Category: Hollywood

Less Is More: Creating a Vampire World

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Creativity, Existentialism, Hollywood, Literarian, Paranormal1 Comment

I just wrote a piece over on Vamped.org about my take on vampires. Here’s a bit:

One issue I’ve noticed in a lot of paranormal fiction is scale: getting too big too fast.

All the vampires have a werewolf bodyguard, legions of angels are waiting behind every storm cloud, and the sewers are bursting with more vampires than rats.

In these kinds of stories, it’s almost a given that the protagonist will catch the eye of someone too big for them to handle, setting up a final confrontation with world-changing ramifications. To quote Riley from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “I suddenly find myself needing to know the plural of apocalypse.”

I offer a different viewpoint: less is more.

Read the rest over at Vamped.org!

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MovieCrypt Now Updated Weekends!

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Cemetery, Critiquery, HollywoodLeave a comment

With so many other writing and creative projects going on, I’m setting aside time specifically on weekends for one or more updates for MovieCrypt to avoid it falling into neglect. My goal is at least one review, one Reaper Rants video, and one additional post of some type.

Sadly, neither myself nor Grim will be making it to many more of our favorite conventions this year, but next year will permit more time for that kind of thing.

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The Reaper Rants Return!

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Cosplaying, Creativity, HollywoodLeave a comment

Back a few years ago, I changed over the “horror host” for my movie review website, MovieCrypt.com, from the static “Crystal Lich” (a disembodied crystal skull with an attitude) to “Grim D. Reaper” (a gleeful Angel of Death that reviews movies when he’s not reaping souls). The response was wonderful, and even outside of his film critique venue, Grim’s popularity is obvious.

One of the big changes from the Lich to the Reaper was for making videos. These started out on the simplest of tools, Windows Movie Maker. I shot film, taught myself editing, learned how to improve the sound, and so forth. One thing that never made me happy was the limited space I had to create an actual lair for the character, something I’ve now fully realized at my home in Texas.

At-home tools for both capturing sound/video and editing it on a home computer have improved drastically, so I have put my new “Reaper Rants” video series into production and set up a YouTube channel for it. The micro-set was designed and lighted (thanks to my theater experience) to make it very easy to quickly shoot the baseline footage I need, and my custom-built editing suite (fortified with Sony Vegas editing software tools) enables me to assemble and polish videos on a whim.

Check out my YouTube channel and subscribe or follow MovieCrypt.com to catch all of the Reaper’s latest videos. With Halloween coming up very soon, who knows what mischief the Angel of Death is going to get into.

The Baltimore Poe House Plight (tell your friends!)

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Creativity, Hollywood, LiterarianLeave a comment

I recently had the opportunity to listen to author Orson Scott Card at the 2012 Teen Book Con in Houston, Texas. While the audience streamed into the auditorium before the keynote speech, Mr. Card intimated to the young adult crowd that Nathaniel Hawthorne was quite terrible as a American novelist (regardless of what teachers were teaching them). He further explained that the reason was due to a shortage of great writers in early America, and Americans put Hawthorne on a pedestal because they didn’t have anyone better.

Americans do, however, have Edgar Allan Poe.

According to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, Edgar was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19th, 1809, the son of two actors. He was briefly left in Baltimore, Maryland with his grandparents, then later taken in by John Allan following the untimely death of Poe’s mother and father in 1811 (this is the origin of Poe’s middle name ‘Allan’). After a childhood traveling to Scotland and London, England, it was 1820 when Edgar returned to America and was enrolled into the Richmond, Virginia school system. Young Edgar was discouraged from publishing his first book of poems while in school, although Poe was described as “a born poet” with “no love of mathematics.”

In 1831, Edgar was dismissed from West Point (for failing to follow orders and being genuinely disenchanted about receiving them) and eventually returned to Baltimore, moving in with his aunt in the Spring of 1833. By this time, Edgar had published three books of poems and numerous others in local periodicals but had received very little money in return. Poe was living poorly when he wrote what is generally accepted as his first tale of horror, an award-winning short story called “Berenice.”

Poe lived and wrote in other places (Philadelphia, for example), but it was in Baltimore that his known career began to emerge and, sadly, where he later died at the age of forty “after he was found in a tavern delirious and in distress, two years after the death of his young wife, Virginia, from tuberculosis.” (NY Times) The Baltimore Poe House was nearly destroyed seventy years ago when homes in the old neighborhood were being renovated, but it has since been declared a national landmark. While it is in no danger of being torn down, it may no longer remain open to the public since the Baltimore housing authority pulled their $85,000 annual operating budget; reserve funds may run out as early as this summer.

