Brothers day - last push

So as those that follow us in Twitter probably know already, Brothers day is nearly finished now. As ever, we depend on the time people can dedicate us in between paid projects, so we cannot give a date yet, but we hope we'll be able to show the film in some way this year.

Making a film is a lot of work on a lot of different fronts, here's a brief summary of the progress at the moment:

Done since the last update:
- Edit: we locked the edit soon after that. Done and dusted, yes!
- Digital corrections: reframing some shots, stabilizing others, duplicating extras (what!? :), making day into night and a bit of everything else. The magic and time-consuming joys of digital post-production. It took a lot of work, but sure makes the film a lot better.
- Music tracks: such as this recently released track. Remi has now finished the last one of his many contributions to the film. Well done, Remi!
- Titles: we have a fantastic design, can't wait for you guys to see them. We also have a cool poster matching the titles that we'll be sharing publicly shortly.

Working on now:
- Grading: I've been working hard with Luca, the DOP on making the film look as cool as possible. Here's the proof:

- Sound post: Foley, atmospheres and the rest of sound design (those sounds that have to be created or improved) are well under way thanks to the wonderful guys at SSR. So is dialogue editing (making them sound as good as possible!).

- Additional score: all the incidental music for all the other parts of the film that need it.

Left to do:
- ADR: we have some ADR to schedule. This is those bits of sounds that have to be re-recorded because -for whatever reason- they weren't clear enough.
- Final mix (putting all the sounds, music and dialogues together!)

So that's it for now, you know exactly where we are now. You can follow the more frequent updates in Twitter and Facebook, if you so wish!

Surviving Alba promo!

These last few months, we've been busy building a set for our 'Surviving Alba' promotional teaser. Finally, we got to film some amazing-looking footage last week, through a very long yet exciting weekend. Thanks so much to cast and crew for such a fantastic work!!!

Rise of the planet of the apes

Effects + Heart = Movie goodness. Yes, please.


It's exciting to see the fruits of the latest technology applied to movies. In this case, Avatar's big push in motion capture technology, with which the actors can capture body and face performance, allows the "Planet of the Apes" sequel to exist.

The danger is to learn to use this new technology integrated in the storytelling process. Looking at the trailer, it looked a bit like the tragic "I, robot", with Apes replacing the hordes of robots. Except for a couple of images, which encouraged me to go see it, and eventually enjoy it enormously.

The greatest archievement is to me that you root for the main character, a bloody monkey, to the point that you side with him against humans (the little bastards). Apes are in the movie more human than humans, just as in other good stories has happened with robots (Wall-e, Johnny 5), monsters (Hulk, King kong) or aliens (E.T. or this guy). Easy. By doing this rather than trying to trick the audience, the achieve effects that enhance the story instead of replacing it (films like "Hellboy 2", "Clash of the Titans"* or the "Transformers" eternal sequels spring to mind now), and that's why, I believe, certain sequences, which would have otherwise been just a way how showing off much money the movie had, work so well and so honestly. I personally loved the helicopter moment, you'll now when you see it :)

Click HERE if you want to see a special-effects-featurette.

Don't click on it if you don't, that would be silly.

Sure the writers took to some licenses in the story, but the final result is good enough as to want to ignore those bits. Only the feeling that the story wasn't going as far as it could have stopped me from loudly cheering at the end. It seems it was thought up as a trilogy. Well, ok they earned that. As long as we don't go back to battles of giant robots destroying cities for cosmical reasons.

Bring it on.

* Niceties aside, "Clash of the Titans" is still the worst movie in modern times in my book. Its sequel, now on the making, means a step back in human evolution and will probably end up destroying the world at least twice.

The Sleeper Effect

TSE is a sci-fi web series based on a daring concept with its own visual style. It takes place in Manchester in a worryingly close future.

It is not often one gets to get involved in a project that one genuinely loves and that exudes so much passion. Hope that shows in the 4 teasers below (corresponding to the 4 main characters) and hope you love it too.

We will be done filming the pilot in about 1 month time. Then off to editing it together put it out there and look for funding for completing the series. You can follow the progress on the Facebook page, including regular video blogs full of energy and enthusiasm :) There isn't a website yet, but there will be soon.

Beth

Ryhs

Glenn

Mac

Expectations versus Experience

In the words of William Goldman, "nobody knows anything". It's interesting how sometimes you go watch a film expecting brilliance and finding disappointment, or the other way around. You never know. The fact that it may happen at all levels -and with any budget- is to me kind of refreshing, and I just wanted to give a quick example with 3 of the latest films I've seen.

