KGB Productions

Always looking to see if there's a better way to distribute ones film I came across CreateSpace . Here you send them a DVD of your film, and upload your cover art, and DVD disk art and they take care of the rest. Now this sounds promising and they have an agreement with Amazon too, so that's an incentive right there, but read the fine print before you sign. CreateSpace has a fixed fee of $4.95 per unit. Then they take 15% of your listed fee. So let's say you're selling a DVD for $14.99. They take $7.19, and you get $7.80. Not bad I guess considering their printing out your movie and doing the shipping. But now if someone buys your movie from the Amazon link Amazon Inc. takes 45% of the list price of your DVD, and there is still the $4.95 fixed price. After the fees you get $3.30 per disk. Talk about the big guy socking it to the little guy. Can someone tell me what's wrong with this picture. I know Amazon is a BIG company, and I know they do lots of bu...

First let me get out of the way that I happen to be an ABBA fan. Okay I said it. I know not many people say that out loud, but for this review I have to say it and be done with it. For those not in the know ABBA was a Swedish band that had many hits during the 70's and early 80's. ABBA gained immense international popularity employing catchy song hooks , simple lyrics , and a Wall of Sound achieved by overdubbing the female singers' voices in multiple harmonies. Now that I've gotten that out of the way I have to say that the film Mamma Mia is a film that uses ABBA's songs to tell the story of a young girl who invites three men to her wedding in the hopes in finding out which one is her father. Throughout the film there is singing and dancing as mother ( Meryl Streep ), and daughter ( Amanda Seyfried ) confront each others history. Some of the songs of ABBA have been rewritten to fit the story. Originally a Broadway play and a successful one at that the film follow...

I sometimes don't know what to write here. Another review, talk about an interesting article I came about on film making, or just try and toot my own horn. They say it's about subscribers, and I believe that, but I didn't start this blog to try and out do other film sites. I just wanted to be part of the discussion about film making, and more importantly indie film making. A lot has changed over the years in film making and in distribution. The Internet is a big factor now, and it can make ordinary folk like myself get heard. So that's a cool thing to do. So what have I been up to? We;; this time of year it's about the holidays for me. I try and re-connect with old friends, and try to share the spirit of the holiday. Of course my mind is never far from film making. I've been writing sometimes, but the projects get bigger, and then the frustration kicks in because for me it's hard to come up with money to finance the addiction. In these lean times m...

NPR had yesterday an interview with Lawrence Lessing . In his new book Remix , law professor Lawrence Lessig explores the changing landscape of intellectual property in the digital age. In the interview Lessing discusses the new forms of copyright such as the creative commons. I then came across the video " Good Copy, Bad Copy ". The video discusses the new digital age and how current copyright law is being challenged. Though the film discusses the music business it does have a section on film copyright and it has an interview with the chairman & CEO of the MPAA Dan Glickman. In the film they discuss Nigeria's booming film industry all without the help of copyright. It's an interesting look at how and where the future of copyright is heading. My only problem is I'd rather have the individual protected as a copyright holder rather then the corporations who seem to want audiences to have a limited access to their catalogues, or to charge them for it. I'm no...

I caught "The Bucket List" on HBO the other night, and sort of enjoyed it. It was a bit schmaltzy though, and predictable, but worth seeing on cable. Both Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson play men who are given not long to live. Nicholson's character convinces Freeman's character to do the things that they haven't done before their time is up. Throughout the picture the two characters become closer and we are privy to certain secrets or regrets that they have had. i enjoyed the performances of Freeman and Nicholson, but the script seemed forced, and overly dramatic. Rob Reiner directs the film, and he does a good job at making us feel empathy for the characters, but again the schmaltz factor is hard to overcome. I like what the movie had to say, and its message, but feel that the film could have done this in a less heavy handed way. I can see where this movie could have gone into absurdity, but Reiner doesn't let the movie go in that direction. of course it...

