“American dream” in the Medias

“The American deam is belief in the freedom that allows all citizens and residents of the United States to pursue their goals in life through hard work and free choice.” The American Dream is something very utopist. It varies from a person to another, but usually, we have all the same American dream. Medias started to put labels in this common dream, and the world started slowly to adopt those labels.

Living the dream as a family: As a kid, and still now, we have ideas of what we want our lives to look like. Maybe raise a family? Probably the goal of many people throughout history. People want to find true love, hoping that their true love will be a high-School first love, get married with that person, and raise a family... Have a really close family, love each other no matter what. The thing about this is that to get to that dream, it takes time energy and compromises, people don’t want to work hard to get what they want. A girl’s dream of a perfect wedding would be, walking the aisle, being the prettiest person in the whole room, getting married in the south We all think about raising a family to give knowledge, give love, and to protect a life the very best you can. In movies, usually you will see the perfect family as a wife, an husband and two kids, a girl and a boy.

Living the dream, rich: People like to dream big. Dreaming of graduating in a prestigious school like Harvard, in which the chances of entering are really slim. We all get fooled easily, that’s probably why so much people play the lottery, in hope of a better tomorrow. Getting a good job is important for most, being on the top of the food chain, being successful and appreciated for your work. Some people have slightly different points of view, some citizens will forget the fact that they hate their jobs, but will do it anyway, because it is well paid.

Living the dream in “Death of s salesman”: We can say that this book is the complete opposite of the American dream. The family is torn apart from betrayal and money problems. Members of the family are poor, and failed to get a successful career. The Dad, in the family is half senile, and they have to borrow money from the neighbors.

Living the dream in “The pursuit of happyness”: This movie is ultra touching, partly because it is based on a true story. The pursuit of happyness is the story of a man doing all he possibly can to provide for himself and his son.

Living the dream for Barack Obama: Barak Obama being the president of the United States is a big step in history. First African American to get elected, people hope for the best. Barack had a hard beginning of life. His dad left the family when he was really young. But, he is now a politician, and soon to be the president of the United States. He worked extremely hard to achieve his goal, and I really hope to see how good a president he can be!

Dramas and comedies

For a movie to qualify under the cathegory of Drama or comedies, here's the content necessary.

Drama can fall under four cathegories. The first one is drama and comedy putted together. It usually has as much comedy as it has drama in a specific movie. The second one woudl be a "melodrama", the most popular types of drama, in which the whole story involves something trajic, such as death, break ups, family problems and more. A good example of this kind of movies would be "The pursuit of hapiness". Other names used to to talk about melodramas would be "tearjerkers", or "chick flicks". Romance movies is another type of drama, but usually has his own cathegory. Tragedy is the last type of drama, it is much like a melodrama, but the difference is a tragedy is around a mistake made by the principal "caracter".

Comedy cathegory is supposed to bring a smile or to make you laugh. Romantic comedy such as what happens in Vegas, science fiction comedy such as spaceballs, action comedies, such has rush hour. Screwball comedy (often about weddings) such as My big fat Greek wedding. Slapstick comedy (not really any plotline) such as Mr. Bean and least but not last dark humour, such as Harold and Kumar.

Two actions at the same time

Split Screen are an editing tool to make a scene look different and to show either more than one action at the time, or the same action, but from different camera shots. To me personally, I hate to miss out on anything, so I usually end up rewinding the scene, and focus on only one scene at a time.

The technology made split screen a lot easier to make, but 20 years ago, it was a little bit more complicated. They had to film the actions separately, and replicate both images on the same negative.

In a DVD special features, where the directors and actors are being filmed to talk about a movie's special effects and behind the scenes, usually there will be a smaller screen to show what they are mentioning and to help the viewers to visualize better.

Often also, the split screen is used to show a telephone conversation between two persons.



This is a video of That 70's show splitscreen scenes, hilarious clip.

Alliance Atlantis

Alliance Atlantis is a Canadian company in Toronto. It has now offices in places such as Los Angeles, Madrid, Barcelona and Sydney. Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc started to exist in 1998.

Alliance Altantis putted money putted money for the making of "Bowling for Columbine" which other companies’ didn’t want to invest in because they called that project "too controversial".

