District 9 was the big winner at the theaters this weekend. A lot of folks are raving about how this movie is much better than a summer box office blockbuster deserves to be. I’m looking forward to catching it again later this week.
In the meantime, here is Neil Blomkamp’s short film that inspired his District 9 feature film. You won’t be spoiled by watching Alive in Joburg but if you’ve seen District 9 you’ll certainly catch the similarities…
Some things in life are just too wonderful for words to do justice. But I’ll give it my best shot…
Take, f’rinstance, Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled, a 28-minute long film – done in stop-motion animation with LEGO bricks – about the fall of Jericho from the Book of Joshua in the Bible.
I first wrote about this movie a few weeks ago. And also about Anthony and Jessica Rondina: the brother/sister pair who have earned widespread praise and official acclaim for their work on the film. Well, after I posted that I got a really nice e-mail from Jessica Rondina letting me know that they would be hosting a free public screening of Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled at StoneBridge Church, their home church, on the evening of July 31st.
Now, some people might think it’s a bit crazy to drive two hours one-way just to see a ...
Two weeks ago I let y’all know about a promotional video that I worked on for HyperMind, that groovy game store in Burlington. The video was for HyperMind’s big Monsterpocalypse day this coming Saturday, and was also an entry in that game’s Monsterpocapalooza mega-event going on this summer.
Well, the votes have been tallied and our lil’ video has made it into the Top Ten! There wound up being about 22 entries altogether. We are very thankful to be in one of the top spots, and we wish to thank everyone who voted for us!
Here it is again if you haven’t seen it yet…
Again, thank you to all who watched and rated our video. The final winner will be announced on July 31st… and we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed ’til then! 🙂...
They work with a medium found at any typical Toys R Us… but their vision is as grand as Cecil B. DeMille’s.
Anthony and Jessica Rondina are a talented brother/sister pair out of Huntersville, North Carolina that got into animation with a high school project. A few more films under their belt and now their feature Jericho: The Promise Fulfilled is sweeping up film festival prizes and earning the duo widespread acclaim! Christian-Movie.com interviews the Rondinas about their Gideon Production Group, how they animate with LEGO minifigures, their future projects and how they dedicate it all to God. And if you wanna see more of the Rondina pair’s awesome work, mash down here for their official website!...
So for the past several days I’ve been engulfed in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects and whatnot. Hard at work for some good friends: HyperMind in Burlington (click here for the first write-up I did about ’em). Well, among the very popular games that HyperMind carries is Monsterpocalypse, and this summer its publisher Privateer Press is having a mondo ginormous event called Monsterpocapalooza. As part of the festivities leading up to the release of a new add-on for the game is a contest where game stores are invited to make a promo video for their Monsterpocalypse events.
So anyhoo, here is HyperMind’s entry. I thought it would be neat if we spoofed Cloverfield. And it came out pretty good!
Thanks to everyone in the HyperMind extended family for making this video possible! And if you enjoyed their efforts, please feel free to give a high ...
This past Saturday was a big night for North Carolina filmmaker Neal Hutcheson! At the 35th Southeast Regional Emmy Awards held in Atlanta, Georgia, Hutcheson’s documentary The Last One – in which he chronicled Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton’s fine art of moonshining – won the Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for “Outstanding Achievement in Television Programming Excellence”.
If you’ve been reading this blog for the past few months then you already know that Popcorn Sutton took his own life in March, just days before he was to report to prison following a series of events that began with a raid on one of his stills last year…
“Popcorn’s death underscores the cultural preservation value of films like The Last One,” Hutcheson said. “A fact that I doubt escaped the Emmy selection committee.”
I have a copy of The Last One on DVD and y’all wouldn’t ...
My friend Todd Williard is participating in this year’s 48 Hour Film Project (something that I’ve wanted to take part in for the past four years but stuff keeps coming up… maybe next year :-). Anyhoo, Todd and his crew based out of Greensboro, North Carolina came up with the following brilliant short film called Payment. Check it out!
Rising filmmaker and good friend of this blog Marco van Bergen wants y’all to know that the second trailer for his upcoming movie Normalsville is online. And he surprised me a bit by officially making me a real film critic! 😛
Some dude sliced and diced up a bunch of motion pictures, and ended up with this AWESOME trailer for a Green Lantern movie with Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan.
Ever since I began my own forays into filmmaking, it’s become one of my personal missions in life to encourage others to make their own movies too. And you wanna know why?
Because the time has finally arrived when every person can make a movie that stands on par with anything that the major studios can produce.
Seriously. Think about it: high-def consumer camcorders are now inexpensive and with some equally affordable editing software and a lil’ bit of know-how, the finished footage can look extremely cinematic. Can’t compose a note of music? Ask around on the ‘net for talented folks to help you out (hey, it’s what I’m doing with a project now 🙂
Thanks to the web and broadband, practically the entire world becomes a fully-equipped studio and post-production facility right at your fingertips. There’s no longer any reason not to make the movie you have always dreamed ...