mattlarnold - Tumblr blog

[mattlarnold]

Totally awesome!

Ki Swan ｡◕‿◕｡ 

[mattlarnold]

VGHS Cost of a Webseries Follow Up

VGHS Hey guys. Glad you are all excited. We said from the beginning it would be 6 - 30 minute episodes. Which is over 180 minutes when it is all said and done.I can't comment on whether or not you like season 1 or 2 more, but I can comment on the bewilderment on how we are "only" doing 6 episodes with all the money we raised. First let me point you to the cost breakdown:http://www.rocketjump.com/channels/cost-of-a-web-series-part-2Secondly, what we did was essentially a 3 hour action movie with over 1200 effect shots for 1.4 million. A 2 hour action movie with half those shots would cost over 30 million by an reasonable budget.Our show costs TOTAL less than HALF an episode of a traditional sitcom.I am aware most of you don't have an understanding of film budgets, so it is up to us to inform you. What we do with the budget, quality regardless, is more or less unheard of, and cheaper than any where you will ever find. Sharknado cost 2 million dollars... literally the cheapest piece of crap you will find.It is important to comment on this because we hire hundreds of people to make this happen, and spend all our waking hours making something that should be impossible. If we are to be able to grow, gain REASONABLE budgets, and be able to keep making stuff like VGHS, we have to let the audience know what we spend, and what is normal.We would be insane to try to do a season 3 that is "bigger" with even the same budget. It practically killed us.And that doesn't even include the over 4 hours of behind the scenes footage that has been placed on rocketjump, or the flash game etc.I hope you all enjoy the final episode (which in of itself would cost any other TV show more than double our complete budget). And I can't wait to go back to writing season 3 and try to bring you all an even better season than this one. And hopefully with an even bigger budget and more spectacle.Thank you all for you support!

[mattlarnold]

TOP 10 TV SHOWS OF 2012

BEST OF 2012 - TOP 10 TV SHOWS

Alphabetical order cause who the hell is to say what is better, Louie or Breaking Bad? I will however say what was IMO the absolute best show of the year. It also happens to be what I think is the absolute best artistic achievement of the year, period.

There were, as it has been for the past 15 years, an abundance of great TV. And while I try to watch every pilot out there, and most shows up to a few episodes, I miss some. And I may not give enough time to some great shows out there (Adventure Time for example). So be clear this list is not definitive. 

Negative first. Two disappointments of the year for me.

How I Met Your Mother - I was hoping that the end game of season 8 (now season 9) would spark life back into the show. I believe seasons 1-5 are sitcom classic. But nope... still drowning outside of a few episodes.

Parks and Recreations - This is still a great show... but I thought it peaked in season 3, and have definitely found myself not watching it compulsively anymore. 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

There should be more, but I am limiting myself to a few shows. More than anything, these are just the shows that didnt make my top 10 that stuck out immediately for a variety of reasons. Whether its the best new sketch show, or just a weird summer show that somehow was amazing. Don't look into it too much.

Ben and Kate, Sherlock, Bunheads, Key and Peele, Rev, Misfits, Homeland

TOP 10

Breaking Bad - The most propulsive and brutal piece of pulp perhaps even put on TV. And yes, it is pure pulp. Brilliant, audacious, and you never know what is coming. 

Community - The best written sitcom since Arrested Development. Period.

Cougar Town - A show so breezy and light it makes you forget that what it is pulling off may very well be the hardest type of show to right. Heartfelt, witty, and one of the best comedic casts around.

Girls - It is rare to find such a specific and unique voice in TV. Funny, charming, and insightful. The last 2 episodes are classics.

Good Wife - This is borderline cheating as Season 4 has been rough, but the second half of the brilliant Season 3 was in 2012. However, I watched the whole show this year in a span of 3 weeks... that is how compulsive watchable it is. Honestly, it might very well be (along with Veronica Mars and S1 of Lost) the best network drama I have ever seen.

Happy Endings - Sometimes just being funny is enough. And that is what Happy Endings aims to do. It stands on the edge of sitcom and live action cartoon, but almost every episode is a nonstop barrage of killer jokes and amazing comedic performances. 

Louie - Season 3 may not be as perfectly brilliant as Season 2 was, but in its own much more intimate way, it hits the same levels. The Late Night Trilogy is a masterpiece of TV.

