Casey Kasem's News and Notes 6.16.14


I can't ignore the chance to remember Casey Kasem. The man had an enormous influence on my childhood and I would imagine the same is true for countless people in my generation. His work as Shaggy has massive reach and it is hard for me to think of a cartoon that has had more lasting impact than Scooby Doo. Add to that his work as Robin on the Batman and Robin cartoon. And Casey Kasem's broadcasting style is unforgettable. He hosted the Top 40 Countdown for 24 years and, to this day, I could literally zone out and listen to that show for hours. The man was hypnotic. If you've never heard his off-air tirade on his producer, look it up.

Let's Make Television

Did you know NBC was having a contest to find new comedy shows? It appears to be quite the endeavor. The WSF boys are kicking around ideas but we only have til the end of June to put a submission together. Look it up on NBCplayground.com. If we can't get it done, we want you to. (Because we're supportive like that.)

Odds and Ends

Scripts are being written, short films are being devised and, as usual, we have tons of plans and aspirations with little time to work on them. I'll do my best to post a filmmaking tip tomorrow and an Indie Wednesday short as well, so make sure you check in later this week.

Indie Wednesday: Yacht Rock 10



LANGUAGE WARNING
Anyone familiar with the Indie Wednesday post knows I'm a huge mark for JD Ryznar.  Today just feels like an Eagles/Steely Dan day and Yacht Rock is ready to scratch that itch.

Filmmaking: Visual Comedy

We run into a lot of good filmmaking advice on the webs and the least we can do is share it, right? Hence a new Tuesday feature on ye olde blog.

Tony Zhou put together this great video essay on how to make visual comedy; specifically a comparison of Edgar Wright's style versus most contemporary American comedies. For the most part I think Tony is spot on. Scott Pilgrim was released four years ago and I still think it's a decade ahead of the rest of us. (Full disclosure: I love Edgar and the fact that he isn't making Ant Man makes my heart hurt.)

If you love visual comedy, you gotta love Edgar Wright, one of the few filmmakers who is consistently finding humor through framing, camera movement, editing, goofy sound effects and music. This is an analysis and appreciation of one of our finest comedic voices. For educational purposes only. You can donate to support the channel at Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/everyframeapainting And follow me here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonyszhou Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/everyframeapainting For further reading/viewing, I highly recommend David Bordwell's essay on funny framings: http://davidbordwell.net/blog/2007/04/30/funny-framings/ And David Chen's video essay on Wright's use of close-ups: https://vimeo.com/85311313 And Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohJtvuCAsp4 Music: Sex Bob-omb - We Are Sex Bob-omb Primal Scream - Loaded Tubthumper - Kick Out the Jams Rob Viktum- 4/17/75 Pete Woodhead & Daniel Mudford - You've Got Red on You / Shaun of the Dead Suite DJ Shadow - Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96

Now, let me interject that Wright didn't invent all of his tricks. You can see plenty of direct reference to guys like Sam Raimi in his work. And most of his films are heavy on action which lends itself to whip pans and sound effects. The same style would be off-putting in a subtle, character driven comedy. However, the point still stands. Look at Wes Anderson who also uses pans and close-ups to similar effect (as well as symmetry and lateral movements) while achieving a different comedic tone. Look at the long takes and masterful blocking of Blake Edwards. The important takeaway is that these directors mine every possible nook and cranny of their gags.

If you don't employ every tool you have visually and aurally, you're leaving laughs on the table. American comedies definitely tend to be lazy or at least stylistically impaired and let the dialogue do all the work.

So, basically, don't be lazy. Like Tony says, everyone's sense of humor is different but no one can argue for lazy filmmaking. If you have a good joke, there's a better way to shoot it. Find the extra laughs and use what could be the boring parts of your script to get creative. Just like the great example of how Edgar moves Simon Pegg from one city to another in Hot Fuzz.

Filmmaking: Deep Focus

These days, years into the DSLR revolution, shallow depth of field rules the indie filmmaking scene and for good reason; it's a beautiful aesthetic. But now, let's all take a step back and remember that all that bokeh should just be one weapon in your storytelling arsenal.

Let's remind ourselves that deep focus can be a powerful tool as well. This clip is from Citizen Kane. (I know, I KNOW, but the film really is a technical clinic.) So, let's take a look and then I'll make a couple of observations.

Buddy Swan as the young Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welle's 'Citizen Kane.' Haunting photography starkly shows the solitude of the boy, hinting at the forces which will shape his life.

