Tag Archives: film

Best Films of 2017

Leave a reply

https://mattkprovideo.com/2018/07/30/best-films-of-2017/

Best films of 2017

3 Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri

Logan

Get Out

Dunkirk

Lady Bird – ok but its a indie….

Shape of Water

Wonder Woman

Blade Runner 2049

Big Sick

The Post

Disaster Artist

Thor Ragnorok

I Tonya

COCO

Detroit

Silence WAYYY too long

War for the Planet of the Apes

Den of Thieves, a copy of HEAT

John Wick: Chapter 2 amusing popcorn movie

Spider-Man: Homecoming

worst:

The Florida Project

Justice League

My random thoughts on watching LAST JEDI again:

Poe taking on the dreadnoughts all by himself- awesome- class star wars…. Poe toying with General Hux on the radio- how very Han Solo

The asian resistance girl grabbing the remote and releasing the bombs on the dreadnought- very well directed and edited.

All these complaints about it being too much “SJW” (social justice warrior)…. I don’t mind that AT ALL.

Why have all the small parts played by women and racial minorities? WHY NOT have as many women and different races wherever you can? WHY keep it just white males as both the good guys and the bad guys? With anyone else who isn’t a white male being just some kind of bug or animal?

In the modern military you’ve got an extreme mix of races and genders working together. This would br doubly so in a rag tag resistance.

Luke tossing aside the light saber?

The new Lucasfilm tossing aside that we’ve come to expect from the old Star Wars?

Luke milking the beasts teat for all that he can? Disney milking Star Wars teat?

Shooting on a real Irish island with lots of natural exotic beauty instead of the green screen cgi eye candy old George would surely have given us? Brilliant idea ( of JJ Abrams). God is always the best lighting director and he’s also the best production designer. His work is always so…. organic and natural.

Kylo’s conflicted resistance to shooting his mother? excellent dramatic conflict. Leia being sucked into space? I thought “ Ok, Carrie Fisher just died… I guess this is how they’re going to deal with that. This is how Leia dies” It sure seemed like CGI as she was sucked into the vacuum of space.

But no- she wakes up in space…. her body somehow DOESNT implode in the vacuum, and she flies back to her ship. Hello? No jedi, not Luke, not the Emperor, not even Yoda and the old Knights could do anything like that. And Leia, who is apparently “force sensitive” but never did any Jedi training, could do this nonsensical thing?

What kind of an admiral wears a ball gown and purple hair?

Maz Kanata is literal “phoning” her role in.

Reys training… Luke is being a dick. The cross cut editing… I’ve never seen this is a Star Wars movie before. Lucas would NOT do that. But… I liked it.

Canto Bright, duplicates that infamous silent move shot- the camera impossibly trucks through the crowd, if it were dolly track wouldn’t the camera bump into people?

It feels more like a Terry Gilliam film than Star Wars. Those bull / racehorse things…. very prequel CGI looking. Freeing the slave animals, very SJW… and neither the animals nor the actors riding them felt real. This could have been a scene from the Phantom Menace.

I want to scream at the screen. If these two could get away why not take Leia and or the Admiral with them? And many of the resistance… wouldn’t Kylo and Snoke “sense” that Leia was no longer aboard and give up the chase? And take off after HER….?

Luke tried to murder his nephew in his sleep? Luke who saw the good in his father, NAY in someone he and HEARD was his father but wasnl;t sure, he’d been lied to about his father by his aunt, his uncle, by his mentor Ben…. he couldn’t be sure about Darth Vader, no he could be sure that Vader WAS the second most evil person in the galaxy. he tried to turn HIM but not his sweet young nephew?

He was probably there at his nephews birth. Cuddled him and played with him as he grew up.

Whatever it was he saw Kylo do that was so … evil so … dark side, wouldn’t he think to try and guide him back?

Then again, maybe Luke DID try before he decided it was hopeless and he needed to off him.

Rey seeing herself in funhouse mirrors, felt more Harry Potter than Star Wars.

The battle in Snokes throne room? Am I watching a 70s kung fu movie?

That Darth Vaderey droid- love it! Boy the Empire sure LOVES illogical and dangerous chasms on their ships don’t they?

Spielberg on Jaws & Raiders

Leave a reply

https://mattkprovideo.com/2018/07/18/spielberg-on-jaws-raiders/

Spielberg and Dick Cavett discuss Jaws & Raiders

Spielberg couldn’t say “Midget” today.

In fact on the JAWS DVD he always says “little person.”

This talk show is slow and tame by todays standards. In the “post Arsenio” era they’d be encouraging rowdiness from the crowd.

Today the shark would of course be CGI. But why not “muppeteers” under a rubber shark?

https://mattkprovideo.com/2018/07/13/shoot-on-film/

[URL=http://s39.photobucket.com/user/hairypolack/media/2018/movie%20maker03_zpsfqfze16l.jpg.html][IMG]http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e152/hairypolack/2018/movie%20maker03_zpsfqfze16l.jpg[/IMG][/URL] movie maker03

I just read an article in MOVIE MAKER magazine that has my head spinning.

Theres an interview with Steve Bellamy, President of Kodak Film. Bellamy gave a bunch of reasons as to why independent filmmakers should be shooting on film, not digital.

Well, I don’t know any “filmmaker” today who wouldn’t WANT to be shooting on true film. But its too expensive.

Bellamy said “ No one ever said ‘lets make this film look more like digital’ “

Well thats true, I do EVERYTHING I can to make my digital footage look “cinematic” Filters, de saturation….. I’ve gotten pretty good at making color digital look like high contrast Black and White, but Im not satisfied with making digital look like color film.