Luck - Oh how lucky we are to have even these 10 measly episodes. How Milch and Mann ever worked together I will never know. Nor do I think I will ever understand just how the show is as good as it is. A beautiful poem of gambling, ambition, horse racing, and of course Luck. The horse race scenes are among the best sequences of the year, movie or tv.

Parenthood - This show started great, and every season since has only gotten better (just like the best show of the year). Katims simply understands how to evoke the most human emotions out of his audience. Friday Night Lights with out the football. A show about family that understands all the nuance, pain, love and commitment of the word. 

MAD MEN (Best show of the year) - I really have nothing to say other than this is THE artistic achievement of the year. Mad Men works on a level that nothing else does, and when it is all said and done, it will probably be one of the most important cultural artifacts of our time. Season 5 has a string of 5 episodes that are all masterpieces. All 5 of them are among the best episodes of TV I have ever seen. 

[mattlarnold]

BEST MOMENTS OF 2012 - Nobody Will Every Love You - NASHVILLE

Nashville is an incredibly uneven combination of Dallas level Soap, Treme/Wire style location and geography building, an gritty multi character stories like FNL/Parenthood. It has yet to strike the balance any better than it did in the pilot. That said, the show is immensely watchable, and every episode has some worth while moments; mostly involving music. When the guitars come out the show can be amazing. At its best, transcendent. 

In context, this song does everything a show would normally save for a sex scene. It is two people falling in love all over again and giving themselves completely to each other. It is stunning. 

[mattlarnold]

BEST MOMENTS 2012 - Brad at the Dentist - HAPPY ENDINGS

Happy endings went from solid surprise sitcom to the funniest and most consistant gag machine on the air. Some may find the gang annoying, I find them to be probably the least stereotypical group of characters in any sitcom since Arrested Development.

Regardless. The show has excellent direction from the Russo brothers (now dir. captain america) and this is a perfect example of it. But even more so, this shows the star power of Damon Wayne Jr. After a full minute of impeccable physical comedy, he nails his one line beautifully.

[mattlarnold]

BEST MOMENTS 2012 - Sasha's Dance: BUNHEADS  

Ridiculously beautiful dance. In context, as the finale of an episode, bold and heart breaking. Also, a perfect example of how to shoot dance. The performance is the edit, the style. No reason to cut around, flash camera angles, etc. Just let the body express the emotion and message.

[mattlarnold]

My favorite kotaku comment in... forever.

RE: Kotaku's unboxing video. The comment speaks for itself.

"I don't mean to be insulting, but did you just start touching the Wii in as many places as possible after holding as many greasy burgers as you could find? I've held many glossy electronics in my day, and I've never made any of them as dirty as you made this WiiU and accessories.

I mean, you have fingerprints/smudges in the middle of the console, even when it's clear that your fingers/thumbs don't naturally reach there when holding the console. Almost as if you were intentionally trying to smudge every last bit of it."

[mattlarnold]

The short by Benh Zeitlin before he made Beasts of a Southern Wild. I want to comment on it, however, saying anything just diminishes this wonderful piece of magic realism. Suffering and grief, but wholly beautiful and inspiring. Just watch. One of those films you just let wash over you, and discussion beyond the point. 

[mattlarnold]

Watch DETENTION

So, go watch Joseph Kahn's DETENTION. I smell cult classic in the near future. Seen it twice recently, and I don't know if it is necessarily a good "movie" per say. But it is something. The same sort of endless energy from beginning to end that CRANK had. But Kahn is a much better filmmaker (one of the biggest music video directors of all time). Its pretty insane. It is meta snake eating its own head on the way to meta city. Very fourth wall breaking, really insane, post modern to the point of being something else entirely. Just really really interesting, and above all else, fun as heck.

[mattlarnold]

Great Response to the Mass Effect 3 Debacle.

If you haven't been reading Film Crit Hulk, you should. My personal favorite film critic on the web. Click here to read his article on Mass Effect 3's ending. 

I want to add more, but frankly he says everything I did on twitter a few months ago better and in more detail.

[mattlarnold]

My new wallpaper. Hells yes. 

[mattlarnold]

Almost nothing I love more than Moffat's Who. 

