First and foremost shalom to Stan's lovely wife Karen, his beloved son Matt and beloved daughter Debbie who I had the pleasure of meeting in 1977 during my first wild adventure with Stan The Man on the Universal feature, "The Wiz" directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Nipsey Russell.

Hollywood is full of stories both in front of the camera and behind. This article is just one of many that illustrates the unique and unforgettable essence of a special Hollywood icon, Stan Winston, may you always rest in peace, as we never forget the ties that bind.

While attending Stan's funeral and reception, I was overwhelmed by the incredible love that filled the air for this unique man. The mood was deep and the stories brought laughter and sorrow. How blessed I felt as I listened intently to the warm and choking words of our industry friends Steven Spielberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Cameron, and Tom Arnold. Their words captivated my heart, mind and soul as I traveled back in time and back to the present reminiscing all the special and unique moments with Stan - The clown, the businessman, the artist, the family man, the friend.

Steven Spielberg recalled a touching story of his childhood where his father surprised him with his first Schwinn bicycle and how he was reminded of this touching and overwhelming event during the pre-production of Jurassic Park. During one of the many visits to Stan's FX Studio, Steven was asked by Stan to follow him, unbeknowst to Steven, Stan was about to reveal the completed Tyrannosaurs Rex.

Stan asked Steven to keep his head down as Stan positioned him for this exhilarating reveal. Upon lifting his head, Steven was filled with excitement and a moment of wild terror as he gazed upon the immense 35' prehistoric beast.

As the story of this event continued Steven commended Stan on his many wonderful contributions to the industry and how the passing of Stan marked the passing of hand made monsters as the industry now heads towards computer generated digital creations.

Arnold Schwarzenegger lifted the heavy mood to a place of warm laughter as he recalled the many antics of Stan. Stan loved his toys and always enjoyed out doing his friends with a smile and a chuckle. Arnold spoke of a time where he invited Stan to see his new humidor that held approximately 750 cigars, well it wasn't to long before Stan invited Arnold to his office to share his new humidor that held 1500 cigars. Arnold then shared another humorous motorcycle story about how he and James Cameron showed up one day at Stan's with their motorcycle engines completely chromed.

Well wouldn't you know it, it wasn't to long before Stan showed up with his motorcycle that was completely chromed. And if that wasn't enough, Arnold and James decided to purchase their own unique Hummers, James bought the military style and Arnold the big black one. In just a few weeks, Stan drove up with his Hummer that was covered with a plethora of lights and all the fancy trimmings.

James Cameron slowly moved toward the podium to express his warm memories of Stan. James shared a few touching stories through moments of emotional delay and then proceeded to direct the attention to the many fans that appreciated Stan and his wonderful contributions to the world of entertainment. James began to read numerous comments from stories he had printed off the Internet, how touching it was to hear the emotional words of those people who observed Stan and his creations from the many movie theaters and industry periodicals. Stan's contributions were far reaching and these stories were testimonial to that fact. Wow, I was blown away!!! The audience will surely miss Stan and his creative genius.

As the service continued I would never forget the final words of Stan's son Matt as he shared the last hour of Stan's life. How Stan struggled to breathe even though a special masked had been stretched over his nose and mouth forcing his lungs to function.

How Stan's eyes remained closed while he squeezed the hands of his loved ones in reply to their comments. And then as the moment of departure arrived, Stan opened his eyes looking upwards toward heaven as the words of the Beatles played in the background "Once there was a way to get back homeward...Once there was a way to get back home, sleep pretty darling do not cry and I will sing a lullaby". A miracle indeed as these words filled the air upon the departure of our loving and creative friend Stan Winston.

Listen to this song: ( Golden Slumbers- Abby Road Album)

Unfortunately I missed the words of Tom Arnold at the reception but I did have the pleasure to observe the reaction of the crowd moments after he finished his speech - The many tears being wiped from the eyes of the those that heard revealed the depth of the message as they struggled to keep a smile on their face from the serious but humorous delivery of Tom. For a moment, I found myself looking into the sorrowful eyes of David Gersh as he struggled to compose his feelings through flowing tears. A day I will never forget for as long as I live.

