How are your movie chops?

I hated tests at school, so I'm not quite sure why I am a sucker for online quizzes. However, because of online quizzes I know what my spirit animal is, I know what century I am really from, and I know I am above average in pointless geography.
So I wanted to make a movie quiz and challenge you to see how you do! No cheating! Not that I could enforce that rule, but the online quiz gods will know, and you don't want to cross them... I'm speaking from experience.
Let's see if you've got what it takes!

Loading How much do you know about movies?

Well there goes a $100

Movies and I have a special relationship. I love them, and they make me spend too much money.  I was on Thinkgeek.com the other day and I stumbled upon these treasures. Which ones are your favorites?




Back to the Future!
People in the film industry say this film's script is perfect, in fact it is studied by film students at USC and UCLA.

Batman!

Billions of dollars in merchandise sold. Batman is iconic. Plus, there are few franchises that have a better arch villain than the Joker. Perhaps Darth Vader? What's your thoughts?

Bill Murray in 3 movies!

Zombieland, Kingpin & Life Aquatic. Bill's hair in Kingpin was spectacular. He just let loose in that movie and it was so much fun.

Ghostbusters!

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man as your climactic nemesis... YES PLEASE! 

"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!"

Thriller with Michael Jackson!

I know this dates me, but I can remember when MTV was cool and nothing was cooler than Michael Jackson's Thriller video. It was just under 14 minutes and filmed by John Landis who is the director of such movies as American Werewolf in London, Three Amigos and Coming to America.

Napoleon Dynamite!
Moon Boots and Ringer tees became cool again... sort of. What a peculiar movie, but somehow worked itself into the psyche of America. There have been lovable losers before, but none that had Napoleon's dance moves. I love Napoleon Dynamite and it's sequel Nacho Libre...

Sherlock!

Talk about sending an actor into the stratosphere. Sherlock launched Benedict Cumberbatch into stardom with his brilliant portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in our modern era. One of my favorite tv shows of all time.

SPINAL TAP!

"Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
…These go to eleven." I have to be honest these three guys might be my front-runners for my first purchase of these vinyl dolls. I loved Spinal Tap... I think I might like quoting it even more than watching it. It has become a part of me.

TOM HANKS!

I actually think in order for this to work you need all three of Tom Hanks characters next to each other. I loved all three of these movies, Catch me if you can, Forrest Gump and Castaway... The Castaway doll (Action figure) is actually my favorite of the three.

Young Frankenstein!

In my top ten of funniest movies of all time. Gene Wilder and Cloris Leachman were fantastic! The whole cast was so much fun. Gene actually wrote the script and enlisted his good friend and "discoverer" Mel Brooks to direct. They created comedy gold. 

"You know, I'm a rather brilliant surgeon. Perhaps I can help you with that hump."

"What hump?"

I would eventually like to get all of these, but which ones are your favorites?

You can find even more of them here. http://vinylsugar.com/product-category/products/vinyl-idolz/

Inspiration through Music

Music - the track, hill, loop, and turn of my emotional roller coaster. I am not musically inclined, not even a little bit. The only reason why I know the difference between a c scale and a g scale is because my Mother forced me to take piano lessons for 3 years.
How did it go? Well… My Mother is an angel and will probably be whisked through the pearly gates without a second glance. With that in mind, I have only been slapped by my Mother twice in my life, even though I deserved it countless more times, and each one was at the piano. In conclusion, piano lessons didn’t go well.

Nevertheless, the enjoyment of music has played a significant role in my life since I was young. Wether it was listening to the Peer Gynt Suite No.1 over and over again while running in circles when I was six or rollerskating to Staying Alive on 70’s night at the roller rink during college. I’ve always felt connected to music as I am sure many of you do.
But for me, the love of music has gone beyond appreciation. Music is the spark that sets my imagination into motion. Every single movie, book or story I’ve ever created has been born from a song that I heard.
Many years ago, I was perusing some of my dad’s old bossa nova CDs. Why did he have bossa nova CDs? To this day it is a mystery. He isn’t Cuban, he isn’t from Miami, nor does he have an affinity for Latin dancing. But there I was, listening to the bristling brass sections of Beny More and Perez Prado when on pops ‘Patricia’, a peculiar and ridiculous song. Instantaneously my imagination was transported to a sunny retirement village where plump retirees dressed in tropical colors are playing heated croquet matches.

Mallets are swinging, croquet balls racing along the manicured grass and I think, wouldn’t be amazing and silly if there was professional croquet? (There is!) And wouldn’t be even better still if a former champion succumbed to pressure and threw a championship match. The words “Black Croquet: The Story of Herman Strazinski” formed in my head and I was off!
That idea formed into a film script that never got made, but the idea was later incorporated into my new book Fremont Rosenbloom: Party Assassin for Hire.
So when I think back to every story I’ve created I can tie it to a song that helped me take flight. I’ve created a playlist of songs that have sparked stories.

