Friday, December 19, 2014

Director or Dictator (Print to Online)

Directing is for sure one of the most recognizable careers in the movie industry, back in the days, a director was almost the element that made everything alone, organizing, shooting, writing and sometimes even acting.
A director is certainly the backbone of any movie production, the only boss around when it comes to final orders and decisions.


The ultimate throne of commanding

Sweet or harsh
Some directors are known to be hard when it comes to dealing with shooting staff, many of them are running around shouting and yelling at everyone that comes across their faces, exhausting to crew with endless orders and impossible tasks to be done, even actors get worked out with numerous takes for a single scene.
Other directors turn their shooting locations into a big family gathering, spreading positive energy and cooperation in the air with their friendly attitude.

Great post comes with great responsibility
One school of directing believes that kindness doesn't produce master pieces, and distinguished directors like Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron are known to be dictators when in comes to their movies, but apparently their strategy is paying off well.
Some directors even write the movies they direct, or at least co-write them, so later they would have the chance to apply their vision to come up with a satisfying final product.

My way or the highway!
It's rumored that some actors were replaced and movie shooting were delayed or even postponed for weeks according to directors orders or guidelines, such behavior by directors cause troubles for production companies and release dates, specially for studio reservations.
But it won't matter for many directors, all they care about is their final product, keeping the glory and perfection in their minds, and compromising isn't even listed in their dictionaries.

Twisted, yet still great
Directors like Quentin Tarantino are known to be extraordinary and completely out of the box, but isn't greatness is all about that? So very unusual requests are asked and strange techniques are used to perform tasks, but as long it comes up with excellent final product, then why not.
And being on the same frequency with your crew makes the shooting location flowing nicely, and probably the same crew members are collaborated with in later movies.

It differs from one person to the other, the way directors treat and go along with their crew depends on personality and mentality of the person in the first place, but no matter the way every director chooses to handle their shooting location, as long as it produces good work at the end, then it's allowed, seems like everything is allowed in love and war, and perhaps movie directing as well.

Oscar winning Directors


Links:
  • http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/11/news/la-en-directors-20110111
  • http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/movies/2014/12/19/Foxcatcher-director-energized-by-commitment-from-actors/stories/201412190003
  • http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/07/30/quentin-tarantino-jj-abrams-save-kodak/
  • http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/mike-nichols-dead-83-won-oscar-graduate-article-1.2017259

Color Matter

It's almost the year 2015, and discrimination according to race and color has been fought against by the vast majority of people for decades now, but certain incidents and attitudes still prove that racism still exists in the society, and along the years, stories of struggling to be equally treated with other people, and stories about how different can life be for people if they have different skin colors.


Men of Honor (2000)

The journey of success wasn't any easy!
It was almost impossible for a black young man to join the US Navy as an officer back in the 1950's, posts like a cook would be more matching for such skin color at the time, that wasn't the case for Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding Jr.), despite his low educational status, he fights his way up in the Navy, being harassed by almost every white person in the base, with Chief Billy Sunday (Robert De Niro), who was racist trying to make him fail the test and be kicked out, but later admires his determination and takes his side.


The most inspiring scene in the movie



The enthusiastic soundtrack



Training Day (2001)
"You wanna go to jail or you wanna go home?"


An extreme look on the poor neighborhoods of the African-American citizens, and how things run down there, where injustice, corruption and crime are at every corner and door step, the well experienced cop Alonzo Harris (Danzel Washington) is escorting the newly moved officer Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) showing him around and teaching him, and from the beginning of the day, we get to see a live look about how things work in the hoods.

It's just business



Harold and Kumar (2004)
Awkward night with strange situations for Harold & Kumar

A successful Korean data analyst and a genius yet lazy Indian friend crave eating (White Castle) burgers after watching an ad on the TV, and since it's kind of far away, they face awkward situation in their journey, facing all sorts of harassment from from different people because of their look, although they are both fully American born and raised in America to immigrant parents, lots of fun and comedy!

