OVERVIEW:

It’s been almost 5 years since the last time gamers were able to step into the shoes of Jackie Estacado.  The Darkness II takes place two years after the events of the first game (it‘s not necessary to have played the first game, but doing so does add a little more depth to the story), and Jackie has been able to control, and keep out the super-natural force that is the Darkness out of his body.  But what fun would playing as a regular guy in control of his inner demons be?  Good thing too, since within the first few minutes of the game, the Darkness comes back into Jackie’s life; and the fun begins.

STORY:

The story in The Darkness II begins with a hit being placed on Jackie‘s life, and all hell breaking loose.  On the verge of death, Jackie calls upon the powers of the Darkness.  Jackie plays host to this supernatural entity, and a key plot-point is who is in control of who.  As the Darkness vies for control over Jackie’s body.  Jackie is haunted by hallucinations of his murdered girlfriend, and would do anything to save her soul. 

 "All men are equal before fish."  ~ Herbert Hoover

Imagine you're studying at the kitchen table in your  L.A. home and there's a knock on the door. Your parents answer and they are told, "In 48 hours you need to gather your belongings and be moved." Everything you  know, love, and feel safe with is being upended.  You will be bussed to an internment camp where the summers are intolerably hot, the winters are brutally cold and the wind-driven dust never stops fouling your lungs and stinging your eyes.  Because you are of Japanese heritage, even if you were born here and have never known any other country or way of life, you and your family are to be considered potential enemy combatants. 

Check out the happenings at the OCC Showcase at this year's Newport Beach Film Festival!

And the beat goes on...

The latest crop of film festival shorts from Orange Coast College were presented by OCC faculty advisor/photographer/musician Scott Broberg at the fabulous Regency Lido Theater. Sunday was a great day to view said shorts at the venue in Newport Beach for several reasons including the stunning theater itself firmly nestled in the history of the area.

And the students themselves were potentially making history.  Who knows which of them will continue his or her film career and become the next - well, you fill in the blanks.

Here are some pictures from the after party on April 28! Enjoy!

Enjoy some more pictures from the events of Saturday, April 28 at the Lido Theater...Expect some more pics tomorrow night! And if that doesn't work, try this... https://picasaweb.google.com/113281282356827183170/NewportBeachFilmFesti...

I'm still working on uploading pictures from the 2012 Newport Beach Film Festival, but in the mean time check out some pictures from opening night!  Tom Arnold and Jaime Lynn Sigler were some walking the red carpet for Jewtopia...

After a great production Trigger, a short action film, has entered the post-production phase. The story revolves around a highly classified and lethal weapon that lands in the hands of a notorious criminal and the FBI agents assigned with recovering the weapon. If the production is any indication of the skill and acumen of the cast and crew, the post-production is not going to disappoint. 

April 26, 2012, L.A. Memorial Sports Arena.

Millions of words have been written about Bruce Springsteen.  I doubt if I will bring anything new to the discussion of this amazing musician and poet but the transformative nature of his work impels and propels me to say something.  

I will echo those who who have said that nothing (nothing!) compares to his live performances.  As my friend Kevin said on the way to the concert at the Sports Arena in L.A. - "it's like a old-time revival."  Yep.  

Not one to be overly, physically expressive at concerts I was up and screaming in a matter of the first few minutes.  Most stood immediately and never sat again for a nearly three hour show in which the master musician and his group of hand-picked sidemen wowed us through hits from the 1st album (back when vinyl ruled) to the newest material from his "Wrecking Ball" release.  I nearly cried at how amazing the music and musicianship was and I truly, nearly lost it when a moving tribute to Bruce's friend and sideman Clarence Clemons, who passed away last year of a stroke, was triggered by the lyric in an old song "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" ("...and the big man joined the band.") Clemon's son played in the horn section and did all of Clemons' solos which was amazing in and of itself - although he still isn't The Big Man, but potential looms large.

LET THERE BE LIGHT! ACTION! CAMERA!

