Hardcore

This week, Throwback Sunday's remembers a compeling, wonderful drama. Here is the original television preview for writer-director Paul Schrader's unsettling 1979 drama "Hardcore", starring George C.Scott, Peter Boyle and Season Hubley.



For a limited time, you can watch it free HERE.
Highly recommended.

Reel of the Month: Coleen Sciacca

Our Reel of the Month belongs to Coleen Sciacca. Contact this actress at coleensciacca@yahoo.com.

"How a Producer's Gamble On Me Paid Off"

Actor Gabriel Baez, whose captivating, naturalistic performance in Richard Johnson and Corey Williams' urban action-comedy Razorblade City (which also stars Cookies & Cream's Jace Nicole), has a cool little piece about him in the Examiner. Check it out after the jump:



"How A Film Producer's Gamble on Me Paid Off."

"Nothing is a sure thing. When GoldenTiger Productions auditioned actor Gabriel Baez for the role of Orlando Sanchez in the comedy Can't Complain, a hidden talent was revealed. Quickly a gamble turned into a great move when production on Can't Complain started in 2008. Born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, Gabriel made it known that he can add depth to a character. Gabriel fell in love with acting while growing up in Maryland (Montgomery County). Getting into acting was a huge question mark. From audition to audition Gabriel failed but the desire to be an actor was irreplaceable. Gabriel decided that he had to learn acting from scratch. Even though Gabriel has learned alot about acting in the past four years, his motivation to keep learning is seen through his preparation while working with actors, producers and directors.

Looking into different techniques of acting and finding a variety of exercises help Gabriel in different aspects like blocking and reaction. Gabriel is a firm believer that when you work hard on your passion in life - your talents will pay off in the end. Role models like Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman, and James Franco inspire Gabriel to audition for a variety of different roles. With roles in the short film The Puppeteer, the action indie flick Razorblade City and the drama indie film King of Baltimore - staying busy from one project to the next is the only thing that will put a smile on Gabriel's face."

See the full piece HERE.

Tom Reviews "Hot Tub Time Machine"

Tom's Corner:

Hot Tub Time Machine
(2010, Steve Pink, director)

“Back to the Future” was my gateway drug. From there I got into things like old “What If” and Chronos comics (and I just have to add in here that Chronos was a criminally underrated character and John Francis Moore deserved awards for his writing), “Star Trek IV”, “Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure”, the first two Terminator movies and the mighty “Army of Darkness”. When “Back to the Future 2” came out, it blew my fucking mind. I guess what I'm trying to say is I love me some time travel movies. Does “Hot Tub Time Machine” live up to the traditions of these awesome time travel films? Is it a new chapter in comedic time shenanigans? Can a puke covered squirrel royally fuck up the future? The answer to all of these: You bet your ass!

The first essential ingredient for a successful comedy is the right stars. This movie has those. John Cusack plays Adam, Craig Robinson plays Nick, Clark Duke plays Jacob, and Rob Corddry plays Lou. I've been a big fan of Cusack and Robinson for some time now, and Rob Corddry was always a welcome addition to “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”. I'd never seen Clark Duke in a starring role, but he was pretty good here. The supporting cast, which includes Crispin Glover and Lizzy Caplan, was equally exceptional. And get this, William “Kobra-Kai” Zabka makes an appearance!

Anyway, you can't have a comedy without ingredient two: characters who need a change in their lives. Adam just got dumped by his girlfriend, Nick has a horribly embarrassing job, Lou's a drunken loser, and Jacob never leaves the house, instead spending all his time on a computer (take THAT, all of you reading this. Get outside and DO something...after reading more fine articles on this fine blog, of course).

Ingredient three is the method to change their crappy lives. In this case, a trip to Kodiak Valley, which has fallen on hard times since their misspent, drug fueled youths there. After a night of drinking in the hot tub, they wake up in 1986, and in their old bodies. Oh, and the time machine is trashed. While they wait for the mysterious repairman (Chevy Chase) to fix it, they are faced with a choice. Do they relive everything they did, even the mistakes, or do they change time for the better? Oh, and will Jacob be born, since it appears he was conceived on that very ski trip?

See this movie. It won't change your life, but it was about the funniest comedy I've seen in a while, and definitely the only one with a Poison tribute band in it.

- Tom

Here is the Trailer:

The Sky is Falling. Again.

Lately, I have grown more and more suspicious of this whole, "the sky is falling" economic branding on everything in our industry. But this LA Times piece really takes the cake for me personally.

Seems like every publication, blog, or interview feels the need to include such mandatory catch phrases as "there is less work these days," or "its a tough time right now" in its agenda, and now its gotten down to just plain, boring, formulaic reporting/writing. I'm reminded of the time when in 2005 or 2006 I was included in a major newspaper as part of a new indie film, DIY surge in local filmmaking. The executive producer and I had just transitioned a short film we did into partially funding a future feature I was doing. He pitched to the writer that our story was more of a "hard times leads to finding traditional financing" spin, as opposed to your typical, "there is no money but what these indie filmmakers can beg their grandparents for" spin. The writer, lazy as all hell, chose to do a typical piece on "the struggling filmmaker," and ignored ours and others' story of making something from nothing but transitioning it to more traditional funding approaches, and business models. His piece, which ended up appearing in his business section, would have been a hit, because we had all heard the other spin on this subject time and time again.

