Why am I still a Solo shooter ten years in?

I started out taking photographs in High School I didn’t suck at it. I made films all throughout my life, even when I didn’t know what I was doing. I have always written stories. The first one I can remember was in sixth grade. It was awful and the actors were forced to be in it. But it was fun and I always have a story to tell. You can find my book listed on Amazon and Abe Books. You cannot buy one and there will probably never be another print run, but there it is.

I will probably write another book in the future. I actually have one that I want to finish called “Overwhelming Evil”. It is a story about a teenager who is being hunted by an evil entity only to discover that the real demon is something much worse. However, I have been writing that for about twelve years and I am only at thirty thousand words. Let’s just say, it will be a while.

The Beginning

I started down this trek of filmmaking as a hobby. I started making VLogs (Video Blog) in 2008 with just a webcam. I found the process to be more than just fun, I found it to be fulfilling. I bought a better camera and then got a DSLR. Thank God for the DSLR revolution! When I got my first DSLR or semi-professional camera, it changed how I looked at everything that I filmed. I realized that I could do more than just sit in front of it and talk. I could make my own programming. And make stuff I did. I made a bunch of little comedy shorts and a couple of dramatic things. I won my first film festival, then another. It made sense that I would keep it up. I really thought that I was on my way to something, and I still do.

I wasn’t schooled in the way of shooting or writing things those days. I just did it by the seat of my pants. My actors would sometimes ask me “what am I doing this for?” I would answer with “just trust me, it will work”. It did work for the most part. I only have one film I shot that no one has seen.

Summer Feature

I got to be one of the lead actors in a movie. too! You can find it on IMDB and it used to be on Amazon Prime but as of today, I don’t know where you can watch it. I had fun that summer. I got to run around and bother my co-star with crabby dialogue and somewhat witty banter. In post-production I had to save the movie from digital oblivion and probably should have received an Editor credit for that but, that’s ok. I got paid for that too. Always a plus. Made being out of work that year worth it. The really interesting part about the whole thing is that the entire thing was filmed on DSLRs. They didn’t have any studio type lights just panel lights as I use now, other than they weren’t as good. It was truly an independent film in every aspect of the phrase. I wish I could do that twice a year or even three times a year. It is, so far, as close to my goal of making a film as I have come and I didn’t even make the thing, just acted in it.

Live Television

Paul G Newton Live Broadcast TV Aircheck For Editing and Music.

About that same time, I went to work for 40/29 as the Chief Editor. It was a lesson in humility. I learned that no matter how good you are at your job, if you aren't on the TV, you are expendable. I suppose that is a little harsh, but it felt that way. I tried to be involved with the production and be a helping hand to make the show better every time it aired, I did. Anyone reading this that may have worked there when I did, I think you know that I just wanted it to be better. Or at least I hope they know this. But, in the end, I always felt expendable and more of a nuisance than anything else. In the end, I had to leave the station to retain my sanity. TV news can be the most stressful job ever invented to torture humankind.

Now, for the past few years, I have been doing product videos and testimonial interviews. It is fun, and generally, no one is breathing down my neck. But all these things I have created, the stories I have told, the commercials I have created, have all been done by me with no one helping. I did my own writing, filming, lighting, editing, and effects. Occasionally I would have someone helping with this or that (other than actors) but on a consistent basis, I did them all on my own and still make them by myself.

Product Videos and Commercials

Now What Do I Do?

That leads me to the question I put forth in the title of this blog. Why am I still a solo shooter? Why haven’t I been able to break through and start working on a production that tells a story not linked to a product? It flummoxes me to no end. I know how to do everything only because I have had to do everything. What can I do to move forward?

I am not one to settle and without some significant progress, I feel I am doing just that.

Since you are here and reading this, do me a huge favor and think about what you think it may take to break out. I know I need to relocate to where the stories that I love to tell and watch are being made and I am trying. It costs a ton of cash to just up and move.

What I think I need to do is make more films that tell stories. I need to create. But I know that is not enough. Very few people see my work these days. It is kind of scary to see the low numbers on my stats page. I do not aspire to become the next YouTube or Twitter star. I do not have dreams of becoming a millionaire from making films. I would be happy pulling down fifty to sixty thousand a year if it meant I was able to make stories people want to see. I don’t want to do anything other than telling great stories with great people.

I tried to make one this summer, here is a snippet. I hope I get to tell more this coming year.

I guess I will keep plugging along.

Movie Review: Bad Boys For Life

If you haven’t heard yet, Will Smith is attempting to rekindle his career in action movies. The box office success of the 1995 film “Bad Boys” has sparked two sequels. In 95’ the movie was welcomed with open arms with its signature song and the massive popularity of the main stars, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. This movie helped to propel the career of Micheal Bay as a box office master of action and, what my dad calls “shoot em up” movies. By today's standards, the film didn’t make that much money, but by 1995 standards it was a smash hit making an estimated 140 million on a 90 million dollar budget. Bad Boys II came out in 2003 and cost almost 130 million to make and took in 273 million. Again, delivering on the promise of the first movie and, well, winning.

