Author Archives: Jake Tracer

Lights. Camera. Sunset? As the long L.A. summer continues and warm nights lure potential moviegoers out of the theaters, various groups and film festivals are making sure the public is still seeing its share of celluloid. They’re screening movies outdoors. The outdoor film screening, a longtime popular event among parents looking to entertain their kids, […]

Hi, my name is Jake, and I used to be a straight guy. It’s kind of hard to admit, but I was a straight guy for as long as I can remember, probably since birth ““ although there may have been some doubt at the beginning, since the hospital ran out of blue blankets and […]

One short year ago, while I was at UCLA orientation, “XXX” premiered at the Village Theater in Westwood. Like most enthusiastic freshmen, I went to the red carpet ceremony, hoping to somehow sneak into the screening or at least meet Vin Diesel and Samuel L. Jackson. After all, I was in Los Angeles ““ the […]

Sean Humphries graduated from the film department at the end of winter quarter, so it’s no surprise he still knows his way around Melnitz Hall. Trying to find an empty editing room, Humphries casually punched in the key code on a door. The room was occupied, so he moved on to the next door. Looking […]

Katie Cole loved the “virtualistic combat with tight 3-D effects” in the original. Nate Plumley called the final trailer for the sequel “orgasmic.” And Marco Martinez, who has already seen it, said “The Matrix Reloaded” is better than “The Matrix.” Martinez, a second-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, saw the film at an MTV […]

To exemplify the influence blues guitarist and singer Muddy Waters had on the music world, filmmaker Robert Gordon describes an early ’60s Rolling Stones concert. The band, whose name also comes from a Waters’ song, covered “I Just Want To Make Love To You,” one of Waters’ biggest hits. In his new documentary about Waters, […]

Screenwriting Professor Richard Walter remembers when Gregory Widen wrote “Highlander” in one of his classes almost fifteen years ago. “I gave him an “˜A,’ and 20th Century Fox gave him $2 million,” Walter said. This phenomenon isn’t uncommon in UCLA’s Master of Fine Arts screenwriting program. Regarded as one of the, if not the most, […]