Awesome Song!

Once before I posted up lyrics from a personal favorite song of mine and today is another day for another song. This song is amazing it is called Currare on Your Lips by After the Sirens. If you have never heard it you should do so right now.

Welcome to the last time
That You can buy my answer with less than a question.
I would sell the hands off my wrists if they weren't so preoccupied
With taking the bread from Your fingers and downing this cheap New Year's wine
That we call Your blood.
And You can wait for midnight but my lips are sealed.
And You can wait for midnight but my lips are sealed.

In this garden I'm waiting anxiously
For my children to come and murder me.
In this crowded room, staring nervously lovers lick at their lips and wait for the kiss.
I've been sharpening
My teeth for this moment
And I'll stab with my lips but You've already won

Is there no resolution?
Well, I'll call these rafters my gallows,
And strung up by day-old party streamers
In the back of my mind I can see
The merlot dripping from Your hands and feet.

Random Movie Fact: In the 2011 film Bernie, the owners of the Hawthorn Funeral Home in Carthage, Texas, where Bernie Tiede met Marjorie Nugent, refused to allow the film to use the name of the funeral home.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

This Week is Gonna Be BUSY!

This week coming up looks like it is going to be pretty busy! Tomorrow I have to head down to Virginia to fill out some paperwork for that company that is going to contract me out to do some gigs for them. That is in the morning then in the afternoon around 2pm I am going to be setting up for the final part of Wesley Spangler's video Three Beers Later and we are going to be doing that until we finish up which will probably be at the latest 8pm. On Tuesday I am going to be at [kp] mag recording studio doing some foley work for a project I got hired on to do post production for. After that around 6pm I am doing a volunteer photo gig for a city housing project which looks to be pretty cool it is just a little community get together. Then on Wednesday I have an eye doctor appointment lol, so that day and Thursday things look like they are going to settle down. Finally this weekend if all things work out I will be doing my first gig down in Virginia for a county fair just taking pictures to promote a city driving initiative in Arlington. So that will be the 10th-12th in the afternoon. Wish me luck on all of this I hope it all pans out and everything goes through.

Random Movie Fact: In the 1989 film Do the Right Thing, all of the scenes of the "Corner Men" Robin Harris, Paul Benjamin, and Frankie Faison were improvised.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Otakon 2012

Just wanted to let everyone know that To Tony Productions will be at Otakon 2012 taking lots of pictures and hopefully filming some video content as well, but we will see. It is going to be a fun day and I hope to take a ton of pictures, plus hand out a boat load of business cards as well, I even got new ones made up just for Otakon! Can't wait to go, I have been waning to go to Otakon since I was about 14 years old and finally this year I get the chance.

Random Movie Fact: In the 2003 film Finding Nemo, Pixar's characters are often planned years in advance. Nemo first appeared as a stuffed toy on a couch in Boo's room in Monsters, Inc.. This movie introduces the main characters of post-2003 Pixar films. A boy in the dentist's office is reading a "Mr. Incredible" comic book, anticipating The Incredibles. Luigi the car is driving by the dentist's office, anticipating Cars.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Worst Fear

Today I want to ask a question instead of talking about me...what is your worst fear? Lets start with me, my worst fear is getting lost while driving or as it is known in the scientific community, mazeophobia. Now it is your turn...leave a comment below and share your worst fears.

Random Movie Fact: In the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead, George A. Romero, creator of the films that this movie pays homage to and lampoons, was so impressed with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's work that he asked them to appear in Land of the Dead, the fourth part of his Dead series, in cameos as zombies.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

The Avengers Review

So last night I went out to the movies with a friend of mine and saw The Avengers finally just to see if it was any good. I will start by saying this...it is a solid film that being said I present to you my review of the film.