Why bring light to this now? The Raven, a film starring John Cusack as Poe himself, opens this weekend (and will likely be completely forgotten about by the time The Avengers comes out the following weekend). Could there be a more perfect time or event to call attention to the creator of the detective fiction genre, American gothic literature, and the namesake for the Edgar Allen Poe Awards of the Mystery Writers of America? I don’t think so.

What can you do about it? Glad you asked:

Any other ideas? Let’s hear ’em!

New Creation: All-Cat Version of ‘Return of the Jedi’

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Creativity, Hollywood, Internet, SatireLeave a comment

Anyone who’s been following me online knows I like to work on various projects, but with the popularity of both Star Wars spoofs and LOL Cats, I realized there’s something I could do to serve both niches. Starting immediately, I’m going to film (on a micro-budget, of course) and all-cat version of the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Even before you start thinking how insane I must be, check out this test shot of my cat, Cinders, in a make-up test for galactic gangster Jabba the Cat. As you can see, I’m not only completely serious, but this is gonna rawk. See you on the Dark Side, and check back here for more updates!

Putting the “Online” Back Into the Film Critic Society

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Acquaintances, Hollywood, InternetLeave a comment

I’ve been a member of the OFCS (the Online Film Critics Society) for a number of years. I applied early on in my career as a reviewer and was initially turned away. I took the advice I received only to later learn that I had been watched, my improvements noted, and an invitation extended.

My film website, MovieCrypt.com, was actually a blog long before anyone had coined the term, and in the tradition of the earlier ‘Net, my identity was safely anonymous as a “horror host.” One of the reasons that compelled me to join a critics society, however, was the opportunity to engage in conversation about what I love: film, making films, and filmmakers. There are plenty of reasons why someone might want to be a film critic, but I was most interested in the social aspect and the articulation of others regarding their passion for films. I chose the World Wide Web not only because of its access but because of its interaction; I wanted to find like-minded individuals.

Fifteen years later, the Internet is full of well-organized social networks that everyone is aware of, but as Twitter and Facebook have risen to the top of these networks, I’m finding myself disconnected from many of the OFCS members than I used to engage with quite often. While I understand (too well, in fact) the need to carve out your own online niche and maintain content in your own corners, our “society” has waned, in my humble opinion. I would like to encourage the membership to use the OFCS forums on Rotten Tomatoes or the private OFCS group on Facebook to see what their fellow members are watching, writing about, and thinking about films in general.

I miss a lot of you guys. Let’s be a film critics society online. Again.

Theft Vs. Piracy: It’s All About Context

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Conspiracies, Creativity, Existentialism, Hollywood, Internet, TechnologyLeave a comment

Full disclosure: I am NOT advocating theft or piracy, only contrasting the difference and what it really means to the content creators. There! Now I have a clear conscious. Okay, fine, maybe I am advocating, but only a little.

Ahem. Piracy is NOT theft.

There’s a difference. If someone steals you car, it’s gone. If someone steals a copy of your work, you still have your work, right? It’s a copy, and that copy can actually be a benefit (Wait… what?! But the government said…)

Locks keep honest people honest. If you drive past a couch on the street sitting next to some trash cans, it’s fair game. What if it was a car parked there instead of a couch? It’s all about context. A locked sliding glass door isn’t much of a real deterrent (seeing how you can get through it with a rock), but it does communicate a simple social truth: “This person isn’t sharing; it belongs to them.” Will that stop a real thief? Of course not, but it discourages the honest from considering theft.

“But I lost a sale?” Did you, now? What you should have said is “you lost a potential sale,” because that’s all it was. This is the reason marketing and advertising exists: to convince others that something you’re selling is worth buying. If someone steals something (reminder: that you didn’t lose) that they wouldn’t have bought to begin with, what did you actually lose? Nothing. What did you potentially gain? The possibility that, in the future, they may buy you stuff.

Neil Gaiman says, “You can’t look at (piracy) as a lost sale.” Artists are starting to get it (and no longer need to be content with starving); the potential benefits outweigh the negatives. In a video interview, Mr. Gaiman expressed these very notions, a reversal of his previous stance. “It’s people lending books. You can’t look at that as a lost sale. No one that wouldn’t have bought your book is not buying it… what you are doing is advertising.”

