Best Picture Nominees Part II: Letters from Iwo Jima

[rate 5]

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What a well-crafted film. Films like this are the reason I go to the movies, and the reason I want to make movies.

In the tradition of Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, Letters from Iwo Jima brings an introspective, human side to WW2. But this time we see war from the Japanese perspective. The film focuses on how the Japanese prepared for the American attack on the small island of Iwo Jima, ill equipped and undermanned. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), a western-educated, academic takes command and finds he has his work cut out for him. While he prefers to use military tactics and careful planning to lead his men, many of his officers intend to use brute force and loyalty to the empire to keep men in line--and oh how these methods are incompatible.

Upon his arrival, he prevents two men from being beaten to death for disloyalty. One of them is Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a drafted baker who is perhaps the worst soldier in the entire pacific theater. His crime: suggesting to his friend that the Japanese should just give this worthless hunk of rock to the Americans. Such undisciplined behavior was not tolerated in the Japanese army, but the new General knows they need every man for this battle, and wanted Saigo and his friend spared.

The film portrays the men on both sides as shades of gray, not black and white caricatures. We see die hard Japanese soldiers torture Americans, kill themselves rather than be captured, and shoot underlings for showing cowardice, but we also see an officer speak kindly to an American POW, soldiers care for a captured American, and honest discipline for irrational behavior. And we see the same benevolence and cruelty in American soldiers. Were we really so different? The movie says we weren't. I doubt, however, that a German perspective will be produced by Hollywood any time soon.

Best Picture Nominees Part I: Little Miss Sunshine

[rate 4.5]

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In the spirit of Oscar season, I plan to review each of the best picture nominees. If I do actually manage to see them all before Oscar night (I have for the last three years), I'll post my pick for best picture.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

After last summer's vast desert of forgettable movies, Little Miss Sunshine was a true oasis, a real find. It was a light hearted satire that wasn't afraid to visit the darker side of human nature.

The Hoovers, a dysfunctional family if there ever was one, took a road trip across the country so their pre-teen daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) can enter the Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest. That was the plan, and they all wanted Olive to go. But with the dynamic hodge-podge of personalities--A dad who's a wannabe motivational speaker, a mom who tries too hard to keep everyone happy, a son who took a vow of silence and hates everyone, a suicidal, homosexual uncle, and an I-don't-give-a-crap-I'll-say-anything-I-please grandfather--the trip was anything but "A to B".

Each obstacle they faced was harder to overcome, and funnier, than the last--with a climax that you have to see to believe. I laughed so hard, I cried.

What I really liked about this movie was that it didn't turn into a feel-good cliche where all the characters realize how much they love each other at the end. This movie is only about one thing: getting to the beauty contest at all costs, and not being a loser.

In addition to best picture, the screenplay, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin were also nominated.

Ken Levine Posts "Writing a Spec 24"

This hilarious post imagines a rejection letter to someone sending a spec script to the producers of 24. If you know the show, you will laugh.

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2007/01/writing-spec-24.html

Great Screenwriting Advice

Screenwriter John August, whose blog I surf to often (I actually set up an rss recently), posted some great advice for aspiring screenwriters: How to write a scene. Among the pearls of wisdom are questions to ask ourselves while coming up with the who, what, and why of the scene. Many of his suggestions become "almost unconscious" with practice, but it's nice to see them written out when you're still struggling with what comes after the slug line.

Free Screenwriting Software

If you're looking for screenwriting software and can't afford the $150 or more price tag of the top brands, give Page 2 Stage a try. It's free!

While I can't speak too much to how well it works, I did tinker with it a bit. I was able to flawlessly import a 120 page script that I exported from Final Draft (as RTF), and then easily edit random spots. P2S has many of the most popular features, such as multiple views (outline, index card, etc.), auto complete for character names, smart tab for paragraph style, and pagination (my favorite :D). It won't make you an award-winning screenwriter, but it will take some of the banality out of creating your masterpiece.

And if you're looking for a complete production suite including development and planning tools, you can try another free screenwriting package called Celtx.

Hell, try 'em both.

In Honor of a Friend

Don Dohler, the producer for Timewarp Films, passed away on December 2, 2006 from cancer. He was 60.

Don was my producer, my mentor, my friend.

I'll miss working with him on film projects, his greatest passion. No matter how much he wanted to take a break, or wait to see how a recently completed project would fair in the market, he couldn't help nurturing a new movie concept. I guess it didn't help that he knew so many people that loved talking with him about movies. How could he not be inspired, or inspire us.

I'll miss our weekly hour+ chats on the phone--which are not uncommon for either of us separately, so imagine the two of us together. My wife, of course, never had to imagine, since I always seemed to get on the phone with Don 15 minutes before dinner, forcing her, groaning, to keep the pork cutlets warm for another 45 minutes.

I'll miss his honesty. A straight shooter, he always said what he meant, and never shied away from what he meant. In the creative business, the worst thing you can do is tell people how good their creation is when it really sucks. If I want someone to tell me my effect is great no matter what, I'll ask my mother (my wife's a straight-shooter too,God bless her). Don always told me the truth, the constructive truth. Even if he didn't know exactly what was wrong, he could still point me down the right path. I'll really miss that.

But, most of all, I'll miss my friend. I hope he's at peace.

Don worked as the managing editor for the Times Herald in Baltimore County. They posted a wonderful article about him:
http://www.timesheraldnews.com/2006/12/08/times-herald-editor-don-dohler-dies-at-60/

Another scene finished

Featured in this shot are actors Darla Albornoz and Justin Timpaine.

Last week I finished what I called the "pivotal" scene. It's pivotal for two reasons. First, the good guys face off against the creature for the first time. Second, it was the most challenging scene to complete. Ironically, though, the shot I expected to be the most difficult of the whole film, a shot that required a major on-screen alteration to the creature, lots of tiny particles flying around, and direct interaction between an actor and the Crawler, only took a day to complete.
While working on the scene, an issue that came up a couple of times, including the shot shown above, was dealing with continuity problems. It's hard enough dealing with them when editing, but when you add into the mix the placement of CG elements after the fact, it opens up a whole other can of worms, or Crawlers in this case. Since we didn't initially plan to use CG for the Crawler, we hadn't planned the shots to the level of detail needed for adding CG. We basically winged it. Luckily, however, we decided to film with traditional editing in mind, as opposed to the style adopted by many newer Hollywood directors, the long, motion-filled shots with no cuts. The traditional way uses frequent cuts from various angles: wide, mid, closeup, etc., while maintaining proper stage direction. Thus, a lot was fixed in editing before we even got the CG elements. But, as you can see in the above shot, while Darla and Justin should be looking directly at the creature's eyes, it appears that Justin is looking at the creatures throat (if it actually has one); they have two different lines of sight.

Oops.

I dealt with this by making a choice: I set to Darla's line of sight. Since she's holding a shiny canister, she draws the eye more than Justin. Well, okay, she'd draw the eye more anyway.

Most of the continuity problems we faced were minor, and for some I did my due diligence as a post-production artist and "fixed them in post". The rest we'll live with as all filmmakers do.