Saturday, March 23, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Amy Jo Johnson's Directorial Debut short Bent in Miami Women's International Film Festival
She arrived, took pictures against a screen. Then the fans went up to her and have her sign cards and Legacy Morphers. I was so jealous to see two guys with Legacy Morphers as I was not able to find them at Toys R Us, they found them at a TRU that is far from me. In fact, I live near where the Film Festival is being held, it is right in front of my old high school Design and Architecture Senior High School. So it was so surreal to take a picture with Amy Jo and see my old school across the way through the window. So before the short, she spoke and then did a Q & A afterward.
Summary:
Two friends meet every year at a cemetery to catch up on each other's lives, they grew up in a religious cult. One is a lawyer (Johnson) and another is pregnant (Sonya Salomaa) and smokes and drinks.
Review:
I don't want to reveal much, not that there is a big twist ending or anything but you gotta see it. I know it is hard because it is not going to be on Netflix or anything.. yet. I just don't want to spoil much. Amy Jo says as her directorial debut, she knew some things but didn't know it took so many things in editing and color correction, etc. She learned a lot. The shoot took 2 days but the prep for it took a month and the post-production was the same. She plans to write a full length feature that will sort of be a sequel but you don't need to see the short to get it. She says it is based on her real life but she created the two characters.
Overall it is a nice short, she seems to long for long sustaining establishing shots and minimal close ups. The dialogue is engaging and the photography is crisp and pretty. It is a good effort for a first attempt and Amy Jo actually glows on the screen, in fact both actresses are electric and have great chemistry.
In the Q&A, not a lot of people had their hands up but slowly questions came up. She looked kinda sad when there wasn't questions so I raised my hand and asked how did her character influenced her wardrobe. She answered and also added that her real life her family was in a religious cult. And one scene from the short actually happened. [In the short, the two main characters flash (we don't see nudity) a house belonging to the cult.]
Overall it is a nice short, she seems to long for long sustaining establishing shots and minimal close ups. The dialogue is engaging and the photography is crisp and pretty. It is a good effort for a first attempt and Amy Jo actually glows on the screen, in fact both actresses are electric and have great chemistry.
In the Q&A, not a lot of people had their hands up but slowly questions came up. She looked kinda sad when there wasn't questions so I raised my hand and asked how did her character influenced her wardrobe. She answered and also added that her real life her family was in a religious cult. And one scene from the short actually happened. [In the short, the two main characters flash (we don't see nudity) a house belonging to the cult.]
By the way, sorry the pictures are bad but I didn't want to overstep my boundaries. But a great night and Amy Jo was super nice!!!
Pictures she posted on Instagram:
http://instagram.com/p/XJEsWulD-j/
http://instagram.com/p/XJEIxLFD9t/
Lauren the female Red Ranger on cover of Super Samurai DVD
Volume 4 of Power Rangers Super Samurai will be released June 11th. I am happy Lauren, the female Red Ranger is on the cover of the box but one nitpick is that the Pink Ranger is not on the box, but go figure, it's not nothing to go crying to mama about.
EPISODES:
“The Master Returns”
“A Crack in the World”
“Stroke of Fate”
“Fight Fire With Fire”
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES*
“Everyday Fun” music video
“The Power Rangers MEGA Album Playlist” video
*Subject to change
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Poll Results: Super Megaforce
Now that we saw GokaiGreen in the New Zealand set, what do you think the Gokaiger footage will be used for?
Main Suits
98
(74%)
Rival Group
55
(41%)
Silver Only
24
(18%)
Do you think the Gokaiger suits will be used only for a rival group in Super Megaforce?
Yes
36
(26%)
No
46
(33%)
Maybe
41
(29%)
Don't Know
15
(10%)
Which toy platform do you think would be open for Gender Change Rangers like in Gokaiger?
Mega Bloks
51
(40%)
Battle Ready Minis
30
(23%)
Action Figures
92
(73%)
Squinkies
20
(15%)
Never
29
(23%)
SPOILERS: Super Megaforce Spoilers #1
I am going to start numbering the spoilers and clumping them together. Well if you don't want to be spoiled don't click 'click here.' If you do want to be spoiled click 'click here.' There are a couple of pictures on the set of Power Rangers Super Megaforce. For people who follow me and other PR fans on Twitter, this is no surprise.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Huffington Post article about Power Rangers and Power Force
The following article
is not only about Power Force but about Saban acquiring the series from Disney and how Megaforce is like MMPR but they mention the Fan Club back in 1994 and how it was a one-way relationship and Power Force and the online community is a 2-way communication. I like this explanation better for Power Force (which Elie Dekel still refers to as Super Fans). It also shows Dekel is liking Power Force.
