KGB Productions

I caught this film on IFC on demand, and I got sucked into the film slowly.  The film is directed by Wayne Wang a director I am familiar with, but I haven't seen much of his work.  His films The Joy Luck Club , Chan Is Missing ,  Blue in the Face , and Smoke are indie favorites.    The Center of the World is a sort of erotic tale between a women and man and their three nights in Vegas.    The plot of the film is described best here: " A San Francisco computer wizard, who has made his millions in the digital world, meets a beautiful stripper at a gentleman's club. Immediately attracted to each other, the two take off for Las Vegas, where, for three days, they explore the limits of their sexuality and the nature of passion and pleasure" The interesting thing here is the characters.  There is quite a bit of sex, and male and female nudity in the film, but that's not what makes the film so compelling to watch.  This film isn't fo...

While watching Blue Valentine I became engrossed in the characters.  Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams play Dean and Cindy.  The movie is divided into past and present.  We are shown how the two met and the circumstances that lead up to their marriage.  The other half of the film is how they deal with the marriage falling apart.  Director Derek Cianfrance does this in increments throughout the film, and he weaves it all together nicely.  First off the performances by Gosling and Williams are dead on, and you can see that they really inhabited the characters, and made them their own.  The film is 112 minutes and in some way I feel that it goes on a bit too long.  I'm not saying I hated it for its length what I didn't like is the pacing of it.  It felt a bit too showy for me and that the actors and the director were trying just a bit too hard. In the story the couple have fallen into a rut, and both seem complicit in the marriages demise,...

After watching David Fincher's film " The Social Network " I have to say that along with Aaron Sorkin's screenplay the film really involves its audience in the characters circumstances. I did not really come to this film expecting anything, but I found myself very involved in the characters. The story takes place in flash back mostly, but the way Fincher does it you don't mind at all, and it does not draw you out of the movie by doing so. Mark Zuckerberg the creator of Facebook is drawn with a very brood brush. You wonder if any of the film is based on actual events, or whether it's taken from many different accounts. I would assume that the filmmakers painted the characters in brood strokes due the fact that the characters in the movie are based on actual people who are still alive and working. Being that we live in a very litigious society I would think that the filmmakers are walking a tightrope of sorts. Still this does not distract from the story. T...

His name is James Rolfe, and I've been watching some of his videos as the character "The Angry video game Nerd".  He reviews video games of past and present, and he has a large fan base.  Mr. Rolfe did this for fun way back when, and it mushroomed on him and he now does it for pay.  Rolfe wants to be a filmmaker, and has announced his intention to make a film based on his character "the angry video nerd guy".  I think that is awesome, and it shows how one man's cleaver invention has become something popular among fans.  His fans get him, and see his love for what he does.  That's why his fan base is so big and strong.  Theirs no bullshit here if you pardon my expletive, and the fans see that.  Rolfe is a very good filmmaker just by his videos alone.  They are well edited, shot well, and written.  I look forward to seeing some more of his videos.  I'm not a huge fan of video games myself, and I cannot imagine the time Mr. Rolfe...

After watching " Nice Guy Johnny " I thought to myself this is what niche film making is all about.  What niche you ask?  The niche of "twenty something angst" movies.   There seems to be a lot of movies that have come and gone, and I can only classify them in that category.  These movies are not to be confused with "teenage angst" movies.  Those two types of genres are completely different.  In the "teenage angst" movies it's all about authority, and sticking it to those who have authority over them.  Parents, teachers, and pretty much any grown up above 18.  "Twenty something angst" movies are about the many choices one has in life and picking that choice even though it may not be the grown up thing to do.  Usually "twenty something angst" films deal with careers, love, and or sex.  "Nice Guy Johnny" is about career, sex, and being happy doing what you love, and not letting society dictate to you on how to be h...

type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="200"> This is a video I did way back when I was in college.  It was a final project in my TV production class.  It was done live, and there is no editing.  I left everything the way it was.  I was pretty interested in the era of Vietnam.  Even wrote a script about a platoon of soldiers fighting in Vietnam, and their day to day adventures.  It wasn't very good and it sits somewhere gathering dust, but soon after " Platoon " came out, and the film was everywhere.  Oliver Stone's film was one of my favorites, and it was a great story.  This video is a small tribute to the men who fought in Vietnam.  I even met some and talked with them about the war and how they returned back to civilian life.  Those stories still reverberate in the old mind.  Especially now with the conflicts that we as a nation are in now...

This was done my first year I worked for the Lenepe Regional school district.  It was done quickly.  It's still very engaging to hear about these men's adventures.  A teacher was involved in getting the veterans.  We had a student crew, and I produced & directed it from our small TV studio in the school.  Figured it belongs up here as previous work, and its something that interests me.  I had some very interesting conversations with the veterans while taping the shows.