Day 3 at CinemaCon was perhaps the wildest yet, and one with promise for not only excitement on the screen, but two revolutionary technology breakthroughs that will change the way we watch film in theatres forever.

DISNEY ALIVE AND WELL, AND DEPP, BRUCKHEIMER, BURTON PROVE IT

The Walt Disney company showed everyone that it I alive and well, with a slate of great films, great stars, and great directors and producers working on some amazing work for the coming year.  And Uncle Walt would be proud of the variety and style of all that is happening at Disney.

CINEMACON
DAY 1

The Pudgilist, a series that follows the events at a Mixed Martial Arts training gym, the owners and the fighters, that work hard towards personal and professional success, has gone into post-production. 

It is a privilege to work with Victor Phan and everyone else involved in this project. One can sense right away that they are professionals of the highes caliber, with the ability to call on many people and necessary resources to make things happen, and happen the right way. 

Robert Rollins Pictures (link) is announcing the production of Robert Rollins’ anthology feature film Dream Country.  

Currently in active pre-production with a locked script,  location scouting and actor auditions being held in L.A., shooting the Dream Country interstitials brings to a close a long term goal.  Rollins said "I've been working on this for the past several years.  Finally going into production last week made me realize just how long I've been waiting to make this a reality.  We've opened the production offices and we're knee deep in the craziness of getting everything ready to roll cameras."  Rollins declined to elaborate on a specific date for principal photography but said it was going to be "Fallish 2012."  The company is awaiting approval of permits before it commits to a hard date.

UPDATE:  Permits have been approved.  The date is set in October 2012 according to Rollins.

Dream Country was born out of Robert’s love for Rod Serling’s classic television show The Twilight Zone.  Dream Country follows The Twilight Zone pattern by creating a framing device of using foot bridges that transport the viewer or journeyman from awake to asleep, from conscious to unconsciousness, from reality to fantasy, from past to present.

Cross a bridge to enter a dream....  

The mysterious and enigmatic Elias introduces the featurettes while standing on a bridge much the same way Rod Serling had done in The Twilight Zone.  

We are not endorsing this film festival - just passing on info we received from them - always be cautious with your intellectual property.  Mark

SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITY, LA – Phenom Film Fest announces the launch of their First Annual International Film Festival and the open call for film entries, for the 2012 season. 

The Phenom Film Fest (PFF) was created to offer exposure and advance public interest in independent films without distribution, that might never be seen by the general public and to showcase the local region of Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana as a major film center for its' filmmaking resources and talent. We strive to support the spirit of independent filmmaking on a local, national and international level in all genres of film to include Drama, Comedy, Documentaries, Animated, Horror, Sci-fi, Fantasy, GLBT, Action/Adventure and their related subgenres.

The festival will be held in the Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana area from Sept. 6 - 9, at various venues around town. PFF will be joining the Bossier Arts Council sponsored Digital Arts Festival and Career Fair in creating an incredible multimedia and interactive experience for filmmakers and fans.

For those of you who do not know who Roger Corman is and are vivid fans of monster movies, action sci-fi and all around pop-corn entertainment, I have three words: Shame on you! He has been the producer that has launched a million careers and continues to do so at the ripe age of 86!

This documentary is way more interesting that I thought it would be and although it barely reached the theaters (like many of Corman’s productions these days) I got it through my Netflix cue. This movie also hits home for me right now because I’m involved in my first production as a writer/producer and the story still rings true today on all the crazy things you have to do to get a movie done.

Any kind of movie.

Roger Corman like many producers started out as an actor and of course wasn’t that good but somehow he was fun, charming and a great talker and he managed to get people to do crazy stuff, so he got some money together got a movie crew and did his first monster movie. He sold it to a small outfit that rented movies to drive-in chains and the rest is history. Being crafty and not spending anything extra was one of Corman’s chief assets.

This post is a bit more personal than usual because it involves people that have helped shape this organization and perservered when others have lost interest.

