James Steven Beverly

So now your balls are bigger than mine, THAT really is funny. :lol: Kane is a great movie but Lawrance of Arabia was better so what's your point? Oh Yeah, she really really sucked in all those roles like Girl, Interrupted, A Mighty Heart, Beyond Borders, Changling, you know the one when she was nominated for a second Academy Award. Yeeah that performace must have really blown. Maybe she should give back that first Academy Award she won and renounce her nomination for second one. Hey, I know what you can do, you could prove how good you are by showing her YOUR Academy Award. :rolleyes:

Books can be useful but film is a dynamic media. Cinematography is about images and composition that are nearly constantly moving that's why I would reccommend, if you haven't already seen it: Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography Perhaps the best doc. on cinematography ever made to date. You can't understand the language of film without seeing in in action. Why does a single light set in just the right place at just the right moment speak volumes about the character standing in that light. Film noir explains this beautifully in it's use of lighting and composition to create mood and atomosphere. The thing is with almost every DVD or Bluray there is an extras mode where you can listen to the director's commentary on where and why he did what he did. There are also lots of videos on youtube and elsewhere that can help explain the cinematic language and teach you to speak it in your work. I mention noir because it is the easiest way to see how expressive light alone can be made to add production value to you Mise en scene. There are some other doc. videos out these you might look for as well: Cinematographer Style No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream Light Keeps Me Company (on Youtube) PBS American Cinema (short series) (on Youtube) The Rules of Film Noir (on Youtube) Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light Side by Side Writing with Light: Vittorio Storaro ADM:DOP – Anthony Dod Mantle: Director of Photography Tell Them Who You Are (Haskell Wexler) Don’t Try this at Home The Man Who Shot Chinatown (John Alonzo) Check these out the look for some more on your own!

Yeah, well at one time I wanted to be a novelist and you know how hard it is to break old habits. Besides, editing is for whooses :rolleyes:

Hey ya go, folks, I present one of our sub-culture species: The Ugly American. Well, with the exception of the fact that Elton John was a British subject and Jim Carrey wasn't made an honorary doctor by the Queen. I have great regard for the British In fact there is a city in Yorkshire where my family name derives from. The only reason the title is "Honorary" is because Jollie is American and not a Brit. It's somewhat rare to have that honor bestowed on an American. Her talent and acclaim in a variety of genres has proven her quality as an actress. The fact that she's constantly working and her films put asses in the seats in record numbers and has been through out her career is more than enough for me to consider proof she's a great actress. Oh, and since you asked,YES, to me, this very much is a joke.

Oh, and just for FYI one of those "two overrated and under talented actresses" the one you concidered "overrated, unremarkable, and downright scary looking to me" was just named an honorary Dame by the Queen Elizibeth II: http://www.justjared.com/2014/06/13/angelina-jolie-made-an-honorary-dame-by-queen-elizabeth-ii/

We need some clips. I was hoping to get out there this year but a few surefire plans went ary so we fell back, regrouped and planned out our next assault. We attack at dawn....or whenever time the matre' d decides to seat my executive producer and his colleges for lunch.

The Virgin Suicides was interesting but far from mainstream and large box office returns. It was a small slice of life, character driven piece with limited appeal that was targetted for the arthouse crowd. Though well done,w the Coppola name not been attached, I firmly believe it would have remained a haunting, well made, obsure arthouse failure. The Coppola name carries a lot of weight, as it should but I doubt Lost in Translation would have been made without that pedigree attached. Scarlett Johansen's performance is what made the film a hit and Sophia Coppola's most popular film. That's not to say Bill Murrey didn't do a great job, but Johansen was the brilliant light of that film. Sophia Coppola could not recapture that success even with a much larger budget and A list cast in her Marie Antwonette film. Stars are supernatural in a way. Their beguiling presence draws an audience into a film though sheer strenght of that presence. See this is what you appear to be missing, it's not about talent although talent is essential at least for the genre they excel in, it's much more than talent or looks or likeability or intellegence, it's an undifinable whole that is more than the sum of it's elements which creates something unique. There are truly GREAT actors that even given every opportunity imaginable, will never become movie stars. BTW, when was the last time you saw the new Jessica Simpson movie? I'm not talking about 15 minute fame people here, I talking about the Jimmy Stewart, James Dean, Elisibeth Taylor, Katherine and Audrie Hepburn kind of people. Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Micheal Douglas kind of people. As for my film or films actually as we've had interest in our slate, we are currently in negotiation with 2 separate concerns and my executive producer has meetings scheduled. We have other interests looking at 2 other proje cts I also wrote but which are separate from the slate list. I have been offered a minimum start date and budget that I have requested be subject to current dynamics envolved. It would, indeed, be sad if I were to not accomplish my dream because I was waiting on unrealistic circumstances but fortunately, my executive producer has over 150 films to his credit and has a great repour with several high profile industry people. He's also a trustworthy, highly skilled and very smart, great person that I consider much more of a friend than a business partner. I do appreciate your concern though. In this environment where money is tight and Hollywood's tarnished reputation has led to investor skeptisisim and excessive caution, finding money can be, at times, ellusive but not impossible. The trick is to never givw up, never surrender. I've always loved Galaxy Quest!!

