Filmmaking/Acting advice and film reviews

[KarmaSutra]

It's said that once you find your passion in life and dedicate yourself to that passion you're 99% complete. Film has always been mine.

Ok boys and girls I'd like to share some of my experiences and firsthand knowledge concerning the world of film. If you have any questions ask me and you'll get my professional opinion. Whether it's in front of or behind the camera or if it's still on the page I would really dig hearing about it.

Film reviews are welcome as well.


A little background:

I'm a graduate of the New York Film Academy in Manhattan http://nyfa.com/film_school/school_locations/newyork.php. I manage my own production company Cinepro Productions. I write, edit, shoot and produce commercials and short films here in the Central Florida area. I also do script consultations. My latest film, Everybody goes home( my first shot in dv), will be sent in for consideration at the Austin writers conference. I've had the pleasure of working with actors and actresses from the Actors Studio (which is a few blocks away from the NYFA/Tamanny Hall bulding ). And still stay in contact with a couple of my instructors from school (which helps tremendously), as it is all about who you know in the film business and not what you know.

So friends, bring it.

 

[Skel]

What is considered the most important film ever made in your opinion? Ill be back for the answer tomorrow

Sorry actually ill be back monday

 

[Skel]

Ok I got one. What film or films nominated for academy awards this year do not deserve to be there and why? Also what films deserve to be there and are not. I also follow film somewhat but I cant say I ever went to school for film. No correct answer here, just opinions.

 

[wayword]

Well, I would ask you for some advice on breaking into acting for film but I'm not so sure you would be keen on helping Satan.

Good question...do looks matter for acting?

 

[realsmoothie]

I write video reviews for a little 15,000 circulation newspaper, have been doing so for maybe five years now.

I'm hoping to teach film studies in a couple of years. Am just starting my Masters Degree.

Good to hear you're out there and actually working. So many film production graduates just don't have the gumption to get out there into a tough industry... which is too bad because often the really talented ones are shy and meek.

Any way you might post your DV film online?

 

[wayword]

Haha...ask Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, Joe Pesci, Jodie Foster or Kathy Bates if their looks have negatively affected their career.

Well, I'd say only Pesci & Bates are unattractive in that group.

But if Bates were on this list, I guess the answer could be no.

Top Ten Highest Paid Actresses in Hollywood

1. Nicole Kidman ($16-17 million per film)
2. Reese Witherspoon (15 million)
3. Renee Zellweger (15 million)
4. Drew Barrymore (15 million)
5. Cameron Diaz (15 million)
6. Halle Berry ($14 million)
7. Charlize Theron ($10 million)
8. Angelina Jolie ($10 million)
9. Kirsten Dunst ($9 million)
10. Jennifer Aniston ($8 million)

Guess not...

 

[Victory Unlimited]

6. Halle Berry won a BEST ACTRESS oscar for Monster's Ball a couple of years ago...

 

[bob2007]

I've seen quite a few movies over the last few years. I still don't understand how people rate the movie: Citizen Kane so highly. I find it completely boring and unwatchable.

 

[Victory Unlimited]

Yo bob2007,


People rate Citizen Kane so highly because of the sheer scope of the story, the gall that Orson Welles showed in even making the movie (it was a thinly veiled expose on the life of William Randolph Hearst/Newspaper Magnate), and the use of symbolism used throughout the movie.

The whole concept of lost innocense and moral corruption that the man goes through during the course of his life. But YES...

...I too, found it BORING. LOL!

 

[realsmoothie]

The thing with Citizen Kane that most modern viewers don't get is that there are some thirty-odd things done in that film that had NEVER been done before... lighting tricks, deep focus, certain camera angles.

It's not very pleasurable to watch, certainly. But I don't think it's meant to be.

I never found it "boring", though.

Casablanca is vastly more overrated than Kane, IMO.

 

[Skel]

I've seen quite a few movies over the last few years. I still don't understand how people rate the movie: Citizen Kane so highly. I find it completely boring and unwatchable.

Citizen Kane is a GREAT movie. In fact its the most important movie ever made to the film industry.

