Could you imagine Bruce Lee co-starring in the Expendables 3? Or Johnny Depp on the screen with James Dean?
But again, that’s thinking small. Mark Hamill once said that if “there were a way to make movies without actors, George Lucas would do it,” and this technology might eventually revolutionize the acting profession as we know. It’s reminiscent of Al Pacino’s S1mone, where he plays a film producer desperate for a hit who digitally creates an overnight sensation. Think of a customizable, aesthetically appeasing, skillfully flawless, egoless, triple threat star, who can act,sing, dance, perform his/her own stunts and never age. Sounds like a wet dream for George Lucas.
Of course, much of this is pure speculation, and hologram technology is still in its nascent stage of development. It could very well dissipate and be rendered into a cheap gimmick used to lure gamblers to roadside casinos. Only fools rush in according to Elvis, but money is a smoldering temptress.
Aaron Sorkin has made a career writing on behalf of idealism. His films and shows – including “A Few Good Men,” “The West Wing,” “Moneyball,” and “The Social Network” – often feature heroes or anti-heroes on quixotic journeys to dismantle and remake the status quo. At the tenth annual Wall Street Journal: All Things Digital Conference, he discussed his own quixotic battle with a modern audience of distracted multitaskers who want their news in 140 characters or less while engaging with multiple screens (Laptops, tablets, televisions smartphones) at the same time. He also offered insights into his writing process while discussing two upcoming projects: “Newsroom,” a new HBO drama chronicling the behind the scenes conflicts of a cable news channel, and a Steve Jobs biopic based on Walter Isaacson’s biography on the late cultural icon.
For a plethora of reasons, television is replacing Hollywood for a lot of the quality cinema being released these days. This change can be viewed through the migration to smaller screens by Hollywood regulars like Dustin Hoffman and Michael Mann (Luck), William H Macy (Shameless), Thomas Jane (Hung), Claire Danes (Homeland), and Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire).
Our appetite for condensed media and instant results has shrunk has evaporated our attention spans from a whopping twelve minutes, to a paltry five, according to this study http://socialtimes.com/attention-spans-have-dropped-from-12-minutes-to-5-seconds-how-social-media-is-ruining-our-minds-infographic_b86479. At one point, it was a whole twenty minutes. This gaping hole in our intellect has created a wide chasm that comprehensive writers like Sorkin must learn to cross. The way his audience watches his work has undergone a facelift. He’d be the first to admit that his material doesn’t make for good “background” music. It requires active participation and concentration, but the medium of television gives home court advantage to other distractions. The living room has become the wild west of digital ADD.
We don’t just watch TV, the way we do when we go to the movies, where we’ve invested (by purchasing a ticket) in the content and where social rules (for the time being) still frown upon using a cell phone in the theater. At home, we sit in front of the screen, check email, order stuff from Amazon, talk on the phone, get NBA, NHL, and MLB updates, while delegating our remaining brain capacity to absorb whatever content is playing on TV.
With millions of potential distractions competing for our attention, how does an old school craftsman like Sorkin change his approach? He doesn’t. He writes the “same way as the guys who wrote I Love Lucy” because “Storytelling is a very old art form, and the important parts of it don’t change at all…I still worship at the altar of intention and obstacle.”
The conversation also covers the accessibility that the digital age offers to aspiring filmmakers, where Sorkin comments on the fact major studios are no longer needed to finance start ups. Anybody can make a movie. But at the end of the day, you still have to “distinguish between what’s good and what’s bad. He also marvels at the intuitive trend of modern technology and cites how many toddlers can pick up a tablet and instinctively know what to do with it. If he could ask Steve Jobs a question, it would be “What’s that magic trick?”
Check out the full interview below for more insights into the mind of one of Hollywood’s smartest screenwriters.
West Coast rapper Mann hit up M3 Studios with T.Pain to shoot part 1 of his newest music video “Get It Girl” Directed by Ali Zamani.
While T.Pain has used M3 Studios for countless videos this was Mann’s first video at our facility. We truly enjoyed having both Ali & Mann on the lot.
The music video features a great party vibe, a hook by T.Pain and of course girls.
Check out the Mann – “Get It Girl” feat. T. Pain music video below, which was just released.
