Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert taught me how to love movies. He peeled back the curtain and took out the guts of anything he spoke on in a way no other critic did. Every Ebert review I read felt like this wonderful celebration of art even when he hated something. Every other critic sounded just sounded like they were talking to themselves.

I was never able to catch Siskel and Ebert on television at the right time, nor could I ever consistently watch the show when Richard Roeper came aboard. But in the age of the internet when I discovered "At The Movies" I went to town. I watched every review of every film that I loved and reveled in the discussion. Ebert embraced possibility in film. Even in the moments I disagreed with him(everything he ever said about video games), I felt the discussion he drove inspired only the positive.

I always imagined myself in my wildest fantasies one day meeting him, and thanking him for every inspiration to piece together a sentence I could need. Maybe I would show him my films? Maybe he would love them? Maybe he would hate them? I just wanted to talk about them.

As a movie fan, I feel like I’ve lost my voice on what to look for. Then again, Mr. Ebert lost his voice long ago with this whole cancer thing, yet still spoke volumes about the art he loved. The only thing I can do is remember what he taught me: that movies can teach you things about life you would have never thought possible.

I’ll miss you Roger. But I’ll think about you every time I walk into a theater with a ticket in my hand. You’re the reason I’m still there.

-Z 

RANBAT Post-Production Log: State Of Affairs

I'm going to be updating the status of RANBAT in a series of logs. For those of you following the movie closely, you'll be able to hear what's going through my head and not be left in the dark. I won't get too specific, as I don't want to spoil anything, but I'm just going to let you know what's up.

It's been a while. The last few weeks I've been putting a lot of time into music as I want to get my mixtape out, but the movie was on the back-burner  I didn't lie when I said I would've finished it in July. It just wouldn't have been what I wanted. So, here we are:

THE RESTAURANT SCENE

The first and foremost thing I'm doing is starting over editing it from scratch. It's an early scene in the movie(remember from the trailer when you see Neo sitting down and asking me questions about my life? There.) and it's important because it establishes a lot of key points. A problem that occurred during the shoot was that we had to shoot it in two different locations because the guy who originally let us use his restaurant suddenly changed his mind when we wanted to do pickup shots for the other side. So we had to find an IDENTICAL restaurant to set up shop in. Wasn't fun.

However, it turned out okay. Save for maybe one or two shots. For one: the wide shots of me and the guy playing Neo's friend looks weird. My reaction is decent in one of them, and the other two seem off. There's not a clear moment. In the close ups-- it all comes through, but I'd like a wide between us to start off the scene. The idea is edit the whole thing, go back and see if it matches up.

Even still, a few things catch my eye. For one, the scene is going to definitely need some heavy CC. Every scene does, but we'll need to be specific here. Like I said, while we were able to match the aesthetic of the locations, the color tone is most definitely a 180. What I've done is play around with some of the settings to to see if we're screwed(I always do) and it looks like it matches up okay.

One more hiccup? While the Audio is crystal clear-- you can definitely hear the background music in the restaurant during some of the segments when I talk. It's absent for Neo and the man sitting next to him, but for me and the guy with me it's there. I'm thinking of figuring out the song and just matching it up with some clever editing, as that could definitely alleviate the problem. It's not too loud-- but then again, I don't want to do shoddy work and just throw a track over it and pretend nobody'll notice.

But those are problems. The scene looks really nice, and it's acted well by Neo and crew. I think I did alright, although suffice to say I hate my hair and wish that I'd have been less stressed out at the time. But hindsight 20/20. I like what's there and I like the performances present(including mine.)-- just me being nitpicky.

GAME FOOTAGE

There's a bunch of game footage we captured to use in the arcade scenes. Turns out we're going to have to recapture the matches directly and lay them over the scenes so they look better and we have more control over them. Not that big of a deal, probably a day or two of work. And a casual session.

ARCADE HYPE NIGHT

There's a moment in the movie where we see the full swing and hype of an arcade in motion. At the end of it, there's an exchange I have we shot on two different days. My shot has really great lighting. The other guys is incredibly dark. Not good. I think it's mainly due to the fill. I screwed around with lighting effects to see if I could match them-- and last I checked they did pretty well. Going to edit it together next session just to make sure.

ETA

My goal is end of Oct. If I can do that, I've done something right. It'll be pretty similar to Run It Back 3 in terms of delay(LOLOL JUNE 6TH!). Like I said, I'm going to keep updating this so you know what's going on. I'm not intent on being lazy.