Alliance was one of Canada's top 100 employers in 2007. Alliance Atlantis is the only broadcast company to be in that list. Alliance Vivafilm is the equal of Alliance Atlantis but for Quebecor made movies.

Alliance Atlantis holds shares of BBC Canada, Food Network Canada, IFC Canada, National Geographic, Channel Canada, Showcase, Historia and Scream.



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Film Genre (Setting, Theme and Format)

There is around 20 categories in which a movie can fit. This blog will talk about film genre. Usually, a movie fits in a category based on: the setting, the theme, the mood and the format. The setting is where the movie takes place. The theme is the main subject of the movie. The emotion that people get from a movie is called the mood. And at last, the way the movie was made (equipment, digital) is called the format.

You can also put a "tag" on a movie by picking a specific audience for your movie. A film can have many genres combined in the same movie, which in my opinion makes it way more interesting.

Some people think that movies always fit into more than one category. Because often you will find romance in action or horror movies...

• It is debated that a movie genre could also be categorized because of the following:
  "Idealist method": Categorized into a genre by fitting "standards".
• "Empirical method": Categorizes a movie by other previous movies that have elements in common.
• "Social conventions": A movie classified to the country's social cultural beliefs (What is a romance in Europe could be an erotic movie in Canada).
  

Themes - Here are some very common themes in movies

1. Sports movies: Include baseball, hockey and boxing.
   
2. Espionage: About crime activities, either from the criminal perspective, or the security perspective
   

Here are the different format movies:
A format of live action is basically a movie with actors to present a story.

• An animation movie is another type of format. It involves 2-D pictures, made like a cartoon.
• A biography is about somebody that contributed to change the human world in any way, and presents real facts of that person's life.
• A documentary also presents real facts, but as a way to inform of an existing problem.

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Golden Globe Awards

The Golden Globe Awards is a prestigious ceremony that rewards television and cinema's work all around the world. The GGA (Golden Globe Awards) started existing in 1944, and is at his 66th annual honoring so far. This ceremony is held in the United States, and is focusing on the entertainment achievement of 150 countries. The Golden Globe is almost every year number three most watched awards, preceding the Academy Awards and the Grammy's.

This award is showed during the beginning of the year, and the results are made from 90 votes from very successful journalists in Hollywood.

NBC usually has the rights to broadcast the Golden awards. But the 2008 strike from the writer's guild of America stopped them from having the exclusives. As a result: E!, CNN and the TV Guide network broadcast the winners, without the host, the special events or the thanks from the winners, which was a total of 3o minutes, compared to the usual 2:30 hours.

Some categories from the awards are "Best motion picture - Drama" and "Best actor in a Television series".

This is a link to the official website of the Golden Globe Awards.

http://www.goldenglobes.org/



Here is a video explaining the issues around the 2008 Golden Globe awards
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Toronto's Film School

Students that go to the Toronto Film School (University) learn to do everything on their own, learn the technical aspects first, and then hands-on. In front of the camera, behind the camera, editing, they learn it all. TFS (Toronto Film Festival) is considered to be "Canada’s finest film school". Students prepare for the competitive industry that they are going to have to face after graduating.
http://torontofilmschool.ca/

Film Production
This course is a five terms school programs in which you learn everything there is to know about screenplays, storyboards, lighting...

TV production
TFS has the best equipment possible for the technical aspect of learning TV production. During the first term, students learn the business aspect. Dealing with the pressure and learn to predict eventual problems. TV production has 6 terms and graduates can find employment in stations and/or networks.

Recording Arts technology
This course is a 5 term study made for students who love music, recordings... Students can find employment in movies, television commercials...

Computer Animation
This course is to learn everything about Graphic Art and is perfect for people who love Visual Arts. The student's final project is a video of one to two minutes, showing what they can do best. They learn 3D animation, Figure Sculpture, Special Effects to create on software and many many other interesting things.

Post Production
This is another great opening for Film and television students who are looking forward to produce. As a project, they produce a short film all on their own, to have a good training before employment.
Acting for Film, Television, and theatre
This class is very handy, you learn to get in the skin of a character, learn to imitate accents, anything that could be helpful for an actor in the future.

2D Animation and Comic Art
This is a course where you learn to make your own professional portfolio. You also learn helpful things such has "life Drawing" and "Character Design".

