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The only things that held me up were the fact that I currently, and will most always, live in a fairly large city and I’m willing to try and save someone’s life before leaving them for the undead to feed on.

- Robert

So my slate in March has been pretty full. It’s only expanding over the next couple months. Let me explain:

Back in either January or February I became attached to an independent feature film entitled “Into the Forest” as an office production assistant. My initial responsibilities were to add friends to the film’s MySpace page. That was about it. Once actual production kicked up, I was spending twelve hours on set, busting my ass for this legit project that was being put on by Full Sail students and a few faculty members. Apparently my hard work was noticed because I was offered two different promotions. One was as a Production Secretary and the other was the 2nd 2nd Assistant Director. I chose Production Secretary because it will offer me the opportunity to learn about becoming a Producer later on in my career. This project is still ongoing, and will continue to force me into ~4 hour sleep sessions a day.

I’m currently taking Intro to Editing and Visual Effects, where I am editing the D.C. project that I wrote and directed last month, and finding numerous things that I will change for my next production. Mostly, it’s issues with continuity.

The other course I’m taking is Documentary Filmmaking, in which my group’s project is currently set to involve a road trip to New Jersey in order to document the teams PMS Clan and Funk That in their pro-gaming competitions. Whether or not the trip will take place is still under consideration, but either way, we are making a documentary short about those two pro-gaming teams. The Manager of both teams is actually a Full Sail student taking the Entertainment Business Online Degree Program. Small world, eh?

Wednesday I found out about another opportunity I had. Rick Ramsey, my D.C. Course Director and one of the key faculty in the Film Program, gave me a call to let me know I had been nominated to go to Dallas in the end of April-beginning of May to attend the 2009 Apple Educators Conference. Only ten Full Sail students would be going, and they had to interview and be approved by Dave Franko, Full Sail’s Film Program Director. I interviewed yesterday, told Dave and his assistant Bobbi that I was good with pretty much everything I had learned up until now, but I was better on camera than I was with Final Cut Pro. I got a call that afternoon saying, “Congratulations, you’ve been chosen!” So I’m going to Dallas in April.

Whew… that’s a lot. I haven’t even gotten into my private time where I am planning out how to produce a couple of shorts I have ideas for. I currently have three full stories, and about two that are 50% there. This year is going to be intense, and like I tell everyone, I love every minute of it.

- Robert

New photos, concept art, etc. has been posted for Devastator and The Fallen, two characters that are quite possibly going to be in this years, “Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen.” I’ve posted them here, hoping it will take longer for Paramount to send a angry letter asking for them to be taken down.

The first one is Devastator. Now, his torso is made up of that giant wheeled bot from the Super Bowl spot(Alt mode is the giant excavator they have in mining valleys), so just guess at how big he will actually be. And yes, he is a Decepticon.

The Fallen is that second badass brute. I think this film will center around defeating him. I think the title gives that away.

In the third image you see Devastator, The Fallen, and a bot that looks a helluva lot like Megatron. Bad news people, Michael Bay and the writers have said that Megatron is DEAD on many occasions. Then who is it? My guess is Galvatron, Megatron’s second form. Galvatron’s alt mode is a tank, and numerous details keep spilling out about toys and other things with “Megatron” in a damaged tank mode. I think this could be excellent, given that it follows the lore pretty well or a live action film.

Tell me what you guys think!

- Robert

For Digital Cinematography we were required to come up with scripts for our 6-8 minute free form project. Well, given that I have a few ideas that can work, I type up one of them and submit it. It’s slightly short, because I left room to expand in a re-write(I submitted the 1st draft). Well yesterday we chose, and out of the three scripts, mine didn’t make it. It was fairly close, though. Eleven people in the group, one for Bean, four for Balance, and six for Differences. It’s the way things go.

I’m not upset, given that they chose Differences because it was a more difficult to execute script and that’s what they wanted. Now its just a matter of fine tuning the idea into something really good. In it’s current form it strays from a complete script since it gets jumbled and doesn’t connect with an audience. Student filmmakers would go see it just to see other talent, but it’s not where a mainstream audience could connect with it. That’s what I plan to fix. Will the rest of the group go for it, God I hope so.

So aside from writing, I’ll be directing a portion of the short. If I can make at least half of the changes I want to in the script, I feel confident that we can take it to the FilmSlam at the local independent theater, The Enzian, and maybe win. – Side note, I’m going to go see The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky and Mickey Rourke’s new film) tomorrow. It’ll be sick!