Storming the Gatekeepers. Here we come to the real issue: the gatekeepers. For decades, publishing houses and movie studios have had a lock on content creation AND distribution. If it’s helping Independent film makers and authors gain audiences and spur sales, what’s the problem? The loss of both control and exclusivity. These are huge businesses that are going under because they no longer have exclusive access to creation tools and distribution channels (or to push crap on you that you wouldn’t want to see or hear to begin with, but I digress). Computers and the Internet have changed everything, and now they have to compete with cat videos and digital books for eyeballs (and dollars). Some are changing with the times, but some are stubbornly holding out for a legislative miracle, and American consumers are getting wise to it (SOPA and PIPA, anyone?)

If it’s easy to own, it’s easier to buy. The music industry is supposed to be in shambles, but iTunes is making a fortune. When the last time you bought music at a store? How about a whole album? Major book stores are now going out of business (while small book sellers are making a comeback). The last bastion of big media, the film and television industry, sees the writing on the wall. What’s more is that they’ve done a far better job than music and literature at giving consumers what they want. Miss a movie at the theater? No problem. Buy the disc, download on demand, rent a pay-per-view, subscribe to a premium movie channel, or watch it with commercials on broadcast television. Isn’t that enough?

Prosecuting people who download free songs is like putting drug addicts in jail. This doesn’t make sense, folks. It feels like what it is, consumer bullying. Suing someone for millions of dollars for downloading 24 songs would be hilarious if it wasn’t happening (what? Do they need the money?) It’s all about context. People sharing isn’t piracy or theft; it’s advertising, free marketing from your established fans to new ones and potential sales. Even giving digital content away for a limited time can accomplish this, because everyone knows what “for a limited time only” means.

The only ones profiting from piracy prosecution are lawyers, the larval stage of politicians. Need I say more?

Don’t steal. Share. It’s all about context.

Create Awesome Online Content for Fun and.. Wait, What?

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Conspiracies, Creativity, Hollywood, Internet5 Comments

It’s come to my attention that many online outlets are feeling their share (and maybe more) of the financial crisis. Before getting into all of that, let’s take an unscientific yet completely random poll: how many people out there enjoy web content for free? Music, videos, ebooks, reviews, articles, news, how-to blogs, and whatever else? The follow-up question is, would you watch or participate if you could only do so by paying to get it?

With the exception of The Guild, Ask a Ninja, or perhaps videos made by Key of Awesome, how many of you think the makers of that content make money? Enough to live on? If you go to a night club to see a local band, a cover charge is expected, or at least a two-drink minimum. Web content, however, is so plentiful that people expect it to be free; if they have to pay, they can always go someplace else. The counterpoint to this, however, is “What is being sold?” If the content is being created to gain eyeballs, how does that translate in making money for time spent and the creativity that went into it? We’re not even talking about the material costs of props, photography or video equipment, or travel expense; the people who create these things have experience and give their time, so shouldn’t that be worth something?

Continue reading “Create Awesome Online Content for Fun and.. Wait, What?” →

Trilogies and Bay-bashing

On By Kevin A. RansonIn HollywoodLeave a comment

The first Transformers movie was passable. The second was a mess. I do not have high hopes for the third except in the area of state-of-the-art special effects. As always, I hope I’m wrong, but there it is.

Now, before anyone nails my foot to the floor for generalized Bay-bashing, I’d like to go on record that I actually defend many of his films such as Bad Boys II, Armageddon, and The Rock. Even The Island wasn’t horrible, but I think Jerry Bruckheimer kept Michael Bay in check far better than Steven Spielberg has. Budget limitations and being forced to use smaller brushstrokes in filmmaking appear to, in my opinion, yield a far better result for a final product than having an unlimited budget and a infinite blank canvas (mostly).

Why Did You Become a Movie Critic?

On By Kevin A. RansonIn Creativity, Existentialism, HollywoodLeave a comment

I was recently interviewed by a film student at blah, blah, blah about being a film ciritic. Here were the questions and my answers for those so inclined to partake.

Why did you become a movie critic? I like to watch a lot of movies. When people found this out, they would ask for my opinion. After a while it seemed necessary to form a specific opinion since I kept getting asked about the same films over and over, so posting them online as my first web page seemed like a no-brainer.

Do you enjoy being a movie critic? What are the best things about the job? I haven’t lost my love of movies, but being more directly involved as a critic, I’ve learned the difference between the artistic and business sides of movie making. Helping others to find the kind of films they want to spend their money on is great, but getting advanced copies of new and upcoming films is wonderful perk, especially around awards time.

List some of your favorite movies from 2011 (so far). I thought that “The Green Hornet” was surprisingly effective as a buddy film masquerading as a super film, fun and full of action. “The Rite” was also a better film than I would have expected, especially since Sir Anthony Hopkins really isn’t the main character.

Continue reading “Why Did You Become a Movie Critic?” →