Spike Lee is a filmmaker who is a strong filmmaker. I've always thought his films are inventive, a bit experimental, and of course provocative. He's done so many films since " She's Gott'a Have it . In each film you can see how far Lee has come, and how good a filmmaker he's become. When I feel uninspired I go back to films that impress me, and have inspired me. She's Gott'a have it was Spike's first film, and when it premiered it made waves. A small little film about a women (Noela) and her relationship with three men. Lee even plays one of the men in the film. The film was shot on a shoe-string, and the budget is said to be about $250,000 dollars. For a first feature it has some interesting performances in it, but you can see that the film is a bit crude due to it's lack of resources, but what resources Lee has he uses and he uses them effectively. Lee says in interviews that it was only during "Do the right thing" that he became co...

According to the numbers the movie "Delgo" has the worst wide release opening ever. According to box office the movie earned a measly $511,920 this weekend on 2,160 screens, not even breaking the top ten. "Delgo" is not the only major wide release bomb of the year. Three of the ten worst openings for films in over 2000 locations came out this year. The raunchy teen sex comedy "College" and the thriller "Deception," starring Hugh Jackson and Ewan MacGregor, both tanked, garnering the sixth and ninth worst openings ever respectively. What can we take from all this? That no matter how big you open a film and it isn't from a major studio that's backing it up in its marketing your doomed to failure. Making a movie is half the battle the other half is getting it noticed and out to screens. The story is interesting on how and who was responsible for the film. Apparently Marc Adler decided he wanted to direct and produce a $40 million computer an...

So I was in a mood to see a good sci-fi film, and I decided to see "The Day the Earth Stood Still" starring Keanu Reeves, and Jennifer Connelly. I am a fan of the 1951 film. Unfortunately after seeing the film I can't say that I'm a big fan of this one. Don't get me wrong I like the performances, and I even like what the writers did by updating it to to days subject matters. But with all the build up the film let's you down in the end. I actually thought there should be more. Sure the world has stopped, but why. The film explains a lot of the motivations of Reeves character, but in the end I don't buy it. After being rebuked by the U.S. government Reeves character goes on a journey. In this journey he finds out that the human race is worth saving. There's an appearance of the character actor James Hong who I think is NEVER used well enough. In it Hong plays Mr. Wu another alien agent who had come to the earth over 70 years ago. I was actually more inte...

There is a really interesting rant, or I should say opinion over at Mike Curtis's Blog HD for Indie . In it he discusses the demise of independent film making as a business model. Actually when was ever "indie" film making a viable business model. Of course you can point to the success in the field and say look at so and sos company and how it evolved, but that was then and this is now. Curtis says that with every success there are several failures, and it's this point that I've been hammering away. You could put even me in that category, but I'd like to think of myself as a success just because I got a movie made. Finding an audience is a problem. Not that there isn't an audience, but that the competition for that audience is intense. How can the little guy compete with films budgeted at $50 million and marketed for $35 million. Also there is a lot of FREE content out there now, so why pay. At what threshold can you make a product and still make a profi...

Being involved in education, and having a love of film I get asked about film schools a lot. Which one to go to, which is the best, how to I apply, and so on. First let me say that I strongly urge young men & women to seek out educational opportunities, and if they have a chance they should pursue what interests them. That being said is it smart to go to a school and major in film production or mass communications when the economy is in a free fall. I mean who has the money to go into a career where competition is tenacious, and employment is questionable? If I had known what I know now would I have gone to the school I went? For the record I went to Brooklyn College which is a city university in New York. My major was film production, and I had a minor in TV production. The answer to that question would be a resounding "yes". I would have done some things different, but I still would have gone. After all my love for film permeated my youth, and it was an extension of m...

I just heard that Forrest J. Ackerman had passed away yesterday. Ackerman was a man who touched a lot of lives, and if you happen to be a fan of horror and sci-fi movies you know he was the publisher of "Famous Monsters". I remember hiding several issues from my dad since he thought they were garbage, but a lot of adults didn't get it. To a boy of 8 or 9 those magazines were a peek into the world of the fantastic. Ackerman was 91, and even at his advanced age he commanded a lot of respect and was still active. He will be missed.

