MLK's News and Notes 1.20.14

It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day! And that reminds me that I just watched Lee Daniels' The Butler this week. The film itself is solid, especially all the performances, but the primary thought it left me with is how thankful I am for the extremely brave people that fought for civil rights in this country. When you consider just how different our country and the social climate were at that time, the courage and conviction it took to force change is hard to fathom. So, thanks again, to MLK and everyone like him.

Space Cops

On days that I don't work for The Man, I get to work for WSF and those are good days. There will be editing and writing done today and I'm ready for it. If anything interesting happens, I'll throw it out on the WSF Twitter or Instagram or something.

Keep your eyes open for the Geek Scope and Indie Wednesday this week.

Geek Scope: Agents of SHIELD 1.12

Comic Connections

• Donnie Gill becomes a supervillain known as Blizzard (as you can see above). I'm sure that costume would translate well on TV.
• So far, Marvel has stayed squarely in the D-List for super-powered villains on AoS. (Setting up future confrontations with Blizzard and Graviton so far.)

That's merely an observation, not a criticism. It makes sense that the film guys would guard all the toys in their sandbox, but I think we could safely throw SHIELD a meatier bone than Blizzard, right? Now, with that said, Dylan Minnette did a great job as Donnie Gill. The writing and direction rebounded in this episode after the garbage fire of the previous two episodes.

Big things are afoot in the latter half of the first season with a guest stint by Bill Paxton and appearance of Sif from the Thor franchise, so we'll see if AoS can close strong. Too bad American television doesn't adopt the British model on a show like Agents. Cut the season in half, concentrate on ten great episodes, and you might have something special.

Jennifer Lawrence's News and Notes 1.13.14

Jennifer Lawrence picked up another Golden Globe last night and looks to be in position to win a second Oscar this year. The girl is dominating at age 23. There seems to be little doubt left that she'll soon be Kentucky's most famous product if she isn't already.

Writing Quest 2014

Last week I mentioned that we plan to finish a faith-based feature script by the end of the year. Well, there are plenty of other unfinished scripts that I'd like to polish off as well. One isn't good enough for 2014. Therefore, in the quest to make time where there is none, I will write at least one hour everyday. Starting today. Every writer on Earth will tell you that you have to simply get words on paper everyday. I've known it for years, but today I put it into practice. I know I can find an hour, even if I have to grab it 10-15 minutes at a time. My quality time with Twitter is certain to suffer.

Golden Globes

Right off the bat... Andy Samberg won?
I LIKE Andy Samberg, but...
Andy Samberg???

Let me list every nominee in his category... Don Cheadle, Michael J. Fox, Jason Bateman, and Jim Parsons (who they give an Emmy every year just for showing up). I honestly would have guessed Samberg would have been at the very bottom of that vote tally. Obviously, I need to check out Brooklyn Nine-Nine to get some idea of what happened.


I got to see bits and pieces last night. The opening monologue was good stuff from Amy and Tina. My favorite joke was a well constructed jab at another Kentucky native...  (skip to 5:02)



Oh, Clooney.

Last night was a further reminder of how many films I need to see. Say what you will about Hollywood, it may be top-heavy on quality, but the cream of the crop has been very, very good for the past couple of years. Credit where it's due. Of course, the rest is still a garbage fire.

Geek Scope: Agents of SHIELD 1.11

Just a few words about last night's episode before I get into anything spoilery...  We've now had two episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in a row which suffered due to writing. I don't like to be negative on here and it's personally important to me not to slam other peoples' creative work. However, I have a rooting interest for this show to stay on the air and reach its full potential and I'm afraid that isn't going to happen if the writing is cringe-worthy on the two most important episodes of the season so far.

Clark Gregg still managed to produce a couple of very sincere moments. All the more impressive considering the circumstances. So, kudos to Clark's acting prowess and his ability to bring some added facets to Phil Coulson that I wasn't sure were possible.

We were promised answers last night. Did we get them? Mehhh... yeah sort of. I would call it satisfactory. We basically know Coulson is still human, we have an overall idea of what he went through and who is responsible. But there are plenty of details still out there to be discovered. That was probably the best way to handle it and best for the show.