 

[KarmaSutra]

What is considered the most important film ever made in your opinion? Ill be back for the answer tomorrow

Sorry actually ill be back monday

Hmmm. This is a very very broad question but I'll give it a go. With everything else in life there are progressions and cycles. From the Original Jazz Singer as the first "talkie" or The Ten Commandments or Ben Hurr to The Killing by Kubrick to Pulp Fiction. Every few years there is a filmmaker who dares to challenge the status quo. These are the people who force change and promote promise and knew ideas. I can't say there is one important film because we never stop evolving.

 

[KarmaSutra]

Well, I would ask you for some advice on breaking into acting for film but I'm not so sure you would be keen on helping Satan.

I happen to think Satan is the greatest antagonist ever imagined :rock:

I would suggest first thinking of becoming an actor for it's essence not for riches. What I mean is, all of the actors/actresses I know who have any thread of promise absolutely live the craft. They act in everything they can get thier paws on. Live it, breathe it. Second you need to get a reel together of yourself in various roles in various formats ie; stage, shorts,commercials. As much as possible. Diversity is what casting and line producers look for.

 

[KarmaSutra]

Good question...do looks matter for acting?

The politically correct answer is No. The truth, however, is yes looks do matter. But if you want to act for the love of acting and you're passionate about it and focused you can make a decent living as an actor and even have an impact. An example is Jason Alexander. Here's a guy who is short, balding but has the chops to pull off tv and film roles.

But alike everything else we talk about here, you're own confidence is what people believe in and follow.

 

[KarmaSutra]

Citizen Kane is a GREAT movie. In fact its the most important movie ever made to the film industry.

I like CK. It's not on my top ten list but I like it for what Welles did to the establishment of Hollywood. It woke them up. Time and again he was told no by the stidio heads and Hollywood elite. Yet he never faltered and it furthured his madness to get the film made on his terms. CK is important not for it's story or acting or anything regarding the filmmaking process. It's sole importance is that it broke new ground and started the change of thought that the ends do sometimes justify the means.

 

[KarmaSutra]

Casablanca is vastly more overrated than Kane, IMO.

Blasphemy!:kick:

 

[realsmoothie]

Blasphemy!:kick:

LOL

Casablanca is always on every older critic's top three or four, if not #1 or #2. So is Kane, but I'd argue Kane is much more "important".

Why is Casablanca such a big deal? I never understood this...

 

[KarmaSutra]

Because Casablanca was never ever supposed to be a memorable film. Studio after studio turned it down. But it became proof that strictly through perseverence can you make legend. That's one reason why it's so highly regarded. Another is Bogey and Claude Raines. Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are my favs though.

Incidentally, it won three oscars.

 

[Victory Unlimited]

Yo Karma,


I'm noticing a theme developing here. And the theme is POLITICS. But I'm not talking about GOVERNMENTAL politics, I'm talking about HOLLYWOOD politics---REVISIONIST Hollywood politics at that. Sometimes Hollywood, like some women, tend to backward rationalize and crown certain movies IMPORTANT, when SOME were NOT actually "good".

Casablanca is a movie that I did enjoy---and far better than Citizen Kane. But OTHER than it's obvious historical fame and it's relevance for it's time (the spreading encroachment of NAZISM into the lives of people who'd RATHER not have to choose sides), what do you feel actually makes THIS movie worthy of note? Or is just THAT alone enough?

Also, it's my opinion that movies, like other things in pop culture are ONLY as "good" critically as the spin HISTORY puts on them. One quick example in music would be GRUNGE. NIRVANA's fame seemed to be more tied to their cutting the legs out from under Glam Rock and Classic Rock as opposed to leaving any really LASTING musical contribution to the art form. Where is GRUNGE now?

But back to movies:

In Film we have Quentin Tarrantino. His fame tends to be more tied to his love for using ensemble casts to tell stories out of sequence----and all the other director copycats who jumped on his bandwagon afterwards as a result. But to me, as a director, he's more just a great DIALOGUE writer.

Sure he's a big fan of ALL brands of 70's exploitation films and it shows in his work. But other than that, what do you think the LASTING value of his work REALLY is to the film world?

 

[bob2007]

Blasphemy!:kick:

Agreed, I also liked Casablanca quite a bit.

Ya Tarantino's dialogue is certainly amazing. But I've noticed that its slightly distracting occassionally. i.e. In kill bill volume 2, you have the sense that Tarantino is speaking, when Bill speaks in the movie. The slight lisp and choice of words.