It's 3:11 am, but those are what I'm thinking about right now. This entry was vague, I'll be more specific on future entries. Just trying to be cautious about spoiling things.

-Z

Update: The Race to Picture Lock and Foley

Hi all. Been a while, huh? Well, lets get on with the update.

Currently, the goal this week is to achieve picture lock-- which means that all the takes and clips we want are cut together where we need them so we can start on color correction(making sure all the footage from different camera's and days match. Our DP Quint, is being awesome and color correcting the film for us while I handle the foley and audio mixing from my end. Foley(if you don't know) is all the sound effects necessary for things like opening a door, or footsteps, or button presses-- all that. 

Once that's all done and squared away, we're going to take one more last look at the film to make sure it's all spiffy and upload it for you to watch. I'm not gonna give you a date(As I don't want to let you down), but we are working on it and it's kind of my one major priority right now. So yeah.

-Z

What's Going On With Ranbat and other shenanigans...

Hey all. Sorry for the wait. I should probably fill you in on what's been going on...

First of all, anybody who's followed any of my past projects knows that this isn't a new thing. A lot of times I start on a project and get really meticulously involved in every single tiny detail of the process. "Run It Back" episode 3 was one of those, and that came nearly 2 months late. I don't expect this to be the same, I'll say that flat out. It should NOT take that long.

So as for what's going on with the project? It's in post. Heavy post. Currently we're in the process of finishing up recording the match footage, editing and color correcting the scenes as well as finishing up any ADR necessary to complete it. I'd like to give you a professional looking movie, not some junkie student film you could find taking a Film Workshop college class. 

That being said... why haven't we hit our deadlines at ALL? Well, as a lot of you know, I'm also a rapper. I'm contracted for musical works, I'm working on my own projects as well, and there are events and projects I have to complete for people on a tight basis. I'm also a freelance video producer. I produce things like the "Divekick" video and other fun projects for clients quite a bit. This week and last week saw tight deadlines on two really big projects(And there's another project due this weekend which a friend knows I still have to send him.) and saw me working my ass off to finish them. Didn't help it was around my birthday as well. 

I work hard on this stuff, and yeah maybe my perfectionism gets in the way of a tight schedule... HOWEVER... I can assure you guys that I don't like to release sub-par stuff. Run it Back and New Kind of Blues were two examples of this and the positive was very warm from both projects. I don't want to make promises I cant keep, but I will tell you that this isn't in Limbo, it's just me working my ass off. 

I'm sorry for the delays. I'd like to tell you next week(as that's what I'm shooting for) but I don't want to disappoint you if something comes up. I will say this though: when it comes to documentaries vs scripted work-- the latter is always 10x easier for me to edit. My schedule for the next 3-4 days is literally just empty. So I'll be in my cave hashing this out with a strong computer and a wildly determinate sense of focus. 

Hopefully, I'll see you all with a film in hand when I emerge.

-Z

P.S. I'm working on more than just Ranbat for all of you. Stay tuned... 

Why I'm Delaying "Ranbat" to late June...

Greetings all. Here's the deal...

I've been shooting this movie since Novermber 2011, and it's been a hectic experience day in and day out. I delayed the film last week to make sure that we obtained the pick-up shots needed to make this movie the best it could possibly be. We've been on a pretty nice track so far. A few bumps in the road last week made us stumble a bit, but all in all, we will probably finish editing and all this week. So why not release it on schedule? Well, because I'm stupid and totally forgot that this week was E3.

Anybody who knows anything about film making or the business behind it knows you gotta be strategic when you release stuff. If this week I release my film, a good number of people won't be watching on June 6th. Most will be catching up on e3 news, or recovering from it. So it sucks, but I have to delay the film another week. To next Wednesday. It sucks, but a good number of people agree with me(including the Level|Up Staff as it would make their job a hell of a lot easier as well.)

If you haven't seen the second trailer already, take a look(as it's a lot better than the first) and we'll see you next Wednesday, June 13th. If all goes well and I can have this all squared by then, I'd like to have a nice premiere(not just on stream) for the film on the 13th. But that's dependent on a lot of factors(most importantly if I can secure the location.) If you're interested, let me know on the Facebook page(send me a message.) and I'll see if I can make it happen. Anyway, that's where we're at. Hope you guys are all doing well. Sorry again.