Early Work from Karl Bauer on Vimeo . I've been digitizing some old reels and projects.  After seeing this it's amazing what we did before NLE editing.  The two commercials from the cable association, and Illinois Power actually aired.  My movie knowledge helped in that one.  The Merrill Lynch one was what they call a "Steal-a-matic".  That's where you steal scenes or shots from movies, and other commercials to create a new one so the client can visualize what the agency has in mind.   The client didn't want it.  All I remember from that project was cutting the audio.  One of the guys in my department was a big help, and I really learned a thing or two from the tricks he'd do on the A/B roll edit system. The last was a college project we had to do.  It was my friends project, and we shot it with a very lovely model.  It was shot handheld, and that was a big mistake.  I think we shot two or three 400 feet rolls of film, ...

Hi I'm Carl from Jack Tew on Vimeo . Sometimes you come across things you want to share, and this is one of them.  while uploading some new material I came across this short film by Jack Tew.  Of course I was interested because of the name of the film and my own name.  I figured why not.  I have a pet peeve sometimes that Hollywood stereotypes characters called "Karl".  Either the character is a moron like Bill Murry's character in " Caddyshack ", which I really found funny, or "Carl" is bad guy like in the film " Ghost ", or the original " Die Hard ".  Either way the name seems to have no middle ground.  In this short film I liked the character "Carl".  I felt for him, and felt his loneliness, and desperation.  When the women he fancy's calls his name you just want to cheer.  It reminds me of the film " Marty " starring Ernest Borgnine .  A great film and one where Borgnine won an Oscar for. The...

Deadly Obsessions - Revised Trailer from Karl Bauer on Vimeo . It's been a long time coming, but needed to re-cut my films trailer.  So here it is.  Now I'm satisfied.  More editing to come of various works.  From weddings, to short films, and even some commercials, and old industrials.  Part of the on-line portfolio.

Part One hits you with a two by four.  Part two kicks you in the privates, and part three wallops you to the ground.  That's what the Red Ridding" trilogy does.  It is a film that creeps up on you and swallows you whole, and you just hope that you make it to the end. The "Red Riding" trilogy is based on four crime novels written by the British author David Peace .    The trilogy was adapted by Tony Grisoni , who has worked on several films by Terry Gilliam.  Each movie is directed by a different director giving each one a distinct different feeling.    The entire trilogy runs 305 minutes, and if you sit through it one after the other your a better person then I am.  The plots are intricate, and sometimes difficult to keep straight, yet it does keep one on his or her toes.  Characters come in and out of each episode, and we are thrust back in time and then forward in time at lightning speed.  To boil it all down to a them...

Accomplices is a movie that is deeply layered.  On the surface it's a who done it.   A murder mystery about a boy whose body is found flooding in the Seine.  On the other hand this movie is about so much more.  We meet out cast of characters first as two detectives investigating this young boys death, and then we meet the boy in flashback.  The two stories move forward until they meet at the end.  In between the story arcs we get to know the characters.  Our two investigators played by Gilbert Melki , as Hervé Cagan, and Emmanuelle Devos as Inspector Karine Mangin really bring a three dimensional feel to their characters.  Both these actors play so real that you really get to know them, and in a way care about them.  Both detectives are in their mid 40's and they have been on the job for some time.  There seems to be a bit of chemistry between the two, but the movie isn't about that, and doesn't dwell on that aspect of their relat...

Would you believe way back in the 60's jolly old England gave about 30 minutes of pop music a day due to the fact that the government saw rock and roll as immoral, and lewd.  The answer to this was pirate radio .  These were actual ships that transmitted rock and roll tunes to the English while they were in international waters.  It was legal, and the these stations had about 25 million listeners. That's the premise of " Pirate Radio ", and I have to say it's a rocking good time.  Written and directed by Richard Curtis  Pirate Radio is one of those films that transports you to a time where music hadn't been monopolized by corporations yet.  It was the time of the Beatles, The Stones, Iggy Pop, and the Kinks.  The British invasion was on, and what came out of that was some great music.  Pirate Radio is an ensemble piece, and it has a multitude of characters.  There's Philip Seymour Hoffman , as the Count.  Nick Frost   as Doctor ...

This is one of those films that escaped me last year.  After seeing it now on DVD I have to say I was very much entertained.   The plot and the circumstances are quite ridiculous, and yet the non-stop action in this film makes it very entertaining.  From the start we are given a full roller-coaster ride of thrills, and I have to say I had fun seeing this film.  Angelina Jolie  gives a very determined performance as Salt a supposedly double agent who runs from both the Russians and the Americans.    The action scenes are really well done, and there is very little CGI work which seems to be the norm in today's films.  That's refreshing, because some of the scenes we can actually see Jolie doing her own stunts.  I must say the lady has some tenacity to do that, and it's what makes the film so enjoyable to watch. Of course there were times where I said to myself while viewing the film that had that happened in real life...

