December 16, 2005
Digiview: New Premiere DVD Budget Company

Digiview (sometimes known as Digiview Productions or Digiview Entertainment) has laid down the gauntlet, proving that budget companies can produce medium to high-quality transfers at extremely low prices. Digiview places all titles in slim line keep cases, something I prefer over the cheaply made cardboard cases. Lacking any sort of Extras, selected titles in Digiview's catalog incorporates DVD Double Features, matching the two titles with similarities either by actors, series, genre, or period. All releases are single layer, however on the positive side, all releases have been encoded Region 0 NTSC. Surprisingly, some titles such as Protectors of Universe and The Bay of Love and Sorrows are 'Licensed Exclusively' for Digiview. This is almost unheard of in the Budget arena. Digiviews expansive catalog of titles offer something for everyone of any interest. I can only hope that Digiview's new releases will soon include independent features. Digiview has proven themselves better company than Brentwood, hands down.

Resources: Digiview Official Website, American Vampire, Against All Hope, Row Your Boat, The Bay of Love and Sorrows

December 9, 2005
Bullets, Blood and a Fistful of Cash

Astounded by Seattle Post-Intelligencer's analysis of “Bullets, Blood and a Fistful of Cash”, I passed an opportunity of a lifetime. Missing December 7th's screening at the Egyptian Theatre was a hard blow to swallow after watching the bulletsthemovie.com's trailer. “Bullets, Blood and a Fistful of Cash” was such a phenomenal success filling the 750-seat Neptune Theatre the premiere in October that I can only imagine the Egyptian Theatre sold out at the box office early.

Setting gun toting gangs against each other in a feudal gang-world akin to Grand Theft Auto, spending more bullets than Sam Peckinpah with over-the-top blood and comical gore stands this apart from most other independent films, with exception to Robert Rodriguez's “El Mariachi”.

Writer, Director and independent guerrilla filmmaker Sam Akina filmed this low-budget blood fest with a measly $25,000 from his executive producer Vu Le lifesavings and another $25,000 for reshoots. Filmed in expensive 35mm film stock, squeezing every penny's worth of production, Akina shot 32 Puget sound locations in eight weeks. Erin Sullivan, an FX intern from Timsley Transfers (whose work was Oscar nominated for “Passion of the Christ”), contributed her skills. After 3.5 hours of FX makeup, producer Joy Saez had to stay in the sidelines to avoid vomiting over Erin Sullivan's realistic work.

Fred Caruso recently signed onto this project, whose credited in producing such films as “Blue Velvet” and was also the production manager on “The Godfather.” with hopes of avoiding the direct-to-video route and instead landing a 2,000 theater distribution deal. Caruso flew to Seattle to view the full feature during the premiere after taking a glimpse at the trailer. Seeing the potential, Fred signed on with Sam Akina.

Resources: IMDB, Pictures, bulletsthemovie.com, AKINAFILMS.COM, International Examiner Article, VietShowBiz Entertainment Article, Women In Film - Seattle Feature.

December 7, 2005
Created New Layout for 10kbullets.com

10kbullets.com, the cult DVD site founded by Micheal Den Boer has a new face lift, optimized for both IE and Firefox browsers at resolutions starting as low as 800x600. 10kbullets's goal is to increase traffic volume and enhance the overall visibility without adding bloat to the site. The new look and feel of 10kbullets now includes a search option, thanks to the Google search engine. The forum will follow suit with a similar layout change.

Thank you - Jeff Den Boer for allowing me a chance make changes on 10kbullets.com's third page layout. Without your initial foundations, this wouldn't be possible, and I await to see your much improved layout for future versions.

Resources: 10kbullets.com