That’s all I’ve got as an update for now. I’m still fishing through ideas for Meaningless Sex. I thought I might want to take a more Noir style with it, but that just ended up heading down a path of stupid.

- Robert

Nuts of the film will probably guess that I’m referring to The Dark Knight, and thus infer specifically, Heath Ledger. I added The Dark Knight to my Netflix Queue because I wanted to rewatch his scenes as research for a fan-film I am trying to write. In doing just that, I discovered a few things:

1. Heath’s portrayal of Joker can be mimicked, but never repeated.
2. Most of the lines sound like they were improv, rather than scripted. (That’s when you know it’s really good acting)
3. The only character that has ever sent as many chills down my spine was Hannibal Lector.

Heath Ledger is our generation’s James Dean. There is no doubt about it. A person with such raw talent, gone, far before his due time. The question that weighs on my mind the most is whether or not he should get a posthumous Oscar. I haven’t seen any other performances that are on par with what Heath did, but I also haven’t frequented the more “arty” films that the Academy usually goes gaga over. The fact that Heath died nearly a year ago is entirely immaterial. I can guarantee anyone that no one, absolutely no one can recreate the dark depths of such a vile criminal the way the Heath Ledger did. The Oscars aren’t about popularity or what genre the acting was a part of, it’s about celebrating the performance and talent of one individual. I think Heath definitely earned his golden statue.

I’m going to finish this off with Christopher Nolan’s tribute of Heath. He wrote this very shortly after his death, and I think it speaks loudly about the kind of actor that Heath Ledger was:

One night, as I’m standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for “The Dark Knight,” a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I’d fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you’d asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn’t know. That’s real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That’s what Heath had.

Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren’t many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.

One time he and another actor were shooting a complex scene. We had two days to shoot it, and at the end of the first day, they’d really found something and Heath was worried that he might not have it if we stopped. He wanted to carry on and finish. It’s tough to ask the crew to work late when we all know there’s plenty of time to finish the next day. But everyone seemed to understand that Heath had something special and that we had to capture it before it disappeared. Months later, I learned that as Heath left the set that night, he quietly thanked each crew member for working late. Quietly. Not trying to make a point, just grateful for the chance to create that they’d given him.

Those nights on the streets of Chicago were filled with stunts. These can be boring times for an actor, but Heath was fascinated, eagerly accepting our invitation to ride in the camera car as we chased vehicles through movie traffic—not just for the thrill ride, but to be a part of it. Of everything. He’d brought his laptop along in the car, and we had a high-speed screening of two of his works-in-progress: short films he’d made that were exciting and haunting. Their exuberance made me feel jaded and leaden. I’ve never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents. That night I made him an offer—knowing he wouldn’t take me up on it—that he should feel free to come by the set when he had a night off so he could see what we were up to.

When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we’d have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we’d done with all that he’d given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.

Back on LaSalle Street, I turn to my assistant director and I tell him to clear the skateboarding kid out of my line of sight when I realize—it’s Heath, woolly hat pulled low over his eyes, here on his night off to take me up on my offer. I can’t help but smile.

– Christopher Nolan – Director, The Dark Knight –

I’m going to start doing this from time to time, showcase other student’s films. I think it will keep me busier on this site, as well as offer the other filmmakers here another site to have their project listed on. My first will be a short film entitled “Closet Party.” I was not involved in production on this at all, I merely just found it, watched it, and asked about it. Before I dive into a review, here’s the film:

Closet Party – Project: Direct from R. Cameron White.

“I was intrigued, and I did, admittedly, chuckle.“
This film, a dark comedy seemingly about the journey to insanity, is entertaining. It is not the quintessential film of the year, nor is it even the most complete. It doesn’t try to be. It stakes it’s claim as a “fill the production minimums as quickly as possible” film, and that’s what hurts it.

There are distractions in this film that I think take away from the good parts. The most notable is in the music track. The music beats sound great at first, with an ethereal type of curiosity it draws you in, but soon after reaching the party, it sounds as if the CD was skipping and the vinyl scratches don’t feel right. At first I thought it might have been the fact that I was streaming the picture, but having watched it a few more times, it’s the way the track was laid.

The other notable distraction is the emptiness or lack of set dressing in the main character’s room. I understand it is supposed to be a college student’s room, and that is the way most of our rooms look, but it didn’t feel right and I’m pretty sure it caused problems with the audio capture.

