So, for today as promised, here is a pretty massive update featuring two reviews, my new zombie film’s page and this article featuring some news and insight into what I’ve been doing the last couple of days in terms of filmmaking, gaming and movies I’ve watched, and are going to see soon.

So let’s start off with what I’ve been up to in filmmaking. I’ve been working on my upcoming zombie film I’m making with four friends in film class for school. It’s due to be finished early next year, and we are going into production soon. This will probably be the most advanced film make-up wise I’ve ever been involved with. Our film team has some really cool skills in all kinds of different jobs, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to see just how the zombie make-up will turn out. The script is as I said a few days ago finished, and we are currently finding actors and locations to shoot. Expect images and more when it rolls into production, which should be sometime very, very soon. I’ve also been working on the edit for “Connected”, which I started shooting a couple of weeks ago. It has turned out pretty good so far, and I’m trying to edit this in a slightly different way than I’m used to. I don’t want to say too much right now, but hopefully you’ll find it interesting and fun to watch.

I almost havn’t had time to play any video games at all the last couple of days, which is a bit sad, especially considering how many amazing games are being realised both the last week, this week, and the upcoming two weeks. It’s a great time to be a gamer, that’s for sure, but it’s also a bad time to be science-class student with a gaming and filmmaking interest, like me . I have compiled a list of some games I deem neccessary to play at least before christmas, and it includes great scoring games such as Assassins Creed, Call of Duty 4, Ratchet & Clank Future, Crysis, Guitar Hero III, Haze and Drake’s Fortune. I’ll obviously try to get my hands on every one of these games, but I will probably and expectedely fail miserably at that .

So I’ve been watching some pretty cool films and TV shows the last couple of days. Currently re-watching the third season of “Lost” with my father (he hasn’t seen it before) and I recently discovered I had four unwatched discs in an old CSI box. In “real” films, I recently saw “The Hitcher” featuring among other Rutger Hauer. It was a pretty good film, not really worth buying, but definently worth renting! As I’ve written before, I’m going to see Saw IV on Friday (picked up the tickets today) and I’ll also write a review on the same day. Reviews from websites are coming in concerning the film, saying it’s pretty bad, but I think it will be really awesome! So look forward to the Saw IV review this Friday. I’m also considering going and seeing a new film called “Michael Clayton”, featuring George Clooney. It has been getting some great reviews and is currently playing in a small theatre just a couple of blocks from here, so I might see that one someday as well.

I’ve been thinking about my reviews, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be trying to write at least one review every week. Not on a specific day just to make that clear, but I’m aiming for one every calendar week, as it seems they are quite popular among readers, judging from the e-mails I’m getting!

Two now cool things for filmmaking and photography were released in the last week. First of all, FXhome released their new software called PhotoKey, which enables users to easily key out green or blue backgrounds from their high resolution photographs. It works great, and I seriously recommend every photographer trying out the demo.

Another thing that was released was a very cool sound FX package (called “Action Audio Pro“) by my good friend Matt Evans over at his website. It can be used to enhance action sequences with some very high quality gunfire and richochet sounds. Make sure to check it out if you’re interested in filmmaking, as it’s a great value at $55 for over 180 sound effects!

I hope you liked the pretty massive update this was, and remember to check out the two new reviews just below this post, the zombie film’s page, FXhome’s PhotoKey and Matt Evans’ new “Action Audio Pro” sound effects package!

So, look forward to the review of “Saw IV” this Friday, and I’ll see you all then!

Take care everyone!

So in the second review for the day, I’m going to review “Vacancy”, a horror/thriller staring Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson I watched just last Friday after buying it in London.

I really thought this could be quite cool. I mean, the DVD boxart was, so why shouldn’t the movie be of equal measure? I’ve always been a fan of these types of films, that take place in restrained ares. Numerous examples of this are the first two Die Hards (with the first one being the prefered one) and Saw. I really think it’s very inspiring to watch, since they’re often shot on a smaller budget, and I think it’s easier to keep a good story active if you have your characters in designated place that you introduce the audience too early in the film. So, to say the least, my expectations were very high, but would the film deliver?

The story really starts off as quite a normal B-movie story featuring a couple played by Beckinsale and Wilson. Their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and they are forced to spend the night in a motel run by a really odd type. When the couple finds a VHS player in their aquirred “honeymoon-suite”, they quickly realise just how horrifying a place this really is. I absolutely loved the story of the film. It’s very dark and very disturbing, and it really makes you scared from time-to-time – not by using shocks, even if they are often used, but just building a mood and tension and expectation of what’s going to happen. It’s all quite impressing, and from now on I’m going to think things through a bit more the next time I stay at a motel on the side of a deserted country road.

