22 "Stunt" Street

One of my favorite recent movies to come out is 22 Jump Street. A very memorable point in the movie was when Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill crash the football helmet go-kart into the goal post of the football field at the end of the game after a tense and “expensive” chase around campus. The resulting shot was this.

The shot shows bystanders on the field and the previous shots give a strong sense of realism and make it look like the whole endeavor was very dangerous overall.

How I would have done the shot is film the leadup of the chase to where i was eventually using a long telephoto to close the depth of the car to the goalpost at the last second to give the sense of a real crash while the car is either in reverse away from the post, or very slow and sped up for that split second hitting the post, added the explosions in afterwards through some VFX work, which due to the masking of the shot and the colors and such, that is what it looks like was done here. toppling the goalpost would be done very controlled with a crane for safety, attached to the top of the post and lowered slowly, yet out of frame and the tighter shot seen here would be easily possible with bystanders at a safe distance. Everyone would be safe, and no real fire or damage to vehicles or people would happen.

Guardians of the Galaxy Review

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 “Guardians of the Galaxy” embodies the comic sci-fi action hero movie genre with all the comedic genius to keep you thoroughly engaged to a cinematically stunning and utterly intense movie that follows the endeavors surrounding the life of “Starlord” Peter Quill, played by Chris Pratt. Peter Quill is a rough and tough outlaw junker looking to make a dime by scrapping junk and taking names. HIs plights dump him in jail all over a seemingly insignificant metal orb where he is suddenly accompanied by a few other outlaws from the stretches of the galaxy, Drax, Groot, Rocket Raccoon, and Gamora ally to his side and bust out of jail after a few “solid” steps pan out. This insignificant orb is found to be quite the treasure and while our hero team wants to clear their outlaw names with their spoils, we find that there is no drive-thru relic buyers in the galaxy to take the orb off their hands. Debts are to be settled and our baddies hunt the powerful relic down. The movie keeps up momentum throughout as we delve deeper into the distrust of the antagonist Kree hierarchy whose eventual demise is the work of it’s radical leader, Ronan, whose power-lust tips the climax of the movie.

The movie is a real stunner with a killer soundtrack whose tunes are so fleshed out, it could be a walking, talking cassette tape who basically becomes a character as near and dear to our hearts as the likes of Groot. Lighting, location, and other aesthetics are beautiful, VFX and CGI are top tier from Marvel and never for a second would you think that Rocket or Groot weren’t as real as the person sitting in the theater seat next to you. (Even after you see Groot on set.)

Going into the movie I really had no idea what to expect, having never even heard of the comics of their characters before, and only having seen the trailer once, I couldn’t have wanted a better movie from beginning to end. I laughed and cried, (okay, maybe just on the inside,) and thoroughly enjoyed a solid story with a ton of laughs, well developed characters, beautiful imagery, and utterly flawless audio. And when I say a ton of laughs, I mean genuine comedy.

I realize that not everyone will enjoy this movie as with any movie, someone won’t like it, someone probably thinks it’s the worst movie ever made, but let’s face it, you could search endlessly through Netflix for hours on end looking for a movie that you think is worth your time. Or you can make the best decision of your life and hunt down this movie and watch it with all of your friends and see what good cinema is like.

Check out more info on the more on IMDb.