I’ve known several people over the years who will discover something new and make the mistake of thinking they’re the first person in the world to do so. They latch on to it as if it is uniquely theirs and get very defensive when they hear others talk about liking the same thing. I’ve seen it done with bands, songs, television shows, and especially with film. I’ve always been annoyed by this behavior, but recently I experienced it from the other perspective. For probably the first time in my life, I felt protective over a film and had an adverse reaction to someone speaking positively about it.

Now to my credit (or maybe I’m just trying to justify it) I haven’t truly become what i’ve hated. What I really get annoyed at is individuals who’s only true rationale for being protective of a film is that they saw it before who ever they’re trying to protect it from. In my situation it has less to do with who saw it first, and everything to do with what the film meant to me.

Sometimes, a film isn’t just a film. Sometimes, a it represents the mirror image of an event or a situation you’ve gone through. Sometimes you identify with a character so much that you feel like you’re watching a film made about yourself. Sometimes you can feel exactly what the writer and the director were feeling in every single scene and every single shot. When this happens, you’re no longer just passively watching the story take place. Instead, you’re sharing an experience. An experience that, if you haven’t lived it, you can’t completely appreciate.

Earlier this year I saw a film (the name having been left off to protect the innocent) exactly of this type. It wasn’t just a film that I walked out loving, but one that I walked out living. The only difference between myself and the main character at the end of the film was that he had reached a greater level of understanding about his situation than I had.

Now I watched the film with two other people in a little theater with a pretty packed house. One of them really liked it, the other one hated it. The mood of the audience as we exited the theater led me to believe a majority of the audience felt pretty positively about the film. Maybe it was just because I was still processing it myself, or maybe it was just that I was confident in level of experience in my party. Either way, I didn’t feel protective of the film as we headed out to dinner and discussed what the three of us had watched.

Recently though, I decided to revisit this film that I hold so dear. I pulled out my copy, slapped it in my computer, and proceeded to love it just as much as I had the first couple times. A few days later I was talking to a friend and the film came up during the conversation. This friend seemed excitedly pleased with the film and for some reason this fact was off-putting to me. I originally saw the film in a theater full of other people. I even recommended it to several other of my friends. Yet for some reason my initial reaction to my friend’s praise of the film was a feeling that they didn’t ‘deserve’ to feel that way.

It was a strange feeling. I guess I hadn’t really felt that way before. I mean sure, I know some people who don’t really like to look past the surface and I might question their ability to catch the deeper meaning of a film, but this was different. It’s almost like I felt, at least on some level, that I thought this friend’s life experience (or lack their of) made them ill-equipped to really appreciate the film on the level that I connected with it. They were telling me they loved it, but I knew they hadn’t lived it. They couldn’t possibly love the film the way that I did.

It was in that moment that I had an epiphany. Because of the subjective nature of film, I can never know the effect or emotion a film will bring out in a viewer. To me a film could be just a fun little ride, yet to someone else it could mean the entire world. Because of this, I can’t just assume that someone being protective over a film is doing so just because they saw it first. Maybe there’s something a little more to it. Maybe there’s something there worth protecting.

my name is Christopher Schnese
and this is my reel perspective.

Related posts:

1. How an audience ruined my film experience
2. My concern about the 3D in Avatar

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year or so, you’ve at least heard of a little James Cameron film called AVATAR. We’re nearly a week away and the hype train is chugging along at full speed. It seems like every day there is more news, photos, trailers, TV spots, interviews, first-look reviews, and the like cropping up all over the internet. Cameron has supposedly had this project fully underway for about 4 years and in conception for about 13. Recent estimations put the current budge at well over $500 million. By all standards, this film is an insane undertaking. And as if he weren’t crazy enough, Cameron has apparently intended the film as a Trilogy.

According to an interview Sam Worthington gave to Total Film, “[they've] signed for three pictures”. No word on exactly who ‘they’ is, but it at least shows crazy ambition on the part of James Cameron. He is either extremely brilliant, or extremely stupid. He has to know how big of a risk he’s taking with this project. I mean, let’s just talk numbers for a second here. If the rumors of the $500 million budget are correct, then even if the film grosses over $500 million at the box office, it will have been considered a financial failure. If you need a little perspective, just take a look at last years big summer blockbuster The Dark Knight. This Christopher Nolan breakout hit currently holds the rank of highest grossing opening weekend of all time, was based on a previously established and widely loved franchise, had a built in audience from being a sequel, and still took 45 days to break $500 million world wide. It had everything going for it and it was still a surprising success.

