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-- Review: L.A. Twister (2004) (http://www.vcdhq.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=47408)

Well to start off I wanted to say I haven't had a chance to see this film.....but I definetly want to, and I WILL buy the DVD, i love to support Indie films, as of late these are some of the best flicks I have seen.

As far as Piracy, Im all for it! If Hollywood could prove itself and stop making all these bullshit movies, then I would revert back to my old self, when i used to go see 2-3 movies a day on my days off, I didn't mind spending the money, then seemed movies had more substance. Plus the fact that the cost was around 3.75 for a matinee and 5.25 for evening show, so if the movies complete BLEW, it was that big a dent in your walllet. Now we have ticket prices around $9 each!!!! I mean that last timeI went the cinema, with my wife and son, it had spent $40 before we even sat down, and to top it off I thought the movie was SHIT!!!

So YES i will continue to download movies, if its a great movie, it will join my other 300+ purchased DVD's i have now. I will support a GREAT film, but i will NOT support the MPAA and Hollywood, they can kiss my ass, if your gonna raise the price of tickets you BETTER raise the quality of your films.....turn off the freakin computers for a little while and get back to making movies the right way!!

and Sven lookin forward to getting a hold of this flick, and keep it up dont let Hollywood convert you, and you will be supported 100% by true movie fans

Look for my purchase of your movie

hi all,

Its superb to see Sven Pape on here and i would like to thank him for taking the time to post on this forum.

I saw LA Twister the other week although it was a pirate copy and the quality wasnt that great but it was watchable. It is definetely one of the best films this year so far i have seen.

Fantastic Job!

I believe piracy can help smaller films become mainstream and LA Twister is a great example. I live in the UK and i will probably never see it here at the cinema, and now having watched a copy, i will be defintely purchasing the dvd from the states or the UK whenever it hits the shops here.


Marc

Sven Pape, movie looks good. I have not had the chance yet to watch it.

My two cents about piracy.When it comes to film, would you not be amazed if alot of people saw your movie? Like sure money is tight on your early pictures, but if one of my early movies got pirated and then blasted over the internet. I'd go insane that so many people want to see it and have seen it.
And I would only hope they got the final copy not any workprint, and the pic and audio is good.

Quick question for Sven.

Any tips for getting into the movie industry?

Just wanted to hear it from someone with experience in the industry. I just want to get all the tips i can, so hopefully one day my films can be pirated :P

__________________
I Just Want to Be like Radiohead, And do something ingenious.

on being blacklisted, on getting in the movie industry

Thanks for keeping those posts coming. I do appreciate your concerns about me going out on a limp, but I don't think there is much reason for concern. The only blacklist that exists in Hollywood is the one of filmmakers that don't make money.

It's very simple, by me allowing you to pirate my movie, there is nothing illegal about it anymore. As independent I own my movie and if I chose to allow the world to pirate my movie, I can do so. If studios or other filmmakers feel differently about their films, so be it. A few thousand people more that know about L.A. TWISTER won't hurt me nor my investors (they are smart enough to support this effort, because they realize that awareness is the key to marketing).

Mystic, you wanted Jennifer's phone number, sorry no can do... If you like, I'll be happy to forward an email to her. (you can contact me through our website (Go to "Press", then click "Contact", this way you don't have to reveal your address).

EViL, tips on getting in the movie industry: I think you have to be open to those opportunities that come your way and than stick with the projects that you do take on. I studied producing at AFI because I didn't get into the directing program. A lot of the producer were like me (wanna-be directors, a lot of them dropped out). After film school I bought a Final Cut Pro system (this is when Apple just came out with it). Suddenly I was the guy that could edit stuff cheaply on the fly. Editing I really learned a lot about storytelling. A few month down the road I was helping a friend do his first feature. He asked me if I wanted to produce, but I wasn't interested. However I liked his idea of doing a live webcast from his set which is just another form of storytelling. I used Final Cut Pro for editing the trailers and little stories that were part of the show. So we did the first-ever live webcast from a movie set. Suddenly I get a call and I become the web cast guy for James Cameron's return expedition to the Titanic. Cameron's younger brother David is a computer gamer/internet surfer and he saw the stuff we did online. So I was webcasting from the North Atlantic as James Cameron is doing dive missions to the Titanic. (That’s not really a job you can apply for or take a study course). After the expedition I helped digitizing footage for Cameron’s Imax film GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS (I was doing the night shift and worked on his AVID (editing system) in Malibu). I would use the time to learn the system. Using the footage I digitized I would cut a little opening sequence for what I thought Cameron’s film could be like (without him knowing it). One day Jim saw it and said: "That's kind of OK. You're hired. Now change it this way." So I became one of the film editors.