This is avideo from TFS called "the robbery"

Another really reputated school would be the Vancouver Film school, where they release a DVD of students work every years.
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A movie lover's best friend

Search no further. The website I recommend for anybody who needs information on a movie is IMDB (Internet Movie Database). What you can find in there is beyond imagination. Statistically, fifty seven million of people go on IMDB every month. Not only can you find the cast and crew of a movie, photos, movies in box office, and DVD releases, but you can find lots and lots more. You can have updates about every movie released on DVD, Blu Ray and HD DVD's. You can have news and updates on actors and movies. There is also a feature that allows you to have a list of all your favorite movies.

Are you wondering if you will like a movie? IMDB offers tag lines of the movie, trailers, the genre, the actors, the plot, quotes and best of all; user comments. A really cool thing about this website is the "spoiler button". If you don't really want to know what it’s about, but you only want to know the cast in the movie, the button says scroll over for details, so as long as you don't scroll over, you can be kept in the dark, until viewing the movie.

You can find a movie's official site through the movie database, parental recommendations, synopsis and even the release date of the movie. What happens when you go see a movie, and you hear a song that you like but you don't know the name of the song? On IMDB, you search the name of the movie and then find the soundtrack listing. You can find the runtime of a movie, the language and the country it was made in.

Let's say you don't remember the exact name of an actor, in search, there is an option called "Approx matches". As a test, I tried to type in Matt Diamond, instead of Matt Damon. The system found the proper spelling for me! IMDB has fun features like a different poll question every day, a daily trivia, who was born on today's date and a daily quote from someone famous (actor, producer...). IMDB is in three different languages: English, Italian and Dutch. This website has been up since 18 years, they are constantly hiring new staff. Users rank movies all the time and you get to see the top 250 movies from their perspective. I worship this website!

http://www.imdb.com

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America's Great Loss

This blog is all about Bernie Mac. For all of you who didn’t know, he died recently, on august 9 2008. Bernie Mac or Bernard Jeffrey McCullough was an actor, writer and producer as well. He was born in Chicago and became a "stand-up comedian". He gained his last name "Mac" from being the host of a TV show named Midnight Mac. He began to be popular late in his life. In 2000, Bernie Mac was missing his career as a stage comedian and he toured as part of the "original Kings of Comedy". A year later, Bernie was signed for his own show that became a huge hit. The "Bernie Mac Show" aired for five years. The show won an Emmy and the show was rated number forty-seven out of fifty as the "greatest TV dads of all time".

One of his stand-ups was number seventy-two in "100 greatest stand-ups of all time". Bernie Mac had a daughter in 1978 named Je'Niece. In 2005, Bernie was diagnosed with Sarcoidosis but that was not his cause of death. On July 24th this year, he went to the hospital and the doctors told him he had pneumonia. He died from a "Complication" of this pneumonia. At fifty years old, he died. Six thousand people assisted at his funeral. Samuel L. Jackson was there as well. For those of you who wonder where you might have seen him, here are some movies he played in.


Mini Filmography
*Booty Call - 1997
*Ocean's Eleven - 2001
*Bad Santa - 2003
*Ocean's twelve - 2004
*Guess Who - 2005
*Ocean's thirteen - 2007



Uncensored, lots and lots of swear words, you've been warned.

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Golden Popcorn

The MTV Movie Awards is another type of awards to congratulate actors and producers for their hard work in a movie. The good thing about this award is that the viewers of the show get to decide who wins by voting in different categories. The movie awards were not broadcast live before 2007. The host used to do all his monologues at once, and then all the groups would play their song. This was is easier to control things such as profanities. This changed in 2007 when they played it live for the first time ever. They have unique categories such as: Best Villain, best summer movie so far, best fight, sexiest performance, and my personal favorite; Best kiss.

MTV Movie Award's official website : http://www.mtv.com/ontv/movieawards/2008/


2007 and 2008 best kiss
(Hey, I'm a girl after all!)
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The best picture possible

Digital cinema or D-cinema is the most advanced picture quality so far. HD DVD and Blu Ray started to put pressure on the theatres, because the picture quality was better at home, than at the theatres, something they couldn't let happen. To have a great "theatre experience", a movie needs a good quality image and sound. To make a movie in digital, you must follow the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative Standards. DCI is collaboration with the 6 "major studios" which are MGM, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Lions gate Entertainment, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. 2K and 4K high definition images are used in those movies.

