Journey Blue Films

New SOF Studios Website Is Live!

2012-02-03T21:52:00.000-08:00

The launch of our new website marks a big step in Gaming Entertainment's first collaborative development partnership between the world's most elite warfighter units and the global Shooter Fanbase. Take a look to see what we've been up to and where we're headed.

Women In Film Newsletter

2012-02-01T20:41:00.000-08:00

A big "thank you" to Women In Film for including the FlipsideTV distribution news of our short film Little Wings in this weeks newsletter!

Little Wings Picked Up For Distribution By FlipsideTV

2012-01-27T11:24:00.000-08:00

Our award winning short film, Little Wings, has been picked up for worldwide distribution through streaming, Video on Demand, and DVD/Blu-ray release by FlipsideTV.

In 2005, Brian Barsuglia, of SoCal Entertainment and Media Company, started the SoCal Film Festival and now, he has added FlipsideTV to the mix. Barsuglia's aim with the festival was to exhibit independent movies and start a distribution company. In essence, FlipsideTV will be like a Netflix for independents, but more, as it will also offer a complete distribution solution for producers and a unique distribution outlet for short films.

Essentially, FlipsideTV, is an inexpensive subscription service for film lovers and watchers. Their goal is to provide quality and entertaining movies without overloading the members, and, at the same time, giving a new opportunity to filmmakers. FlipsideTV offers filmmakers a straight-forward distribution agreement, either exclusive or non-exclusive, with an incredible profit and royalty sharing plan. The agreement is re-evaluated every year giving more freedom to the filmmakers.

Additionally, with short films, FlipsideTV plans to eventually add like movies to “collections” and take them to market, targeting Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Prime, DVD on Demand, Video on Demand markets as well as International markets.

Little Wings will be part of the official launch in April 2012.

In it's initial release in 2007, Little Wings was picked up at the Cannes International Film Festival for worldwide distribution through Singa Home Entertainment.

SOFs' Chief Creative Officer Named

2012-01-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

SOF Studios' Board of Managers is honored to announce that award-winning filmmaker, Ms. Morgan Rhodes, has accepted its invitation to serve as Chief Creative Officer. Ms. Rhodes creatively oversees all films, story modes, and associated creative writing projects from SOF Studios, Ltd. Ms. Rhodes will also continue her duties as President and CEO of Journey Blue Films.

Ms. Rhodes worked for several years at the American Film Institute (AFI) where she had access to creative new filmmakers and the extensive AFI library. While at AFI, she worked as an assistant on several of the television specials, including the Life Achievement Award shows for Tom Hanks, Robert DeNiro, and Barbra Streisand.

In 2003, Ms. Rhodes left AFI to devote her time to the production company where she worked as an Assistant Director on independent films and pilot television projects before making the jump to writer, director and producer.

Ms. Rhodes has worked on the television show Nip/Tuck and was Co-Executive Producer on Bitter Brew, a television spec pilot starring David Moscow. She has worked on various film projects including, The Job with Darryl Hannah, Moonlight Serenade with Amy Adams, Bunny Whipped with Joey Lauren Adams and Rebecca Gayheart, Trailer Talk with Gordon Clapp and Ron Canada, and Slipstream with Anthony Hopkins.

Ms. Rhodes has also worked as a Digital Artist with Reliance MediaWorks on the theatrical releases of The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, Avatar and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, as well as, the Blu-Ray and theatrical re-releases of Disney's Snow White, Pinnochio, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland and Fantasia. Other Blu-Ray and film restoration projects include Star Wars: Episode 1, Aliens, Rashomon, and The Robe.

Ms. Rhodes made her writing and directing debut in 2007 with the short film Little Wings. The film was picked up for worldwide distribution at the Cannes International Film Festival by Singa Home Entertainment.

Currently in development is the feature script, based on her short film, called A Heavy Heart. Other projects include a documentary, The Marines of Khe Sanh, and an untitled super hero feature.

GoPro - CHRISTOPHER MARK HEBEN Skydive San Diego

2011-12-21T18:38:00.000-08:00

We just finished our first GoPro video featuring former U.S. Navy SEALs Christopher Mark Heben and Geoff Reeves filmed at Skydive San Diego earlier this month. We are also working on another video spotlighting Geoff and should have that one ready in the next couple of weeks.

Check out the video on YouTube and let us know what you think!

A special thanks goes out to our amazing editor, Rebecca "Bex" Aldana!

Follow Christopher Mark Heben on Facebook!

GoPro - Three Day Eventing, Cross Country

2011-12-15T20:25:00.000-08:00

I just love GoPro cameras! I do. They are super durable and easy to use, not to mention how amazing the HD footage looks in the editing room.

Yesterday, we took our gear to Agua Dulce, California to shoot the cross country portion of a Three Day Eventing project with rider Jennifer Taxay Kelly and her horse, Hailey. A large water trap was involved so having the water proof housings on the cameras allowed us to place them in any location. They stayed nice and dry as a very wet horse and rider moved above them while exiting the jump. I also found that I didn't need a tripod while shooting. It's very easy to steady the cameras and move freely. We did, however, use a couple of JOBY GorillaPods. It made it easier to place the cameras low to the ground, pointing up, to get a nice wide fish-eye effect. They also work well when taping a camera in position.

I highly recommend purchasing extra batteries, a Battery BacPac for each camera, and at least one auto charger. The batteries didn't seem to last as long as described so we had to plan ahead to recharge before moving on to other shooting areas. All in all, the gear worked like a charm!

Next week, we will finish up the shoot with Dressage and Stadium Jumping.

For more on Jennifer, check out her cross country ride this year on horse, Taboo, at the Twin Rivers Ranch Winter Horse Trials.

A few photos from the shoot...

Rebecca Aldana sets the cameras for a take.

Jennifer Taxay Kelly is geared up for the water trap.

Taking a break from shooting.

Me with friend, and fellow filmmaker, Rebecca Aldana.

GoPro - Skydive San Diego

2011-12-15T17:46:00.000-08:00

Journey Blue Films spent a day last week with two former U.S. Navy SEALs, Christopher Mark Heben and Geoff Reeves, at Skydive in San Diego, California. We were testing our new GoPro gear and the guys were happy to jump out of a plane to help us.

Geoff came prepared with his own GoPro camera so we attached a helmet cam to Chris, along with a chest cam using the GoPro chest harness. We pointed the chest cam upward toward Chris' face which provided some amazing inverted footage of the sky and Earth. We set the helmet cam to wide angle at 1080 and the chest cam on slow mo. The slow motion setting captured more of the illusion of floating.

It was a great day and we had a lot of fun! We shot plenty of footage and should be finished with the editing stage soon. Watch for the video post!

In the meantime, here are some photos snapped on location.

Fmr. U.S. Navy SEAL Geoff Reeves

Fmr. U.S. Navy SEAL Christopher Mark Heben

Fmr. U.S. Navy SEAL Geoff Reeves

Fmr. U.S. Navy SEALs Geoff Reeves & Christopher Mark Heben

*All photos are subject to U.S. copyright laws and are under the ownership of Journey Blue Films, Inc. Photos may not be used without express written permission. Photos may be licensed upon approval of intended use and permission by photographed subjects only.

Gears of War 3 Winner!

2011-11-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for your entries into the November giveaway from Entertainment Earth!

The lucky winner is...

Congratulations to Leslie Guest! Your Gears of War 3 swag is on it's way! Big thanks again to everyone who entered! Check back at the end of the month for our December giveaway, the last of 2011!

November Giveaway: Gears of War 3

2011-11-02T12:05:00.000-07:00

Released in September, Gears of War 3 sold 3 million copies in it's first week and has grossed more than any other 2011 video game to date! The release has pushed the lifetime franchise sales over the $1 billion mark. So, being that you guys are such big fans, I snagged some cool merchandise for you from Entertainment Earth!

For those of you not in the know...

Gears of War is a tactical, 3rd-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It centers on the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless, subterranean enemy known as the "Locust Horde." The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a former prisoner and war-hardened soldier. The game is based on the use of cover and strategic fire for the player to advance through the scenarios.

First, the Vein Omen Beanie Hat in red and black featuring the Gears of War 3 logo.

Next, this thick rubber bracelet presents the Gears of War 3 game title against a black background.

Last but not least...a Gears of War 3 Marcus Messenger Bag! You can transport classified documents or just carry your books and laptop. Measures 14-inches wide x 12-inches tall x 4 1/2-inches deep.

The giveaway is open to everyone! To enter, just leave a comment under this post. Deadline for entries is Wednesday, November 16. No entries after midnight PST on that date. The winner will be announced on the morning of Thursday, November 17. Winner is chosen by Random.org.

**The comments section on this website is Facebook equipped but doesn't like web blocking software. If you can not see a log in area, or comments section below this post, please turn off your blocking feature and refresh the page. That should do it! Good luck!

The Marines of Khe Sanh: Update

2011-10-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

New pages and info have been added for our Vietnam War documentary, The Marines of Khe Sanh. We are in post-production right now and should have a teaser out soon! Check back for updates!

Bob Fett Hoodie Winner!

2011-10-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your entries into the October giveaway from Think Geek!

The lucky winner is...

Congratulations to John A.! Your Boba Fett Hoodie is on it's way! Big thanks again to everyone who entered! Check back at the end of the month for our November giveaway!

October Giveaway: Boba Fett Hoodie

2011-10-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

This is a brand new release to the market! We're offering this officially licensed Star Wars apparel item from Think Geek to you! There is no armor lining, and it won't protect you from blasts, fire, acid or poison, but it will take the chill off while sitting in the movie theater. This is the new and improved version with many of the details created in embroidery. However, the back on this version of the hoodie is blank.

Photo credit: Think Geek

Here are the specs:

Long-sleeve, full-zip hooded sweatshirt
60% cotton / 40% polyester
Two front pockets
Ribbed cuffs and bottom
Zipper extends only to the neck and not the hood
Eyes on the side of the hood are self-fabric (not mesh or see-through)
Turn hoodie inside out before washing in cold water, lay flat to dry

Photo credit: Think Geek

The winner will receive the item directly from Think Geek to ensure the proper fit.