M3 Studios state of the art facility, accommodations, infrastructure, amenities, support areas and with its knowledgeable staff its no wonder its become the top destination for brands, ad agencies, film productions, tv networks, record labels, and world class artist number one choice as the go to place for their production needs.
Another satisfied client and another successful production shot at M3 Studios Miami.
Baz Luhrmann has never been accused of being subtle. His films (Romeo and Juliette, Moulin Rouge) are camp extravaganzas filled with anachronistic music and visual overdoses of color, so it’s no surprise that the trailer for his adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” an American masterpiece with a reserved, grimy tone and a passive narrator, created a buzz as mercurial as the mysterious Jay Gatsby himself. Like a shot of prohibition era bathtub whiskey, reception is divided between those who are happy to have another serving of the classic, and those who are turned off by the unconventional flavor of the new direction. The title character isn’t introduced until the third chapter in the book, so his characterization up to that point is revealed by the gossip of clueless speculators. Likewise the Internet is crawling with trolls ripping into the guts of an unfinished movie – that won’t be released until Christmas – based on a two minute put together by a marketing team with no emotional or creative input into the finished product.
This isn’t the first time F. Scott Fitzgerald’s bacchanalian portrait of the “roaring twenties “ has made an appearance on the screen. Its predecessors aren’t exactly memorable, except perhaps for the lack of chemistry between Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. Luhrmann’s version, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Tobey Maguire, offers a refreshing perspective on the themes of greed, obsession, and opulence that defined the tale of a man, ashamed of his modest upbringing, who turns to bootlegging and other illicit activities to raise a fortune and regain the woman he lost.
Those who criticize Luhrmann for failing to replicate the serious tone of the book should keep in mind that Mr. Gatsby is ultimately brought down by his futile attempts to recreate the past. Adaptations that aren’t given the space to roam from the source material are seldom met with critical praise.
Though the film takes place in 1920s, elements of the trailer are unmistakably modern, perhaps as an attempt by Lurhmann to apply the story’s theme to a contemporary audience. It was shot in 3D with a budget that was well over a hundred million dollars, which is unusual for a film not featuring talking robots, nuclear explosions, and masked vigilantes.
Much of the criticism also comes from the trailer’s score, which features music from Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Jack White’s cover of U2’s “Love is Blindness” instead of tunes native to the time period. It’s not known yet whether Luhrmann will use modern music for the film itself, but based on his previous work, it would not be a surprise. It may not be a bad thing if he does. The book was written over fifty years ago, and chances are, much of the movie going public has not read it. Fans of the novel do not need to be persuaded to buy the ticket, but if the film hopes to turn a profit, it better attract those who aren’t familiar with it.
In any case, any press is good press, and the current uproar incited by the trailer has to be good news for the film’s producers.
The smartphone is modern man’s new appendage. If you’ve ever left it charging on the counter, as you enter the realm of rush hour traffic, you’ve likely felt handicapped, as if someone chopped off your dominant hand for the day. Smartphones are also the fastest growing, most widely absorbed form of technology in history according to this MIT Study, so it’s no surprise that there is an entire industry devoted to making the phone an extension of the consumer.
This evolutionary climate change has infiltrated the landscape of guerilla cinematography. The quality of viral movies is surging in proportion to their popularity. Check out this short film made entirely on the Iphone.
While smartphone cameras still have their limits, the Olloclip lens kit for the iPhone is the latest tool to bring a professional edge to mobile videos. It connects to your iPhone 4/4S within seconds, and with a simple flip, you can shuffle between fisheye, wide angle, and macro lenses. It will add unique variety to the often stagnant compositions available on most phones, and it fits in the palm of your hand. The storage bag is made of a micro fiber material that doubles as a lens cleaner.
The Ollokit is the perfect companion for anyone who uses the iPhone to chronicle his/her daily escapades, but it’s also a step in the right direction for amateur photographers and videographers who use their creative innovation to compensate for small budgets. At just under seventy dollars, it’s a third of the cost of similar products, and a fraction of the cost of the phone itself!
It’s also an indication of the integrative trend of mobile technology. The future is about efficiency, portability, and customization. Check out some sample videos below.