Those “cons” aside, I did enjoy a number of aspects of this short. I think the acting of A.J. Napoli was very comical in his interpretation of someone going insane. When not paying strict attention to how each shot is lit, I found that the mood was set well. The color was a bit off, but I can’t tell if that was intended or not.

All in all I did enjoy it. I think that if there was more time to firmly lay down the details that this could have been better, but whatever circumstances there were, I still chuckled.

*** (3/5)

“Closet Party” was written, directed, and shot by Richard Cameron White. It was edited by A.J. Napoli, and stars Ryan Bradley, Jay Janoco, and Nathan Ellering. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWmNUKIi1vs to vote for this film.

This short is absolutely hilarious:

- Robert

In the process of writing my treatment, I thought it to be best to do a running production blog so that others can understand better how, in theory, the Hollywood Machine works. I say “in theory” because I’m not actually a part of the Hollywood machine, but I am a part of the Industry it serves.

Now that I’ve cleared that up, let me start to get into the nitty gritty: Why make a movie? From what we have been taught here at Full Sail, read told, it is to tell a story. From what many people think they know of Hollywood, it’s to make money. Here’s my reason: To create a living, breathing world of people and places, and share it with mankind. That may seem like I’m trying to be “deep” or “ethereal” or whatever, but it’s how I describe it best. Yes, a story is most definitely involved; Yes, it is possible to make money, lots of money, with films. But the key reason that I would make a movie is that.

Mēan•îng•lěss Sěx. I know it caught many eyes over the past couple days in my status. I know this because I was messaged my more people than you would think saying things like, “Can I be in it?” or “Making a porno right out of the gate, eh?” I don’t mind these questions or jokes at all. It’s partially why I posted what I did. This film isn’t even in a full draft of scripting, and it has what is known as “buzz” based on a title, with certain goofy markings that tell you the proper pronounciation.

Here’s the question I’m sure you’ve since been pondering: What is Mēan•îng•lěss Sěx? That is what I want you to think about. Not about the movie itself (I’ll get into that in a later post), about “Meaningless Sex.” How do you define it? Is it thrilling? Is it repulsive? Is it what our generation now defines a meet-and-greet? Those are the questions I am going to put into this Indie Short Comedy. I’m making it such that it would be viable commercially (If it were to be released in theaters), but I believe that its controversial subject matter, as well as the style in which I will tell this story, will look favorably on me submitting this to Festivals next year.

In the mean time, continue to ask yourself how you think of meaningless sex. If you find yourself with an answer, comment and let me know what you think. Since I am still writing, your thoughts could be that of one of the characters in my story. Any opinion is valid. There is no wrong answer.

Thanks for taking interest.

Robert Sloan
Writer/Director – Mēan•îng•lěss Sěx
Full Sail University

Some very interesting things have shown up on varying sites on the net. All of which involve much-anticipated films of next year. The first of which involves J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” film. /Film poster Peter Sciretta posted an evolution of the USS Enterprise from The Original Series that started William Shatner’s career, all the way to the NCC-1701 that will be shown in the upcoming Trekkie Film.

FirstShowing also relayed the released image and had a small commentary from J.J. Abrams about why it looks the way it does. I think his explanation is brilliant.

If you’re going to do Star Trek there are many things you cannot change. The Enterprise is a visual touchstone for so many people. So if you’re going to do the Enterprise, it better look like the Enterprise, because otherwise, what are you doing?

The next film that had some great goodies for all the fans was Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen.” While I’m not quote sure where the lawsuit stands between the different studios, the marketing is still phenomenal. Here are six gorgeous posters that have recently been released:

Brilliant Noise takes us into the data vaults of solar astronomy. After sifting through hundreds of thousands of computer files, made accessible via open access archives, Semiconductor have brought together some of the sun’s finest unseen moments. These images have been kept in their most raw form, revealing the energetic particles and solar wind as a rain of white noise. This grainy black and white quality is routinely cleaned up by NASA, hiding the processes and mechanics in action behind the capturing procedure. Most of the imagery has been collected as single snapshots containing additional information, by satellites orbiting the Earth. They are then reorganised into their spectral groups to create time-lapse sequences. The soundtrack highlights the hidden forces at play upon the solar surface, by directly translating areas of intensity within the image brightness into layers of audio manipulation and radio frequencies.

Brilliant Noise from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

- Robert