And in closing, my story about Stan...

I must thank Stan for changing the direction of my career and shedding his unique glory upon my life. It was 1977 and I was working on the Tonight Show when a man appeared in the makeup room, I asked my associates who this man was and they said it was Stan Winston. I had heard of Stan through my association with Tom Burman and John Chambers but never had the pleasure of meeting him until this life changing day. Before I knew it, Harry Blake, department head of NBC makeup called me over and introduced me to Stan, telling me Stan needed me for a few weeks to work with him on a new feature film titled, "The Wiz" filming at Universal. I was floored to say the least and I was puzzled at the same time. How was Stan going to pull this off since I was not yet union qualified to work in film? Harry said, "Stan has taken care of everything and the union has agreed to your hire." Apparently all the other makeup artists skilled at FX makeup were working and I was the only one who possessed the necessary skills outside the union film arena.

As Stan and I walked down the hall between stages one and three, Stan said these words, "I didn't have the heart to tell Harry, but I actually need you for 10 months", and the rest was history.

Thank you Stan The Man, I will never forget you as I place one shovel full of dirt onto your final resting place. Please talk to the union in heaven and reserve a place for me so we can continue when I arrive. We all love you and you will be dearly missed.

"Wanted" is the story of Wesley Gibson's transformation from non-confrontal nobody to a deadly assassin. Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is an account manager who suffers from constant anxiety attacks, has a boss who is abusing her powers, and a girlfriend who is cheating on him with his best friend. Although he is aware of it all, he cannot break the monotony and subordination of his life. Although he makes it clear that he is unhappy with his state in life, he is unwilling to make a change.

That is, until "The Fraternity" comes calling for him. "The Fraternity" is a group of assassins who have been around for hundreds of years, killing off specific targets that come from the mysterious loom their ancestors developed, in order to keep the world running smoothly. When a rogue agent from the Fraternity kills Wesley's father (whom Wesley has not seen since he was born), the Fraternity is determined to acquire Wesley, for they believe he is the only one who can kill the rogue agent.

Although at first unwilling, Wesley eventually joins the Fraternity when he notices he does have some hidden assassin instincts inside of him. Under the training of Fox (Angelina Jolie) and Sloan (Morgan Freeman), Wesley quickly learns to become an elite killing machine. Eventually Wesley is given the task of assassinating the rogue agent, Cross, leading to the ultimate showdown of the best assassins in the world.

"Wanted" is an action-packed story that has to be taken purely at face value for simply that, an action movie. Majority of the moves Wesley, Fox, Sloan, Cross, and others make are completely unbelievable. However, they are so unique that they bring back memories of "The Matrix". For example, Sloan teaches Wesley how to "bend" bullets around a target. Anyone with any knowledge of weapons knows that this is impossible, and if you come into the movie thinking that, you're bound to be disappointed. If you come into the movie with an open mindset, and as Sloan even says (paraphrased), "If no one had ever told you that a bullets' path was straight, would you assume such a path?", you can accept it as a unique visual effect, the same sort of effect that the time-bending scenes in "The Matrix" have on viewers.

However, these unrealistic visual effects go a bit too far in a couple scenes, and even just looking at the movie as pure action, it is hard not to say to yourself "There's no way that could happen." Perhaps this is because the movie has not fully drawn you in yet, or perhaps it is because I as the viewer had not allowed myself to completely believe the unbelievable yet. I'm sure that different viewers of the movie are going to have different opinions on this portion, but by stopping and thinking about the reality of certain portions of the movie leaves the movie not fulfilling on its intended purpose.

"Wanted" quickly rebounds though with the constant twists as the movie draws to a conclusion. Many of the characters are forced to make instant tough choices based upon this new information, and the viewer is left guessing as to what will happen in the next moment. The first hour or so of "Wanted" leads you down the plot line of a clichéd action movie, but as soon as the story begins to come to a crux, the plot line completely changes, and changes multiple times. Each time, everything was explained perfectly, and I was thoroughly impressed.