The acting is actually really nice, with the characters starting off in a generalised stereotype PG-13 style, but quickly moving on to R-rated territories in both their choosing of words and their general behaviour and actions towards the end of the film. The motel’s owner is awesomely played by a guy called Frank Whaley, who I think fits the role perfectly. He really brings tension to the character he plays, when we as an audience quickly in the first couple of scenes realise that there’s something not quite right with this guy. Actually, the list of characters is really rather small and speaking roles can almost be counted on one hand.

Using pretty much only one location for the entire duration of the film turns out to be a winning concept for the movie. Since the whole motel set, including the reception and the various rooms, are so very well made and extremely authentic, you really don’t mind spending 100 minutes with the characters in them. It all feels like a big scary house (such as those which can be found at pretty much every amusement park) and I imagine it won’t be too long until someone gets the idea to create something similar and take admission for it.

The cinematography is awesome, featuring some pretty much perfectly framed images that will really send a creepy feeling down your spine. The VHS tapes the main characters find in their room are filmed in such a documentary way (with what I bet is old Hi8 cameras with worn-out tape decks) that it almost feels like the terrifying events taking place in the films really could have happened. The lighting for the film works great, and scenes taking place in completely dark areas, are still visible to the viewer without creating an unreal blue tint or by just making it impossible to see anything.

There’s hardly any music at all in the film, except for some short chase themes played in a few places. It creates a lot of the moods just by using the sound effects, which are for the most part spot on.

I think this film was really inspiring both in the artistic way in which the story was concieved and shot, and in a technical manner which is how good and real-looking the motel is. Sadly enough, it has a few plot-holes and in places a somewhat predictable story that drags this down from getting a real top score. But if you’re a fan of horror films (especially “Saw”) like I am, I definently think this is one to rent or pick up.

Verdict: 8 out of 10

I watched the pretty much classic “Scream” a few weeks ago, and I thought I’d give you some of my thoughts about it and if it really lived up to the hype which I’ve been hearing about it.

I bought the entire “Scream” trilogy at a Virgin Megastore when I visited London a little under two weeks ago. I found it for just £15 so I decided to buy it and finally get around to watch the films. To be honest, I really wasn’t that excited about watching it, especially having watched the horrendous “Scary Movie” (the parody version) not that long before.

The story was actually much more entertaining than I thought it would be, as I imagined it to be a straight-up horror/thriller-shocker with no real plot and no real hook for the viewers to grab on to. While in a way, it’s a very basic story about a guy murdering people, it turns out that it parodies a lot of films at the same time, and is actually quite funny. But, keep in mind you don’t need a lot of brain power to survive through the story without getting confused…so in a way, it’s a perfect late-night Saturday no-brainer movie. It parodies off a lot of films, including some of Wes Craven’s earlier ones (Nightmare on Elm Street, anyone?).

Some very familiar faces (although in the beginning of their careers) pops up throughout the film – including Rose McGowan, who is nowadays known as the woman with the machinegun-leg – which is really nice. There’s really nothing that special about the acting, it’s pretty much on par with what you’d expect from a movie of this genre and budget.

I liked the various sets used in the movie. There’s a lot of different locations and houses for the characters to be frightened in, and just when you’re starting to feel tired and bored by a particular setpiece, the film changes the scene. This keeps the experience pretty fresh throughout the film and it also makes it not as boring as it could otherwise had been. There’s hardly any visual effects, but there are some pretty cool practical and on-set effects such as blood and gore make-up and gunshot squibs which really sells some of the scenes. It just looks pretty real and grose.

I loved the sound effects and cinematography for the film. It really shows how you can sell scenes just based on sound, or in some cases, the lack of sound. The film is framed in such a way that it constantly keeps you in the scenes with the actors and actresses, which I think is a really good grade for a film. To get back to the sound effects, some of the later knife stabbing sounds are just insanely grose, and it really sounds scary and lethal.

What about the music? Honestly, I can’t say that I remember a single tune or track from the entire film, which I guess could either prove that it’s a somewhat lackluster soundtrack, or that the rest of the film is of such standard that it outshines the musical score.

Overall, I thought this was a very entertaining film, with some cool characters and most of all, a love to filmmaking that shines through the final product. Yes, it has some flaws, but if you like horror films, this is definently one ot watch.

Verdict: 6 out of 10