July 2012 - M3 Studios Miami

Press Release: M3 Studios, Proposes A Solution To Burn Notice’s 7th & Final Season’s Dilemma with Coconut Grove Convention Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

M3 STUDIOS, MULTI-MEDIA STUDIOS, PROPOSES A SOLUTION TO BURN NOTICE’S 7^TH AND FINAL SEASON’S DILEMMA, IN THE HOPES OF MAINTAINING THE SHOW’S PRODUCTION IN SOUTH FLORIDA

M3 Studio’s filming infrastructure is a viable alternative to TVM’s current difficulties of shooting in South Florida

You’ve all seen it. Roommate relationships ending the aggressive way: clothes and expensive equipment flying out the window, pulverized soon after on the pavement below. I’m sure Burn Notice, the veteran USA jam-packed action thriller, might wish there was a better solution to its similar living arrangement conflict with Coconut Grove, than experiencing this scene for the neighborhood to see. Unfortunately for Burn Notice though, it doesn’t have the option of couple’s therapy like in USA’s freshman drama Common Law when dealing with the commissioners. Lucky for TVM productions, M3 Studio’s has a solution. We’re looking for a roommate and we see some good chemistry between us. And trust us, we know how to treat our fellow cohabiters; M3 never opens a door with a sock on the doorknob, never leaves dirty dishes, always calls before having company, and never makes you build your own offices overnight (like some people have had to do.) Interested in us, Burn Notice? Cause we sure are in you.

So what makes M3 your best relocation option? While Marc Sarnoff, Coconut Grove Commissioner, suggested the drama be relocated to the upcoming Miami Entertainment Complex, is just a warehouse with the bare essentials, Fox Entertainment Studio’s Head of Production Robert Lemchen disagrees. Lemchen said in response: “The cost of moving the show to another facility would be around $1 million,” so high because of moving costs associated with electrical wiring installation and a significant amount of necessary upgrades. Though there will still be a cost to rebuild some of its sets, M3 Studios is a professional film facility already electrically wired, air-conditioned and ready to house television and film productions of Burn Notice’s stature.

M3 studios is a one-stop-shop, located 15 minutes from anywhere in Miami, a 122,000 sq. ft. facility that includes seven fully-equipped sound stages and studios, 60,000 square feet of flex-type space, easily transformable into production offices, standing sets, rehearsal space. There are also four on-site parking lots that can be used as backlots for Burn Notice’s production. M3 Studio’s is a fully air-conditioned, soundproofed, sound- conditioned 7-soundstage facility with lightning grids throughout, built in jails, interrogation rooms, un-used raw spaces, elephant doors to all stages, dressing rooms, make-up rooms, green rooms, full support areas, & plenty of backlots. We also have below-the-line capabilities, a convenient on-site transportation/limousine service and an in-house photographic studio with a large CYC wall, passenger elevators with freight elevator. Plus, all amenities are strategically placed to provide one place to shoot, produce, edit, and master the production.

Don’t believe that a fully functioning studio infrastructure already exists in Miami? Just talk to some of our current roommates: Queen Latifah’s Flavor Unit Productions, Univision’s Al File de La Ley, Telemundo’s Relaciones Peligrosas & MTV’s newest series.

Oh, and Burn Notice, feel free to come tour the house anytime you’d like; M3 is located at 4000 NW 36th Ave Miami Fl, 33142 and we can’t wait to meet you. A beautiful friendship awaits.

The Dark Knight Rises at the Box Office Despite Shooting

Sometimes, the world needs to stop in order for us to place things in perspective. Christopher Nolan’s epic conclusion to his Batman franchise was supposed to embody all of the mystical elements that lure us to the theater for a collective spectacle of awe. It was expected to compete with the record setting 207 million the Avenger’s garnered during its opening weekend. We’ll never truly know how the tragic shooting in Aurora, Colorado might have affected the final numbers. But at the end of the day, it’s only money and our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of the slaughter. We won’t give the suspect the publicity he craves by mentioning his name.

Despite it all, TDKR pulled in 162 million dollars, a feat only five other films – Including its predecessor- have achieved during an opening weekend. It’s good to see that the actions of one deranged individual aren’t stopping people from enjoying the one true, beautiful, American art form.

Words can never express the suffering and horror plaguing the citizens of Aurora, but we wish them well in their recovery. If Batman stands for anything at all, it is that great things can come out of dire tragedies. Here’s hoping for a positive, cultural response.

~M3 Staff~

The Technology Behind the Hobbit and Middle Earth

Bilbo Baggins reviews the colossal budget of his own adventure

It’s been eleven years since our first journey through Middle Earth, where Peter Jackson invested our hearts into the destiny of one tiny hobbit facing insurmountable odds against the forces of evil.

Our faith was rewarded with a triple crown of cinematic achievement as the Lord of the Rings trilogy killed it in every way a movie can be judged: Financially (2.97 billion world wide earnings), critically (17 Academy Awards including ‘best picture’), and sensually. It created a world of wonder and awe the likes of which had never been experienced on film.

