Favorite Show of the Summer

My favorite show of the summer season so far has been True Blood. At first you couldn't pay me to watch the show because I was tired of the vampire phenomenon. I decided to give the show a chance and I glad I did. I have been hooked since season 1 and have been enjoying this season so far. The acting is solid and the story lines are good and its also gory and I love gory television shows and films. With the season finale coming up soon I am excited to see what they have in store for us. I am most looking foward to further development on the Sookie being a fairy story line. Its one of the story lines that hasnt been explored too much and I hope to learn more about her fairy heritage next season since I know it won't be happening this season. I would also like to learn more about the vampire/vampire maker relationship. I think that Jessica and Pam are great and entertaining characters and I would like to learn more about their relationship with the people who made them vampires. From watching the show we know that there is a strong bond between them almost as if they where father and daughter. We would have so much more knowledge of these characters if this was explored. Overall I am entertained by this season though Eric being a good vamipre was annoying. However he is back to normal and I am excited to see what the season finale has in store. True Blood is a really good show and I recommend everyone to watch it if they are into the supernatural and gory tv.

Big Bang, Big Characters

For the longest time I protested watching the show The Big Bang Theory. In 2010 when Jim Parsons won best lead actor at the Emmy Awards for his portrayal the annal scientist, Sheldon Cooper, I was confused at how such a show could win. Finally this summer my friends convinced me to watch the show and I found to my surprise the show was not only hysterical, but it's characters were relatable on some level (despite large involvement in science and science fiction). I thought since I do not like science and I'm very into science fiction I would not get most of the jokes, but I found out that the writes realize that it is uncommon for most people to understand most of the dork/nerdy jokes, in fact they depend on it and the lack of understand leads to most of the hilarity.

The humor is not the whole thing that keeps the audience coming back, like it most other comedies, the jokes aren't always the key part of the show and eventually you start to shape a outline of an on going plot with developing characters. For me well developed characters that an audience can relate to is a major key to success. Though for the most part the characters on Big Bang are caricatures, they are relatable on some level and you come to love their quirks. A lot of people relate to Penny the new girl who moves across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon. Penny is not very smart so when she befriends Leonard and Sheldon as well as their two friends Raj and Howard, she tends to get lost among the guys geek/nerd talk. Leonard is another character a lot of people relate to because even though he is very nerdy, he tries the hardest to blend in with the rest of society and wants to be excepted by others. As they grow closer Penny and Leonard teach each other about their culture and they both start to understand their world. In a way the audience is taken on the journey of socialization through these characters.

Now that I am done watching the show I am very much looking forward to what the writers have in store for the upcoming season of The Big Bang Theory. The characters have greatly developed over the the last four seasons and has turned the series from comedy show with funny characters to a show with interesting characters with a growing plot that happens to be funny. It is the diversity of the characters and intrigue of what funny situation they will get into next that keeps the audience coming back.

The Insane Production Design of AMC's 'Mad Men'

I recently finished watching a number of different shows and was in need of something new to sink my teeth (and my rapidly decreasing free time) into. Knowing that I am both into advertising and the 1950s, a friend of mine suggested that I watch Mad Men. I had not previously intended on getting into the series, mostly because of all the hype the show had received over the years. I didn't want to be disappointed if it turned out to be just another run of the mill drama. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong.

Mad Men is a highly stylized and highly entertaining show, created by executive producer Matthew Weiner for AMC. The show's website sums it up well:

"The series revolves around the conflicted world of Don Draper (Jon Hamm), the biggest ad man (and ladies man) in the business, and his colleagues at the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce Advertising Agency. As Don makes the plays in the boardroom and the bedroom, he struggles to stay a step ahead of the rapidly changing times and the young executives nipping at his heels. The series also depicts authentically the roles of men and women in this era while exploring the true human nature beneath the guise of 1960s traditional family values."