In 1996, 400 theatres started using 2K projectors. Digital movies are more expensive than the normal projection, so they will usually make 3D movies and Blockbuster hits on Digital. Inside Man was the first digital movie released.
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Film Producers

A producer has many important jobs, they are really busy persons. They basically have to negotiate the creation of a movie, hire important crew and manage money raising. In the 1950's, the job of a Film Producer wasn't as important as it is now. The power they now have used to belong to the directors. But the "Film distribution" changed in the 1970's and the responsibilities began to switch back to the producers. They have a lot of control over the making of a movie, and they can fire personnel such as the Director himself.

An executive producer is a CEO of a film studio such as MGM. A Co-producer reports to the executive and is involved more on the field and on the set.

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Scene 1, Take 101, Action!

The Clapperboard is a tool used to help putting scenes together. If an action takes place in a park then at a house, and then at the park again, chances are instead of doing the scenes in order, they will film all the scenes in one place at the same time. The Clapper helps sort the scenes. Thy used to be made like a chalkboard, but nowadays, we see more and more electronic ones called Smart Slates. To make sure that the clapboard is seen under any lighting, the clapper has black and white stripes. Someone also usually repeat what is on the clapboard too, like "Scene 5, take 2, Action". Some movies put the clapboard put the clapboard upside down at the first and last scene, so they are easier to spot.
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ROAR!

MGM's history
MGM stands for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM is an American company and his primary source of revenue is movies and TV shows of all kind. MGM was created in 1924, and has been the result of purchasing Goldwyn Pictures Corporation.

During the end of the silent films, and World War two, MGM was the wealthiest film company, playing about one new movie a week. During the great depression, it’s been said that MGM was the only movie company unaffected monetarily by the great depression. Its founder Louis B. Mayer died 1957. His death created a lot of problems, and the company suffered from its lost. The company started to lose money for the first time in 34 years.

In 2005, MGM sold his rights to the blue ray discs for 5 billion dollars, and two of them were used to pay MGM's fine. In 2006, MGM announced a comeback in the movie industry, because for many years after Mayer's death, MGM's revenues were mostly from MGM's Grand hotel. One of their big recent movies is most definitely Casino Royale.

MGM's lions
Before becoming "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer", Goldwyn Pictures Corporation’s mascot was a parrot. Since 1924, the lion became Metro's official symbol. There have been 5 different lions used over the years.The first lion's name was "Slats". He was used during 4 years, from 1924 to 1928. Jackie was the lion number two and looked almost exactly like Slats. She was in the beginning of every movie from 1928 to 1956.Tanner was the third lion, used from 1934 to 1956, ands was the new era of films, in the Technicolor films.The fourth lion had an unknown name and was used for about two years.The fifth and last one so far is named Leo (like the lion constellation) and he is still used today.

MGM Grand
I got the privilege of visiting the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas. It’s a beautiful hotel, with an enormous lion's glass cage where visitors can see them all day long. How many hotels can say that they have living lions in it??? This hotel has a total of 9 lions living together. That hotel is also the permanent home of the "Cirque du Soleil's KA", an amazingly well done show.

The hotel MGM is situated on the famous Las Vegas Strip and is listed as the second largest hotel all around the world. It has been purchased by Kirk Kerkorian and is one of the few hotels with a floor number thirteen. The hotel has 30 floors, five outdoor pools and a soothing waterfall.The construction was finalized in 1993. To celebrate the last of the construction, MGM had a ceremony and let go of 5000 balloons, each one of them with a gift certificate in it for a free night in the hotel.

The hotel had the wizard of Oz theme back then. There were statues of Dorothy, the scarecrow, Tin man and the Lion. In Las Vegas, big hotels are somewhat called cities. They are calling themselves "the city of entertainment". In the hotel, there was even a yellow brick path road. In 1996, after three years, they changed the style of the hotel: The "Oz Buffet" got his name changed for the "Grand Buffet". Also, the hotel's entrance was a lion's mouth, but superstitious Chinese tourists wouldn't go to the hotel or would choose another entrance because it’s been said that "entering the mouth of a lion is bad luck".

