This is Dylan Hintz and Sam Anderson, the founding members of STRIKE A POSE!!! Films. We’ve been working on some new projects lately, but one in particular is something we’re going to want possible outside help with.

SYNOPSIS
The movie, a short currently titled “Peregrine Saga: Darkest Places” is a drama with a few action sequences, it is a post apocalyptic sci fi martial arts fantasy that serves as an allegory for leaving home for college, staying behind as a “gangster,” or living off your parents’ wealth for the rest of your life. It draws inspiration from event in Dylan Hintz’s life, as well as those of his friends.

It will feature brief action sequences, but it mostly focuses on the stories of two young men, Josef and Dark, as through a series of events their lives are connected for one dangerous confrontation that will ask them to change their futures- for better or for worse. A stolen sword, a bandit for hire, an aristocratic fencer with something to prove, and the people who have control over their lives will be the focal points of this story.
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LETS BE UPFRONT (PAY):
Now that you’ve read the synopsis and are hopefully somewhat interested, let’s point out something: This isn’t a high paying gig. It might not be paying at all, but we’ll definitely cater. This movie is hopefully going to be sent through to local festivals and everything, and you get full credit for participation, it looks good on resumes, etc. We are still a part of the low-low (no) budget industry, and we are looking to practice, have fun, and make some art. We have a lot of faith in this story and want to help make it be the best it can. Maybe if the script is really good and we can organize a producer or something, we can work something else out, but for now we’re looking to simply make a good movie with a smart story and some fun action sequences.
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WHERE
The DC area is probably a good way to describe our location, however what we’re mainly looking into is Montgomery County. Areas around Seneca Creek State Park, Poolesville, and possibly even Sugarloaf Mountain are viable. We’ll also need a few set pieces (we’re trying to reserve a room in the Kentlands Mansion) such as a “mansion,” a “bar/tavern,” and what will pretty much be a shack in the woods. We’re already scouting.
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WHEN
Sam and Dylan are college students, and we will be going back to our schools in late August. This is possibly one of the last films we’ll be doing together so we’re looking to get this done ASAP, hopefully shooting it in late July Early August. That’s where you come in.

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WHO
Sam Anderson is one of the stars, Dylan Hintz is working on the script as this is being written. There are a few other people from our crew that will hopefully star in it or work on the project. The following is a list of the kind of crew we’re looking for:

CAMERA OPERATORS:
Recently Dylan’s Canon Elura 90 was stolen. Yes, we’ve worked on MiniDv most of our career, but it’s been useful for us. The homeowners insurance will allow STRIKE A POSE!!! Films to not die, however we might want to shoot this on better equipment. Granted we can get a new camera for 1,000 dollars (or a similar one for the same price), but we think we want some outside help with this aspect: Anyone with a prosumer type of camera (GL2′s etc) is really, really appreciated.

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Do you know 3 Point Lighting? Then you understand more about it than us. What Dylan is really looking for is someone who can handle natural lighting and help him make it look clever. The indoor scenes could also really use some polish.

COSTUMING:
We really need some help with this. A mix between post apocalyptic, western, martial arts and contemporary, we need some fancy duds and some ragged wear-and-tear.

MAKE UP:
We’re looking for someone who can make it look like we just ripped out Sam’s eye. Other gore effects are greatly appreciated but we’re not aiming for tasteless. In any case, we want to have fun with this stuff and make the violence sorta real.

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ROLES
ACTORS AND ACTRESSES

*While this is part of a martial arts themed universe, this movie will not have any actual martial arts sequences aside from a brief fencing match between Sam’s character Josef and a sparring opponent. We do, however, need people who can take some stunt work and have fun with it.

CHARACTERS needed to be played:

Dark: A 16-25 year old male who is preferably African American. Dark is a quiet person, with a killer’s eyes. Must be tough and able to do some mild stunt work/choreography. Must feel comfortable with knives (fake and real).

Badeua: a 30-50 year old male who is Dark’s talkative and slick mentor. He doesn’t usually fight, so this will be more of a real acting performance.

The Squires: three young men ages 14-18. They follow Josef around as a sorta jockstar group.

Boss Smith: A late 30′s to late 40′s female who serves as Josef’s mother. She has a wicked tongue, and knows her business. She runs the town and scolds her son for his dreams and failings as a political figure.

