Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

I recently watched Lemony Snicket's A series of Unfortunate Events for the first time in about two years. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is about three children whose parents Die in an Unfortunate fire and are sent to live with their closest relative, Their Great Count Olaf, played by Jim Carey. Director of Photograph Emmanuel Lubezki really sets the mood for this film, he does a fantastic job at taking the audience into the beautifully built sets and illuminating our hero's sunny, warm personalities and creating the great contrast that these children have with their surroundings.

Jim Carey is said to be "uncontrollable," quoted from Lemony Snicket's director Brad Silberling. Jim Carey's personality and improvisation skills are said to be amazing. When beginning the process it began with getting Jim Carey into costume and allowing him to improve. Many of the lines in the film were written into the script from Jim Carey's Improve tapes. No film is complete without scenery and John Dexter is in my opinion one of the best. You may not know him by name, but as a Production Designer his work speaks for itself. Some of his more note worthy films are; Sleepy Hollow, The Big Lebowski, Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest, and At World's End. You can look at his complete Filmography here IMDB.



I really enjoyed this film because of its Eclectic look, Mediterranean looking architecture such as triangular doorways and tall columns combined with old decorations and props that are both elegant and rusted. The world of Lemony Snicket's is hard to place, whether it is in current time or some other relative time line to our own world. This is essential in order to allow the audience to enter the world of Lemony Snicket's.

Last year there was some news of a Sequel to the film from the director Brad Siberling saying, "I would love nothing more than to a that(sequel) and we’ve been hoping to, so I think there will be a chance it may take a wildly different form but I think it will probably happen." In it's opening weekend the film pulled in roughly $30 million, then $12 in it's second, and $14 in it's third. Not a huge success considering the Studio's $140 million budget. All in all the total worldwide gross for 19 weeks of screen time was approximately $209 million dollars. The film was nominated for Four oscars including; Best Art Direction, Costume Design, Makeup, and Best Original Score. It won Best Makeup, by Valli O'Reilly and Bill Corso.

There are no confirmations of any Sequels yet, but keep your eyes out there and your fingers crossed, because I would like to see more of the world of Lemony Snicket's.

48 Hour Film Festival 2010

This Summer I participated in a festival of sorts that encourages filmmakers to get out there and make films. The 48 Hour Film Project's goal is ".. to advance filmmaking and promote filmmakers." Over one sleepless weekend filmmakers complete a film that can be anywhere from three to seven minutes long. Every part of the filmming and production process must be done within the set start and finish date, including special effects and score. I participated in two different cities and I can say that I have a new love for making films. Well enough talk, I'll show you.



I was the camera man for this project that I did along with some of my classmates. We were required by the competition to include a prop and a line into our film. The line was "That sure looks good to me" and the prop was a bottle, we won awards for the best use of both.

This next film for the Greensboro 48 hour film festival was with a couple of my friends and one of my teachers. This was my first introduction to the project and I can say that I have become more experienced from working on this project. An interesting thing about this film was that all of the scenes were shot chronologically. Our elements for this film were the line "You think you know everything" and the prop was a handkerchief. I was production designer and I also had an assistant. The cast and crew were excellent and they were thoroughly rewarded, winning awards for best Cinematography, best Special Effects, and many other awards and honorable mentions.



If you really want to make a movie try out the 48 hour film project it is a great experience and you meet a lot of interesting people and make some great movies. Challenge yourself, make up your own scenario, a random character, a prop, whatever it is get out there and make your own movies. I would like to see what you made, post your comment with a URL to your video here.