sometime Monday I became a mentor?

A friend of mine started asking for film advice. So, now I'm being given credit as a mentor. I find it interesting that someone might take my advice or even listen to what I might have to say about shooting, editing, lighting, directing, acting, etc... I don't know if I've even had the "experience" to be considered someone of which to gain useful information. I don't know... it's just funny, I can' t even get my girlfriend to listen to me. Well, if I'm asked for advice I'll give it... Hopefully it will sound like I know what I'm talking about. I do shoot tape and edit for somewhere around eight hours a day, five to six days a week (and that's just the paycheck... that's not even the 'film hobby'). That might be able to transfer as "experience."
I did go see Mr. and Mrs. Smith last night. I needed a fun little escape. The movie served it's purpose... it was entertaining... laughable... pretty to look at. It just reminds me that Doug Liman usually needs someone to come in and save the film. I've read a couple of articles about his last few films. Apparently, Mr. Liman is a terror on set and one of those people that don't convey their vision to others well. I've seen directors that don't really express the things they want or envision correctly. Sometimes they're so overpowering that they're allowed to run free with all of this film, equipment, actors, time, and burn away days of shoots and re-shoots. However, when you throw the factor of $90 million dollars into a film project, someone is going to take notice that things aren't working they way that they're supposed to... and something is going to have to be done to pull the choke chain back on this little doggie. It's apparent in Mr. and Mrs. Smith that someone had to come in and save the film.
Towards the end of the movie there is a big shoot out in a Home Depot-like department store. At the big 'turn and burn' finale of bullets zinging and stylish 'gun-fu,' I noticed something. The action sequences were the same action run through as the previous 'turn and shoot.' They didn't shoot enough footage to keep the action sequence different (or that interesting for that matter). With a scenario of 2 vs. Infinite baddies, you would think that Mr. and Mrs. Smith might have been shot more than twice. Take a moment and think about the final shoot out in the film The Way of the Gun. Everyone was bloody, shot up, and barely able to move. It was realistic (to a sense)... or at the least, more believable than the finale of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. You see, once Mr. and Mrs. Smith were through shooting up all of the baddies... the scene fades to black...
This is a prime example of a shoot not being finished... or an editor desperately struggling to make chicken cordon bleu out of chicken shit. Don't get me wrong, it was an entertaining film... Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are extremely charming on screen. Doug Liman should have to go through the ringer of directing an entire television series to prove that he can still cut the mustard. Television is much less forgiving of a medium. If people think the show sucks... they don't watch it. Most of all, films shouldn't have all of these millions of dollars attached to a project so that people can just throw money at a problem. People just don't make good movies when the money people get deeply involved in the process. Big budgets have a tendency to ruin films. I guess I'll never be hired to work on one of those. Hollywood is extremely screwed up right now anyway... the age of digital cinema is upon us, think about it.
In the 50's we had the film noir movement.
In the 60's was all of the French Neu-Wave Style.
In the 70's we had the birth of Pulp violence.
In the 80's the family film took hold.
In the 90's the Independent Film movement broke through the dirt.
In the 00's we will deal with the rise of digital film.
None of the rules apply anymore. We may actually see the film medium die (or at the least, become a minority). The market place will be flooded. People rarely go to the theaters anymore. They're all buying DVDs and downloading movies from the internet. The digital age makes the accessibility extremely easy. Hell, there are 13 year-old kids out there that can hack into the Microsoft mainframe, much less steal an entire catalog of MGMs films. We're headed for a cliff, my friends... we either jump or go back home to eat Ramen Noodles in a dark corner of the house... Jump. Learn how to fly on the way down.

-B