Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category

There are few more iconic characters in American movie history as Lois Lane, Clark Kent’s sidekick at the Daily Planet, and Superman’s romantic interest. But 23 year old Kate Bosworth’s performance has earned her a number of excellent reviews in the role in the latest film in the Superman series – ‘Superman Returns’.

Bosworth admits that she was unsure if any actor could pull of a convincing Superman/Clark Kent combination – she remembers the original film with great excitement. However, she is full of praise for Brandon Routh, the unknown actor who plays the title role. She realized how good Routh was going to be as early as an early screen test, before she had got the role, when she discovered she “had become totally lost in just reading with him, in a white, bare, sparse room with the tri-pod video camera and a couple of people sitting around and watching and that’s when I realized he was going to be tremendous in this film”.

Bosworth modelled her Lois Lane performance on Katharine Hepburn. “I watched a lot of Hepburn to prepare for Lois, particularly ‘The Philadelphia Story’ and ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’. Hepburn is a great model for how I see Lois – strong but fragile.”

Bosworth spent her early childhood moving around the US, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, then to Connecticut and to Massachusetts. It was around the time of the move to Massachusetts in 1998 that she heard of an open audition for Robert Redford’s film ‘The Horse Whisperer’. A horse-lover, she went along for the experience, and won the role of the female lead’s best friend. After “The Horse Whisperer” Bosworth took a break from acting, returning two years later to resume her career which has culminated with her role in ‘Superman Returns’.
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It must have been fate that Bryan Singer would direct the new film Superman Returns, the fifth in the series of Superman films. Singer loved the George Reeves Superman TV series when he was young, and was a huge fan of the Dick Donner-directed films from the 70s and 80s that starred Christopher Reeves as the Man of Steel. “I identify with Superman. I am adopted, I am an only child, and I love the idea that he comes from another world, that he’s the ultimate immigrant. He has all these extraordinary powers, and he has a righteousness about him,“ said Bryan.

After attending the School Of Visual Arts in New York City (but not graduating), he graduated from the USC cinema school (where, incidentally, he met John Ottman who wrote the score for Superman Returns), Singer’s first commercial success was as the producer/director of The Usual Suspects in 1995.That film saw him work with Kevin Spacey for the first time, and Singer and Spacey are re-united, again in Superman Returns, as Spacey plays arch villain Lex Luther, just out of prison and again set to rule the world.

However, it is as an adapter of comic books, bringing superheroes to life, that Singer has carved a niche for himself in the movie world.

In 2000, as writer and director, he introduced Wolverine, Magneto and the rest of the X-Men to the movie world in a hugely successful adaptation, before reprising the characters in the follow-up, X2. Singer left the X-Men franchise to develop Superman Returns and did not work on the 3rd film The Last Stand.
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So you say you have a burning desire to make a movie and you will do what ever it takes to get the job done? You fancy yourself and “independent” type and you want to reflect that in your art? Well, you better know what it takes before you decide to launch yourself into the world of independent filmmaking. If you do not know, your project may never see the light of day, or more importantly the light of a movie screen.

Making a low budget or “independent” film is a double edged sword. On the one side you have the freedom to express your art without corporate considerations, but on the other side you have the daunting task of doing almost every job yourself. From writing, producing, directing, and acting to providing travel arrangements, applying make-up, and fixing broken equipment, you cover the broad spectrum of chores and responsibilities. And that does not even cover the other responsibilities such as providing meals for everyone, rehearsals, etc… All you have to do is look at the long list of credits at the end of any movie in the theaters and you can see how much work it takes to make a motion picture.

While in the midst of making my last film Mike And The Magic Lamp I almost started to doubt whether I would ever finish it. I had been working on this movie for about two years straight doing every aspect of the film myself when I suddenly started to run out of energy. The continuous filming that I was doing combined with a heavy work schedule at my real job (Stage Manager of TV shows in Hollywood) was starting to get to me. I would have to prepare everything before a film shoot, and then do just about everything during the film shoots. Once in a while I would have a loyal friend help me with the awesome responsibilities of carrying equipment, setting it up, and then tearing everything down and putting it away each day, but you can only ask them to do so much if you are not paying them.

At one point during the filming of M&TML I passed out, fell off my director’s chair and hit my head on the corner of the set. I was mentally and physically exhausted while only halfway through the filmmaking process. The problem was that I was not yet creatively exhausted. The burning desire to make a movie and enter it in all the major film festivals was still alive, but the vessel (my body) that allows me to create was in need of a little R&R. I would take a day off here and there but it was always hard to rest when you have that little creative voice in your head bugging you to get your film finished so the world can enjoy your art. I was very lucky that I only suffered a minor head injury from that accident.

I finally finished the film Mike And The Magic Lamp after four long years of endless work that nearly put me in the hospital from exhaustion. The film went on to win the Silver Award at the Houston Worldfest in 1998 along with several other awards that year at major film festivals like the Santa Clarita International Film Festival. That film gave me recognition as an Independent Filmmaker and inspired me to pursue the path of making films on my own terms.
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If you kow anything about how today’s “artists” sell albums, you’ll not be surprised when I say, “it’s not all about the music”. And indeed its not. Let me give you a little example. The itunes music store has over 2000 music videos for sale. That is some serious camara time. Whatever happened to the Replacements? But, if you’re down with the glitz and the glamour and the diamonds resting in the bottom of a Dom P drenched champagne flute, then I’m talking your style.

And what style is that exactly? Ipod music videos, of course. That thing in your pocket isn’t just a single function unit, you know. Well, that is of course, if you’ve got a 5th generation ipod. If you do there’s a multitude of ways that you can realize the potential of it. You can watch everything from TV shows to movies and ipods music videos.

There’s also a plentitude of ways that you can obtain the videos, or whatever you want to watch. Take videos that you’ve taken off of your camara and have put on to your computer. Do you have some favorite movies on there (I know that most of my friends do)? You can put them right into your itunes, and then into the library icon. Once its on your computer your good to go to fill up your ipod. And then, as stated earlier, there is an amazing list of ipod music videos that are available for purchase on the itunes website.
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