If AVATAR is going to turn a profit at all, let alone make enough to justify 2 sequels, it’s going to have to do gangbusters in theaters. Even with the inflated ticket prices from the IMAX 3D presentation, I don’t think it has the chance to pull in the record numbers it’s going to need to succeed. Yes, the film is getting huge hype, but Sci-Fi films don’t historically do all that well in general. Even Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day, the highest grossing Sci-Fi film of all time, has only grossed $817 million since it’s release in 1996 (only about $300 million in the states). I just don’t see AVATAR pulling in enough money to convince any studio that they wanna take on a sequel. But then again, this is all speculation on my part. Who knows, maybe all the effects and hard work that Cameron and crew have put in will pay off next week when it hits theaters.

my name is Christopher Schnese
and this is my real perspective

Related posts:

1. My concern about the 3D in Avatar

Lets face it, the film industry is sort of hurting right now. They’re desperately searching for anything with a preestablished audience to turn into a crap film that millions of people are going to see regardless of it’s quality. They’re doing it with novels, older movies, comic books, and even video games. Now history has taught us that video games make really bad films (i.e. the Street Fighters, Mortal Kombats, Super Mario Brothers, Double Dragon, Resident Evil, Doom, etc). Recently, however, we’ve begun to hear of some video game to film adaptations that actually stand a chance of being decent (if not brilliant) films. If these films continue to crop up and do well at the box office, we could actually see an improvement in the quality of video games in general as companies shoot for film adaptations.

The problem with most video game films is that most video games aren’t very deep. The gameplay is built around some gimmick and the story is under developed. There are a small number of game developers, however, who actually care about story. Developers like Naughty Dog, who gave us Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, go out of their way to make their games as cinematic as possible. They concentrate on the characters, their personalities, their motivations, and they’re interactions with each other. The gameplay, while still incredibly good, is just a means to an end. An end that leaves you emotionally invested in your characters and their fates.

If games of this type begin to get recognized and picked up by film studios, we may begin to see an rise in video game films that are actually good. Additionally, if some of these films begin to pull in huge box office numbers, other game developers may begin to take notice themselves. Seeing the potential for a film adaptation, studios who currently turn out games with mediocre characters and story may begin to make an honest effort to churn out more cinematic games. Theoretically, as the cycle continued, we’d eventually arrive at the point where a video game film could compete on the level of a film like The Dark Knight.

my name is Christopher Schnese
and this is my reel perspective

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When I first heard about ABC’s new primetime drama FlashForward, I just had to laugh. I would have loved to have sat in on the meeting this thing was pitched at. “Ok, so here’s what we got! Everyone. On the entire planet, right? They like all pass out at the same time, got it? And then, here’s where it gets good. They all have a vision of six months into the future. Hu? Hu? You feel me? Did I just make your brain explode?” It’s the very definition of “high concept” with, in my opinion, no where to go. But I’m trying to give it a chance. I’m willing to forgive it’s terrible premise, however, I cannot forgive the egregious time paradox established in the pilot episode.

[Note: The following may be considered minor spoilers for the pilot episode of FlashForward, so if you've been warned]

About half way through this episode of the show, the FBI puts together a team to begin investigating the strange event that caused everyone to black out and have a vision of the future. At this point in the programming they literally have not a single lead to begin the investigation. So where do they to begin?

“Well I have a good idea”, I imagine one of the writers blurting out during a brain storming session. “What if in one of the character’s FlashForward, he was working on the investigation. Yeah. Then he could just tell the FBI what some of his leads in the future were and they could start investigating them now in the present.”

Am I the only one who has a HUGE problem with this? If you can’t see the problem, let me try to restate what they’re doing. Future-Mark-Benford is essentially giving Present-Mark-Benford information. Information that he is going to put on a board. A board that will be later read by Future-Mark-Benford. Who is going to, in turn, give to Present-Mark-Benford. Who is then going to write it on a board. Get it now? There is no point in time where this information ever actually comes into existence. Each side of the time loop relies on the other side for the information to exist. Paradox Much?

If you’re still not seeing the problem, let me put it this way. I do not currently own a Windows-based laptop. However, if I had one ten minutes into the future, I could travel back in time and give it to myself in the present. But how will I get the laptop in the next 10 minutes? Oh, it’s simple. When my future self hands me this laptop now, I’ll have it 10 minutes from now. Which means when I, as future me, decide to travel back in time, to Present-Me, He’ll have the laptop that was just given to present me right now.