Inception: A film I couldn't wait to see and that most people seem to love for reasons that escape my comprehension. A superb idea brought down by the unnecessarily numerous rules imposed by the writing and the endless explanatory movie-stopping sequences. Dreams where possibility is purely a reflection of physical forces and not human, limitless imagination. A spectacular visual effect-packed feast wasted in a merely passable experience. An experience, however, instantly turned into religious dogma by the touch of Saint Christopher Nolan, the man who made the first realistic superhero movie (apparently, the ones before don't seem to count) and became a god in the process. In short, you expect 9, get just a 5... Oh well.

The A-Team: A film I wasn't so excited about but I HAD to see (it's the A-Team, yey!). You can tell has been done for the fans, crafted with love and respect for the original characters and the TV series. Not perfect at all, but thoroughly enjoyable. See? Expect 4, get at least 8! Lovely.

And of course there's Pixar. As usual, beyond any labels or classifications. You expect 10, you usually get 12. Damn it, Toy Story 3 is a film so brilliant that makes you both laugh out loud and cry your eyes out in less than 2 hours. A story that you experience intensely, caring about the characters and living it all with them. That's what cinema should be all the time! All that despite being a 3rd part. A 3rd! Seriously, who else can make not a great 3rd part, but even an acceptable one?

You can't beat Pixar. That's the moral here, I guess. Or maybe not.

"The bigger monster" ending

As a life comic reader, I'm now living the dream, watching the endless series of comic book adaptations and looking forward to some more. Still, there's one thing I think could definitely be better: the endings! Hollywood-size endings are one thing, the careless elimination of all emotion attached to the film at that point is another completely different!

Hulk 1, Hulk 2, Iron man 1, Iron man 2, Spiderman 3. they all have painfully done the same: after generally taking the plot in a good direction, things start getting interesting and such... and then all you get in the end is... well... a big monster! Or rather, a BIGGER monster, courtesy of yet another meaningless visual effects feast.

A representative example of "The bigger

(and in this case much uglier) monster" film practice.

"So what do we have? Iron man? Hell, let's use a larger-framed armoured guy for the final battle then". "What about the character we have been developing until now?" "Forget it, waste of time".

"Hulk, huh? No problem, we'll just use a slightly more ferocious/dangerous-looking monster for this one. Easy".

"Spiderman?" "What can we do with this interesting Sandman character? Should we add another beat here and there for his relationship with her daughter...?" "Rubbish, let's just have him grow BIG! and "big-punch" Spiderman in the face. That should get people involved in the story".

(Sigh)

Not only comic-based movies do it though. Clash of the Titans presents a delightful example of it, among other things. It doesn't make it right though.

(Deep, bigger sigh)

Deadtime teaser trailer

Just a quick entry about DEADTIME, the horror feature film I was involved in last December.

We have a TEASER TRAILER out now and are all very excited about its horror-packed 80 seconds :) If you like slasher horror films, don't miss this one. If it's not your cup of tea... well, would be nice of you to still watch it, really...

You can join the Facebook group too for regular updates. Come on, you know you want to :)

Heads will rock'n' roll!

The Spirit

The film that wasn't such.


If you think you can make a film with:

• A comic-book artist whose graphic style may be something of a legend in his world but has no idea whatsoever about how to direct a film.

• A couple of rough guidelines scribbled on paper, too weak to even be called story plot.

• Dialogue lines that, for the most part, try to be clever but come off as ridiculous, absurd and embarrassing to everyone involved in the film and their families. Including yourself for watching it.

• A female cast dressed up as prostitutes and whose only requirement is too look sexually attractive so that the promotional posters work. Never mind their professional reputation (it's just Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Paz Vega ... who even knows them anyway?). And don't worry about the actual film, they'll just be given any line we can come up with in the set, nobody will notice.

• Yet another silly, empty character played by Samuel L. Jackson, who seems to be more resolved than ever to flush what is left of his believability down the toilet.

Well, if you do think you can make a film with all this, then you are wrong. They just tried in The Spirit and failed miserably. Whatever this by-product is, it can't even be considered a film.

I personally think that, as his tribute to his admired Will Eisner (the creator of the original character, who is probably turning in his grave since opening day), instead of creating this pointless sequence of events, Frank Miller should have been as humble as to politely say "no, thank you, get an actual director" to the offer. And same with the actors. I can't believe that they actually read the script and didn't just kill their respective agents for getting it in the first place.

Not even the visual aspect can be praised here. Yes, it replicates Miller's style faithfully, but we already saw that in Sin City (oh, no, parts 2 and 3 are coming!) and there was no need of repeating it if there was nothing else to add in any other sense. At no point is there any sign of efforts for making something that the audience might like.