The giveaway is open to everyone! To enter, just leave a comment about Star Wars under this post. Deadline for entries is Wednesday, October 19. No entries after midnight PST on that date. The winner will be announced on the morning of Thursday, October 20. Winner is chosen by Random.org.

**The comments section on this website is Facebook equipped but doesn't like web blocking software. If you can not see a log in area, or comments section below this post, please turn off your blocking feature and refresh the page. That should do it! Good luck!

Barbershop Punk: Raising a Voice against Media Consolidation

2011-09-26T23:12:00.000-07:00

What happens when a concerned citizen like Robb Topolski challenges a giant like Comcast? The result is an exposure of underhanded tactics and a class-action lawsuit that netted users up to $16 million. Is "Big Brother" in control, or are we maintaining our free market?

What is Net Neutrality? The words have been circling the internet for the past few years gaining momentum. The principle itself advocates no restrictions by internet service providers, or even governments, on content, sites, platforms and communication. By controlling the internet through a tiered service, and what you are able to search within it, telecom companies seek to control the pipeline and remove competition. This fight is one of the biggest in our internet history. Without internet freedom, freedom of commerce and maintaining our control of the world free market, we open ourselves up to discrimination, double-dipping, and stifling innovation. The days of freely putting up a website to help your fellow man, support your family, or provide learning will be over unless you are willing to accept a pay-per-view internet.

Shedding light on this ongoing fight is the independent feature documentary Barbershop Punk. Directed by two women, Georgia Archer and Kristin Armfield, the film brings this debate home on a personal level. Filmed all over the country, Barbershop Punk features interviews with Damian Kulash of OK Go, Janeane Garofalo, Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, Jim Ladd (KLOS), John Perry Barlow (EFF), the Christian Coalition, NARAL Pro Choice America and many others. A star on the festival circuit, the film has screened and won awards at the likes of SXSW, AFI Silverdocs, Watch Docs, the Denver STARZ Film Festival and the AFI FEST.

Barbershop Punk has made great strides on its own but help is needed to secure commercial distribution and a limited theatrical release to push the film up to the national level. They are in the final 64 hours of a Kickstarter campaign with only $2,000 needed to complete their goal. Please visit the link and donate to this important project. Protect your freedoms and keep the internet FREE!

GoPro Location Scout - Three Day Eventing

2011-09-26T19:28:00.000-07:00

We're gearing up for a new project using GoPro cameras. I have several friends who have tested these cameras but I've never had the pleasure until now. There are a lot of amazing videos out there that have been created in the snow, sky, water, and in the world of automobiles and motorcross. I highly recommend checking out Infinity List for some great footage!

We're fortunate enough to be jumping in to this in the horse arena, an area not yet utilized by this gear. We'll be covering rider Jennifer Taxay Kelly, a professional Three Day Eventer, and her beast of a horse, Hailey. Today was our first location scout in the hills north of Los Angeles.


Figuring camera placement in this huge water trap that will be filled on the day of the shoot.


Jennifer boots Hailey for a work out.


Hailey's beautiful, powerful and highly spirited!

Hailey extending herself.


Building muscle during collection so she can hold her own on the course.

Max was a great assistant! I was able to pay him in Scooby snacks.

September Giveaway: Back To The Future Mark I DeLorean

2011-08-31T23:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on your favorite items! I thought this would be a good one from Think Geek for September. They are having a big clearance sale so visit their site and check out their other items.

Doctor Who may need a police box, but real time travelers use a DeLorean. Originally manufactured in northern Ireland, the DeLorean DMC-12 had gull-wing doors and totally sweet brushed stainless steel paneling. Sadly, it was the only car the DeLorean Motor Company ever produced, so that's why you don't hear it being called the DMC-12. This DeLorean is a 1/15th size replica of the one used in the Back to the Future movies, including fully-detailed moving parts, lights, and sound effects. You can act out your travel fantasies but please don't flirt with your mom.

Product Specifications

1/15th scale replica of the iconic DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future
Lights, sound effects, and fully-detailed moving parts
Sound effects include:

First time travel
Car trouble
Revving up and winding down
Opening door
Rev up and peel out
Engine start-up
Return from time travel
Screeching halt
Time circuit engaged
No power

Be careful not to get it to 88 miles per hour and whatever you do, don't flirt with your mom
Fun fact: John DeLorean was 6'4" tall - that's probably why the car has gull-wing doors!
Size: 14" long (do the math and you'll know how long a real DeLorean is!)

The giveaway is open to everyone! To enter, just leave a comment under this post. Deadline for entries is Thursday, September 15. No entries after midnight PST on that date. The winner will be announced on the morning of Friday, September 16. Winner is chosen by Random.org.

**The comments section on this website is Facebook equipped but doesn't like web blocking software. If you can not see a log in area, or comments section below this post, please turn off your blocking feature and refresh the page. That should do it! Good luck!

Marty McFly: If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.

The lucky winner is...

Congratulations to Daniel Willis! Your DeLorean is on it's way! Big thanks to everyone who entered! Check back at the end of the month for our October giveaway!

ANTHONY HOPKINS: The Hollywood Flashback Interview

2011-08-31T17:50:00.000-07:00

With Anthony Hopkins on the set of Slipstream.

When working on a film set, there are times when you know you're in the presence of greatness. Working with Anthony Hopkins on Slipstream, his writing and directing debut, was definitely one of those times.

A friend working on the production called for back-up while Hopkins' crew was shooting in an isolated location in the Lancaster desert. At the time, I was working as an Assistant Director so I wasn't interested in just being an extra hand in that department, but when he mentioned the shoot was with Hopkins, I couldn't get into the car fast enough. It was a tough shoot, 110 degrees during the day, freezing at night, mini dust storms and scorpions, but I was in the midst of having one of the biggest highlights of my career.

When I first got to the set, the stand-in for his co-star was late. So, being the only female on the AD team, I was assigned the task of reading lines with Hopkins to block an exterior shot. I thought I might actually have a heart attack, especially because I had not received a script and had no idea what was going on or how to deliver the lines. I wanted to do my best, it was Anthony Hopkins. I heard some snickering from the camera team and the First Assistant Director. When I read the sides, I knew why. In the scene, the female character meets up with the Hero next to an SUV where the Hero tries to distract her away from the vehicle and the dead body inside. However, she proceeds to drop her pants and urinate in front of him during this conversation. So, being a good sport, I turned to the guys smiling and said, "You all, suck!" After their raucous laughter died down, I was ready to go all the way with this. I can handle a little hazing.

When Hopkins walked out to the set, he immediately held out his hand and introduced himself. I was taken by his soft British voice and directness, making you feel like the only person around, a far cry from Hannibal Lecter. I introduced myself and addressed him as "Mr Hopkins" to which he replied, "Please, call me, Tony." We made small talk as we moved into position on set.

As we got into the first take and next to the SUV, I jokingly put my hands on the button of my blue jeans and asked, "How far do you want to take this?" He laughed and said, "Not that far." Again, raucous laughter from the camera crew. We rehearsed the scene five times, each time I delivered my lines basically wrong. Tony was kind and had a good sense of humor about the situation. I make it a point never to go on a film set without having read the script and having some grasp on the characters no matter what my job is during the production. You never know what will happen and being prepared for anything is the key to a smooth shooting day. When blocking was completed, he put his arm around me and asked if I had read the script. I explained that I had been called late the night before and the production team had not had a chance to get one to me. Together we walked back to the production trailer where he proudly handed me the script, stating "Here, grab a cup of coffee and let me know what you think."

It was probably the most fun I've ever had on set. Watching Tony work with the cast and crew was a lesson in humility. Kind, generous, uplifting and genuine caring from the biggest film star in the world.

Enjoy this 2002 interview with Anthony Hopkins by Contributing Writer, Alex Simon of The Hollywood Interview.

~ Morgan Rhodes

Sir Anthony Hopkins

When I was asked by Venice Magazine to interview Anthony Hopkins in September of 2002, then-as-now he was regarded as perhaps the greatest living actor in the English-speaking world. That said, I wasn't sure what, or whom, to expect. Hopkins was known for having a somewhat mercurial personality, as well as not being a man to suffer fools gladly. Fortunately, I found him to be a very friendly, open and erudite gent with a remarkably diffuse and quite brilliant mind. Below, when Hopkins starts talking about his experience on Richard Attenborough's film MAGIC, notice how the conversation shifts suddenly to the Bee Gees, John Travolta and SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, then effortlessly back to the topic at hand. This was my impression of Anthony Hopkins throughout our talk: insatiably curious about everything, even his memories, and able to mentally multi-task with an ease that was quite breathtaking.

Our primary topic of discussion was Hopkins' final turn as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Brett Ratner's RED DRAGON, the second (and completely unnecessary) filming of Thomas Harris' first Lecter novel of the same name, previously filmed by Michael Mann in 1986 as MANHUNTER, one of the seminal films of the '80s. Still, watching Hopkins tackle the role again was great fun, and he obviously relished not only playing Lecter, but discussing the good doctor, as well. Hopkins continues to grace films that dominate at the box office, most-recently in Joe Johnston's reboot of THE WOLFMAN, playing father to lupine-infected Benicio Del Toro.

I've run into Hopkins several times since, and he always remembers our breakfast at Santa Monica's Miramar Hotel that chilly September morning.

ANTHONY HOPKINS SERVES HIS FINAL COURSE
By
Alex Simon

Felt by many to be the heir apparent to Laurence Olivier as the world's finest English-language actor, Philip Anthony Hopkins was born December 31, 1937 in Marga, Wales, the son of Muriel and Richard Hopkins, who worked as a baker. Young Anthony was categorized a "slow learner," and had trouble in school, feeling himself to be an outcast, a stigma which followed him until he left Wales to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.