There's no doubt that the best part of starting the OC Screenwriters is when members meet, pull together their resources, and create something wonderful.  This has happened several times already and the latest iteration of this concept of networking is the group behind "The Prey."  

They've made me a part of this insanely ambitious project and it's truly a thrill to be again working with Rudy Garcia, Eric Hensman, his brother Matt (and super-neice Scarlett,) Itai Levin, and soon-to-be mega-producer Victor Phan.

Even though I wasn't bowled over by "Lilyhammer" there are reasons to give it high marks:

• - It's funky and weird and different enough that you don't see the same pre-fabbed faces and content that you'd normally see in network TV.   
• - It stars one of the most unlikely "pretty faces" in the biz - the eternally-scowling Steven Van Zandt.
• -  It's a true breakthrough show.  Its original episodes are available all at once, as people who stream a lot of content on Netflix are likely to watch.  I myself do entire TV seasons in a few days sometimes (especially when, as in the case of "Southland" those seasons are only six episodes long.)
• -  I've never seen an "American" series set entirely in another country.
• -  The show reminds me (a bit) of a not-as-well-written "Northern Exposure."

Billy Wilder's Tips For Writers

It was 10 years ago (March 27, 2002) that the world lost Billy Wilder. Some of his wisdom from Cameron Crowe's book, Conversations With Wilder start with his Tips for Writers.

1. The audience is fickle.
2. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go.
3. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
4. Know where you’re going.
5. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
6. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
7. A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
8. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’re seeing.
9. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
10. The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then -- that’s it. Don’t hang around.

Editors note: I really shouldn't have to list Wilder's film because any student of film should know them but here's a few just in case:

Some Like it Hot
Double Indemnity
Seven Year Itch
Stalag 17
The Apartment
Sunset Blvd.

SANTA ANITA PARK AND HOLLYWOOD, A LONGTIME LOVE AFFAIR

And they were off!

On Christmas Day, 1934, Santa Anita Park Racetrack opened its gates and it was love at first sight between Santa Anita and Hollywood. 

Hollywood royalty was not only in attendance, but one of Hollywood’s most prolific movie producers, Hal Roach, who started producing film in 1915, and lived till the age of 101 as a working producer, who brought comedy to America with Harold Lloyd, Our Gang, Laurel and Hardy, Will Rogers, and so many more, was the money man behind the park.

Pity The Poor Writer

I've written under all circumstances for over twenty years - scripts, short stories, novels, industrial videos, blogs, articles, etc. Modestly speaking, I'm pretty good at it.  I know that because people pay me for that particular skill set.  

Yep, lots to learn (emphasis on 'lots'") but let me make this point at the top - I study storytelling for a living. That's what I do.  So, I should know a little more about it than your nephew, girlfriend, stranger off the street, right?  Oh you agree?  Then why are you changing my story, characters, themes and plot based on their opinions?  In fact, why are we having this conversation at all? 

You think I'm being a dilettante writer?  Fair enough.  Let's talk about that.

Chill, Dude.  It's just Your Flipping Career

Let's get the big points out of the way.  First, I do get that these are gray areas and that I am over-simplifying for the sake of making my point - it's called...writing - where have you been?

"Blood In, Blood Out,",  the Disney company's first R-rated film under the Hollywood Pictures banner, is screening on Wednesday night, March 28, 2012, at 7:30 PM, at the Regency South Coast Village Theatre.

The film is a story worthy of "The Godfather", from a Mexican point of view, and centered on the creation of the Mexican Mafia in prisons in the 1970's and 80's. But it was far more than that.

Directed by Taylor Hackford, "Blood In, Blood Out," is a great crime drama that follows the intertwining lives of the three Chicano relatives, Miklo (Damien Chapa), Paco(Benjamin Bratt) and Cruz (Jesse Borrego) from 1972 to the mid 1980s.

The film starts out with them as members of a street gang called Vatos Locos of East Los Angeles, and as dramatic incidents occur, their lives and friendships are forever changed.