Unable To “Bridge” The Gap: The End of The 6th Street Bridge in LA

When making a movie, location scouts have to determine if their story should be filmed on location (to wherever) or if it’s best shot in a studio behind green screen and then digitally add whatever location you need later. It all depends on things like budget and setting of story. Many, many times one particular location has been used in more than one movie.

Example: Professor Xavier’s Institute of Higher Learning in the 2000 film “X-Men” was also the same mansion used in the 2002 comedy “Mr. Deeds.”

There are even special tours you can take to certain places in cinema history when a film is shot on location. The most famous still is probably the trek through New Zealand for “The Lord Of The Rings” experience.

But there’s one piece of American engineering that has been used in countless movies spanning several decades. I’m talking about the 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles. The bridge opened in 1932 but will be demolished next week and a new one will be built set to complete construction in 2019. I’ve driven on the bridge a few times since moving to Los Angeles and I never realized just how historic it is both to the city of Los Angeles and to cinema itself.

Below is a link to a video that a friend sent me showing 11 of some of the most memorable scenes filmed on the 6th Street Bridge. Some of the films also filmed on the bridge not shown in this video that I remember was “Grease” and “The Italian Job.”

http://devour.com/video/a-tribute-to-the-6th-street-bridge/

What about you? Do you live near where a famous movie scene was filmed? Let me know.

 

 

Jim Parsons Wants To Play Riddler!!

I’ll make this short and sweet. Several years ago, when we were all anticipating the announcement of the casting for The Dark Knight Rises, we were all waiting to see which villain would challenge Batman. Rumors spread like wildfire regarding which villain and who would/should be cast.

I attempted to start a Facebook campaign back then insisting that The Big Bang Theory actor Jim Parson would absolutely nail it if he were cast as Edward Nigma/The Riddler.

Well guess what Jim just said?

*drops mic

2012: A Year-End Review – A Year to Forget Despite Being Surrounded By Reminders

2012 is coming to a close in the next few days.  This year, I think more than ever, social media has truly transcended from time-wasting hobby to an important and vital tool to inform just as much as entertain.  As an aspiring filmmaker who has already tasted snippets of success because of social media, I am witness to a “changing-of-the-guard”  in how marketing and advertising as a whole has evolved in ways that no one could have possibly imagined.  With that in mind, the same can be said to the biggest stories of the year.

Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and blog sites like this one have all become the greatest and most effective way to share information from news to viral videos.  So it should come to no surprise to anyone that social media helped crown the two biggest new artists of the year.  The first, would you believe, is a Korean rapper?

The Dark Knight Rises

In 2005 Christopher Nolan shocked and awed us with his extraordinary vision of the genesis story of Bruce Wayne. A young boy whose parents were murdered in front of his eyes and grew up to become the vigilante crime fighter known as Batman. This was “Batman Begins.”

Many die-hard fans of the Batman franchise believed this was a fluke or a string of dumb luck much like “The Sixth Sense” has become for M. Night Shyamalan. Granted Nolan had already established himself as a very respectable filmmaker with movies like “The Prestige” and “Insomnia” but the idea of him taking on a comic book franchise to the big screen was not believed possible. Nolan’s response to that? “Send in the clowns.” Or one clown specifically…

Dark Knight Tragedy

In the midst of what is supposed to be one of the most exciting nights of movie premiere history, a horrible and unspeakable crime is committed.  A 24 year-old neuroscience Ph.D candidate named James Eagan Holmes dressed himself in riot gear from head to toe including a gas mask and armed himself with several firearms.  He stormed into the a movie theater shortly after midnight by breaking in through the emergency exit and opened fire.  As of now, 12 people have been killed and 59 are wounded.  Among the people in the theater were members of the military as well as moviegoers of all ages.  “The Dark Knight Rises” is supposed to be  

Happy 2012

I would be remise if I didn’t write a regular post first off wishing all of my readers a very happy and healthy 2012.  Here we (pretty much everyone) go again proclaiming our newfound and sudden inspiration with a laundry list of resolutions, ideas, and inspirations to accomplish throughout the year.  (Most of which we’ll probably forget by the end of January.)  Lose weight, be a better person, take a trip, etc.

I’m no exception to being a victim of the moment either.  I want to get in better shape, I want to find a job so I can finally be a real adult; buy a car, move out of the house, be 100% financially independent. (Right now I’m pretty close to that, but still.)  I have so much stuff to hang up on the walls, and I’m tired of having it piled up behind my door.

I WILL NOT even entertain the Mayan prediction about the end of the world presumed to be on December 20, 2012.  I will however bring up the wonders of 2012.  The London Summer Olympics, a new presidential election in the United States.  (I will not express my political opinions or social position regarding politics, so don’t ask.)

The Dark Knight Rises Villains Revealed

Even before the ink was dry on the envelope that revealed the late Heath Ledger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in “The Dark Knight” for his role as The Joker, rumors were already hungrily circulating over the possible next Batman installment. First and foremost, audiences wanted to know if Christopher Nolan would return as the Director and C0-Writer of the script. A few months after the Oscars, all he revealed was that he would do another Batman, it would be his last, and there will be no Robin. The last part of the news was probably the biggest relief to the fans.

Then the real speculation and rumors started and had been going on for a better part of two years. Rumors about the storyline, when production would begin, and more importantly: which villains would be in the movie and who would be cast to play those rolls?

Fans and fanatics alike began blogging like maniacs all their speculations, rumors they had supposedly heard, and proudly stated their theories over which villains there would be and who would be cast. Fan posters started popping up everywhere on the Internet with which villain they wanted to see and who would portray them. I myself took part in this little theory game when I created a facebook fan page for Jim Parsons to be cast as The Riddler. In all honesty, based on his acting abilities not only on the hit TV show, The Big Bang Theory where he has already won an Emmy, but also in his work in the movie Garden State, I really believed he would have made an amazing Riddler. But alas, I too was among the fanboys who were wrong.

Most of the fan-made posters I saw were actually really compelling that changed accordingly and as accurately as the rumors had. Most claimed that Phillip Seymore Hoffman would be cast as The Penguin. After that, it was a crap shoot. Everyone, myself included, truly believed that The Dark Knight sequel, (recently revealed to be titled “The Dark Knight Rises”) would include The Riddler. Speculation as to who fans wanted to portray him stretched from Neil Patrick Harris to Johnny Depp to Eminem! That’s right, Eminem. I’ll give you a minute to take that in…