Thursday, December 18, 2014

Shades Of Elvis

I found a GREAT photographer one night while just surfin' the net. His name is Christopher Ameruoso and he has a book about celebs wearing the actual sunglasses collection of Elvis. He was able to access the collection because his collaborator on this great book was Priscilla Presley. Check this out! What a great conversation piece to have sitting on your coffee table.
From "My Fox.com"
What would happen if you took a pair of sunglasses that belonged to Elvis Presley, had close to a hundred celebrities wear them, and shoot their different poses and reactions? That's the premise behind a new book from photographer Christopher Ameruoso, who teamed up with Priscilla Presley, for "Shades of Elvis". Christopher and Priscilla talked about the Elvis legend and how celebrities like Johnny Depp, Elton John, Cher, and others took to sporting the King's shades. "Shades of Elvis" is available only online at Shadesofelvis.net.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Ozan Biron's New Project

Ozan Biron first came to my attention back in 2008. In fact my very first post on Cineblax was about Ozan. He had put together a movie trailer for a film that he was working on called "Meth". He had used a consumer video cam without even a depth of field adapter (remember those?). This trailer was so good that the amateur film forums went crazy, saying that this was all a hoax and that he could not have possibly made something this good with just a cheap video cam. But the truth was he had. It was all real. I thought that this guy was going to be the next big thing. But here it is 2014 and still not many people know who he is. But I do and he is amazing. Here is his latest project called "Crook". Check this out!!!

Saturday, November 8, 2014

We've been missing "THE RUSH OF THE WHEEL"or "Can Keanu Reeves Save Cinema"?????

Like the "Record Business", the "Movie Business" has completely changed! In some ways both have changed for the better.......in that anyone with an idea, weather it be a song or a screen play...they can record or film their vision with VERY LITTLE money! You can record an amazing sounding song or album right in your bedroom, using only a PC and some microphones. If you have any ability with cameras, you can make a movie that looks exactly like a BIG BUDGET HOLLYWOOD Movie with a camera setup that costs less than 5,000 dollars. That is astonishing when you remember (only 10 years ago) that getting your movie to look like the big boy Hollywood movies would require a 100,000 dollar plus camera setup. So expensive, that 95% of filmmakers would rent equipment because of the high cost of a 35 mm camera or early digital video cinema cameras (like the Sony HDW-F900). One of the problems that I see (only one guys personal opinion) is that in this whirlwind of technological advancement, the great song or the great story has somehow gotten lost. Here is an article I found in Entertainment Weekly about Keanu Reeves's new movie. Check it out....I found it to be not only very interesting, but also very true.

Most big-budget action movies these days are just cartoons directed by bad animators. Somewhere between The Matrix and The Bourne Identity, the whole genre lost its brawl. You’ve seen one superhero defend his city from an airship armada, you’ve seen every superhero defend his city from an airship armada. Then there’s John Wick. Simple story, not-so-simple thrills. The story: Someone kills an assassin’s dog, and the assassin (Keanu Reeves) wants vengeance. The thrills: The movie constructs action scenes with patience and delicacy, filming in steady shots that track the careful choreography of Reeves’ punch-shoot rampages. John Wick was directed by a stuntman, and the movie ripples with the straightforward pleasure of watching bodies move on screen the way bodies used to move before greenscreen turned every movie into a Who Framed Roger Rabbit reboot. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Except, suddenly, they do. John Wick (in theaters now) is the latest entry in a genre mini-renaissance—let’s call it New Action: ultraviolent, often R-rated, with minimum backstory and maximum body count. 2012’s The Raid: Redemption sent a squad of supercops (who all know martial arts) into a building filled with supercriminals (who all know martial arts). The same year brought Dredd, which took its Die Hard-trapped-in-a-building plot and dressed it up with garish neon scuzz, like Blade Runner‘s punk-rock little brother. These things used to be called B movies, but they’re now drawing A-list talent. Steven Soderbergh’s in the club: His underrated Haywire is what happens when one of our most experimental auteurs decides to experiment with punching Michael Fassbender in the face. And Liam Neeson has practically become his own New Action subgenre. Taken is John Wick in Paris; Non-Stop should’ve been The Raid on a plane. GET MORE EW: Subscribe to the magazine for only 33¢ an issue!
It’s possible to call these movies throwbacks, except they’re throwing back to multiple eras at once. There’s a bit of the ground-level grit of ’70s action cinema: the bloody vengeance of Death Wish, the screeching wheels of The French Connection. But there’s also a strong influence from ’80s beefcake cinema, with its demi-fascist mass-murdering alpha males (see: the Fast & Furious franchise). Yet what makes New Action so revitalizing, and unexpected, is that it can minimize as well as it hyperbolizes. Witness the opening scene of contempo-hipster classic Drive, a car chase shot entirely from the inside of Ryan Gosling’s getaway vehicle. Cards on the table: I love all these movies. I think they can save cinema. Hollywood’s wannabe saviors have been preaching a Big Spectacle gospel for years now. James Cameron and 3-D and Avatar; Peter Jackson and high frame rates and The Hobbit. All impressive, but what’s been missing is the rush of the real. If New Action is going to rescue movies, though, it’s going to have to strap on some brass knuckles and batter a few more rules. These movies come on strong, but they’re still playing it safe. The heroes never die, never make any real mistakes. There’s a faint whiff of the miserable modern franchise about them: John Wick never does anything bold enough to close the door on John Wick 2. That’s not a deal breaker, but it’s a shame. The best action movies leave it all on the playing field. The best movies don’t need to save the cool stuff for the sequel.

Friday, May 2, 2014

The Sony A7. And the HITS JUST KEEP ON COMIN''

The Sony A7. And the HITS JUST KEEP ON COMIN'
The toughest part of having a Blog is just keeping the "posts" current. How many blogs do you come across that show the latest post dated over 1 year ago. I know that when I look through the archive history of Cineblax, I see many many spots where I haven't posted for many months. In fact the last post I did about the Digital Bolex is dated "Sunday, September 22, 2013". Here is what amazes me: Whenever I tell someone (a friend or acquaintance) about my Cineblax Blog, I tell them the story from my "about me" header (directly to the right) and how I took the advice about my screenwriting and applied to this Blog. The part that amazes me, is that my statement (from over 2 years ago)about how the main theme of the Cineblax Blog is how you can now take a $1000 camera and make a movie that can rival "the look of a Hollywood blockbuster" still feels like I could of written it yesterday. The only difference is that the $1000 camera just keeps getting better and better! I was having a lunch time discussion about Digital Cameras and how Filmmaking is my PASSION with a co-worker and I of course took the opportunity to try and recruit another reader for my blog. I found myself singing the praises of another new amazing Digital Video Camera that shoots images that are absolutely Beautiful! That camera is the new Sony A7. This is the first mirrorless camera with a full-frame 35mm sensor, in a body that is much smaller than a DSLR. At $1700 (for the body only), the Sony A7 seems a little expensive, but when you really look at what your getting, I think it's a BARGIN! Forking over $1700 for the A7 seems like a lot, but it's around the same as the cheapest new full-frame DSLRs like the Canon 6D or Nikon D600. This small mirrorless camera has interchangeable lens. Put on a nice Voigtländer 40mm f/1.4 NOKTON Classic lens ($414 at Adoramaa) and you have a full 35mm sensor camera with a beautiful small lens that fits in the palm of your hand. This was shot by Steve Huff with the A7