They changed the main entrance to satisfy as much customers as possible. Now the hotel has a more sophisticated look and still has a great success Below is the link to tyhe official MGM Grand Website.
http://www.mgmgrand.com/

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The five lions over the years.

Travel in the past

Silent films or Age of Silver Screen are a really important part of entertainment history. A silent presentation doesn't have dialogues, spoken by the actors. The first film was made in 1888, which started the silent era. Movies were the new thing and they presented many flaws. They were easily destroyable and the speed of the show presented was often too slow, or too fast. If a movie is presented too slowly, the film would set on fire. If the movie would be presented too fast, people would get dizzy and complain. To get information on what's going on, subtitles would appear between scenes.

Music was as important as the acting; it gave an emotion to the public. The movie wasn't recorded on the feature, but played on the spot. Usually theatres would hire an orchestra, but in small towns, they had one pianist playing. Many musicians, relying on the silent films got monetary problems after the appearance of "talkies". Some movies were played fast on purpose, in comedies, to make a style. The movie in the silent era that made the most benefits made 10 000 000$ It was called "The birth of a Nation". Because of the product used in that time, it’s been said that about 75% of those movies got destroyed. It’s really to show an emotion without words, and it’s inspiring.
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This a silent film of the popular Charlie Chaplin.

Bollywood?

"Bollywood" is a term used to talk about the film industry of India. Although its not the whole Indian industry, it possesses most of it. Bollywood is an independent movie company, so they have their own way of doing things.

The first Bollywood movie was made in 1931. In the 1950s, the company started its first color motion picture. In the years 200, Bollywood really started to set its place into the movie industry. Places all around the world started to notice Indian made movies. Movies from Bollywood are mostly musicals. They specialise in many movie genres, like romance, action and musicals all in one. The singing is usually made by professional singers rather than the actors. They used to prohibit kissing in their movies. Bollywood reflects India's beliefs, because now the world is more open minded the show "dating movies", and used to show only "arranged marriages movies".

To be an actor/actress is as hard in Bollywood as anywhere else. It's very rare that actors with no Indian background get hired.

The talking in those movies is almost always recorded in the studios. The actors speak over their lines in studio. That's because they had low budget equipment and the sound wasn't great. That causes problems because actors have to reproduce an emotion and other problems would be the technicality of repeating lip movements and script lines. Now they have better equipment but they keep pursuing the tradition.

Indians have their own awards: The Stardust awards and the Star Screen awards. They can also learn Indian's cinema background in "Film and television institute of India".
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Trailer of a Bollywood movie

The play called "The Lottery"

In class we read the script of the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. This story has a really unexpected ending. A little confusing at first, but very enlightening in the end. I was shocked to the brutality of the community, even though it is fictional.

What I personally think was the messages sent from the author was people always think that certain things won't happen to them, but to others. They feel safe because they are numbered. The villagers together will do things that they wouldn’t do on their own. In other words, they have mob mentalities. They also have a great expectation from the other members of the community, and also, I think the more that you lose at THAT lottery, the more you believe in a higher power and feel grateful for what you have. It could also be as simple as traditions or values: your ancestors and your whole family do it, so will you. Weakness can be a part of participating to this kind of lottery, since you are allowing a group to think for you. You can learn a lot from such stories; you just have to dig in a little bit.
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Part one of the movie: The Lottery


Part two of the movie: The Lottery

Winning the lottery

Wow, if I could win 30 million dollars, I would plan myself a one month trip in Hollywood and New York City! I would go to lots and lots of plays on Broadway Street such has wicked and other less famous ones. I would go back to school, to learn business and finances, because I would get myself a restaurant company: Planet Hollywood. I would be the manager, and basically completely change my lifestyle. I would also have the basement plans I talked about in an earlier post. I would buy myself some collectibles too, like objects used in a famous (swords in Troy by example). That would definitely be amazing to win the lottery, but the odds are, I have more chances to get struck by lightning.

