Not Bad!

First, I viewed Waltz with Bashir last night. Let me say how excellent a film it is. It is breakthrough animation -- fantastic, heartwrenching and mindblowing. If you get to see any of the great pics up for Best Foreign Film, see this one first. Not for kids, though.

Now for why I started writing. Being the Oscar fanatic that I am, I always enter the annual Awards Daily (er, Oscar Watch) contests, for both predictions and then awards. This is the first year my name made the list of runners up!

In this case, I think we could only vote for the top awards: picture, director, actor, actress, sup. actor, sup. actress, and then mayyybe orig. screenplay, adap. screenplay, and perhaaaaps animated film. (Things would have gotten out of hand with the tallies beyond that.)

You can see my '08 predix here and click Oscar Predictions at the bottom, then Nominations at the top. The top 5 numerical selections are my choices, and the actual noms are backed in gold.

No Doubt

Just like last year's Oscar Nominations, in which Michael Clayton received significantly more acting nods than any other piece (let alone more than one), Doubt received 4 in acting, followed by both Milk and The Wrestler with 2 each. Thus, the piece with most nods (as with Tilda Swinton of Michael Clayton) must get honored with at least one Oscar. Kate Winslet is practically a given for The Reader, but since she's now bumped up to Lead Actress in nomination (unlike everywhere else), that opens the door for Amy Adams or Viola Davis... I choose Viola.

That sort of brings up another topic: As Viola played a young boy's mother in Doubt, I've managed to post another early Thomas Productions movie on YouTube, aptly titled, Mother. Based on the chapter of the same name in Sherwood Anderson's book, Winesburg, Ohio, it follows a hotel-owning family whose older members are grotesque, leaving the youngest one desiring to escape.

It's a dramedy in two parts, embedded above. Enjoy!

Predix: Mostly 'B's

Early this morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced the 2008 Film Nominees for their annual Oscars. For the categories I made predictions (which are all that regarded feature length films), I actually did pretty well -- a few were 100% on the dot (A+!), and the most often occurring prediction result (8 times) was a 'B' with 4/5 (80%) per category.

Films nominated for Best Picture were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which earned the most noms with 13), Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader (which some believe stole the show from The Dark Knight) and Slumdog Millionaire. One of my favorite parts was that Composer Thomas Newman earned not one but two nominations for WALL-E (song and score), and it's his second time earning so many at once!

Anyhoo, the Oscars are exactly one month away, on February 22nd. See My Predictions by clicking here and selecting "Oscar Predictions" at the bottom, perhaps also making your own, and then tuning in when the time comes!

Innovative & Unprecedented

What a day it's been, and it's not even noon yet! We as Americans have officially shooed the Bush away, and brought in a much more intellectual President who can properly pronounce the word, "nuclear," among other things. Oh yeah, the "new guy" plans to end the war, too! Here's the entirety of his Inauguration Speech (in Parts i, ii & iii):

One minor thing: the Academy had to postpone the date of its Oscar Nominations for a few days because had it not been for the rather significant happenings for Obama, the Noms would have been announced today. Stay tuned...

Hidden Treasure

Unbeknownst to me for the past several years -- after the blackouts of 2003 that destroyed my hard drive and what I thought were any remaining copies of many videos -- a VHS tape was recently found with a newer copy of Macbeth and the Crusades on it!

I say "newer copy" because things were done for festival purposes after it was initially turned in as a class project, including more visual effects work and composing original music. This movie is the first Thomas Productions YouTube upload of 2009. Enjoy!

Reconstruction

As was mentioned in the previous blog entry, now all of the "Thomas Productions" logo images atop each movie page link back to the main page. Even though there were other parts of the page that also did this, thinking in a moment of logic led to my conclusion of doing this.

More importantly, the process of redirecting any sort of images from the old 2nd site to the new one (directorG2.com to jimthzz.bingodisk.com/public) has vastly continued, with the best example at current being displayed at the page for The Nightmare. The entire segment for Production Pics, complete with a translucent layer of thumbnails to select from, has now been fixed. The process continues...

Nine for '09

Starting this exciting month, when the worst president in U.S. history is finally dethrowned, is the new year of 2009! Accordingly, it would be good if there were some New Year's Resolutions made. These advantageous commitments, which there could be nine of for the year, could be for anything: movies, site, and other related goodies. Here are some possibilities for the year (in random sequence, only numerical for counting purpose):

1. Complete TV Commercial for Gizdich Ranch
2. Begin Production for Hitchcock Road
3. Upload More Projects to YouTube
4. Finish Web Hosting Transfer Project
5. Submit At the Core to Film Festival
6. Submit The Nightmare to Film Festival
7. Begin Production for Everyone and Their Mother
8. Create and/or Complete Web Pages for Remaining Films
9. Finish Remaining Demo Reels for Cinematography and VFX
   

There are probably a few other things, including the logical idea of making each Thomas Productions logo on each page actually link back to the home page... But, that's minor. Happy New Year!