Authors — Sarah Salovaara
-
Watch: Creation Sequence from Noah
I didn’t see Noah, but if critical consensus serves, it seems the crown jewel of Aronofsky’s Biblical blockbuster attempt is now online. This three-minute, seemingly computer generated sequence re-imagines Genesis, Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel to aesthetically pleasing and compact effect. Set against Russell Crowe’s narration, the evolution of animals and man is particularly striking. One bone to pick: before gifting Eve with the apple, snakes could walk.
by Sarah Salovaara on May 12, 2014 -
Economical Storytelling at the MINY Media Center by IFP Demo Day
Given the bullpen of entrepreneurial ventures populating its space, it seemed only fitting that the MINY Media Center by IFP would have an inaugural demo day. At their campus in Dumbo, Brooklyn last Thursday, four of the Media Center’s “incubators” offered a ten-minute pitch before fielding questions from a panel of experts — a first from all two of the demo days I’ve attended, that proved a welcome inclusion. The central undercurrent running across the four startups’ presentations was economical storytelling, or, how to tell stories in the most effective manner possible. Blank on Blank, the brainchild of media producer David Gerlach, […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 12, 2014 -
Smoke and Mirrors: How to Create a Hologram
“The classic technique, called the Pepper’s Ghost technique, has been used since the late 1500s,” instructs Joey Shanks, of Shanks FX, in his new video on a seeming diversion that he deems the future: holograms. Using a downward facing projector and a mirror placed at a 45 degree angle, Shanks was able to recreate his own version of the headline grabbing Coachella Tupac resurrection. With a little experimenting in the way of lighting and mist, the spectacle is all the more atmospheric. Shanks notes that Apple recently secured a patent to create interactive holograms, which may offer insight into their hopes and dreams […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 9, 2014 -
Manakamana and Nonfiction’s Power of Contextualization
Yesterday, the upstanding people at Cinema Guild decided to release their catalogue of DVD supplemental essays online. It’s an embarrassment of riches: Amy Taubin on Beaches of Agnès, J. Hoberman on The Turin Horse, Haden Guest on Cousin Jules, to name a few. At my first, tepid perusal, however, it is Robert Koehler’s essay “Sweetgrass and The Future of Nonfiction Cinema,” that merits the most attention. Koehler begins by addressing the myth of the “death” of cinema in the new digital environs, countering that we are in a peculiar renaissance of the documentary. He considers the newfound multiplex popularity of the form, with films like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Super Size […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 8, 2014 -
Duplicating Without a Green Screen in The Double
Richard Ayoade’s The Double successfully eluded me on the festival circuit, so I’ll be excited to catch it when it opens in New York theaters tomorrow. For The Creators Project, Ayoade and his VFX producer Simon Walley speak about duplicating Eisenberg without the standard green screen keying, instead relying on a more camera-heavy process called “rotoscoping.” Removing Eisenberg’s body double in post, the VFX team was able to essentially combine takes, or “overlay layers,” as Ayoade puts it. The tricky part was working with the motion control rig, which meant Ayoade had to choose his preferred take on the spot, so that Eisenberg could switch characters and play […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 8, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Alice Rohrwacher’s Le Meraviglie
Conventional wisdom says to wait until a foreign trailer has subtitles before posting, but the gist is apparent enough in this first snippet from Alice Rohrwacher’s Cannes Competition entry Le Meraviglie. Set in the Umbrian countryside, the film centers on the eldest daughter of a provincial bee-keeping family, whose summer is upended by the arrival of a young German boy and local television competition, headed by none other than Monica Bellucci. Already silly/offensive conjectures are being batted around about Rohrwacher’s chances given the fact that both she and jury president Jane Campion are women, but we’ll see if they’re at all warranted in the ensuing weeks.
by Sarah Salovaara on May 7, 2014 -
2014 Northside Film Festival Lineup
A more consolidated, off-the-beaten-path cousin to Rooftop Films, the Northside Film Festival will take place from June 16 – 19, in and around Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Priding itself on partnerships, Northside will co-present a number of New York premieres and Special Screenings in conjunction with the likes of IFP, DCTV, BAMCinemaFest, Women Make Movies and Indiewire. Films to keep an eye out for include recent Tribeca winner Ne Me Quitte Pas, Homemakers, The Badabook, i hate myself :), Summer of Blood, and retrospective showings of Daises and Seventeen (in 16 mm). Entries in the festival’s DIY competition will compete for a prize package including filmmaker services at DCTV, a […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 6, 2014 -
The Cost of Being an Independent Filmmaker
Scrolling through Twitter yesterday, I came across an interesting bit of data from the programmer-critic Miriam Bale that extended beyond the usual 140 characters. Linking to an external app, Bale drew up a breakdown of what she calls “the cost to have an indie film career.” Stipulating that most independent filmmakers finance at least a portion of their work, in addition to their basic living expenses, it would take about $119,112 to sustain four years of a “career.” Bale also postulates that working a full time gig at $12/hour, you could save around $3,072 a year, for the next 39 years, before […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 5, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Lav Diaz’s Norte, The End of History
The Film Society of Lincoln Center recently announced, along with their all-star Summer calendar, that they’ll be hosting a Lav Diaz retrospective, set to run from June 2014 through February 2015. That’s not quite as drastic as it sounds: beginning with his latest, Norte, The End of History, the Film Society will screen one Diaz per month in a cheeky nod to the Filipino auteur’s generous running times. (2004’s Evolution of a Filipino Family clocks in at 540 minutes.) In conjunction with said announcement, Cinema Guild has released the official trailer to Norte, which is billed as “an epic reimagining of Crime and Punishment.” The film […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 2, 2014 -
Visual Mixtape: Elisabeth Holm on the Kickstarter Film Festival
The crowdfunding boom has proved an altogether blessing for entrepreneurism, artists and consumers alike, with the role of sites like Kickstarter now extending beyond a helpful platform and into the campaign afterlife. While some competitors are adopting distribution pathways, Kickstarter culls their most prized projects into a festival lineup for added exposure. Submissions are currently open (through May 14) for the Kickstarter Film Festival’s fourth iteration, for which any successfully funded, recently completed projects are eligible. And not just films. Last year’s fest featured several food options, music and artwork, in addition to notable docs like 12 O’Clock Boys, Everybody Street and Flex is Kings. Filmmaker spoke to […]
by Sarah Salovaara on May 1, 2014
