our first scout for our first WETKMA shoot. location for this scene is secret until we're up and running. "[we] came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum... and [we're] all out of bubblegum."
- NK
3.31.2010
Location Scout #1
our first scout for our first WETKMA shoot. location for this scene is secret until we're up and running. "[we] came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum... and [we're] all out of bubblegum."
- NK
3.03.2010
greatest fights: THEY LIVE
The fight between Nada and Frank in They Live (1988) "was only supposed to last 20 seconds, but Piper and David decided to fight it out for real, only faking the hits to the face and groin. They rehearsed the fight for three weeks. (John) Carpenter was so impressed he kept the 5 minute and 20 second scene intact."
- NK
why is everyone making this movie?
and by everyone i mean the handful of us that are working on this, not everyone as in all filmmakers everywhere.
late last year nathan came to me and said, "i'm thinking about buying a lego stop-motion set, and just making 1 frame a day until i have a feature." he was expressing a disappointment that we both felt last year, about not being in production as often as we'd like to, and also that we hadn't made a feature yet. our conversation made the idea of doing a feature by attrition really appealing. so i began to think about what was stopping us from making a feature? first of all, the hardest part about working in between other projects, is getting everyone's schedules to line up. so, we thought about what kind of movie we could make that required only nathan, myself, and an actor, that could be scaled based on who was available to help us that day?
eventually, it brought me back to an idea i had a few years ago while doing an action short: a feature that had no story, but instead was just one big long hour and a half fight sequence.
my logic was this: the plots in most action films are often incidental, and usually bad. think about any jackie chan movie. they are pretty much the same: some bad guys for one reason or another try to beat up jackie chan and eventually jackie chan kicks all their asses. does anyone really care why? and if you can't remember why, it's obvious you didn't care (because if you did you'd have remembered). at this point many filmmakers or film students are going to say something like, "it's a movie, it should have a story! the Matrix was a great movie because it had great action AND a great story." but think about what ruined Matrix 2 and 3... was it the action? no, it was the plotting and the endless, often pretentious monologs. i liken it to the small talk you have to make with your pot dealer before you buy drugs. you don't really care what he's been up to or if he still kicks it with spider, but somehow it seems wrong to just show up, hand him some cash for your bag of weed and jet, maybe because that's what crack addicts do or something. well, i'm that dealer, and i'm saying, i know this is what you want, and let's not waste time pretending you want anything else.
before we get blasted for this though, let me say that we are not enemies of plot and story, in fact, all of us are big fans of strong plot, character, and theme, but WETKMAS is an experiment: what happens if we dispense with story, and instead devote that extra time and energy into pure visceral entertainment? that's a movie our whole team would love to see.
aaron
late last year nathan came to me and said, "i'm thinking about buying a lego stop-motion set, and just making 1 frame a day until i have a feature." he was expressing a disappointment that we both felt last year, about not being in production as often as we'd like to, and also that we hadn't made a feature yet. our conversation made the idea of doing a feature by attrition really appealing. so i began to think about what was stopping us from making a feature? first of all, the hardest part about working in between other projects, is getting everyone's schedules to line up. so, we thought about what kind of movie we could make that required only nathan, myself, and an actor, that could be scaled based on who was available to help us that day?
eventually, it brought me back to an idea i had a few years ago while doing an action short: a feature that had no story, but instead was just one big long hour and a half fight sequence.
my logic was this: the plots in most action films are often incidental, and usually bad. think about any jackie chan movie. they are pretty much the same: some bad guys for one reason or another try to beat up jackie chan and eventually jackie chan kicks all their asses. does anyone really care why? and if you can't remember why, it's obvious you didn't care (because if you did you'd have remembered). at this point many filmmakers or film students are going to say something like, "it's a movie, it should have a story! the Matrix was a great movie because it had great action AND a great story." but think about what ruined Matrix 2 and 3... was it the action? no, it was the plotting and the endless, often pretentious monologs. i liken it to the small talk you have to make with your pot dealer before you buy drugs. you don't really care what he's been up to or if he still kicks it with spider, but somehow it seems wrong to just show up, hand him some cash for your bag of weed and jet, maybe because that's what crack addicts do or something. well, i'm that dealer, and i'm saying, i know this is what you want, and let's not waste time pretending you want anything else.
before we get blasted for this though, let me say that we are not enemies of plot and story, in fact, all of us are big fans of strong plot, character, and theme, but WETKMAS is an experiment: what happens if we dispense with story, and instead devote that extra time and energy into pure visceral entertainment? that's a movie our whole team would love to see.
aaron
3.02.2010
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