John Q. Phats Entertainment

So, I saw the new Transformers movie last night.  It was ok.  Nothing life changing, but I was entertained.  I went in wanting to see big robots beating the crap out of each other, Megan Fox in sexy posses, and some good special effects and that’s what I got.  I’m happy.  The special effects in that movie were insanely awesome, as expected.  Good special effects, robots beating each other up, Megan Fox, it worked.  I hate when people see a movie like Transformers and review it badly because there were parts that weren’t realistic.  Look, you’re going to see a movie about robots kicking the crap out of each other, maybe, just maybe, ALL the rules of reality, don’t apply here.  I’m just saying, pointing out tiny little flaws in realism is kind of pointless when you’re watching a movie about robots that fight each other.  To me, it’s the same as pointing out realism flaws in a Road Runner and Coyote cartoon.  However, I’ll give you a realism flaw.  Any guy, before going off to college, leaving Megan Fox behind would have banged her like a drum if she were their girlfriend.  LaBeouf just makes out with her in front of his parents.  Kind of kinky, but not at all what would have happened.  Anyway, I liked Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  Here’s a little useless movie knowledge.  Sometime in the middle of shooting, Shia LaBeouf was in a car accident and injured his hand.  They wrote the bandage that he had to have wrapped around his hand in to the script so that it was explained for the rest of the movie. 
Before the movie they showed this commercial thing with Michael Bay in it where he says “I consider myself an old time film maker.”  I’m sorry, what?  There were scenes in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen where one frame of special effects took 5 days to render.  Sorry Michael Bay, But I’m going to have to disagree with you on that one.  Everyone knows that a Michael Bay film is going to be packed with special effects, that’s partially why I go to see it.  I know I’m going to get a solid action film with lots of explosions.  Directing actors wise, I think Michael Bay is actually pretty good.  He gets good performances. In fact would call him a good director.  I haven’t seen a movie of his yet that hasn’t been somewhat entertaining. 
All of that aside, the new project is starting to move.  I can’t really discuss what it is exactly, but I’m going to sit down tonight and jot down some ideas.  I decided to let someone produce this one.  I’ve never really worked with a producer before, so we’ll see how this goes.  I’m kind of a control freak, but I think I can make it work.  For this project, everyone needs to focus on what they do.  The actors need to act, the director (me) needs to direct, the producer needs to produce, and the cinematographer needs to…..cinematog?  Everyone needs to focus on what their job is.  I can’t produce this myself and I can’t have actors running around worrying about camera angles and what not.  This is a big project and everyone will need to be razor sharp.

So, I want to shoot some stuff for Nice Guys Finish Last, unfortunately The Plague might take one of our actors from us.  The main actor in the short got the flu.  Luckily there is some stuff we can shoot with Valerie that only requires her.  The greatest thing about owning all of my equipment is that I can pretty much shoot anything with a 3 person crew.  Usually, I actually only need a 2 man crew, but with this short film, I’m shooting with two cameras.  So, I need two camera operators and a boom mic operator.  Sean has become my unofficial boom mic operator.  He’s amazing at not moving and he has big burley boom mic operator arms.  It’s almost like having a wise cracking stand that can move if needed.  What can I say?  He’s good at what he does.  In a perfect world, I would have a five person crew.  Two camera operators, a boom mic operator, a lighting person, and someone that’s telling the camera operators where to go and what to do.  I like to focus on the actors.  Camera work can be fun, but I absolutely hate being a camera operator and director at the same time.  Which I can do, but it sucks.  Usually, I end up with sub par stuff when I do that.  I kind of suck as a camera operator.  I usually end up trying to split my attention between directing and shooting and it never really works.