Respect Jon Favreau

Originally posted on Jon Favreau's Myspace blog. Much respect to Mr. Favreau. Always been a fan of his as an actor, now even more so as a director. He did a great job with Iron Man and with blog post shows that he is a smart director as well. I feel maybe Marvel Studios may be rushing things a bit, and Mr. Favreau is smart in saying something about it.

It’s been five weeks since the one and only phone call my reps have gotten from Marvel. I know their hands are full with the Hulk and I’m sure they will get into it shortly, as they tell me they intend to. I ran into the Marvel guys at the Hulk premiere and everyone sounded eager to get to work on IM2.

I am concerned, however, about the announced release date of April 2010. Neither Robert nor I were consulted about this and we are both concerned about how realistic the date is in light of the fact that we have no script, story or even writers hired yet. This genre of movie is best when it is done thoughtfully and with plenty of preparation. It might be better to follow the BB/DK, X/X2 three year release pattern than to scramble for a date. It is difficult because there are no Marvel 09 releases and they need product, but I also think we owe it to the fans to have a great version of IM2 and, at this point, we would have less time to make it than the first one.

I do think that sequels come out way to fast nowadays and I'm glad that directors like Chris Nolan, Bryan Singer, and Jon Favreau are bringing it back to how it was back in the day, when a sequel would take it's time to come out to ensure that it is indeed worth the time and money, when a sequel was worth the wait. Another facet in the discipline of creating a franchise. Too many studios make movie stoo quickly, and just look at the rash of crap that it's gotten us.

Bruce Campbell's Tips on Directing

In 2005 shortly after I had wrapped shooting on Monster Cops: The Midnight Special, Bruce Campbell came to Dallas as he was on his Man With The Screaming Brain tour. You bet your ass me and my wife went. We got his autograph at Barnes and Noble (he was promoting Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way) and then saw him present his movie at the Magnolia in Dallas. It was a blast. The featured pic is of my wife as we had just caught Bruce after the screening.

Earlier in the day, at his book signing at Barnes and Noble, as he was signing my Boomstick Edition of Army of Darkness, Bruce asked me what I did. Like the silly little fanboy I am I geekily said "I'm an independent filmmaker." He replied, "Well Patrick, get to work." And then he smiled as he handed me back my freshly autographed DVD. This would've been less comical if he hadn't immediately followed that up with "And don't touch the ink, cuz it doesn't dry very fast."

I've met Dennis Hopper, got autographs from all of The Kids In The Hall, except for Bruce McCulloch he wasn't there for some unknown reason, Bruce Campbell was the first one to make me feel a little star struck. The Evil Dead movies were a huge influence on me because it was the kind of movie I wanted to try to make and also because understanding how Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Robert Tapert started out, made me really relate to them as filmmakers. Bruce always felt like one of the guys that made it big and made it the way the rest of us could make it. And here I got to meet him.

I find myself perusing Bruce's Official Site and I find one of his blog posts interesting and quite useful for all us indies. I repost it for you here. It's entitled:

JOIN THE CLUB, BE A DIRECTOR

1. Communicate, communicate, communicate!

Actors must be aware of your intentions - even how you are photographing them (to some extent) so that they can serve you and the film better. The same goes with all of the department heads - they must know what you want, or else they cannot give it to you.

2. Don't get all wrapped up in Storyboards, cool shots, lenses, etc. any more than your story demands.

Don't forget things like blocking, characters, and MOST IMPORTANTLY - a working script that doesn't suck!

3. Getting 40 set-ups in a day isn't always the goal. It isn't a contest - 40 shots of what? And how rushed do you have to be to get that? How about 20, really good, planned out shots? making the film shouldn't be a zoo, unless your producers are idiots.

4. Don't neglect the proper shooting process. First thing in the morning (and at the beginning of each new scene to be shot), clear the set, work with the actors to establish/sign off on blocking, then show the scene to all concerned departments, then get the actors out of there and line up with stand-ins and light - then bring the actors back in and shoot. It sounds horribly basic, but so many people forget/never know the correct procedure.

5. Work your little, doughy ass off!

See the original blog post HERE

See his official site HERE

I eagerly await his current movie MY NAME IS BRUCE