It is certainly true that Hollywood would judge a director’s grandeur based solely on box office receipts but creativity takes a back seat in many of those situations. Steven Spielberg is the most profitable movie director of all time yet, his is very creative. Steven Spielberg’s films have stuffed the pockets of movie executives with approximately 3.5 billion dollars over the years. Steven Spielberg is what is known as a major Hollywood insider. Many great filmmakers of the past did not have huge box office draws as compared to Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, George Lucas, and Robert Zemeckis to name a few. What makes them different from those directors of yesterday?
Month: December 2008
Quintessential Marlon Brando
“Stellaaaaaaa!” “Stellaaaaa!” “Stellaaaaaa!” I think Marlon Brando for his time was the epitome of what youthful masculinity represented. He was a figure of strength that portrayed sex appeal over women. He had a dominating presence on screen. He exhibited a sort of rebellious attitude, one that did things his own way. Marlon Brando’s performance is raw and gritty and to the best of my knowledge, he pushed the envelope that future method actors would try to attain to. Continue reading
“The Others 2001” Plants & Payoff’s in screenwriting
The first film that comes to mind when thinking about plants and payoff is “The Others (2001)” with Nicole Kidman. Nicole Kidman plays Grace, the mother of two children, Anne & Nicolas, who raises two children alone in a huge mansion in the countryside. This is a suspenseful ghost story about a family who is left at home alone while the father is away at war. Continue reading
Obstacle Brainstorming for Story Elements
Terry Curtis has awakened to discover that he has become Tom Cruise.
Obstacle #1
Tom Cruise is a major player in Hollywood who’s known for his box office draw. Terry Curtis is high school dropout who’s never been able to hold a job. During his second visit to the Oprah show, Tom Cruise is asked what he loves most about Katie. Terry Curtis remembers how the real Tom Cruise acted the last time he was on the show and begins to jump on and off the couch then his pants falls to his ankles on live TV because Terry Curtis does not wear a belt. He later blames the event on a wardrobe malfunction. Continue reading
Special Effects in Cinema
I strongly believe that the box office draw is representative of the quality of the use of special effects in a movie, although sometimes the story may be lacking. Such movies that have used this technology well are the Star Trek movies in addition to Alien and Star Wars movies. The list is longer. Continue reading
Sound in Cinema
The absence of fast paced rock music added more depth to the shootout scene in Heat 1995. The sound engineers did a fantastic job with the Foley and hard effects. Those 12 minutes were realistically represented. Let us not forget about the other great scene in this movie where they knocked over an armored car with a semi truck. In that scene, one of the armored car guards had blood running out of his ears and the scene would cut back and forth to his perspective of being nearly deaf from the gunfire that erupted next to his ears. Beautifully done! Every perspective from the view of the camera brings us, the audience, that much closer to the forefront of the action. Continue reading
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