ZombieSpirit

Craploads of Stills from "Dark Rising 2"!

Doug Lentz — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:15:38 +0000

Well, a little over a handful, actually; director Andrew Cymek has been diligently tweeting pics from "Dark Rising 2", pretty much the day of the shoot (one of the many benefits of shooting RED). If you haven't had a chance to look at them, check it out on yfrog.

Here are a few of my faves:

Old Stuff is New Again!

Doug Lentz — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:29:15 +0000

Awhile ago, I removed a lot if the old crap that I'd done on other people's projects that was cluttering these pages: production stills and storyboards and ancient concept art and sketches. There just didn't seem to be a place for them once I reorganized everything here (I guess I'm a bit anal in that respect).

Well, it turns out one or two people enjoyed looking at some of that stuff, so I've caved and set up a new subsection of this site called "Old Junk" which is kind if a grab bag of stuff from the past.

This new section can be found here, or anywhere on the site via the "Sketchbook" menu bar at the top of the page (hey, there's a "New Stuff" area as well). You wanted it, you got it, enjoy it.

PS: my hugely popular "GallowWalker" Production Stills are still kicking around here somewhere, but I'm afraid you're gonna have to look for them.

Where the Hell?

Doug Lentz — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:34:50 +0000

Apologies, one and all, for the lack of updates. Looking at these pages, you'd think, based on my previous post, that I was so upset about Roman Polanski's arrest in Switzerland, that I went into hiding. Far from it. I am alive and well (despite roaming clouds of H1N1 paranoia) in North Bay (in chilly Northern Ontario, Canada) helping out where I can on the low budget production "Dark Rising 2".

Written and directed (and starring and shot and to be edited by) the spookily talented Andrew Cymek (@andrewcymek) and produced by (and starring) the wonderfully quirky Brigitte Kingsley (@beekingsley), who I worked with many years ago "back-in-the-day" when I was doing wacky TV stuff. It's the sequel to Cymek/Kingsley's first feature (with an even lower budget) "Dark Rising", a horror-comedy in the same vein as "Evil Dead" and "Army of Darkness".

Andrew Cymek and Brigitte Kingsley behind the scenes [photo by Bob Mallen]

Halfway through the shoot right now and I am having a blast. I'd forgotten how much fun really low budget filmmaking can be. Added to this is the fact that "Dark Rising 2" is actually shooting in the same town I was born and grew up in. Yes, all those terrific nostalgic stories I've told here over the years happened right in this place. Turns out most of the crew attended York University Film School, a few years after me, so, yeah, nostalgia all around.

The film will be shooting for another couple of action-packed weeks or so, then (almost literally the day after wrap), work starts on the first five episodes of the "Dark Rising" TV series (!!), which Cymek is writing as he shoots this. It will bridge the stories of the characters between the first film and the second. I honestly don't know where this guy gets the energy. Actually, that's not true, I have the same energy myself, unfortunately, I usually end up running in circles rather than forward as Cymek does.

Inspired by all this creativity, I'm currently spending what spare time I have on a couple of screenplays (yes, at the same time, I'm completely insane). The first is the same one that I've been going on and on about for the last year (the one that started it's life as the experiment I called the One-Week Screenplay). I managed to get some pretty good notes from Cymek and Kingsley on my second draft, and started re-thinking the thing. Rather than continuing with the same material or starting from scratch, I decided to clear the slate a little bit and am crafting this thing as a sequel to my previous script (which at least fools me into thinking that all the work that went into the last one isn't just ending up in the bin). Hey, what can I say? It's original, isn't it? When's the last time you heard of someone writing a sequel to a screenplay that's been voluntarily shelved?

The second is a cute, nostalgic period piece where many people are brutally murdered. It's a love story. Yes, I'm charming.

Anyway, as long as the coffee supply holds up, you can count on more shoot-related posts, pics, videos and info, so stay tuned. Or, follow me on Twitter (@zombiespirit) for up-to-the-minute stuff.

Roman Polanski Arrested in Switzerland

Doug Lentz — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:02:22 +0000

Trouble never seems to end for poor Roman Polanski. The director of "The Pianist", "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" (among many others) was arrested by Swiss authorities at the airport yesterday while in town to accept and award at the Zurich Film Festival. He now faces possible extradition to the U.S. for charges involving his flight from the country in 1978 following charges (and a guilty plea) of sex with a minor.

Polanski recently made a formal request to have the case dismissed based on misconduct by the judge at the time. The victim in the case, Samantha Geimer, has stated she would like the case to be dismissed as well. But it seems Swiss authorities have decided to take matters into their own hands. It will be interesting to see how U.S. authorities will respond.

There is an excellent documentary on Polanski and the case called "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired". If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.

Baffling Old Comic

Doug Lentz — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:32:13 +0000

I like a good mystery as much as the next guy, but this comic, from a 1960 issue of a Dell publication called "1000 Jokes"* (yeah, I do some pretty strange things with my spare time) has me completely flummoxed. I'm serious, I've been looking at this thing for days and I can't make and sense of it:

Does it have something to do with the fact that a lot of people are smoking during the intermission? Is that funny? Does it have to do with the fact that there's a naked woman standing outside smoking? Is that funny? I pride myself with knowing quite a bit about the era and the culture at the time (you know, a guy is looking at a ferocious dinosaur skeleton and he says the monster's expression reminds him of his wife, stuff like that), but, even wearing those goggles, it makes no more sense.