Maybach Music Group Boss, Rick Ross shot the “High Definition” music video off of his Rick Forever street album at M3 Studios.
The music video features some great cameos by music industry heavyweights Pharrell Williams & Timbaland who visited the studio to appear in the music video. The music video opted for a simplistic performance driven video relying heavily on Rick Ross strong on screen presence. Which seems to work for the track.
M3 Studios state of the art facility, accommodations, infrastructure, amenities, support areas and with its knowledgeable staff its no wonder its become the top destination for brands, ad agencies, film productions, tv networks, record labels, and world class artist number one choice as the go to place for their production needs.
Another satisfied client and another successful production shot exclusively at M3 Studios Miami.
If you went to the movies this weekend, the odds are nine to one that you saw The Avengers. Marvel’s latest hymn of adrenaline serenaded the hearts of nerds and casual fans alike, smashing opening weekend records along the way, as if the Incredible Hulk himself spiked the box office during a touchdown dance.
It became the fastest film in history to gross 200 million domestically (twelve days), set single day records for Saturday (69 million) and Sunday (50 million), and cashed a combined international check of 640 million dollars. To put it in perspective, only eleven films in history have joined the billionaire’s club. The Avengers will likely be the twelfth by month’s end. It will enter the one percent of cinema royalty where it will mingle with such monumental films as Avatar, The Dark Knight, and The Return of the King.
There were an insurmountable number of variables that went into the film’s production. A few of the more intriguing components are as follows:
The Set Pieces
The “Helicarrier” is a giant aircraft carrier with flight capabilities and a half-mile waistline. It’s iconic to the comics; so it was important to memorably highlight it on film. S.H.I.E.L.D’s floating fortress filled two of Albuquerque Studios’ soundstages (the whole production took six of eight), was as wide as half a football field, and took five months to build.
The Cameras
The film was shot using cameras on two ends of the financial spectrum. It was Seamus McGarvey’s (cinematographer) first venture into the world of digital video and he chose the Alexa by Arri. With its tonal range, clarity, and resolution, the Alexa is praised for bridging the gap between the film and digital shooting formats. It has been featured in a plethora of feature projects since its release in 2010. McGarvey used a 1.85:1 aspect ratio to account for the varying heights of the characters and the Manhattan Skyline.
With its 220 million dollar budget, splurging on elaborate set pieces, an all-star cast, and top end equipment is to be expected, but some of the film’s more intimate shots were filmed using Canon’s EOS 5D Mark 3 DSLR. With an ISO range as low as 50(L) and as high as 102400(H2), compact portability, and pristine HD quality, the Mark 3 proves that quality doesn’t require Tony Stark’s credit limit. It has also been featured in Iron Man 2 and Captain America: The First Avenger.
The Marketing
Marvel’s financial success blossomed from one of the more fertile product placement seeds in recent memory. Who among us didn’t gasp at the sight of Mjolnir (Thor’s hammer) as it crashed into the Earth after Iron Man 2? Tony Stark may have nonchalantly used Captain America’s iconic shield as a prop, but it enchanted the audience because it foreshadowed the origins of Steve Rogers. The Avengers has already grossed more revenue than Thor, Captain America, and the two Hulk films did throughout their theatrical runs. Its presence radiated throughout the public subconscious years before its debut, and every Easter egg, and post credits scene left the audience foaming at the mouth like Pavlov’s dogs.
Young Money Cash Money artist Tyga shot the remix to his hit song “Rack City” directed by Alex Nazari at M3 Studios.
The music video which has garnered over 3 million plays since its release, features a who’s who of hip hop, with Wale, Fabolous, Young Jeezy, Meek Mill, & Ti all adding verses to the record. The set design was crazy for this music video, from the indivual set-ups for each of the artist verses to the gladiator throne looking chair my hat goes off to the Art Director Gogo Manny for pulling off some great custom sets in a shot time span.
For productions shooting at M3 Studios we maintain a large network of relationships with film industry professionals which can assist in providing everything our clients need to produce their project. From choreography, art directions, costume, audio synching, post production, make-up and hair stylist and more our resources can assist your team. Visit our services page to learn more.
Another satisfied client and another successful production shot exclusively at M3 Studios Miami.
