Authors — Alix Lambert
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SAMPLING THE IMAGINE SCIENCE FILM FESTIVAL
When I was in second grade, I was the kid who brought the boa-constrictor home over Christmas break. I had a chicken leg in a jar of phemaldehyde in my room. I excitedly cleaned out the very deep cut my sister got stepping on glass in the ocean. My Netflix cue has on it every BBC show on how the brain works. My mother was a science teacher. My sister is a pilot for NOAA. I always wanted to be a surgeon — if it didn’t involve so many years of school; Creative Improvised Surgery! I think I’d be good […]
by Alix Lambert on Oct 19, 2011 -
Week Five at the Edit Center
Over the weekend we have all watched the new documentary: 6 Days to Air, about the making of South Park, in preparation for Chad Beck and Brett Granato, who edited the film, to come talk to us. Before they visit we hear a lecture on how to organize documentary footage. Documentary footage carries with it different challenges than narrative footage does; mainly, one usually has considerably more footage on a doc than on a feature — and no script. Beck and Granato are cutting just down the hall, so it’s a short walk for them to shuffle over to find […]
by Alix Lambert on Oct 17, 2011 -
Week Four at the Edit Center
Monday brings more scene analysis! We watch three scenes: one from Fearless, one from Punch Drunk Love, and one from Mulholland Drive; all of them are specifically chosen not just for picture, but also for sound. The scene from Punch Drunk Love is one I remember especially well. Adam Sandler’s character discovers a lone harmonium in the street. It sits in near silence. Sandler stares at it. The silence extends and then is abruptly broken as a truck zooms by – but we see the truck approach way before we hear it … which is jarring in an effective way, […]
by Alix Lambert on Oct 10, 2011 -
Photographer/Director Louie Psihoyos on The Singing Planet
Louie Psihoyos started out as a still photographer for National Geographic. He won an Oscar for his first feature length documentary: The Cove, which took an unflinching look at the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. He is now starting work on his next film, The Singing Planet, which will be shot underwater using extraordinary sound recording advances. He took a moment to talk with me about his films and his work as an environmentalist. Filmmaker: How did you get interested in still photography? How did you start working as a photographer? Psihoyos: I loved making art when I was a […]
by Alix Lambert on Oct 3, 2011 -
WEEK THREE AT THE EDIT CENTER
On Monday, each of us sits down to address the notes that we received from Rodney Evans, the director of The Happy Sad, on Friday. We are all tapping away with our headphones on, filling a common room, but simultaneously lost in our personal space bubbles. We do this for the better part of the day. Tuesday we have scene analysis. This is, of course, my favorite because… we are watching movies. Watching movies has been my hands-down favorite pastime since, well, forever. We watch Monique’s award-winning performance in Precious. If you have seen Precious (sorry, I’m not going to […]
by Alix Lambert on Oct 3, 2011 -
Week Two at the Edit Center
It is the first day of my second week at The Edit Center and we are no longer paired off with partners. Left alone with my computer, I cannot remember how to do anything. Alan Oxman (whose editing credits include Control Room, Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse) has joined us, as our teacher. We are to start working on a feature film currently going into post-production. The film is called Happy Sad, written by Ken Urban and directed by Rodney Evans. I am delighted to learn that my friend Maria Dizzia is acting in it. We have all read […]
by Alix Lambert on Sep 28, 2011 -
Week One at the Edit Center
Over the next six weeks director and Filmmaker contributor Alix Lambert is taking The Edit Center’s course in feature film editing. This is the first of her weekly blogs on her experience. — Editor As a director, I have sat in the editing room for the better part of two decades. My long-time friend and brilliant editor, Hannah Neufeld has talked my off the ledge, dissuaded me from many bad ideas, and brought her own keen eye and internal rhythm to projects that we have worked on together over the years. Other editors (notably David Ritsher) have done the same […]
by Alix Lambert on Sep 26, 2011 -
The Cooler Bandits
John Lucas grew up in Ohio. When Lucas decided to volunteer for the Big Brother / Big Sister program in Akron he couldn’t have known how much it would change his life, and the lives of the boys he would meet. His little brother was an eleven-year-old named Charlie. Soon after meeting Charlie he met Charlie’s cousin: Poochie. He also met a number of other kids, and started photographing all of them. After Lucas left Ohio, he would return often to the community in Akron, saddened and angered to find the lives of the children that he had known being […]
by Alix Lambert on Sep 20, 2011 -
An Interview with Warrior Star Joel Edgerton
Actor, writer, and director Joel Edgerton (pictured) has a lot on his plate. He stars in Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior, which opens today, and in Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby, which is currently in production in Australia. Edgerton is also managing to develop a new film that he has written and is set to direct. He sat down with me to talk about Blue Tongue Films, the production company that he formed with his brother, Nash Edgerton, and four other mates, and how they all manage to keep the process fun. Filmmaker: How did you and your brother get started in […]
by Alix Lambert on Sep 9, 2011 -
Project Nim vs. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
After watching Project Nim, the first half of Rise of The Planet of The Apes is like seeing a documentary (albeit a high production one starring James Franco). Or maybe it’s more accurate to say it’s like seeing the Hollywood-cast, fictionalized version of Project Nim, starring a remarkable digitally-captured performance by Andy Serkis as Caesar, our heroic chimpanzee; our Nim. Of course, like any good Hollywood adaptation of a documentary, halfway through Rise of the Planet of The Apes, the plot veers off from that of Project Nim into a more satisfying conclusion for the apes. Caesar is able to […]
by Alix Lambert on Aug 12, 2011