Bellamy said “Film is LESS expensive than digital, no ifs ands or buts”

Well I could give him dozens, if not hundreds of no ifs ands or buts…

He said “camera packages are cheaper with film. Your shooting ratios are lower, your performances are better. People prepare better and storyboard with film— in video they don’t. Film doesn’t have a video village”

He is SO wrong on that. I prep as if it were film. I storyboard. I don’t have a “video village” anyway, my DSLR is used just like a film camera.

He said “When you edit digital, you have four times as much footage to soft through than if you shot film”

He may be right about that, but if I’m editing something I shot myself, I can sift through the footage really fast. In fact some “bad” footage” might capture something I didn’t notice at first.

But of course, his business is selling film.. so of course he’s biased.

Home

https://petapixel.com/2018/01/16/heres-first-footage-new-kodak-super-8-film-camera/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thefrugalfilmmaker/?multi_permalinks=10155507634491044&notif_id=1531470932368733&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

Three Identical Strangers review

Leave a reply

https://mattkprovideo.com/2018/07/06/three-identical-strangers-review/

I just saw “THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS” at the Alamo South Lamar and I can’t recommend it enough.

http://www.threeidenticalstrangers.com/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7664504/

It starts off as a cute curiosity, a college freshman finds out that he has a twin. The human interest story hits the papers and the twins find out there was a THIRD brother. And I thought ” Ok this is an amusing story, but how can it full up a feature documentary? I dont wanna ruin it, but holy cow the story gets GOOD! Its one of theses stories that, if it was a drama, you wouldn’t believe it. Ya can’t make this s–t up!

http://www.vulture.com/2018/06/the-explosive-story-behind-three-identical-strangers.html

https://www.mamamia.com.au/real-story-behind-three-identical-strangers/

Don’t cancel the Obi Wan film?

Leave a reply

mattkprovideo.com/2018/06/21/dont-cancel-the-obi-wan-film/

Disney has cancelled the Obi Wan movie because “Solo” tanked?

https://goo.gl/images/RN2gLG

https://boingboing.net/2017/06/28/poster-for-an-obi-wan-kenobi-m.html

Don’t CANCEL them but…….

Disney is being greedy and rushing out too many Star Wars films too soon. The old ones, even the prequels, were EVENTS that took a long time to make. 2 a year if even takes the “special ness” out of it. And Hollywood should learn WHY certain things succeed or fail. The dark and gritty Batmans were big hits so…. lets make Superman dark and gritty. SLAP! Bad logic!

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/06/report-lucasfilm-puts-obi-wan-film-on-hold-after-underwhelming-solo-debut/

The Jungle (1969)

Leave a reply

mattkprovideo.com/2018/06/07/the-jungle-1969/

I really enjoyed watching this 6o’s documentary on a street gang. Well photographed and edited.

A great time capsule, great recording of the fashions young men wore and the buildings and cars of the era.

BUT!

This stretches the definition of “documentary.” The camera is RIGHT IN THEIR FACES. They knew they were being filmed.

The fights are obviously the boys playing for the camera.

And the shootings, at 16.50. Puh LEASE…. SOOOOO obviously staged. Especially the gang frozen in place and staring as the camera moves across them.. No one poses for the camera in the middle of a crime scene. And no cameraman can get shots THAT good in the middle of a shoot out.

and…. now that I think about it, the boys clearly got especially dressed up and well groomed when they knew they’d be filmed.

They clearly dressed sharp and got their hair groomed especially well when they knew they were being filmed. I doubt they dressed up that well all the time. So sharply dressed to get into a street fight? I am sure the fights were staged, and the shootings seem SO fake and staged.

Not that they weren’t re enacting things they HADN’T already done….. I’m sure they DID get into fights…

Theres not much about this film on the web.

Wikipedia says it was produced by a Temple University film teacher ( Harold Haskins). Presumably this was self produced by him, shot earlier than 1967 ( youtube commenters noted that the boys are wearing fashions and hairstyles from the early to mid 60s, not the late sixties.

Youtube says it was made in 1969, but wikipedia says it was made in 1967. Lets assume it was shot in the mid 60s, finished in the late sixties.

I’d love to hear THIS story:

“Schwartz shared the story of the mighty rise and devastating fall of the gang’s film company as they took the film world by storm for a brief, shining moment before a shocking murder, in-fighting, and drugs dissolved the union. ”

Someone on YouTube said:

” kafenwar

When I was a boy in the early to mid 70s mainstream blacks were never proud to be associated with the street gangs; they were looked upon with pity at best and at worst, they were despised. Now, ironically, they are deified by the mainstream as representing “pure blackness.” Strange”

I replied:

I liked your response and was interested in what you said. As a white man who loves both filmmaking and Black people…. I’ve never understood the glorification of “gangsta” culture that started in the 90s. Most Italians I know get frustrated that ( it seems like) every Italian in movies and TV is some kind of gangster. And many white people dont get that….if the N word is so horrible for us to say why are so many Black folks calling THEMSELVES that?!?!? ( I think I get, its a black peoples word NOW and they’ve reversed it… when black folks say it they mean ” friend”). But so many rappers promoting the gangsta lifestyle, cash, jewelry fancy cars. I see young white men wearing “prison fashion” it baffles me. If a white guy dressed up in “sambo” make up he’d get arrested for inciting a riot. In the later 80s Black leaders were praising the increasing number of TV shows showing healthy successful Black families. There is a conspiracy theory that a bunch of wealthy white media people wanted to invest in private prisons, so they promoted “gangsta” values in the media to keep their prisons full. Sounds like tin foil hat UFO nuttiness….. but maybe not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle_(1967_film)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1594563/

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_jungle_philadelphias_mean_streets

https://upennblackhistory.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/haroldhaskins/

http://danschindel.com/doc-of-the-day-the-jungle/