What are some of the songs that have transported your imagination away?

Here are a few of the stories I’ve created and their corresponding song.
Funk Down (Movie) - Get Down Tonight
Crossovers (Movie) - Subterranean Homesick Alien
Crossovers (Book) - Hand Covers Bruise
Fremont Rosenbloom (Book) - Patricia and Wait
My new book I am working on (Book) - A La Lumiere Des Diamants  I hope you enjoy them!

Where did Death's Academy come from?

Where did the idea of Death’s Academy come form?

So I had finished my first book Crossovers, which is twice as long as Death’s Academy and had a darker, more serious, tone overall. I am by nature, somewhat of a goofball and dork with an imagination that leans towards the bizarre side.

For example when I was in my early twenties I made an extremely independent movie called Funk Down. Funk Down is the epic story of a guy, he actually was a disco king coming back to his hometown after a long journey to find that the forces of soft rock had overtaken his city, shut down the disco dens, and sent his world into black chaos. Truly a deep, thoughtful piece of work.

Anyhow, I had finished Crossovers and I wanted to tap into my weirdness again, so I started to brainstorm on ideas. An idea about man eating venus flytraps survived for about a day or two, but thankfully I came to my senses and then I started playing around with another idea about a guy who you can hire to destroy special occasions… which may be a book I actually do in the future, but at that moment it wasn’t speaking to me. So I was despondent, I locked myself into my room, wailed into my pillow for at least a good seven or eight seconds and thought my world had ended.

So in this state of the utmost melodramatic tragedy my twelve year old son came up to me and showed me a story that he had written. I’ll be honest I don’t remember all the particulars, but I do remember that there was a cat and then a Grim reaper who was assigned to kill cats. As soon as I read that, a tsunami of ideas came to me. Well what if there were reapers for all types of animals and humans and you had to go to school to learn how to be a grim reaper. What if there entire culture and class structure was determined by the type of reaper you were, what would be the ultimate assignments to have. Then the idea of having their arch nemesis be the guardian angels jumped on board, so it started this snowball effect that I have to credit all to my son.

So in hindsight my wife was right and it was a wise move to not sell him into the circus as the boy that gets shot from the cannon… I guess.

Why are names so dang important?

Names… Why are names important? Let me propose a scenario to you. You have just inherited two million dollars from your dear great aunt. You are a responsible person, so you want to investigate ways of preserving and growing your new fortune.

So you walk into a bank and you walk over to the financial advisement center. There are two desks, at each desk sits a man. They are wearing identical suits, have their hair parted similarly, there is little to distinguish one from the other. You walk up to the desks and notice their name plates. One says Billy Bob Honeybottom and the other Theodore Williamson the third. Who’s desk do you go to for advice on investing your new fortune?

Mr. Honeybottom of course.

But everywhere you look in literature, names instill a feeling or even insinuate something about the character.

Let’s use a famous example, Harry Potter. A common name, it is unassuming, almost feels like an underdog, you want to root for him.

From the same series the villain Voldemort, which his name itself sounds dangerous, but also is a French phrase that means “Flight From Death”. For those of you that have read the series you’d agree that his name fits him well.

So names have always been important to me. When writing Death’s Academy I tried to conjure up names that would tell something about each character even before you learned more about them.

My intention was to follow a theme with the Hoodies. They are grim reapers so in my mind they would lean toward the mischievousness, toward the darkness, but not evil.

That’s why I chose names like Midnight, Mal (which is short for Malificent), Obsidian, Demien, and Pandora.

I wanted to have fun with their names and take you into their world and culture.

For the Halos, I wanted pompous, arrogant names that told you right when you met them in the story, that they thought their farts didn’t stink. Which they don’t, they are actually like a nice, mild potpourri.

Brilliance, Lightcrest and Magnificus. You can almost imagine them looing down their perfectly shaped noses at you. And let’s be honest if you ran into a girl named Brilliance, you’d be like.. oh really? Well excuse me for not laying rose petals on the ground before your feet.

That’s why I think names are so important and so much fun to come up with. As soon as I am able to lock in a name for a particular character everything else about them seems to fall into place.

Now I’d better get going, I don’t want to keep Mr. Honeybottom waiting.

Who is this Michael Bast?... Who cares?

Hi there everybody! My name is Michael Bast and I am an author.

I am from Arizona, I have five nasty kids that I kind of like, depends on the day. 

I used to collect a lot of different things. Comics, baseball cards, precious stones, toys, movies, music, stuff like that. But this is what is a little weird about me. I didn’t like to read comics, I wasn’t a big baseball fan. I couldn’t tell you the difference between a sapphire and a ruby besides that their different colors. So why did I collect them? This is a bit embarrassing, because I thought I was going to get rich, by holding on to them… guess what, it didn’t work.