While the writing is outstanding and the acting spot on, the most impressive aspect of Mad Men is the production design. From the wallpaper to the liquor bottles, everything is hand picked to transport the viewers into the world of New York and LA in the late 1950s/early 1960s. The creative team, guided by Matthew Weiner's vision, responsible for crafting the look of the show is headed by Production Designer Dan Bishop and Art Director Chris Brown. Along with a large team of professionals ranging from graphic designers to historical researchers, the duo makes sure that the show is as authentic as possible. Dan Bishop says in an article,

"...we want to try never to be inaccurate. The question is, did it exist in 1962? Then the next question is, was it in common use in 1962? And then, was it in common use in New York City? Sometimes we will say, "You know what? Probably most people didn't have this in their home in 1960, but this character is modern and up-to-date and maybe they had it shipped in from the West Coast."

An example of this meticulous attention to detail can be seen in the Drapers' kitchen:


Part of the allure of this show is that you are given a glimpse of life in transition between two very different decades: the demure '50s to the wild '60s. The sets and props are designed to change with the times. You can see how the outside world affects the characters' own worlds through both the costume design and the set design. For example, the Drapers' living room gets a makeover in the third season to keep up with the trends of the time. Their original living room is filled with '50s pastels and light floral accents:

When it is redone, the room has a more modern feel with the bold prints and primary colors of the '60s:


Since the show's beginning in 2008, Mad Men has been given awards left and right. The show has won the Excellence in Production Design Award from the Art Directors Guild consecutively for the past four years as well as many Emmy's for "Outstanding Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series." These prestigious awards and the excellent quality of the show itself will keep it running for many more seasons, which give me many more years of nerding out about antique rotary phones and floral wallpaper.

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Here's a short video piece that talks more about the design choices with Dan Bishop and set dresser Amy Wells:



To read more, try these links:
'Mad Men': Production designer Dan Bishop - latimes.com
'Mad Men' series designer Dan Bishop discusses how he gets the sets so right - washintonpost.com
'Mad Men' Has Its Moment - nytimes.com

Guns In Movies

Over the summer I worked at Sturm and Ruger Gun Company in New Hampshire. I was part of the video and marketing team for this large company and spent a great deal of time around their products. While working there film and television came up many times, naturally due to the sheer number of movies and television that had firearms in them. These conversations ranged from a Gunsite Academy Range Master criticizing the realism of an actor's form or ability with a handgun, to their meeting of Charlton Heston, star of the original Planet of the Apes, and past president of the NRA.

I also realized what an undertaking, legally and professionally, it would be to provide all the props for a large war movie. Every day we would film a promotional or instructional video with real weapons the crew would go through extensive safety precautions to ensure that a gun was completely safe and that no one was in harms way. But still now and then we would return to the editing room and send out a video to the legal team via Dropbox only to get an email back informing us that it was no good. That for 2 frames the muzzle of a gun was pointing at the camera while the instructor moved it from one side of his body to the other.

Like any other large company, gun companies rely on the media for advertising. One way of advertising is movies and television. The director of media relations within the company informed me that he knew people out in LA prop houses and that Ruger tries to place their guns within many productions. Like this Ruger Alaskan Revolver in the Rock's hand.

A gun designed solely for Alaskan fly fishermen that may have to fend off a grizzly bear that sneaks up behind them from several yards away but I'm sure the rock will be picking off bad guys left and right from whatever range he feels is necessary.

Sherlock

In the BBC miniseries Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes is presented as a modern day consulting detective, utilizing cell phones and the internet to solve his crimes. The first season is edited into three 90 minute episodes, ending with the introduction of Jim Moriarty, played by Andrew Scott.

In their own version of Doyle's The Final Problem, Holmes and Moriarty finally come face to face in the third and final episode of the first season. However, Moriarty has commonly been portrayed as a posh old man, the shows creator took some liberties and made Moriarty into a flamboyant man boy with some psychotic tendencies. Often in remakes, fans will be disappointed by how their favorite heroes and villains have been portrayed. They had an image in their minds, which don't usually line up with the direction that the movie or show takes. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, the producers, took a different route then how Moriarty will be shown in the upcoming Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, where he is played by Jared Harris. When you think of a villain, someone more along the lines of Alan Rickman or James Earl Jones comes to mind. There is an image of a a large, intimidating man with a deep voice standing over us. Which is why I find this portrayal of Moriarty so interesting. Here we have a small Irish man with a high-pitch voice threatening the death of the beloved hero, almost completely reversing the well known role of the Professor.

