A Year in Netflix - "Premium Rush"

Let's just jump right into this.

There IS a story amongst all the bicycle riding.  I swear.  A day in the life of a NYC bicycle carrier.  Well, sort of.  A package of great importance must get from one area in New York to another area by 7 P.M.  The bike boy tries his best to maneuver through the mean streets of New York while also trying to stay clear of a dirty cop who wants that package for himself.  That's basically it.

I really had no interest in seeing this movie.  There were really only 2 reasons I put this in my Netflix Queue at all.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Shannon.  Good ol' Joe (500 Days of Summer, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper) plays the bike messenger.  And he's good at his job.  Because he loves his job.  He weaves through the city streets like a machine (there are instances where he sees a choice and the outcome before he makes the decision, which leads me to believe he is a robot) and has crazy moves like jumping over gates, hopping on cars, somehow ducking under trucks.  ALL WHILE ON HIS BIKE.  I love Mr. Gordon-Levitt in everything he is in.  Even this.  Yes, it's ridiculous.  Yes, it's silly.  Yes, there is barely a story.  But, damn it, Joe is so watchable.  He is a fantastic actor.  And let's not forget about Michael Shannon.  Michael Shannon!  Fucking Zod!  (Michael Shannon plays Zod in the upcoming Superman movie "Man of Steel")  Words can't even begin to tell you how high I hold this man.  He is AMAZING.  I think it's unforgivable that he was looked over for Best Actor for his role in Take Shelter.  He wasn't even nominated.  For shame, Academy.  He was a powerhouse in that flick.  But this isn't about Take Shelter.  It's about Premium Rush.  And he is really good in this.  He plays the dirty cop who is after the package.  But he isn't a villain, which was surprising to me.  He's just a guy who is in way over his head in gambling debt.  You kind of feel for him at one point.  Well, I certainly did.

I also think David Koepp deserves some credit.  He's the director and one of the writers.  Honestly, going into this flick, I thought to myself, "Ok, David.  WOW me.  You've got a lot of making up to do for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!"  (I won't go into that here.)  And while this movie isn't great, it is still A LOT of fun.  Not the kind of "fun" Michael Bay thinks he is making with the Transformers movies.  You actually are having a good time watching this movie.  It's mostly told in real time, showing us where everyone is at one point and showing us how they get there.  I wonder if they thought of calling this "Google Maps: the Movie" at one point?  It does play with flashbacks a few times, but only to serve the story.  Feeding us info as we need it.  And the action is very well done.  I've never been more concerned for bike riders and I hate those hipster dicks.

All in all, Premium Rush was a surprisingly enjoyable movie.  A bit silly at times with a bare bones story, but still fun.  B.

Commercials ("Selling Out")

Hola, amigos.  Ti amos de la tacos and burritos.  Pour favor las matadors et Carlos uno dos tres salsa.  Wanna know something funny?  All my non Spanish speaking readers will probably think I was actually saying something in Spanish back there.  Fun fact: it's just gibberish.

So, my last few posts haven't really been written blogs.  Just posts of things I like (shoes) and a video I made.  I'm thinking I will do this more often.  I can blog more this way, since I don't always have interesting things to write about.  My goal is to blog once a week.  But don't hold me to that because that probably won't happen.

If you follow my posts, chances are, you watch my videos either on Youtube or Facebook.  And if you watch those, you know some of the first videos I've made were commercials.  These commercials weren't originally supposed to be the jump off point for Elephant Stomp.  Hell, before (and during) the commercials, there WAS NO Elephant Stomp.  Those 6 commercials were made by 4 friends hoping to win some money from an online video contest.  After making those commercials, we as a group decided to keep making videos because it was so damn fun.  And thus, ELEPHANT STOMP was born.  And 20 videos later, I'm going back to the start.

I'm always looking for some sort of video contests to participate in.  I've made a few on my own (not with Elephant Stomp) but these were for a different website.  Now I learned that the site I first made commercials for is having another contest.  I've written a few commercials and have gotten positive responses from those who have read them.  I plan to shoot and upload these soon.  The deadline for this contest is May 30th.  Funny how deadlines motivate me to get shit done.

Now, I've had a few people give slightly negative comments about me making commercials.  Comments like "Commercials are a crutch.  Make original videos.  Leave the commercials for when you run out of things to make."  Or "You make these commercials to win money?  You're selling out now?"  People don't intend to sound mean or hurtful when they say these things.  They really don't.  But here's what I say to them.  Commercials can be more challenging than completely original videos.  With skits, I have no time limit to tell the "story" or whatever.  I can go anywhere with it.  With commercials, I only have 30 to 60 seconds to tell a "story" and to be funny and to get the point across.  Believe me when I say this is WAY more challenging to do.  And as far as selling out?  I guess I see where they are coming from, but I would have made these videos just for fun.  I don't need the possibility of getting money or free products to make a video.  Just the satisfaction of making the video, editing it, and putting it out there for others to see is enough for me.  I enjoy it.  It makes me happy.  I like to enterain.  With having said that, I could win A LOT of money for these videos.  Grand prize is $8,000 plus a trip to France for 3 days and nights.  So yeah, that's a pretty good incentive to make some videos.  But again, I would make these videos for free.

And if you're wondering what site I make these commercials for, it's Mofilm.  Go to http://www.mofilm.com/ to check them out.  Go ahead.  I'm not worried about competition.  I embrace it.  It challenges me to do better.