I've seen superb performances from both these actresses. Jollie along with Milla are a couple in a HANDFULL of female action stars that have acchieve superstardom, no easy task by a LONG SHOT. Meryle Streep, one of the finest actresses to have ever graced the silver screen can't do what Angelina Jollie can do. John Wayne who had the acting range width of a freeway dotted line was one of the greatest movie stars in American motion picture history. Scarlett Johansen is a WONDERFUL actress. Her work in Lost in Translation GAVE Sophia Coppola a film career. I love Hillery Swank, but I didn't happen to think of her while I was writing my examples. As for Jennifer Lawrance, honestly, I haven't seen anything she's done that just knocked me out. Her performance in The Hunger Games was reasonably utilitarian good but I blame that on the script which I felt could stand another draft or three. Otherwise nothing I've seen her in has been all that impressive though I DO feel somewhere deep down inside of her is a performance of epic preportions dying for the right script. I mainly write variants on action/adventure and pretty much direct my own stuff though I do enjoy working in other genres on occasion just for fun so I don't get bored. I like movie stars. As big a pain in the ass some can every once in a while be, they bring something to the screen that very few people on earth can, a mesmerizing presences that compels one to pay attention to every moment they're on screen and THAT is the true definition of "movie magic". Open your mind to what a movie star really brings to the table. Paul Muni was perhaps the greatest film actor in history yet how often is his name mentioned in comparison to John Wayne, James Cagney, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper. Talent and stardom are intertwined, but often times, somewhat loosely.

OhhKay, high school drama class, huh? Yeah. Though I appreciate your "advice'" Mat, IF I EVER get the opportunity to work with either Scarlett Johansen or Angelina Jolle, through there might be a VERY SLIGHT snowball's chance in Hell, I might ask if that's OK with you, I gotta be honest and say I'm gonna wing it abd take their offer in SPADES.

:D Good answer. Of course, I agree, any picture we do are "Big" in reletive terms and we treat them all as A pictures, but when the financal stakes are, let us say, excessively significant, would you lobby to helm such an endevour or do you prefer smaller, less loaded fare?

Well, there is that. The thing about high profile pictures is there is a prestege in helming them. It can help you get projects made if you have a hit. The negative part is you are under the thumb of the studios so it becomes directing by committee which I would find dubious at best. The other part is getting the opportunity to work with some of the finest talent on earth and not have to short the production because of budgetary reasons, WHICH, if you are allowed to make your own movie, gives you the freedom and resourses to have your vision splashed up on screen exactly as you envisioned it or as close as one can get to that vision collaborating with one's colleges. I guess it comes down to what you want to do. I'd love to direct DiCaprio or Cruise, Jollie, Johansen. Have Stotorio light my set although, Mr. Mullen would be great choice to have too, be able to afford a John Williams or Danny Elfman score, have ILM do the FX. Then on the other hand, it could be great to take a 2M budget and have near total autonomy where you don't even consider taking chances during production as risky but essential, where you push the envelope and discover how far yoi can hang it out over the creative edge. Ideally, you can get the opportunity to do both on a somewhat regular basis. I like a lot of tentpoles but I also enjoy small indies, lately I've been facsinated by Noir both classic and modern. They were made to be done on the cheap but I would kill to direct one. One of my favorites is Brick. I thought it was brilliant and still do. I kinda got reaquainted with noir during the editing on The Black Sky sizzle reel which had a section where I used a lot of Rhembrant lighting setups, but I digress. I can see advantages to both mega pics and small indies as well as medium budgeted pictures and although it's always about the story, I think given a choice, I'd prefer bigger projects overall, but who knows, by the time I get to that point. Do you ever feel you might want to direct a big picture? I'm just curious.

