Truth to that, but I honestly think a lot of these dudes just don't know how to shoot a film. "G.I. Joe, the Rise of Cobra", for example. The subject matter and stuff would have done the same money regardless of how the action was shot. But the camera work was atrocious: scene shifts so fast they were dizzying, fights so hyperactive I literally couldn't see who was doing what move. That has nothing to do with money; it has to do with the director simply not having the skill and knowledge to shoot what's becoming "old style" action scenes.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" <hellomahog...@gmail.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, February 7, 2010 4:20:03 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Great Action Flicks on TCM Tonight I think that their selling out has little to do with choice. Most feel pressured to do the bigger money maker over something more artistic. What I think happens is that they think that if they make a few money makers they can make more artistic smaller films later. The problem is that may backfire and they end up doing it for the rest of their career. On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 10:04 AM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: It's all about American filmmakers always trying to put out quick product that makes a lot of quick money, is easily digestible by young men, lends itself to DVD releases, and isn't too complicated. And it's about a perceived idea that subsequent generations won't sit still for the same thing as their elders. Note how even the news now is much more packaged to be slick and quick, with real discussion and analysis often rejected in favor of strident debate. I find it interesting that in films like "The Hurt Locker", one of the things I've heard critics praise Bigelow for is good cinematography that lets you take in the action, despite its intensity. I think a lot of this is people just selling out and going with what seems to be easy and popular. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" < hellomahog...@gmail.com > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, February 7, 2010 6:41:58 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Great Action Flicks on TCM Tonight I think that the European style of movies is just what they are used to seeing. We have had music in fight scenes since sound in film here. I think that there's too much dependence on special effects and over compensating of movement. A lot of the stuff we see now is after 15 years of overcompensation that no one under 35 know how to shoot a film without it. On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 1:43 AM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: Some of it may have been the time and money, but I think more of it was director's aesthetic tastes. In watching "The Book of Eli" a couple of weeks ago, I was impressed at how the Hughes brothers had more of an old school take on cinematography. The fight scenes were brief but brutal, and I could see everything very well. They used wide shots, pan-and-zoom, to let me take everything in, without all the crazy quick cuts and multiple angles a lot of other directors use. I really think directors like Scorsese, Redford, Spike Lee, etc., just think it's a better way to tell a story. note that in Britain, Mexico, France, and other countries, there's a lot less of this music video type direction than in American film. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mr. Worf" < hellomahog...@gmail.com > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, February 7, 2010 2:30:01 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Great Action Flicks on TCM Tonight I think that they had to stick to stagnant angles in older movies because they usually only had one or two cameras running at once, because they couldn't afford more than that. If they wanted multiple angles they would reset the scene then reshoot it. Now they can afford to rent 10 or 20 cameras and set them up at 50 angles and record them all in one take. The thing with big actors is that they don't want to take direction from the director. So some of them believe whatever their point of view is, is more valid than the director's vision. Which I believe is wrong! On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 6:20 PM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@comcast.net > wrote: Watching it now. I was just telling my wife jubilantly, "they just don't film movies like this anymore!" Nowadays director would have twenty thousand camera angles, and you'd never be able to follow the action. This thing is fast-paced and exciting as hell, but I can take it all in. Speaking of great car chase scenes, another all-time one is from "Ronin", one of my fav films. And I also love the classic pursuit of Batman's car in "Batman Begins". ----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Baxter" < truthseeker...@hotmail.com > To: "SciFiNoir2" < scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Saturday, February 6, 2010 9:01:42 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: RE: [scifinoir2] Great Action Flicks on TCM Tonight I'm there right now, waiting for that chase scene, Keith. "Bonnie and Clyde" I'll be passing on, as it aired just last month. "The French Connection", though, is a must, particularly since I picked up a bit of trivia about Gene Hackman's performance in it. In the scene where he roughs up the suspect, Hackman nearly quit the movie. An ardent liberal, he almost couldn't bring himself to do the scene. "If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com From: keithbjohn...@comcast.net Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 01:57:57 +0000 Subject: [scifinoir2] Great Action Flicks on TCM Tonight http://www.tcm.com/2010/31Days/index.jsp You know what? Forget SyFy Originals. Forget the eleventy-millionth airing of "Caprica". Blow off Lifetime Movies. Turner Classic Movies is airing a great block of films tonight. Starting at 8 pm EST, we have Steve McQueen in "Bullitt", with the man-of-few-words McQueen, and one of the great car chases of all time. That's followed at 10 pm by "The French Connection", with a typically intense Gene Hackman in one of the other great car chases of all time. And then, at midnight, it's "Bonnie and Clyde", Warren Beatty's violent New Hollywood tale of the famous robbers. The movies are part of TCM's "31 Days of Oscar", a month long airing of Oscar-wnning and -nominated films done every year. This is a great time to catch up on some of the best films of all time, from "Casablanca" to "Citizen Kane", from "Some Like it Hot", to "Cabin in the Sky". The good thing about TCM is that in addition to showing Oscar-nominated films, this being Black History Month, they also show a lot of classic Black film dating back to the '20s. Ethel Waters in "Cabin in the Sky" is just one example. It's about the only place I've seen this and many other of those films from that time. Gonna be a long fun night! Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft’s powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now. -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/