It's an amazing long take (or oner) by Gregg Toland. The first thing that jumped out at me is how carefully crafted the blocking and framing are. When everything is in focus, you need different methods to direct the eye, otherwise you've just got a big ugly mess of a hundred things going on.

It's why most of us hate deep focus. We associate it with a video look because rarely do we construct our scenes and shots as carefully as this one. The window frames the child, there are three staggered levels of depth in the actors' blocking, and even the contrast of wardrobe against the backgrounds sets our subjects off; dark against snow, light shirt against the wall, then dark again in the foreground.

REVIEW: X-Men: Days of Future Past

The WSF boys are getting together for a creative meeting tonight and that's a big deal, but it really doesn't help fill the Notes column until after the meeting. So, why I don't give you some thoughts on the latest X-Men film, Days of Future Past.

THIS IS NOT THE BEST X-MEN FILM

So everybody just cool your jets on that one. It is, however, the second best and that's pretty darn good considering everything Bryan Singer and his writers were up against. X2 was obviously the top of this franchise. X2 is a lean, mean and nearly perfect bit of superhero storytelling; easily in the top three of all time, if not #1. It has balance, it has pace, it has the most genuine emotion I've seen from the genre, and it doesn't have to navigate through four films worth of garbage continuity in order to right the ship. X2 had one objective; to tell the best story it possibly could. Days of Future Past is juggling two casts, multiple timelines, and accounting for the sins of other movies that Singer had no part of. What they managed to accomplish with this film was no less impressive and was possibly more difficult than what Whedon had to contend with on The Avengers.

THE BEST POWERS

If there is one thing that Bryan Singer continues to do better than anyone else, it is how to interpret superpowers on the big screen. X2, Days of Future Past, and even Superman Returns have one huge set piece that almost define the films they're in. Nightcrawler's infiltration of and attack on the White House in X2 made my cranium explode and really opened our eyes as to what was possible. For Days of Future Past, it was Quicksilver in the kitchen. The creativity of these scenes, the visuals involved, the way he chooses to shoot them... I'm not sure to what degree Singer himself is responsible for this or the other members of his team, but the captain gets the credit and clearly his films continue to deliver the awe-inspiring moments. Continuing on that note...

QUICKSILVER IS COOL

He delivered the best scene in the movie, some of the funniest moments, and the character was just likable. Which is funny, because the Quicksilver of comics has always been one of the most consistently cranky and unlikable characters in the Marvel U. The big story here is the fallout this has on Marvel's decision to include a Quicksilver of their own in Avengers 2. If I'm Joss Whedon or Aaron Taylor-Johnson, I walk out of Days of Future Past thinking, "Well, craaaaaap." Fox's Quicksilver was first and he was really good. Even worse is the beauty and fun of that scene in the kitchen. You can't top it. It's a uniquely tough challenge that the Marvel gang has made for themselves.

MICHAEL FASSBENDER IS GREAT

Fassbender has gravity on screen. He makes everything feel real. A star among stars. You can't help but watch everything he does. Part of me wishes old Magneto had never existed, just so we could get more of the young version. (Also so he never ends up in that fancy half-cape and space-age helmet from the first two X films.)

X3 GO AWAY

It was nice to see James Marsden / Cyclops back in the fold. Not so much, furry Kelsey Grammer. Can we please erase X-Men: The Last Stand from our collective consciousness now? Ugh, what a waste. That third movie should have been Singer's mutant masterpiece. Instead, he leaves to make a much maligned Superman movie and we got stuck with flipping Brett Ratner.  Brett Ratner?!

Geek Scope: Agents of SHIELD 1.22


Long live Director Coulson.

Well, that was impressive. The Agents of SHIELD Season 1 finale did not disappoint and once again showed the full potential of this show. AND, if you didn't see my predictions from earlier today, I was all over it. I'm just saying. Can someone put me on Marvel's payroll? Please?

Let's dive into it...  (WARNING:  SPOILERS ABOUND!!)

There was a ton of stuff going on in this episode, so I'll try to skip all the obvious stuff and focus on the meat. Compared to the bulk of the season, the finale was masterful. The direction took a huge leap with dynamic shots and much better performances. The balance of payoffs for Season 1 and set-ups for Season 2 was perfect. Nothing was left hanging and when they closed a storyline, they slammed it shut.

Unquestionably, the most important element of Episode 22 had to be the setup of Season 2's primary storyline: Skye's origin and the secrets behind it which will lead to "evolution."
  • The symbols that Garrett calls the "Words of Creation" will certainly come into play. I would guess these "words" detail the process/instructions for Terrigenesis.
  • We also met Skye's father, or at least his blood soaked hand. He is likely a Kree alien and, chances are, he will be the Big Bad for next season.
  • In the final scene, we discover that Coulson also has the "Words of Creation" hidden away in his brain as well, presumably because, like Garrett and Skye, he was treated with the GH 325.