Hey, As I stated before, if you run a business, someone is gonna steal from you. The trick is to minimize the damage. You can never completely erraticate theft, but you can make it unprofitable enough to discourage most of the piratesout there. There IS something to be said for the "something for nothing" ploy to help create buzz for your project. I've seen a few first run films show on Youtube for a short time that seemed to help get some interest. I don't, a small amount of piracy could possibly be benefical in the long run but the problem is always these greedy scumbags abusing the privelage and ruining it for everyone which is what scumbags DO, so I'm with ya, Richie, let's keep working on wats to nail these folkers and put them in prison where the only movies they are allowed to watch are ones that suck! I, personally, am thinking anything with a talking dog in it.

Yeah, but all three of those REALLY do help!

Hey, Congrats!! That's pretty damn awesome if you ask me. Hope you have even BETTER luck on this next one you're starting. Best of luck!

Dude, that is just C.Y.A., why you trippin'?!! These policies have been in place for LITERALLY DECADES. You're NOT gonna get around 'em so why worry about 'em. Labs RARELY screw up. That's bad for business and right now, labs need ALL the business they can get. YOU'RE WAY MORE LIKELY to screw up your footage that they ade.

I have one about 4x4, no sticks though. I think I got it on Ebay. It was cheap. I used it on test animation storyboard footage with miniatures on The Black Sky to see if 1:6th scale dolls could be viable for creating animated storyboards on miniature sets. Thouhh it's a lot of work to build the minatire interiors, and exteriors for that matter, it worked pretty well except at the time, custom doll heads weren't beong done all that much so everyone pf the figures were smiling except the G.I. Joes. I've used the technique a few times. It works well. The first time I tried it was with a fully articulated 1:6th scale humaboid dragon / lizzard monster. Dispite the jerkiness of portions of the animated footage, it came out pretty well for a first attempt.

Im just curious, has anyone used greenscreen and virtual sets for aircraft interiors and how well did that work out, also how difficult was it to match the lighting and camera image? Can the composite image be made seemless, if so, what tricks were employed to pull it off?

Phil, NOBODY gets paid on film sets when you're first starting out. Same thing in the USA. The first PAID gig I got as a grip was 50 bucks a day for a 16 hour day NOT INCLUDING WRAP. Get over it, you're only gonna make decent money once you've earned a glowing reputation and THAT'S only if you keep the glow otherwise you loose everything you worked for and sone kid half your age with fire in his / her eyes steals your thunder and you're kicked to the curb. No one ever said being in the movie business was gonna be easy. What's that line from An Officer and A Gentleman, "My grandmamma want's to fly JETS!!" Not everybody can do this work. We, the select few can and there's no point in wasting precious production funds on people who don't have the drive to put up with the hardships, stick to their commitment and make their drwams come true.

No, my laptop lost the hard drive so I'm on my cell phone as I sent 4 of my desktop computers to my graphics guyto build a small render farm for VFX work on a teaser a script I have some interest on which left me only my editing computer which I don't put online ever, so I'm religated to a small screen with limited functionality. I do apologize for the spelling errors but my hands are a little large for this smartphone making typing a chore. Liked yhe fish and chips comment though, not sure what you mean by that though I assume it has something to do with the beer you wash down the fish and chips with and yes, I was drinking last night, and am about to drink tonight a little as it is a holiday weekend here in the states which probably didn't help my spelling, which I generally suck at anyway, totally sober. But, hey, that's why God and Microsoft invented spellcheck, unfortunatly, this cellphone AIN'T got it.