Essentially, these films embodied all the reasons we attend midnight premiers, and we’re all better off for them.

Simply creating these films was a monumental technical achievement. Andrew Lesnie’s cinematography turned New Zealand into Middle Earth by painting each location with a spectral pallet that ranged from aesthetically elegant to viscerally haunting. The visual effects were groundbreaking, peaking during the claustrophobic battle at Helm’s Deep where thousands of Uruk-Hai charged at a pitifully outnumbered army of men clawing to survive. They also took one long leap in creating computer-generated characters with vitality, specifically the spiritually mangled creature, Gollum, whose lust for the ring gave Andy Serkis the type of sandbox every actor dreams of to bring that pain to life.

The best part of it all, in case you’ve really been living in Middle Earth the last few years, is that we get to go again. We’re all fidgeting with anticipation for the trilogy’s prequel, The Hobbit, to hit theaters in 2013.

Thankfully, Peter Jackson has maintained a video blog documenting plenty of behind the scenes content to keep fans engaged. Besides providing some great nerd porn, the videos give some fascinating insight into the technical aspects of the film, which are once again, setting the bar. We’ll go over a few of them.

http://youtu.be/2CtQGtwxTAc

Video 7 takes us on a tour through Stone Street Studios in Miramar, New Zealand, the headquarters of the whole production. Here we see an enormous back lot they use, which doubles as a green screen. Notice the drapes they use above the lot to block out the sun.

At the 9:00 mark, they showoff their wireless, waterproof, shockproof, “surface rig” that sends a direct feed to the director’s chair while capturing underwater images. It looks like they’re using it to film a scene on a river.

The Hobbit will be broken up into two simultaneously filmed movies, both of which will be shot in 3-D. That’s right: They’re not just going to process 2-D images. The 3-D won’t be a cheap gimmick used to squeeze a few extra bucks from the audience. It’ll actually be integral to the story telling. Mirkwood Forest is already supposed to have some hallucinogenic elements to it, so just imagine how trippy it’ll feel to have its trees reach out for you.

The films will be shot using the Red Epic 3D cameras. The production has 48 of them (spare no expense). Because the lenses are so big, they have to use two for each shot to create the ocular effect that our eyes naturally produce.

They are going to double the frame rate of traditional film by shooting at 48fps, to put that in perspective, our eyes see at 60fps, so that screen in the cinema is going to feel like someone carved a rectangular hole in the wall and created a window into Middle Earth.

Peter Jackson did not want the 3D process to compromise his shooting style, which includes a variety of mobile shots. They developed a series of less cumbersome rigs to stay nimble and make the audience feel as if “the same filmmakers went back to Middle Earth to tell a new story.”

Another interesting note is that the Red Epic cameras tend to desaturated colors, so whole sets had to be painted like acid trips. The makeup and costume departments had to make their adjustments as well as a result. Some of the flesh tones on the actors are purposely exaggerated for that reason.

The Red Epic cameras operate at a 5K resolution. That’s downright magical when you consider that 4K technology is considered the next step in HD technology, and that’s already four times the resolution as the 1080p blue ray player currently in your living room.

That’s right folks: Quality will not be an issue: Here’s hoping they serve some midnight pints as we wait in line wearing our beards and chainmail.

3 Reasons to Worry About The Justice League Movie

Can DC's All- Stars Harness the Box Office Magic of The Avengers?

It’s been twelve years since the first X-Men film baked a cinematic pie of live action superheros, and if the financial numbers are any indication, the movie going public has yet to get sick of stuffing their faces.

The Avengers is now the third and fourth highest grossing film in the domestic and international markets respectively, while the The Amazing Spiderman – a reboot whose predecessor is less than six years old – exceeded expectations with 340 million dollars in its first six days (made more impressive by the fact that it debuted on a Tuesday). Tickets for the midnight of showing of The Dark Knight Rises have been on sale for a month, and there are still two weeks remaining before it premiers!

Clearly, we love vigilantes and spandex ( the verdict is still out on the order), and our voracious appetites are far from satisfied.

That billion dollar pie pie is still hot and fresh as it sits on the window waiting for Warner Brothers to cut a slice with their own all-star team of superheroes: The Justice League. There is already a script in the works, and the net is buzzing with speculation on everything from plot to casting. Summer of 2014 would be the earliest logical date for release, but before we get that far, there are a few lingering issues that might prevent the movie from mimicking the colossal success of its Marvel doppelganger.

Rebooting the Reboots:

Ed Norton’s Hulk proved that audiences are willing to give second chances when it exonerated itself for the garbage that was Ang Lee’s version; however, with the exception of the Batman Franchise, DC has released some serious duds: The Green Lantern and that super-emo reel of castration otherwise known as Superman Returns. They’re going to have to redeem their individual failures before combining those volatile elements into a cohesive unit.

