Story Walking

Blazing Toy Guns

The elders quorum in my ward right now is having a film festival. All of us were invited to contribute a short film of some sort, clip from home movies, or whatever. So me, Shellena, and my bro-in-law's family put this together. Its somewhat of a "Toy Story" inspired type of story. It was a lot of fun to make, and I think it turned out quite nice. I'll let you know if I win any award from the Elders Quorum Film Festival!


Thanks to
Tim Hall
Bethany Hall
Ethan and Eli Hall

and Shellena Tietjen for producing the short film.

The Hobbit - Behind the Scenes

I am predicting that 2012 is going to be an amazing year of film.
Hunger Games, Dark Knight Rises, Arriety (Studio Ghibli) Brave (Pixar), The Avengers, John Carter of Mars, Star Trek II, The Amazing Spider-Man, (possibly the Ender's Game adaptation?) and--The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Watching this behind the scenes video has made me long for Middle Earth much like I did every December in high school, with each installment of the Lord of the Rings I think its going to be rather amazing!

Dark Knight Rises- Teaser Trailer

This trailer doesn't show much, but I'm so stoked in either case. Tom Hardy as Bane looks more and more awesome, and the chanting in the background at the end has me intrigued. There has been a lot of speculation about why Bane for the villain. Quote from random IMDB user "Bane was a lame character in the '97 Batman & Robin film. But I have to say that the best graphic novel series that I've ever read (and I read a lot of comics back in the day) is the story of Bane and how he breaks Batman's back; he almost defeats Batman for good. He is the only villain to figure out how to take the bat down "for reals!" He's not just a dumb strong-guy. In the comic Bane breaks all the villains out of Arkham and for several weeks Batman spends every night putting them away again, no time for sleep or much of anything else. At the end of those 2 weeks, Bane fights Batman, now that he is weak and exhausted beyond human capability. Then Bane breaks Batman over his knee--as shown below.

Jeremy Lindström - America's Got Talent

That's right! My best friend, on national television. Jeremy Lindstrom: dude in the orange shirt, with white jacket over the girl with the microhpone's left shoulder. He's famous now! Isn't this awesome! The Summerwind Skippers is Jeremy's jump rope team and they got a YES from the judges, so now we are waiting to see them in Las Vegas when they jump again?
Jeremy had told me they tried out but he was sort of skeptical about whether or not we would actually see them on the air. I'm sure hundreds of people try out, but low and behold! They made it. Hopefully we will see them again. Check out the footage! They are the first act that appears on this youtube clip below.

Wedding Video Intro

Andy and Jen Ramos' Wedding Video Intro



In 2010 I shot some wedding footage for Jen and Andy Ramos (sis-in-law). There were some huge snags with finding a machine that could work with the footage that I took, but it turned out really nice. The video ended up having more than an hours worth of footage, but I thought it would be good to just post the opening segment, which has some really beautiful shots and some simple but (I thought cool) motion graphics.

Super 8 - J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg

With a season of extra-terrestrials, (Battle LA, Skyline, Cowboys and Aliens, Green Lantern) surprisingly, what has made this film a tangible and emotional experience surpassing others is not the action, CGI, nor crazy alien gadgetry and weaponry. On the contrary, the appeal to this hometown experience is the relationship of a few 15 year old kids as they endeavor to make a movie amidst the crazy events caused by an extra-terrestrial presence. And who better to build this experience than Producer Steven Spielberg who brought us E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial as well as Close Encounters. And Director J.J. Abrams whose previous creations have displayed an ability to build stories around curious and unexplained events (Lost, Fringe, Star Trek, Cloverfield)

This film has done well. Critics have liked it in general (83% on rotten tomatoes/ 7.9/10 IMDB) and viewers (Its first few weeks boast 72 Million at the box office coming in close second to Green Lantern's, whose reviews have been dismal to say the least, though I have yet to see so I will refrain from judgement)
Abrams and Spielberg have spoken of a desire to reach back to traditional practical effects and events to ground this sci-fi story in reality. The most important element of the story, (which it seems film makers are forgetting more and more), is that we want to spend time with good characters. Each 15 year old character, from Joe Lamb (played by Joel Courntey) to Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning) are subtle and responsive, like taking moments out of our own youth and embodying them in the characters. We spend a significant space of time just being with them and seeing their simple, but challenging lives. It seems to me that this film is actually about Friendship and Family and what really puts a rift in them, and how catastrophe often pulls us closer to the ones we love.

My IMDB Vote: 9/10
IMDB's Cumulative Votes: 7.9/10 (16,091 votes)

Parent Guide: The most offensive part of the film is the language. The group of young boys talks just like a group of 15 year old boys would... fairly vulgar and profane.