Next Level in LA

So I've been here since August and I'm just getting around to updating how everything's been going. So far I've worked on an amazingly fun short film out at Sony Pictures lot, a really whack short film version of CATCHER IN THE RYE with some first-time filmmakers(oi)..oh yeah, and I shot a birthday video for a 1-year-old. Haha.

Yes, a 1-year-old kid had the most elaborate birthday party out in Manhattan Beach. They had a rock-climbing wall, basketball court, moonwalk, ballpit/chuck e. cheese area, and tons of food. I booked it through Thumbtack. A sweet website where you make a profile for your business or freelance work and bid on projects that people submit. It allows up to 5 bids per project, but if the client were to never view your bid you get auto-refunded. I like this feature so that I don't feel like I wasted roughly 5$ and the client never even saw my proposal. Here is a link to Thumbtack..give it a try if you want to get e-mails and texts about video/editing gigs in your area. I highly recommend it.<a href="http://www.thumbtack.com/al/leeds/video-production/film-video-production-and-editing">Film &amp; Video Production and Editing</a>

Moving on..I'm still editing weddings from back in Birmingham..begrudgingly, but hey it pays the bills..or some of them anyway. I'm blessed to have a wife that found a job within a month of moving and we're finally scraping and fighting to catch up from the big move.

I will continue this with my creative stuff I've been working on at a later date. Thanks and War Eagle.

-KYLE

Contagion

Some friends and I saw Contagion last night. I have felt the urge to ramble about it a little bit. I have been wanting to see this film for months and the trailers looked amazing. My buddy Alex Justinger worked on the trailer and he and his crew did a great job on it.

I happen to love Steven Soderbergh  as a Director and the cast was completely stacked with amazing actors. I'm not gonna list them all here, but any film with Matt Damon, Lawrence Fishburne and Kate Winslet should be amazing. I just wanted to list all of the reasons that I wanted to see this film and one of the main ones is the subject matter. I've always loved a good outbreak film..ever since, well, "Outbreak".

Spoilers follow: Now we have to snap to the reality of the film. The reality is that the movie looked great, the direction was good and the acting was spot on. The problem with "Contagion" wasn't the pacing or lack of action..I thought the style was great and it was paced decently well. The problem with this film, and yes the hype hurt it, was predictability. I literally knew what part every person played from the second they came into frame. I knew that Eliot Gould's character Dr. Ian Sussman was going to make the breakthrough..I knew Kate Winslet's character Dr. Erin Mears would do her best to contain the disease and then contract it herself. There were several things I liked about the film..I liked the way it counted up by the day since contraction to show how far the virus had spread and I liked the subplot with Lawrence Fishburne's character Dr. Ellis Cheever that included his wife and neighbors. I dunno, I just wanted something to surprise me. This is why I don't like to get excited about movies..I only set myself up for disappointment.

At the end of the film maybe they could have shown the newly mutated virus being contracted by someone with a vaccine bracelet on letting the audience know we are back to square one. I just didn't like the mundane ending with Matt Damon looking at pictures of his wife which caused flashbacks of her getting the virus for the first time.

If you've seen it and agree with me, or think I'm totally off my rocker..feel free to comment, I'd love to get feedback on this film from other people.

-Kyle
www.nextlevelprods.com