Game of Shadows comes out later this year and Sherlock is hopefully returning in early 2012. It is amazing how one series of books can manifest itself into two separate remakes coming out at the same time almost a century later. They are even following the same individual plot line of the case against Professor Moriarty. But it's the simple act of changing the location that strings these two stories into completely different re-imaginations.

Captain America: The First Avenger

While this summer was filled with many blockbusters, Pirates of the Caribbean, Thor, Super 8, The Hangover, Green Lantern (which turned out to be awful), Harry Potter, and one that I fully waited for was Captain America.

I tend to watch a lot of trailers and was very impressed with the trailer; however, I was very worried that it would turn out to be like Green Lantern where there was no story at all in the movie. While watching this, I found this superhero movie to be one of my favorites since Spider-Man in 2002. While Visual Effects has taken a huge tole in movie-making this century, the story is the heart of the movie and visual effects create the illusion of this fantasy into a reality.

In this movie, I found it very easily to relate to Steve Rodgers' (Captain America) character because he continues to strive and keep with everyone by wanting to fight for his country in World War II. Due to his size and lack of muscle tone, he is always turned down. He is then chosen for the Captain America project because he has a strong heart, the one qualification that every soldier should posses.

I truly enjoyed this movie not only because of the character development but that there wasn't a lot of time spent in the fight scenes or taking down Hydra's (the enemy) bases, the movie was very well dedicated to having the viewer appreciate the story of this legendary superhero and what he wants next.

Next summer should be epic with The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises . . . can't wait.

Actors are weird.

So this is my first blog post...ever...I know I am a shame to our generation so let us hope I do not botch this up too much. My post seems to be different from the other posts so I hope I am not doing this wrong. This entire weekend I have been home attending my friend's father's funeral and Shiva, I am not going to lie it has been mentally and physically exhausting for all parties. While I was sitting at the deceased's house nibbling on a Jersey Sloppy Joe, which seem to have a monopoly on every funeral/wake event I have ever attended, I found myself thinking of actors, specifically Method Actors.

In a nutshell method acting is using real emotions, and real life experiences to act out a scene. Many method actors believe that they actually are the character they are portraying. Some of them also say that you can only properly perform a role with actual experience, for example you cannot play a lawyer without actually being a lawyer since the emotions and actions would not be genuine.

Thank God he doesn't think this way or it would have been very...messy on set.

Jumping back to the Shiva in a small Jewish house in a small suburb in Jersey I am still sitting down with a New Jersey Sloppy Joe watching my friend's family grieve over the loss of a loved one and I cannot stop but think about how crazy some actors can be. If a method actor has to play a role in which their father is dead they actually believe that their father is dead and some do not think you can play the role unless your father was actually dead. This is something that I cannot fully grasp, I have recently seen this raw emotion of agony and despair and the slight thought of losing my father is something I loathe to have in my head. But there are actors out there that willingly endure these thoughts and feelings to make genuine characters.

Eventually we will all work with actors one way or another and I thought I'd share this information so we can acknowledge or even appreciate this level of determination, commitment (and in my opinion zealotry) of actors.

Wadup!

Skins cast

Hey, First of all, I'm a huge fan of British Television. This summer I started watching Skins (you guys have probably heard of it), and I really liked it. I would highly recommend it. It's set on Bristol, UK, and it basically follows the lives of a group of friends. The whole cast usually changes every two seasons which makes it kinda cool because you get involved with the different characters, and it gives the show a chance to develop new stories. People usually say that it's just a show about drugs, partying and sex, but I think it's more than that. The writing is great, and the way they tell the story of each of the characters is really innovative. My mind gets like blown every time I watch it. The only bad thing about this show is the technical aspect. While I was watching it, I noticed several continuity problems, like harsh movement of the characters, or stuff appearing and disappearing. But besides that, what really makes the show (as I already mentioned) is the writing. They hire people our age (around their 20's) to write the show. It really gives the show a fresh style, so if you have time to check it out I would totally recommend you to do so!

The Busker

My friend who I worked with at my internship made this in his spare time at school. I greatly appreciated it since it is a nice topic on social justice. He later went to Los Angeles and placed in the top of a competition with this.