Following repertory work, Hopkins attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and then went on to Laurence Olivier's National Theater, where he distinguished himself as one of the company's most promising young actors. Although he made his film debut with a bit in a little-seen Lindsay Anderson film called The White Bus (1966), it was his turn as the conflicted gay prince Richard the Lionheart in the classic The Lion in Winter (1968), opposite Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole, that first brought Anthony Hopkins to international attention.

While the next two decades brought Hopkins solid film roles as well as two Emmy-winning turns on the high-profile telefilms "The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case" (1975), playing accused kidnapper Bruno Richard Hauptmann, and "The Bunker" (1981) a chilling evocation of Hitler's final days, with Hopkins' bravura acting as Der Fuhrer a turn that still sparks discussion, true stardom eluded him, until fate intervened in 1991...

The Silence of the Lambs won five 1991 Academy Awards, include a Best Actor statuette for Hopkins. Along with his newfound star status, a new character was unofficially inducted into the pop cultural lexicon: Dr. Hannibal "the cannibal" Lecter, a role for which Hopkins has become synonymous (although the part was originated by Scottish actor Brian Cox in Michael Mann's 1986 Manhunter). A-list parts have followed ever since, with Hopkins raising the bar a notch or two even in some of his less-than-stellar films. Outside of the theatrical world, Hopkins was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1993, and became an American citizen in 2000, although he still gets to retain his title of "Sir."

Anthony Hopkins sat down with Venice Editor Alex Simon on a beautiful, but chilly, late September morning in Santa Monica to reflect on his life and career.

I watched the previous two films (Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal) before seeing Red Dragon. It was fascinating to watch you evolve into the character of Hannibal Lecter. First question: do you study animals to prepare for your roles?

Anthony Hopkins: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for noticing that.

In Silence, he was definitely a snake most of the way through, but he gradually became more cat-like as the films, and your characterization, progressed.

Yeah, well, I think that even at the end of Silence he was a cat. I love cats. I love watching animals. The main problems I had, really, regarding Red Dragon were that first, I had my doubts about doing it again to begin with, because I thought that doing two was quite enough, and that three was perhaps pushing it. So I thought when Hannibal was over that I was done with the character and I could just move on and live the rest of my life, because I've played a lot of other roles, as well. Then I called my agent, Rick Nicita, one day and said, 'Dino (De Laurentiis) wants to remake Manhunter and call it Red Dragon, which was the book's title. What do you think?' He said, "Well, why not?" and I thought 'Yeah, why not? Absolutely.' (laughs) Then they got Ted Tally to write the script and we met with (director) Brett Ratner in New York, and that's how it happened. I'm really much more laid back about these sorts of things now. I wish I had been this laid back when I was a younger actor, that's just the way it is, I guess. (laughs) But this time, I really wanted to play him with much more ferocious energy, and avoid the jokes. I really wanted to show what a true monster he is. He's a killer. He's a dangerous man, not Mr. Cutesy. This isn't a franchise, like Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is a dangerous man, who's better off in jail. So that's the premise we went with.


Hopkins in Red Dragon.

Certainly all three of the directors whom you've worked with on this series (Jonathan Demme, Ridley Scott, Brett Ratner) are very different. Tell us about Brett.

He's a very bright guy, a very gifted director. Very straightforward in his approach. I think he's one of those NYU Film School guys, and he gave me a fresh look at those so-called "film nerds," because he just loves film. So that was great. He knows his stuff.

Along with author Thomas Harris, you probably know more than anyone about Hannibal Lecter. I think one of the things that makes him so fascinating to people is the air of mystery that surrounds him. We now so little of his backstory, what dove him over the edge to begin with, for example. That in mind, tell us about Dr. Lecter, if you would.

It's funny, Dino wants to do another one and go back into (Lecter's) past. Honestly, I don't know how to answer that, other than to say when I got the script for Silence of the Lambs back in August of 1989, I had never heard of the character of Lecter before, although I had seen Manhunter and liked it very much. But I didn't make the connection when I got Silence of the Lambs. I was doing a play in London at the time, and I decided I didn't want to finish reading it until I found out if it was a real offer or not, because I hadn't worked in America for quite some time. When I found out it was a real offer, I read it, and knew immediately that it was one of those roles that would make a difference for me. As an actor, I guess it's a gift that I have, so to speak, that I can pick up very quickly on what I can play, or can't play. I'm not ghoulishly fascinated by the dark side, but I understand it. I think anything that's masked or shadowy is fascinating to us. I think all the great villains of literature have been dark, shadowy figures: Mephistopheles, Iago, Dracula, Richard III. And I knew just how to play this man. I just knew.

Hopkins' Oscar-winning turn in The Silence of the Lambs.

Tell us about working with Ed Norton.

Well, Ed's a remarkable actor. I'd first seen him in Primal Fear and thought he was brilliant in it. People talk about chemistry and all that. Really, if an actor shows up, knows his lines, that's all you need. I liked working with Ed because he made the decision to play Will Graham very passive. There's one great bit, and I don't know if this was Ed's idea or Brett's, but Ed goes into a little anteroom when he comes to see me in the hospital while I'm reading the file, and he takes his jacket off, and he's soaked with sweat. I thought that was a great moment. He wasn't going to show Lecter that he was intimidated. And I think Lecter has a begrudging respect for Will Graham, even though he wants to kill him! (laughs) He was smart enough to put me away, after all. With Clarice it was a different matter, because here we have this young woman who's been sent down by her superiors and I grow to have affection for her.

And I noticed that, although Lecter maimed one woman, he's never really had any female victims, which leads one to believe he's somewhat chivalrous.

Yeah, I think so. He's not vulgar. (laughs)

You grew up in Port Talbot, Wales. It sounds like your childhood was relatively happy until you started school.

Yeah, school was my nemesis. It gave birth to my dark side. I couldn't accomplish anything in school. But I look back on it with no regrets because it was the rocket fuel that pushed me forward and got me out of there. For the longest time, I thought I didn't fit there because there was something wrong with me, but now I know it was because there was something right with me. But back then, I just wanted to do something to escape from my own inadequacy. I suppose today I'd have been diagnosed with A.D.D., or something similar. o I was very much left to my own devices. I remember my childhood with a lot of fondness, actually, although maybe I've romanticized it. I was born in a beautiful part of South Wales, which has since been ruined by the steel industry. I was born in a place called Margam, which is a beautiful, rural area east of Port Talbot.

Once you left school, and started acting, things got better for you.

Yeah, I've had a wonderful life, actually. Couple of ups and downs like anyone else, but I had it pretty easy, really. I got a scholarship to a local acting school in 1955 when I was 17. The I did my national service, which wasn't a happy time, but I did it. Then I went to RADA after that. I went to a few reparatory companies prior to that. This one director told me "You're pretty rough around the edges still. You've got great energy on stage, but you’re dangerous to work with. You hurt people on stage! (laughs) You're very talented, but I think you need to go to one of those high-falutin' acting schools, which I don't really like, but I think it would be good for you." This man was called David Scasce, he was head of the Manchester Library Theater. So I got a scholarship to RADA after that, and I was old enough by then to pick up the rudiments of the discipline that acting requires, because prior to that, I thought acting was all about pure instinct. Then I went back to work with David Scasce, who was then at the Liverpool Playhouse. When I auditioned for David this time, he said "Well, that's an improvement!" (laughs) So I stayed there for a while, and David gave me some great parts to play, and from there I went to the National Theater under Laurence Olivier. So I've had a great life, an interesting life. I've had it easy compared to a lot of people. I was thinking yesterday when I was speaking to a friend of mine that sometimes we can get so wrapped up in the human condition that we forget about a lot of the good in our lives. I've had a wonderful journey. To be still working at 64, when most people retire, is an extraordinary gift.

I understand that seeing Charlie Chaplin's film Limelight (1951) was the spark that ignited your love of acting.

Yeah, that was a funny, sentimental little film. I was it when I was about 13 years of age, and it really pushed a button in me. I just wanted to be something different. Initially, I wanted to be a musician, then a composer, and then finally I fell into the acting business. Many years later, I was in a movie about Chaplin's life. There I was, with Robert Downey, Jr., sitting in Chaplin's garden in Switzerland, and it was there I learned I had just been nominated for an Oscar. If someone had told me that while I was watching Limelight 41 years before, I would have said 'You're kidding!' (laughs)


Lord Laurence Olivier

Was Olivier a mentor for you?

Well, he was my employer. I guess he was a mentor for me, and a lot of other people. He directed me twice, and I understudied him in a play and then went on for him. I worked with him once as an actor on-screen, in The Bounty (1984). I wouldn't say we were close friends. I was a generation and a half behind him. I knew him as well as I could, I suppose. He was a pretty colorful personality. He had tremendous drive, and ambition, and was a real force. A very nice guy and a titanic talent. His sort of talent has, in the eyes of cynics, become rather unfashionable. There are people who knock Olivier quite often, but not a single one of them could ever touch him in terms of talent. I thought he was an extraordinary man.


Richard Burton, with whom Hopkins shares a hometown.

I know that you and Richard Burton grew up in the same town. You met him as a kid, right?

Yeah, that was an odd confluence of synchronicities, I suppose. Post-war years, my parents moved from Margam to Port Talbot and took over my grandfather's bakery. That was 1947. And strangely enough, there was a young guy just down the road who was being primed to become an actor. His name was Richard Jenkins. A man called P.H. Burton had sort of adopted him and taught him Shakespeare. My mother went to London with my grandfather in 1949 and went to see a play called "The Lady's Not for Burning," by Christopher Fry, and she saw that there was this wonderful young actor in the play called Richard Burton, from Port Talbot. Early on, it seemed that I only had a talent for drawing and playing piano. There was a woman called Bernice Evans. She was an art student and was the daughter of a neighbor of my father's. She offered to give me art lessons. I used to go up to the Port Talbot post office, and upstairs there was a studio where I would take my lessons. I can still remember the smell of poster paints, sort of a powdery paint. She was a very good instructor. Then one night, the doorbell rang and this young man came up with these intense, bright green eyes. She said, "This is my friend, Richard." He looked at my drawing and said "Oh yes, I like his sailor's boots." (laughs) I got his autograph once later on, but I never got to know him. He was quite an influence on me, because he came from the same town, so I thought, maybe I could become what he'd become.