Ruger: a Late 20′s to late 30′s man who is a gun for higher, given the task of transporting a special sword along what sorta equates to a Silk Road in the story, he is the leader of the Chambers Gang. Will really need to play it cool, slick, but with a rough edge, and needs to be comfortable with guns (fake).

The Chambers: 4 late 20′s to late 30′s male gang members who act pretty much as redshirts in one scene. Knowing how to handle a gun to make it look more realistic is a plus.

The Mystic Woman: 40- 60 year old female Serves somewhat as an antithesis for Boss Smith’s character, she is an old woman who lives on the mountain healing young vagabonds who get into trouble. She provides words of wisdom for Dark and Badeau.

Doctor: A 20′s/30′sman who checks up on Josef after his injury

Nurse: A 20′s young woman who takes care of Josef after his injury. She has a conversation with Boss Smith about Josef’s future.

Bar Keep: An older man who is assaulted by Josef and his gang. He gives out info after they play “gangster” on his property.

The Peregrine: A late 30′s early 40′s male who doesn’t have a lot of speaking to do. Must be cold and menacing, as he plays a grim reaper bounty hunter role for our unfortunate heroes.

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Questions and advice/concerns? Just message us back! We look forward to working with other filmmakers in this area!

Danny Boyle of 28 Days Later and Trainspotting fame, has been working on a little treat for all of us out in “quality film making” land. You know, the place we were before all these devastatingly terrible “threequels” bombarded out silver screens?

Well I’ve got a treat here for anyone who hasn’t seen the previews yet: two trailers for the film SUNSHINE a movie that is sort of about re-igniting the sun. Most people I’ve talked to about it have said “what? That’s the dumbest most preposterous idea ever” and granted there was a Courage the Cowardly Dog episode dedicated to such a task, only putting more emphasis onto how cartoony such a goal would be.

Image From The Official Sunshine Website

But good news! After some careful research through IMDB (it’s right in the freaking trivia section, folks), I’ve come up with something to quell yea nay-sayers (aka SCIENCE GEEKS):

The plot does not revolve around the sun dying in the normal sense: this is not due for around five billion years based on our understanding of nuclear fusion. It has instead been “infected” with a “Q-ball” – a supersymmetric nucleus, left over from the big bang – that is disrupting the normal matter. This is a theoretical particle that scientists at CERN are currently trying to confirm, and was one of the many contributions of the science advisor. The film’s bomb is meant to blast the Q-ball to its constituent parts which will then naturally decay, allowing the sun to return to normal.

This is the first trailer released, more of a plot/special effects teaser.

This second one details the action, drama, and suspense, with a creepy narration at the end that just DEMANDS you see this movie!

Finally a link to the review from Arrow in the Head

The release date for this film is July 20th, 2007

I recently searched some of my favorite news sites and found a link to a great article:

20 Movies Not Coming Soon to a Theater Near You

Containing such titular titles as Terry Gilliam’s long-lost Don Quixote project, and the Halo movie that we probably will never see (which was recently rumored to be made into an animated series- that rumor apparently also been denied )

There are some great lost titles in here, so do yourself a favor and read it over. You guys in to the gaming are missing out on Duke Nukem Forever, while us film nuts are totally dying to see Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis.

Here’s the site’s description of that project:

Potential Cast: Nicolas Cage, Russell Crowe, Robert De Niro, Paul Newman, and Kevin Spacey.

Francis Ford Coppola has almost as impressive a career of films that never came to fruition as he does of films that have. Coppola’s list of projects-not-made include his long-in-the-works adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (which he will now produce for Motorcycle Diaries director Walter Salles) and a personal take on Pinocchio (following the tragic death of his son in 1985) that led to a lengthy legal battle with Warner Bros. over the film’s rights. As much as we’d like to see either of those films directed by Coppola, The Godfather director really broke our heart when he announced he was scrapping Megalopolis, an ultra-ambitious epic about the battles between art and commerce, history and the future, told through the architectural restructuring of New York City. The film, however, was hatched in early 2001 and crumbled in that same year following the September 11 attacks.

Project Status: Coppola isn’t ruling out a return to the sci-fi epic, recently telling Ain’t It Cool News, “I have abandoned that as of now. I plan to begin a process of making one personal movie after another and if something leads me back to look at that, which I’m sure it might, I’ll see what makes sense to me.”