The Greatest Movie of all TIME

For my first post I decided to write about my favorite movie of all time: Back to the Future. Originally Back to the Future came out in 1985 and starred Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly who with the use of Doc Brown’s DeLorean time machine is accidentally traveled back to his hometown in 1955. This is where he alters history and his own existence by bumping into his high school parents and ruining the first time they fell in love.

I have probably seen this movie (and the two sequels) hundreds of times and every time I find something new. I think this is why I love these movie so much. The production team including Director Robert Zemeckis and Executive Producer Steven Spielberg cared so much about the story and focused on so many details that many do not even know existed in the first few viewings. For example in its sequel they used actual sport statistics from 1955 so Biff Tannen, the antagonist of the films, could bet on these events and create an alternate future with this information he stole from 2015. They also use music from the time period and dress the sets with movie posters of movies that came out during the 1950s. Huey Lewis, a popular musician in the 1980s even makes a cameo in the first film as a teacher who tells Marty’s band that they are “too loud” to play at the school dance. It’s funny that he says that because Marty’s band is playing his own song!

One of the coolest details involves the sign for Twin (and later Lone) Pine Mall. The mall in town is explained by Doc to be named after old man Peabody, who used to own the land and had a “crazy idea” about breeding pine trees. Well when Marty travels back in time he crashes into Peabody’s barn and accidentally runs over one of his pine trees. Later in the movie when we return to the present day mall the sign has been changed to affect Marty’s time travel adventure. In my last viewing I also noticed that Marty’s house prominently has a set of electricity poles behind it perhaps foreshadowing the movie’s climax where a single lighting bolt hitting the clock tower will be what is necessary for Marty to make it back home to 1985.

The script is also great and was written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis. There is tons of set-up especially in the first film to events later in the movie. For example in the beginning of the film at the dinner table his sister brings up Marty’s parents first meeting. Later in the film you will actually see Marty accidentally take his father’s place thus altering history. I guess somebody should have paid attention at dinner! Also in the first few minutes of the film a lady downtown gives Marty a flyer to “Save the Clocktower!” and Marty just throws it into his pocket thinking nothing of it. However later it will help give Doc Brown the information about the lighting storm that helps Marty get home.

Finally throughout the trilogy Gale and Zemeckis convey the theme that history repeats itself. In every movie Marty experiences ironically similar events, whether it is waking up in a bed next to his mom thinking his adventures were all a dream, being chased by a Tannen family member around the courthouse, or seeing a Tannen get covered in a pile of manure. The writers use these similar yet different scenes to show that it is true history does in fact repeat itself. If only Marty and Doc realized this they would have a lot easier time traveling through time.

See the Back to the Future Poster

See the Mall Screenshot

See the Manure screenshots

FIRST POST, I WAS FIRST

Welcome to the class, first off. I know that I'm not the one to say this, that's Arturo's job. Just let me and my superiority complex be happy.

I'm a huge Doctor Who fan. I've watched since the series returned in '05, I've seen episodes from the sixties, seventies, and beyond. I've got a toy sonic screwdriver. I'm kind of obsessed. I feel no shame.

What I love the most about the series is that it's always had an affinity for welding special effects with a good story. The show doesn't depend on one thing or the other to carry it along. It knows that in order to deliver something great, there has to be a good aesthetic side and a good technical side. Doctor Who has both. Also, there are aliens and robots. Enough said.

Just take a look at this preview clip for the latest episode, Let's Kill Hitler.

Cool, right? There's period-specific costumes and set design. The little details in the shot, from the composition to the dirt caused by the TARDIS crash to the smoke pouring out of the phone box, are meticulously planned. Meanwhile, the actors are perfectly in sync, delivering the story to the audience. This is what Doctor Who has been known for since its inception.

For another example, here's a clip from the 1964 episode "The Dalek Invasion Of Earth" back when William Hartnell was the First Doctor. Notice the Daleks, which were a particularly fascinating effect back when this serial came out.

This is the kind of thing I strive for when I produce. In order for me to truly like what I make, it's got to look good and it's got to have a powerful story, along with powerful people to be the characters of that story. It's a complex task, but when it all comes together, it's something absolutely beautiful.

I'll be using examples from Doctor Who in future blog posts, so expect, you know, sci-fi stuff. I don't apologize.