Sunday, November 30, 2008

Lane on Burton


tim burton by ~theFATkid on deviantART

While we are speaking of Tim Burton, a conversation came up about his films and which ones were my favorite yada, yada. I actually have not “disliked” any of Burton’s stuff. I will say Planet had to be my least favorite and the only film of his I do not own. As for the rest, here’s how it lays out.

This is based on personal interest, not from a non-biased film critique point of view. Some of obviously goes hand and hand.

1.Ed Wood
2.Batman
3.Edward Scissorhands
4.Corpse Bride
5.Beetle Juice
6.Sleepy Hollow
7.Mars Attacks
8.Charlie and Chocolate Factory
9.Sweeny Todd (For Personal Reasons only. This may be his best film yet from a critic point of view.)
10.Batman Returns
11.Big Fish
12. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
13.Planet of the Apes



Frankenweenie, Nightmare Before Christmas and Vincent have not been added to this list.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Remaking OZ

My Sophmore year at UCLA, I actually outlined using, the Annotated Wonderful Wizard of Oz an epic remake of the family classic. Mine actually followed the book much closer incorporating the “political” undertones and also came with The Quadlings, The Queen of the Field Mice, the Special Glasses that had to be worn in the City of Emeralds and had the Lion becoming the King of Beasts. These were just a few of the small elements of Baum’s masterpiece left out of the original 1939 Musical. Sure the film was a bit more “adultish” but would be a musical and would still be an easy PG film.

With a pitch like this, (back then of course,) you have to have some clout just to get a meeting with a middle man that would listen to you before going to the big men who would then go to the bigger men who would then go to Oz the Great to do some more deciding, before they would give you 10 reasons why you would be “mad” to remake OZ in anyway shape or form. With that said I put the Composition Book away figuring I had 10 years before I could ever get that meeting and another 100 before they would ever let ME or anyone else remake OZ.

On the last page of my scribbled outline and sketches there was a list of other kid films I would give, (or would have given,) my loins to remake. On this list were some of the familiar titles:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Tales of Petter Rabbit
Treasure Island
Peter Pan
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Now years later, I can only be angry (and pleased because of who it is) that, Tim Burton has had the privilege of remaking Wonka and Sleepy Hollow and is in production on Alice in Wonderland now. Peter Pan, I believe with the assortment of various Pan stuff including that bomb of a film, (that I loved regardless,) Hook, Neverland will be Neveragain. If I don’t get moving getting “clout” soon, somebody or Burton is going to get to do my Wonderful Wizard of Oz film.

From what I’ve seen, I’m unsure of the look for Tim Burton’s Alice... I mean he’s been spot on for all his films in the past but I’ve always seen Alice as very primary color, deep space and most importantly lots of visuals. The original book actually is a bit darker and a little more should I say realistic. I’ve only seen a few pictures so far so I may be completely wrong. Alice is to be released on my daughter’s birthday in 2010. I have until that date to lock in my Oz remake or I’m sure with his and I’s track record, he’ll have it locked down.




Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter









Saturday, November 15, 2008

Trailers & Snags

Well the momentum of the finished film was bound to hit a wall sooner or later. For the past two weeks it has done just that. The problem has been remedied or should I say will be remedied come Monday and the movie will be back in business. When we started editing we were using Final Cut Pro 5. When we relocated Post Production to Los Angeles, the bays there were on FCP 6. Well, after returning needing a couple of re-edits I realized that once we saved the Jeopardy file in FCP 6, I wouldn't be able to go back to FCP 5 which I have on my bay at home. With that said and the fact that I blew my job to go finish the film and have no money on top of the budget for the film being completely tapped, a $600 upgrade was gonna' take some work. By the end of the day, today, the upgrade should arrive, making it to 'The Asylum' by Monday afternoon, so the film with some luck will be complete by the end of next week if Phil and I get the little things done this week.

As far as Strapped and Strained, there has been another snag. We are going to need interviews to bookend the footage. We have a lot of great footage but kind of need a narration to tell the story as it goes. I am going to try and schedule some interviews next week. The preparations for the road ahead will require the Lane family to relocate to California in order to do what is needed to be done. I'll keep you informed. For now, if you haven't seen them, here are the trailers for the film and the documentary.



Standard Version






Monday, November 3, 2008

Incomplete

My eyes burned worst than they did following an all nighter after a Grateful Dead concert. My mind was mush and my next move completely unknown. I had just woken up at 5:00am to catch a flight home after bingeing and purging the Jeopardy post production process. I was cutting the film 16 hours of the day and by the time I finished it Friday morning at 8:30am, I didn’t know what I was looking at. I slept for nearly all of Friday and watched the movie on Saturday and knew we needed to adjust, so I did so before having to get on a plane and leave it all behind in Los Angeles. I couldn’t help but worry that I was going to watch the film a couple more times and I was going to figure out what was missing but it was going to be too late do anything about it. Ryan and I had already come up with one quick fix by the time I arrived home. So now the film I was completely engulfed in, that I thought was a masterpiece is completely in limbo because I spent the only week I had to analyze it, logging, and editing a semi rough cut and now I’m unsure what or where we stand. As I have been typing this entry, I spoke to Ryan who has made another cut and then is sending me the external. I am going to analyze all the footage all the ways possible to tell this story and then I will finish the film while I search for a music composer. The film is basically done, but like I was telling Mark, there is a certain feeling you get when a film is “complete.” It is a feeling like no other. I have yet to have that feeling with Jeopardy even though I will say, “the film looks great and is great if we just find that little thing that is missing. Wednesday, I will compose a trailer so we can start getting the word out. As a surprise, we actually shot our own city skyline footage for the film. Here is my BTS from a cramped ass four seater plane.

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