Your first big break in films came with The Lion in Winter.

Yeah, I was at the National Theater at the time, doing Laurence Olivier's production of Chekhov’s "Three Sisters." I got a phone call and this script was sent to me, and I met Peter O'Toole. I learned the part of Richard the Lionheart and I turned up in Chelsea Park Garden for an audition. This was September, 1967. Peter read the off-camera lines with me, and he said, "You've got the part." Katharine Hepburn had apparently asked him to choose the three sons, you see. She was at that point going into semi-retirement because Spencer Tracy had just died. So that's how I got it.

It's interesting you mentioning Spencer Tracy because you've always reminded me of him stylistically. You're definitely an actor for whom less is more.

(laughs) Yes, I suppose so. I've always admired Tracy, very much. There's no bullshit about him. He just gets up and does it. I've got no problem if people want to spend hours beforehand preparing before they come on-set, as long as they don't keep you waiting. And I've read Stanislavski and did the Method myself, and all that, but now I've simplified it: learn your lines, show up, and get on with it. I think that's what Tracy did, as well. I just saw a marvelous documentary about Dean Martin a few weeks ago. His widow was talking, and she said "Dino loved movies. He loved acting, but he never took it seriously." And Dean Martin was very good, as was Frank Sinatra and all those guys. All those guys, they didn't try to be Marlon Brando. They just did what they did. There's another great story that Martin's widow told: during the filming of Airport (1970), Dino was doing this scene and the actress playing opposite him was sitting in the corner, being very Method about it, keeping everyone waiting. Finally, Dino walks over to her and says "Honey, neither of us is going to win an Oscar for this, let's just do the scene so we can go home." (laughs) That sums it up for me. Get on with it. Do it. You don't need all this bullshit. Either you can do it, or you can't.


Hopkins and Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter.

Tell us about Katharine Hepburn.

She was great, a tough old bird, very formidable. She was opinionated about everything. A lot of people like to eulogize people like Katharine, but all I can say is she was very nice to work with, very professional. She said to me: "I'll give you one note. Don't act, just say the lines. It works. You've got a good pair of shoulders, good head, good eyes, good voice, that's all you need. Just watch Spencer Tracy, that's what he does. That's what all the best ones do." Burt Reynolds once told me a story about Tracy. When Burt was just starting out, he was doing something at Warner Bros. where Tracy was also shooting a film. Burt sort of shadowed him one day and Tracy spotted him. "Whaddaya want, kid?" "Mr. Tracy, can I ask you something?" "Sure." "You must be the greatest actor of all time." "Thanks." "You agree?" "Yeah." "Is there anything you're not great at?" Without missing a beat, Tracy says "Life."

It seems like so many great artists have wrestled with huge personal demons. Do you see a correlation between creativity and dysfunction?

Well, I suppose so. I don't want to romanticize it, but I suppose there is. I saw a very good documentary on the Barrymores the other night. When you look at what a poor, tired mess John Barrymore was at the end of his life, and what a catastrophe that was, it's just so sad. To go insane and either drink yourself to death, or blow your brains out, like Hemingway, it's very sad. Let's just say I don't recommend it. I think creativity can be as pain-free as possible. You can create and still have a good life. I think it's to do with selfishness, some emotional retardation, perhaps. And out of all that tension and all that morass comes something which is beautiful and grand and creative. But again, I don't romanticize it and I don't recommend it. My only demon that I had was that I drank too much. I was very insecure and frightened, but I wouldn't have missed it because I have no choice! It happened. I look back on it as a valuable time in my life. Alcohol gave me a great amount of courage and energy and anger, all things I never would have had the nerve to do. So I'm very grateful to that period in my life, which launched me, in a way. But finally, that kind of fuel rips you to pieces, so I said "enough of this." but now I feel relatively peaceful, relatively happy. I'm not good at being cooped up with anyone for very long. Maybe that's why I wasn't designed for marriage. I'm not good at any kind of relationship with people, really. I mean, I've had a number of good ones, but I get restless and I take off. So I've done my rounds there. I just try not to hurt anyone anymore, and I have hurt people in the past, by pulling away from them. But I guess it all balances out in the end. Life is far too short to live in hatred and anger.

Do you feel that most creative people are born that way? It certainly sounds like you were.

Yeah, I suppose so. I just don't go along with all that rubbish that you have to be miserable. I mean, what's your problem? Being in this business is a lot better than working in a car factory, a lot better than working in a coal mine. What's the big deal? People who moan and bitch and complain about what they do, I just want to say 'Then leave! Get out of it! Go do something else!' I mean, here you are, making a lot of money, with people feeding you on the set, looking after your every need. I just want to kick them in the goolies, you know? (laughs) You know when some of these megaphones of Hollywood show up on these award shows, and just never shut the fuck up? I just want to say 'Accept your award. Say "thank you," and get off!' (laughs) I'm just not interested in all that bullshit. There are surgeons and nurses and teachers, people out there who really deserve awards. Okay, I'll stop ranting now! (laughs)

I heard a story about Olivier once, that he avoided psychoanalysis his entire life because he was afraid that if he were "cured" he'd lose the compulsion to act. Did you ever hear anything about this?

That's interesting. No, I never did. I had an encounter with him once, toward the end of my time with the National Theater, back in '73. I was in a bit of trouble, becoming awkward to work with. Olivier recommended I go see a psychiatrist friend of his. I did for one session. He said my behavior was due to "creative exhaustion," or some crap like that. The problem was, I was drinking too much! So that was the end of my psychiatric therapy. (laughs) But I don't know what Olivier's take was on that. We never discussed it.


Hopkins and "Fats," in Richard Attenborough's Magic.

You've worked with Richard Attenborough both as an actor and as a director. Tell us about him.

Richard's a nice guy, very persuasive, a great salesman in the sense that he gets what he wants from you. He can charm a lot of people. He's a good man. I haven't seen him for a long time. (Pause. Hopkins hears the Bee Gees' "More Than a Woman" playing on the restaurant's sound system) Oh, I love this song! The Bee Gees, they're wonderful. This song reminds me of when I was shooting Magic with Attenborough and Ann-Margret up in Ukiah. It rained non-stop. I remember feeding the ducks in the rain on this lakeside in Ukiah, and this was playing on the radio in the trailer. Saturday Night Fever had just come out. God, that goes back to 1977. John Travolta. Donna Pescow. The Bee Gees were fantastic, weren't they? I just saw Magic again the other night, hadn't seen it for years. It's a good movie. But yeah, Richard's a great guy, loved working with him on Magic and A Bridge Too Far, and the other films. He belongs to that old school, slightly sentimental. Cries a lot. (laughs) I try to avoid sentimentality.

You did two incredible TV movies that you won Emmy Awards for: "The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case," in which you played convicted kidnapper Bruno Richard Hauptmann, and "The Bunker," in which you portrayed Hitler in his final days.

My last dive into the bottle was during my performance as Hauptmann. His widow actually wrote to me for a number of years before she died, at 90 I believe, trying to get her husband's name cleared, and wanting to enlist my help. I'm not so sure he was innocent. They found enough evidence in his house. An interesting side note: there was a man called Schonfeld, one of the first psychiatrists to work on the case, who drew up a profile of the kidnapper, told the police the sort of man they were looking for. He said that they were looking for a lone man, a lone operator. Schonfeld became friends with Hauptmann while he was in jail, on death row. William Randolph Hearst told Schonfeld "Tell Mr. Hauptmann that if he confesses and gives me his exclusive story, I'll make sure his widow and his family are looked after for the rest of their lives. I also have enough pull to commute his death sentence to a life sentence if he'll do this." So Schonfeld took Hearst's offer to Hauptmann who said "I'm innocent. There's nothing to confess." Now that says something to me, also. Maybe he was. There's a photograph of him in the holding cell just after he's been arrested. I used to look at that photograph all the time during the shoot. And he just looks completely neutral. He's sitting with his legs crossed, and is looking in the camera as if to say "What's going on? Why am I here?" But what they did was terrible, commuting his death sentence three times, and finally executing him in 1936. He said to Schonfeld, "Let's get it over with. They’ve killed me so many times already." They had actually shaved his head and were getting ready to take him down to the chair one of the times.

Hopkins' Emmy-winning turn as Adolph Hitler in "The Bunker."

Tell us about your interpretation of Hitler. What were you able to gather about his psyche and personality?

(laughs) Well, he was a jolly, cheery chappie, wasn't he? (laughs) One of the producers said to me after viewing the dailies: "You're kind of making him a nice guy. Could you make him less human?" I said 'What do you mean? He was human, that's what's so horrific about him!' They walk among us. We all have that in us. There was a man, his name was Schuschnigg. He was Chancellor of Austria. Just before the Germans marched into Austria to take it over, Schuschnigg was summoned to Berchtesgaden to meet with Hitler. He said Hitler was quite charming, and he even let him smoke, and Hitler despised cigarette smoke. So they all had lunch: he, Hitler, Eva Braun, Goehring, Goebbels, everything was fine, but he knew something was up. So lunch was over and Hitler showed Schuschnigg into his office, locked the door and proceeded to scream at him for 90 minutes, just absolutely salivating. Schuschnigg said "I knew then and there that I was in the presence of the devil." The other thing I remember in my research is from a woman journalist who interviewed Hitler just before the Munich agreement in 1938. She said "Herr Hitler has over 1,000 books in his personal library, none of which he has read. Of course he doesn't have to, because his mind is made up." I thought that was absolutely chilling! But getting back to your question...It's funny; people ask me things like "How did you play the butler in The Remains of the Day with such stillness?" And my answer is, "Well, I just didn't move very much." (laughs) People want all these deep and complicated answers from actors and the truth is I'm not very complicated. I don't have a complicated mind. I don't have a theological bent, either. I'm not really interested in the powers of darkness, and all that. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that God and the devil were actually the same. Love and hate are very close, dark and light, the yin-yang, you know. It's all very interesting, but I'm a bit superstitious about looking at it too closely.

