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Film Fridays: Dead Alive

DEAD ALIVE.

I would love to give a brief review of one of my favorite movies of all time, and certainly one of my favorite horror films, Dead Alive, or Braindead in New Zealand, as an early post for the lovey holiday, Halloween.

Dead Alive is the story of a young man living with his elderly overly controlling mother, and his journey as he falls in love with a beautiful young lady working in a store in town, who believes they are fated to be with each other.  A mysterious virus from a land far away finds it's way to our hero's mother, and all hell begins to break loose.  Can he manage to break free of his mother's grasp and stay alive in the process?

10 out of 10.  Superb.  Inspirational.  Too spoopy.

(Watch Re-Animator below!  I updated it.  Movie is there.)

And here's a clip from Dead Alive.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA-A3QhXx30

Something to Watch: Akira

Super love this movie.  It's the greatest thing since sliced doof.  Maybe you've seen it?  If not check it out.  Bar-setting animated movie.  Had to watch like 4 times to understand it all.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn9tvnldTKs

Shooting, with a kid

This weekend was full of wonder, enchantment and a bit of improvisation. Peju Aliyu, Natalia Delgado, Cameron Taddeo, young star Jayden Garcia, and I (Paul Jaigua) worked on a little short in celebration of the spirit of Halloween.

Everyone has some sort of imagination. Deciding to use my own, I managed to write a script and story board of sorts. Not sure whom was gona act what part at first, I believed what I wrote as my first draft would do for whomever would want to act. Going over it with with Natalia, she then tells me to use her nephew, Jayden (age 7), as the protagonist . I was secretly hesitant; kids can be hard to control, I thought. But then kids can be cute and I realize it would be an interesting experience.

In preparation, we figured it would be dark at night and where we would be shooting, Natalia's kitchen. To deal with poor lighting conditions, we borrowed an Arriflex light kit from NJCU, mainly using a 300 watt light to light up the kitchen. Took out a "silk" to lower the brightness of the light, just in case it was too bright, which in some cases, it was. A tripod and using Paige's Canon T3I, we were off.

Now, having all the equipment and having a blue print of how the shoot would go down, I felt safe. However, with life, jobs interfere. Originally, I was hoping to use some sunlight for a scene, and luckily we had Saturday to do it, we had more time, earlier together. Friday, we shot in the dark of Natalia's kitchen, the light being necessary. 

Now as for child actor, Jayden, he didn't do exactly as I thought he would pertaining to the script. He was still great. Sure, as a kid, he does what he wants and can't be exactly controlled. But he was agreeable, after I promised to play with him some Xbox a few times. Complaining about being bored once, we gave him a phone to play with. He wanted to add a cute song he made up at the top of his head. 

Sometimes he didn't understand what to do. I joked, "You know how actors can be". We had to make him comfortable and happy. Jayden wasn't trouble to control, but early I learned that we had to improvise, change up some scenes a bit, since lines of dialogue I wrote didn't sound correct when coming out of Jayden. 

The dialogue didn't fit the personality of a child and I should had adjusted it sooner. Yet, we followed the structure of what I planned and Jayden "acted" like the kid he is. It was fun and luckily we all fixed up scenes on the spot to follow the continuity of what we filmed. The script, shot list was necessary to set us on the path. But, nothing is written on stone. We managed, we over came, and we filmed. Now it is time to edit. Planning is imperative and make your actors happy. 

Film Fridays: Amelie

Looks like it's that time of the week again... it's Film Fridays where we post a review of one of our favorite films.

Alright, I'm taking a class in International Films this semester and one of my new favorite films is Amelie (2001) directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. This film revolves around Amelie (Audrey Tautou) and her very peculiar life.
 
But before I go on and on about the movie I'd just like to say that International films aren't like American films in the sense of time, space, flow, presentation, story, and etc.. To me, foreign films feel slower and riskier in terms of what type of shots are taken and used. American films have set "standards" or rather a certain "flow" to them; Foreign films don't necessarily follow any true set of "standards" or "guidelines".

With that said it sometimes felt that Amelie dragged on because I'm not really used to foreign films.

Anyways, Amelie leads a very "peculiar" life and upon one fateful night she discovers something that changes her life forever. She then starts, in my humble opinion, messing or "changing" people's lives - either improving it or ruining it. The biggest question or point of the movie is that despite her actions does Amelie have it in her to change her own life for the better?

Since I don't want to give anything away I'll just sum it up like this:

The Good: It's a delightful film that employs a certain kind of production value that can really only be described by me as vivid and whimsical.

The Bad: It's in French and you'll have to read subtitles and sometimes it's tough to keep up.

The Bottom Line: You. Should. Watch. This. Film. 

Here's a link to the trailer:

CLICK HERE!!
 

Something to Watch: Re-Animator

Tell me your undead thoughts.  About Re-Animator (1985).  I'm in love with this thing.  1985, among other masterpieces, released this marvelous gem; an H.P. Lovecraft story starring the great Bruce Abbott.

It's the story of a brilliant young scientist's endeavors to bring life back to dead tissue.  It's effects range from hilariously cheesy to spectacularly bloody.  There's nothing I like more than practical effects in movies; nothing quite matches the real deal.  This mixture of comedy and terror brings me to conclude that this is a spectacular movie that everyone should see.  You'll like it as much as Evil Dead (1981), provided you're into that.

10 out of 10.  One of my favorite movies ever.  And with an opening title sequence that will stay in my head forever.  So good.

Here it is if you wanna see it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QymnjAU8wuA  

Directing

An over the shoulder picture of the
camera man, Stevenson, and the actress, Josy.

Last weekend I had the privilege of filming a short video with some friends that will soon be future film producers. The film shoot went very well. Also, it was my first time directing.

While directing I was able to guide my actress and help her get the emotions that every director wants from his or her actress.  Also we had a new media student, Zine, helping out with the camera. With the help of Stevenson, Zine was able to learn various  techniques and how to move the camera.

Overall it was a great day and a great shoot. I can't wait for everyone to see the finish product.

The actress, Josy, gearing up for an emotional moment.