Lester prepares for battle.

Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of having a brief chat Film Army’s Addison Wylie. Addison Wylie is the Film Army’s resident film critic, and apparently a fan of Heroic Melon’s work, so when I knew that I had a new episode of Awkward ready to be unleashed upon the world, Addison was one of the first people I contacted to weigh in his two cents on the Awkward Compilation’s second season – Awkward Again.

Addison provided some great feedback on the first 4 and a half episodes leading up to our season finale. While praising much the season, he also offered some interesting constructive feedback  - I found this commentary particularly useful, as there was some discussion on how to handle the character Jermaine, and I’m curious to see if this feedback will still stand when the season finale comes out! You can see the full video review here.

In addition to the season 02 review, we also recorded our interview where I talk to Addison about various things involved with the creative process when building something like an Awkward season. You can listen to the full interview here!

There’s some great stuff to be heard/read/viewed in the links above, so I’d strongly recommend you guys to take a look.

Special thanks to Addison for allowing this interview and review to happen in promotion for our upcoming finale! Be sure to subscribe to their twitter feeds @filmarmy and be sure to check out his Addiocommentary that goes live every Sunday.

Awkward Again – episode 05: Enter the Serpent premiers July 30th here and Vimeo at 6pm!
SUBSCRIBE to us on Twitter @heroicmelon and LIKE us on facebook.com/heroicmelon so you’ll be the first to know when our season finale hits the internet!

- Les

Here it is, the behind-the-scenes look at the making of the climactic fight scene from Process Of Elimination (watch here). Following up on Lester’s rendition of the opening scene, I thought I’d finally release the long awaited special feature from my last film. You’ll get to see all of the work, pain, and fun that went into the scene. Enjoy.

* There were some issues uploading it onto youtube so here’s the vimeo link for now and we will update you with the new youtube link. Stick around.

SPOILER ALERT, if there’s a film listed here that you have not seen, you may skip to the next title. There are no pictures for the scenes I mentioned so just skip the text until you get to a film you have seen or do not care about being spoiled. That said, enjoy!

Watching a movie in theatres can be unpleasant: People talking during the movie, talking on the phone, obstructing your view, etc. But I’d like to talk about the moments that remind us why watching a movie with a big crowd can also be fun. When the energy in the audience is perfect. Everyone’s in sync with suspension of disbelief, investment in the story, and overall respect for the film. From laughing at comic relief to screaming at jump scares, these are the moments I love.

#10. Let The Right One In – Swimming Pool

I was sitting in the theatre thinking “Wow, this is a really well-done vampire film. But nothing that blew me away,” and then this scene happened. The execution of the carnage is what does it. Everyone in the audience had their mouths wide open when that head splashed into the water. Moral of the story: Do not mess with Eli.

#9. The Raid: Redemption – End Of The End Fight

This movie had many moments that could easily make this list, but I have to choose just one. Definitely the big finish. The entire fight is one “Oh!” moment after another. When Mad Dog gets stabbed in the neck, you think it’s over but no! He keeps going. Right to the end when his entire neck is opened up and the audience claps for a fight well done. Moral: Do not mess with Mad Dog.

#8. There Will Be Blood – Final Confrontation

“I drank your milkshake!” This intense confrontation reaches its boiling point in the final scene and the audience loved every bit of it. Mr. Plainview just goes off like a psycho and we’re laughing at the whole thing. Right up until he beats Eli (not the vampire) to death with a bowling pin. That ain’t funny. Wait, it actually is. Moral: Don’t mess with Daniel Plainview.

#7. Watchmen – Locked In With Rorschach

It’s safe to say Rorschach stole every scene he was in. After he deep fries one of his fellow inmates, he announces to everyone within earshot “I’m not locked in here with you, YOU’RE LOCKED IN HERE WITH ME!” Cue the cheers from the crowd. Moral: Do not mess with Rorschach. Or Dr. Manhattan. Yeah, definitely not him either.

#6. Iron Man – After Credits Scene

There were many great moments including that tease with War Machine that left the audience whining. But the best moment actually occurs after the movie’s finished. The first and best scene that introduces the Avengers hype. It kind of dissipated over the next Marvel films but when this happened, the audience ignited with excitement.

#5. 300 – I Am Not Your Queen

This movie is bad to the bone, steel and stone, full of testosterone. But this moment involves a woman and her form of penetration. After being betrayed, raped, and humiliated in front of the council, she shanks the traitor of Sparta. The crowd went nuts every single time. Sorry, Rose. Spitting on a man may be disrespectful, but  this chick got her point across with a sword to the gut. Moral: Do not mess with Spartans, men or women.

#4. Borat – That Scene

You know what scene I’m talking about. I’ve never seen an entire movie theatre turn into a circus like that. People were literally out of their seats, rolling, crying, kicking, dropping popcorn and laughing uncontrollably. I was right there with them. It was impossible not to laugh. It was infectious. Moral: People can’t resist laughing at two grown (and hairy) men wrestling naked and runing wild in public wreaking havoc.

#3. The Dark Knight – Magic Trick

It was one of those moments where you’d miss the next few lines of dialogue because the audience is still reacting to what just happened. I saw this movie six times in theatres and every single time the Joker slammed that guy’s head into the pencil, people freaked the hell out. Moral: Don’t mess with magicians.

