Bolex's News and Notes 12.30.13

It's a boring update for the majority of you, but possibly interesting for the filmmakers in the crowd. Take a look at some footage from the new Bolex D16. It appears that 16mm is back. I'm personally not sure how much sense it makes to add digital "grain" in the camera, however I do think the footage looks nice. What do you think? (And how cute is the little girl in this clip? Ridiculously.)



Editing continues on Space Cops 4 and 5. I hope some of you are enjoying time off before we jump into 2014. We'll get things going back at full steam here on the blog after all the holidays are over.

Peter O'Toole's News and Notes 12.16.13

Peter O'Toole in his most recognizable role:  Zaltar from Supergirl

We lost Peter O'Toole on Saturday. I'm not going to pretend that I am extremely familiar with Mr. O'Toole's work. Lawrence of Arabia and The Stunt Man are two films that have been on my watch list for almost 15 years. (And, yes, sadly I call myself a film buff.) O'Toole got the role of T.E. Lawrence after Brando was unavailable and Albert Finney turned it down. So, this third-choice actor turned in a performance that Premiere magazine ranked number one on a list of the 100 greatest performances of all time.

 You would think if a man turned in the greatest performance of all time, he would win the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar for 1962. Unfortunately for O'Toole, 1962 was also the year Gregory Peck turned in another seminal role of cinema as Atticus Finch. O'Toole went on to be nominated seven more times and sadly holds the record for most nominations without a win.

As of now, my primary memories of Peter O'Toole come from The Last Emperor, which he actually caused me to enjoy, and Ratatouille (as Todd and Allen know, sometimes referred to as Rattatooty). I'll be attempting to add more of Peter O'Toole's work to my list of viewed films in the near future.

Indie Wednesday: Sorry Slide

It isn't even 11pm, so this totally counts as Indie Wednesday. And the Live Prude Girls bring us the shortest Indie Wednesday of all time. Sorry Slide clocks in at 5 seconds.

I'm celebrating the funny and fetching Milana Vayntrub tonight because I saw her on an AT&T commercial yesterday. And it was funny. Stevie and Milana are already successful, but they're headed for really, really big things. All because they had one of the first videos featured right here on Indie Wednesday.


...You don't think that's "likely?"
What do you mean? And what does "likely" mean? You know, what--  just don't even...
I think I want you to shut your big mouth.
You know what? Actually, yeah I'm sure of it.
Just--
UHGH!

Hey look, it's a bonus vid... (Space Cops needs to get internet famous so we can land a guest spot on this show. Episodes 4 and 5 are coming, so let's make it happen, people.)

Geek Scope: Agents of SHIELD 1.10

"The Bridge" was an important episode, as it began to bring several storylines together for what will likely be a big finale in the second half of the season. With that said, the tenth episode's entertainment value wasn't necessarily equivalent with it's mid-season cliffhanger status. I think we can agree that not all AoS writers and directors are created equal. Now for the info:

• At the beginning of the episode, Edison Po is broken out of Havenworth Penitentiary. It seems like a simple missed opportunity not to use one of the multitude of fictional prisons from the Marvel Universe.
• I can't stress this enough:  If Po's need to eat in every scene and the seriousness with which he approaches his meals isn't some sort of set up, someone seriously needs to figure out a second way to make a character seem crazy/menacing. I'm just saying.
• There were no direct comic references in The Bridge, but some possible set-ups for down the road. For example...
• We learned that the primary looming villain of the season, the Clairvoyant, "doesn't like to be touched." Possibly a clue about an existing Marvel U character. (It also seems that Edison has his own issues with being touched.)
• Once again, they visited the issue of are there or are there not psychics in this universe. You would have to assume there will be eventually due to the amount of time they spend discussing it, whether the Clairvoyant actually is one or not.
• Pushing a bulldozer across a football field is absolutely superhuman which means it is something that Captain America absolutely can NOT do. (Get ready for the geek...) The super-soldier serum took Cap to the peak of what is possible for a human body; speed, strength, agility, etc., but nothing beyond that. They need to be careful with tidbits like that. Not having any true super abilities is at the core of Steve Rogers' character.
• There was one reference to the Cinematic U that stood out; another mention of Coulson's cello playing love interest that we first heard about in The Avengers. You can count on meeting her at some point in the future.

The Bridge wasn't only a setup for a showdown with Centipede. It was also the first step that will lead to discovering how Coulson was brought back to life. We'll see you back here in January when Agents of SHIELD resumes its season. In the meantime, keep up with all the other junk we do around here.

Smowg's News and Notes 12.9.13

Annnd... we're back. We missed a week, but I thought I could get us back on track with some random holiday musings next to the Christmas tree. Nobody likes saying Smowg.

• Last week I was busy transferring all our recent Space Cops footage. Done and done. That means we're all set for Allen and Todd to stop by for an edit party tomorrow night. We'll see if we can't pull some material out of that for the bloug. I'll be showing them what I've done with Episode 4 so far and get their input before the final cuts are made. We also might go ahead and put a dent in Episode 5 while we're at it.
• Allen had a gem of an idea that he thinks he'll start scripting in the near future. All I can say is that involves the broadcast news profession.
• Agents of SHIELD also returns Tuesday after their own week off, which means you can expect another edition of the Geek Scope.
• I want to start providing a lot more original content of our own here. The video above is evidence of that. It's difficult to make involved productions like Space Cops, especially with our limited time and resources. So I'm currently brainstorming for various ideas to produce entertaining video with very low production time.

