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Showing posts from June, 2013

Jim Kelly (1946-2013)

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I just found out that Jim Kelly passed away yesterday.  Jim Kelly starred along with Bruce Lee in "Enter the Dragon", and after seeing that I was completely hooked on Jim Kelly's performance.  He made everything look easy and he exuded coolness like no one else.  His films include "Three the Hard way", Black Samson, Black Samurai, and Black Belt Jones.   After several more films Jim Kelly left acting and became a professional tennis player.on the USTA  senior man's circuit. He will be missed.

Man of Steel (2013)

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So for Father's day we all went to see "The Man of Steel".  I have always been a BIG Superman fan, and remember seeing the old episodes of Superman on the TV while I was growing up.  So I was anxious to see this new one.  I have to say that I wasn't disappointed at seeing it.  Now I do remember when Superman came out while I was a teenager.  The two Superman movies were something special for me, and Christopher Reeve was a very special Superman.  But I always wondered what happened to Superman during his teenage years.  Sure I read the Superboy comic books as a child, but in those he just seemed like a Superman who was just younger.  In "The Man of Steel" Superman is seen more human.  He is conflicted about who he is and what he is.  The flashbacks of him and his Earth dad Pa Kent is touching and revealing.  After all could not have Superman been bad.  Could he have used his powers for evil instead of good, and this movie explains why Superman is our cham

Richard Burton Matheson (1926-2013)

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Yesterday I heard that we lost another great writer.   Richard Matheson was a writer of over 25 novels and countless short stories.  He was a big influence in my life because I was introduced to him through the old Twilight Zone episodes.  He wrote one of my favorite novels " I am Legend " which has been made into several movies.  " Nightmare at 20,000 feet " and the episode called "Steel" were two of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes.  He was what writers needed to aspire to.  What Mr. Matheson wrote and conveyed in a 30 minute episode no one has yet to come as close to perfecting.  His writing touched you like no one elses could.  He brought humanity into his stories, and he certainly was prolific with the work he produced. Not only did he produce great work but he influenced others such Stephen King, George Romero , and Anne Rice just to name a few. He will be missed, and all I can say is thank you Mr. Matheson for the great work you leave be

Filmmaking Advice from filmmakers!

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Here in Philly and the surrounding area there are a group of people I admire and hope to work with some day.  They were on a panel about film making at a gaming con.  They mention some things that I think is relevant and true, so give it a listen it's worth hearing.

DSLR Filmmaking

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I've been researching and looking into DSLR filmmaking.  There are many cameras to do this.  The Canon 5D is one of those films, but I wanted to look into the Nikon side of DSLR. The below clip was shot with a Nikon D800.  I've already come to the conclusion that the Nikon d600 has too  many problems and is not good for the average filmmaker.  It has a problem with low light, aliasing, and it can only be used for 20 to 30 minutes of continuous filming. It seems that the Nikon D800 has fixed those problems.  More on what I find out and what the D800 can do.  In the meantime here is a film that was shot with the D800.  You be the judge.

Star Trek: Into the Darkness (2013)

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  After seeing Star Trek Into the Darkness I have to say that the franchise seems to be in good hands.  Being a fan of the series, and the movies I was a little worried about re-vamping the franchise, but all those worries were for nothing.  The creators of the new Star Trek seem to respect and admire its past while giving us a new future.  What Star Trek is about hope.  Hope that man gets it right after all it's screw ups and that the human race does makes it to the stars and becomes a catalyst for hope in the universe.  That's the big picture of course.  What Star Trek is also about and what makes it a phenomenon is its all about relationships.  The crew of the Enterprise is like a big family and the two centered in that family is the relationship between Spock and Kirk.  It is these two characters that make the adventure of Star Trek so endearing to its fans.  In the old series William Shatner , and Leonard Nimoy were two sides of the coin.  Both trying to understand