As you all can see an exciting change has been made to the website! We have no unveiled our new theme and banner so that when you guys visit the website you can finally recognize it as uniquely ours- something that shows off some of the best moments in SAP history!

So I hope you all enjoy the new look, in terms of functionality the website is still the same, and forums will hopefully be upgraded to match soon enough!

In the meantime, I’m going to start posting EVERY DAY. Even if its something nostalgic or generally unimportant, best to post SOMETHING. I find it inexcusable that I have left our readers with empty mental stomaches for the better part of six weeks- its time to just start posting whatever our crew finds interesting!

So today I have a link to a video, a heads up on one of our biggest inspirations ever, and a quote from a famous actor that gives a glimpse into my upcoming personal criticism of The Dark Knight:

First off, the amazing TV show, Battlestar Galactica, is getting it’s prequel film, and Sci Fi has the first trailer here.

Secondly, we have news about Strike a Pose!!! Inspiration, RYUHEI KITAMURA is going to be making an American Version of his cult classic, VERSUS. Here’s the scoop, brought to you by DreadCentral.com:

Kitamura just announced that he’s working on an American version of Versus. He just finished a draft of the script and will do one more to polish it up. It’s going to be a few years before it’s made, as he’s doing an action film first, but he stated, and I quote: “The US Versus will be insane!”

And finally, Sir Michael Caine has cast his vote towards the making of a third Batman Begins film, and IMDB has the story! Check out the full article here.

“He tells WENN, “I think this one will be such a success it will be difficult to do a sequel because we’ve done one and we’ve topped it, obviously, and now we’ve got to top this.

“That is difficult. That is difficult because we’ve already broken the box office (record) in American movie history. We’ve got to break our own record. It’s hard.”

I’ll have more on my personal opinion of both The Dark Knight and WALL-E later this week.

For now though, enjoy the new update, and for those of you who don’t know what VERSUS is, check out this great fan video from UltimateVersus2005 on Youtube.

Strike a Pose Films…

The final frontier…

we’ve been stranded…for a long time. Engines- about to explode…time is but, counting…inside a glass jar…little sand pieces- why oh why do we- do what we do?

Because its freaking amazing.

Strike a Pose!!! Films has been around so long now I barely know anything else in my life without it, as it has become a part of my life in every way- achievements, friends, family, fun, vacations, school. EVERYTHING.

So today I don’t have any videos to post or any reviews to write, I just want to update myself and community on what I’m going to be doing with my career at this point. It’s random, but it’ stuff that needs to be said in writing. In public.

CURSE OF BODANGOFISH is now on DVD and available at your local “hey give me five bucks and I’ll throw you a copy” store, complete with Car Trouble as a bonus feature. Its taken 3 years, and the DVD isn’t exactly perfect, but it PLAYS IN A DVD PLAYER and has a lightscribed image on it. So yeah…give me five dollars. Put it in the box! Seriously though- if you’re interested, check it out. The trailer can be found here and here.

CLARITY:
The Sam Anderson and Damien McCoy-lead detective thriller is slowly making progress in the editing process. I finally got over some HUGE emotional humps in dealing with the project and now have the confidence to complete it hopefully some time before the end of summer. I doubt I’m going to try to release it anywhere but here, seeing as how it is a very personal project but not exactly festival-worthy all things considered. I would like to see how it plays up to the open forum of le internet. I’ll try and post a scene or trailer ASAP, but no promises. I know a lot of Sam’s biggest fans have been looking forward to this one, and I DO promise that he does not disappoint! Its some of his finest acting yet in a truly dramatic and non-over-the-top role.

LINE OF SIGHT:
The Bob Novich and Rob Ramirez lead action flick is pretty much done, it just requires a guitar-blues rock score something along the lines of Metallica or Soundgarden. I’ve tried to get a lot of people to do it, and had a couple of prospects, but nothing has happened with it yet. This will be a very great film when it is completed and I look forward to sharing the first actual Peregrine Saga story to everyone I can. I love this series with all my heart and will make it my entry point into the film profession.

AN OLD HOPE BTS:
The Behind the Scenes on AN OLD HOPE, Dan Gvozden’s final project for his degree at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts, is going to be getting under way. This is my top editing priority of the summer, and I really want to get it out there for Dan, his crew, and all their fans. Plus, hey, it’s the closest thing to a PROFESSIONAL gig I’ve had in a while.

Doing basic service industry work has yielded very little results in the filmic journey my life is meant to be, but hey, you gotta get life experience before you can make film experience (unless you’re Tarantino, but alas, I’m not that ugly).

FUTURE FILM MAKERS CLUB

So in the meantime I’ve been jotting down ideas, scribbling away at ways to make the film club shine better next semester, and well…for anyone who reads this blog and is a Future Film Maker…I’ll announce a few changes now:

Thomas and I have decided that I will be doing the minimal amount of behind the camera work possible this semester. We will both act for you and provide pawns for YOU guys to move around and begin truly learning the trade. It has been decided that, now that the club has proper footing and will have a bold new source of members with this upcoming school year, it is time to start giving it away and placing the responsibilities where they belong: in the hands of everyone who truly wants to see it grow. We have big dreams for what this club can do, and the new building- with state of the art tech and teachers- WILL give us this chance like we’ve never had before. I’ll talk more about that, but you guys should comment if you’re reading this and definitely give us your two cents. I’m not working alone on this anymore, as Vice President, Thomas has as much authority as I do. You guys can trust him and myself- we want to make something for the community. Not just us. This is the opportunity of a life time and we’ve all got to be a part of it!

We’ll also be coming up with business cards, T-Shirts, a website, and new activities and events! Keep your eyes open!

