Ryan Colucci's Blog, page 14
July 11, 2012
Image from R.E.M.
Now that Zsombor graduated from school, he’s really starting to kill it with R.E.M. We’re currently inked up to page 71 and things look pretty spectacular. He sent me this image of a Yogi, which is pulled from one of the pages. Thought I’d share…
Filed under: Graphic Novel, R.E.M.
July 3, 2012
Bulderlyns Hits Halfway Point with Inks
Pawel posted a pic of a stack of artwork. All that goodness is the first half of Bulderlyns – inked.
Be excited…
Filed under: Bulderlyns, Graphic Novel
July 2, 2012
35 Movie Minutes Earning Some Fans
I got a pretty great tweet the other day from Mark Fry (aspiring filmmaker and VFX artist). He keeps a tumblr and posted one called ‘Interesting Podcasts’ and listed 35 Movie Minutes on there. Right up along some podcasts that I listen to religiously (The Business, John August’s ScriptNotes). It was a great feeling and the show will keep getting better as we keep going…
My plan is to be putting out more content. I’m actually interested in bringing on more co-hosts – not for the weekly show but for film discussions, festival discussions and discussions about films coming soon (such as a Summer Preview). So, if you think you’re that person – hit me up. We work out of a studio in NY, but you can be anywhere. The only thing that we ask is that you get a microphone and mixer so that the sound is professional level (a refurbished package, with headphones runs about $40).
Filed under: 35 Movie Minutes, Filmmaking, Movie Review, Movies
June 29, 2012
More Bulderlyns Inking Goodness
Pawel is hard at work inking pages from Bulderlyns (penciled by Igor Wolski). Here’s a shot he took of himself on one of the most important pages in the book…
Filed under: Bulderlyns, Graphic Novel
June 20, 2012
Top 5 Directors of the Future
This list is for director’s who have made two feature films or less whose names alone will get me into a theater. I don’t want to say directors on the ‘rise’, because someone like Bennett Miller has been nominated for an Oscar and Rupert Wyatt directed a blockbuster. The two feature limit knocks off someone like Mark Romanek (Static in 1985). Also not including director’s who have a third movie about to come out in 2012. Rian Johnson (Looper), John Hillcoat (Lawless)… sorry guys.
Neil Blomkamp District 9, Elysium (in-post)
Debra Granik Down to the Bone, Winter’s Bone
Phil Lord & Chris Miller Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street
Rupert Wyatt The Escapist, Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Andrew Dominick Chopper, Assassination of Jesse James
Honorable Mention
Marc Webb (500) Days of Summer, Amazing SpiderMan (coming)
Sean Durkin Martha Marcy May Marlene
Jose Padilha Elite Squad, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman Catfish, Paranormal Activity 3
Bennett Miller Capote, Moneyball
Armando Iannucci In the Loop
Duncan Jones Moon, Source Code
Andrea Arnold Red Road, Fish Tank
Josh Trank Chronicle
Steve McQueen Hunger, Shame
Mike Cahill Another Earth
Filed under: Top 5
June 19, 2012
Orange Life Progress Report
Dmitry (@lemon5ky) has just finished pencilling the first volume of his comic book Orange Life. The full volume will consist of about 270 comic pages (it’s 11 chapters).
So now he has to ink all of these pages. According to him, “It’s ok, I like to draw comic, hah.”
He posted a photo with his comic pages. 270 of them. Pretty crazy.
*in case you didn’t know, Dmitry is coloring Bulderlyns and Spoke Lane will be releasing Orange Life
Filed under: Bulderlyns, Graphic Novel, Orange Life
June 18, 2012
Top 5 Overlooked Films
These films did not get the attention they deserved at the box office. The threshold I set for myself was $10,000,000 at the domestic box office. It just so happened that the majority of my list was from the last decade. This is when I started seriously devouring films and taking notice of things like box office. However, there is one that is almost twenty years old now.
Dazed and Confused $7,900,000
Easily the best movie, with the best case, that wasn’t a box office sensation.
Never Let Me Go $9,400,000
My number one film of 2010, this got lost in the ether. Somewhere between Carrie Mulligan’s amazing performance and Andrew Garfield playing Spider-Man.
The Proposition $1,900,000
The best western since Unforgiven, this film has more texture and grit than even that film. Hillcoat burst onto the scene with this film. You feel filthy just watching this movie. The performances are all superb, the cinematography is breathtaking and the production design is Oscar-worthy. And the story just might be pretty damn good as well.
Auto Focus $2,000,000
And this was all based on a true story. Dafoe and Kinnear are great, and if you haven’t seen this yet – their performances are fun yet tragic.
Interview with the Assassin $47,000
This is criminal. This is one of the best found-footage films out there, based on an excellent idea that seems grounded in some semblance of logic (unlike most found footage films). I’m proud to say that my $8 bucks went towards its almost embarrassing $47,000 take. It is a wonder Burger got to direct another film after that gross. I’m glad he did though.
Filed under: Top 5
June 13, 2012
Top 5 Most Under-Valued Thesps
This is a pretty obvious one. I would put Brian Cox at the top by a wide margin. The guy is so good in everything he does, no matter the size of the project (we’ll forget The Ringer exists).
Brian Cox
Patton Oswalt
John Goodman
Lena Headey
Greg Kinnear
Filed under: Top 5
June 12, 2012
Organizing Files When Writing Out of Order
It amazes me when I get files from people and they don’t follow any sort of rules. Their hard drive must be a mess. How do they find files? How do they organize them? When I get a file such as:
Script_July.pdf
Which script? Which year? You can’t have one project that you’re working on, right?
Naming conventions are something I never thought about in my collegiate career. That changed when I started producing Battle for Terra. The animation team was using very strict naming conventions for the files. Without this, the production would have been a train wreck. Schedules would have been a mess. No one would have been able to find a certain file (at least quickly). And when you have a pipeline and things are getting passed along, this is essential.
So I started to use naming conventions for my personal files and folders. Every project has their own Pre-fix. And that project is broken into many categories. Script, Budget, Schedule, Cast, Legal, etc… My naming conventions always go:
Project-Category-Date
When I first started, I would date the projects MONTH-DAY-YEAR. But as projects spill into multiple years, it makes it harder to track. So now I use YEAR-MONTH-DAY.
I occasionally throw in a few descriptions after the category. Sometimes I write scenes outside of the main script file. If I didn’t name them properly, it would be a nightmare. For a project like Chasing Rabbits, a file might look like this:
CR-Script-Act 1-Alice at Home-2010.05.23.fdr
Then I drop that file into the CR-Script sub-folder, which is in the CR main folder.
You balance your checkbook and you fold your laundry and put them into drawers or the closet – why would you not show the same discipline with the files on your hard drive?
Filed under: Chasing Rabbits, Filmmaking, Movies
June 1, 2012
Top 5 Actor-Director Collaborations That Need to Happen
This is pretty self-explanatory. So, without further ado…
Jack Nicholson & Paul Thomas Anderson
Daniel Day Lewis & Darren Aronofsky
Michael Fassbender & Kathryn Bigelow
Michelle Williams & Terrence Mallick
Mel Brooks & Judd Apatow
Honorable Mention
Joseph Gordon Levitt & David Fincher
Phillip Seymour Hoffman & Wes Anderson
John C. Reilly & The Coen Brothers
Carrie Mulligan & Stephen Soderbergh
Filed under: Uncategorized