Ok, so now that Pirates and Spidey have FAILED AND DIED (look at the box office- 300 mil is good, but way lower than expected for both), we can look forward to real entertainment for the rest of the summer. For starters, Transformers is coming out soon, but I’m sure everyone has seen those trailers.

I’d like to point your attention in the direction of Clive Owen. Now, I’ve in truth only seen like 4 of his movies (Sin City, Children of Men, Derailed, and the Driver Series), but I’m a huge fan of his. He’s the kind of macho Brit bad ass Michael Caine used to be (and still is!). His next big flick, “Shoot ‘Em Up” is a mix between American Action Comedy and John Woo Shooter.

And holy shit does it look FUN. Check out the trailer HERE:

Now the director isn’t known for any real gems. Having helmed the 1994 post-modern fairy tale Beanstalk, a couple of Prehysteria movies and the incredibly AWFUL Double Dragon from 1994 (Granted Mark Dacascos, one of the best American martial artists ever is in it), we don’t really have much in the way of drawing a thirst for this film.

But seriously, Clive Owen. Clive Owen. Versus Paul Giammatti in something intentionally ham-fisted? Over the incredibly gorgeous Monica Bellucci? I could definitely go for that!

Comes out Sept 7 2007

THIS is another essay I did for my Literature in Film class at Salisbury University, this time comparing the book, The Talented Mr. Ripley written by Patricia Highsmith to the movie directed by Anthony Minghella. I got a pretty good grade on it, as it details some drastic changes in the two narrative styles. If you have seen the film or read the book, give it a read, and if you haven’t done either, you should probably watch or read both. This is a great story about a dark character and real human drama.

A Brief Summary:
Tom Ripley (depending on the medium) is a young man who lives in New York, tricks people out of money, and then does whatever he likes, getting his fix by being mischievous. With an almost Holden-Caulfield like view on society, he only ever enjoys a few people. The thriller was written in the 1950′s, and focuses on themes that might not have been…popular at the time, such as identity theft, European vacationing, and of course, homosexuality. Tom goes to Europe to bring back the son of a wealthy aristocrat, only to become psychotically attracted to his way of life. So…he steals it. See (or read) the drama for yourself, the suspense is also QUITE a rush!

Dylan Hintz
12/4/06
Film Lit
Dr. Johnson

The Alleged Mr. Ripley

“‘Pardon me, are you Tom Ripley?’” Herbert Greenleaf asks the protagonist Tom this initial question on page four of Patricia Highsmith’s thriller novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley. In the first of many two-faced conversations and hidden agendas Tom comes across, the novel starts out with a question he answers with complete honesty. This prompted encounter, in which Herbert Greenleaf was looking for Tom by name, differs from the alternative reality presented in the film version written and directed by Anthony Minghella: a chance encounter brought on by Tom borrowing a Princeton University jacket. The start of the first major part of both stories- Tom’s life in New York prior to embarking to Europe is radically different depending on the creative outlet. Thus, while his lifestyle is similar, the characteristics of Tom Ripley from the opening of the novel and the opening of the movie are both diverse enough to lend an audience two complete interpretations of the character through his interactions with other characters and his own isolated scenes of exposition.

The film starts out with Tom playing the piano to a lovely operatic tune, in which a close up slowly reveals that he is sitting in a bedroom with eyes full of pensive regrets. Matt Damon puts great effort into giving a very unreadable look to Tom Ripley- the character constantly appears as if he’s thinking about what the audience will expect him to, but then when he speaks, his lies begin to snowball, such as in the first scene with the Princeton Jacket and the Greenleafs. Tom is asked about Princeton and their son, Dickie Greenleaf. He appears completely oblivious to what they are talking about, however his words of response are “How is Dickie?” He is completely prompted by the parents to have already known Dickie in a case of somewhat mistaken identity.

In the novel, however, Mr. Greenleaf has been looking for him, and Tom actually remembers Dickie from a personal encounter. At this point the reader has a greater opportunity to get inside Tom’s head. In one self-monologue Tom describes how he may have been recommended by a man he worked for as an accountant- a job that was never mentioned in the film. Tom says “Charley could have told Mr. Greenleaf that he was intelligent, level-headed, scrupulously honest, and very willing to do a favor” (6). Tom quips to himself how the compliments were erroneous, however he holds this back from Mr. Greenleaf in favor of asking questions, rather than turning him down immediately. This one introspective thought already sets a ball in motion different from that of the film, in that Tom is a scheming and poor man with intelligence and cunning that helps him to survive a desperate lifestyle. This can also be seen when he describes his current occupation of conning people into paying extra taxes as an activity that causes him much joy, to the point where after conning a complete stranger out of over 200 dollars, “Tom sat there for a moment, giggling, with his thin hands pressed together between his knees” (16) as if he were a conniving school-boy.