My name is Christopher Schnese
and this has been my reel perspective

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This past week I saw Shane Acker’s latest film 9, a full-length reimagining of his 2005 short film (of the same name). Without a doubt the film is stunningly gorgeous. The miniaturized characters in their destroyed, post-apocalyptic world completely worked aesthetically for me. Unfortunately, there was still something missing. The entire film I just kept wondering why it wasn’t in 3D.

Sure, it was only two posts ago that I complained about the usage of 3D in the Avatar trailer. And I’ve also seen it used as a complete gimmick (that’s right, I’m talking to you, The Final Destination). 9 actually could have used it though. Just about every single shot in the film screamed to be brought into the third dimension.

From what I’ve heard, 3D conversion isn’t even that complicated when dealing with a completely CG film. If all the chatter I’ve heard regarding PIXAR’s conversion of Toy Story 1 & 2 are accurate, there is no new animation or work required for the conversion. You literally just add a second camera to create a stereoscopic view, and re-render every shot.

If it’s really that simple? Why should we ever see another CG film presented in 2D again? If the technology is there, why not leverage it? As long as directors can resist the urge to attempt to bombard the viewer with objects flying off the screen, the 3D will simply add a depth and beauty to the film. Then a film like 9 could really show off what it’s bringing to the table.

My name is Christopher Schnese
and this has been my reel perspective

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One of the big new stories coming out of E3 this year was Microsoft’s announcement of Project Natal; a stereoscopic camera input system for the Xbox 360 that provides gamers complete 1-to-1 full-body control over their in game characters. This past weekend, Lionsgate brought us the Film Gamer; a science fiction film set in a future where a game called Slayers gives it’s players control of another human being in full scale combat. Being that the film version of the game is control through gesticulation, it would be perfect for Project Natal.

If Microsoft hasn’t already scooped up the video game rights to this franchise, they’re missing the boat. A game based off the film Gamer could potentially be the first film-to-video-game adaptation that didn’t suck (you could argue that Enter the Matrix was a faithful adaptation, but the gameplay sucked so lets not go there). The main genius of the Game is that the control system is story based and not a gimmick.

There are two huge problems with the Wii and with motion control systems in general:

1) The control a user has is never truly 1-to-1. Sure, the motion you’re making with the Wii-mote may be completely accurate, but you can just waggle your wrist instead of swinging your whole arm to hit a golf-ball.

2) ALL GAMES ARE MORE RESPONSIVE AND HAVE FINER CONTROL WITH A REGULAR CONTROLLER, WHICH MAKES BEING FORCED TO USE THE MOTION CONTROL SETTINGS FEEL LIKE A GIMMICK!

Because of the technology behind Project Natal, you eliminate the 1-to-1 problem. Additionally, because in the film Simon (the player) controls Kable (his in game-human counterpart) with hand gestures while standing in front of a digital representation of the battlefield, the game has potential to not feel like a complete gimmick.

Would it be a perfect game? Likely not. Does it have huge potential? I believe so. The bottom line is that I have absolutely no interest in the games I already love switching to a Natal control scheme. However, a game set in a universe where Natal is real and not just a game… well, that’s something I might be able to get behind.

My name is Christopher Schnese
and this has been my reel perspective

Related posts:

1. How this trend in video game films could actually improve future video games and future films based on them
2. Will Shadow of the Colossus survive it’s film adaptation

If you’ve been to a theater in the last week or so, or if you pay attention to any of the chatter surrounding the film industry, you’ve probably heard about the James Cameron Sci-Fi epic, Avatar. This film has been promising to be the greatest demonstration of both CGI and 3D technology in any film ever and if you read any of the reports from people who have been lucky enough to see footage, it’s going to deliver on that promise. This weekend, however, I got my first glance of the trailer in 3D (attached to The Final Destination 3D) and I have some concerns about the quality of what Cameron will be bringing to the table.

Let me first say that the CGI is absolutely everything that everyone has been saying it is. The full CG environments look amazing, the CG Avatars look like people wearing prosthetics, and everything just looks incredible. Even though I know very little about the story, I’m still really excited to experience the world that has been created for us. Unfortunately, the “3D-ness” I saw in the trailer has me a little less excited.

Now don’t get me wrong, the 3D isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. It is, for the most part, very good. I just don’t think it’s better than anything that has come before it and, more significantly , not on par with what I saw when I watched Henry Selick’s Coraline in theaters.

Coraline only ever uses the 3D to create depth and constant’y gives you the feeling that you’re actually in the environment. Never does it feel like elements of the frame were artificially stacked on top of one another. Avatar, on the other hand, had several shots in the trailer where it felt like elements in the frame had been lifted or composited on top of the scene.