Now let's look for any hidden secrets...

• SPOILER:    Coulson is not a Life Model Decoy.
• The phone that (killed?) Edison Po seemed to have a very similar effect to the device that Obadiah Stane used to paralyze people in Iron Man.
• There were zero connections to the 616 (comics) Universe that I noticed in last night's episode, apart from the second appearance of Victoria Hand.

In my lowly opinion, last night's developments practically demand that we see Tony Stark learn that Coulson is alive and then confront Fury on the ethical issues of what was done to him. They can't possibly spend the time in one of the feature films to do this, therefore it would be necessary to make it happen in AOS. It is a moment that begs to be written and seen. It would be the most poignant and emotional issue Marvel has tackled by miles. You bring Downey and Sam Jackson in for this and Joss to write or direct it and you create the best hour of television that this show could ever generate. Put a script and a bag of cash in front of Downey that he can't resist. Make it a monumental TV event. Disney, eat the cost. You would never recoup it in a hundred years but the investment would be worth it. Why? It sends a message. Marvel TV isn't screwing around. This is no joke and this why you, the audience, want to watch every new series we produce from here on out. Because we might do things like this.

Let's hope the writing and directing rebound before the end of the season. I have hopes that the revelation of Coulson's resurrection will continue to be interesting. We'll see you here next week.

Wahlbergs' News and Notes 1.6.14

We started off the News and Notes with Mark Wahlberg... for no reason whatsoever. I just like the Wahlbergs, they shoot straight, this clip was funny, and it seems like they've both been on TV an inordinate amount lately. So, there you go.

It would be nice if I did a 2013 recap for the blog right here wouldn't it?
It's not going to happen. Not today at least. I'm busy, people.

How about this year? Well, I can tell you Todd is eyeballing a possible music video production. And...

Space Cops

Editing is still underway on Episodes 4 and 5, but I'll admit that it's been very slow over the holidays. You know how it goes. The rumor mill says Todd Sheene and I might have an edit and/or 2014 WSF Strategy party.

Christian Movies

Faith-based movies are largely... awkward. That may be the kindest way I can put it. We have a goal here to complete a feature-length, faith-based script that is not awkward before the end of 2014. Where it goes from there, we have no idea. We won't necessarily attempt to produce it ourselves, but who knows...

Bolex's News and Notes 12.30.13

It's a boring update for the majority of you, but possibly interesting for the filmmakers in the crowd. Take a look at some footage from the new Bolex D16. It appears that 16mm is back. I'm personally not sure how much sense it makes to add digital "grain" in the camera, however I do think the footage looks nice. What do you think? (And how cute is the little girl in this clip? Ridiculously.)



Editing continues on Space Cops 4 and 5. I hope some of you are enjoying time off before we jump into 2014. We'll get things going back at full steam here on the blog after all the holidays are over.

Peter O'Toole's News and Notes 12.16.13

Peter O'Toole in his most recognizable role:  Zaltar from Supergirl

We lost Peter O'Toole on Saturday. I'm not going to pretend that I am extremely familiar with Mr. O'Toole's work. Lawrence of Arabia and The Stunt Man are two films that have been on my watch list for almost 15 years. (And, yes, sadly I call myself a film buff.) O'Toole got the role of T.E. Lawrence after Brando was unavailable and Albert Finney turned it down. So, this third-choice actor turned in a performance that Premiere magazine ranked number one on a list of the 100 greatest performances of all time.

 You would think if a man turned in the greatest performance of all time, he would win the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar for 1962. Unfortunately for O'Toole, 1962 was also the year Gregory Peck turned in another seminal role of cinema as Atticus Finch. O'Toole went on to be nominated seven more times and sadly holds the record for most nominations without a win.

As of now, my primary memories of Peter O'Toole come from The Last Emperor, which he actually caused me to enjoy, and Ratatouille (as Todd and Allen know, sometimes referred to as Rattatooty). I'll be attempting to add more of Peter O'Toole's work to my list of viewed films in the near future.