Its funny that I read this piece today, when only last week I heard from not one, but TWO of my screenwriter friends, both living in LA, who have done well with their scripts. One just sold hers, the other, who successfully sold his a while ago, went into production towards the end of last month. Furthermore, they both are already locks for re-write gigs, and one may be directing another script he wrote soon as a first feature (with a 7 figure budget I might add). I'm of course not saying this is the norm, in fact its a rarity - we all understand this. However, the rarity is what makes it a good story. Right? Maybe I should stop complaining and write their story myself. But thats not the point.

Its like the brilliant line in the Seinfeld episode where Whatley converts to Judiasm just for the jokes. The practice of cut and paste writing about the current state of film doesn't offend me as a filmmaker, it offends me as a reader who enjoys fresh, interesting, good writing.

But here is the LA Times with another true, yet boring, run of the mill, "the sky is falling" piece. Enjoy as much as you can, after the jump:



Screenwriter David Steinberg was invited last fall by a producer to pitch his idea for a rewrite of a "high-concept comedy" about an adult slacker for a major studio.

Steinberg figured he had a good shot at the assignment with credits like "American Pie 2" under his belt, even though he heard there were many other writers competing for the opening.

After an initial meeting, the producer asked him to prepare a more detailed proposal, known as a "beat sheet," outlining each scene and character. Steinberg reworked four drafts of his pitch and met with other producers, each one offering a different take while praising him for a "great job."

Normally, jumping through all those hoops signaled he had the job in the bag. Not this time. Steinberg was vacationing with his family in Aruba over the winter holiday when his agent e-mailed him that the studio picked another writer.

"I was devastated," said Steinberg, a lawyer before turning to screenwriting. "If I was going to break into the business now, I don't know if I could do it because there are so few opportunities to sell a script or get an assignment."

Such is the dreary lot now facing many of Hollywood's screenwriters, who emerged from a bruising strike two years ago only to be hit by the recession that forced a sharp retrenchment in filmmaking at the studios.

This week the Writers Guild of America, West reported that while earnings for screenwriters have bounced back to pre-strike levels, there is a lot less work going around: employment has fallen 11% in the last three years, with 226 fewer screenwriters working in 2009 than 2006, the year before the 100-day walkout and the lowest level in at least six years.

Full article HERE.

Tom Reviews "She's Out of My League"

Tom's Corner:

She's Out of My League
(2010, Jim Field Smith, director)

There's a type of girl who only exists, at least to my admittedly limited experience, in TV, movies and books. You've all seen her, you all know about her. She's incredibly attractive, and in fact possesses an almost otherworldly quality. She's also naive as all hell and doesn't comprehend the effect she has on men, especially those of the less than conventionally attractive variety. She's also either dating or has recently broken up with a complete asshole, who is as or nearly attractive, but has no real personality. If they're still dating, she, of course, does not even begin to realize the levels of his asshole-ishness. Once she finally does, our geeky unpopular male specimen becomes the obvious best choice. We call this magical, legendary female creature the plot goddess, since the plot paints her as the most attractive woman ever born.

“She's Out of My League” contains a prototypical plot goddess, this time around played by Alice Eve. She plays Molly, who has apparently descended from the heavens to fraternize with us mere mortals. Molly leaves her iPhone behind at airport security and meets Kirk (Jay Baruchel, a man who makes Michael Cera look buff and confident), a TSA agent with dreams of flight and less self esteem than a roomful of stereotypical goth teenagers. They end up going out, and despite all the odds, she likes him. Of course, something MUST be wrong here, since there is no way a “10” would go out with a “5.” I just love this retarded premise. Beauty is only skin deep, and if you scratch deep enough under the surface, sometimes you find a whole lotta ugly. When two people make an emotional connection, looks really don't matter too much. This is known as the grow up speech, and rightly so, since this movie needs to at points.

That being said, the actors involved do the best with what they were given. Krysten Ritter (Jane Margolis on AMC's Breaking Bad) plays Molly's best friend, who needed more screen time. She's a brilliant actress, and I see nothing but good things in her future. TJ Miller, who played one of Kirk's friends, Stainer, was also hilarious, and made me laugh more than any other character in the movie.

It's an okay flick, but the plot is right outta the Hollywood lazy romantic comedy with a hint of gross-out plot bin. I expected more from the cast of this movie, but they did do the best with what was given to them. It's an okay movie, but I don't see it becoming anyone's favorite.

Editing "Editing 'Uptown'"

Editor/Blogger Tameeka Ballance talks about editing "Editing 'Uptown'" - (tongue twister unintended). Here is some of it after the jump:



"Back in April I was introduced to a filmmaker named Celia Peters.

Celia shot and produced the dvd special features footage for a film titled Uptown.

I played the role as editor for what Celia shot.

The video I put together is titled "Editing Uptown". It's basically a peak into why the director Brian Ackley picked certain shots and what trials and tribulations the editor Daniel Green went through with putting the film together.

You can see Celia Peters in the picture above with myself and Uptown's producer Princeton Holt. We were celebrating the movie's New York City Premiere back in June. It was held at the Anthology Film Archives.

Read more at her BLOG.