I never planned to be an editor; I never planned to work for Cameron. I never planned to study producing in film school. What I planned was to become a filmmaker. Opportunities came and I kind of went with what seemed to be an interesting personal challenge at the time knowing that ultimately it has to somehow lead to making a film by myself. I’m still far away from feeling all that comfortable calling myself a filmmaker but with every project I hope to get a little bit closer.

Oh, one other thing. I really think it isn't about who you know, it's about how you do it (and almost more importantly that you stick with it).

OK, enough said. Good times,


Sven

I'm sure this has been said plenty of times, but I figured i'd say it again...It's nice to see someone who is more interested in making a good film then a buttload of money(though i'm sure both would be nice).

Hopefully you will get your "big break" soon, because I feel like you deserve it. That and when I have kids i want to see a commercial for a movie directed by you, and be all like "Yeah kids I posted in a message on vcdquality.com that Sven Pape posted in." I bet my kids will really think i am badass then.

So good luck with all your future work.Btw this is all coming from someone who hasn't seen the movie yet, but plans to.

well sven, i showed ur movie to a large group of people the other night (25 or more) and they all loved it.... u are one of the best directors around atm... cheers for this great flick i have a feeling most of the ppl there will b buying dvds... this has won u a lot of fans and im sure theyll all keep watching ur movies... i know i will

Interesting mini-bio about yourself Sven. Pretty sweet.

I didnt realize you did Ghost of the Abyss Sven. That was ONE facsinating documentary on the Titanic. It was awesome to see those rovers go into the ship and take pictures, that a diver could not. One part that was bad, was when that one rover got stuck, and they gut the line, and then got another one to retrive it and battery died... Hella technical problems... But movie was great... =).

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Originally posted by Jc100
I didnt realize you did Ghost of the Abyss Sven. That was ONE facsinating documentary on the Titanic. It was awesome to see those rovers go into the ship and take pictures, that a diver could not. One part that was bad, was when that one rover got stuck, and they gut the line, and then got another one to retrive it and battery died... Hella technical problems... But movie was great... =).

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I haven't seen LA Twister yet, but here is a case in point for your idea that piracy is good. Not that anyone here needed to be informed...

http://wired.com/news/culture/0,128...tw=wn_tophead_1

this thread is dying.... what wud u reccomend for sum1 interested in getting into a carrer in film editing?

It's not dying at all. Just because it's a pretty exclusive thread in VCDQ's forums, doesn't mean it has to run on forever.

Now back on to the subject at hand.

Let's have some more discussion about this excellent movie. Come on, the majority of you that have posted here claiming you will watch it soon must have seen it by now.

So let's have some reaction and discussion!

Watched this movie a while back and forgot to post about it.
Not the greatest movie but I think thats just because its not my style, I can still see that this movie was brilliantly edited and acted out, with a great (yet sort of confusing at times) story.

Sven I think its awesome that a director is getting as involved with fans of his movie as you are, esepecially by putting this thread onto the dvd. I think what would be cool is an interview with you describing the whole events such as how you found mystic's review, and this thread..i dunno something about seeing you talk about it would make it really cool,
anyway i will most likely be buying this dvd out of support for you Sven and of course to see the oh so interesting extras

on Wilco...

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I haven't seen LA Twister yet, but here is a case in point for your idea that piracy is good. Not that anyone here needed to be informed...

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That's an awesome idea. I have a couple of suggestions for charities you could donate to.

NSPCC, Amnesty International, Oxfam. All worthy charities and more on a global scale rather than concentrated to one country.

I'll be buying the DVD though, i want the real deal on my shelf.

Sven, as a side note, have you had any further developments regarding this forum thread with your peers? Hope your not being treated as the black sheep.

How about the, buy Duke a new car cause his job sucks and he has no money charity…

Or if you prefer to help people you could check out charity navigator. They have a Database of over 3,200 Charitys. And rate charitys on things such as, Efficiency, Expenses, Organizational capacity and income status.

__________________

Those who failed to oppose me, who readily agreed with me,
accepted all my views, and yielded easily to my opinions,
were those who did me the most injury, and were my worst enemies.
--Napoleon Bonaparte

I've kept my mouth shut so far, because I was at work when this whole thing broke out, and a lot of posts were already here stating pretty much the usual thing. Plus I've written so many of these long piracy based posts, I wanted to contribute something a bit more this time

Piracy is such an odd subject, because its not simply a case of "its right" or "its wrong". People will lose money because of it... but thats the key.. money. It seems that the majority of large film houses have forgotten the "art" and seem to concentrate on making as much money as possible, even tho the industry is booming at the moment. And why shouldn't the industry be booming, lots of cheap sequels, remakes and badly written "teen comedies" that I'm shocked were even considered by a normal human being to be made. But people go to see them, people buy the DVDs, and they make a lot of money.. basically exploiting the masses stupidity. You can sell the same film to a lot of people over and over again in different guises, and they'll keep lapping it up.