Oh, Good god, just slice your wrists already. Phil, don't you GET IT? The world has gone GLOBAL! You can secure distribution on YOUTUBE for Christ's sakes. You can shoot a film ANYWHERE in the world and if it has enough appeal, THE ENTIRE WORLD will embeace it. England doesn't get 200 million dollar FX driven tentpole features, WELL except for "Bond" movies, WHO GICES A 5HIT! I watch a LOT of British films because there NOT FX driven, 200 million dollar tentpoles. They're VERY COOL small films that are mainly character driven, VERY WELL DONE reality based fil, an I'm not talking THE KING'S SPEECH, I'm talking little, tiny movies that we're necessarily blockbusters, just really cool movies. Maybe YOU are the reason you're not getting work. That kind of attitude gets a Oh GOOD GOD, take out a straig ht razor and slice your wrists already! Just in case noone has told you, distribution HAS GONE GLOBAL! You can get distribution on freakin' YOUTUBE for Christ's sake. Tnere are opportinities throughout Europe, Asia, India and every freakin' ELSE on earth. There's probably some Amazonian tribesman closing a deal on a feature about a gay, missunderstood headhunter who just wants to play the violin with Paramount as we speak! I watch a LOT of British films that are NOT 200 million dollar, FX driven blockbusters tentpoles, but are character driven, reality based, TINY, LITTLE, VERY COOL movies thzt I thoroughly enjoy watching because they give me an alternative to mega-films when I feel like something different, and STILL you complain about "Bond" movies being the only "real" movies being made in the UK. Maybe the reason you're having trouble findimg profuction work is you. That kind of negative attitude would NOT be acceptable on an American set and I sincerely doubt it woukd fly on a British set as well.

Hey, thanks. Keep your fingers crossed. I do have a commitment for a lower budget production in mid-summer should all else fail but IF I can secure a fairly decent budget, it can only help the production value, BUT, whatever we have to work with, we'll make it work. A star or two, wouldn't hurt the box office though. :D

Richie, you rock,dude. Hey, Peter Jackson is no slouch. LOTR kick ass six ways from Sunday. Hr got it because HE was the next on the the DGA list which I find SO ironic, I have to take a moment. He knocked the trilogy oit of tne park. I'll find out if my first feature comes to pass in a day or so. I'm chomping at the bit toget into production. We'll see what happens.

Richie, I truly do consider you a genius. You managed, with virtually no help what so ever, to take a small film with limited appeal and parley it into national prominance with Walmart distribution. ANYONE looking at starting out as an indie filmmaker needs to read the archieve on how he created " Dark Reprieve" and how he leveraged that into a feature film career. The story is literally inspiring. Richard Boddington is amazing. Learn from him. I'm American which means I have access to the largest film industry in the world sans Bollywood and although I have a few things in the works, Richie has already shot his third feature which makes his "small fish in a big pond" arguement seem a bit modest at least. I like Phil but if you're gonna start whinning about how there's no way to succeed in your market, then all I can say is LOOK, JUST LOOK at one guy who took on the challange in a nonexistant market and made it happen against ALL the odds. Phil you can dewell on ALL the things that can stop you or you can pull the standard out of the dirt, hold it high and charge the ramparts, slamming wave after wave against the walls until you hammer out a breach and break through. NOTHING IS CERTAIN until you MAKE it certain. Phil doesn't own a magic, crystal ball nor does anyone else. Success grows from inovation and commitment.

Phil mainly complains, which actually kinda works really well for the sad robot avatar he uses. Aside from that, he'sretty much an enigma. He does seem to have some knowledge of production and definately has opinions but I suspect he has guarded his annonimity because he can speak freely without anyone else knowing his true identity. I sincerely doubt, Phil Rhodes is his actual name but more a nom de plum. Just a thought.

I just watched Black Snow, it was terrific, very cinematic. It reminded me of a sci/fi movie with an 80s feel. Networking is nothing more than having the balls to talk to people. The fesitvals and film markets are a good place to start and the best way to start is just go up to people, introduce yourself and and ask them what they're doing at the festival. Chances are they'll ask you the samw thing and then you'll have a conversation and meet more people. You do that consistantly for two or three years and they'll get to know you and maybe introduce you to more people You look for people who know people who can help you. You find people who have money that want to be in the movie business in you travels. You stay in.touch, learn more and start to figure out who's real and who's full of it. They'll be a LOT of bull5hit artists but that's unimportant, you're looking for the people who are real. Once you have a core of good people you can trust and rely on, then you have something.