I even tried taking a couple steps back, as it were, and included the next cartoon on the same page (by a different artist) to see if it made sense, and it's slightly more funny:

See, it looks like the guy's going to start pegging people off with a slingshot as they stand outside the theatre at intermission. I know it's how I feel. But it's pretty damn funny. Right? It's strange, because every other joke in the damn book elicits at least a knowing smirk from me, except this one. Perhaps I will draft a strongly-worded letter to the publisher.

*The magazine "1000 Jokes" actually has well under 100 jokes. I counted. Maybe they're talking about the entire run of the publication.

One Heck of a Scam

Doug Lentz — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:50:01 +0000

Merrel Davis over on his Uncompleted Works blog (@UncompletedWork on Twitter if you're so inclined), stumbled across a pretty devious scam on Craigslist directed squarely at would-be screenwriters that's worth reading (and watching out for, if you actually feel like turning to Craigslist to sell your writing, which is foolhardy to say the least).

The basic plot, so to speak, is that they want to setup this "ghostwriting team" who will take their treatment "and transform it into an industry-recognized screenplay." Each team member gets $100 a week, for 10 weeks, based on assignments handed out by a "project leader" at a weekly meeting mysteriously at "a location near the Financial District" (in New York I assume). An alley? Pizza parlour? On the street at the back of a truck?

If you haven't already started running ten miles away from this thing, here's the kicker: Merrel contacted them, and they responded that they would require a 3 page writing sample, preferably based on the specs they provide (i.e., a scene for their script) which they would own (the instructions are very clear on that). So, basically, they get some poor sap to write three original pages for them for free!

I imagine, with every response they send out, they attach a different scene (in Merrel's case, it was: "tell the story of two college students meeting at a location. One student attempts to get something from the other student"). It's pretty devious, and I can imagine, quite easily, a lot of people just starting out, desperate for work, actually falling for it.

Read Merrel Davis' original piece here.

This sounds tailor-made for Harmon Leon. Maybe he should sign up and investigate this in more detail...

One-Week Screenplay: The Final Chapter

Doug Lentz — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:20:20 +0000

What started its life — well over a year ago — as an attempt to write a very simple screenplay in one week, is now finally done. That is: I have a third draft that I am happy and confident enough with to say, "yes, this could be a movie". Whew!

I've learned a hell of a lot about writing in the process, the main thing being that I don't plan on using the same process again.

I forget where I heard the advice: "write your first draft as quickly as possible", but I write fast so it seemed natural to me. The real danger here is that you get locked into some really great scenes that you've fallen in love with. Unfortunately, as the story develops into something else with revisions and the next subsequent draft, these scenes don't belong anymore.

It's a lot of extra work, but I think that once you've done your quick first draft, you need to take it, set it aside, forget about it, then hunker down and write your real first draft. Chances are nothing will remain, but at least you got that first pass out of your system and have the freedom to write something without being constrained.

It's a little bit like getting the kiss out of the way at the start of a first date I think.

Case in point: around the middle of my last batch of major edits, just for fun, I tried cutting out the first three scenes of the script. I read it through. Guess what? I didn't need them. Sure they were great scenes, and I truly felt that they contributed a good deal to the story in that they were helping to develop character, but when push comes to shove, you can take all the character from one beloved scene and get the same point across with one line or even just a look. So, question the existence of every scene is what I'm saying I guess.

Only one scene remains in my third (current) draft that was in the drafts previous to it and I'm already starting to wonder whether it should be there or not.

As I said in my last post on this subject, whipping together a treatment is a crucial exercise, whether you intend for anyone else to read it or not. Just get the main points of the action down, one-line per scene, one paragraph per sequence, with no dialogue whatsoever. It's the easiest way to spot whether something's going to work or not. You can ramble for page after page with meaningless dialogue (just look at a Quentin Tarantino script) but if you're not actually moving forward, then you're not telling a story.

A couple of painful lessons learned. I do honestly hate writing and I know that I shouldn't. I love every other part of the whole "movie making process" I don't know why this scribe's hat doesn't fit me well.

Anyway, happy for now that I have packed away my index cards and notebooks. Anxiously awaiting feedback and inevitable revisions and pleased that I probably won't have to start over again on page one anytime soon (fingers crossed). Maybe if I'm more logical and methodical on the next one, sitting down in front of my screenplay every day won't feel like being at violin practice while all the other kids are out having fun.

Related Posts:

This is Why I Use a Mac

Doug Lentz — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:52:02 +0000

I don't want to get into a whole lot of history here, but Microsoft has never been "cool".

Exhibit A: Host a Windows 7 Party!

Gadzooks! Disney Acquiring Marvel!?

