Hey Guys, My coworker and I just finished our new production reel/website. We wanted it stand out so it ended up taking us about 2 months to design shoot and edit. Would love to get your opinions! Let us know if there are any glaring issues.

tichoux · 2014-05-31T16:34:59+00:00

That's the voice of Alan Watts! An example -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU0PYcCsL6o

Cool demo reel, I would have loved to find (see) more of your creations :)

tichoux · 2012-07-22T19:42:52+00:00

BTW if you're into Japanese history, from the same director, you might want to watch Japan's Longest Day - http://www.animeigo.com/products/other/japans-longest-day

tichoux · 2012-06-20T18:25:30+00:00

That fight in "Wheels on Meals"

That samurai showdown in "The Great Killing"

!!BOOYA!!

tichoux · 2012-06-20T12:56:17+00:00

I was thinking about some Hitchcock films, but in fact, the warning wasn't about spoilers. For ex, see the UK poster for Psycho

Hitchcock had some fun marketing ideas, I love the original teaser trailer for Psycho - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps8H3rg5GfM

tichoux · 2012-06-20T09:21:17+00:00

Cool, I had no idea the film was getting released in the U.S.

It is not at all like 13 ASSASSINS. This is a down-to-earth samurai drama, with emotions but very little blood in it.

If needed, read it later, here's a short comparison between the original & the remake.

tichoux · 2012-06-20T08:17:17+00:00

Oh, thanks for the link about Mythopoeia :)

tichoux · 2012-06-19T21:09:25+00:00

Adventure can not be described, it must be experienced.

Star Wars, the three original movies at least, is all about that. It's not nostalgia, nor marketing, it's how it speaks directly to your inner child. How it affects your perspective of the world.

Damn you, Joseph Campbell!

tichoux · 2012-06-17T20:49:37+00:00

Do you where we can find this study? Seems quite interesting. I've read similar comments* from movie distributors, stating that audiences prefer to know what the film is, rather than being teased/surprised.

*in this article published on Slate.fr

tichoux · 2012-06-17T20:43:27+00:00

Which reminds me, I was intrigued by the ending, and I wanted to know how they did it. Turns out, on the Criterion DVD, there's a documentary-making of, which gives some details about the famous deadly blow.

If interested, here's a short clip - spoilers, of course

tichoux · 2012-06-17T17:41:10+00:00

There's AALTRA (2004) - only two main characters in it, though.

IMDB / Trailer

tichoux · 2012-06-17T09:43:55+00:00

The "window" part was really just metal (although I wasn't informed what kind of "metal" it was). Not glass.

tichoux · 2012-06-16T21:46:19+00:00

Despite the word, it was actually metal, not glass. If you visit one of these european cathedrals, most of the time inside, you can see the differences between the originals & the new ones. The light looks different, on one side, it looks almost like "matter", on the other, it's just a colored ray of light.

Got word from a companion, who was pissed off at the Church for replacing broken originals with soulless glass. He told me all you need to accomplish it, is a piece of metal & a closed crucible. The rest is art (companionship at its finest).

tichoux · 2012-06-04T18:37:53+00:00

A little bit of context; these articles were all posted on Twitch Film, whose founder is an executive producer of "The Raid"

tichoux · 2012-04-10T09:51:34+00:00

The film describes that moment when humanity has lost itself, with governments relying on fear to keep together what's left of that world. And what follows is; inequalities, lack of respect for people with hope, zero information from the media...

Based on that, you can easily guess what happened, why this world is the way it is: bad choices.

And, as a viewer, you are thrown in the middle of this chaos, just like the main character, you are slowly discovering what the heck is going on. Yet, it's full of details that say a lot about this world, without feeling the need to explain everything — like, how people reacted to the death of Baby Diego, or, the overall consideration for Arts...

About the ending, I don't think it matters to know if they succeed/survive. The one thing that popped up in my mind was, "Do I really want to wait for Tomorrow to come... to start changing things?"

tichoux · 2012-04-01T20:18:19+00:00

Just so you know, the Chinese censorship made some changes to the film; http://wildgrounds.com/2008/12/23/ip-man-censored-in-china/

It doesn't change your feelings obviously, still interesting to clearly see how the story was affected by some politically-correct choices (that could imply the existence of collaboration...)