Hopkins and Joan Allen in Oliver Stone's Nixon.

Of all your performances, I still think your portrait of Richard Nixon is your greatest.

I had a great time doing that, wonderful time. Long before I did the movie, I had been fascinated by Nixon, starting with Watergate. This was right before I came to America, in 1974. In those days, we got the live satellite feed about an hour later than North America did, so I remember watching his farewell to the White House staff and I remember thinking 'This is American history happening and I'm about to go live there and be a part of it!' The extraordinary thing about Nixon is that he was so consumed with the ambition to win the presidency, and that very ambition was the rocket fuel that powered his destruction. He was a brilliant, extraordinary man. I got to know people who knew him. It's extraordinary when you watch him during his farewell speech, when he says "Your enemies only win if you hate them back, and then you destroy yourself." That's when he was at his most real. Someone, I forget who, said "If only he'd showed that side of himself during Watergate, come out and said "Look, we made a mistake. I lied." He could've saved himself. He was very Lear-like, really. A tragically-flawed man. I loved doing that film.

You've been a highly-regarded working actor most of your life, but didn't really hit star status until your early 50s, when you won the Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs. If you'd had that level of success say, 20 years earlier, before you got sober, before you had a really strong sense of yourself, how do you think it would have been different for you?

Well, I can't second-guess myself, but I think I always had a practical, realistic sense of what it's all about. Of course, the ego plays tricks on you sometimes, but I think my father was very influential on me in that way. He couldn't stand all the frills and trappings of art. He didn't understand it, anyway. And I remember him saying once when I was playing some Beethoven on the piano, "What's that you're playing?" I said "Beethoven." He said "No wonder he went deaf. For God's sake, do something with your life!" He just didn't give a damn about all that. So my affectation playing Beethoven and Chopin on the piano when I was a kid, he just knocked the stuffing out of me. He didn't damage me, but he tried to tell met that life's much tougher than that. So I never had any illusions about it all. I'm not sure my experience would have been that different had a role like Lecter come earlier. It's not a question of carving out a career for myself. I never know what I'm going to be doing from one moment to the next. None of us do, really. It's funny, I saw a friend of mine yesterday and he said, "You seem so detached from all this." I said 'Yeah, yeah I am. I just can't get into it at all.' He said "Maybe that's why you're so successful."

Tim Hetherington In His Own Words. Rest in Peace.

2011-08-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

Watching a war film is usually a bit unnerving if done right. Sitting through Saving Private Ryan was difficult, partly because I couldn't breathe during the first twenty minutes of action, and I noticed Veterans wiping tears from their eyes.

I had the opportunity to attend a screening of Restrepo earlier this year. Being that it was a documentary, I was amped up from the beginning. Again, no breathing...for most of the film. I was on edge waiting for a stray bullet, and I could feel the heat of that valley and a dryness in my throat. I know nothing of war but what I've read, watched on television, or heard from family members who did serve. I can never know what it's really like, or the brotherhood, between soldiers. I can only try to transport myself there from a place of empathy. During the Q&A with Tim Hetherington, I thought there is a strong man with a commanding presence. He has a true sense of himself, a balance, and an ability to push on to tell the story. He'll be fine.

So, in April of this year, I was as shocked as anyone to hear that Tim had died in Libya. My heart sank for him, his friends and family, and the family of soldiers he had been embedded with in the Korengal Valley. The film community lost a brave and talented filmmaker that day, doing exactly what he loved.

Here is an interview with Tim Hetherington and filmmaker Sebastian Junger by Contributing Writer, Terry Keefe of The Hollywood Interview in February of this year.

~ Morgan Rhodes

(Tim Hetherington, above, during the shooting of RESTREPO.)

By Terry Keefe
April 20, 2011

News reports are stating that Tim Hetherington was tragically killed today in Libya. I interviewed Hetherington twice during the past year, along with Sebastian Junger, for Restrepo, the Oscar-nominated documentary they co-directed while embedded with an American platoon in Afghanistan.

Together, Hetherington and Junger created what I believe to be the most important film of the year. It is required viewing for all Americans, to be sure. Rest in peace.

I spoke to Hetherington and Junger two months ago, right before the Oscars, and prior to that, did a much longer interview with them on the shooting of Restrepo. I've reposted the entirety of that interview below.

BEARING WITNESS IN AFGHANISTAN: AN INTERVIEW WITH TIM HETHERINGTON & SEBASTIAN JUNGER, CO-DIRECTORS OF RESTREPO

I’ll just come out and say this - Restrepo is one of the best films about war ever made. My statement includes fiction and non, although Restrepo’s power is inseparable from the fact that it is a documentary. Filmmakers Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington embedded themselves for a year with the Second Platoon of Battle Company of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade in the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan to shoot the bulk of Restrepo and have created a non-fiction film which approximates the experience of a lengthy military deployment in the country as much as would be possible without actually going there oneself.

The Korengal Valley is a remote mountainous region utilized frequently by the Taliban for staging operations and for movements over the close border with Pakistan. In an already highly dangerous region, the Valley could be considered the epicenter of danger and has been dubbed “the Valley of Death” by U.S. forces. Junger and Hetherington made ten trips to the Korengal between May 2007 and July 2008, sometimes working together, and other times separately. The film is named after Army Private First Class Juan S. Restrepo who was killed in battle at the age of 20, during the platoon’s deployment in the Korengal. The platoon named their Korengal outpost, constructed and held at great peril, “Restrepo,” as well.

(The Korengal Valley, above)

Junger and Hetherington deliberately keep Restrepo non-partisan, and consequently, the film contains no discussion of the political backdrops of the Afghanistan conflict. Instead, the filmmakers sought to open a window onto the lives of one group of very brave soldiers, and simply “bear witness,” a phrase that Hetherington uses in our talk to describe their objective. What makes Restrepo such an achievement is that it captures the day-to-day existence of soldiers in a manner which only fiction films about war have been able to in the past. The nearly unprecedented length of the embedment was key here, in that the filmmakers became such an accepted presence around the company, that the soldiers let all guard down, allowing for the true fly-on-the-wall feel that every good documentarian hopes for. Intimately shot, the battles are often harrowing, particularly one in which a soldier is killed, sparking the temporary mental anguish of another, all as the bullets keep flying. The daily tension of waiting for the other shoe to drop permeates the film, much as it did in Platoon, the difference here being, again, that Restrepo is real.

Junger rose to prominence as the author of The Perfect Storm, has reported extensively from war zones around the world – including Monrovia and Sierra Leone, and recently released another best-selling book, War, which also covers his time with Battle Company in Afghanistan. UK-born Hetherington is a contributing photographer for Vanity Fair, lived behind the rebel lines as a photographer while the Liberian civil war raged, and has received four World Press Photo prizes.

The film has been justifiably short-listed in the Documentary Category for the upcoming Academy Awards, and won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

After watching Restrepo, it is almost a surreal contrast to be sitting with Junger and Hetherington at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills, sipping coffee on a sunny day, but here we are.

You chose not to editorialize one way or the other on the merits or politics of the war in Afghanistan. Was that a choice you made going in, right from the start?

Tim Hetherington: Well, we're journalists, so our default position is we're not writing editorial. We're trying to bring information to readers, viewers, so that they can make up their own conclusions.

It's refreshing to hear somebody say that these days.

Sebastian Junger: Good. Yeah, we're making a documentary, but we're making a documentary as journalists. And we had a very specific mandate that we'd given ourselves, to bring the experience of being a soldier to viewers. And soldiers aren't political. We really didn't want anything in the movie that wasn't part of their reality, so we don't even ask the general how he feels. We never tried to get an interview with the general at the main base, about the strategy, because the soldiers don't have the opportunity to ask those questions either. So that was our sort of central ethos with the movie, to create their reality onscreen.

Hetherington: And you know, part of this is that we're bearing witness to what’s happening. And in bearing witness, by not having opinions, then we're just recording everything that we come across. It’s not like we're sort of saying, “Oh, we've got to present soldiers, and this film is glorifying soldiering.” It's not, it's just that this is bearing witness to what happens, this is what their reality is like, the good and the bad. That they [the soldiers] responded to that, when they saw the film… it was really gratifying, because it was true to their experience, both the good and the bad.

Was this length of embedment difficult to get authorization for?

Junger: I don't know. It wasn't for us -

Hetherington: Well, you did something different, though, I think people just don't do that kind of thing.

Junger: Yeah. Well, I had been with Battle Company in 2005, and so I went back to the military and I said, “I want to follow a platoon from Battle Company for a whole deployment -- when they go back to Afghanistan.” And someone signed off on it, and then I think they forgot about it. And so the public affairs officer that I dealt with, he knew me: “Ah, here you are again. Okay. Good luck in the Korengal” - but I think, higher up than that, they weren't really focused on it.

If someone had put the question to some general: “Okay, there's a couple of journalists who are going to follow a platoon for ten one-month trips,” it's possible that that general could get uncomfortable with the idea, because we're going to see stuff that a journalist doesn't usually see. Soldiers are going to become open in a way that they aren't when you're just there for two weeks and you leave. But the issue never rose to that level in the military.

Hetherington: The average embed is like a week. Two weeks. Friends of mine who did rotations regularly in Iraq, and Afghanistan, the longest they're there with a group of soldiers is two weeks, and then they don't really ever see them again. So I think what we did was kind of just unusual.

Well, you guys were part of the company, basically, in many ways.

Hetherington: Yeah. Apart from pulling guard duty, which they tried to get us to do - you know, in the middle of the night - or carrying a gun. We were at a screening last night, a Q&A, and we were talking about this - because in the film you see a moment where the guy's shooting somebody - and then they're cheering him. As journalists, because you don't carry a gun, you sort of become this observer.

Last night, guys who are Iraq veterans were watching the film, we talked in the Q&A about their interests, and it was kind of cool to have a very open conversation, like, “Why do soldiers cheer when they shoot someone? What is the idea behind that?”

