One satirical & cynical cinephile with opinions
Wonder Woman 1984 sets the stage to discuss six examples of lazy storytelling for all kinds of storytellers.
Wonder Woman 1984 is a disappointment of a movie filled with silly contrivances and lazy storytelling. What can we learn from it?
Continue reading “6 Examples of Lazy Storytelling to Avoid”Four tips for how to successfully direct improvised scenes in filmmaking. From the actors you select to the equipment you use to the story structure.
Improvised scenes in filmmaking is nothing new. Christopher Guest (the filmmaker behind such comedic classics as A Mighty Wind, This is Spinal Tap, and Best in Show) is one of the best known filmmakers for producing improvised work.
When you have the right cast, the right story, and the right script, you end up with an overall experience that is transcendent. I highly recommend filmmakers explore this aspect of the craft.
Continue reading “4 Tips to Successfully Direct Improvised Scenes”Every professional video producer and creative claims to be a video storyteller. Here are 11 fool-proof and time-tested ways to live up to that moniker.
Once upon a time, professional video producers over-used the term “cinematic.” Everything was cinematic. If you wanted to make the “big bucks,” you HAD to use that term.
But there’s a new “Sherriff” in town. A new term that is all the craze. Cinematic was replaced with “Storyteller.”
Continue reading “Any videographer can be as good as Kubrick or Wes Anderson with my tips”A step by step breakdown of why “Citizen Kane” is the most unoriginal, boringest, non-cinematic piece of garbage, and not as cool as “The Transformers.”
Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane is widely regarded as the greatest movie ever made. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but whoever put this movie on any kind of top 10 or even top 100 list obviously knows nothing about REAL filmmaking.
Continue reading “The Top 5 Reasons “Citizen Kane” is Crap”A frustrated artist has a few choice words for his muse. She’s not a-mused. (Pun intended).
Dear Muse,
I just want to say that I am really looking forward to our work today. I have quite a number of amazing ideas I want to run by you and get working on. I think they have the potential to be some of my best stuff. As soon as you get here we’ll start crackin’. This is going to be off the hook!
Affectionately yours,
Ron
A nostalgic look at the 1981 fantasy blockbuster, “Excalibur,” that launched the careers of some of the UK’s most successful actors.
When you think of HBO’s Game of Thrones, what comes to mind? Probably gloriously epic fantasy battles, creepy magic, sexually seductive witches with prolonged lifespans, amazing scores, a plethora of UK accents, magic swords, ageless wizards, political machinations, and titillating sex scenes.
But what if I told you that almost 30 years to the day before Game of Thrones premiered on TV, there was a movie that had all those same elements?
Continue reading “Before Game of Thrones, there was Excalibur”A funny anecdote about my first filmmaking assignment in another country. A valuable lesson for pro filmmakers shooting abroad.
An alternate direction for the third Star Wars trilogy that could have honored the first and left us all feeling satisfied.
Why the frak did we need another Skywalker trilogy? Newsflash. We didn’t.
Continue reading “The Star Wars trilogy that could have been”Bong Joon-ho’s film Parasite has inadvertently created perhaps the most profound change in the world of professional creative arts.
Can the stupid NLE wars be over now over? Thank you Jinmo Yang.
Continue reading “Jinmo Yang Be-yatch”Of all the art forms that go into making a movie, editing is one of the most under-appreciated, and perhaps more profoundly impactful than any other.
I consider myself a filmmaker proficient in writing, shooting, directing, producing, and editing. But editing is where the magic happens. Let me ‘splain.
Continue reading “Why editors are the Michelin chefs of film and video”
