There are things a person can say about Shia LaBeouf. If you were a fan of Even Stevensthen perhaps your memories are warm and fuzzy. If you are a Transformers fan maybe you forgot he was in those movies because explosions (although this “montage of no’s” is pretty funny). He did some very good work in the Sia video for “Elastic Heart” and there have been some real legs on the student film project that has become Shia LaBeouf’s Inspirational Speech, but this piece from Rob Cantor has been stuck in my head since I first watched it.
I now pass this earworm on to you. Share it with those you love.
As some of you may recall, I wrote a blog about my excitement that New York Seltzer was coming back. You can find that HERE. Well, the folks over at Original New York Seltzer saw my post and were excited about my excitement! They generously sent me a care package that included a whole bunch of New York Seltzer. I did a unpacking video which you can see below:
Want your own New York Seltzer? Visit their website at DRINK NEW YORK SELTZER and let them know Curtis sent you. I don’t think you’ll get a discount or anything, but tell them any way.
Real Geniuswas one of my favorite movies when I was growing up. It was in rotation with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension, and Clue. The primary McGuffin for Real Genius is that they are trying to make a super laser that, unknown to our heroes, will be used by the military to assassinate foreign targets from space.
In the 80’s that was science fiction.
Now kids are building the proto-version of that laser in their garage.
I present to you, on this fine Friday, a demonstration of a laser weapon that may not be powerful enough to fill a house with popcorn, is powerful enough to strike fear in the hearts of balloons everywhere.
It’s been a rough week post Memorial Day week so I’m glad to post something that can make people laugh. I’ve featured videos from Bad Lip Reading before – but it never hurts when you add Iron Man to the mix.
Back in February we held our first Andelon Discussion video roundtable. I got together my oldest friends, who all happen to have varied and diverse careers, and we talked about being creative. It was a really good discussion, if I do say so myself. We covered a lot in an hour.
Admittedly, we did have a few technical troubles (namely the sound for the first 10 minutes) and an hour can be a long time to ask people to watch on the internet, so I edited together what I feel are the best 13 minutes of our discussion that will hopefully help to inspire the creativity in your life.
I want to thank Dan, Dean, Jeff and Scott for participating. If you want to learn more about them see their links below. Also, Jeff wasn’t wrong, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is amazing! I’ve provided a purchase link down below.
A few months ago I shot an interview about my favorite horror movies and monsters that didn’t end up getting used anywhere. It’s just been taking up space in my editing computer and I came across it yesterday when I was working on a new project. Since Fun Size Horror Volume 1 is coming out on Friday I thought that this might be a good time to release it.
What is your favorite horror movie? Do you have a favorite monster? Tell me in the comments.
I talk a lot about the changing entertainment industry in this blog, mostly from the perspective of an actor, but the business of movie making itself is in constant flux. I rarely talk about the projects that we are working on until they feel like they are in a position where they look like they are definitely going to happen.
“But Curtis, ” I hear you saying, “you’ve talked about things that have totally gone belly up before. What about those?”
Well, dear readers, those projects that I’ve talked about that ended up not working were all victims of a dangerous calculus known as Independent Film Finance. Getting a film made is a metaphorical tightrope walk over a mile deep chasm filled with razor blades and sulphuric acid. At any moment a stiff breeze could come by and destroy you and everything you’ve worked on – but the promise of a completed project is enough to make you try and if you get to the other side…? Oh there is no sweeter feeling of satisfaction!
However the realities of film finance are not well known among the audience. If you knew what filmmakers know you’d be amazed that any movie ever got made ever and how terrible movies are getting made at all. In the interest of education I’d like to share with you a video made by indie filmmaker Adi Shankar, he’s the guy responsible for the gritty Power Rangers remake that hit all the blogs in late February/early March. He is also the guy behind DREDD which was a great adaptation of the popular comic hero judge Dredd. He breaks down, in a wonderfully efficient way, how independent films get made currently. It is beautifully succinct. Oh, and there’s adult language so be aware.
How do you feel about all this? What movies would you like to see happen? What movie would you erase from existence if you could?
It is the bane of the modern entertainment industry.
It has completely changed the paradigm of the music industry and altered the business of television and film distribution in ways that have yet to be realized.
For many consumers, media piracy is thought of as a new thing. Something that the industry has to cope with in a world full of modern marvels that allow for quick duplication and distribution. But that isn’t actually true. Piracy is something that is as old as the entertainment industry and CineFix has done a great job explaining it in their latest Film School’D video.
Another lesson from this video? Edison really was a prick. An industrious prick, but a prick.
How do you feel about piracy? what do you think the industry can do to combat it? Let me know in the comments.
