» Chase!
June 18, 2013 | View Comments
Posted by: Lucky
As Peter and I start work on the second volume of Perfume and Primer Caps, we review story and script that was finished ages ago. This is both laborious and a little fun. The great thing about script springboarding is that you rediscover scenes that you wrote a while back under a new light. One of the most fun scenes weaved into the second volume is a fast paced car chase scene that has been both inspired by and pays homage to great film car chases.
This got me thinking, what have been the biggest vehicular pursuits that have inspired me. As I work down a list, I’m going to do what guys do best and quantify my inspirations. Here is:
The Top Ten Best Car Chase Scenes on Film
The rules are simple. There must be a visible pursuit between protagonist(s) and pursuers. Also, The “hero car” must start the pursuit as a vehicle with four wheels (not necessarily remain that way) to qualify as a car chase scene. Other than those criteria, anything goes.
10. The Matrix Reloaded: The Freeway is Suicide
Sure, the Matrix Reloaded was a terrible film. It was shallow, slow, dull and was full of so much CGI it made Buzz Lightyear cringe, but it had one of the best sets ever created to accommodate a car chase. After being unable to procure a filming permit for the Los Angeles freeway system (Maybe it had something to do with wanting to close down the entire freeway of one of the heaviest vehicle congested cities in America for three months), the Wychowskis had a one mile long replica of a portion of the LA freeway built in the middle of the Mohave Desert. This put a dent of roughly 38 million dollars into the already exploding budget of the sequel that couldn’t deliver. The film put back many dollars into the wallets of investors, but the set was considered so expensive that Warner Bros. Studios had no choice but to rent it out to competing studios for films to justify the cost, even to this day. This Wychowski monstrosity squeaks by because of the massive set used to film it, but can’t go any further because there’s more obvious CGI used in this single scene than most Pixar based straight to video mock-busters.
TAGS: car chase, movies
» Comic! Go Home!
June 11, 2013 | View Comments
Posted by: Peter
As of today, E3′s Day One has passed, which means that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have shown off what they have planned for the next generation of console gaming. So far, Lucky and I are pretty stoked for what’s to come. What have you seen from E3 this year that’s tickled your fancy?
TAGS: Comic, technology, video games
» Cineschlock!
June 4, 2013 | View Comments
Posted by: Lucky
Growing up in the 80s and 90s I had the pleasure of witnessing the VHS revolution. This, in some ways, have influenced this generation of storytellers. VHS wasn’t simply a way to bring Hollywood blockbusters home with us, it was also a cheaper and easier to distribute medium that allowed lesser known film makers to bring their craft to a wide audience. There may have been Grindhouses and Matinees, but the expense of film, the hassle of selling reels to conservative cinema owners and narrow audience returns kept reigns on independent film makers in theaters. With the explosion of VHS we saw a veritable avalanche of cheaply produced and low level marketed movies lining the walls of our local video shops. That amounted to a lot of crap. Movies like most of the Leprechaun series, Captain America (1990) and almost two thirds of the Troma library.
In this day and age of digital video and direct delivery, it’s seldom any of us sit back and watch any of that schlock. Not only is the audience more educated and informed, but we’re no longer 11 year olds lamenting over an empty New Release shelf as our parents yell at us to hurry up and pick something otherwise they were leaving the video store with or without a video in hand. Regardless, the concept of direct to video has changed. We now see guys like Bruce Willis in direct to video movies for goodness sake. The negative connotation of direct to video isn’t completely gone, but it doesn’t necessarily mean cinematic schlock. It just means the Internet is an easier way to get movies to people and companies like Netflix are willing to pay for them.
The spirit of direct to video can bee seen in the comics industry as well, just not nearly as much mafia involvement. Like those direct to video movies, we try hard to bring a great story to everyone in hopes of entertaining the audience. Of course, for some reason the ratio of good reads in independent comics seems to be much (much) higher than the amount of good direct to video independent movies.
Sometimes I miss those cruddy flicks and the lessons they brought us. They taught us that stories didn’t have to be complicated, that sometimes plot holes were okay as long as it kept the audience entertained and there are ways to bring your stories to fruition even it meant cutting corners. The most important lesson those cheap “Please Be Kind Rewind” labeled blocks of gold taught us was to never get involved with the mob.