In the film, making the acquaintance of both Mr. and Mrs. Greenleaf on the rooftop party is a grand deviation from the seedy bar Mr. Greenleaf chases Tom into in the beginning of the novel. He is at the top of the world in Manhattan, shown playing a piano, a talent not really expressed within the first forty pages of the novel that detail his lifestyle in New York City. His musical empathy is a trait highly referenced in the first major act of the film. The writing and direction of the film, especially in the opening scenes, accompanied by Matt Damon’s portrayal, lend Tom to be a sympathetic character- someone for the audience to care about and hope for. One scene that provides a dimming wink of hope for the character is when Tom is sitting in the theater he works for, playing the piano after hours, only to be interrupted by one of the janitors and shooed out of his one seemingly sanctuary. It is obvious that this version of Tom has hopes and dreams, which are expressed in the novel, however only later out of anger, in which Tom had “wanted to be an actor…” and how he “thought he had the necessary talent…” (38). These failed dreams of his in the novel are always focally placed on a very specific character omitted from the film: his Aunt Dottie.

The character of Aunt Dottie in the novel causes the greatest deviation in what the audience gets out of Tom Ripley from a two hour movie and a 300 page novel. For a film that ends up displaying a savagely alone character committing murder out of desperation and fear, the motivation for such heinous acts seems to be missing: His motivation to do anything dastardly from Matt Damon’s portrayal doesn’t even seem to exist until he’s backed into a corner by Jude Law’s loathing Dickie Greenleaf character. Of the characters adapted to the film, in the opening sequence Tom only meets or mentions a few from the original novel. The Greenleafs, and perhaps some of his noisy neighbors are the only ones physically presented. Tom in the novel, however, references at least a dozen other characters, including his parents, the people he’s stayed with, a woman named Cleo Dobelle, and his dreaded Aunt Dottie. Tom’s feelings towards Aunt Dottie boil down to his memory of the only goal he had in life as a child: “to run away from Aunt Dottie, the violent screams he had imagined- Aunt Dottie trying to hold him in the house, and he hitting her with his fists, flinging her to the ground and throttling her, and finally tearing the big brooch off her dress and stabbing her a million times in the throat with it” (39). Throughout chapter six of the novel, Tom goes on about how it had been Aunt Dottie who held him back and caused him to be such an unsuccessful person. He has true hatred in his heart for this woman, and a long-lived lifestyle of deserving vindication for never knowing life outside of her rule. Tom’s motivation and ability to live life without a conscience in the novel can be solely attributed, even quite possibly admitted by the character himself, to his childhood being raised by Aunt Dottie.

The different person presented in the film then is Matt Damon’s portrayal, even when confronted by the janitor in the theater, crashing down upon his one, singular attempt to feel as though he can strive higher, is an apologetic young man who has a tendency for feeling bad for the trouble he could cause others. He has guilt and a conscience, clearly from these few moments. His lie then is most likely motivated by seeing a slim chance at a better life.

By the end of the opening credits, which oddly enough last the entirety of the opening ten minutes, the audience of the film sees Tom as a kind hearted person who’s only taking advantage of what seems to be the best offer he’s had in years. He’s still strange and peculiar in his need to please others, but he certainly doesn’t seem like a bad person. Forty pages into the novel, however, the reader can conclude Tom gets a thrill out of being devious, has a penchant for being underhanded, and even could lean towards being a completely psychopath after his life growing up with a woman who only motivated him to escape with a murderous finale to their relationship. Thus, the difference in the film and the novel is what kind of transformation the respected Tom Ripley will go through by the end- will he be a kindhearted man who was driven away by people who he thought loved him, or will he end up only unleashing his murderous potential upon those who lower his own perceived self worth? Either way, his story ends with murder, but the beginning of it shows that in the film’s reality, Tom had a chance to be healthier. The novel’s reality creates a killer from the outset.