So, there you have it.  A brief (or not so brief) post about commercials and why I do them.  Again, not doing them just for money, not doing them because I've run out of ideas.  They are just videos to me.  A commercial is just another video.  And video making is fun.

Until next time, blog readers...

Writing

Ahoy there, blog readers! Long time, no blog. I missed all of you. Except for you, Jimmy. Take a shower once in a while and then I'll miss you.

So, I haven't posted in a while and thought there's no better time to do so than now. (Not really, I'm just finding ways to procrastinate from writing.) But seriously, I do have some things on my mind.

First, I have some projects I want to work on. And by "projects", I mean films. Come on, if you're reading this blog, you should know that. I've written a few short films and episode 2 of a web show I wanna do. I'm actually preparing to start shooting one of the shorts. It's called 'Let's Be Friends'. I know, lame title. But despite the title, it's good. Or so I'm told. I've got the cast all together and they all love the script. So, be on the look out for the finished film in the not too distant future.
Along with the filming of that, I also have outlines and ideas for 8 more shorts. I just have to find motivation to actually sit down and write these scripts. It's not that I'm not excited about them, I just have trouble getting motivated. It's like the case of episode 1 of my web show. I had the idea of this show in my head for almost 2 years and never wrote it out. There was actually a contest online for web shows that got me to write it. The deadline was in 2 months and I was like "This is perfect! Time to write." This happens to me a lot. I need a deadline or some kind of push to write stories out.
I also have more ideas for silly Youtube videos. If you haven't seen any of my previous vids, go here...
www.youtube.com/theelephantstomp
BUT, filming these videos has become hard. Most of the Elephant Stomp group has split. Pickle is going to college in North Dakota. Blake is going to college in Duluth or Superior (one of the two). And Grandma has become a working madman. I can never get a hold of him. But I still have faith that we will pump out more videos. I'm just more focused (a little) on short films and stuff like that. More "credible" film projects.

I've also decided not to go to film school til next year. I just want to make as many films as I can before heading off to college. You know, have some experience under my Ninja Turtle belt before working alongside some big deal people. That's right, I have a Ninja Turtle belt. Be jealous.

I guess that's all I've got for now. I'm off to go and try to write my newest short film idea. It's called Dream Couple. Speculate on what it is about however you want. In the words of Tigger, ta ta for now. I hate myself for knowing that...

The Big Picture

So, I intended to write this blog with little things in mind. Daily things that keep me from getting work done. But then I started thinking about life and whatnot. So this blog turned out a little more heartfelt that I intended. But here it goes...

Life is full of distractions. Things that take your eyes off of the big picture. I'm not talking about the big picture of life, but the big picture according to you. If you're in high school, the big picture is graduating. In college, the big picture is.... also graduating. In a meaningful relationship, the big picture is, presumably, marriage. But the road to that big picture isn't a short one by any means. You have to go through many different obstacles on that road. Thats why its called a journey. And while on that journey, don't stop believing. (I apologize for that poor Journey joke.) But seriously, on that road are so many rest stops and detours you can take. And its alright to stop and look around every now and again, as long as you keep your eyes on the big picture.

My big picture is film school. If you know me than you know that filmmaking is my passion. I don't even have a fallback plan. Making films is my only plan because thats all I want to do with my life. But I've been somewhat distracted from that goal over the past few years. Yeah, years. I've been wanting to go to film school since I graduated high school. Before that, even. I know, I need to get on the ball. But I've coasted by on the bare mininum for so long, I'm not sure how to achieve my goal.

As long as I can remember, I've wanted to tell stories. I know this because I received a letter from my first grade teacher when I graduated stating that I loved to write stories even back when I was in first fucking grade. Then, growing up, I started to develope my short stories into longer stories and those longer stories into sort of novellas and those novellas eventually lead to screen stories. I could never really write stories onto paper very well. I'd always write Screen Play type stories. Then I developed an appreciation for film. It wasn't until 9th or 10th grade when I realized that I wanted to make movies.

Nothing has really come to fruition since then. I mean, I've done some little high school projects and I've made some silly videos with my friends, but thats about all I've done since the 10th grade. And it really hasn't affected me until now. I've been out of school for 2 years and I have no job and I am no closer to my "big picture" than I was when I was 16. I'm nearing my 20th birthday and I have nothing to show for it. This fact has gotten me down the past few weeks.

I've recently sent for Admission Applications for several film schools. New York, Florida, Chicago. Just to name a few. But while looking at film schools online, I started thinking about the people in my life. I don't want to leave them. Then I started thinking of them as the distractions to my big picture. And this job hunt I've been on for a number of months isn't helping either. No job means no money. No money means no way to pay for school. And to top it all off, I've recently, to put it politely, "hit it off" with a girl I've had major feelings for since I met her. Now, I'm not a fan of relationships at all. I like being single and I don't understand why people settle down when they are young, but this girl is, more or less, the girl of my dreams. She's beautiful, funny, smart, fun to be around, she smells good all the time (what? I don't know. I just wanted more adjectives in here), her tastes in movies and music are strikingly similar to mine, and she's just all around awesome. I think she is perfect. But again, this is a distraction from my big picture and I do not want to settle down in any way, shape, or form. So as of now, my eye is on the prize. I'm not letting anything distract me from achieving my goal. Film school is calling me and I intend to answer.

So when it comes to you and your big picture, just remember that its ok to be distracted here and there. Just make sure that you try your hardest to achieve that goal. And don't get lost in those distractions.