The only other major flaw of the movie is the characters' (most importantly Sloan's) discussion on fate. The Fraternity wants you to believe that mystical powers control a loom which determines the fate of the entire world. Although the visualization of the future actions of one criminal is played out when Wesley questions fate is interesting, it still presupposes that we as humans are destined to live our lives a certain way from start to finish. In addition, when the other characters are presented with this question, the fact that only Wesley sees the flaw in the logic seems a little hard to believe as well.

Despite this, "Wanted" is a stunning visual production and a great action movie. As I said earlier, it harkens back to the days of "The Matrix". However, due to these few flaws, it falls short of the impressiveness of "The Matrix", but still makes for a great summer action movie.

Gone are the days of watching just previews and snapshots of movies on the internet. Modern internet technologies are giving internet users the power to watch movies online, along with facilities for downloads. Earlier MP3s, trailers and music videos had dominated the download arena in entertainment. The commercial possibilities for movies on the internet was initially identified and utilized by movie rental service providers. But with higher bandwidths being made available by internet service providers (ISPs), and with the increased popularity of file sharing networks, more and more online companies have started providing movies for download.

It is only recently that these download services have been made available absolutely free of cost to users. Even today most commercial websites have their download services which require users to download movies by pay per download scheme and some others require their users to pay an initial amount for downloading unlimited movies. But the situation is now changing with more and more websites offering absolutely free movie downloads.

Websites offering absolutely free movie downloads often use a combination of various technologies to provide easy downloads. One such technology adopted is using codecs for reducing the size of movies, as original packaging of movies in DVDs has file sizes of 4GB or more. In the original DVD format, it will take an enormous amount of time for users to download a full movie.

With codecs such as DivX and XviD, the quality of movies remain the same even after being compressed from their original DVD formats. Before downloading, it will be better to make sure that the movies you are downloading are either in Xvid or DivX format as these offer better quality video and audio with less file sizes in the range of 600-700MB. All you are required to do is to install in your computer the corresponding codec used for video compression. These codecs are available for free download from their respective websites.

While there are many methods for absolutely free movie downloads online, the easiest of all methods is using a file sharing network such as BitTorrent or Kazaa. Although movie downloads have increased, it can be seen that it has not yet completely affected the DVD market, although sales have fallen. The main factor which works in favor of absolutely free movie downloads is the widespread availability of broadband internet even in remote corners of the world. Other reasons which are promoting these free downloads are the savings in terms of time and money, which is otherwise required by movie lovers in physically searching and buying movies from rental shops.

Are you waiting for the DVD release or the television premiere of a new Hollywood film in your country or state? The medium of the internet can instantly get you the movie you are eagerly waiting for, through completely free movie downloads provided by various websites. No royalty charges or amounts are being levied by these websites from the end user. Moreover, users have the choice of getting a wide range of movie collections in every category.

Movie download services were started when multimedia technologies started flourishing on the internet. In the beginning, movie downloads were provided by companies in such a way that users had to pay for each download, or give a monthly subscription. The reluctance of users to pay such per download services made companies switch to a one-time payment system which requires the users to pay a one-time initial amount for registering at these websites. Once registered, users are allowed unlimited movie downloads.

As an alternative to this, completely free movie download services are being started by many online companies. One common system used worldwide in distributing movies is the peer to peer networks often called the P2P networks, basically intended for file sharing purposes between computers located in various geographic locations. But its popularity and efficiency in providing faster downloads has resulted in its use for transferring and downloading movies, music, and software. The advantage of peer to peer networks is that these can handle huge volumes of data transfers such as that required for movies.

Many websites which are giving completely free movie downloads have their movie databases cataloged according to various categories of films such as Comedy, Thriller, Romance, Sports, Suspense thrillers, Classic, Tragedy, and History. Some websites even provide movies to be browsed by the year of their release, or movies which are hits in a particular year.

