Dad is doing much better!

Thankful!

Films on Paper Composition Homework

Taking  a film class with Justin Copeland, a seasoned Hollywood storyboard artist. Its been a great class so far, and has really got me thinking about all the choices we have as filmmakers and storyboard artists. In this assignment we had to pick a film, thumbnail it out, and analyze how the composition supports the story.

I picked The Godfather. Yuuuup. I also HAD to pick the scene where Michael Corleone calmly shoots Solazzo and McClusky point blank in the face. I liked this scene because there was a ton of tension and suspense leading up to the shoot out. For one thing, we don't know if the gun is actually going to be planted there, and when it is, the audience is like "OH GOD, is he actually going to do it?!". Its amazing how calm he is until the end. What I noticed composition wise is that it starts out pretty loose and as the tension builds the shots get tighter and tighter until we have an extreme closeup of Michael's face where you can just feel the tension about to snap.

I think the subtext of this scene is that despite his reluctance to get involved in the family business up until this point, this scene proves Michael is actually a ruthless, cold, and calculating killer capable of doing just about anything for the family.

Ace In The Hole - 1951

I recently watched Ace in the Hole which was made in 1951 and loved it! SPOILER ALERT - We are made to really hate the main character, so at the end we feel like he gets what's coming to him. I also realized it has perfect story structure, and decided to fill out the beat sheet to see if it hit all the points. Jotted down some notes here, and what do you know! Everything fits together like a swiss-made watch! Now that's a well made film!

Peace Hero Act 1 Storyboards

 

This story has kind of evolved from something a little too preachy and serious, to something a bit lighter and sillier. We meet Rocco shortly after the death of his father Giuseppe. Knowing that Rocco is a very combative and violent youth, the Peace Hero sets out a scheme to prevent Rocky from throwing his life away and going to prison for shooting his father's killer. Travis, and Karl,  two family friends, are enlisted to kidnap Rocky and terrorize him in a neighbor's basement for 3 days until he is scared shitless, and never wants to look at a gun or gangbanger movie ever again. Act 1 works to establish Rocky as a snotty little Tony Montana wannabee who desperately wants to off his Dad's killer. The story will be set up so that the audience knows more than Rocky, so its funny to watch him sweat in these completely doctored situations. Only at the end do we find out that the real Peace Hero is Rocky's Mom, and that she has cleverly engineered this entire plot to teach her son a valuable lesson: one senseless act of violence does not justify another.

Peace Hero Sketches

Ladies and Gents, I bring you...
Rocco Benedetti, the teenage star of Peace Hero.