When Bad Boys premiered, the Miami lifestyle still had some “Miami Vice” reverberations and people were ready to see that vibe portrayed again. With audiences flocking to the other hits of the year like “12 Monkeys”, “Nixon” and the still-relevant “Seven”, we were all in the mood for a light-hearted action flick reminiscent of “Lethal Weapon.” Transferring the theme song from the hit TV reality show “COPS” didn’t hurt either. This movie didn’t let the theater-going audiences down as it delivered a healthy dose of camp, action, jokes, and star-power. I enjoyed the movie so much at the time that I bought it (there was no streaming then) and the soundtrack too. Although I found it “meth-lab” trailer park to play the theme song so I stuck to the other tracks when there was a possibility of someone eavesdropping on my musical choices. Bad Boys II might be considered a better film, and it made just as many people happy as the first, myself included

And now, in 2020, “Bad Boys For Life” has made itself known. For what, I am not entirely sure, but it might not be something good. It is playing on the same tropes as the past two movies with all the throw-back lines and situations. Nothing in the film was new and there is no twist ending.

CAUTION, SPOILERS AHEAD

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The movie is almost a repeat of Bad Boys II when it comes to the interpersonal relationship between Smith and Lawrence. Sure they forwarded the story a touch with Lawerence’s family but nothing has changed between them and Smith is still unresolved as a character. In fact, I would suggest that neither character has any real movement and leave the movie as they came in, stagnant from the previous two films

The biggest issue I have with the film is that it resembles an 80’s or 90’s action flick a little too much. Most of the scenes were made fun of in one of my favorite movies “Last Action Hero.” In the film, they bring all the stupid things screenwriters do to make an action movie move forward without getting too much into the details when they have run out of things to blow up or minions to kill. In fact, much of the movie has those nameless, faceless villains wearing motorcycle helmets riding motorcycles and driving chase cars with heavily tinted windows. Our heroes can kill as many of them as they want and no one worries about the body count because they are bad guys after all. This movie even goes so far as to have them chewed out by their police captain who yells and screams like a little baby about how much these two guys wreak havoc on the city. Even after the blistering attack from the boss, the hero gets a new team with abilities unknown to Smith. But, we find out that the team is good, but they don’t have what it takes to be a real old school cop like Smith and Lawrence so they flounder.

Then there are the unnecessary and unreal explosions and weaponry. Cars do not blow up when they are shot with a rifle round, motorcycles cannot roam around the city with a military machine gun attached to the front of a motorcycle sidecar and grenades do not have enough force to push a motorcycle onto its front wheel. But this is the movies, so I may just let most of this stuff go. Ok, I won’t. It is just too ridiculous.

But there’s more.

In my humble opinion, when a screenwriter gets stuck or can’t see beyond their own creations eyes they do dumb things. Just like in the film “Batman VS Superman,” the duo is miraculously saved at the end of the movie when the team they left behind in Miami suddenly appears to give the crucial assist. This is amateurish and Smith and Lawerence should have been able to figure this out by themselves. It would have been a way better ending.

Instead, the screenwriters wrote themselves into a corner by having fifteen or so bad guys attack the guys in Miami. The rule of thumb for writing a screenplay is to make the next set of bad guys tougher than the last. Well, the only way they could do that is to double up on the number of bad guys since there was no set up for a supervillain henchman as that role was taken by the sub-plot of the super henchman being Will Smiths son. Yes, you heard me right, he had a child with the main bad girl. Explained to us in a reflective scene, we find that Will’s first assignment out of the academy was to be an undercover operative in a Mexican cartel. Just Another overused trope that this movie intends to cram down our throats in an unsuccessful attempt to make the audience care for the Characters that fails miserably.

Top all of that off with the Super Henchman (AKA Will’s son) is captured after turning on his mother and given a second chance to prove his worthiness even after killing the police captain, everyone’s dear friend, in cold blood just thirty minutes before. I mean Come On!

While I could go on and on about this film, I wonder if it will find an audience that revels in its creation. The world has changed and sensibilities have deepened. Can a 1908’s style buddy cop flick hold it’s own? If so, I can write that. And it would probably be better than this 1.5-star silly movie. Mostly because I always try to avoid cliché’s when writing a story. This movie leaves me wondering if our society has digressed to the point that a good story isn’t as crucial as making stuff blow up. The box office take for this movie will tell us and I hope it’s not bad news.

New podcast!

As of today, I have a new podcast available on Apple podcasts called “Aul G Newton on Everything”. Go to the podcast app on your apple device or visit the page or go to the page if you don’t have an Apple device or use iTunes. 

https://www.paulgnewton.com/paulgnewton-on-everything