Earlier, users had the choice of downloading only English language movies. But users can now download a wide variety of videos ranging from small documentaries to blockbuster films in various regional languages and categories. While downloading movies, it would be safe on your part to check whether the website is providing legal downloads and whether it has collaboration with film studios. It is also ideal to choose completely free movie downloads from trusted sites in order to prevent viruses and spyware from attacking your PC.

With the popularity of broadband services and web companies allowing users to download movies, all you require is a computer with a high speed broadband connection. The output is unlimited entertainment in the comfort of your home.

Aside from being offered mostly free, online TV show tickets are simply computer-generated. This means that the tickets you can see on your computer screens are printable. These printed tickets are your only allowable permits for you to enter the studios. It is necessary to note however, that the issued tickets may not give a full assurance to enter the venues because there are some instances wherein the studio capacity will be full. Moreover, the tapings are usually done for as long as 3 to 4 hours with talk shows lasting a little shorter.

A good advice for the ones who have printed their online TV show ticket is for them to bring a valid ID with a clearly printed birth date for validation purposes of age limit prerequisites. Regarding punctuality, it is always best to come way ahead before the taping starts because being late is a sufficient ground for non-admission. As unpredictable as the Hollywood stars, all shows can become very uncertain about possible cancellation or rescheduling of taping sessions. Ticket holders are often asked of their contact numbers like mobile phones and mail addresses for the purpose of communication between the show's organizers and you. Rest assured that your numbers are never given to other individuals, unless mandated by the law. If the venue is hard to find, there is usually a map accompanying the tickets. Lastly, the ones giving the tickets have the sole discretion of canceling any ticket reservations without being liable of such. Good luck to you.

To help keep your screenplay from being used as kindling instead of being made into a movie, here are five important areas to consider:

1. Picking a Subject for Your Screenplay: What should you write about?

Many people ask what subject should they write about for their screenplay. Should it be a character-driven drama, comedy, period piece, romantic comedy, etc.?
Your screenplay is a calling card for you as the writer. Therefore, you should write a script that illustrates your unique point of view and your voice in the best way possible.
Write a script that people will want to remember you by and that will stick in people's memory. Something that stands out from the crowd so much that it will make a busy manager, development executive or screen writing judge - and eventually a director and actor - not only remember you but, as a result of this screenplay, want to call you!

2. Homework, Oh Homework: Doing your research.

The first and most important thing writers can do to help their writing is to read any and every screenplay on which they can get their hands. The more you read, the more you know what is good, bad or just plain ugly. And you will get a sense of what works in a feature screenplay and what doesn't.

The second thing a writer must do is to really know his/her subject. Take the time to do your research and know everything there is to know about a character, a location, or an event. That way you can ensure that your screenplay feels authentic.

3. POV: Capturing your voice and unique point of view.

One of the most important and, at the same time, most difficult things for writers to learn is how to capture their voice and how to write in their unique point of view.

Capturing their voice means that writers should develop their voice to such an extent that a reader who has read a writer before should be able to pick up a script without a cover page and, after reading 10 pages, immediately know who the writer is.

It is your unique point of view that distinguishes you from everyone else in the world and makes someone want to listen to what you have to say.

4. Make or Break: The first 15 pages.

Most industry professionals only read the first 15 pages before deciding if something is worth reading or better used as kindling.

Your job as the writer is to enthrall the reader and keep the reader's attention so the reader doesn't put the script down. And how do you that you ask?

1) You must introduce your characters in an interesting and thought-provoking way that will get the reader's attention.

2) Never spend a long time on the set up; you want to get to the main story as quickly as possible.

3) If what you are writing is a comedy, make sure you have a lot of big laughs on the first couple of pages.

5. He Said, She Said: Creating great characters.

Writing great characters is key to having a great script for several reasons:

1) Great characters keep the reader engaged and help move your script on to production.

2) Great characters are what makes a director and actor want to sign on to your film (and without them, your script will never get produced).