[mattlarnold]

Gilmore Girls Season 1

Not much to say beyond that I should have listened to what everyone said and watched this long ago. In the same league as Friday Night Lights. It builds a nuanced town that you simply live in with these characters. The town of Stars Hollow is one of the great locations of the medium. So while not as melodramatic or emotional as FNL per say, it is on the flip side, more observed and charming. 

2 main things I took away from the first season before I continue onto the second.

1. Amy Sherman-Palladino has perhaps the most natural grasp on relationships between generations that I have seen regardless of film or tv. The unusual and beautiful mother/daughter relationship of Rory and Lorelai is the star of the show, but beyond that, Lorelai's painful and baggage heavy relationship with her parents present the most complex and emotionally satisfying moments. 

Lorelai walking into her austere father's hospital bed, seeing him vulnerable and as a flesh and bone man for the first time, is one of the better moments of TV I have seen in ages. Wordless, simple, lasting for only a few seconds, but unforgettable.

2. This is obvious, but Sherman-Palladino belongs on the short list of people like the Coen Brothers, Tarantino, Mamet, Whedon, and Sorkin who have wholly unique sense of dialog. Far from realistic, but completely grounded because the dialog intensifies and enlightens the understanding of the characters. I could listen to Gilmore Girls days on end.

In short. Amazing show. A guilty comfortable pleasure with none of the guilt and all of the comfort. 

[mattlarnold]

Lubitsch's Musicals

Going through the Lubitsch Musical pack from the always excellent ECLIPSE series from CRITERION.

If you don't know anything about Lubitsch, get off your butt and go see Trouble in Paradise and Shop Around the Corner this instant. Lubitsch is one of the most influential and successful directors of early hollywood. Essentially he made a sophisticated and award winning comedy every year for around 20 or so years. He is like Woody Allen if Woody Allen almost never missed, and had constant mainstream success.

He was so successful a phrase was coin "The Lubitsch Touch" which people throw around vaguely now. What it really refers to is Lubitsch's uncanny ability to touch on almost any topic, from infidelity, threesomes, suicide, gender roles, sexism, pretty much anything taboo, in a way that feels light and delicate despite its often biting satire. 

Even as a big Lubitsch fan, I didnt realize he essentially create the narrative musical in hollywood. So here I am, watching his early works. I have seen two of them.

Love Parade: This is the first narrative musical in Hollywood, coming out in 1929. It is somewhat dated in that its story boils down to a super player in an important military position getting punished by the queen by being forced to be her lover. He then tames this oh so problematic independent woman and becomes king. Yet again, with that touch of his, the whole thing comes off as charming and delightful. Some great songs, highlight being "Anything to Please the Queen" with the sexual innuendo just exploding off the screen.

Also this film showed me Maurice Chevalier who now ranks highly in my bad ass list. Do we have anybody in the last couple decades as boyishly manly as Chevalier? He plays like a 14 year old barely able to contain his energy, yet everything on his face and in his mannerisms says "I have made love to a thousand women, and have pleased them all." He is a perfect match for Lubitsch. You imagine Chevalier can get away with doing or saying anything by flashing that smile and laughing it off. He is like a walking "Lubitsch Touch"

One Hour With You:  This is one of those awesome pre-hayes code movies that just gets away with so much. Its also one of those old films that make you realize our comedies really are not all that risque. Sure, Hangover has boobs, bodily fluids and f-bombs, but like pretty much any comedy these days, it reinforces the basic conservative ideas of marriage and love. Man loves woman, woman loves man. There are issues, but marriage is good, etc. 

Lubitsch, in an awesomely brisk 78 minutes, toys with the very idea of fidelity. Through a dinner party and the night following, 2 couples indulge in various affairs, often with Chevalier (yes he is in this film as well, which is awesome) talking directly to the audience asking if they would do any differently. After having cheated in his wife he boyishly asks "Really, in this situation, what would you do"... "And I did the same". Lubitsch openly laughs and waves away the idea that anyone in the audience is as moral and righteous as they think they are. But with Chevalier playing along with it, and giving positive feedback it invites you into the world of infidelity.

With some sly jokes about a man liking another man in tights, and some public love making, it is a pretty audacious movie, and the ideas and attitude it has towards marriage makes most R-rated comedies today feel tame and conservative. 

[mattlarnold]

BRIAN: Is anyone else hearing this?! GAMES: Nope.