#2. Paranormal Activity – The Whole Thing

Yeah, I can’t pick a specific scene. The entire experience deserves a spot on this list. From start to finish, everyone was on the edge of their seats, collectively screaming at those key moments and all hating Micah for being such a @#$%! Before the film started, I told Philbert Lui it was real. I’m sorry, Phil. But it was funny. Moral: Don’t be Micah.

#1. Grindhouse (Planet Terror / Death Proof) – The Whole Thing

Again, it was the whole experience. It’s a shame it didn’t do well at the box office. But watching it opening day with people who loved movies. It was unreal. Starting with a trailer for Hobo With A Shotgun (for those who saw it in Canada) the laughter, screams, and cheers kicked off and didn’t stop till the very end. After Planet Terror ended, people were clapping and yelling for the next film to start. The fake trailers, the missing reel, the climax to Death Proof, all among the many highlights. Watching this with such a cool crowd made this #1 and it will be hard to top.

Let us know if there are any moments that stick out for you that are not on this list.

- Alex

****Making videos takes a long time, and we feel that sometimes, we neglect to update our site with new content. So today, after a long talk, we’re going to try something new to engage you, our fans. Every week, we’re going to try to post something related to film that we find interesting. It could be a screening we went to, a personal anecdote, an experience we’ve had recently on a project, or even a simple observation about something we’ve read that we might find inspiring.****

And since today is our first step in this direction, I figured it was appropriate from me to share one of my first film-related experiences.

I wasn’t always into film. In fact, at some point, I wanted to be an entomologist (scientist that studies bugs). There was a major problem though – I was afraid of insects. This may have stemmed from a brief cockroach infestation my home suffered from the neighbors next door. They had dogs (come to think of it, this might have been why my mom never wanted us to have pets in the house…) and didn’t do a very good job of cleaning up after them, and well…

Anyway, I was deeply fascinated by insects but too much of a chicken to get up close and personal. I tried desperately to lessen my fears by more exposure. More often than not, I’d try to pick up ants off the ground and throw them into spider webs to watch the arachnids I feared go to work like vampires. My favorite insect was the Praying Mantis. Being raised Catholic, perhaps I was immediately drawn to the only insect in the world that seemed to say “Grace” before he grabbed his meal and proceeded to eat it alive.
 One day, in the school yard, these kids were grouped together – they were looking at something. As I pushed through the crowd, I realized that these kids were both amazed and afraid of this tiny green creature. As fate would have it, it turned out I was staring at a Praying Mantis in the flesh.  Unlike the kids, I wasn’t afraid, and appreciated the beauty and complexity of this tiny creature.

Eventually, my house was fumigated and along with the cockroaches, my interest in bugs  dissipated.

So I got into film. To be fair, I sort of fell into it really – my Communications teacher from high school dumped a  miniDV camera in my hand and told me to figure out how to use it.

Like the bugs I so feared, I was initially afraid to touch the camera. It looked too fancy. When I pressed the eject button, the mechanisms inside would move and the tape would pop out like something from Robocop. The tapes themselves seemed far beyond the VHS tapes I was comfortable with (I was afraid of handling DVDs). Like bugs, they were small and delicate. Upon close examination, they seemed extremely complicated and compact in design. I even read the User’s manual, and I felt more afraid. But like many eager first-time filmmakers, I got ambitious and at the ripe age of 15, I attempted to shoot my first epic. I shot. And shot. And shot. Before I knew it, I had amassed 4 hours of footage, and all my friends were in it.

Impressed by my tenacity, my teacher pushed me further and helped facilitate my ‘film’. He convinced the head of the IT Department to lend me the mysterious Apple G4. Sure, it was ancient by today’s standards but it may as well have been sent from the future. It had a 70 GB (whoa!) media drive. And I was terrified of it. So I looked up everything I could to understand the beast, and when I felt capable, I cut. And cut. And cut. In retrospect, the film could’ve stood to be cut more but in the end, I was still proud of my 54 minute ‘masterpiece’.

I guess the point of this entry is to remind filmmakers to keep pushing themselves to do things we could never do before. Irrational fears built up from things we don’t understand can keep us from excelling. They should never be a brick wall, but merely an obstacle to learn about and conquer to reach a new plateau. We learn from experience, and experience informs and contributes to our output.

I’m not really afraid of bugs anymore. You can sure as hell bet though, that when I come across a really nasty little bugger, the first thing I do is look it up to figure out what I am up against. Then I decide whether to grab  the camera, the slipper, or a blow torch.

- Les

Here’s a fun little project I did for my Acting / Directing II class during my last year at York University.

The assignment: interpret a 3 – 4 minute scene using an original or pre-written screenplay. I’ve always been ready to jump at a chance to direct something my good friend Alex Chung has written, so I took it upon myself to do a re-interpretation of his stellar opening sequence from his short film Process of Elimination using unfamiliar actors.

Silva, originally written for Heroic Melon regular Jermaine Carty, is played by 4th Year Theater student, Joshua Dolphin. Opposite Josh playing Terri, is the lovely Lina DiMaria, also a 4th Year Theater student.

During the work shop, after a few experiments with the dialogue, Josh and Lina seemed to default to the natural flow of Alex’s dialogue piece. I suppose its only natural that when the dialogue is good, the rest sort of takes care of itself.

Enjoy!

- Les