3) Great characters get an audience to go to your film and then recommend it.

How do you write great characters that keep the reader engaged, make a director and actor want to sign on, and get an audience to go to your film and recommend it?

First, know your characters inside and out. Even if you don't write about every event that happens in their life, you should know them so intimately that - if someone asked you what your character got from her parents for her sixth birthday - you would know the answer.

Second, the more specific you are, the more universal you will actually be. Think MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, which has the most specific characters ever - a loud Greek girl falling in love with a reserved English guy - and yet the story is incredibly universal.

Making a short film is much harder than making a feature because you have so much to get across in under 10 minutes. But it can be less difficult if you avoid these 7 deadly sins:

1. Subject: How to avoid the typical, boring short.

A short is your calling card, so make a short that people will want to remember you by and that will stick in people's memory. Something that stands out from the crowd so much that it will make a busy agent, manager, executive, film festival programmer, or acquisition exec not only remember you but, as a result of it, want to call you!

Be creative and original and pick a subject that interests you because that enthusiasm will come through in your short.

2. Medium: How to avoid shooting your short in the wrong medium.

You should decide early in the planning stages what medium you want to shoot your short. Is it Digital Video (DV), film or High Definition (HD)? Because each medium has many considerations that will ultimately affect your story.

Know the pros and cons of each medium for the story that you want to tell before you commit to DV, film or HD.

3. Length: How to avoid making the longest short ever.

Many film programs tell their students to make a 25-minute short - this is horrible advice. No busy executive is going to take 25 minutes to watch a short from an unknown filmmaker. All shorts should be under 10 minutes, and ideally between 3-5 minutes if you want to get people to watch it.

If you really want a short to become viral, keep it between 2-3 minutes at max! Remember that people's attentions are short - and if you make something that grabs and keeps their attention, they will remember it and especially appreciate your storytelling ability in such a short amount of time.

4. Sound: How to avoid not being able to hear anything on your short.

Sound is the secret ingredient of the difference between a great short film and a short film that no one will watch. Audiences will forgive a short if it doesn't look like a Spielberg film but has high quality sound. But they will turn it off if it looks amazing but has inaudible sound.

Spend the money for great sound - the expenditure will be worth it! Most productions budget 10% of their budget for post sound alone. This is because there are always unexpected sound problems, so make sure you leave enough money to fix them.

5. Credits: How to avoid spending the entire short watching the credits.

There are two types of credits: opening credits and closing credits. Opening credits generally are only for the writer, director, producer and actors. The closing credits are usually for all the crew, special thanks, caterer and your parents. However, both types of credits can be full of pitfalls that you can avoid by following this advice:

Opening credits:

In general do not have any opening credits in a short. Since it is a short, it is wise to get to the story right away and save the credits for the end. But if you MUST have opening credits - make them very brief, and ideally while the story is actually starting.

Closing Credits:

A two-minute short film should not be followed by four minutes of credits. Your credits should never be more than the length of your film. Ever. Always keep the credits short and sweet.

6. Budget: How to avoid putting a second mortgage on your house.

You always want to have the best-looking short possible, but that doesn't mean spending a fortune on it. If you know the medium you are shooting in and are prepared to maximize the potential of that format, don't feel that you need to take out a second mortgage to fund it.

If you are planning to spend $80,000 on a short, make a feature! Even if it is only an 80-minute feature, you will have a much greater benefit from having a produced feature under your belt.

7. Buzz: Working it for your advantage.

When your short is ready to show people, you should never send blind queries. First try to submit your short to festivals and create some buzz off the film. Ideally aim for the better-known festivals because those will add a certain authentication that the smaller festivals won't.

Also use every contact you have to find a connection to the people to whom you want to submit your short.

In addition, do not send hard copies of your short unless someone specifically asks for one. It's a waste of your money, it kills the environment and, more often than not, it ends up in the trash.

Instead, use an entertainment industry website that presents your short film in a clean, professional manner.