Paul Trillo’s A Truncated Story of Infinity considers the limitless schema of possibilities that unfold over the course of a series of moments. The eight minute film — recently featured on Short of the Week — also boasts some pretty impressive practical effects for a budget of $10,000. I asked Paul to break down the means behind each technique, which he notes may not “the correct way” to render an effect, even if they look pretty fine to me. Hall of Mirrors at :00 “Our ‘mirror’ was just a framed piece of green on a wall. We did a simple dolly into the green so it […]
Fresh from Comic-Con is a new trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, which appears to be sitting out on the fall festival circuit. The circumstances aren’t exactly discernible from the footage, but Matthew McConaughey is summoned away from his simple Texas life and family to take to the solar system, for a long enough duration that his pre-pubescent daughter turns into Jessica Chastain while he’s away. The dialogue and thematic tendencies point towards the topical, diminishing sources of life on earth as a possible cause for his intergalactic adventure, and the visual effects look to be on point. The film is set to open from Warner Brothers […]
Via our friends at No Film School, here’s an instructional tutorial from Matt Brown on how to make flats when constructing your own DIY film sets. Brown decided building his own elevator set was more practical and economical than finding a real one to shoot in; the flats are the fake walls necessary to build a set. For those not intuitively comfortable with tools or even navigating a Home Depot, Brown walks you through the necessary purchases, choosing the right sizes of wood, and the construction process, complete with detailed on-screen written instructions for pausable reference.
A hat-tip, as usual, to David Hudson at Keyframe Daily for directing us to this graduate student short from Thibault de Fournas. In a brisk two-plus minutes, Thibault first explains the art of typography on the printed page — size, style, type, forms — then concisely summarizes the history of type’s on-screen presence, from its introduction as static intertitles to the opening credits innovations of Saul Bass. The short summons memories of a century of movies through letters that copy source fonts exactly: “Every single movie got one,” says a sentence about opening credits, each word in the style of […]
Earlier this year, we released an exclusive stream to former “25 New Face” Ian Clark’s MMXIII, which functioned as an experimental self-portrait, partially related through Clark’s Oregon environs. From the celestial-driven imagery of said film, Clark devised a sci-fi alien abduction follow-up, A Morning Light, that’s now sourcing funds on Kickstarter. Produced by fellow 25 New Faces Jim Cummings and Ben Wiessner of ornana, and starring filmmakers Zach Weintraub and Celia Rowlson-Hall, the film looks at a pair of estranged exes who experience inexplicable phenomena. For those interested in lush and aesthetic low-budget genre, it’s not a bad bet. Below, copied from […]
As someone old enough to remember the visceral theater experience of Road Warrior as well as the kitschy letdown of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, count me intrigued and hopeful after this first trailer for George Miller’s franchise reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road. There’s plenty that’s familiar from the series here, but replacing the dusty grain of the original films are DI-enhanced oranges and blues that give some of these shots a near-abstract quality. Still, when it comes to effects, Miller told the L.A. Times that he’s gone for the practical approach: Well, we made a big, big point to go […]
We recently spotlighted Tony Zhou’s video essay on Michael Bay’s editing techniques, and now he’s come up with another fascinating editorial analysis. “Satoshi Kon — Editing Space & Time” examines the work of the late anime legend (Paprika, Perfect Blue) purely from an editor’s perspective, finding analogical techniques in Wes Anderson’s work while unpacking the director’s use of graphic matches, imaginative wipes and other transitions that underlined his concerns with the slippage between dreams and reality. It concludes with Kon’s final work, the one-minute short Ohayo (Good Morning). This is well worth a look, both for anime buffs and editors […]
“I don’t do romance. My tastes are very…singular.” The keenly anticipated, much-hyped first full trailer for 50 Shades of Grey is now here, having debuted during the Today show earlier today (corporate synergy at its finest: distributor Universal also owns NBC). Jamie Dornan glowers impassively, Dakota Johnson stares into his eyes, and eventually the whips come out. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson has certainly come a long way since 2006, when she directed an eight-minute short of a man masturbating in Death Valley for the arthouse porn anthology Destricted. “I find the whole porn thing a bit creepy,” she said at the […]
Before the projector, there was the kinetoscope. Conceptualized by Thomas Edison in 1888 and developed by William Dickson, the device provided a peephole into early moving pictures. Mono No Aware, the Brooklyn-based cinema organization, has scheduled a visit to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park and its adjoining Black Maria Studio to allow participants to produce their own takes on these iconic film strips, at the very birthplace of movie production. An on-site workshop will equip attendees with 16 mm, and the resulting kinetoscopes will be screened and digitized in the same afternoon. To sign up for this Sunday’s excursion, head to […]
Here’s the first trailer for Ned Rifle, the third part of Hal Hartley’s “Henry Fool” trilogy, which began with the titular 1998 film and continued with 2007’s Fay Grim. The trailer’s wordless for a good chunk, but when we finally hear words, we know exactly what’s going on: Henry (Thomas Jay Ryan) and Fay (Parker Posey)’s son Ned (Liam Aiken) is going to find his dad and kill him. This capstone film — “probably” the final installment, the Kickstarter hedged its bets — was posted in advance of the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival later this year. […]