Indie Wednesday: Sorry Slide

It isn't even 11pm, so this totally counts as Indie Wednesday. And the Live Prude Girls bring us the shortest Indie Wednesday of all time. Sorry Slide clocks in at 5 seconds.

I'm celebrating the funny and fetching Milana Vayntrub tonight because I saw her on an AT&T commercial yesterday. And it was funny. Stevie and Milana are already successful, but they're headed for really, really big things. All because they had one of the first videos featured right here on Indie Wednesday.


...You don't think that's "likely?"
What do you mean? And what does "likely" mean? You know, what--  just don't even...
I think I want you to shut your big mouth.
You know what? Actually, yeah I'm sure of it.
Just--
UHGH!

Hey look, it's a bonus vid... (Space Cops needs to get internet famous so we can land a guest spot on this show. Episodes 4 and 5 are coming, so let's make it happen, people.)

Geek Scope: Agents of SHIELD 1.10

"The Bridge" was an important episode, as it began to bring several storylines together for what will likely be a big finale in the second half of the season. With that said, the tenth episode's entertainment value wasn't necessarily equivalent with it's mid-season cliffhanger status. I think we can agree that not all AoS writers and directors are created equal. Now for the info:

• At the beginning of the episode, Edison Po is broken out of Havenworth Penitentiary. It seems like a simple missed opportunity not to use one of the multitude of fictional prisons from the Marvel Universe.
• I can't stress this enough:  If Po's need to eat in every scene and the seriousness with which he approaches his meals isn't some sort of set up, someone seriously needs to figure out a second way to make a character seem crazy/menacing. I'm just saying.
• There were no direct comic references in The Bridge, but some possible set-ups for down the road. For example...
• We learned that the primary looming villain of the season, the Clairvoyant, "doesn't like to be touched." Possibly a clue about an existing Marvel U character. (It also seems that Edison has his own issues with being touched.)
• Once again, they visited the issue of are there or are there not psychics in this universe. You would have to assume there will be eventually due to the amount of time they spend discussing it, whether the Clairvoyant actually is one or not.
• Pushing a bulldozer across a football field is absolutely superhuman which means it is something that Captain America absolutely can NOT do. (Get ready for the geek...) The super-soldier serum took Cap to the peak of what is possible for a human body; speed, strength, agility, etc., but nothing beyond that. They need to be careful with tidbits like that. Not having any true super abilities is at the core of Steve Rogers' character.
• There was one reference to the Cinematic U that stood out; another mention of Coulson's cello playing love interest that we first heard about in The Avengers. You can count on meeting her at some point in the future.

The Bridge wasn't only a setup for a showdown with Centipede. It was also the first step that will lead to discovering how Coulson was brought back to life. We'll see you back here in January when Agents of SHIELD resumes its season. In the meantime, keep up with all the other junk we do around here.

Smowg's News and Notes 12.9.13

Annnd... we're back. We missed a week, but I thought I could get us back on track with some random holiday musings next to the Christmas tree. Nobody likes saying Smowg.

• Last week I was busy transferring all our recent Space Cops footage. Done and done. That means we're all set for Allen and Todd to stop by for an edit party tomorrow night. We'll see if we can't pull some material out of that for the bloug. I'll be showing them what I've done with Episode 4 so far and get their input before the final cuts are made. We also might go ahead and put a dent in Episode 5 while we're at it.
• Allen had a gem of an idea that he thinks he'll start scripting in the near future. All I can say is that involves the broadcast news profession.
• Agents of SHIELD also returns Tuesday after their own week off, which means you can expect another edition of the Geek Scope.
• I want to start providing a lot more original content of our own here. The video above is evidence of that. It's difficult to make involved productions like Space Cops, especially with our limited time and resources. So I'm currently brainstorming for various ideas to produce entertaining video with very low production time.

Keep an eye out this week. I'm sure we'll be tweeting and instagraming whatever transpires at the edit party tomorrow, so look us up.  We're the same on everything:   walksoftlyfilms