When it come's to independent, obviously the money matters as it really can affect whether the next film will be made or not. But at the same time, you're only going to have limited marketing ability for a new, clever and original film compared to the WB will have for Police Academy 8. Its without doubt that more paying customers will go to, and even have the ability to see, a new Police Academy movie, compared to an independent that isn't backed or hyped by a larger studio. So in this aspect, piracy is good. If everyone out there took the "risk" of downloading a movie they don't necessary know much about, or recognise the actos/actresses, they might find they enjoy the films more. And if everyone does this... the studio will realise this. More theaters bring in more indies, and more people go to them due to previous experiences. Maybe then we can finally have a Hollywood that is capable of putting out more than about 5 good fims a year, and spending the rest of its budgets backing films that are guaranteed success. Miramax is probably the worst of the bunch, for buying the rights to foreign movies just to make sure they're not released. Whatever happened to the US release of Battle Royale? Oh yeah, its still in their vaults as they'd rather remake it than introduce the country to another kind of cinema. If it wasn't for piracy, I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't have seen that film in the west, and now there's a lot of hype surrounding HK, Korean and Japanese cinema again. Fingers crossed the same can happen for home grown talent. One of our (Mystic and myself) favorite movies of recent years was Interstate 60. Watching the extras shows you how hard a film it was to make due to the studios not wanting to buy films without obvious selling points.. the fact it was Bob Gale's project (creator of the Back to the Future series) meant nothing to them. I60 is without doubt one of the best storytelling films of recent years, and the fact it was close to not being made is... disgusting. At least on here, we have a decent community generally, and as we discuss movies that are freely available, a lot of people are opening their minds... this can only be a good thing surely. I don't think the majority of people downloading indie flicks are the kind that think "hey, i was going to buy this.. but now its free!", but the sort that are willing to take a chance. Personally, I don't think if i went down my local market, to see the scumbags selling pirated wares.. I don't think a film like LA Twister would be on their desks, regardless of the quality of filmmaking. Like the rest of the masses, they're more comfortable with selling commercialised crap, and in all honesty the only reason I dislike these people is because of the ethics involved, and the fact it puts people like us in a bad light. I couldn't give a damn if half of Hollywood closes overnight due to piracy, if it did it'd be because of their inability to create decent films, and it's their own doing. Independent cinema will always live on, as long as people have the ability to write and pick up a camera.. and create.

Amazingly, I think a thread like this will actually help spur the success of the movie. In the UK, if you're not online and you don't read industry publications, there's very little doubt that you won't have heard of a movie called LA Twister, but I think every active member of our community has.. and I think a large percentage of them have it now because of this! People see the fact the director has taken the time out to talk here, and rather than criticise and shout his mouth off about how our actions are killing him, seems pleased that people are talking about and enjoying his movie. It really does make a difference, and again.. hopefully this will spur sales of the DVD, and make the major labels take note. I'm sure if a new wave of independent filmmakers does manage to take Hollwood by storm, they'll manage to screw it up in their own special way.. but thats life

Incidentally, you're not actually the first film maker on our forum whose had their work put out on the net. Jane White is Sick and Twisted was distributed for free, and the director took note, so that might be of interest to you. Alas, I was never able to secure a copy myself, and I've never seen it advertised or mentioned on our shores. Which is a shame, as it sounds like an interesting movie i'd probably really enjoy. Personally, I have a PD150 sitting next to me thats aching to be used creatively, it's just a case of time, money and talent Maybe in the future I'll be able to comment on one of my own films being passed around the net (even if I'm the one to put it out there myself )

edit: oh yeah, forgot to mention good ol' Uwe Boll he should have his status changed from Filmmaker, to Marketing Genius.

__________________
563-773-1880

<Dwaggy> i caught you a delicious Bass
<The404> This is because you are an idiot

I hadnt heard of this movie until I read this thread.
It is good to see that some poeple (Sven) do understand that the whole movie scene can indeed benefit the film's success. from perusing his posts, I feel that he is not a money hungry hollywood dick, but he actually just wants his movie to be seen, well Sven, I will watch your movie, if is anythinj like MS says, I'm sure I will enjoy it, You better belive that I will be purchasing the dvd. I dont know if the dvd is already in production, but I heard you state that you were going to mirror this thread onto the special features, would also be nice if you could add a summarized list or "greetings to" of all the posters on this thread.

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Sven, as a side note, have you had any further developments regarding this forum thread with your peers? Hope your not being treated as the black sheep.

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would also be nice if you could add a summarized list or "greetings to" of all the posters on this thread [in the DVD].

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what wud u reccomend for sum1 interested in getting into a carrer in film editing?

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final cut pro? grrr! there's enough mac lovers on here already

(me whistles.. vegas, premiere pro, avid to those who don't want to join "the dark side" )

__________________
563-773-1880

<Dwaggy> i caught you a delicious Bass
<The404> This is because you are an idiot