STRIKE A POSE!!! Films

I’m checking in from the Tisch School of Art at NYU in NYC and boy am I having a good time!

Dan Gvozden’s film, An Old Hope is coming along magically. I’ve been here three days now and have learned an exponential amount about film making since. Being on set is the only REAL way to learn film making! Almost all of the crew has been made up of a crack team of elite professionals, battled hardened from years of set work! Luckily, I’ve gotten plenty of footage behind the scenes of set design, lighting, actors, and of course Dan’s direction.

I’ve met a lot of people and seen a lot of things. This city is amazing, and the people here are all very vibrant and alive. They aren’t kidding when they say the city never sleeps- people are always on the move, and I’ve been up at all times of day and night. The college campus where we are filming is incredibly beautiful and the office we’re using has provided an amazing set for some of Dan’s best scenes, with the fantastical art design adding to the larger-than-life feel of the small-budget movie.

Filming is coming along hilariously! Brimming with a quirky sense of humor, the root of which are the magnetic performances by Hugh Scully (Lucas Ford) and Steven Gleason (Jerry Bond, Jr.), An Old Hope is really starting to show its potential as a film-festival contender. With all the elements coming together, the fanboy fueld spirit of Dan Gvozden is starting to really translate well into a sophisticated short of deft camera movements and Classic Hollywood-styled vibrance.

I’m really glad I dragged myself out here, because this shoot is probably going to have a big impact on my life, career, and the future of Strike a Pose!!! Films. I’ll be bringing a lot of video footage back home to get the Behind the Scenes film made exclusively for this website and the DvD that’ll be coming out hopefully next year.

I’ll be back in Maryland later tonight, but for now, I’m gonna log off and get back to enjoying NYC!

The site’s been up for a year now (Remember, Remember the Fifth of November!)

So here’s a video, celebrating many if not all of the people I’ve worked with in films since I’ve started this crazy journey. I honestly could not have gotten this far without you guys. I owe it all to the stars.

This was actually made a year ago for my Television Production class, hence the low quality (the teacher put it on MiniDv for some reason), so don’t exactly expect much from this. HOWEVER there is ONE SCENE of new footage hidden within! So I hope you guys enjoy!

So I was talking to the guy who helps run this site about a paper I’m writing for Film History. My paper is going to be a comparison of two films you might not expect: Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein’s most worshiped depiction of Soviet Montage, and V for Vendetta, a controversial comic book adaptation by the team that brought you one of those top Dystopian films, The Matrix.

For simplicity’s sake, I’ll just skip to the good stuff and put in the top 10, but you can go to the website, snarkerati.com .

10. Delicatessen (1991)
9. Minority Report (2002)
8. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
7. The Matrix (1999)
6. Children of Men (2006)
5. Blade Runner (1982)
4. Wings of Desire (1987)
3. Brazil (1985)
2. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
1. Metropolis (1927)

A futuristic look at the schism created in mankind as industrialization and technological advancement serves to alienate the humans from one another. People are divided into two groups: the thinkers–who make plans, yet don’t know how to operate machinery, and the workers–who forward production without having any overview vision. Completely separate, neither group is complete; however, together they make a whole. When one man, a “thinker,” dares to journey to the underground, where the workers ’slave away,’ he’s surprised at what he sees. (Directed by Fritz Lang)

Here’s their take on their number 1 choice, the silent film classic, Metropolis

So there’s this one blog I read quite frequently, by John August the writer of Go, Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and the writer and director of upcoming “indy” hit, The Nines starring Ryan Reynolds.

One of his more recent blogs was a response to a comment made by a 16 year old girl named Veronica, who is pretty darned lost in her course right now. Here’s an excerpt from her letter:

I’m 16 and have wanted to pursue a career in filmmaking since 8th grade. I’m sure you’re not too old to remember what it was like to be 16 years old and trying your best to not ruin your own life forever. (I really don’t want to be a receptionist.)…And here I am. Terrified that I might be making all the wrong moves. Should I have taken drama and bitten my tongue every time that insane teacher opened her mouth? Should I be doing more after school type programs? And, of course, should I go to film school?

John’s response contains this parcel of information:

You’re sixteen. Go out and experience life. As interesting things happen, write them down. If something other than screenwriting appeals to you at some point, pursue it with full abandon and no regrets. You’re at an age when you don’t need to be making any firm decisions, or beating yourself up about missed opportunities. A bad high school drama class is a bullet dodged, in my opinion.

Of course there’s more to their conversation, and you should definitely check it out.

I also wrote a response in the comments, and since its my own writing I’ll post my thoughts right here for anyone in the biz at my level or around it to read. Tell me your thoughts on the subject in a comment though, and maybe I’ll post yours on the main page, with a link to your site as well!
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I can really sympathize with this girl.

I am a 20 year old communications major who is just now on his second year of digital film making, learning studio work, been out in the field etc. I started the work on my own and learned it on my own.

Film making consumes my life.

That’s a problem because it means I learn less about life and more about film making. The strength of that is that I can look at everyday situations and talk about them as film, but it also makes a weakness in the communication to some people- I don’t think in linear conversation, I think in movie angle vision, always trying to throw people off.

My point is it wasn’t until last summer where I literally just dicked around in my car, had no money, met with a bunch of younger people (and same aged and older) who were just sitting around, doing and selling drugs, fighting each other and trying to cause problems in the most white-bread area ever, that I learned where my Voice comes from.

You need to find your voice. I pray that you get out of the movie-watching business and start life watching.
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I didn’t really find this particularly interesting, but there were some choice moments listed in AOL’s most recent “top 25.”

Included are scenes from Don’t Look Now, Out of Sight, Monster’s Ball, as well as embarrassments to film such as American Pie.

Here’s one of the better scenes to make it onto the list:

You can see the full list here, although I think its incomplete- from what I’ve heard, there’s not one but TWO coital shoot outs in SHOOT ‘EM UP! , a movie I still have yet to see!

Yep…cinema’s gotten pretty messed up. Would you have it any other way?