Keep an eye out this week. I'm sure we'll be tweeting and instagraming whatever transpires at the edit party tomorrow, so look us up.  We're the same on everything:   walksoftlyfilms

Geek Scope: Agents of SHIELD 1.9

Geek Scope uses 25 years of otherwise useless Marvel comics continuity to look for tidbits in TV and movies that the average non-geek might miss.

Nothing to see here in the way of hidden nuggets of info. Tobias Ford was an original creation, but I would say be on the lookout for him to return at some point.

• Roxxon Oil makes an appearance as the gas station at the beginning of the episode. Roxxon has been the go-to representation of big industry greed and evil in Marvel comics for decades. They're always up to something and generally effing things up whether intentionally or on accident. Their logo appears in the background of almost every Marvel movie and you'll continue to see it.
• The alien world that was accidentally accessed by the particle accelerator had no discernible features that I could see. Tobias thought it was Hell (and I was slightly resentful about the oh-you-stupid-Christians element of the story) and while there are a couple of different realms called or thought of as "Hell" in the Marvel U, I seriously doubt they would ever go in that direction. A shame, because that would be much more interesting than the everything-and-everyone is an alien from outer space angle that they currently have going.

One thought...

Marvel needs to be careful with how far they push their notion that everything can be explained and grounded in their cinematic universe. (I went on to rant for five paragraphs about this and decided it needs to have its own post or video. So that is going to happen.) See you here in two weeks for the next Agents of SHIELD.

Indie Wednesday: Salt

In honor of the big day tomorrow, Indie Wednesday presents Salt, a Thanksgiving story by Colin Miller and Alex Cain.

The Geek Scope for last night's Agents of SHIELD will be up tonight at 10pm so stop back by.

Indie Wednesday: Common Sense for Dummys

There are a lot of weird State laws out there and this is certainly one of them. This video comes to us from a sketch comedy troupe based in Nashville. We met Emily (who appears in this sketch) at Rivers Edge Film Festival and she was as nice as could be. So, if you like this, make sure you cruise over to their YouTube page for lots more.

Geek Scope: Agents of SHIELD 1.8

You wanted him to use the Ghostbusters II accent, right?

Not a lot in the way of easter eggs in this episode, titled "The Well."

• They mention the Berserker Staff and the Berserker Army of Asgardian lore. As far as I know, neither of those exist in comics.
• I was fairly certain there is or was a character called the Berserker, but I had to look it up. There was indeed a Berserker and he looked promising, but the backstory provided by Agents of SHIELD has absolutely nothing to do with him.
• Turns out my best memories of The Berserker come from this guy...

Ask Allen; my love for the WWE WWF's Berserker goes deep.

• Also, all that "Asgardian who stayed behind" junk about Ghostbusters guy... no, not in the comics.
• Agent May and Agent Ward did the dirty. You know that, right?

"Is Coulson a Robot?" Update

• Another reminder of Coulson's mystery tonight, but no revelations.
• He can't remember being revived. (Already made that clear.)
• The Tahiti flashback didn't give us much other than to confirm that it wasn't real with the "Tahiti's too good to be true," line, which surely everyone knows by now. Phil's masseuse responds with, "I know. It's a magical place." Which causes him to wake up in a sweat.
• No updates to my theory based on that.

Come back later today for Indie Wednesday. And just because we can't possibly have enough Berserker on this blog for my taste...

Geek Scope: Agents of SHIELD 1.7

Geek Scope uses the 25 years of otherwise useless Marvel Comics continuity stored in my brain to point out any elements that the non-geek viewer might miss in Marvel TV and movies.

This episode, titled "The Hub" kept me on my toes, so let's get right to it.

• Jasper Sitwell makes an appearance. Sitwell is a longtime SHIELD agent in the comics, but has already appeared in the cinematic universe in Thor, The Avengers, and maybe most notably in the Marvel One Shot, The Consultant. which was tacked on to the Thor Blu Ray. Nice to have a significant piece of movie SHIELD solidifying the connection to TV SHIELD. By the way, the Sitwell of comics has a full head of blonde hair.

• Simmons mentions the Triskelion which is the primary SHIELD headquarters in the Marvel "Ultimate Universe" continuity (not 616) and hasn't appeared (or even been mentioned as far as I know) in the movies. However, there is apparently a rumor that the Triskelion will appear in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

• Victoria Hand is the much cooler appearance of the night because she is only the second character that Agents of SHIELD has adapted straight from the comics to TV (the first being Dr. Franklin Hall), and I would argue the most significant. Hand is generally portrayed as a character who is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, crossing some lines that others might not and sometimes falling on the wrong side of the good/bad fence. Just something to keep in mind for down the road.

Pretty close, right?

"Is Coulson a robot?" Update

Writers continue to play with the notion of Phil being an LMD. Tonight the line came from Skye: "He's acting like a robot version of himself right now." Couldn't miss that one, could we? That's a bit much, guys and gals.

There was also a further sense that Tahiti being a "magical place" is a planted response for Coulson that he can't even fully control, as he slightly stutters over it. We also learned that Phil doesn't have clearance to see his own recovery report.

Best guess this week? I'm going to say that Coulson is not a full-on synthetic human like Life Model Decoys of the comics. I would guess that he has some new electronic/synthetic pieces a la cyborgs, the 6 Million Dollar Man, etc. It seems to be certain that there is something different about his physiology since Akela Amador viewed him with her "back-scatter" vision and basically said as much in the fourth episode.