This is one of those films that you enjoy and it is worth a watch once and only once. To me The Avengers did not live up to any expectations I had for it going in. Director Joss Whedon took an approach that many will see is similar to his style especially in his television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Around every scene there is a touch of humor and farce which kept me from really getting into the film. The humor at times was nice but it all seemed unnecessary and actually detracted from the story. A film as goofy as this one did not make me feel something emotional, it hid behind the veil of humor. The main villain in the film is Loki who many will remember from the Thor film that came out last summer...and this was to me a great choice, although he was not used to the potential he could have been. The character could have been scary, and impending, and seemed like he was in control but there was at no point a time where I thought he was going to win. His staff of impending doom was cool at the beginning of the film and the mind control element could have been awesome but he quickly just felt week even against just a few of the superheroes from The Avengers. He even gave himself up for a strange bit of reasoning which as soon as you really started to understand it, that plan was already given up. The only time he seemed scary was at the beginning of the film like I said earlier.

As far as the film itself the cinematography was ok, a lot of it being high key lighting and the only cool lighting parts was when Black Widow fought Hawkeye and that was it. The scene where Hawkeye finally came too and was normal again had a really strange bit of color correction to it that just was bizaare and felt like the opening to a television show that the editor decided to play around with the look of the first scene. That being said I come to my next point of this working much like a television show. Joss Whedon seems to have had a little bit too much television story structure on his mind when he made this film, a lot of it felt just like that, a series of tv episodes strung together. The editing had a lot of weird jumps that felt like they were expecting end credits for the tv show to go. Even some of the shot selection felt like something from a lost big budget episode of Buffy. Mr. Whedon did a solid job don't get me wrong but The Avengers felt too much like his shows and not enough like a genuine superhero action film and I hope due to the large success of the film other superhero movies do not take a page and emulate this style because it just doesn't work.

If you want to watch a great superhero film pop in the old dvd of The Dark Knight or wait for the sequel coming out in July. If you must go see The Avengers you will probably like it but it fails to pack the punch of a smart and amazing superhero film. It could have been so much more than what it was...maybe the sequel will have more of an emotional presence about it but if not I will be highly disappointed.

I give it a 7 out of 10.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

Voicebox Day Two Photos

So here are the photos from the filming of Voicebox yesterday, it was a lot of fun and again Scott Loraditch did a great job on BTS work!

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess

The Raid: Redemption Review

Over this past weekend, after all the fun and lunacy of filming I went out to the theaters to go see a movie I usually don't like to watch which is the genre of the action film. However I had heard some cool things about The Raid: Redemption so I went out to see it. Starting off for those of you who hate subtitled films don't see it because this is a foreign film and there are subtitles so just a fair heads up.

Anyway, this film is one of those rare gems that does not feel old or outdated like a lot of foreign films do, I say this because the process of getting a foreign film over to the states can take a while and by the time they do arrive they can feel stale. For Redemption I think it is slick and well shot, the director (Gareth Evans) definitely tries out some experimentation for the different angles and set ups of the camera. I love the fresh edge to a genre of movie that can feel somewhat cliche at times. The story itself is not something that will win an Oscar for writing but it keeps you a little bit on edge and has a few nice twists throughout. The harshest thing I can say about this film is the beginning which is drawn out a little too long and doesn't introduce enough characters to keep me surprised, for instance if we see one character at the beginning for more than a few seconds we are going to keep seeing them for a good chunk of the movie, and not just that but the few people we do spend some screen time on they disappear only to reappear later to do something good for our protagonist. The level of violence in this film is fairly high, I saw a mom take two kids into the theater who only appeared to be 10 or younger, don't do this to your kids, it is way too much for them. That being said I think that the interested ways people die are pretty sweet, they are clever and add the grimacing ouch reaction you want in a movie like this.

Overall the slow beginning and what would appear to be the lack of spellchecker on the subtitles really do hurt this film but in the end the action is what we came to see and it delivers on this on all cylinders. If you want to go see a well shot, scored, and choreographed film then this is the one to see. Fair warning the violence is high and subtitles are present but it all just feels so right. Go give this one a view, you won't be wasting your time.

Thanks for the support,
Daniel Hess