Jurassic World: A Sneak Peek

By now, most of us have seen this. And while it has been met with a not so surprising mix of negative and positive reviews, I have to say one of the things I’m looking forward to is seeing how Colin Trevorrow, Frank Marshall and Derek Connolly (director and producers, respectively) handle the legacy that the original films have set up. It looks like Spielberg is once again taking up the role of executive producer (as he did in the third film) which isn't something that is unexpected. The downside to this though, is that we may be getting a more hollywood-version of the script: something we can already see if the trailer is anything to go off from. 
From the looks of this teaser trailer, the newest film (aptly named Jurassic World) takes place many years after the events of the third film when humans have finally managed to create a fully-functioning dinosaur theme park. If this sounds bad than you've been paying attention, as the first three films literally and repeatedly set up the plot that "dinosaurs plus theme park equals not happy fun times." And as the gritty look of the film takes on a darker approach, with a haunting version of the original theme song playing overtop, we see that this plot anything but new. Of course, you have the "genetically modified" hybrid but what's another dinosaur loose in the park?
It's a film that's been anticipated for over a decade and from the looks of it, it's just barely holding onto expectations. Personally, I can't say too much based on roughly three minutes of footage, but from what I've seen it looks like the thing we need to worry about is that it's going to try too hard to be "different." And the thing is, people aren't really expecting different. The reason Jurassic Park is as iconic as it is, is because it took the time to sculpt a universe and look that catered to the plot of the film. It wasn't too over the top, it wasn't too action-packed, it didn't rely on gritty color-grading and cheap crowd noises. It took the time to develop and let each character do their own thing, and it circled everything back to the main theme: dinosaurs.
Hopefully, once more trailers emerge we'll be able to grab a closer look at what the future of the Jurassic Park series entails. But for now we'll have to sit back and enjoy Chris Pratt on a motorcycle, cruising with his velociraptor buddies.

Handling Pressure and Staying Positive on Set

By the time Arturo gets around to reading this post, I will have been on a set 5 times in the span of 8 days.  Two of those times (both of our group shoots for fiction 2) were for 6 hours, and the other three (for my ICTV show, Prerequisites) should each last a minimum of 4 hours. If I did my math right - and hey, there's a good chance I didn't - then I will have been on set either directing, producing, or script supervising for at least a total of 24 hours in the past week. With so much time spent planning, organizing, and figuring out who does what and when they do it, I've found that's it's pretty easy to lose focus on why you're really there. 

Sets, generally, are pretty stressful places to be, particularly if you're in a high up position and have a lot riding on whatever it is that you're filming. I think that sucks. I can't speak for everyone else in the TVR/Film program here at Park, but I know I'm here because I love making films and television. There's nothing else I'd rather be doing. What I'm slowly learning - mostly from working for ICTV - is that when you spend so much time on writing and shot listing and scheduling and everything else that goes into preproduction, when it comes time to be on set, you can tend to get frustrated when things don't go exactly as you planned. I wanted to find ways to help deal with that pressure, and hopefully make it easier for myself - and anyone else - to stay cool and have fun on set. 

I found an article that I really liked, written by Evan Luzi, that talks about five ways to "handle pressure and perform better on set." Most of his suggestions are for ACs, but I think they can be applied to pretty much any on-set position. Case in point: the first step is to be prepared. Probably the most important thing that I've learned over the past few week/few years is that preparation, as annoying as it can be, is by far the most important thing you can do regarding filming. If you're on set and don't have a shot list, you're screwed. If you don't know where your lights are going to go or how your actors are going to block out a scene, you're screwed. Being prepared is by far the easiest way to save yourself from being frustrated on set, and it will also give you a better overall product in the long run. 

Luzi's next two steps are to be confident and relax. These are way harder than they sound. However, confidence comes with experience and preparation, so as long as you stay on top of everything and have faith in yourself, other people will have faith in you as well. Relaxation, on the other hand, is different for everyone. Whether it means leaving set for five minutes to go get a snack and drink of water or just taking a deep breath in between takes, it's really important to not let the stress get to you. People work better when they're relaxed: I think that's a fact or something. 

Above everything else, though, is perspective. It doesn't matter if you're Steven Spielberg or a PA on the set of a CP2 film: all we're doing is making movies here. The worst thing that can happen to you in this industry is that you get fired. In college, the stakes are even lower. We're not making any big, world-altering decisions here (although some people beg to differ). For the most part, we're making movies (or TV, film, art, whatever you want to call it) for the entertainment of others and for our own self-gratification. It's ok if things aren't perfect. Take a break. Go for a hike. Call your mom. As fun/awful/stressful/amazing as it can be to make things, there will always be things that are more important, both for your well being and the well being of those around you. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go make a shot list. 

The Neverending Shot Story

1982. A year of big hair, The Rolling Stones, and a lack of child services intervention. Kidding... kind of. Jeremy Breslau's latest award-winning short film gives us a look into a man's memories of his troubled childhood, and the result is incredible.

