Well, well, well…

Your trusty blogger and President has been away for quite some time now.
Sorry, busy New Years, hope everyone’s went well. It seemed to go pretty good for the film industry, with a hugely successful financial weekend bringing Ben Stiller’s family vehicle, Night at the Museum (a very good move in his career since his comedy is rarely anything higher than juvenile anyways) up past the 100 million dollar mark. Runner ups were feel-good films Pursuit of Happyness, Dreamgirls, Charlotte’s Web, and the surprisingly critically-loved Rocky Balboa.

It seems like even the film industry got into the holiday spirit, gracing viewers with some of the most quality films of the year in the last few months. Many websites and critics agree. I suppose that Casino Royale could prove to be the turning point for a critically despot year in which the box-office was ruled by super heroes and pirates. I personally love escapism films as long as they have a point, and thankfully the crappy ones have seemed to have faded out in a year where we have been stuffed to the point of vomiting with absolute crap. Flimsy flicks like Eragon have quickly fallen off the radar, and all is well.

The crap we have to look forward to next year? A Ghost Rider adaptation starring Nic Cage that has yet to inspire any life outside of a hunt for director Mark Steven Johnson’s (Daredevil) head, Hannibal Rising which could be either crafty horror-revenge humor a’la the first two Hopkins films, or a tacky joke like Red Dragon (which I liked, but found very pale and shallow)…

You know what, I just looked through the first four months or so of films being released to theaters, and I can’t say I’m very disappointed. Things seem to be going in a better direction than I assumed. It seems like things won’t die down for the industry at least until April, when that won’t be a problem anyways because the Tarantino gore-fest Grindhouse will come out and obviously dominate box offices like every Tarantino movie. Ever.

IN OTHER NEWS: It seems that the general Internet press was wrong about the Silent Hill 2 News and that until further notice from the man himself, Neil Gaimen has nothing to do with it. You can see for yourself at www.neilgaimen.com This is VERY disappointing news.
IN STRIKE A POSE FILMS!!! NEWS

Multiple projects have gone under way, but so far only one has been sucessful this season: Joe Belivitz in: CAR TROUBLE met with plenty of good film to edit and seems to be one of the best works we’ve produced so far. The PEREGRINE SAGA short, In the Darkest Places is in the writing process and should hopefully come to fruition in the next few weeks with some scenes at least planned if not filmed for a summer 2007 shoot. Sam Anderson’s swing-oriented action movie, The King of Swing (tentatively title) is still in the writing process. Please check the forums if you’re interested in either of those two movies!

Meanwhile I’ve been working with Sony Vegas and learning new editing techniques. I almost wish I could blast the muzzle flash demo from memory, as now I have way cooler effects to work with that are proving to create much more professional looking film.

A demo of my new-learned techniques will be up soon with a Devil May Cry 3 AMV: Dante’s Had Enough with music from Breaking Benjamin.

So let’s see some COMMENTS! I want to know what you guys think is up! Reviews requested? Film plans in search of? Anyone wanna act? This is going to be the best year YET for STRIKE A POSE!!! Films, so stay tuned!

Hey everyone! I was in a really James Bond mood (I watched the opening credits like 8 times on google video), so I decided I wanted to try something new.

One thing that’s constantly eluded my projects is the famous gunfights I have going on in my head. What’s the point of doing a gunfight if your gun doesn’t look like it’s shooting? Well, after looking around the internet a LOT I found the most amateur way to do this possible:

Step 1: Record your video, and when you “fire” the gun, don’t make too much of a movement.

Step 2: Take a still image from the video (your player should be able to do this) of when you think it would be appropriate for the bullet to be fired. Try timing it with a “clicking” sound if your gun makes one. It helps because the audio bar will make a pop to help you pinpoint the right moment.]

Step 3: Using MS Paint or Photoshop, simply crop an image of a muzzle flash (there are image packs all over the net, I suggest www.matthawkins.net…I think…I’ll get the link back later after I talk to him) and place it over the gun barrel. You can do this from multiple directions depending on what your shot looks like.

Step 4: Save the image file and paste it into the video over the clip of you firing the bullet.

Step 5: Lower opacity of the video to a darker tone, then keep the opacity of the gunshot area up as high as possible. This will make it appear as if the lighting has filled the room not just the area around the gun barrel.

So there ya go folks! A simple, easy way to make a cheap muzzle flash, even if you don’t have a special effects program or Adobe Premier and Photoshop.

Here’s the James Bond-esque video of me as a super-spy:

For good flicks:

I got home from SU yesterday and boy were my arms tired. Actually my legs. Also it was really two days ago.

I had missed/forgotten about two of my friends birthdays- My younger brother, Trevor, and my friend Damien. Ok so only one of those people is actually a friend, whatever.
But nonetheless I took them to see a flick in order to pay off the ridiculous present deficit I had faced.

So we went to see Casino Royale.

And with that, let me introduce the new STRIKE A POSE!!! Rating System for movie Reviews:
I generally believe in the Ebert/Roeper system of recommendation for the bulk of a review: A thumbs up or thumbs down implies “Do I think my readers should see it or not.” Well, once readers get to know me better, that’ll make more sense, so yeah, if a movie STRIKES A POSE!!! it’s a winner in my opinion and you should see it- it most likely contains depth, style, character, and good production qualities all around.

Did I ever explain why we’re called STRIKE A POSE!!! ? Well, there’s a good reason for that:

Striking a pose is the most simple artistic expression any human being can do- when there’s nothing left it shows attitude, it shows respect or determination, it shows essence. Dancers do it, fighters do it, rappers and rockers, politicians and street punks, not just action heroes and comic book characters. Your younger brother will do it when he gets an A on his elementary school report card. Your older brother will do it when he scores the winning touchdown in college football. You sister will do it when she performs in a piano recital- even if its just nodding her head in appreciation for the applause.

Human positioning- its the basics of art.

So, what’s the opposite? I’d probably say a dead fish, but I’m not going to get anymore complicated. If the movie is a flop, its a flop, but that also means I probably won’t write about it anyways cause I won’t care enough to feel motivated. That’s pretty much it. If a film “STRIKES A POSE!!!” it’s going to be good from mine/ours opinions.

Now that’s for recommendation reviews (spoiler free). If I do a critical review I’ll just go on the four-star system accepted by the majority of the reviewers.

Anyways, I’ll post on Casino Royale later. I’ll say this for right now though:

Daniel Craig as 007 definitely STRIKES A POSE!!!

Hi, welcome to STRIKE A POSE!!! : THE WEBSITE.

I, Dylan Hintz, now own a domain…sorta. I still have to pay Ryan Jacob, our generous domain host over at www.neutralx2.com – a great site for gaming info and videos.

Anyways, this is really just a test post, so whether you’re part of my “company” or involved with the Salisbury University Club, please come back for future updates.

Today I leave you with this strip from David Lynch, thank’s to Wikipedia (DON’T SUE!