Okay so I had to write this while still being inspired. After getting my latest Filmmaker magazine I read an article about a movie called " The Road ". It is being directed by John Hillcoat , and it is from a novel written by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy is the author of the "No Country for Old Men", so this is not a story from an unknown author. The story is a post-apocalyptic story about a man and his son traveling across a burnt out and desolate United States. It is not an easy read, and from what the article author explains in Filmmaker it is NOT an easy film to watch. The movie is being distributed by Dimension Films, and looks to be released in early 2009. The movie was filmed mostly in Pennsylvania, and was chosen for its tax breaks and its abundance of locations that looked post-apocalyptic such as coalfields, dunes, and run-down parts of Pittsburgh. The abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike was used for much of production. The director also said of using Pittsburgh ...

I had a chance to watch the movie " Dan in Real Life " starring Steve Carell and directed by Peter Hedges . I watched this movie because my late grandmother loved it so much. She was a big movie fan, and loved comedies and family dramas, so I thought I would watch the first ten minutes of the film and see how I liked it, and I soon forgot about the ten minute rule, and watched it straight through. The film is filled with sentimentality. "Dan in Real Life" is about a widower (Carell) who is raising three girls by himself. Dan Burns (Carell) and his daughters are heading up to a family get together that they have every year. While there he meets a women ( Juliette Binoche ) in a book store while out getting a paper. They talk and share a cup of coffee, and fall for each other. But here's where the conflict happens. After Binnoche's character leaves and Dan heads back to the family he meets her again only this time as his brothers girlfriend. So hence begins a...

So I finally sat down and watched George A. Romero's " Diary of the Dead ". I am a fan of Romero's, and I do like his work, but Diary is a film I was very much disappointed with. The premise is interesting. Have a bunch of students videotape there experiences as the Dead start coming back. Make them film students doing a horror film, and add your own irony to the film within the film. Throughout the film we the audience are subjected to the "narrator". You know the one who tells us what is happening and who tells us of her or his plight. In this case the narrator is Debra Moynihan played by Michelle Morgan. The narration seemed to get in the way for me. I felt detached and I didn't care at all about our protagonists. Also the narration is annoying at times. I can hear Romero hammering away at a point about civilization and whether we need saving or not. For freaking sake please! don't lecture me. I can figure this out myself. Ultimately the narration...

Ever since Daniel Craig has become the new Bond I've had a bit of excitement when another 007 picture is released. Now don't get me wrong I've been a Bond fan since seeing Dr. No way back when. So it's a little hard for me not to like a Bond film though there are some that I don't like, but Craig's introduction as Bond in "Casino Royal" was a breath of fresh air into a franchise that seemed to have run out of steam. Ian Fleming's Bond is a man who does what he has to do and it may not be morally right, but he does it. For Queen and country is Bond's operatis mondi, and he does it so well. The Bond films have or should I say had gone away from that and focused on the technology, and the fantastic villains that Bond was up against. Never did we get a look into Bond's heart and what makes him tick as we did in the last two Bond films, and that can be attributed to it's writing and Craig's acting. In " Quantum of Solace " Bond...

2008 - Christmas On Mars - Trailer from George Hussein Salisbury on Vimeo . Came across this film and thought it looked cool. It's playing till the end of the year if not the end of time: New York City at: The KGB Complex's Kraine Theater . The plot you say what is it? It's Christmastime, and the colonization of Mars is underway. However, when an oxygen generator and a gravity control pod malfunction, Major Syrtis (the Lips' Steven Drozd) and his team (including the Lips' Michael Ivins) fear the worst. Syrtis also hallucinates about the birth of a baby, and many other strange things. Meanwhile, a compassionate alien superbeing (Coyne) arrives, inspiring and helping the isolated astronauts. You got that? Now whose it from? Psychedelic rock band the Flaming Lips present Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips, a glorious science fiction film that marks the directorial debut of the Lips' visionary frontman Wayne Coyne. Se...

I first heard of this film from the podcast The Biz . It's an interesting way to market a film and something I think will be the norm in the not so distant future. I've always said how do you rise above the noise, and this is one example. The guys at Lionsgate are pretty shrewed in their attempt to market a film that has a core audience, yet the film needs to break out from that core and into some of the mainstream. The film is a Gothic opera, and from the clips, and the trailer it looks quite interesting. The soundtrack has been a top seller at Amazon, so there is money in them there hills. Being that it's Halloween I would think that this would be the opportune time to release this film, but the films release date is November 7th at selected theaters. Why on November 7th rather then October 31st is any body's guess. The one thing I don't like is that I can't put links to the trailer. I would think viral marketing would be a GOOD thing for this movie. After all...