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And the nominees are:

I’ve seen the Academy Awards once last year, and I can guarantee you it won’t be the last time! The Academy award or Oscars started on May 16th 1929 at the hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood. So far, 80 Academy awards have been showed. The 81st will play on February 22nd 2009 at the famous Kodak Theatre. The Award itself is made of gold plated and the rest is made of other metals. The show played on these two networks: ABC and NBC, constantly fighting to broadcast the Academy Awards. What I like about these awards is that they are environmentally friendly; since 2002, actors, producers and more have been Oscars in hybrids. Kodak Theatre is now the official theatre for the Academy Awards. Some people dislike the awards because think comedies have fewer nominations compared to drama or action movies. Here are some categories at the Academy Awards:
-Best Picture
-Best Director
-Best Cinematography
-Best Visual Effects
-Best Foreign Language Film

Here is a video of Steve Carrell on the red carpet on the Awards!
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The battle between Book and Movie

It’s a great challenge to transform a book into a movie. You basically have to turn into an action a description and try your best to show an emotion through a feeling in a book. Mostly I think everybody that likes reading will agree that usually a book is better than the movie. That is because the reader visualizes everything in his mind, the characters and the location. A joke can seem funny on paper, but once acted, not funny at all. I really like that they make movies interpretation of books, because not everybody likes reading. It gives them the opportunity of seeing very good stories. Also, when they release the movie, it makes me want to read the book. There are some amazing books that never get turned into movies. I love comparing the two though. I liked the book better for Misery (Stephen King) but I liked the movies better for Stardust (Neil Gaiman). I guess it depends on many aspects such as the writer, the author the cast and many more.

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Top 5 movies

Here is my top 5 favorite movies and why.

5. Little Nicky (2000)
I love that movie because it’s a good comedy and romance movie! Made me laugh all the way! Adam Sandler is playing Nicky, Satan's son, with a brief appearance of Reese Witherspoon, playing Nicky's mom. Adam Sandler is one of my all-time favorite actors! The story is about Nicky, and his first time on earth, to attempt to save his father from death.

Quote from Little Nicky (Nicky): I've never been to earth dad! I never even slept in another dude's house.




Disturbia (2007)
This movie is starring Shia Labeouf and Sarah Roemer. It's the story of Kale, spying on his neighbors, result of being bored from house arrest. He gets certain that his neighbor is a serial killer. Disturbia is a mixture of romance, comedy and thriller, sure to please almost everybody that likes movies. I saw it in the theatres twice, the one and only time that I went to see a movie more than once.

Quote from Disturbia (Ronnie): Oh my god, you've made the tower of Twinkie! Is that in a stalker's handbook somewhere?


http://www.disturbia.com/

3. Covenant, the (2006)
I really like the story of this movie. The genre is an action and also a thriller movie. The movie is starring Steven Strait and Laura Ramsey, which make a pretty sexy couple in this movie. The story is about five Ipswich families, (one of them considered killed in Salem) that ran away from Salem after the witch hunt. Really good movie as I said earlier plus the guys in the movie are hot!

Quote from the Covenant (Reid): Harry Potter can kiss my ass.




2. Hot Fuzz (2007)
Hot fuzz is an action and comedy movie starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (From Shaun of the Dead). Nicholas Angel is the best of his team in London, but gets transferred in Sanford. A small town that is flawless of crimes since 20 years. But where a lot of "accidents" happen, which is surprisingly leading to serial killing. I also think you should really see the trailer under, it’s amazing!

Quote from Hot Fuzz (Angel):
[first day in Sanford]Angel: I'm taking you to the station
[pause]
Angel: Where is it?



1. Without a Paddle (2004)

People expect something deep for a favorite movie, like Gladiator or I don't know, Scarface, but I just can't resist Without a Paddle. I watch it often when I'm on road trips. WAP is a comedy starring Dax Shepard, Matthew lillard and Seth Green. It's the story of three men who decides, at the age of 30, to do one last crazy thing together, and that happens to be a treasure hunt. I saw this movie at least a dozen times. I'm so excited because the sequel to this movie is coming in early 2009 on DVD (Without a Paddle: Nature's calling).

Quote from Without a Paddle (Dan and Del):
Dan: Mmm Bacon
Del: Squirrel
Dan: Mmm... Squirrel



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Actors that sing and singers that act

Don't get me wrong, I think it’s a good thing, because some artists have multiple talents, but I just don't understand the change. Do singers decide they want to start an acting career because they act in their music videos and liked the experience?