Every time I’d see a shot like this, it would bring me out of the trailer and remind me that what I was watching was all built inside of a computer. Obviously, in a film that is supposed to transport me to the planet of Pandora and make me believe that what I’m seeing is real, this isn’t a good thing.

My name is Christopher Schnese
and this has been my reel perspective

Related posts:

1. Does James Cameron really think AVATAR will get two sequels?

If you happened to catch episode 26 of The Spoiler Warning Podcast, then you heard my review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. You heard me rant, get upset, and voice how terrible I thought it was. But that was nothing compared to how pissed I am now, having seen one of the latest tv spots for the film. This 17 second spot proves that the studio knows Revenge of the Fallen is terrible and doesn’t even give a transforming [expletive deleted].

Sure, I know there isn’t much you can do with 17 seconds, but this trailer doesn’t have a single comprehendible shot in it, there is no attempt to communicate that the film even has a story, and the only line of dialog is Shia saying “don’t freak out, don’t freak out”. The ad takes everything that is bad about the entire film and tries to make it a selling point. What the hell?

My name is Christopher Schnese
and this has been my reel perspective

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This afternoon Apple posted the new HD trailer for Roland Emmerich’s new Film 2012, an “epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors”. It amazes me how terrible the effects look in this thing. It’s so bad in fact, that I’ve come up with a new theory. Whenever you attempt a realistic effect, i.e. recreate something that we could actually see in real life, it cannot and will not ever look believable.

Just watch the trailer for yourself. Can you even find a single effects shot that looks like anything other than a video game? Of course not. Know why that is? The film has a $200 million budget, so it can’t be a lack of resources.

The problem is that the film deals with real things and disasters that we’re all two familiar with. We’ve all seen car crashes before. Many of us have lived through earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, and other natural disasters. Sadly, we’re even all far too familiar with the way a skyscraper collapses because of the events of 9/11. If an effects shot isn’t completely perfect; if anything is off even the slightest bit, it’s going to destroy the illusion and do so in a painfully obvious way.

Conversely, take a moment and try to remember the last truly believable effect you saw in a film. I bet it was something that you had no real life reference to compare it to. Hell, take a look at some of the bigger releases from this summer. We don’t have photon torpedoes, lasers, or giant starships in the real world, so we completely buy the effects in Star Trek. Likewise, we can’t ‘disapparate /apparate’ or fire off spells with magic wands in real life, so we’ll likely completely buy the effects in Harry Potter next month.

It’s really amazing when you think about it. The more grounded an effects shot is in reality, the harder it seems to become to pull off.

My name is Christopher Schnese
and this has been my reel perspective

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Take for instance Watchmen. I read the entire graphic novel the week of it’s release and the film turned out to be almost a literal shot-for-shot remake. On one level, you might say that I ruined the film for myself, however my experience was quite to the contrary. I loved Watchmen far more having read the source material than I ever could have experiencing it for the first time in the theater. The appearance of a character carries so much more weight when you’re already familiar with him. I mean I mouthed several of the lines during my screenings (yes, there were multiple), I could hit every beat, and I knew the fate of each character. Still it didn’t take away from my experience.

Even with Star Trek (which at this point I’ve now seen twice), It’s a prequel. I know that all the main characters need to survive, no matter how crazy things get. I know that Kirk has to somehow become captain of the Enterprise, and I know that the Enterprise can’t cannot be destroyed in this film. Yet I still experienced all the moments of tension just like the non-Trekkie’s who were just there for Chris Pine or Zachary Quinto. The only difference is that I experienced even more joy as key characters spat out their famous lines of overly quoted dialog (‘Live long and prosper’, ‘Dammit Jim I’m a doctor not a physicist’, ‘I’m givin her all she’s got, Captain!’, hell, even ’set phasers to stun’, etc.).

Here’s an experiment. Think back on the last several films you’ve seen and ask yourself how many of them are remakes or adaptations. For how many of them do you already have intimate (or at least partial) familiarity. Hollywood knows we love what we already know and they’re pretty much banking on that fact to get them through ‘these troubled economic times’. It seems like every day there’s another reboot or remake announced.

So I guess the point I’m trying to make is that foreknowledge of a film’s plot points really isn’t as terrible as we all make it out to be. What it really comes down to is the context for said foreknowledge. Sure, I wouldn’t have to lose that initial realization of who Keyser Söze is, what happened at the end of Ender’s Game, or the truth about the events of Metal Gear Solid, but truly good storytelling is captivating even with all it’s cards on the table. After all, it’s not the destination that’s important. It’s how we get there.

My name is Christopher Schnese
and this has been my reel perspective

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