Tuesday, July 8, 2008

It's so beautiful...Makes me want to cry...

Ok, let's talk film. Well there is a leaked script on the Internet. Apparently Michael Bay, the blockbuster Juggernaut has written a script that was supposed to be the Sequel to Batman Begins, the Dark Knight. It is linked beautifully here. I didn't know he was interested in Batman? Wasn't he busy with demolishing other franchises? He is busy over directing Transformers. With Spielberg even! Yes Steven sanctions Bay. The most wondrous thing you will ever know about Michael Bay is that he picks the wrong shot for every single frame he shoots. I think he is the direct opposite of Spielberg. I do.

Spielberg's delicate directing...

Michael Bay...Any Questions?

Steve picks the most perfect shots every frame he shoots. Bay is a masterpiece because if you look at his finished product. Every shot is misplaced. Every single one. Either you're up someones nose or you're in super slo mo with an actor screaming in slo mo. I mean the actors in Transformers say Oh GOD more times than a soft porn with Krista Allen. That's the only line Shia says for a goof ten minutes in Transformers. Oh GOD Oh GOD! And Bay is ok with that. We wants his actors to be over the top all the time. And YES, every shot he shoots is the WRONG place to put the camera. I mean he doesn't even place the camera in an interesting place BY ACCIDENT. It's unbelievable. How can a director be that incompetent.

He's not even on the set the whole time. He storms on the set for a day, about ten o clock and starts to shoot kinda whatever he wants. If he wants to blow up a car, he just says, if he wants to blow up a city, he yells it out through his bullhorn. I have never seen a director so incompetent, so popular. Well it's ego, Film Fans. Its sheer ego that keeps this Bay animal going. Please check out his script for the Dark Knight. Its obviously a joke. But funny, way way funny.

Well enough about talentless car commercial directors, let's talk about gifted directors. Rob Cohen the director of Fast and the Furious and XXX, he does do fluff film yes, but he is talented. I mean if you can make a B movie like the Fast and the Furious look good, you have talent. Well he talks with Shawn Adler of Mtv and says that he has his hands in "Every Pixel" of the CGI process. Let's look at some quotes first. here is the article. And here is the first quote I want to look at. "Three times a week, I sit with the lead people, the digital men. A lot of people think that directors call up [Industrial Light and Magic] and say, 'Ya, I need a dragon that talks.' I don't know how other directors work, but with me, I'm on every pixel, every detail, all the time," Cohen tells MTV News when we join him for one such session. "And I have been doing this with them since I became the director of this movie a year ago."

I do love this nutty film.

Industrial, Light and Magic, known in the BIZ as ILM, the digital company that Lucas founded near San Fransisco. Pixar branched off from them. Yes I believe they did. Pixar was the name of the computer that they were using. So it was a fake Spanish word meaning to pixel. Yeah that was it. Anyway, it's nice to know that Rob Cohen actually cares about what he is filming. You see this is a director that doesn't act like a child with a bullhorn like Bay. I could actually bag on Bay all day long, but sadly I think there are more interesting things to talk about.

I like Cohen. I honestly think he needs better material to work with. He takes pride in his work and leaves the ego at the door. Now in order to be a really Smart Hollywood Player, you need to leave your ego at the door. There will always be someone more talented in some aspect of creativity than you. That's just the brutal truth. And I also think that is the dividing line between a smart Hollywood Player and a Naive one. A Naive Player thinks that his spec script that he has been tormenting on for months is perfect as is. A Smart Hollywood Player knows that his spec is just a BLUEPRINT for things to come. Development meetings can go either way, they can go wonderfully, for instance, Joel Bruce Rubin's script Called Ghost in 1990 was slated to be directed my Jerry Zucker, the guy who directed Airplane. When Rubin found out, he flipped, wanted to quit the business all together. Then a couple Oscars later, he recanted that.

But you see, it is the allotment for bigger and better ideas to develop with your project. You have to find people you trust and work with them in a CARING way. Without ego. That's the rub! That's the whole meat and potatoes there. Approach the material with all your heart, not all your head. That is mojo to be a smarter Hollywood Player. Until Tomorrow, let's talk film!

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