STRIKE A POSE!!! Films

I just finished the opening scene for the movie I want to film on campus this semester. It’s a short action thriller called “Silver or Lead” and is about a Hitman who takes a bribe, a Bodyguard who takes orders, a mafioso who takes what he wants, and a corporate crime syndicate that gets taken down.

The opening scene is only three pages long, so hopefully it won’t run over five minutes and will remain entertaining. It contains about seven characters, including

TOD ENGEL-

the Hitman played by Scott Evans in THE INTERSECTION, returns to finish off

JIMMY FRATELLI- The unseen mob boss, played by John Doherty this time, from THE INTERSECTION, who owns a laboratory on the East Coast. He’s protected by suits

QUINT- (auditions open) a smart, crass bodyguard who will meet his end rather quickly, thanks to the loud mouth of his co worker

ROB- (auditions open) a boisterous wannabe mafia soldier, who misses the good Ole’ days when he could beat people to a pulp, not just pop them with a cap, such as how

VICTOR- (Rob Moroney) the outside guard who gets his face smashed into a brick wall, defining the action to this film, he also will be run through right before

BODY GUARD MACGUFFIN- (Chris Magelitz, Pending) the elite bodyguard of Jimmy Fratelli who appears to have no name, who is the only person seemingly able to catch Engel off guard.

In attempting to move females into my scripts, there will be a woman’s voice over for the walkie talkies that the guards communicate through. After this scene however, I’m moving into finally diversifying my characters, with a woman playing the main bad guy. However, that script is a little further off. I’m going to be showing off the paces for this one during the next club meeting.

Anyways, this is what I do instead of school work. Silly me, I guess.

I love my job though. This is actually going to be a really good film.

So over the last six days I was in Silver Spring, Maryland, filming a new movie with another group. This is a group I haven’t used that often. Mostly consisting of theatrical actors from AEHS- some of the best but overlooked, this group has spunk, creativity, and a lot of talent for their age.

The film was fantasy-meets-revenge, and although we didn’t get to record a lot of the scenes, we got enough that we can make a near-finished product, and possibly film other stories in the saga later in the year.

Here’s the current poster art, done by our artist and actress Simply Taboo.

I’ll have a single scene up later in the week hopefully. One of the earlier scenes.

Anyways, hope this one turns out well, back to Salisbury in 6 days!

Hey everyone, Dylan again (as no one else has yet to write anything for this site anyways. I’ve decided to start posting the older STRIKE A POSE!!! Films up on this site so t hey are accessible to anyone who doesn’t want to surf through the three other pages I’ve made for videos related to this company. Trust me- with Myspace and Youtube as the other alternatives, I think you’ll agree just having them available here is probably for the best.

It’s entitled The Third Path and its the first movie I ever made under the STRIKE A POSE!!! moniker. Starring Sam Anderson, Stuart DeMattia (a professional actor), with Trevor Hintz and Robert Novich in supporting roles, this film is a STAR WARS tribute/parody in the most amatuer of senses. No you won’t find any mindlessly frustrating hours of rotoscoping in this film, but I was kind enough to add sound effects, so as not to completely rupture everyone’s brains with just HOW amatuer our first outing was.

It was originally edited in Windows Movie Maker, later sounds were edited in with Sony Vegas 5.0. Anyways I hope you all enjoy. If anyone has a video response of better star wars fan films, please send them in through comments as I’d love to see your work too!

VID HERE:

Hey everybody, your local crazy filmmaker here once again, reminding you to STRIKE A POSE!!! for all your favorite things!

Or you know, whatever gets you up in the morning.

For me, one of my favorite activities is editing video, primarily using Sony Vegas - something I approve of much higher than the convoluted Adobe Premier. I really hate sounding like I’m “pimping” something out, but in all honesty I wouldn’t be where I am (or at least where I’m getting to) without this program. I plan on purchasing the next version sometime in the near future.

I’ve been using it for nearly a year now and I can say it really pays off- just look at what I’ve been able to make using footage from the video game DEVIL MAY CRY 3 and the song “Had Enough” by the alternative rock band, Breaking Benjamin. Using my newly gained knowledge of moving the frame, adding lighting effects and blurs, I’ve come across some new techniques for fantastic visuals, some of which will be used in the upcoming CLASH OF STUFF edit from the Salisbury Film club.

Here’s the video:

I’m really proud of the moment when Vergil (the guy in blue) cuts the Reaper monster in half. I blurred the image so it blur around everything but his sword, as if that’s the last thing the Reaper monster sees before he explodes. For the explosion, I increaded the brightness to impact more on the moment in a way the game engine really couldn’t have done. The video is really only half done, as I didn’t do the whole song yet, but its definitely going somewhere. Might submit it to Otakon or something, seeing as its one of the more professional AMVs I’ve seen myself (I have over 50 on my Hard Drive alone). AMVS (anime based music videos) are one of the best ways to practice editing hands down, and I’ve only made one before this. And that was mostly in the juevenille Windows Movie Maker. Vegas is a whole other monster.

Anyways hope you guys enjoyed, and just so you know, yeah, DMC3 is one of the main places from which I got the idea for the title STRIKE A POSE!!!

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!