Funny moments with Harold & Kumar



Groovy soundtrack

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Parenting is hard

Human relationships are so complicated and they are quiet tricky and ambiguous for all human beings at some point in their lives, we come to this life as crying babies and grow up under the care and love of our parents, we have our disagreements and arguments with them, and after some years we become parents ourselves and we have our own children with our own troubles, sure life does go on.



There Will Be Blood (2007)
Daniel Day-Lewis played an outstanding role earning him an Oscar for it

Motivated by money, a 20th century American miner from California turned himself into an oilman, trying to destroy and vanish his competitors using all the ethical and unethical ways, including his adopted son whose his business associate at the same time, and with his power and wealth growing, his selfish and greedy personality appears to the surface more and more, driving everybody around him away, even his business associate son.




American Beauty (1999)
Normal looking families can actually be torn apart

Another controversial movie talking about regular American families in a just another suburban neighborhood, the movie exposes how fragile and weak the relationship between family members are, and how depressed can someone be, leading them to live a secret life that no one knows about, the leading character, played by Kevin Sapcey, starts realizing what makes his life miserable, and then transforms his attitude and the way he lives his life, till the movie reaches it dramatic end.


Leon: The Professional (1994)
Very unusual connection between a child and a hit man

No one can deny that the year 1994 was extraordinary in the years of movie production, many great unforgettable movies were shown that year, and a true star was born in the movie "Leon: The Professional", the 12 year old at the time, Natalie Portman, starred the movie alongside the well known action movie star, Jean Reno, together they formed an astonishing and weird relationship on the screen, both going through hard childhood, and after Matihlda's -Natalie- parents are shot dead, the hit man -Jean- sees his childhood suffering in Matilhda, so he decides to take care of he and help her revenge her parent's death.


Walk The Line (2005)
Johnny Cash on the left, and Joaquin Phoenix playing his role in the movie

Johnny cash is definitely one of the famous artists of the 60's, having his own style and distinguished deep voice gave him the opportunity to stand out among other artists, the movie which is named after one of his songs, is an autobiography of a man who refused to believe what his father was telling him all the time, that he is worthless and he would never get anywhere with his music career.
Haunted by the past, Johnny Cash launches his music career, and as a human he had his rights and wrongs, but definitely he had an interesting life.  




Get High!

Cinema and drugs, perhaps are the one of the most famous duets ever, and since movies picture both reality and fiction, drugs had to be discussed and viewed extensively in various movie pictures through wide range of years, and one can easily relate the amount of drug scenes and movies at a certain year with the real numbers of drugs addicts and the size of drugs business.


Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction has become an iconic movie

How about one of the most important movies of the 90's?! "Pulp Fiction" is certainly one remarkable movie by the controversial director "Quentin Tarantino", maybe the movie is not solely about drugs, but the scene when "Uma Thurman"  sniffs a big amount of cocaine and the goes through an over dose condition and her heart stops, we can never forget when "John Travolta" is debating with his friend about injecting her with the adrenalin shot, when he suddenly almost stabs her in the heart with the shot bringing her back to life.


The Famous Scene


  The Movie Soundtrack


Goodfellas (1990)
One of the most shocking and realistic gangsters' movies ever

We saw behind the scenes of the gangster life and lived every small detail from the early life till the sad fall. Director "Martin Scorsese" filmed one of his most recognizable movies in 1990, talking about the mob life in the 70's and 80's, and how some brat kids evolved to be drug lords later, picturing all the drama, violence, action, happiness and even disappointment of the characters in the movie, simply, the rise, then process and finally the fall of the drug business of a group of people, and how it changed their lives forever, and even ended lives for others.


Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Shocking, thrilling and can't be missed 

It's the new millennium, and director "Darren Aronofsky" is giving us a heads up that the upcoming years will be amazing when it comes to movies, great shooting, plot, acting, directing and definitely an incredible soundtrack that will stick forever in your head.
All these elements are used to carry the horrible and destructive effects of different kind of drugs, from cocaine to diet pills, on a young man along with his best friend and girlfriend, and on his mother as well, and how their lives are turned upside down, great movie with a very twisted end, worth every second of watching for sure.
   Almost unbelievable full orchestra soundtrack