There is no one better then Matt Zoller Seitz in talking about film and film analysis. The above is proof of that. I'm always astounded to find articulate men and women who really love what they do. Mr Seitz seems to be one of those people. I could link the various articles and films he's done and examined, but there are too many. So just google his name and follow the above analysis to his Youtube account, and find out for yourself how good Mr. Seitz is. Film has always meant more to me then an entertainment vehicle. Mr. Seitz shows us that film can be more then entertainment, but art in itself.

From the LA Times obit section by Jocelyn Y. Stewart : Rudy Ray Moore, the self-proclaimed "Godfather of Rap" who influenced generations of rappers and comedians with his rhyming style, braggadocio and profanity-laced routines, has died. He was 81. When antiheroes and pimp suits ruledMoore, whose low-budget films were panned by critics in the 1970s but became cult classics decades later, died Sunday night in Toledo, Ohio, of complications from diabetes, his brother Gerald told the Associated Press. Though he was little known to mainstream audiences, Moore had a significant effect on comedians and hip-hop artists. "People think of black comedy and think of Eddie Murphy," rap artist Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew told the Miami Herald in 1997. "They don't realize [Moore] was the first, the biggest underground comedian of them all. I listened to him and patterned myself after him." And in the liner notes to the 2006 release of the soundtrack to Moore'...

  Okay so it's been awhile, and still I haven't really done anything film related for myself or my company. In fact I've been toying with closing the company and just giving up, but part of me is screaming no, and so I've decided not to. At least not right now. So much of the filmmaking landscape has changed since I was in school. Now anyone can make a video, and post it. There is so much out there that it's hard to cut through the clutter, and that's what it ALL is clutter. Movies to me or just films in general exist to tell a story. What is out there a lot is just little vignettes of people jumping up and down saying "notice me please". It's always been about the work for me, and lately I can't do it justice. My little funny video gets a ho-hum, and a smile, but it was just to prove a point. The point being that making media is easier now more then ever. It's being relevant that is much more difficult. Aren't movies suppose to enter...

The Last Barbeque from Karl Bauer on Vimeo . Sorry for not being a bit more updated. I was sidelined by illness. This is a little short I did to help teach my boys about movie making. I figured we all enjoy it, and that maybe someday they would like to do something. It was just an intro. My little one was the ham, but my oldest was a bit more aprehensive. Filmmaking started to take hold when I was around 8 years old. It's then that I inherited a simple Super-8 camera from my grandmother who passed away suddenly. In my teens it, meaning filmmaking was a BIG force in my development. I just want to rekindle the LOVE for the medium again. I hope to do more shorts of the same, and see what develops. I'm not entirely out, but the bug is biting, and I have to do something before I explode and the Internet seems like a good place to show it. I hope you enjoy.

So I headed down to the local theater and figured why not. I had heard that the film wasn't any good, and though the film is a bit uneven, and nonsensical I kind of enjoyed it. It isn't a great piece of cinema but it has its moments. Vin Diesel does his best, and you can see he isn't challenged too much by the material. I heard the director Mathieu Kassovitz is even talking bad about this film . He explains about studio interference & studio lawyers getting in the way. Truthfully I didn't mind it. The movies is a sci-fi action adventure. The story is somewhat interesting, and what I really liked about the film was the atmosphere. Kassovitz paints a bleak future, and somewhat mirroring the future in a film called "Children of Men". I'm sure there are some interesting outtakes that the studio cut, and maybe we'll see those in the DVD release of the film, but as for now the film doesn't suffer too much from it. The film is about a mercenary played...