Junger: Because they're not sociopaths. You need some other explanation, other than a psychological disorder, because that's not what it is.

What were some of the things that came out when you posed that question? Were they able to put it into words?

Junger: You know, in the movie, the kind of movie we did, we didn't tackle that question directly. We let it unfold. In my book, I tackle it directly, I ask [a soldier], “What was that about?" And he said, “I know it doesn't look good, but that's one more guy who's not gonna kill one of us. And we're cheering, we're really cheering that fact, more than his suffering or whatever.”

(A firefight at the Restrepo outpost, above)

One of the things you notice immediately in the film, is how young these guys are. The fact that soldiers are young is obviously something you know, but as a civilian, I think you forget about it. And you have this young captain (Captain Dan Kearney) who has the most difficult job in the world. He has to deal with his own guys, the enemy, and the village.

Hetherington: The captain's like twenty-six, twenty-seven.

Junger: The lieutenant was twenty-three.

Hetherington: And I mean, that was part of the point [of the film]. Again, we just thought we'd eschew the political point of view, because we wanted to create a paradigm-shift in thinking, really, about a war, which is…people at home need to understand what these men experience, what we're asking them when we send them to war. What does that actually mean? And, you know, polarizing it politically is not really a useful strategy to getting as many people as possible to understand their reality, so we can understand, “What are we asking them to do?” And “Is it right?”

As you've said, you look at the guys, and they're eighteen to twenty-three, and they're dealing with some of the existential questions of living and dying that we only deal with as we get old. It's astounding.

(Capt. Dan Kearney meets with village elders, above)

What was an eye-opener for me is that you would think the war in Afghanistan is all smart bombs and high-tech warfare from watching the pundits speak on the news domestically, but the actual experience on the ground is a lot closer to Vietnam.

Hetherington: As a photographer, when you say to me, “Picture the war machine,” I will say to you, “Oh, give me a picture of an Apache attack helicopter or missiles or an aircraft carrier - that's the war machine.”

The real war machine is taking young men, training them together, putting them on the side of a mountain in Korengal, and they're gonna kill and be killed for each other. And there's something very intimate and very human about that. In society we want to sanitize war, or we're asking to dehumanize that, to make it very inanimate. It's actually doing a disservice to the people, and to ourselves.

It’s interesting that the soldiers, and we as the viewers, rarely seem to actually see the Taliban. Was that because it was difficult for you to shoot images of the Taliban? Do the soldiers see them fairly frequently?

Junger: No, they don't. They almost never saw them. So the film reflects their reality.

It's almost an invisible enemy.

Junger: They say the same thing. I mean, the guys in Iraq, that's urban warfare. That’s probably a little closer and uglier -- but yeah, in the Korengal…the thing is, if you can see someone you can kill them, so each side is going out of their way to not be seen.

(Lighter moments at the outpost, above)

One of the soldiers says that, before going to the valley, he didn't want to do any research on it. To what degree did you two research the Korengal, or did you take a similar approach?

Hetherington: Yeah, that should be my line. I didn't want to read up on it – [laughs] - but, initially when I went in there – in 2007, I had been doing undercover filming in Sri Lanka, for Human Rights Watch, doing a film about right-wing death squads, and suddenly I was going to Afghanistan, to work with Sebastian, initially for Vanity Fair, and so I really didn't have time to catch my breath, to think about what I was doing.

And I thought, “Oh, Afghanistan, it's gonna be quiet out there, we're gonna walk down the mountains, we're going to drink cups of tea and occasionally we'll get shot at.” And we met in Heathrow Airport, and we went over, and a couple of days in, I remember looking at each other, “What is going on here? This is insane.”

It was incredible, the amount of fighting. It was very obvious Afghanistan was slipping out of control, and we were also with this group of guys who were pretty incredible, just really interesting, and we were suddenly in this crazy little outpost on the side of a mountain.

It was really, really unusual, and I was just, like, “Wow.” That's when [we decided] we were gonna make a film.

And you made a number of trips. Was it difficult to get back on that plane each time? Or were you excited to go back?

Junger: I always dreaded it a little bit, because something bad always almost happens. But it was also, physically it was hard, the patrols were hard. But I got really close to those guys, and when I wasn't there, I missed them. I never was happy to have to leave.

You obviously had to build the trust of the soldiers. Did it come quickly?

Hetherington: I mean, all journalism is predicated on access, and the press and the military have a prickly relationship, you know, historically. But, we're used to going into those situations and integrating ourselves into people's lives, that's what I do as a documentarian. And as a good documentary filmmaker, you want to be inside that experience. You seek that emotional “inside-ness,” and I think once they saw that we were just going to do everything they did, they were like, “Okay, these guys are in for the long haul.”

It wasn't a case of being there for four days. They had no running water or electricity, just a bunch of sandbags, and we were sleeping out in the open. Very dirty, dusty, no hot food, no hot showers, no internet or phone, no electricity. We would go on every patrol and every combat situation, and after a couple of those kind of trips, they got it.

In terms of what you would shoot and what you wouldn't, during Operation Rock Avalanche, there's a death -

Hetherington: Yeah.

Did you take the attitude: We're just gonna shoot it, and then request later if it's okay to put it into the film?

Junger: Yeah, we showed them.

Hetherington: I mean, we showed everything. There was nothing where it was like, “I shouldn't be filming this.”

Junger: There was no request process. We never checked with the military if anything was okay. We would just try to use our own sense of, uh, well, morality, really. “What's appropriate to show, particularly in light of the fact that veterans and mothers will watch this?”

Hetherington: And also, we wanted to make sure, again, that the film is inclusive. That doesn't mean you've got to water it down, but sure, I've got a picture of a soldier with the back of his head blown off, I've got a more graphic picture of wounded Afghans or dead Afghans. You do see dead and mutilated Afghans, you do see a dead American soldier. You just see it in a way [in this film]…that doesn't seek to shock you. It does shock you emotionally, but…seeing someone's brains leaking out of the back of their head… you don't need to see that.

This is what I do for a living. I film this for a living. I've worked for Human Rights Watch in Chad covering massacre sites, or, you know, in Liberia, and there is a utility to stuff. It's important to film everything, so it's on record, and it's accessible to people, if you want it and need it professionally, but it's also trying to build bridges, for people trying to understand these realities. You have to kind of work out a realistic way to do that.

In terms of directing together and shooting together, did you set out a shorthand in advance, in terms of who would film what and when?
Junger: We weren't always there together. But when we were there together, if there was a scene unfolding that would benefit by two cameras - I mean, sometimes I had to take notes, and Tim would shoot, or sometimes Tim had to shoot, or take stills, and I would shoot - but if there was a scene, like when they were negotiating about the cow, Tim and I would sort of whisper to each other a lot about, okay, who covers what, because we knew this was going to be a kind of interesting scene.

Were you editing the film as you went along?

Junger: No.

Hetherington: No. We shot it, and then we came back. I was on the last helicopter out with them. We went to Italy three months later, where [Battle Company] was based, and did the post-interviews, as a device because we wanted them to be the narrators of their own story, in a way.

We weren't company shrinks, and we weren't the authority figures, we weren't in their family, but we were friends, we could ask them very good questions about particular moments, like, “When that happened, what were you thinking? How did that make you feel?”

Those are amazing interviews.
Hetherington: At the end of the five days, we did three a day, we were just brain-dead. It was this intense emotional intensity.

Did you show them any of the Korengal footage before the interviews, or did you wish them to speak entirely from their own recollections?

Hetherington: No, we didn't show any footage. It was just a black background, two cameras, and, you know, let's go for it.

As you were cutting, were there a number of different possible films that emerged?
Junger: Any film could have been a million other films. The events that happen are in historical sequence. We didn't pick up one battle, drop it in, and--

Hetherington: Yeah, winter follows the Rock Avalanche [mission], which it does, and then goes into the spring.

Junger: We emphasize different things, more or less, than other things. One of our sort of central ethos in editing this was there was no one in the film that's not fighting in the Korengal. No generals, no wives, no diplomats, just the guys. But the other one in terms of editing, was - for me, one of my guideposts - was “Does watching the movie elicit the emotions to me that I was having when I was out there?” We’d cut together some scenes that were clever and sort of revealing or whatever, but something about them would feel false, and I realized what felt false was I wasn't having the same emotion that I had out there. Something that's clever isn't…that's not an emotion I had out there. You know what I mean? So it's not in the film. There were a lot of things that were pretty charming, or painful, but it wasn't quite true to those same feelings, and so -

Hetherington: That's why we had humor in the film.

Junger: Yeah, yeah.

Hetherington: Because some things out there were really funny. It kind of shocks people, but it's funny. People's conceptions of what war is, people who have never been there, who've only been studying it or whatever…it's completely different from people who've experienced it, and we just wanted to bring that home, try to mediate that experience in an honest way, and so the film is funny.

The sequence with the dead cow comes to mind, with the villagers looking for compensation from the soldiers. There’s a lot of humor, but it’s also a legitimate problem for the soldiers…which makes it funnier.

Hetherington: Somebody asked me the other day about that, because in Apocalypse Now, there's the scene when they brought the cow in by helicopter, and I was asked, “Did you notice that?'” and I said, “I've never thought about that.”

Another moment that reminded of Apocalypse Now was that a soldier reads a surfing magazine. Francis Copolla was criticized by some for putting those absurdist moments in that film, although your film shows those contrasts are real.
Hetherington: Right, right.

Is the outpost still manned? Or when they left, was it destroyed?

Hetherington: Taken over by insurgents. And, in fact, there was an Al Jazeera caravan embedded with the insurgents, and now the place is on the internet. And I saw it, and a lot of the local people they [the American soldiers] were doing business with were in that video, milling around with the insurgents, or carrying weapons or part of the insurgency, so that was kind of really interesting.

You were both injured during the shoot.

Junger: Yeah.

Sebastian, it was your Achilles?

Junger: I ruptured my Achilles tendon.

That's a horrible injury.

Junger: I mean, it wasn't a complete rupture, it was a partial tear. But it was enough to mess me up for a couple weeks.