All things considered, The Spirit may be the worst comic-book-based film ever. Apart from an insult to moviegoers.

The day the earth stood still

Still remaking. Willy-nilly too.

Keanu Reeeves (Matrix), still unable to move his neck after the strains of The Matrix, and an underused Jennifer Connelly (Hulk) get the leading roles in yet another unnecessary remake of an old sci-fi classic, just as it happened before with War of the worlds or Planet of the apes. Jaden Smith (The Pursuit of Happiness), Will Smith's son, is consistently annoying through the whole film and completes the protagonist triplet.

The moralistic message of the film is awkwardly obvious and hardly original, and the plot's surprises seldom surprise. Additionally, the poor choice of James Hong as supporting actor (after playing a blind old Chinese master in the comedy Balls of fury quite recently) doesn't help consider this a serious science-fiction proposal. Maybe the film would had worked if the producers had decided to make a comedy out of it?

Enjoyable visual effects, however, in this slow-paced version that adds nothing of value to the original story but will probably make a considerable figure in the bow office.

Quantum of Solace

When change is GOOD.

While keeping the idea of the intelligent, elegant British secret agent that bad guys can't possibly outsmart and ladies can't possibly refuse going to bed with, Daniel Craig makes a much more believable spy than any other James Bond (if not excessively British, okay, but wasn't Sean Connery Scotish?).

Although in this new new “episode”, Bond's heroic deeds seem to be more diluted in visual effects than in Casino Royal, and lacking the memorable scenes (like the opening and the poison scene -tremendous, see it-), Quantum of Solace is still a very valid film, and so is the new Bond generation, to which I can't help to dedicate a few more paragraphs...

Mark Forster's new Bond is very capable, you can see he undertook a tough training to become a “00”, yet he struggles in his own over-human way. Believable-yet-amazing is always better than spectacular just for the sake of it.

Leaving aside the exaggerate advertising campaign that has flooded our lives for the past month, I like to think that the secret to keep such an old character “in” doesn't lay in the more spectacular approach visual-effects-wise, or the additional violence added to the series. But in the daring but necessary time re-location of the character and, of course, in the fact that the new Bond stories, unlike the classic ones, move forward and force the characters to grow, evolve, or even die.

It would look like what a few years ago wasn't but a moribund franchise still has a lot more fuel to keep going. In the days of degrading narrative and worshippers of J.K Rowling, this is something to be looking forward to. Too bad that in this second new film visual effects have such a patent, visible prominence, when it wasn't really called for.

Hellboy 2: The golden army

Yep. I'll do it this way because I can.

Once more that beautiful word, “respect”, comes to mind. Respect to an author like Hellboy-creator Mike Mignola, who has earned the reverence of his peers and the interest of readers all over the world with his solid and original characters, and his very personal, apparently simple and yet so complex style and enjoyable stories. But also, respect to the audience, us. We don't go to the cinema to watch a bad film, we subconsciously expect the best and, if rightfully feel disappointed when we don't get it, we may even feel betrayed when we are lured to a film with false hopes and lies.

In the comic-book, Hellboy -despite his appearance- is quite a human character. His believability and sense of humour contrasts with the very essence of his stories, in which he often sees himself involved with mystery, darkness and monstrous creatures, while remaining someone we can identify with.

Director Guillermo del Toro and his producers take all this and, quite lightly, turns it all into a mixture of forms and colours where you can hardly identify which character is which. After the success of Pan's labyrinth, he, apparently backed up by Mignola himself, seems to think that the key to a good film is to pack it with his typical creatures, and so he creates an unrealistic (but not fantastic) and more often than not even ridiculous world populated by dozens of ugly monsters, supposedly ON creativity's sake. Characters' arcs are clumsy and vague, as are their personalities (so to say). Over and over again, we are forced to see visual and make-up effects which are so careless most of the time that one would think that not even the crew liked the film, not even during the making.

In other circumstances, this Hellboy 2 would only be a poor film. Being an adaptation, however, it denotes either a complete lack of interest or too lax a criteria when working with someone else's character. This is an offense to good, solid stories (like the original Hellboy's), and to the audience.

Let's be professional. If adapting, let's do serious research before embarking ourselves in this fascinating although dangerous journey of transformation. OR let's create our own characters and then, if we so wish, let's destroy (or rape!) them. But in this case, don't expect the audience to come back for Hellboy 3.