Spiderman is one of the more popular heroes on the planet, so it’s no surprise that we were willing to go for another round before we had enough time to digest the Sam Raimi installments. Could the same be said for a figure with less mainstream clout like Green Lantern? We’ll have to wait and see if a more beloved hero, Superman, can recapture some of that momentum next year with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel first.

Christian Bale’s run as the Dark Knight has become canon as far as many fans are concerned. How is Warner Bros going to negate the inevitable distraction of having the public second guess whomever becomes the new Batman? They’re going to have to restructure the character, AGAIN, to fit their vision because Chris Nolan’s is completely self centered and grounded in reality; it won’t translate into the more fantasy focused world the Justice League demands.

Additionally, while no one knows for sure what the final roster will look like for the film, it’s safe to say that The JLA would benefit from several stand alone flicks for their other members, which leads to the next predicament.

The Shared Universe Conundrum:

The Avengers owes much of its success to a plethora of reasons, chief among them being the concept of a shared universe. All of the movies were interconnected and often referenced each other with cameos and Easter Eggs.

How can DC weave a smooth narrative if it spends a good chunk of screen time visiting the origins of its characters? However, if they choose to ignore it, they risk releasing one-dimensional characterizations that won’t appeal to the large demographic of the audience that doesn’t digest comics. Marvel completely dodged this hurdle by giving each of its heroes the chance to shine individually before forcing them to share the screen. They created an extended narrative that invited the fans to participate in all the films, hence when it came time for the Avengers to assemble, they jumped right into the action without wasting a second on exposition. This strategy also helped balance the distribution of minutes as each of the respective origins, personalities, and idiosyncrasies of the their heroes had already been covered. Notice that the only character who had no previous development, Hawkeye, was the one who suffered most in terms of screen time and a stale performance.

DC is going to need more than two years to properly establish its characters before uniting them in a bedlam of glory.

Another problem revolves around matching the tones, colors, and overall feel of each individual film. The Marvel films legitimately felt like they existed in the same universe. The Batman universe is an after hours exercise in grime and decay where human morality is on life support and people bruise before they die. How will that balance with the well-lit, clean cut landscape of Superman’s Metropolis?

It’s a Popularity Contest:

With the exception, once again, of Nolan’s Batman Franchise, the one common denominator among the winners and losers of the superhero movies has been one name: Marvel. Their characters are flawed, introspective, morally impressionable and easier to relate to. DC characters come from a wholesome era advocating for “truth, justice, and the American way.” We live in economically unstable, spiritually divided times where children are desensitize to violence and pessimism is the new soda pop. It’s no surprise that the “anti-heroes” (which Marvel has more of) are more appealing to people.

People don’t want campy, overtly fantastical beyond belief, fairy tales. They want grit and personal conflicts of integrity, elements lacking from Marvel’s other outhouse, The Fantastic Four.

For DC, there is no strength in numbers. The Justice is league is a revolving door of members, many of whom are ambiguous to all but the biggest nerds. Elongated Man? The Wonder Twins? Blue Beatle? Even the more popular second banana members like Green Lantern, The Flash, and Wonder Woman don’t have the universal fan base of Marvel’s heroes.

The Villains aren’t excused either. The Flash’s main nemesis is Gorilla Grod. What is this, Planet of the Apes? You’d have to be crazy to cast anyone else as the Joker, and Lex Luthor has been hacked to death by Brian Singer (They’d have to create a new, more menacing and evil version). Those two are the most compelling villains DC has to offer, and neither of them pose much of a physical threat. Even Loki can hold his own against Captain America. They could insert Darkseid, who is one evil badass, but the after credits scene in The Avengers already hinted at Thanos being the villain for the next round, and they’re pretty similar. Additionally all he could offer is another “alien invasion” and that plot device, like the ensemble cast of spandex itself can be summed up in the following words: The Avengers Did it!

Showtime’s Dexter Creates a Viral Beehive with season 7 Teaser

Sorry, guys I couldn't resist. But it's in your best interest to forgive me.

Showtime’s dearly demented ratings darling, Dexter has released a viral locust plague throughout the social media universe. The upcoming seventh season about a Miami PD forensics expert who moonlights as a serial killer of those who’ve escaped justice is due to premier September, 30, and Showtime just played a cruel joke on its fans in the form of a “Sneak Peak” trailer released on Youtube and Facebook.

Who among us could resist the temptation to play it! At long last, we’d finally get a glimpse of life after Deb’s gruesome discovery.

Except what followed was a six second cluster of random yet tempting frames with no discernible content. Check it out below!

http://youtu.be/aq8PI_rw7u0

Talk about releasing the trolls. It garnered nine thousand “Likes” and three thousand comments within thirty five minutes! Tell me this doesn’t just beckon you to peruse through it frame by frame, dissect every image, and talk about it with friends and fans alike. The buzz is already flammable. While we hate being teased, we’ve got to tip our hats to Showtime for a brilliant marketing strategy that doesn’t rely on the archaic method of just slapping a trailer on Youtube. They have their fans doing their bidding at hardly any cost. Bravo.