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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