With such a strong following of fans, Saban developed the concept of a super fan council, which received thousands of applications. The "Power Force" program honors a group of super fans with an influential online presence, passion and knowledge for the franchise and demonstrate active fan involvement. These super fans utilize their influence and relationships within the Power Ranger community to help build and expand Power Ranger initiatives.
"They tell us what they think all the time, we now have a closed communication with this group whose critiquing every episode, making suggestions, storylines, and every time we have something new to say, we tell our Power Force first and before we can check our inboxes, they've re-tweeted and post it." [Elie Dekel]
Height and Sizes of Actors and Suit Actors (Power Rangers and Super Sentai)
Now there is a lot of debate over the heights of the Rangers but I don't think it matters. It doesn't bother me because the height of the Rangers from the actors to the suit actors have changed and varied so drastically through the years. Some people might not agree with me, hell maybe none at all.
First example is Denji Sentai Megaranger where the Mega Pink is the shortest. Her suit actress Naoko Kamino later was a substitute for Gao White, Deka Pink, Bouken Pink and Gosei Pink---the last two being played by men.
As you can see the suit actress reached the yellow band on Mega Red's shoulder but the actual actress reached his head.
In Power Rangers in Space, the Pink Ranger's head reached half of the Red Ranger while Patricia J Lee (Cassie) reached about the same to Christopher Lee (Andros). But she wasn't as short as MegaPink. Many times when using the sentai footage, it looked like she shrunk.
In Goseiger, Gosei Red was the shortest red ranger in a long time. Gosei Red Alata Chiba Yudai's height was 173 cm, which is about 5'8"
& suit actor Yasuhiro Takeuchi is 170 cm, 5'6.92"--almost 5'7". This was the only time Yasuhiro ever played a Red Ranger, he mostly did Green, Black, Yellow and other colors. Gosei Blue is the tallest.
In Power Rangers, the Red Ranger is slightly taller than Gosei Red.
Andrew R Gray (Troy) is 5'11," which is about the height of most Red Rangers. He is 4 inches taller than the Sentai suit actor and 3 inches taller than the Gosei Red actor Chiba Yudai. John Loudermilk (Noah) is indeed the tallest but Andrew isn't as short as Alata.
Look at the heights here. Above is Goseiger footage in Megaforce and the bottom is Power Ranger exclusive footage in New Zealand. They are all in the same positions: Yellow, Blue, Red, Black and Pink but some heights are similar and some not. In Goseiger, Blue is way taller than Red, in Megaforce, Blue is still as tall but almost the same height as Black. While in Goseiger, Black is taller than Red but shorter than Blue. In the pictures provided, Gosei Yellow reaches Blue's shark tail but Megaforce Yellow reaches a bit higher than that. Megaforce Pink is significantly shorter than Megaforce Black conpared to Gosei Pink. Gosei Pink reaches the top of Gosei Black's visor while Megaforece Pink reaches the bottom of Megaforce Black's visor. But Super Sentai uses one or two suit actors, while Power Rangers uses multiples and more than one and they vary in height.
UPDATED 3:42 PM EST
Phil, who just commented on this post brought up the good point of Catherine Sutherland, who replaced Amy Jo Johnson--who was much shorter than Jason David Frank. Catherine was about the same height as JDF, she was much taller than Amy Jo. They didn't change the suit actor from Kimberly to Katherine but the suit actress for Kimberly did leave after the movie and beginning of season three. Anyway, when they went back to pre-shot footage or Zyuranger footage, Kat was shorter than Tommy. Once in Zeo and Turbo, they got an actor tall enough to be side by side Tommy but when they went to Ohranger or Carranger footage, she was as short. But this point goes with other times an Actor was changed like MMPR (Aisha, Rocky and Adam taking place of Trini, Jason and Zack) or Turbo (TJ, Ashley, Carlos and Cassie taking place of Tommy, Tanya, Adam and Kat). They didn't change the suit actors when those changes happened, I don't even think they changed them from Kendrix to Karone in Lost Galaxy.