And were you able to get to a hospital or leave?

Junger: No, no, I stayed out there. I just crawled the first day, hopped the second day [laughs], limped the third day, and I could sort of go on patrols the fourth day.

Hetherington: The terrain was really unforgiving, you know.

People that have blown an Achilles say it's incredibly intense pain.
Junger: It wasn't. It wasn't a complete blow. Because if you rupture your Achilles down here, where it's a real cord, I imagine that's pretty bad. Mine was torn higher up, where the Achilles branches out, and feeds into the muscle, and it tore halfway through, in that part that spreads out. So it still functioned, but not very well. Like, I couldn't, I could put weight on my foot, but I couldn't push off at all. I couldn't do anything with my toes, I could not push off, so it's very hard to walk without pushing off your toes. So I sort of flopped my foot forward, then just rolled over it.

We were in the middle of a climb up to Restrepo with bags, with gear. Within a few hundred yards, I realized I was actually tremendously straining my right leg, and I was like, “Shit, something else is going on.” And it was a really horrible, horrible walk, to get to Restrepo. And there was shooting in the valley, and I just didn't want to slow people down -

Hetherington: I was just thinking about the mountains and climbing, and how many other films have been made where you carry the equipment on your backs? You now have these new lightweight cameras to film with, but I'm talking about, like, you know, everything. So if you actually put together a film kit, normally, it's quite a lot: You've got a tripod, and chargers, and stuff -- but everything that we had to make the film, we had to carry on our backs.

Junger: Along with our bullet-proof vests. I mean, it was a lot of gear. I would occasionally get questions from people about our “film crew.” [laughs]

The gaffer and best boy.

Junger: Yeah, I was gonna ask 'em about the catering service [laughs]. So it was what we could carry, along with the rest of the stuff we needed to carry, to just be with those soldiers.

Hetherington: There’s no electricity in Restrepo, so we'd have to charge batteries.

Do you know what you each are working on next?

Junger: I might go, probably go back to Afghanistan this spring. Not necessarily for a film.

Hetherington: Going to do some Vanity Fair camera stuff.

I'm not sure who first said this, maybe it was Oliver Stone, but if you make a war film, it's almost by nature an anti-war film, even if it's as objective as possible. Have you gotten that reaction from people?
Unger: Yeah.

Hetherington: Yeah. That's what's so funny, when people are upset that we haven't made a kind of voice-over/moral condemnation -

Do you need it?

Hetherington: Yeah. Do I need to tell you what to think? Isn't it enough just to show you what it's like?

The thing that a lot of people misunderstand, a misunderstanding about war is that war…and it was Murray Fromson, who's a very respected journalist, he covered the fall of Saigon, covered the Year Zero in Cambodia, you know, Korean War, Vietnam War. And he said, that war abases you, it kind of humiliates you, but you also find a kind of humanity. And I think that people that want the outright moral condemnation of the war [in the film] feel conflicted with the kind of position, where [we] actually also reveal the humanity of the soldiers, and I find that really confusing. Well, it's not confusing, but the nuance of war is that all of these emotions actually do exist in the same place, and that, you know, it's not just one thing or the other, it's a mixture of the stuff.

Restrespo is now out on DVD.

Restrepo website.
Two Vanity Fair articles by Sebastian Junger about his time in Afghanistan are online, and include photos by Tim Hetherington.

“Into the Valley of Death”

“Return to the Valley of Death”

Star Wars Yoda Giveaway!

2011-08-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of great items to give away this week from Entertainment Earth!

First, a "May The Force Be With You" mug. No better way to start your day than with the wisdom of Jedi Master Yoda! Holds 18 ounces of your favorite beverage. Microwave and dishwasher safe.

Photo credit: Entertainment Earth

I also have a Yoda and Luke Skywalker Chopstick Set! You need the Force behind you when eating sushi. These Chopsabers are suitable for eating and fighting off the Dark Side, or just dueling with your mate. Yoda chopsticks measure 8-inches long, Luke Skywalker chopsticks measure 9-inches long. Lightsaber blades are cast in a translucent material. Both include translucent Star Wars chopstick rests.

Photo credit: Entertainment Earth

Winner will be announced Friday, August 12. Entry deadline is midnight, August 11, Pacific Standard Time. The winning number is generated by Random.org.

All items are licensed Star Wars merchandise, though I am in no way connected to LucasArts.

***If you have a problem signing in below to leave a Facebook post, refresh your page after your first attempt and see if you're actually logged in. It may have worked anyway. If not, go to Facebook, log in so that you stay logged in, then come back and leave a comment. Facebook is working in the problem.

And the winner is...

Congratulations, Kristen! The Force is on it's way! Our next giveaway will be announced on September 1st!

Harry Potter Game of Clue Giveaway

2011-07-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

I have a brand new Harry Potter Edition Clue board game to give away from Think Geek!

A school mate has vanished from Hogwarts. It's up to you to find the missing student and figure out who did it, what spells or enchantments were used, and where the attack took place. Secret passages and hidden staircases are revealed by moving wheels on the board. Rolling a Dark Mark loses house points and expels you from the game.

Answer the question below by leaving a comment under this post. Subscribe by email to join the blog for updates! Make sure you check your email box to confirm your subscription.

"If you lived in Harry Potter's wizardry world, which side would you be on? Would you wear the Dark Mark or would you follow Harry?"

Winner will be announced on Friday, August 5. Entry deadline is midnight, August 4, pacific coast time. The winning number is generated by Random.org. Winner will be contacted via email for shipping information.

The lucky winner is...

Congratulations, Rebecca! Your Harry Pottery Game of Clue is on it's way! Big thanks to everyone who entered! We will be giving one more set of goodies away next week, then moving to monthly giveaways starting in September!

Favorite Finds at Comic-Con

2011-07-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

My favorite part of Comic-Con is the new merchandise showcase. What's even better is that vendors give you a discount. Convention goers rip through their bank accounts stocking up on graphic novels, comic books, plush toys, action figures, apparel and artwork. Thanks to Warner Bros, every attendee is given a body-sized backpack to drag those cherished items around. Here are a few of my favorite items found in the exhibit hall.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I discovered Brute Force Studios, located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Owned by Thomas Willeford, a Steampunk enthusiast, Brute Force exhibits their sculpture and wearable art in the United States and Europe. There were many interesting pieces on sale in their booth, one really caught my eye. I've always wanted a pair of cool goggles; shiny, brass, something I might see in the film The Time Machine. There were a couple of styles to choose from with several leather colors but I settled on black and brass. I chose transparent blue lenses because they really popped against the black leather. Each lens is etched with a different Victorian style clock face with Roman numerals, though you can choose plain lenses. Lens colors include transparent red, blue, green and clear, and opaque mirrored, and black. I picked up a set of the mirrored lenses as well and a miniature brass magnifying glass that attaches to the top side of the lens. Accessories and attachments for the goggles include Gatling guns, a monocle insert, crosshairs insert, and a 2X magnifier lens fitting. There are similar accessories for the monocle goggle so contact them about getting attachments for the basic goggle piece.

The cost for the basic goggle, on sale right now at their website is $99. Accessories range from $5 - $25.

Photo credit: Brute Force Studios

I'm a big fan of Star Trek. My brother and I grew up watching reruns of the original series and got up early every Saturday morning to watch the animated show. Never missed it. Star Trek was surprisingly missing from this years convention. There were a few dolls and toys that had been around for a while hidden among the masses of other toys at several of the booths, but very minimal choices of new merchandise. We did find the Roddenberry.com booth but found they only had a handful of items with them. They did have a stock of mounted and framed film clips but I'm more of a toy, t-shirt, mug kind of fan. The site is managed by Roddenberry Productions which means it's the real deal, as far as approved Star Trek merchandise. I did find two items I really love!

First, I found a large, pink, voice-responsive Tribble. I'm normally not into cutesy pink but this was too good to pass up. It has a really strong motor inside so it vibrates violently, but also coos so as not to scare you. I'm thinking of collecting all colors, leaving them in a box in the living room, then watch as they activate when my friends visit.

Tribbles come in dark brown, ginger, light grey, and of course pink. They are on sale right now, $15.96 for large and $11.96 for medium...a steal!

Another item I purchased at the Roddenberry booth, was a Science Officer T-shirt Dress. I can't really see myself wearing this to the grocery store, but it makes a great night shirt. A friend who was with me purchased a red shirt. Being that red shirts die, he also bought one in Science Officer blue to cancel it out. He's wearing red today, so we'll see.

Science Officer T-shirt Dresses are on sale for $31.96. The other two shirts are $19.96 each.

Photo credit: Roddenberry.com

One of my favorite online stores on the planet is Think Geek, located in Fairfax, Virginia. It's just a fun site with unusual items. Their item descriptions are the best. They're a company with a great sense of humor and love what they're doing. Where else can you find Romulan Ale, a Bazinga Lunchbox, and a Tauntaun Sleeping Bag in one location?

Since I purchase from Think Geek regularly, I wasn't looking for anything specific at the convention. I did grab a Jawa Star Wars Super Soft Plush. It was really cute and I thought it would make a great cat toy. Sure enough, I doused it in catnip and he had an instant 'new best friend'. They are quite durable with no pet hazards like button eyes and ribbons. You'll have to gauge the destructive nature of your own cat before giving it one. They were quite popular at the convention. I probably should have grabbed Yoda, too.

They sell for $9.99 each, but are out of stock until July 27.

Photo credit: Think Geek

My friend, Rebecca, saw a Chewbacca backpack on another attendee and had to have one. It's really well made and has nice detail. You can brush it like a pet. Chewie's back unzips to store your important items. They also have Yoda and C-3PO. I don't see a listing on the website for Chewbacca yet so check in with them at a later date for availability and price.


Photo credit: Austin Brightwell

I'm not sure if you can attend Comic-Con and NOT buy something from Star Wars. It's literally everywhere. It's the really good stuff too like detailed action figures, replica helmets, lightsabers and ship models, things you won't necessarily find in stores. Rebecca took me over to the Kotobukiya booth to show see a couple of great items.