-Zaid Tabani
AKA RedrappeR
AKA Procrastinating Idiot Director

So, I just read all of the Hunger Games Books.

I never really had an interest in the series at first. Honestly, I fell in with the old trope of "This is Battle Royalle" without really giving the books a chance. Scarce Wikipedia summaries and vague conjecture from my little brother notwithstanding, when I finally saw the movie I was actually fairly impressed. It approached the subject of something like Battle Royalle from a different angle. While BR focused on the loss of humanity to savage instinct, HG was the reverse. It's about kids who are FORCED to live on their savage impulses, but attempt to find the humanity within themselves to challenge them.

I sped through the rest of the series. I guess it was something to do, to take my mind off a stressed production or college apps or whatever the fuck I do these days. I finished Mockingjay about an hour ago and it's still sticking with me. There's a lot to these books that's hard to grasp at first. Yes, it's easy to label them as silly teen fiction, but at the same time we know the books tend to deal with the effects on the human psyche from dictated violence. Like war. And it is war.

There were a lot of times in Mockingjay(particularly the end) where I felt upset. Not at the writing, or at the character, or at the prose-- but at the situation. Katniss isn't a happy person in this book. She's not supposed to be. She's a veteran, pure and simple, forced into the cogs of war. And the majority of the book is her trying to embody the symbol she is supposed to represent at the start of it all... the mockingjay.

The more she pulls away from the orders given to her, and the more she follows her own instinct-- she becomes a more instrumental piece on the chess board. Yes, we have the love triangle to consider as well, but is it really that?

I remember reading the resolution to the whole plotline. It's a paragraph. A PARAGRAPH! I think to myself "Why resolve something built up so much THAT quickly!" It's like taking Chekhovs Gun and making pretend "bang bang" pistol noises with it. But then I think back and it makes sense. The characters pretty obviously represent something about Katniss' psyche. She reveals it at the end of the book, but we're all to wrapped up in both these characters' personalities to really see it as this giant metaphor.

The entirety of these novels has been, again, the ability to find your humanity in a savage world. That the impulses of violence, vanity, anger, or even depression can be overcome in the end. Gale is a character who gives into anger. He downright represents impulse. Yes he has a similar "fire" or whatever, but at the same time he represents Katniss' impulse. Savagery. You see him earlier in the novel doom the "nut" in District 2 to hell. And then we have Peeta, who is of course the humanitarian. No, he's not just "the nice guy", although I will say he's a lot more rational than his competition. But I think he represents the hesitation to give in. To give in to death, to anger, to selfishness. Katniss' struggle in this book is more intense the both the prior due to the deaths that ensue as well as her psyche. She gets DANGEROUSLY close to becoming all that she wanted to avoid, and yet she finds her way back. She finds her ability to persevere past the "easy choice".

And I don't think she settles. It's just the logical progression of her character. She's chosen to become someone who does not give into her nightmares, and Peeta is that choice. It's the less didactic way of saying "Hey, you gotta move on from your horrible past and find something worthy to live for in life." Which I think makes the transition to the whole relationship much less abrupt.

I think the HG trilogy is about war, and humanities constant struggle to battle it's own lust for both power and brutality. In the end, we move on from our barbarism, just like Katniss did.

So yeah. Just wanted to say that.

Evolve Lyrics

Youtube description is too short to let me post... so lets go...


[Redrapper]
BELIEVE
You can be so much MORE, so much born into so much force,
hear my roar, spread my wings till the clouds drip ink and hear my source,
hear my name, echo through the halls of the legend I transcend to pen my lore,
speak my flame, I burn louder as the crowds keep shouting and they light my sword

Hear me sing, rise me up from the dust that I struck in the winds of change,
raise my gain, up my signal till the sound peaks out when they spot my stage
Shadows of Arcadia fall and reign in mythology written into the sound I play,
Lights all fade, and I came here to fight against destiny now to test my fate,

Test my will, I came here to stand in the presence of giants, and every MYTH THEY BUILT
Time stands still, I came here Etch a moment inside history that Time can't Fill
I breathe life in a dream instilled in hearts and minds, of every hope fullfilled,
I stand on a precipice elevated in elements legendarily eminent that can't be killed,


CRACK THE FLOUR IN FOUR, shatter every wall the presidium forged into stone I know
Fight the titans with a bolt lightning that I locked inside me here I can't control,
I grew from nothing, I sparked into the stars, through an ether spilled into the soul I art,
Speak my choice, I light the fire of a brand new Era as they hear my VOICE

[Kana]
EVOLVE,
Till I'm more than what they ask of me
Till I fly in WAYS you can't BELIEVE,
THROUGH A SKY I KNOW,
ON A BLUE HORIZON IN A DREAM I HOLD

My hands keep SHAKING but my Heart keeps STRONG,
Though my legs keep ACHING, my VOICE keeps ON,
My SOUL keeps RISING as I SING MY SONG~~,
I CAN HOLD MY OWN! TILL THOSE CLOUDS MOVE ON!