Doug Lentz — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:23:09 +0000

This news falls quite squarely in the "Yikes!" department: Disney announced today that it will be acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion. This includes Spider-Man, Iron Man and its stable of around 5000 characters. Is this a good thing? Does this mean future Marvel movies will be watered-down with family values? Does this mean reality to the inevitable Dr. Strange / Pluto cross-over we've all been waiting for?

Well, one bizarre thing for sure, Howard the Duck can now revert back to looking more like Donald Duck since the same company owns both characters (however, it's unfortunately more likely Howard will now be killed once and for all).

I may be wrong, but I think this was foretold as one of the signs of the apocalypse.

The official press release can be found here.

James Cameron's Judgement Day

Doug Lentz — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:24:38 +0000

Like him or hate him, James Cameron has a lot of sway in Hollywood. Since the, er, titanic success of at least one of his films, he can do pretty much anything he wants. What he wanted to do with the last few years, was to make a new 3D sci-fi adventure that would employ "game-changing" CGI and take filmmaking to a whole new level.

After very much buzz resulting from a select few seeing sections of the film at this year's ComicCon and the weeks leading up to it, the teaser trailer for this film, "Avatar", was released to the unwashed masses yesterday morning. The results were interesting to say the least.

Ain't It Cool News, which is usually a pretty good geiger-counter for how a genre film is sitting with its target audience, was not split, as I thought might be the case (there are a good number of action/sci-fi fans who still blame Cameron for betraying them with "Titanic"); there was a nearly unanimous consensus in the talkback section that the trailer "sucked" and that the final "cartoony" film was going to be "a financial turd". I've gotten used to the harshness of AICN's talkbackers over the years, but the vitriol that was spewing yesterday in response to the free (didn't cost anything to watch) trailer (i.e., not the final film) was unprecedented.

Head Geek Harry Knowles himself, on Twiiter, wrote:

Reading the talkback on AVATAR teaser makes me want to quit AICN. Such wanton negativity. So distasteful to my love of film.

I rarely judge a film based on a trailer, myself, but I have to admit I was more impressed by the new 20th Century Fox logo at the start than by anything I saw in the teaser. It's not that what was in there was bad, it's just that over the last couple of years, Cameron has been teasing us with comments about how ground-breaking the CG is going to be, and the word that's trickled-out from the select few who've seen sections of the film is that they have been awestruck.

In defense of Cameron, there is a world of difference between even the highest-resolution high-definition Quicktime clip and a 3D movie on a huge IMAX screen. Just the very nature of a film being projected in a dark room versus a backlit picture on a sub-standard screen while you eat your lunch at you desk in the office is like comparing aliens to apple juice. It's likewise, difficult to convince someone that David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" on a full size screen is a life-changing experience when all you have at your disposal is a standard definition letterboxed DVD.

But the technical aspects don't matter. Hell, the film itself doesn't even matter. The bottom line is that times have changed. As a society, we have become increasingly obsessed with numbers. Numbers are what makes or breaks a film in 2009, not the actual content, and getting numbers (i.e., a good opening weekend) means keeping the troops happy. Yesterday's trailer release was a milestone on Fox's timeline for "Avatar" and if AICN's talkback on the subject is any indication, it failed miserably (the fact that most users could not actually access the trailers once the official site's highly-promoted countdown ended didn't help matters much either).

We are now in the age of social media. Mashable had an interesting note on their site yesterday about the possible influence Twitter in particular may have on the success or non-success of an opening weekend; for their two examples, they chose "District 9" and "Brüno". While both were respectable outings in financial terms, "Brüno" dropped considerably in box office on its second day (over $14 million on day one to $8.7 million on day two) while "District 9" more or less maintained its standing (over $14 million on day one and $12.6 million on day two). Their conclusion? "District 9" had far more positive tweets than "Brüno". Now, that's not saying that "Brüno" is a bad movie, it's just that Twitter users perhaps concluded the film wasn't for them based on what they were hearing (subject matter, uncomfortable comedy, etc) versus the pretty much unanimous "must see" raves coming for "District 9".

Today is the next milestone for Cameron: what's been dubbed as "Avatar Day", which is an extended 15-minute, 3D IMAX preview of footage from the film, which, itself was marred by technical glitches in the sign-up process a few days ago. I don't think I'm going out on a limb predicting "Avatar" is going to be a trending topic on the web today. It's a huge gamble for Fox/Cameron as now they're dealing with fans who have shelled out money and will expend effort getting to the theater, waiting in line, etc. Plus, they've had a few days to really get geared up for this. If they're disappointed, it's gonna get messy and with Twitter at their fingertips, it's gonna get messy real quick.

Keep in mind: the film isn't even finished yet. Its release happens at the end of this year.

If Cameron is right, today's screenings will be the positive surge that guarantees the film does not bomb on opening day (and that's all that really matters, right?), but if he's wrong, or even if there's something as simple as a technical snafu that results in a less than optimal viewing experience, he's doomed, and that, frankly, is very sad.

When the fate of a film can be decided before it's even complete, what does this mean for the future of filmmaking?

Well, it will be interesting to watch this all play out ... in real time.