After seeing Monsters I had to go back and see Cloverfield .  A friend said that I should, so I figured why not.  First off I did not see this when it first came out.  I saw footage of it and said that it would just be too jarring on the eyes, and apparently it was for some .  The jarring camera work is enough to put me off, but a funny thing happens when it goes to video.  The screen shrinks and all that shaking of the camera becomes a little bit less annoying.  I say a little less because I swear the filmmaker in me wanted to grab the camera and film it the right way with less shake.  But the filmmakers of Cloverfield knew what they were doing, and that little imperfection added to the reality of what we were seeing.  I mean how scary is a Godzilla movie?  Now if you put a camera in one of the hands of someone running from Godzilla I would think that would be a whole lot more intense.  Not a new idea in this reality based wor...

Just saw the movie Monsters , and was very impressed by the production and the story. This is Gareth Edwards first film of sorts. I say that because Mr. Edwards has done work some some documentaries ( Perfect Disaster , Attila the Hun ) and a movie called End Day .   Mr. Edwards knowledge of what he can do in the realm of special effects makes Monsters a movie a must see.  The story in a nut shell is this: "Six years after Earth has suffered an alien invasion a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border." The two leads in this movie make this movie what it is.  Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able  are actors that are of the highest caliber.  They are believable, and so convincing you think that you might just maybe be watching a documentary.  I'm sure the director did this on purpose.  I've read in articles that the director along with an associate pr...

The other night I saw " Edge of Darkness " starring Mel Gibson .  I only knew the story a little, and wasn't too sure how I would like it.  All I knew was that it was a film about revenge.  In Edge of Darkness Mel Gibson's characters daughter is killed right in front of him.  The entire picture is about uncovering why she was killed and by who.  detective Craven (Gibson) is a detective in the Boston police department, and after the brutal killing of his daughter he goes on a hunt for the men that killed his only daughter. So there you have it the story in a nutshell, but what is pleasantly surprising is the feel and the performances of the films characters which really make this film something interesting to watch.  All throughout the film I was thinking of several different types of noir type films , but the one that comes closest is " DOA ".  That's right the 1950 film which starred Edmond O'Brien .  It's a favorite of mine, but what "...

I was surprised to hear that Jill Clayburgh had passed away.  I had just the other day thought of the film "An Unmarried Women" by Paul Mazursky .    Clayburgh's credits are extensive so I won't list them all.  Check out her IMDB credits if you wish. I really don't know what to say here when it comes to a person who I've admired passes away.  It just feels that she had a lot more to give and was still very young.  We are at a loss for this, yet we can still see her performances in such films as; " Semi-Tough ", " An Unmarried Woman ", " Luna "," Starting Over ", " I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can ", and " Hanna K ." Ms Clayburgh died Friday at her home in Connecticut home at 66 after living two decades with leukemia.  She is survived by her husband (David Rabe), her children, and her brother James. Ms Clayburgh will be missed and always known for her extraordinaire work in both the screen and t...

So the other week I was invited to CCW conference.  That's Content & Communication World.  Since they provided me with free admission to the conference and seminars I felt I was obligated to go.  I went last year, and enjoyed it, and learned a lot.  This year was just as informative, yet I would have liked more vendors dealing with the production side of things, but all in all it was still very thought provoking.  I figured that since I couldn't write one BIG blog entry about the conference I figured I try and spread it out.  I went to ten seminars, and a couple of workshops in-between.  The conference was held in the Jacob Javits center in New York .  Both days I did a lot of walking around to seminars and through the exhibit floor which had over 200 companies.  I was most interested in DSLR Production, and they had several workshops and one seminar that covered that.  I'll get more into that on later entries here, but needless...

I had been wanting to see Tom Quinn's movie "The New Year Parade" for sometime now, and only now have I gotten around to it.  The movie for me didn't disappoint.  Mr. Quinn photographed his film over four years, and with a ton of footage he has managed to create a beautiful film about family, and tradition.  The film introduces us to the McMonogul family, whose members have been part of the South Philadelphia String Band for several generations.  Mike played by Andrew Conway finds out that his wife (Ann McDonald) has been unfaithful, and he moves out in a rage.  Mike is the captain of the string band, and he buries himself in his obsession, or is it his duty of getting ready for next years show.  Throughout the movie there are hints that Mikes wife had her reasons, yet the movie only hints at that.  It's that which I find unfortunate because Quinn does show the stereo-typical Irish-American family as it has been depicted in many movies for somet...