Another year, our friends, and another list of our favorite films. Now, a little disclaimer here: these are the films that we most enjoyed watching — not what we believe were the films that will win the most awards, or the ones that will be bronzed in statues outside of Philadelphia Art Museums. Also, we weren’t able to see all that we would’ve liked to. Eric Johnson, for example, wasn’t able to get out and see some of the four-starrers (ala “Black Swan”) because of two new additions to his family, and Eric Machiela, while forehead deep in film production in Mexico, wasn’t able to get to the theater for a spell and unfortunately didn’t get a chance to ogle his man-crush, James Franco, in “127 Hours”, which he surely would’ve enjoyed.

Happy 2011 to all. I think it’s going to be a good one for Gorilla. Now, enjoy our terrible opinions.

Scott Brookens

1. The Social Network

2. 127 Hours

3. How to Train Your Dragon

4. Inception

5. Winter's Bone

6. Toy Story 3

7. Black Swan

8. True Grit

9. The Town

10. The Fighter

Aaron Smith, who included TV — and not necessarily from this year. (I don’t think he got the exercise.)

1. Exit Through The Gift Shop

2. The Town

3. Mad Men (Season 4)

4. The Social Network

5. Restrepo

6. Breaking Bad (Season 1, 2)

7. True Grit

8. Sick: The Life and Death of Supermasochist, Bob Flanagan

9. Winter's Bone

10. Arrested Development - Complete Series

Eric Johsnon

1. Winter's Bone

2. How to Train Your Dragon

3. Easy A

4. The Social Network

5. The King's Speech

6. Toy Story 3

7. The Town

8. The Ghost Writer

9. Animal Kingdom

10. True Grit

Eric Machiela

1. The Social Network

2. How to Train Your Dragon

3. Black Swan

4. Toy Story 3

5. The Fighter

6. The King's Speech

7. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World

8. Tangled

9. Winter's Bone

10. True Grit

Methinks yes.

Our RED camera returned to the state of Michigan today with the new Mysterium-X sensor, commonly referred to as the MX sensor or chip or awesomeness or what have you. Look at the happy Scott Brookens as he gleefully unwraps the Fed-Ex man’s delivery!

We took some test footage in a dark office just to see if all this hubbub about decreased noise in the image and low pass filters was accurate. I’m thrilled to report it is … and how! Did I mention that the RED Camera with MX sensor is not only available for rental — hint, hint — but also has a new fancy logo on the side of the camera?

High five! (Slap)

Gorilla is not only a collection of some of best, brightest, and most reasonably attractive folks working in the Grand Rapids film production community, but it’s also an assortment of diverse filmmakers with differing cinematic tastes. While I personally lean towards the artistic flare of “G.I. Joe,” the outrageous comedy of “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” or the classic romanticism of “Miss March,”  there are others here who would disagree. Vocally. And that’s what it’s all about; loving film production so much that when you are not making movies your watching them (or animations in Nate Vander Plas’ case). So without further ado, I give you 2009′s top ten films ranked opinionated by Gorilla.

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[NATE VANDER PLAS]

5. Up 4. Coraline 3. The Informant! 2. Where the Wild Things Are 1. Avatar

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[SCOTT BROOKENS]

10. Away We Go/Where the Wild Things Are (draw) 9. State of Play 8.Up in the Air 7. Star Trek 6. Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince 5. District 9 4. 500 Days of Summer 3. Up 2. Inglorious Bastards 1. Avatar

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[AARON B. SMITH]

5. Avatar (begrudgingly) 4. The Hangover  3. District 9  2. Where the Wild Things Are 1. Inglorious Basterds

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[ERIC JOHNSON]

10. Avatar 9. Drag Me To Hell 8. Zombieland 7. Adventureland 6. Star Trek 5. An Education 4. Moon 3. Up 2. Inglorious Bastards 1. Hurtlocker

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[ERIC MACHIELA]

10. Zombieland 9. Adventureland 8. Drag Me To Hell  7. A Serious Man 6. Avatar 5. Inglorious Bastards 4. Star Trek 3. Up 2. Up in the Air 1. Hurtlocker

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Agree? Disagree? Post your own list and opinions below!

Amongst the cold, wintery weather that Grand Rapids is best known for, Gorilla Pictures continues its run at world domination. West Michigan film production tends to slow down in these blustery, frost bitten months but our company of fellows is staying busy. Eric Johnson has (finally) begun post-production on “All We Have”, a music video we shot back in the early days of September. (Remember the fall? We had sun then!) The musician is Erin Austin and we produced a video for her great, upcoming album OK Sweetheart. NOTE TO READER: The video on the website is not Gorilla’s work – but you can audibly sample her delightful tones, digest them, and find nourishment. We will be posting our music video to the Gorilla website in the upcoming weeks!

In other news, Eric Machiela continues to learn about the wonder of story and strives for his 10,000 hours (thank you, Malcolm Gladwell) of writing and reading, whilst listening – and then tearing up – to Bruce Springsteen sing about “all things America”. Aaron Smith toils away his hours by getting Gorilla ready for this year’s ADDY Awards, taking place in Grand Rapids. Our production company won a handful of ADDY awards last year (which we’ve neatly framed, I might point out) and our hope is to walk away with two handfuls of awards this year. We need them; our walls are bare. And finally, Scott Brookens creativity has begun spinning around a new, exciting concept, which all of Gorilla will be developing this spring. More on that in the upcoming months.

Also, I want to mention “The Lost & Found Shop”, an upcoming short film written and to be directed by Caleb Alexander Slain. (Three names always does sound more professional, doesn’t it?) Gorilla is serving as the production company and will be facilitating with RED Cameras, ARRI Master Primes, and our understanding of production know-how. We will be filming in and around Grand Rapids, Michigan starting mid-January. It needs to be done by February 1 for entry into the Doorpost Film Festival so post-production will be done in tasteful haste. I believe the West Michigan film community — nay, the world’s film community is in for a treat.

And lastly, we hope you’re getting out to the theater and checking out some films this Holiday Season. We recommend “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” It will affirm your belief in cinema. (Just in case you can’t sense the sarcasm, I’ll let you know that was a joke. The movie is horrible and deserves to be banned from any country not run by a dictator. Sorry, Zimbabwe.)

Many of our faithful followers know that we have recently acquired six ARRI Master Prime lenses (scroll down to our December 7 posting to read all about the delight that is German engineered glass, neatly perfected). But what you may not know is that Gorilla Pictures has made the ARRI Master Primes available to rent! Click on the RED link to the left and be introduced to the rental rates, both for our RED cameras, our Master Primes, ARRI MB-20 Matte Box, and ARRI FF4 follow focus. If you have any questions you can e-mail Scott Brookens at scottb@gorilla-pictures.com to learn more about daily rates, weekly rates, and maybe (if he’s eaten well that day) some wheelin’ and dealin’.

I believe at this point we are the only Michigan-based production company to have ARRI Master Primes and two (2) RED cameras. What a blessing! This equipment makes us think we know what we’re doing!