I said we were talking about Inhumans and basically I think I nailed it. Raina spoke constantly about evolution and asks Garrett, "what will I become?" She says Skye's "true nature" will reveal itself. Ahem. Inhumans.

This is huge for Marvel TV. All season, AoS was shaped by the Marvel films and now the films will be shaped by AoS. Make no mistake, the Inhumans will be a major component of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). A ton of work has gone into the publishing side to prepare for it. Since Fox owns the movie rights to Marvel's mutants, Marvel Comics has taken a seldom used, quirky family of alien, mutant weirdos and suddenly elevated them to the biggest players of the MU (comics universe) last year.

Fitz and Simmons had a really, really nice scene. No surprise that De Caestecker and Henstridge turned in the best performances of the night. Fitz revealing his feelings before they escape the med pod may have been the best scene of the entire season. All the more impressive when you consider that it was basically a replay of their similar scene in "FZZT," yet still carried a lot of weight.

Fury's appearance was much cooler than his first. This time he was actually an integral part of the action, rescuing Fitz and Simmons and Coulson as well, rather than just being a cameo tacked on at the end. That's an important development to the show as big film characters increasingly get into the mix.

Ward was left in a weird place at the end of Season 1, being taken into custody after his motivations didn't seem clear all episode. He started getting cold feet right away in this one, starting to question Garrett and their motivations for the first time. He didn't have a stomach for Garrett's barbaric murder of the General. I'll stick with my prediction that Season 2 ends with Ward sacrificing himself to save the team. (Or maybe to somehow save Fitz from his current condition?)

Snarky Coulson was back and it was nice to see. We got the best jokes in weeks and this is the Phil we need. Not super weepy, emotional outburst Phil.

Fitz was kind of left in the lurch. Simmons tells the team about his condition, but it felt like we really needed to see Fitz before the episode ended.

So, the overall mission from here is for Director Phil Coulson to rebuild SHIELD from scratch. Probably the only direction you could go and also keep the show's title. It will be fun to watch and also alleviates a lot of logic problems I had with this season regarding why Coulson's tiny team was tackling these problems all on their own without more resources/assistance from their gigantic agency. Now, that continuity hiccup is eliminated.

Quick Hitters

  • Did you catch the imagery of Garrett pulling the General's rib out?
  • What is that tool box that Fury gave to Coulson?
  • Fury considers Coulson an Avenger.
  • I'm sure some geeks had a moment when Fury pulled out Coulson's Avengers gun.
  • A great okey-doke gag when Garrett rebuilds himself and we think we'll have to deal with him for another season, then Coulson blasts him into oblivion.
  • May jumping Ward and getting the chance to beat his arse was one of the few B.A. moments of the season that actually kind of worked the way it was intended.
  • Patton Oswalt lives! Supposedly as a twin brother but, judging by all the exactly repeated lines, I would guess he might be a Life Model Decoy. I won't let that die will I? Well, WE'RE GOING TO GET ONE SOONER OR LATER!

Agents of SHIELD Finale Predictions

The Inhumans. Jack Kirby at his weird finest.

You have to expect Marvel TV will try to hit us with some doozies tonight, so I felt the need to go ahead and venture some guesses about what we'll see both in this finale and next season as well. If you don't want me to potentially ruin something, run away now.