Some artists try to be in both fields in hope to be even more famous. Some of them would be Chris Brown, Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez. Some of those artists do really well, like Justin Timberlake, but some fail, like Britney Spears.

There are also some weird changes, like acting and politics??? And others considered being more normal like from acting to producing, like Mel Gibson.

There is not much more to say about the subject, I'll leave you with this post for the next few days.

Here is a video about the writer/actor/producer/singer/composer Adam Sandler.
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When you think Hollywood, you think...

Hollywood Walk of Fame

A lot of celebrities has their star on the walk of fame like Jamie Foxx and Drew Barrymore. The walk of fame has been built 50 years ago. It’s been created with 2 500 blank spaces and was filled with more than 1 500 in the first year. In nowadays, 24 stars are awarded every year. The sidewalk is about 5 KM long and stretches in a circle shape.

Not too long ago, it was possible for a person to have more than one star if you contributed to more than one entertainment field: Film industry, television, radio, recording studios... Alfred Hitchcock has two stars himself, one in Motion Pictures, and the other in Television. To have a star, you need to guarantee your availability at any day 0of the ceremony, and give a 25 000$ fee.

Muhammad Ali is the only person to have his star on a wall, which he requested because he didn’t want to "be walked on".

Four stars has been stolen and replaced shortly after, because they had to move the stars due to construction. Madonna's star was one of them.



I'm wondering, in your opinion, dear reader, who should deserve to be on the walk of fame? Who doesn't deserve to be there but already is? Who you are you glad is on the Hollywood's Walk of fame? Thanks a lot!
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Working for American Media Corporation

Everytime my friends asked me where I'd like to work, I always told them AMC, which is a movie theatre. Well guess what, mission accomplished! People who work there are so fun to be with, it's an amazing experience. I've worked there since only a month and i already feel like I belong. Anybody who decides to work there may choose between the three following jobs: Ticket selling, food selling or usher. Most people pick ushering, but I really like selling tickets. I'm really proud to be part of the team! Take care everybody,
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Enjoy Canadian Content

Hi there, I remember when I was in elementary school, we used to go every year to the film Festival, and while I was surfing on the net, I stumbled on the Toronto International Film Festival website of the festival that just ended 2 days ago.

The TIFF is a 10 days festival. During those 10 days, viewers have the option of seeing any of the 300 and more shorts presented, and are entitled to two screenings during the festival. The TIFF is a very good opportunity to see what Canadians do well, because it is not only USA who can make good movies/shorts.

I believe shorts are an important part of the movie industry. That is because I think every story should be told, only some of stories are not long enough to be played for a 2 hours movie. Short films go right to the point, and it’s refreshing.

Everywhere in Canada you can go to see Film festivals, there is one in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. As all of you know, there is a lot of Asians in Toronto, so there is a special festival called Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival in November. If you've never been in a film festival, I highly recommend it, because there are shorts for every kind of genres, even if you’re a fan of western movies.

MoviesRme007

Above is a CBC video talking about this year's TIFF.

My fake newspaper article

Patric Verrone put fist on the table, to write again

After 100 days of heavy striking, 12 000 unhappy writers and an estimated 1.5 billion in losses, Writer’s Guild of America finally comes to an agreement.

February 13th 2008
By Anouck

LOS ANGELES – On February 10 2008, Patric Verrone, president of the WGA made a vote for all the writers to decide whether or not the strike should come to an end.

It all started on a disagreement between WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers (AMPTP). WGA was supposed to make a new contract for the next three years, but there was a divergence between both parties, which resulted in a strike from the writers, on November 5th 2007.

The AMPTP, owners of important corporations such as Fox, NBC, CBC, Paramount Pictures and Walt-Disney came to an impasse over the request from the WGA, to get a raise of pay on all DVDs purchased. “We are ready to meet at any time and remain committed to reaching a fair and reasonable deal that keeps the industry working but the DVD issue is a roadblock to these negotiations said Nick Counter, president of the AMPTP.




The writers went on strike twice earlier, once in 1960, that lasted 20 weeks and was a really important strike since the actors were on strike too, for different reasons. The other strike was in 1988, and this one lasted 21 weeks, the longest Writer’s strike ever been.