[YIPES]
Back on my grind again, trying again,
practicing my craft get my timing in,
LOVE for competitions I'm admiring,
Got NOTHING TO LOSE, cause I'm TRYING TO win.

It's up to me if I want to pass it or fail
Gotta keep up so I aint last in the trail
Purpose to master whats in my class or the field,
Topics cliche, but a classic, for real,

Through the survival, third EYE OPEN my vision is vital
Still gunning for the title,
Staring at my rivals, remind em I'm here to play
nothing new here, same script different day

Time to GRIND go to war with the armor
ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE, fighting is my GENRE
I'm a MONSTER one touch and I'm ON YA
IFC Forever, Definition of Honor

[shizza]
When i say damn to apathy i massively expand my capacity and naturally begin to evolve
I thrive cause the will to strive instills energy inside me until i feel fullfilled
To survive, adapt, and never stall, resolve, that's the key to evolve, so i never settle
I just treble the level and my intensity sows, persistence and since it's propensity shows,
Every inch of me you sense, exponentially grows, till everyone eventually knows,
It's my honest wish so i promise this, that provenance'll lead to success in excess
But i stress and concede that before i achieve these goals i conceive i will need to address
And relieve the beliefs that impede and suppress so im free to proceed to exceed and progress

[Redrapper]
I CAME HERE TO YELL MY LUNGS OUT AND LIFT MY SOUND,
SHAKE THE GROUND UNTIL THEY BREAK ME DOWN,
I'm a Resiliance, DISTILLIED, into brilliance,
ECHOING THROUGH THE MILLIONS WHO SPEAK SO LOUD,

I ain't come here to run, I came here to be greatest,
SO POINT ME TOWARDS the shadow of Hades and Ima face him,
multiply my courage by a hundred and one,
if you wanna kill my hype, you better burn out the sun,

[Kana]
EVOLVE,
Till I BECOME so much MORE
Till I can FLY MY WINGS AND SOAR,
Into the CLOUDS I KNOW
ON A BLUE HORIZON IN A DREAM I HOLD

My hands keep SHAKING but my Heart keeps STRONG,
Though my legs keep ACHING, my VOICE keeps ON,
My SOUL keeps RISING as I SING MY SONG~~,
I CAN HOLD MY OWN! TILL THOSE CLOUDS MOVE ON!

[Redrapper]
If I coulda lift my wings, then Maybe I coulda grown,
lift I think, and maybe I coulda flown,
I seen the fall of grand arena's of old,
and temples of light die that we considered as homes,

If I had a little strength, still left into my bones,
I'll fly over in the temple, of light, marble, and stone,
and into the blue yonder I ponder as an unknown,
illuminate into embers and light the kingdom in GOLD,

And I'ma touch that sky with tip of my fingers,
ETCH MY SIGN AT THE EDGE OF A TWISTER,
FEEL THE DAWN WATCH OVER ME, DISTANT,
from the stage, I aint afraid, I'M READY, I'm different,

I am new age, I ain't ready to risk it,
but I am not afraid here, to show I existed,
IMA SOAR HIGHER THAN THEY EVER PREDICTED,
MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE, this is how I depict it

[Kana]
EVOLVE,
Till I BECOME so much MORE
Till I can FLY MY WINGS AND SOAR,
Into the CLOUDS I KNOW
ON A BLUE HORIZON IN A DREAM I HOLD

EVOLVE,
Till I'm more than what they ask of me
Till I fly in WAYS you can't BELIEVE,
THROUGH A SKY I KNOW,
ON A BLUE HORIZON IN A DREAM I HOLD

My hands keep SHAKING but my Heart keeps STRONG,
Though my legs keep ACHING, my VOICE keeps ON,
My SOUL keeps RISING as I SING MY SONG~~,
I CAN HOLD MY OWN! TILL THOSE CLOUDS MOVE ON!