  • Is Garrett the real Clairvoyant?
    • A few clues have been dropped that there still may be someone behind the curtain. Mike Peterson's "eyeball instructions" referred to Garrett in third person. My official guess and hope is that we aren't being misled and tonight will be the last time we have to deal with the C word.
  • Is Skye an alien?
    • Yes.
  • What kind of alien?
    • Kree is the easy answer. They're blue, just like Coulson's guy in the tube. But, now I think she may actually be an Inhuman. Brace yourself, you're about to be neck deep in 50 years of geek mythos here. Thousands of years ago, the Kree were at war with the Skrulls and, from their strategic outpost on Uranus (we can hear you snickering), the Kree noticed that humans had evolutionary potential while their own evolution had become stagnant. So... they began to experiment on humans, hoping to create stronger Kree warriors. They created a new race (the Inhumans) that would mutate when exposed to mist from Terrigen crystals. Yeah... I know. The mutations are completely unpredictable. (As you can see in the picture, one of them is basically a giant, teleporting dog.) They say that the Terrigenesis process reveals what was already lurking underneath; the true selves of the Inhumans. Okay, SO, last week Raina was going on about Skye's origin and DNA and said her parents were the monsters yeah, yeah, yeah... But, the writers carefully planted another line in the mix. Raina says she stays with Hydra because she's waiting for "what's inside to be revealed." Later, she also drops the word "transformation." That couldn't possibly sound more like the big Inhumans storyline that started in the comics about six months ago.
  • Can Ward be redeemed?
    • Yes and no. Can he come back to the team? No. I mean, I really, really... reeeally hope not. In all the promo images for next season, Ward is in the group. That certainly indicates he'll be around. I'm thinking his role will be the complicated antagonist that sacrifices himself for his old team at the end of Season 2 and finds redemption with his death. That's the only method that makes sense. The other options are that 1) he does something heroic and all is forgiven and he's given a second chance (that would be horribly stupid considering how many innocent good guys he has shot point-blank in the head or strangled and hid in the drop ceiling) or 2) Ward was a double, double agent all along, Victoria Hand and Patton Oswalt aren't really dead and all the murders were a giant ruse to allow Ward to stay undercover and save everyone from Hydra. Obviously, THAT, would be insane and ridiculous. So, let's hope that I'm right on my original prediction even if it is a tad predictable.
  • What is the fate/mission of the team for Season 2?
    • I really don't know. That's the most interesting question of all. How do you have a show called Agents of SHIELD when SHIELD no longer exists? My best guess is that Nick Fury will tell Coulson that the world needs his team. That they need to do the things that no one else can. That their little six-person squad is SHIELD now.

Mad Men's News and Notes 5.12.14


How about a completely unorganized list of notes for your Monday? I knew you'd be excited.

  • I must be one of the mindless masses because MAN, do I love Mad Men. The show is coming to an end this season and I am going to be one sad, white hipster. Roger Sterling is one of my favorite television characters on any show ever. (And Ginsberg is quickly on his way to second.)
  • Although, as I type this, things are getting weeiiird.
  • It's so odd that you could consider this a golden age of television for the quality of the scripted shows, while at the same time there is more garbage on TV than ever thanks to all the reality junk.
  • Space Cops t-shirt: coming
  • 7 Space Cops episodes: coming
  • Seven!
  • I dreamed the first two acts of a feature film this weekend. All of it. Val Kilmer was the lead, Mark Wahlberg was the villain-turned-ally. It was weird. And probably not great.
  • That led to maybe the most guaranteed-to-succeed idea I think I've ever had. A television show. Too bad I don't have the rights and too bad we aren't actually in the biz. If anybody knows Shane Black, I have a goldmine for him.
  • Well... It looks like Ginsberg can't be second favorite, eh?

Wealthy benefactors, we're still accepting large cash gifts to pursue creative nirvana. Tomorrow is the season finale of Agents of SHIELD, so stop by for the recap and any secrets that only the nerd can decipher.

Geek Scope: Agents of SHIELD 1.21


Episode 21 is in the books and we're all set up for the big finale. First, I have to give credit where it's due. That was by far Ward's best episode and it isn't even close. Brett Dalton played cold and conflicted much better than any other character moments he'd had before and really made the most of his spotlight in this episode. It looks like we have plenty to see next week to close out the season, including a fight with a room full of Deathloks, a showdown with Coulson and Garrett (who is all jacked up on alien juice), and a visit from Nicholas J. Fury.  Let's get to the notes...


  • Loved Tripp's Howling Commandos suitcase and Coulson's "OMG a Hypnobeam" moment. Good stuff.
  • +1 chuckle for Coulson accidentally slipping into Fitz's accent.
  • This show has to get some directors for next season that are more comfortable with action. Action pieces are slow and low-impact like the zip-line sequence, fights are sloppy and hard to watch... It's one area they really need to step their game up. I don't need a huge budget, but I do need better camera angles and editing to make that stuff jump.
  • "Get ready for a large file transfer." And... cue the filing cabinet out the window. I couldn't help but like that one.
  • John Garrett is a Deathlok which holds true to the John Garrett of comics becoming a cyborg (although not necessarily a Deathlok).
  • The whole segment of flashbacks with the dog in the woods cross-cut with Jemma and Fitz locked in the container really did play well. Kudos all around.
  • The moment of Ward sending FitzSimmons into the ocean was spot-on perfect and one of the best of the whole season. Every note rang true and I'm glad Brett Dalton got that moment. He basically told me I can shove it.
  • Nice to hear the Six Million Dollar Man shout-out from the writers with Quinn's "better, stronger, faster" line.