::getting off the soapbox::

MOVIE VIEWINGS:

Ok well that’s about it for now. This summer I’ve seen 3 movies in theaters, WALL-E, Wanted, and The Dark Knight. Guess which one is my fav? Well…

The frigging kids movie.

OTHER STUFF:
I’m going to Otakon, so is Thom, Mike, Phil, James, and Amber. If anyone else is going- let us know! We’re going to be showing off movies around every corner we can, in every line possible, and we’ll have business cards by then! It should be good for both FFM and SAP.

So yeah, that’s about it for my film life. Going to get more stuff together later, but figure everyone needed an explanation on what’s been happening for the last 3 or 4 weeks of summer. I’m not completely oblivious to my responsibilities as President of one of the truly TOP 25 clubs in SU! WE RULE!

Be sure to check out the forums. We’ll be getting some more dedication to FFM later on this summer as well.

Yeah, that’s not like, the most ridiculously overly-long title EVER.

But hey, it’s Terminator, it’s just that epic.

So without further adieu, I bring you all a decently downloaded version of the trailer. After this we’ll be coming out with a player that will bring you some TRULY amazing stuff, stick around!

So what do you guys think about this? We’re going to have to have a debate on the necessity of THIS fourth film!

This is STRIKE A POSE!!! Films first Guest Review by our good friend Thomas England, also known in the forums as Tom. Tom loves watching classic, indie, and cult films, and today we’ve got a big treat for our readers- an introduction to one film maker’s amazing selection of work.

Here’s his review for Ingmar Bergman’s PERSONA:

Lately I have been renting and watching a lot of classics, in sort of a “quest” to find more inspiration for my own creative ingenuity, as well as for substance to contribute to a college film club I help manage. I have been trying to watch genres ranging from old cult classics to French new wave flicks as well as various indie titles. Many of these have been downers for me- I either found them to be somewhat boring or pretentious; trash that only succeeded in making me angry. I don’t like watching movies that blatantly try and go out of their way to prove how better they are than you. I am mainly talking about Jean Luc Godard’s French New Wave films, which if you haven’t heard of him, then good- leave it that way, and stay clear from anything by him.

Biased and arrogant opinions about French film making aside, the “classics” that I saw were interesting but didn’t do anything for me at the time, many of which seemed like movies I would have to re-watch later on. There were a couple exceptions. One I have run into is Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Just last week I finished watching his 1966 psychological thriller Persona, and I must say I definitely found what I was looking for with this movie. It was beautifully shot and the story was well told.

The movie was about a nurse named Alma (Bibi Anderson), who was put in charge of helping to rehabilitate a well known actress named Elisabeth (Liv Ullman) who, although seeming physically fine, will not talk to anyone. I was left constantly guessing why she is acting this way. The opening sequence is a montage of serial imagery, where the clues for answering this question begin. What was shown in the opening sequence were things ranging from a film projector to a child trapped in an all white room with a large human face watching him from behind one of the transparent walls.

One of the more powerful scenes was when the Elisabeth was watching the news in her hospital room, and sees the broadcast of the forever infamous Saigon monk burning himself alive in Vietnam. Most important was the reaction and facial responses expressed by the actress to that sort of stimuli. This sort of thing helps to give clues about what is actually going on, but by the end it will be made clear to you that you’re just as clueless as the nurse trying to help the young actress, and understand why the film is called what it is. It is important to pay close attention to the imagery throughout the movie, because the story is primarily told through its imagery, with dialog coming in second (though it’s still important). For those who are fans of David Lynch you would be well accustomed to it- a very dark and dreary experience that at times has a very surreal feel to it.

In the end this was just the inspiration I needed! I have seen two other films by Ingmar Bergman: The Seventh Seal and The Wild Strawberries, both of which were great and completely different experiences. I recommend anyone reading this to pick this one up if they can find it- it’s not very long, but if you watch this and find it to be your type of movie as I did, then definitely pick up the other Bergman movies I just listed. Even so, out of all of the three Bergman Movies that I have seen so far, this one takes the gold.

Tom’s an active member of the Future Film Makers Club, leading the way for the newer members as Vice President, and you might even remember his amazing performance in the comedic masterpiece, Man of Action.

“You have to understand that rightly or wrongly, I consider myself an artist and I consider the work that we do art. In helping to tell stories by creating these characters. I came out as an actor. I am not a technician. I am techno-ignorant, but I love creating characters and telling wonderful stories. Thinking of myself as an artist doesn’t allow me to think of size having to do with importance.”
~from Imdb.com’s Stan Winston page.

One of the most important figures in my inspirations for film making died last night.

His name was Stan Winston, and he is solely responsible for the amount of Aliens, Predator, and Terminator toys within the storage of my old collection. He was a living legend- the single most creative special effects artist in the industry and quite possibly of all time, having crafted both the dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park series and the physical suit that Robert Downey, Jr. used in the recently succesful Iron Man

It is quite rare for a special effects artist to be so well known by name and not just his studio, but many people were big fans of his work. He was a big enough deal to be one of two special effects artists on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Nominated for over 30 cinematic achievement awards in his lifetime, he was also a four time Oscar Winner for his work on Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, and Aliens. His works with James Cameron, Tim Burton, Steven Spielberg and many, many others have crafted the imaginations and fascinated a whole generation of film going kids and adults.

For all his hard work and his endless amount of entertainment, realism in effects, and memorable characters and creatures, Strike a Pose Films salutes you, Stan Winston. There certainly wouldn’t be a Bodangofish without you.

EDIT:
I’d like to throw this video up on the site- a very tastefully done and touching piece by our friends over at joblo.com and Arrow in the Head that details some of the best moments in Stan’s legacy. I swear I nearly cried. This man WAS my childhood.