The DVD problem was the following, VHS used to cost a lot to compose, and didn’t make a lot of benefits. When VHS was the movie market, they would get 0.3% on all VHS purchased (when they are the author of the screenplay). But now that the DVD replaced the VHS, and that it costs almost nothing, authors felt they deserved a raise, because they still only had 0.3% on all DVD movies. So basically, on every 20$ of DVD purchased, they would get 4¢. What they wanted, was 8¢. AMPTP thought it was an unfair deal.

Technology is not on WGA’s favor. “Soon, when computers and your TV are connected, that’s how were all going to watch. Okay? Those residuals are going to go from what they are towards zero if we don’t make a stand now” said writer Howard Gould.Writers started picketing in hope to “shut down production”. They were picketing in 14 different locations. The script authors wanted to use a funny method to indicate their unhappiness by making a fake exorcism over Warner Bros. There was a lot of tension between WGA and AMPTP when the strike was coming to an end.

Around January 15, WGA tried an agreement between both parties. Both parties ordered an immediate “media blackout”, in which all the members could not talk to the media.

This is not over. Nor this is close. Until the moment it is over, it can never be close. Because if we see the finish line we will flag and they are absolutely counting on us to do that said Joss Whedon, Writer of the hit show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The WGA came to a conclusion yesterday. The Writer’s Guild planned on striking for a longer period, but they didn’t want the public against them, because the Academy Award would have been canceled if the strike lasted longer. The Writers will begin working on Monday.


This is a spoof of the writer's strike. Enjoy!

For all of you who wonder what is V news, it`s a entertainment newspaper. Here is a link to visit the website: http://www.variety.com/

I apologize if i misinterpreted any of the information in the article.
MoviesRme007

The fast groing idea in my head

At least once in your life, you had an idea of painting, decorating or changing the style/theme of a room in your house. This is normal. Although, I don't understand people who decide to change the room that people care less about; the washroom. The bedroom, the living room, or even the kitchen, okay, but why the washroom? Anyway, I'm getting out of the subject.

What I want to change in my house is the basement. Nothing special huh? The thing is, I want to give my basement a movie theatre style. I'm picturing my basement with three elevated rows of four seats each. I'd like to have a projector, or a big screen TV. I want movie theatre seatings, that you can buy online for a fortune, and a fake old fashioned popcorn machine. I'd like to have surround sound, with at least one speaker in every corner.

So to open conversation in my comment blog, I have two questions for you. First of all, do you have any idea for my basement? Secondly, which of room would you like to change and why? Have a great day everyone!
MoviesRme007

Dolly... like the hurricane?

Not so long ago, I decided to film whatever there was to film around me. To anybody who likes to video record everything and anything, there is 2 things you should try to avoid; surround noises and camera shaking. On this blog, I will explain the tools used to refrain the camera from moving too much.

So the answer is no, not like the hurricane Dolly, but like the piece of equipment used for any box office movies. The camera Dolly is used to move back and forth or in perfect circles without the unpleasant shaking feeling of being in a roller coaster. You can place the Dolly on any surface, but most of the time the dolly is set on tracks. A great effect is when the tracks are curved into a circle and the dolly turns around a group of actors, because it is a good way to show the viewer where the scene is taking place.

Dollys keep evolving. As we speak, there is a prototype of dollys with an air cussion underneath to give a floating effect.

On the picture above is a special kind of Dolly, in which it films the actor/actress getting out the door, and the camera follows him/her as he/she goes down the stairs.

On the video underneath, is an example of homemade dolly tracks, which I personally think is a brilliant idea. From this video, you see that it doesn't cost much to make your film shots better. I hope, from now on, if somebody obsessed with movies like talks about the Dolly, you won't think of the hurricane or the Barbie doll. Until next time,
MoviesRme007

Are we rolling?

Hi Everyone! This is my first post on moviesRme007.blogspot.com i hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. I think everybody has obsessions, like eyes or star patterns. On this blog, I am going to share my obsession; you guessed it, the Movie Industry! I'm going to communicate my knowledge with the rest of the world as my way of making a contribution to the society. My blog will reflect my culture because I will write about events happening in my region. If my blog interests you, come regularly, because I will post at least tree times a week, until further notice. I'm going to the movies now, I'll write back later.

MoviesRme007