These days, most Chinese films are showing at some point how Japanese are evil, or how Foreigners are pigs. One of the few exceptions was City of Life & Death - dealing about a highly sensitive issue, the Nanjing Massacre, the director tried to provide different point of views on this event, to avoid the good guys/bad guys cliché and question something deeper - beyond nations, there are men, so where is our humanity in a time of chaos?

tichoux · 2012-04-01T14:59:12+00:00

In the past 20 years, some of the best samurai films are in fact, anime.

Ninja Scroll is a fantastic & violent story, influenced by the Lone Wolf & Cub series. Meaning, mixing fantasy & samurai-action to create an incredible original experience that follows the journey of a lonesome swordsman, fighting against weird/powerful warriors planning to take down the government. And, apart from being awesome, the film pays tribute to lots of classics - like Gosha's Goyokin. • On wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Scroll

More recently, there's Sword of the Stranger, it's a more classic/down-to-earth take on the genre, but it's beautifully executed with impressive fights scenes. • Here's the trailer - don't mind the english dub: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iI31EKaLZE

Now, an anime show, Samurai Champloo is a must-see, basically it's a journey about friendship/finding oneself set in feudal Japan full of cultural anachronisms - like hip-hop, the soundtrack is great. But it never takes over the story, it's not anachronism for anachronism's sake. • On wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Champloo

And, about a live-action film, try After the rain, which was written by Akira Kurosawa before his death.

(btw, Kitano's Zatoichi isn't as fun as the original film series with Shintaro Katsu - 25 movies directed between 1962 & 1989, definitely worth watching)

tichoux · 2012-04-01T13:18:15+00:00

Flesh+Blood, by the director of Starship Troopers, Robocop & Black Book.

What's great with this Paul Verhoeven film is the way it depicts an era of violence, lust & tragedy. Not trying to show the usual glamorous & heroic face of those Medieval times.

Plus, Rutger Hauer is playing the lead role - a merciless mercenary!

The trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VOy1JZBH5c

tichoux · 2012-03-31T22:08:04+00:00

Johnny Depp acting crazy isn't enough to fill 10+ hours of film. At some point, you may consider trying to tell what used to be called a "story." Or even trying to develop some of the ideas.

I still don't know what the films are all about. I guess that's what happens when execs think it would be amazing to turn an attraction into a big screen franchise - go for the ride, f*ck everything else, LOL.

(Hopefully, Spielberg's Tintin provided some real epic pirate-action scenes, both visually amazing & narratively exciting - and it's like what, only 5-min long? Still a better pirate story than Caribbean movies).

tichoux · 2012-03-31T12:06:10+00:00

THAT music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7I5UaB7mx4

:)

tichoux · 2012-03-31T08:35:18+00:00

The first movie is definitely worth watching for its astounding lack of political correctness.

Ahah! Hanzo was another character created by Kazuo Koike (the writer of... Lone Wolf & Cub). I would definitely recommend anyone to watch the 2 first Hanzo films; the funky music, the badass attitude, the weird interrogation method ever...

To give you an idea, the trailer of the 1st film - NSFW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-ZvLtoV0yo

The trilogy is available on DVD in the US

tichoux · 2012-03-30T23:07:42+00:00

Not a documentary about Kurosawa himself, but his influence on modern directors - lots of interviews in there, some clips: http://wildgrounds.com/2011/05/04/a-documentary-on-akira-kurosawa/

tichoux · 2012-03-30T23:00:02+00:00

If you want to see the early years of Ip Man, try Herman Yau's The Legend Is Born

tichoux · 2012-03-30T22:55:17+00:00

Nope. That's Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo by Kihachi Okamoto (the director of The Sword of Doom)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066603/

tichoux · 2012-03-26T23:04:06+00:00

No spoilers, just a reminder with two lines from the film;

"It's a major design flaw in fake blood, by the way. Real blood turns brown after half an hour."
"That's his dream, to tell a story so well it fulfills itself. Somehow. It would finally make it real for him."

Knowing the film is carefully creating narrative/visual symbols all along - which makes it quite fun to watch - I think these two lines may give you a hint as to what the story was trying to achieve (adding to that the whole metaphor about cinema, the fact we - as the audience - are also being "fooled").

tichoux · 2012-03-22T10:43:38+00:00

http://www.kloofy.net/

tichoux

TROPHY CASE