Big, BIG Day (Part 2)

And now, (drumroll) these are my predictions as to who I think will take home the golden statues tonight.

Again, these are who I think WILL win. In several cases, they will not be who I think SHOULD win. That is another multi-hour conversation I'm totally down to have with anyone. Just gimme a call.

* BEST PICTURE: The King’s Speech

Dark Horse: The Social Network

Lead Actor: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

             Dark Horse: NONE 

Lead Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

             Dark Horse: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)

Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

            Dark Horse: NONE

* Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

            Dark Horse: Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

Animated Film: Toy Story 3

            Dark Horse: NONE

* Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland

            Dark Horse: The King’s Speech

Cinematography: Roger Deakins (True Grit)

            Dark Horse: Wally Pfister (Inception)

* Costume Design:  Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland)

            Dark Horse: Jenny Beaven (The King’s Speech)

Directing: David Fincher (The Social Network)

            Dark Horse: Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)

Documentary Feature: Inside Job

            Dark Horse: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Documentary Short: Strangers No More

            Dark Horse: Killing In The Name

Film Editing: The Social Network

            Dark Horse: The King’s Speech

Foreign Language Film: In A Better World (Denmark)

            Dark Horse: Biutiful (Mexico)

Make Up: Rick Baker (The Wolfman)

            Dark Horse: Peter Weir (The Way Back)

* Music (Score): The King’s Speech

            Dark Horse: The Social Network

Music (Song): “If I Rise” (127 Hours)

            Dark Horse: “We Belong Together” –Toy Story 3

Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network

            Dark Horse: NONE

Original Screenplay: The King’s Speech

            Dark Horse: Inception

Short (Live Action): Na Wewe

            Dark Horse: Wish 143

Short (Animated): Day & Night

            Dark Horse: The Gruffalo

Sound Editing: Inception

            Dark Horse: The Social Network

Sound Mixing: Inception

            Dark Horse: True Grit

Visual Effects: Inception

            Dark Horse: NONE

 *=These are the categories that I still think are the closest races.

And NONE under Dark Horse means that I think those are pretty much a lock. Besides Colin Firth as Best Actor. That just IS a lock. He was so good.

-AM

Big, BIG Day (Part 1)

Big night tonight. Oscar Night is here, so I figured a quick discussion of predictions is relevant, eh?

I think it's fair to say there are some basic discrepancies to what some of the criteria is for specific Academy awards. Let me first point out the categories.

Best Picture

Lead Actor

Lead Actress

Supporting Actor

Supporting Actress

Animated Film

Art Direction

Cinematography:

Costume Design

Directing

Documentary Feature

Documentary Short

Film Editing

Foreign Language Film

Make Up

Music (Score)

Music (Song)

Adapted Screenplay

Original Screenplay

Short (Live Action)

Short (Animated)

Sound Editing

Sound Mixing

Visual Effects

Some can be a bit confusing as to what they actually mean.

The Art Direction award is basically a category involving everything you can see on a set. The art director acts as an in-between for several different departments, including Special FX, wardrobe, property (props) and construction. They are in charge of most of the visual aspects of the film and nowadays are more commonly referred to as the Production Designer.

The Cinematography award is given to the best director of photography. On a set, the DP works hand in hand with the director to set up a certain shot and angle. He is the head of the lighting and camera departments and delegates to the heads of those departments (the gaffer and the key grip, respectively) after he decides how a certain shot the director wants will be actually accomplished. Choosing lights, choosing lens width and camera settings are all the DP's job and in most films you can fully see the DP's stamp and feel to them.

And, believe it or not, there IS a difference between Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. 

Sound Editing comes first. Sound editing is the process of making sound effects for the film. On any filming day, there is usually as little sound recorded (besides for dialouge, of course) as possible, as setting up sound equipment can take time and cost money. If there is just random city sounds for a certain shot, there are folley artists that make sound effects after the shoot is over and record them all onto the film. All the little sound effects you hear in a film are usually always done in post-production, including the music for the film.

Sound Mixing is the process of taking every sound in a scene, and making sure they are at the perfect levels as to not drown out the background music or dialogue in a scene. Mixing every little sound can be quite an art form to itself and is extremely tedious at times.