I know, I know surely I can't be a fan of Swingtown. I mean it's such a soap opera, but hold on wait one second. I think it has merits. Sure its all about three couples in the summer of 1976, but the characters are getting better written as the show evolves. At first you can say yeah theres the marriage which seems to be imploding slowly, and then there is the couple who have a more modern way of looking at marriage, but as the series progressed this summer some of those stereotypes began to melt away. Here's the premise in a nut shell: "The early episodes take place in the summer of 1976, when the Miller family relocates to a more affluent neighborhood in North Shore, a suburban area north of Chicago. Bruce Miller (Jack Davenport) is a futures trader working his way up in the business, while his wife, Susan (Molly Parker), is a housewife. Tom and Trina Decker (Grant Show and Lana Parrilla) are the Millers' new neighbors. Tom, an airline pilot, met Trina while she ...

I've been reading the book What ever happened to Orson Welles? It's written by Joseph McBride, and he has a history with Welles as did Peter Bogdanovich who eventually wrote several books about Welles and his films. What struck me about this book is that it is about Welles last 25 years. It's about what he was doing, and his tenacity for creating uncompromising films. Some of it is sad, while other parts are very revealing and quite inspiring. I came across this clip on YouTube and was pretty excited to see it since in the book McBride discusses the making of "The Other side of the Wind". It is even listed in Filmmaker magazine in the category of the Top 10 Greatest Movies That Were Never Finished. I'm a big fan of Welles' earlier works. Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, and A Touch of Evil are all classics in my book, so I was very interested in hearing about his later years. It seems as though Welles struggled throughout his later years, yet he wa...

So today was the day I went to see "The Dark Knight", and though I would love to say that I loved it I can't. I'm not saying that I dis-liked it too. So what Karl, which is it? Either you like something or you don't. No in-between. That's not what reviews do. So maybe I won't call this a review. An observation, and leave it at that. First off Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is really good, and I love the dynamic between Batman & the Joker. Both are two sides of the coin, and one can never be without the other. Christian Bale as Batman works for me. Bale gives Batman depth, and underneath Batman's exterior lies rage. I think when Bale dons the costume he is sort of channeling Dirty Harry. I think it's a bit over played. The snarling and the teeth seem a bit over the top. Ledger gives just the right amount of insanity that the Joker is and should be. Okay, okay so what's not to like about the movie? Well it seems a bit over-produc...

I've been writing a bit more then usual in the hopes that something catches fire. I downloaded the screenwriting program Celtx and am trying it out. It's a free program, and I wanted to see how the program preforms. I usual write my screenplays in Final draft, but wanted something new. I'm actually re-writing an old script while getting a feel for the Celtx program. So far so good, but I'm still getting used to the script formatting shortcuts. There's a lot I want to do over the Summer, and as usual the day job takes a lot out of me, so after all is said and done there seems to be never enough time for the things I love. Over at John Oak Daltons blog he has some interesting insights about microcinema, and grass roots filmmaking. If you get a chance take a look over there and read what he has to say. The one thing I love about the Internet is that there are people out there who are going through the same thing you're going through. Their interests and desires ar...

It took me awhile to finally see this movie. The movie is based on an Upton Sinclair's novel entitled "Oil". The film is a good representation of how those early years of oil prospecting were. Better still is Daniel Day-Lewis' performance of Daniel Plainview an oil speculator who is driven to obsession about the black crude stuff. The cinematography in the film is barren and beautiful. One understands the plight that these men had and how alone they must have felt in their obsession. The landscape was unforgiving, and people did die. Fortunes were made, and better men were broken by their failures as well as their success. If you like character studies you'll enjoy "There will be Blood". Lewis' performance is stellar, and I believe he his performance is academy award worthy, but does the film stand up as a whole? That's the question I posed, and for me it didn't. Take away the performance and all you have is some really stark visuals. I also ...

I read a lot about production, and sometimes I come across some really good interviews with either a filmmaker or cinematographer or editor. In a recent interview in the magazine "Student Filmmakers" I came across an interview with Richard Crudo ASC. He is a director of photography and more recently a director of a film entitled " Last Night ". The interview is in the November 2007 edition, so if you want to read it you can go on over to Student filmmakers website and see how to acquire it. The part I thought of interest is where Crudo is asked about his opinion about digital technology today and his opinion on HD cameras. "Clearly digital technology is the future of what we do. There's no question about that. Unfortunately, the future isn't here yet. And the industry has been sold an enormous bill of goods with regard to what this technology's current capable of doing..." Crudo goes on say " Primarily digital needs to improve in these are...