Now a days I don’t do quite the same type of collecting even though I do have three huge boxes filled with action figures in my garage… do I occasionally take them out and set them up into elaborate battle scenes… that’s none of your business and I’d appreciate if you’d stop asking me such personal questions. Nosey.

I also collect music and movies. I own over a 1000 dvds. You want me to tell you the sad thing… I probably haven’t seen a third of those movies. So why do I collect them? Because one day I may be sitting in my living room and get an overwhelming urge to watch Troll 2. If it isn’t in my library what am I gonna do? Blockbuster has closed down and the nearest red box is at least a mile and a half… Do you know how expensive gas is?… I really don’t know why I collect them, maybe I am like one of those crazy end of the world nuts that stockpiles prunes and deer jerkey, but instead I am stockpiling movies. Who knows?

Before becoming an author I was a filmmaker. I made a couple of independent films and documentaries. I always believed that filmmaking was my greatest passion, but then I finally heeded my wife’s nagging and sat down to write a book. I haven’t made a movie or thought about filmmaking since. I have written three books and am in the process of writing a fourth. 

My first book is called Calypso the Wonder Dolphin, it’s the story of a magical porpoise that fights terrorists that attack Disney World. It’s actually based on historical events… That actually sounds pretty good…(Hold on I’m just jotting that down) No my first book is actually called Crossovers. It is the story of a boy who has always been able to see things and people that aren’t supposed to be there, not ghosts, but something far more dangerous. He has been kept hidden and protected his whole life, but then by an accident his existence is discovered. So the bad dudes are coming for him… Maybe it isn’t quite as spine tingling as Calypso the Wonder Dolphin, but I love it.

So anyway, I am excited for you to check out my books. I hope you like them.

Thanks guys! See you soon!

Story about 1's and 5's

First, you must know three things about me;

1) I am deathly afraid of the ocean at night. There are creatures lurking, waiting for me.

 Do I understand the chances of me being attacked by a shark are rarer than getting hit by a bolt of 

lightning while on a pogo-stick? Yes. What’s your point?

2) There is a possessed doll out there searching for me.

One night, when I’m stumbling down my 

darkened hallway he’ll come around the corner, his twisted doll face smiling, his little doll legs 

ready to pounce, his stubby doll fingers feeling for my neck.  He’s coming, it’s just a matter of 

time.

3) I enjoy Mexican food.

Now that we’ve got to know each other, let’s get started. I am a storyteller. Death’s Academy is my second novel, but first one published. I’ve also written a half-dozen or so film scripts. In a previous life I was an independent filmmaker.

I would love to share a quick story about writing Death’s Academy.

When I sat down to write "DA" I made the conscious decision to allow the bizarreness that is ping 

ponging around my brain to hit the page unfiltered. The result? I have dachshund/poodle mixes as hell-hounds, muscle-ripped unicorns as bad guys, grim reapers as my good guys. Was the weirdness too much? It was a question I asked myself over and over again while I was writing. 

Then I had an eye-opening experience. Soon after finishing the book, I entered the first chapter of 

Death's Academy into a "1st Chapter Contest" at the Storymakers conference in Utah. I didn't win. But that wasn't the key reason why I entered it into the competition. Alongside with winning or losing you get written feedback from four judges.

So I get the feedback. I tear open the manila envelope, take a deep breath and read the first judge's 

critique. I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but your first chapter is graded in overall 

enjoyment between 1 being the absolute worst to 5 being the best.

My eyes scan the notes in the first judge’s critique, and I come to the final grade… 1. Ouch, I thought. That sucks. So I flipped to the next judge… 1. Ouch, ouch. At this point I begin thinking that perhaps I should find another avenue to seek creative fulfillment. Maybe shadow puppetry or nude miming... maybe mix the two, I was desperate.

I nervously flip to the third critique… 5. What? Wait a second, how can two people want to use my first chapter as a brillo brush to scrub their toilets with, and now someone gives it the highest grade possible? So I flip to the fourth critique… 5.

This discrepancy causes a bit of befuddlement. I love that word, befuddlement, its right up there with "fuzzy" and "mountainous". I love the way they massage your larynx when you say them.

So I'm befuddled. Then like the Red Sea, my clouds of confusion are split and understanding descends upon me like a fuzzy, mountainous blanket. People are either gonna hate Death’s Academy or love it, and that’s OK. I needed to stay true to the story I wanted to tell, and not worry about whether or not it will sell. Either you will like backstroking through the weirdness or you don't, that’s it.

A few months later Death’s Academy was picked up for publication, and a life time goal was met. So when anyone asks me the ‘trick’ to getting published, I say ‘incense and black magic,’ and when that 

doesn’t work, stay true to the story you want to tell.  Here's to a bunch of 1's and 5's!