Most of the other categories are pretty self explanatory, but feel free to ask anything in comments.

-AM

They were once in...

Interesting tidbit of "before they were famous" proportions, I just realized.

Before they were two of the biggest names in cinema, these two played love interests in the 1995 family film A Kid in King Arthur's Court based off Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court".

This was one of my favs as a youngun.  She was about 20 and played the older sister of the main girl, and he was about 27 and played the mentor to the main guy (who later played Kevin in the first three American Pie films).

Daniel Craig:

and Kate Winslet:

His hair was just swell back then.

-AM

Indie Day

So during Sundance last month, IFC Films took advantage of the indie atmosphere and released this trailer. It's a movie called "Peep World" and it boasts a ridiculously stacked cast. Michael C. Hall, who is phenomenal on Dexter as Dexter, Sarah Silverman, Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) and Judy Greer (Arrested Development) all take top billing with a bunch of other actors who are just swell.

The writer is pretty green, but the story still looks good, and the director has worked on SNL in the '80s and wrote the Nutty Professor films.

P.S. That's Lewis Black doing the narrating on the trailer. Not sure if he's actually in the movie, but if he is doing the narrating for the whole movie (in an Arrested Development kinda way), I'd see it just for that.

-AM

Actioning Up

OK, so thought I'd throw up some actions film trailers, because they both have come out recently.

X-Men: First Class. This revamp looks great. Directed by Matthew Vaughn who basically gave Daniel Craig his role as James Bond in '04's Layer Cake. If you haven't seen Layer Cake, you're missing out. Starring James Mcavoy and Michael Fassbender (who was siiiiick in 300 and Inglorious Basterds).

And this is Cowboys and Aliens. Directed by Jon Favreau (of the Iron Man fame) and starring Daniel Craig and Mr. Indiana Jones himself, this can not be anything less than SUPREMELY entertaining.They showed a 30 second TV spot during the Super Bowl, but this is the actual trailer.

-AM

Password

So a few people weren't sure, so I'll just post it here. The login email is friarfilm @gmail.com and the password to this blog is "plastics" just in case anyone wants to post things. plastics is the one word quote from The Graduate, which is one of the most important ages in modern film, ushering in the New Hollywood era.

Here's the famous line from the famous scene:

-AM

The Source of Your Highness is the Tree of Life

Here's three really good trailers that have come out in the last few months.

"Source Code" looks pretty interesting. I'm a big Jeffrey Wright fan, and he seems to be a pivotal role. Probably some Bad Ass special effects in this one.

"Your Highness" looks like it's just gonna be right up there with some of the funnier films of the last few years. James Franco and Danny McBride are the lead guys. And Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel are the lead girls. DONE.

And then "Tree of Life" just looks downright eye opening. It's only the second film Terrence Malick's made in the last 13 years or so. Warning: The trailer is intense. And of course, its' Malick, so no one has any idea what its supposed to be about.

-AM

Super 8 looks Super Great

J.J. Abrams is a Sci-fi Mastermind. For TV, he has created Alias, Lost, Fringe and is soon to start a new TV show with Christopher Nolan's bro, Jonathan (who wrote Memento, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight) called Persons of Interest. He has directed Mission Impossible 3 as well as Star Trek. All winners, really.

For the last year and half, there has been a project kept very under wraps in Hollywoodland. A film called "Super 8", directed by Abrams, and produced by Speilberg. The first mysterious trailer came out last year with Iron Man 2, and during the Super Bowl there was a 30 second spot.

Here they both are:

It basically looks like a combination of "E.T." and "Stand by Me", and guarantees to delve back into the old Speilbergian mindset of childhood fascination. Plus Abrams wrote it.

It's gonna be a redonk Summer blockbuster.

-AM

Movie Blog

Everyone likes movies and TV and entertainment mediums. Ed Zachary is a gateway to all things interesting. But here's where we can talk specifically about movies that are coming out, post trailers or new casting tidbits, or even discuss new TV shows.

I'm just gonna throw this out there to kick it off. It's called "40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes"

-AM