http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.aspThe B-Roll Movie Bloghttp://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.asp?perm=544<font size="3"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This past summer, Clint "Dirty Harry", "The Man with No Name" Eastwood was in town shooting a little film called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Torino_%28film%29">"Gran Torino"</a>. </span><br style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Check out the trailer!</span></font><br><br><br> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-fami ...http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.asp?perm=524<font style="font-family: Arial;" size="2">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I don't know if you feel as I do, but when I walk into a place like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Theatre_%28Detroit%29">Fox Theatre </a>or the <a href="http://www.dia.org/dft/">Detroit Film Theatre</a>, I'm struck with a sense of awe. It's just amazing that these places were made for film. They don't make 'em like that anymore and the multiplex just doesn't have the same character.&nbsp; <br><br></font><div style="text-align: center;"><font style="font-family: Arial;" size="2"><img style="width: 280px; height: 198px;" src="http://www.michigan.gov/images/mhc_shpo_Fox_3_49070_7.gif" border="0"></font><br></div><font style="font-family: Arial;" size="2"><br><br></font><div style="text-align: center;"><font st ...http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.asp?perm=513<p>In the world of tax incentives, there are winners and losers. This week, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit">City of Detroit</a> approved a $135,000,000 tax abatement over 25 years for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_Corporation">General Motors</a> to build the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Volt">Chevy Volt</a> electric car at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit/Hamtramck_Assembly">Poletown plant</a>. For that, GM says it will hire 550 additional employees.</p> <p>This is usually how it works: a company <b>(A)</b> wants to make something <b>(B)</b> and asks the government for financial consideration <b>(C)</b>even though everyone knows they have the cash to pay for it itself.</p> <p>Much is the same with <a href="http://en. ...http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.asp?perm=491<p>Out and about today I happened upon another film crew taking in the sights around Detroit. At Woodward and Congress, just up from "<a href="http://michpics.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/fist-of-a-champion-detroits-monument-to-joe-louis/">the fist</a>" and "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_Detroit">the spirit</a>" and just south of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_Martius_Park">Campus Martius Park</a> filming was underway in a little diner for the third installment of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289879/"><i>The Butterfly Effect</i></a>.<br></p><p><img style="width: 213px; height: 253px;" src="http://www.geocities.com/kishan_nie/photos/butterfly1.jpg" border="0"><br></p> <p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234541/"><i>The Butterfly Effect 3</i></ ...http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.asp?perm=479<font size="2"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Here's a little thought experiment.</span><br><br>Thanks to Governor Granholm's <a href="http://www.michigan.gov/filmoffice">tax incentives to ramp up movie production </a>in Michigan, it's only a matter of time before someone decides to shoot a film about the rise and fall of Detroit Mayor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Kilpatrick">Kwame Malik Kilpatrick</a>.</font><br><br><img style="width: 130px; height: 194px;" src="http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/Portals/0/images/mayor/Mayorkmk.jpg" align="left" border="0"><font size="3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">This story has everything a filmmaker could ever want! </span><br><br><font size="2">A family political dynasty. Youthful inspiration &amp; drive. "Sex, lies &amp; text messages" ...http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.asp?perm=474<P><FONT size=2>So, back in February Michael Gondry's film <EM>Be Kind Rewind</EM> landed in theaters with a thud. It's total gross in the U.S was around $11 million.</FONT></P> <P><FONT size=2>The plot, as I described it in <A href="http://metrotimes.com/film/review.asp?rid=24000" target=_blank>my review</A> was:</FONT></P> <P><FONT size=2>"Mike (Mos Def) is the hard-working cashier of a dispossessed video rental shop in Passaic, N.J. Entrusted with watching the store while his boss (Danny Glover) leaves town, Mike struggles to keep his abrasive and paranoid friend Jerry (Jack Black) from driving away the store's few remaining customers. Unfortunately, Jerry becomes magnetized after attempting to sabotage the local power plant and accidentally erases every tape in the shop.</FONT></P> ...http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.asp?perm=466<P>So, I'm standing&nbsp;at the Ann Arbor Whole Foods deli counter waiting for my turn to get&nbsp;a sandwich&nbsp;and I hear this voice that sounds awfully familiar. It takes me about 12 seconds to realize it's Juliette Lewis' voice. Weird, I know. After all, her Hollywood star wattage isn't exactly incandescent. But I have this uncanny ability to place cartoon voices as well. </P> <P>Anyway, she's ordering the quinoa salad or somesuch and out of the corner of my eye I'm watching her and thinking... she was once the hot&nbsp;crazy chick engaged to Brad Pitt. (Before her need to shed Xenu's bad vibes... or whatever Scientologists obsess about). But now, she just&nbsp;looked kinda old. </P> <P>She was dressed in timeless California&nbsp;I-refuse-to-acknowledge-my-real-age garb (lace up sa ...http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.asp?perm=464<P><FONT size=2>After two weeks <EM>Tropic Thunder</EM> has pulled in $55 million. Which is respectable but hardly earth-shattering for a comedy that cost nearly $100 million to make and stars three pretty popular actors. </FONT></P> <P><FONT size=2>When you compare it to Stiller's last flick, the craptacular <EM>Hearthbreak Kid</EM> ($37 million), I have to wonder why this one didn't bring y'all out. </FONT></P> <P><FONT size=2>Was it because of the protests from </FONT><A href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/12/film.tropic.thunder.protest.ap/"><FONT size=2>American Association of People with Disabilities</FONT></A><FONT size=2> about Stiller's insensitivity to the mentally challenged?</FONT></P> <P><FONT size=2>Protests actually resulted in a fake website promoting Stiller' ...http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.asp?perm=451<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT></o:p>&nbsp;</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Way back in the wintry dawn of the year, attached to a print of the geriatric Rambo sequel, I happened to catch a peek of the trailer&nbsp;for a very intriguing horror picture that essentially screamed “cult classic”.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </SPAN>Actually the footage revealed what looked to be a bloody, visually&nbsp;bombastic, but otherwise conventional hack and slash thriller, but one blessed with the most astoundingly stupid/awesome title in recent memory “Midnight Meat Train”. With a name that unbelieva ...http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/b-roll.asp?perm=440&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the world of Detroit’s Metro Times, two men standout for their film reviews: Jeff Meyers and Corey Hall. <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When they are not found in dark places – alleys, basements and theaters – these two fountains of film facts are dragged out into the light. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cleaned up a bit, Meyers and Hall are placed in front of microphones inside <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDET">WDET’s main studio </a>in the heart of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_corridor">Cass Corridor</a> and put through their paces once a month. </p> <p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal">We call it “The First Friday Film Forum” on <a href="http://www.detroittoday.org">Detroit Today</a>.</p> ...