La sopa (The soup)

I finally managed to add showy (well...) English subtitles to one of my old Spanish short films filmed in 2002 (oh, my god, I just realised, that is 6 years ago!). To be honest, the experience was rather painful (the subtitling, not the filming itself), as there seems to be no software capable of handling all the different steps in one go. This was little more than a test ("La sopa" can be understood without subtitles, I like to think), to see if I could subtitle the yeap-still-in-Spanish-only Eso que Pasó, a longer short film that I made in 2004 and that does need translation. I will do so at some point during the next few months, depending on other projects.

In any case, here is the link to the youtube video. I hope those of you who didn't know about this 7-minute oldie will enjoy it!

Thanks for watching.

The Incredible Hulk

The green giant is in shape.

There was a time when comic-books were not treated with much respect on the screen. Then one day Marvel released Spiderman, and saw it was good, and then got really excited with the money-making machine and went on to release and release films that were not in fact that good. Fantastic Four 2, to take a case in point, was a most painful experience.

Having finally rethought their concept of film business, they revamped their franchise with Iron Man and now continue with this The Incredible Hulk. The now rightfully named Marvel Studios are finally paying greater attention to their final product and clearly going for a new generation of super-hero films. Now the story and the characters are far more important than just having spectacular shots, and the complex “marvel” universe is finally taking the place that is its by right.

The film shows off (although doesn't rely on) fantastic visual effects, as expected. The jade giant looks a bit different than he was in Ang Lee's very personal and venerated version, but he is as impressive and powerful as ever. And Edward Norton's unheroic constitution in this film seems to make him a much better candidate for Hulk's human alter ego than Eric Banna was. It seems filmmakers didn't want to use much of the first film, and of that particular vision of the character that make so many people so enthusiastic. This new film opts for a more commercial, but also a more loyal version of the comic-books, respecting the original characters and using them to orchestrate a most human story with power and responsibility as the main points.

Especially enjoyable are a few moments that one wouldn't expect in this type of film in which interesting aspects of Hulk are shown from a very human point of view, far away from superheroes. These scenes help understand what might be like to have to bear a burden like that of the protagonist's. Further into the movie, tender “beauty and the beast” moments, enormous critters fighting, and Lou Ferrigno's appearance (from the Hulk TV series), are there to keep entertaining and surprising you.

Please keep it up with the incoming Magneto, Captain America, and so on, Marvel. And no rush with Fantastic Four 3...

Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Neither Lucas nor Spielberg are in need of popularity, and certainly not money, which is the main reason for any sequel. It seems that Lucas will manage to stretch the Star Wars product forever, and Spielberg... well, he didn't get the nickname of Hollywood's King Midas for nothing. From the very beginning, it was clear that “Indy 4” would be a present from them to the fans. Take it as what it is, a present. Deeper insights will probably ruin your experience.

Yes, everything is there: they have made sure that all the elements common to other films of the series are present: punching fights, innumerable chases, humour, the charismatic sidekick, bugs and reptiles, dark catacombs,... Just hearing another character calling Harrison Ford “Dr. Jones”, or having the main theme on the big screen again after such a long wait makes it all worth it.

However, certain aspects of the film deviate from the atmosphere present in the previous three films. A few far-fetched situations, even for Indiana Jones, somehow manage to ruin the credibility of all other things, humanly impossible and still believable, that the character has done in previous films (Indy is not 007!). Some scenes, like the very first one, seem to be unnecessary long and reduce the pace of the film and makes it harder for the spectator to get into the story. And of course, there is what Indy's new adventure is about: it seems to fit perfectly with the others when, suddenly... well, we are taken in a direction where we don't want to go! (you'd better watch and judge for yourself).

Something similar happens with the load of visual effects. Just as we saw in Star Wars, the urge is felt, it seems, of making use and overuse of the new technologies where they hadn't been needed before. The result, rather than Indy, feels more like watching its putative relative, The Mummy. Actors don't seem to get along with the new technologies either and so sometimes they just stand there looking around, unable to interact with the digital part of the set, fact which contributes to a couple of unsuccessful scenes.

One would think that after managing to go on without Sean Connery in the project quite believably, Spielberg would be able to rely on the rest of the cast (Karen Allen, from the first film, among them) to put strong empathetic characters into play, just as he usually does. Sadly, there are quite a few occasions in which the characters either don't seem to know what to say -or how- or they just come into the scene for no reason, and leave as clumsily. The combination of the relationship between the characters and the high level of adventure is not handled as successfully as it would have been expected, and we are left with a certain thirst for more personal moments and less action (and explanations!): moments to show us more of this new, older Indiana Jones, which is taking more and more after his father, or to enjoy Indy's reunion with his very first film girl.

Let's hope this is a momentary lapse for Spielberg's otherwise excellent craft, and that he is not finally listening to Lucas' directing suggestions.