Thursday, March 3, 2011

UPDATES: Movie watching and discussions with moron filmmakers

OMG….truly tiresome. Watching heaps of old school JC footage is making me dribble heaps as my body itches to do some fight choreography and a playback of some of JC retro 80s films. Of course, that means I gotta schmush with the local op shops and dig out some the hideous loud outfits that I can recall my parents donning back those days.

On top of that, doing a bit of a call out for some “thugs” to do some quick action sequences with, set on the back drops of some abandon rooftops – I’m sure its definitely going to be fun.

I’ve been more and more pedantic about cinematography these days (what sells through the lens) and getting down and dirty with lots of shot experimentations and gadget building with my handy man dad.

I’ve been in a little bit of heated discussions lately with some, “real filmmakers” (or so they call themselves, because they’ve taken themselves so serious at the craft, and people like “me” disturb them).

I am quite amused when they responded with:

“We are filmmakers that make film for intelligent audiences. Action, comedy or youtubey stuff is trivial…”

Seriously? What’s up their….You get what I mean.

“We aspire to be the next Tarantinos…”, the leader of the elite moronic filmmakers group babbles on.

Oh man. How original. I don’t think Mr Tarantino ever quoted himself saying “I aspire to be someone-else-besides-myself-because-I-don’t-know-who-the-*beep*-I am”.

Plus, he didn’t go to film school, he just knows what he wants and has made it happen.

Lateral thinking, innovation and drive not stick-up-yourself film buddies!

I’m going off track again. But some cool things are happening in HK with Bey Logan and “Snowblade”. He’s currently doing some shoots and I can see that some of the “blood and gore” team (Michael Dinetz) is having a wild time with the blood spray.

Bey Logan gets hands on with the camera

Michael Dinetz is squirting some fun

Mike Leeder and his team is also currently working on some another uber cool concept “Zombasians”, the trailer is due out soon.

In the meantime, China Lion Group have pass over some preview screening tickets for “Butcher, Chef and the Swordsman” for the March 17. I’m taking my film colleague Clint Logan (former VFX executive of The Post Op Group) who is just dying to figure out that “action” project. Stay tuned because I might be release some freebie tickets on this site.

Love ya all and stay tune for more rants!

Maria Tran

2 comments:

  1. You didn't really get me started on this before, but film culture attracts the wrong kind of people for the all the wrong reasons. The word itself carries all this meaning and tradition, and it's held in all this high regard and seriousness that can't ever be questioned. People are drawn to it for ego, not art.
    And with all that ego comes insecurity over cultural identity and how the rest of the world will see Australia based on our movies etc. So the seriousness is doubled.
    And the more you invest in film culture, the more you invest in the identity and ego that comes with it.
    For me, I had to ditch the word entirely to distinguish the difference between myself and 'real filmmakers'.
    I've never worked with actual film, and given the freedom of the technology I have with Digital Video I don't ever plan to. So I came out of the closet and became a DV Rebel, and started calling what I do Moviemaking :)
    Haven't looked back since.

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  2. Nice!
    I think film culture is about to be revolutionised - starting with us! The new generation of thinkers and its all about keeping it real and being down to earth.
    Same. I've never worked with film either. These days, it comes down to storytelling and concepts.

    Warren Coulton(facebook) i totally agree about the moronic filmmakers, i call them coffee shop filmmakers, they do little else than talk. tarantino deliberately ripped off older films as he knew they would sell and then developed his own style later. the reality is that art films although very nice and we all want to make our statements, don't sell they take up the funding and return no commercial profit back to the filmmakers, distributors and investors maybe but the filmmaker has nothing. people call it selling out, i call it buying in, once you have made your money and reputation then you can go back to your art as you now have a market. really you don't have to be that smart to see it. doesn't matter maria, don't argue with fools, you will get frustrated and they will still be stupid and arrogant. lets just make the types of movies people want to watch. Rant supported :)

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