First, the chopsticks. I had heard about these a couple of months ago when a friend was trying to come up with a great house warming gift. You can choose from Anakin Skywalker, Darth Maul, Luke Skywalker, Count Dooku, Yoda and Mace Windu with the corresponding color of their lightsaber in the films. I settled on Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's good to have the force on your side while eating sushi. You can not purchase them from Kotobukiya since they are the manufacturer but you can find them online at Think Geek and Entertainment Earth. Starwars.com no longer has an online store. Chopsticks cost $9.99, more if you want a double pack.

Photo credit: Entertainment Earth

I also picked up the Han Solo Ice Cube Tray. It's brand new, releasing this month. Made of silicon, the tray pops out one large and six small cubes of Han Solo trapped in carbonite. You can make ice cubes, jelly, chocolate...I'm thinking chocolate bars for friends at Christmas. The tray is also available as R2-D2. Sells for $9.99.

Photo credit: Entertainment Earth

Last, but not least, I purchased a couple of graphic novels. I'm new to the scene and really didn't know where to start. I'm already a fan of the new TV show Falling Skies so I picked up the first one at the Dark Horse booth.

My friends introduced me to the award winning Hatter M graphic novels by Frank Beddor with Liz Cavalier. They are companions to the book series The Looking Glass Wars. Hatter Madigan is the Queen's bodyguard and the leading member of Wonderland's elite security force. Queen Genevieve's last order is for Hatter to watch over Alyss until she is old enough to rule. Their escape through the Pool of Tears goes awry and the Hatter loses Alyss. He spends the next thirteen years searching for her. The graphic novels document his adventures on the journey to find Alyss.

I have not read The Looking Glass Wars. So I decided to Kindle those and buy the graphic novels. Frank Beddor was at the booth so I was able to have all three novels signed. They are dark, beautifully drawn and written.

Volume One, Hatter M Volume Two, Mad with Wonder

Volume Three, The Nature of Wonder

To find out more on these products, please visit the sites. I will be hosting giveaways of products from various companies so sign up through email for updates and a chance to win!

Saturday At Comic-Con

2011-07-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

Today was a more relaxed, laid-back day at the convention. We had a friend join us that had never been to Comic-Con so it was fun to show him around. We spent much of the time looking at merchandise and graphic novels. Stan Lee was signing autographs and drew a huge crowd.

Photo Credit: Brian G. Cox

We had lunch at Cafe Diem on Fifth Street across from the convention center. For those of you not familiar with this establishment, it's the cafe on the SyFy show, Eureka. It was super busy but we got a table within 30 minutes. The food was excellent! I had the "The Oh, Fargo" club sandwich with SyFy Fries. Other choices included, "Jo Lupo's Top Secret Tuna Melt", "The Frakking Cylon" spicy chicken salad, and "Sancutary Style" coleslaw.

Photo credit: Brian G. Cox

Rebecca and I in front of Cafe Diem. That's not cotton candy I'm holding, it's a voice-responsive, pink Tribble that I picked up at the Roddenberry.com booth. Had to have it!

Photo credit: Brian G. Cox

Rebecca with nephews Nick and Austin in front of Cafe Diem.

There were many fun toys for sale this year and I stocked up! I'll get photos up of the highlights in my next post. Until then, I leave you with this...Rebecca found a Chewbacca backpack at the Think Geek booth. Have you heard of Think Geek? I just discovered this online store a couple of months ago while I was looking for a Star Trek Enterprise Pizza Cutter. It has a plethora of geek and sci-fi toys, t-shirts and unusual items. I will be hosting giveaways on my blog in the near future so check back for updates. I do love the Chewie backpack though it looks like a moment from When Animals Attack. It was a big hit with other fans who stopped Rebecca for photos.

Comic-Con: Special Guests

2011-07-23T01:44:00.000-07:00

As I said in my previous blog, it was very hard to get into the events. However, I scored some great interaction with a couple of special guests, something that would not have happened had I been sitting in a room with a few hundred people. There is always a silver lining!

I'm starting with my big score of the day! Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory!

You could only go through the line if you had been given a ticket at the show event. So, I snuck up close and snapped a few shots. You can barely see Kaley Cuoco (Penny) to the left and Johnny Galecki (Leonard) to the right. There were a lot of security and body guards so I wasn't able to get the rest of the cast.

Another big coup, Mark Hamill! Yeah, that's right, rubbin' elbows with Luke Skywalker. Actually, there was a long line and I just happened to turn the corner and basically run right into the booth. Security let me take a photo. Mark saw me and said hello and I was able to go up and shake his hand, which was very cool. Then...they kicked me out.

If you're a fan of Warehouse 13, you'll recognize Saul Rubinek.

Here are a few fun costumes we snapped on the exhibit floor.

Photo credit: Rebecca Aldana

A shot of my friend, Rebecca, and her two nephews wearing their morph suits! They were a big hit at the trolley station! That's all for Friday!

Comic-Con: Toys, Toys, Everywhere!

2011-07-23T01:19:00.000-07:00

Comic-Con wouldn't be the awesome event it is without the new toys. There are hundreds of action figures, dolls, models...and if you attend, you get to see them first! You also get a discount. My favorite part. Check out some of the newest items, and hard-core collectibles, that are about to hit the market!

sideshowcollectibles.com

This collectible of Obi-Wan Kenobi is so life-like, I thought he was about to speak.

sideshowcollectibles.com

efxcollectibles.com

Love this! It was made by Brute Force Studios, a husband and wife team from Pennsylvania who make Steampunk accessories. I've only become familiar with the Steampunk genre in the past couple of years. I've always been interested in these gadgets and contraptions but never knew they were part of a growing movement.

Not familiar with Steampunk? The genre is inspired by the Victorian Sciences, when steam power was widely used. It incorporates science fiction and/or fantasy, including fictional machines found in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. I purchased some very cool brass goggles from Brute Force with blue lenses and a brass magnifying attachment. I'll get a photo up of them soon.

Crazy Wonderful Comic-Con

2011-07-23T00:55:00.000-07:00

Super crowded? You have no idea! I don't think I've ever seen that many people at Comic-Con. It's always so much fun to hit the exhibition hall, check out the displays, and shop for the newest cool toys before they are released. There are lots of new collectibles about to flood the market this month. Hardcore fans are not disappointing this year either, as the costumes are top-notch. There is a lot more standing in line, and at times, it felt like I was trapped in a mosh pit while walking the exhibit hall maneuvering around the autograph lines. All in all, it's another great year, however, the panel scheduling could use some retooling.

Case in point...Ballroom 20 had a very packed schedule; Torchwood first thing in the morning, Big Bang Theory around noon, Eureka, Warehouse 13, then at 6:00pm, True Blood. Too much for one room. Some people had started lining up at 5:30am which is only a recent development as part of the Comic-Con experience. So, you have a line that backs out the door, down the stairs (and there are many staircases) and around the harbor. I'm not kidding! My good friend, Rebecca, stood in that line to see if she could get in at some point. Three hours later, she was done. She never even got close. The big problem is that most of the crowd wanted to see True Blood at 6:00pm, so they decided to go ahead and get into the room. It's a big room and holds hundreds of people. But, if no one leaves because they're afraid they can't get back in, none of the fans of the other shows can get in to get a seat. Not well thought out. I'll be writing a letter to the organizers of the event with a few suggestions and I urge other attendees to do the same. Maybe they'll be able to make a few changes next year to help accommodate everyone.

So, I ended up spending the day in the exhibition hall which more than made up for the inconvenience. I had a great time and would have missed some great moments! Check out the colorful displays for this year.

Love visiting Dark Horse! I picked up the first graphic novel of the new TNT TV show, Falling Skies.

A very life-like statue of Christopher Reeve. I was standing with several guys who couldn't believe how real it looked and were a bit disturbed by it's presence.

Camelot was represented though the show was canceled. A disappointment for me.

There was a lot of learning happening at Comic-Con today. I stopped by the Wacom booth to check out the new tablets. They have a a very talented artist giving demos and are hosting a drawing competition this year for some nice prizes.

DeviantArt.com had many stations set up to test new products and show off your digital artistry skills.

We met a talented artist named Dave who works for Hasbro and is the designer in charge of Star Wars action figures. He was sculpting various character features out of wax. He explained that it takes one year from inception to completion for one action figure. We noticed the fine detail in the figures sold at the convention. It seems the real action figures are not sold at Target. He was great and even recommended some software to me to develop my visual effects skills.

Read my next blog to see the new toys and special guests!

Are You Ready For Comic-Con!

2011-07-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a summer at the box office! It's been a busy couple of weeks with the opening of Transformers: Dark of the Moon! As of today, the film has made $762 million worldwide and is a big hit among fans.

Fans all over the world have just made it through Harry Potter weekend with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Another widely successful franchise film taking in $499 million worldwide in four days setting new box office records! As a huge fan of the books and films, I am feeling a little melancholy now that it's over. However, it's been a great summer for the blockbuster! Will Captain America: The First Avenger do as well?

Now, it's time to turn our heads to Comic-Con International in San Diego this week. Journey Blue Films will be at the convention this year. I'll be posting updates on this blog and Facebook. If you haven't joined our Facebook page, please do. It's the easiest to access on the convention floor. Updates for this blog will come in later.

Lot's of great surprises this year at the convention! In attendance; Steven Spielberg, the stars of the new hit TV show Falling Skies, the shows Eureka (I may pick up a Fargo bobble head this year), Warehouse 13, Sanctuary, and the new hit Alphas (yes, SyFy will be there in full-force, as usual), and of course, The Big Bang Theory (a personal favorite!). There is also the premier of the film Cowboys and Aliens. Some convention attendees will be able to participate but you can bet that passes to this event will be like scoring Willy Wonka's golden ticket.

If you're attending the convention, you can download the schedule right here! It looks to be an exciting year! Get ready to stand in line and meet some new, and fascinating, Sci-Fi fans! Bazinga!