Criterion Collection recently put out the coffee table book to end all coffee table books, Criterion Designs. A compilation of the illustrations, sketches and concept art behind the label’s impeccable covers and graphics, the book presents an inside look at the highly elaborate design process. Our recent 25 New Face :: kogonada has created a nice bumper for Designs, with seamless cuts between the films and their illustrations, from Charlie Chaplin to Wes Anderson. Check it out above.
As a two dimensional medium, film employs a handful of techniques to convey a greater depth of field than what exists in a given frame. In this handy video, cinematographer Matthew Rosen breaks down his five favorite ways to highlight depth, through lighting, focus, perspective, parallax, and occlusion. The dolly effect, which Rosen argues is perhaps most effective in relating depth of field to an audience, is in fact a combination of parallax and occlusion.
“I’ve become so disturbed by younger people!” “What? Younger people?” The trailer for Noah Baumbach’s forthcoming Frances Ha follow-up While We’re Young is undoubtedly the only teaser for a Ben Stiller vehicle to frame itself with quotes from Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder. Older couple Stiller and Naomi Watts meet younger partners Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried and ends up wandering around Bushwick; musings on aging and maturity follow, but it’s funny anyway. It’s also very nice to see Charles Grodin back in action, in his first feature since 2006’s The Ex. The film opens March 27.
Here’s an extraordinary clip from Jane, a documentary directed by Drew Associates about the young Jane Fonda preparing for her first Broadway role. My favorite line: “Andreas [the director] has coached Jane before. They’re friends, and he dates her often.” From the press release: JANE, directed by Drew Associates, captures a rare and oft forgotten piece of film and theater history. A young Jane Fonda prepares for her tumultuous starring role on Broadway in “The Fun Couple.” The Drew Associates filmmakers track Fonda’s every move during the production as she strives to legitimize herself as an actress and remove herself […]
In the days following the Grand Jury decision to not indict Darren Wilson in the murder of Michael Brown, protests and marches were held throughout the country in solidarity with the people of Ferguson. In New York, crowds wound their way through middle and lower Manhattan, across the bridges, and into Brooklyn. This short film from the music video director Aaron Stewart-Ahn, set to a piano tune from Dev Hynes, captures an evening of protests, with some beautiful, rankling imagery: white people pushing against the crowds as they stare into his camera; bus passengers with their hands held high, mirroring […]
“Why am I even allowed to say her name,” wondered comic Amy Schumer when starting a tribute to the actress at last night’s Gotham Independent Film Awards. The story she has to tell begins with a part Schumer wrote for her forthcoming film Trainwreck — that of her boss, simply described in the script as “a goddess, like Tilda Swinton waiting at a baggage claim.” Schumer then tells of the first time she saw Swinton (Vanilla Sky, of all things) and pays tribute to Swinton’s singular screen presence, noting that the only thing cooler than watching her act is hanging […]
A film’s first shot, its first image, is one that’s obsessed over by many directors. But how many put as much care into its first sound? Francis Ford Coppola did, along with sound designer Walter Murch, when constructing the opening of Apocalypse Now. The famous helicopter sounds actually enter over black — they are the first input of any kind an audience member receives. And, of course, those weren’t just any helicopter sounds. In the video above — a section of a documentary commissioned for the Paramount 2006 home video release and made by Zoetrope’s former head of post, Kim […]
It’s the reboot round two. A year in advance of its December release, Disney has given us the first glimpse of the 7th episode in the Star Wars series, The Force Awakens. Directed by J.J. Abrams, the film picks up 30 years after Return of the Jedi. There’s not a whole lot to glean from, but presumably enough to get the diehards excited.
In the wake of the decision not to prosecute Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown, Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler has joined with Selma director and AFFRM founder Ava DuVernay to launch Blackout for Human Rights, “a network committed to ending human rights violations at the hands of public servants.” The group, which includes a number of directors, actors and others, builds on this week’s nationwide protests with events and actions, including today’s #BlackoutBlackFriday. From the group’s Tumblr: About #BlackoutBlackFriday: We ask those who stand with Ferguson, victims of police brutality and us to refrain […]
A newly restored print of Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice wraps its run at BAM tonight, so now’s as good a time as any to take in Directed by Tarkovsky. A compilation of 50+ hours of behind the scenes footage shot by d.p. Arne Carlsson, along with excerpts from Tarkovsky’s book Sculpting in Time, editor Michal Leszczylowski’s documentary is an insightful window into the Russian great’s exacting process. Especially intriguing is his language barrier work with the actors, of whom he writes, “Cinema demands the truth of a state of mind that cannot be concealed, and the director has to induce the right state of mind in […]