• From: Buffalo, NY
  • Registered: 2010-01-08
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Topic: Bad movie ideas that were worth a try

I was listening to a new iRiff for the first Resident Evil movie (a rather good one by Riff a Brack, worth a buy), and the jokes comparing it to the games reminded me of a Japanese film called "St. Johns Wort". No, I'm not sure about the title either. Two game developers go to a house to map it for use in an upcoming survival horror game, and wacky low budget things happen. What makes it stand out (although it doesn't make it good) is once inside the house it is filmed as if it was an early Resident Evil style game. The cameras are fixed at weird angles, and never follows the action but instead once the action leaves view we pick it up on another camera. It's the kind of thing were your first thought is, "Hey, that's a cool idea!" Your second, after a half hour or so, is "well, I'm glad they did it so everybody knows not to do it again."

Any other movies fall in that category, even if someone in deed didn't learn the right lesson from it?

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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  • From: Kent, England
  • Registered: 2010-02-09
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Re: Bad movie ideas that were worth a try

So they spent about an hour maybe an hour and a half (second and third acts) doing this technique? I think that's the problem right there, they overused it. It's a style that sounds interesting on paper, but then you realise that it goes against almost every rule of filmmaking (especially editing). I imagine you were constantly aware of the camera?

I think first person sequences in films are a bad idea, those where you actually see the limbs of the person, but fortunately they're only ever used at a minimum (Doom just has a few minutes, I think Gamer has some as well).

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan

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  • From: Buffalo, NY
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Re: Bad movie ideas that were worth a try

redxavier wrote:

So they spent about an hour maybe an hour and a half (second and third acts) doing this technique? I think that's the problem right there, they overused it. It's a style that sounds interesting on paper, but then you realise that it goes against almost every rule of filmmaking (especially editing). I imagine you were constantly aware of the camera?

Yup. They even had a computer map of the house that came up when they moved from room to room. The main problem is the same one you have when playing the game: you can't SEE anything. It's an attempt to create tension by keeping things just off camera. There's a reason it was abandoned in games for the most part (it's a bitch to fight a zombie who's in front of you but can't be seen because of the camera angle).

I think first person sequences in films are a bad idea, those where you actually see the limbs of the person, but fortunately they're only ever used at a minimum (Doom just has a few minutes, I think Gamer has some as well).

Usually you get that in combination with the character having a video camera on them somewhere (like in Aliens). Again it's a way to keep the audience in the dark where as if they could see the main character they'd know what was coming.

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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  • From: Indiana, USA
  • Registered: 2009-11-23
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Re: Bad movie ideas that were worth a try

Plan Nine from Outer Space. Aliens try to take over Earth by raising the dead, and a ragged band of humans discover the secret and try to stop the aliens? Sign me up.

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Zarban's Website

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  • Trey
  • Trey
  • A Grizzled Old Dick With Stories To Tell
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Re: Bad movie ideas that were worth a try

I thought it was a good thing that somebody attempted a shot-for-shot remake of a classic (Psycho) and it tanked.  Hopefully nobody will try that again for a very long time.

Trey's Website

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  • From: Indiana, USA
  • Registered: 2009-11-23
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Re: Bad movie ideas that were worth a try

Oh, man, good one.

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Zarban's Website

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  • From: Buffalo, NY
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Re: Bad movie ideas that were worth a try

Agreed. If a different director uses the script and story boards of a classic film, what's the result? Great question! And one we now know the answer to and can more on smile

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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  • From: Seattle, WA
  • Registered: 2009-11-19
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Re: Bad movie ideas that were worth a try

Trey wrote:

I thought it was a good thing that somebody attempted a shot-for-shot remake of a classic (Psycho) and it tanked.  Hopefully nobody will try that again for a very long time.

Wizard of Oz being remade from original script

Posted from my iPad
http://trek.fm

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  • From: Buffalo, NY
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Re: Bad movie ideas that were worth a try

How original? I think at first they planned on basically filming the stage musical Baum wrote, which had lots of dancing girls and little in common with the books. THAT I wouldn't mind seeing smile

I write stories! With words!
http://www.asstr.org/~Invid_Fan/

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  • Registered: 2010-05-27
  • Posts: 444

Re: Bad movie ideas that were worth a try

There's an 1980 thing called Agency (not the fine film directed by Trey) with Lee Majors and Robert Mitchum. Filmed in Montreal pretending to be New York. Majors is great in it and makes me wish he did more movies back then. One of my favorite so-bad-it's-good movies.

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