From the detailed production design to the flawless camera work, what you get is an astonishing piece of visual art. The film starts in the modern day, with a father putting to bed his scared son in the middle of a thunder storm. From there, we dip into a montage of the father's childhood, where the true filmmaking magic happens.

The camera never stops moving. The entire flashback feels like on long sequence, with seamless transitions and barely any cuts during each memory. I was floored, pausing and replaying each scene, wondering how and where each transition took place. The flashback takes up most of the ten minutes, but you won't be disappointed with any second of it. Here's Jeremy Breslau's "1982":

                                                        1982 from Gina Breslau on Vimeo.

Does the camera work look familiar to you? If you've ever seen the film "Children of Men", that's why. Cinematographer Frank Buono was the man who designed and shot the infamous four minute long, one shot car scene. Here's the clip of the scene, plus a behind the scenes look at the making of it.

Besides Alfonso Cuarón, Buono has worked with filmmakers such as Spike Jonze, Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay, and now, with 1982, has obviously proved himself as an accomplished cinematographer. 

The editing, done by Alan Edward Bell, also stood out to me in cooperation with the cinematography. The transitions were fluid and basically seamless. Additionally, although shot with a "real time" feel, Patrick M. Sullivan Jr.'s work on the production design brought a real sense of change, which really drove home the "montage-ness" of the scene. 

Finally, the small, subtle attention to detail truly amazed me. From the scar on the boy's hand to the quick moment where the father lingers his hand on his neighbor's for a second too long, it all seemed natural and not in your face. This only attributed to the "real time" feel, as there were no cuts to exaggerate or emphasize a particular moment in time, which I felt was an excellent decision.

Brasleau is currently in development of his next short film, "The Chaplain". If you want to learn more, you can check it out on his Kickstarter page here.

Star Wars The blog Post Strikes Back!

What’s better than a Star Wars blog post? A second Star Wars blog post nobody wanted, and this is abut who should helm at least the first installment of a brand new trilogy. First off the bat is George Lucas’s best friend and Indiana co-conspirer Steven Spielberg. He hasn’t touched upon the genre of Sci-fi fantasy in a while and is one of the greatest directors of all time. But he has basically taken his name out of the running wit these comments "I've asked [Lucas]. He won't let me do one. I wanted to do one 15 years ago, and he didn't want me to do it. I understand why - Star Wars is George's baby. It's his cottage industry and it's his fingerprints. He knows I've got Jurassic Park and Raiders. But George has Star Wars and I don't think he feels inclined to share any of it with me." Next up in line would be LOST’s very own J.J. Abrams, he has already shown us he can reinvent a great sci-fi series with his reboot of Star Trek. A lot of us in the nerd community think he would be perfect to do the same with Star Wars. But probably my favorite right now would be Brad Bird. Yes the Incredible’s director has proven himself when it comes to filming a great live action movie with the recent Mission Impossible film. He is very open about his love for Star Wars and he is this nerds pick to helm the start of something really great. 

Super 8 & Optical Flares

This past summer was one of the biggest blockbuster movies that I can remember. It was one of my favorite from the summer and made me feel like a kid again.

It's the story of a group of young boys who witness a train accident and all these strange events begin to occur. Granted a lot this seemed far beyond realistic since it was about aliens but I truly appreciated the story because it truly captured a kid. All kids want to do is play and explore. In the movie, all they wanted to do was explore and create their own movie based around what was happening



Another thing to point out were all the lens flares. For a few years, lens flares have become a very stylistic attribute to the image. These were seen in the 2009 Star Trek, which was also directed by Super 8's J.J. Abrams. Since learning After Effects, videocopilot.net has a package called Pro Presets, which contains Optical Flares. The person created Optical Flares, Andrew Kramer, worked on both of Abrams' movies to create these futuristic flares seen on screen.

I very much felt like I was watching ET since it was produced by Spielberg. These kids had some sort of a connection with this alien creature since they are sheltered as children like alien in previous time. All in all it was one of my favorite movies from the summer.

Spielberg brings Jurassic Park to FOX

There are a lot of good shows set to premiere this fall, but the most expensive one by far is the Steven Spielberg produced Terra Nova. While the two hour series premiere (airing tonight) has been critiqued for it's choice in actors, the acting itself and the premise of the show, one aspect that has been raved about is the dinosaurs. The future is in environmental dismay and their only hope of restoring society is to take select individuals back 85 million years to live in colonies. Terra Nova expands on the realistic dinosaur effects Spielberg pioneered in Jurassic Park. He is breaking boundaries on what the audience expects from a network show, with a budget of almost $20 million for the pilot alone (the rest of the 13 episodes range around $4 million each). Each episode racks up about six to eight weeks of extra production time for the advance CGI needed to create the realistic dinosaurs that become the main focus of the show.

I think that even if the plot and writing is excellent, bad special effects can really take away from a good show. Primeval is a show that started airing in 2007 on ITV, it is about a magnetic anomaly that opens up and allows dinosaurs to freely roam between their home in prehistoric times and present day Britain. I love the show but some of the times I find myself distracted by how ridiculous some of the dinosaurs end up looking (mainly the larger ones).