Ok, I really, really wasn’t looking forward towards this film. I mean, c’mon, most movies only work as trilogies, and even then at least one of the movies isn’t that great (in this case Renny Harlin’s marginal critical success Die Hard 2: Die Harder).

Then, just a week before it came out, and sifting through trailers that sounded somewhat…overblown, lame and lacking in plot. After dealing with the fact that Mac Boy Justin Long (who I think is one of the most boring actors on the face of the earth, granted I had only really seen him in Waiting, where his performance was strong but just dull), was “John McClane’s son”- YES my own personal misconstruction of the plot (only because at one point Justin Timberlake was cast as “John McClane’s Son” and Britney Spears as “John McClanes Daughter,” then Jessica Simpson…etc etc)…well in any case up until two weeks ago I could only think of a few valid ideas: This movie is going to be BS like nobodies business. And hey, I love Lethal Weapon 4. So Sue me.

Well, just two weeks ago, a friend recommended it to me, the critics started going apeshit about how it is the best movie of the summer, and considering its the only step up- a Quadrilogy rather than another freaking Threequel, I at least could stop fearing the response being the same as the Anti-Sequel Brigade that America had (thankfully) become from reigning hell fire down on Bruce Willis’s bald headed All American Hero.

So I got into it. Mostly, and this is the Honest To God Truth (TM), because I wanted to get my mom to go to the movies- she doesn’t get a lot of chances anymore, and Die Hard is one of her favorite series. When I saw an interview with Bruce Willis saying “It’s better than the original” I decided, “Ok, fine, I’ll give it a swig.”

And oh…my…GOD this was a strong drink of perfect action, awesome villains, big explosions and that Americana edge we all grew up knowing and loving in the late 80’s. The call to American Action has returned, and now it is mixed. We had free running, kung fu, cyber hacking and all these new things integrated into an old-fashioned blockbuster, and its the best I’ve seen yet. The best action movie since Casino Royale- possibly even BETTER as an action movie (though of course not in terms of depth of plot and character), and all the money being shown on the screen, John McClane has risen to the ranks of one of the greatest Action Heroes of all time.

In celebration to this glorious achievement of film making, from some left-as-hell field from Len Wisemen (how the HELL did he go from Underworld: This Thing Is Crap, to this?) I’m now going to post the ultimate DIE HARD tribute: DIE HARD by Guyz Nite

Well I certainly have had the time but not the energy to update the site lately. I’ve gotten a job at Target and will hopefully bring in some money to put towards production. We’ve changed the title for the new film from “Darkest Places”- which was the subtitle back when the film only focused on Dark’s journey into his new path- to “Commencement,” something that actually deals with the plot and allegory of the film.

Sam and I went out today and found some great locations for the filming.

First and foremost, we need a big old fashioned house for the main part of the plot on Josef’s side. For this we looked into the Kentlands Mansion. Here’s a few pictures, the first is an outside shot of the building:

And here are the main rooms we wish to use:

A parlor for the scene where Boss Smith makes a deal with Ruger, looks very old fashioned with an original marble fireplace and wooden walls, plus old fashioned artwork. The Antiquated feel is exactly what we’re looking for, a place that holds onto memories of a world that has moved on.

Here’s the best part though: We’ve found a room perfect for the fencing scene, although it will be hard to film because drawing the camera back will be a bit of a problem, but the acoustics and look of the room are really attractive.

Originally it is the music room of the building, and if you could see the ceiling you’d see just how beautiful this place is.

Of course this could also prove a nice alternative to that setting if we need more space, they would just have to have the chairs and everything cleared up. This is the Yellow room, where most recitals are held.

Finally the scenes that take place in the mansion later will involve this place

and this room for Josef’s room

Now the pricing is a bit high- it’d be 300 dollars total really to film, with a deposit. But we are going to try and talk the price down since this is a student film and could possibly help promote the mansion in new artistic ways.

In any case, they wouldn’t have a problem with the fencing scene, so it will be nice if we get it right.

The other places we found are some local woods behind Sam’s house between Great Seneca and Riffleford road.

Also, at Great Seneca State Park, we decided the Mystic Woman will be some crazy old maternal figure who practices medicine out of an old State Park Public restroom. We’ll get some pictures of that later.

The next thing we’ll be looking into is our new camera. I’ve pretty much all but decided on my purchase, and here’s the deal at ExpressCameras.com

http://www.expresscameras.com/prodetails.asp?prodid=105277&up=8678&start=1

It’s a 1,300 dollar camera packaged with all these great extras for only 970 dollars and a full year warranty. Brand new, pretty much direct from Canon, and comes with a lot of the kind of equipment I lost. I’ll probably upgrade to the Continental Package which will hopefully be the best thing I can get for only 1100 dollars.

Well, things are looking up for the company, we should be getting some actors hired soon, and maybe even a cinematographer. We got some tips from a really great local group, so maybe I’ll put their vid up the next post if I talk to them about the deal. In the meantime, if you’re interested in doing a really great film this summer, be sure to let us know!

It’ll be a whole lot of fun.

This isn’t one of our vids, but I found it on MEGA 64 and figured it’d be fun to put up on the site. It has some nifty editing tricks, and over all is a pretty damned funny cross reference between a really old movie and a movie that has gotten really really old.

We’ve put up three of our own videos in the last two weeks though, and everyone out there in net land should still check them out! If you need direction, simply go to the Categories and click STRIKE A POSE!!! FILMS. That’ll take you to a blog link of all posts about the films we’ve done, and you can just check them out there through individual posts.

Well, Happy Easter everyone. I suppose a Matrix reference is somewhat appropriate, seeing how Neo died on a cross for all our robot sins and destroyed Hugo Weaving for…well whatever purpose. It’s not really important. 0101100101011101 Waaah?

Well, I just got back from Spring Break, and my legs freaking HURT. They’ve become so useless after 40 hours or so of driving down and back from Florida.

Fortunately, I’ve gotten some decent footage of my brother’s band, and will be making a small music video to their song, FALLING. The band is called “SO IT GOES,” and is some sorta metal…thing. I don’t know, music isn’t my forte.

I’ll have the video posted shortly.

Other than that, working on stuff.

Congrats to Dan Gvozden on being purchased as a screenwriter by New Line. You LUCKY BASTARD!

Film Club is going well.

Just random notes today, guys and gals.

Yeah, I keep fumbling my posting schedule. It’s been really tough with school, and somehow I doubt I’ll be doing any major updates over the next 10 days.

Tomorrow I’m going to post an essay I wrote for Film Literature (Adaptations) from last year, about the film/play A Streetcar Named Desire.

Why am I going to post that?

Because even though the paper was a month late, I still got a B+ on it. It was that damned good.

It’s currently part of the reason I’m falling so behind on my paper for International Cinema- I don’t see myself writing anything nearly that good and it intimidates me.

Oh well, gotta get to work over that soon anyways.