Predictions

  • Fitz and Simmons won't die. Duh. I don't think I'm ruining anything for you there, right?
  • I HOPE this isn't the case, but... I feel like there is a chance Ward programmed in a fail-safe that helps Fitz and Simmons escape their box. (I really, really hope not because that totally negates the great scene from tonight and steals the one cool moment Ward's character ever had.)
  • Skye is at least half Kree (alien), but I already told you that.

We'll see you next week for the big finale. There should be plenty to talk about.

Cinco's News and Notes 5.5.14


Happy Cinco. It's time for everyone to bee-line to your nearest Mexican Restaurant and drink margaritas on the outdoor patio. As far as I know, that's what this holiday means to Americans and apparently that's all they need because the stature of Cinco continues to grow in the pantheon of holidays. Most of what I had for you was WSF related, but let's start it with a gigantic rant of nerd talk because that's what I do.

Superhero Overload

Amazing Spider-Man 2 hit theaters this weekend. Did you see it? I did not. ...Yeah, you heard me. The comic book geek and ultimate Marvel homer didn't go. Sorry. I just can't get excited about it. In my opinion that apathy could grow in the next 3-4 years. And believe it or not, if the superhero movie dies... Marvel killed it.

See, the problem is Sony and Fox own the rights to some of Marvel's biggest names and they are going to continue squeezing bad movies out of those properties in order to keep them. That's the way the contracts work. You make a new movie with the character within X years of the last one, or the rights revert to Marvel. But, by and large, they don't know how to make the most of what they've got. Marvel Studios has unprecedented success because they've been telling great stories with these characters for 50 years. They know what works and they don't feel the need to reinvent the wheel or let some ego driven director change the core of the character.

 The even BIGGER problem is that all of these studios want their Avengers now. The cash-cow, the payday, the goldmine, etc, etc. So they're going to stretch their one property into an entire "universe" with the C-list characters that come along with guys like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men. What should be a group of supporting characters are now going to be headlining major motion pictures. Even to the extent that Sony is going to give Spider-Man's villains their own film. Make that two films. The Sinister Six and Venom. ...What? Fox is going to stretch out their mutants as wide and as thin as they can with teams like X-Force and they'll eventually bring them together with the Fantastic Four's universe.

Warner Brothers is the only studio that actually has a chance to build something similar to Marvel because they own all the DC characters under one umbrella. That's exactly what they plan to do. But, unfortunately, they aren't structured like Marvel. Warner Brothers doesn't have a creative committee from the publishing side and a strong guide like Kevin Feige steering their ship. Leaders come and go. Right now they have Zack Snyder. We get Superman and Batman next, which sets up their Justice League movie and Snyder is already attached to direct that as well. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman,  Cyborg, and those are just the names we know of so far. Do you see what I'm saying? It's all going to be a mess. (The DC movies will probably be fair to decent. Maybe. But it's the quantity that kills.)

In my opinion, the majority of these movies are going to be Green Lantern level messes. The superhero film movement can survive a Green Lantern or X-Men Origins now and then... but not this. This is going to be an absolute overload of garbage and fans like myself are going to pay the price. Why? Because this might be bad enough to take Marvel Studios down with the rest. Even if they could keep making good movies in the midst of the schlock and possibly stay afloat, they're going to start losing all their heavy hitters right at the time that this perfect storm hits squall. Downey, Evans, Hemsworth... they are all going to want to move on sooner rather than later. In fact, RDJ and Chris Evans have already said as much. Will people want to watch their replacements? Are they going to be as excited about a Winter Soldier-is-the-New-Captain-America movie? Are they willing to take the leap of a new Tony Stark (who would even want to attempt to fill those shoes)? Are they going to fall in love with Phase 3 characters like Ant Man and Dr. Strange? Who knows.

All I'm saying is that I'm scared for the future of superhero movies. When Marvel sold off their biggest properties years ago, they handed Fox and Sony a knife and when Avengers made a billion dollars, they taught them how to use it.

WSF Notes

  • We enter a new season of productivity and creation at WSF headquarters this month.
  • I'm currently editing two projects for friends, but Space Cops eps are still coming and they are amazing.
  • I've typed up half of a Bizarnival 2 script on an amazing piece of free scriptwriting software. I'll tell you about it in a post soon.
  • We have no less than four or five short films in some stage of pre-production right now.

I hope to bring you an Indie Wednesday this week as well as a breakdown of Agents of SHIELD; only two episodes to go for the season. Keep checking in, friends.