Abel and Cain by Sean Mannion » Updates — Kickstarter

Posted 2 updates. One general for the whole world and one with something fun for the project backers. Just a month of this to go!

Abel and Cain by Sean Mannion — Kickstarter

Like horror? Like weird? Like indie filmmaking? Yeah, you do. This Friday, the 13th, I’m doing a 24 hour horror movie tweetathon (and Tumblr but tumblrathon doesn’t have quite the same ring to it) to raise money for my current project: Abel and Cain. Join me. It’s going to be fun.

Your Favorite Movie Sucks: Star Wars

dangatorium:

Star-Wars-Sucks

I wrote a column for Dangatorium.com it is, hopefully, the first of many where I attack people’s favorite movies. It’s a humor site so do approach my questionable writing skills with that in mind. To be fair, I will probably also throw my own favorite movie under the bus soon. Please feel free to tell me your favorite movie, so I have fodder for future columns. 

Source: dangatorium

Uncomfortable Silences - Episode 1 (by Sean Mannion)

This weekend we were shooting a fake commercial for Channel 101 (which is delightful and I will share it next week). After the shoot was done I still had stuff lying around: a camera, lights, and sound equipment. I thought, let’s just shoot a very simple pilot for 101 while I have all this crap lying around.

Knowing that February is a competitive month, generally, as there hasn’t been a screening of new pilots since November, it seemed like a good idea to just do a quick thing that didn’t require a ton of energy or commitment from people. I figured the show wouldn’t get past the panel and so decided instead of doing something I think they might like, I’ll just do what entertains me. If they like it, great. If they don’t, I didn’t just expend a ton of energy only to get rejected. 

So, I made “Uncomfortable Silences” with my wife Jess and our friend/new roommate Allison. It amuses me. I’m happy with how the lighting turned out, in general, as I was experimenting with it and pretty much just fucking around. 

As expected, it did not make it past 101’s screening panel, which isn’t so bad because instead I can share it with you people now. Lucky you people. Here it is, it’s less than three minutes. You have less than three minutes to spend on this video.

Enjoy? 

Source: vimeo.com

Speed Racer (2008)

So, I watched this movie a few days ago. I wanted to see it when it initially came out, then it got awful reviews and I just never got around to it. Since then I have had multiple people independently recommend this movie to me. It is a delightful movie and arguably one of the most original bits of cinema you’re going to see. Every movie should be made like Speed Racer was made. I don’t mean the CGI, the bright colors, the heavy post-production, and the relatively basic script/story. I mean the pure commitment to making a movie exactly what it should be.

Speed Racer is exactly what it should be: bright and crazy and very fast-paced. They could have made it “realistic,” “gritty,” or whatever other thing it is they like to do with popular source material. They didn’t. They picked a direction that served the material and then they committed to that direction 100%. At no point watching the movie did they seem to hesitate in their commitment to the style and that’s why it works.

That’s what I mean about every movie being made like the Wachowskis made Speed Racer. If you’re going to take a movie stylistically and thematically in a direction you have to commit to pushing it all the way to the limit and never faltering. When you falter you fail miserably. Like The Exorcist II. I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority here but I think John Boorman’s sequel to The Exorcist fails not because he strays so far from the original film and enters more metaphorical/experimental/weird territory, it’s because he didn’t push it far enough. There’s hesitation in the film that allows you to doubt its direction and so it fails miserably and is a widely despised film.

Speed Racer doesn’t falter and its a delight. Do yourself a favor and watch it. Embrace it for the pure silly cartoon fun that it is and let it wash over you like a rainbow of rainbows. It is a rainbow made of rainbows.

Source: youtube.com