Authors — Sarah Salovaara
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Sundance MVP Alex Bickel on the Role of the Colorist
The post-production process is an often underestimated one, both in the amount of work it necessitates and in its shaping of the final product. From an outside perspective, viewers may assume that a film’s visuals are simply captured on-set, in camera, and transferred to screen without much alteration. In reality, color grading the camera’s images is an art form unto itself. Over at Hammer to Nail, Chad Hartigan, director of last year’s Sundance NEXT inclusion This is Martin Bonner, interviews his colorist Alex Bickel, whose fingerprints were on a whopping six titles in Park City earlier this month: Blue Ruin; Camp X-Ray; Kumiko, The […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 30, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac: Volume II
Swapping Rammstein for The Talking Heads, the trailer for Volume II of Lars von Trier’s nymphomaniacal, five-hour affair is considerably more dialed down than its predecessor. Favoring mood and quiet exchanges to the sexed-up, melodramatic hysteria that’s categorized the majority of Nymphomaniac‘s elongated marketing scheme, this new trailer puts its best ensemble forward with glimpses of Christian Slater, Willem Dafoe, Shia Labeouf, Stellan Skarsgard, Mia Goth, Stacy Martin, and of course, the titular Charlotte Gainsbourg. The U.S. had its first glimpse of Nymphomaniac: Volume I at Sundance’s secret screening last week, and Magnolia Pictures will release Volumes I and II to the rest of […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 29, 2014 -
The Conquest of Happiness: Drugs on Film
For nearly as long as there have been moving pictures, there have been drugs moving through their frames. The Conquest of Happiness, a 2005 pastiche by the German artist Oliver Pietsch, examines the patterns of drug use and representation on film. Compiling hundreds of clips over the course of two years, Pietsch “[aimed] to mirror the subject drug by aiming for a similar absorbing and lulling effect.” In an interview with Carroll/Fletcher earlier this month, Pietsch remarked of his piece that “the structure of repetition goes well with the principle of drugs.” While the obvious titles like Requiem for a Dream and Scarface make their […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 29, 2014 -
Show-Focus: The Future of Pulling Focus
Guillaume Couche, a Masters student at the Royal College of Art in London with a background in mechanical engineering, has created a prototype for what he calls “Show-Focus.” Designed to facilitate the duties of the on-set focus-puller, Show-Focus renders a physical representation of the invisible plane of focus so that the precise focal point can be deduced, and captured, at any time. The model is compromised of two components, communicable through a wireless connection: the camera module and the controller. The camera module, which is attached to the body of the shooting camera, provides a real-time 3D map of what […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 28, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: David Gordon Green’s Joe Starring Nicolas Cage
Joe, David Gordon Green’s adaptation of the Larry Brown novel, sees the peripatetic filmmaker returning to the Southern-fried family drama of his Undertow days, if not with considerably more grit. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, where Tye Sheridan — riffing off the remnants of his Mud daddy issues — scooped up the Marcello Mastroianni prize for Best Young Actor, Joe follows the eponymous cypher, played by Nicolas Cage, who takes Sheridan under his wing and away from his troubled home life at the local lumber company. As you may glean from the trailer, Sheridan’s father doesn’t take too kindly to the boy’s new […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 28, 2014 -
How Drafthouse Films Used BitTorrent to Up The Act of Killing’s Profile
Ask an independent filmmaker his or her stance on torrents, and you’re likely to get an impassioned response – one that’s not necessarily negative. I’ve spoken with handfuls of filmmakers who regard the brand of piracy as a beneficial, near audience-building exercise. In an article from 2011, Filmmaker contributor Anthony Kaufman suggested that torrents, “should be considered [as] just one more element in a hybrid distribution strategy.” Weighing in on the issue, New School professor and filmmaker Vladan Nikolic noted that, “Viewers don’t overlap that much. Those who watch iTunes and cable don’t use BitTorrents.” A couple years later, Drafthouse […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 27, 2014 -
Cassian Elwes and Producers Discuss Economics of Independent Film Financing
Kudos to my Twitter feed for brushing the dust off this nearly year old video of Cassian Elwes and other producers covering the basic economics of film financing. For every experiential tidbit acquired by aspiring filmmakers on sets, in the classroom, or at home, there is a disproportionate amount of information available on the first step towards making one’s film: securing the money, and making the most of it. Elwes touches upon pre-sales and credits, though the independent film industry standard for debut directors is proven to lie within private equity. In the informational short clip, the producers discuss why the […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 27, 2014 -
Grace of Monaco to Open 2014 Cannes Film Festival
Well this is an interesting choice. After yesterday’s news that The Weinstein Company pulled Grace of Monaco from their release calendar had everyone clutching their pearls, it appears the reason behind the move is not nearly as titillating as many presumed. TWC will not release the film as scheduled in March, because it will open the Cannes Film Festival on May 14. Cannes is not necessarily a stickler for surefire quality or intelligence when it comes to their opening night selections — see The Great Gatsby, Moonrise Kingdom and Midnight in Paris — but they do tend to favor a good auteur. Grace of Monaco, however, […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 24, 2014 -
2014 Slamdance Award Winners
Yesterday, Slamdance announced its jury, audience and special award winners for its 20th anniversary festival. The jury award for Best Narrative Feature went to Rezeta, the story of a Kosovan model’s trip to Mexico City, while Elliot, which follows the eponymous Elliot “White Lightning” Scott, intent on becoming Canada’s first action hero, scooped up the Best Documentary Feature prize. The winners, perhaps suggestively, received $5,000 in film from Kodak, in addition to $3,500 in legal services. The audience awards went to Copenhagen for Narrative Feature, and Kidnapped for Christ for Documentary Feature. See the full list of winners below. AUDIENCE AWARDS Audience Award for Documentary Feature: Kidnapped […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 24, 2014 -
Slamdance’s Distribution Arm, Slamdance Studios, To Release Bible Quiz
Providing exposure for its entries is simply not enough for the Slamdance Film Festival, Sundance’s alterna-sister. In January 2010, Slamdance announced a distribution partnership with Xbox and Zune, thus realizing Slamdance Studios. Last year, they partnered with Cinedigm to release four titles on VOD, and today, they announced the acquisition of their 2013 Grand Jury Prize Winner, Nicole Teeny’s Bible Quiz, for a limited theatrical release. In partnership with Virgil Films, Slamdance Studios will release the documentary about the world of competitive Bible verse memorization in New York and Los Angeles, before moving to Houston, Kalamazoo, Lubbock and Austin in cooperation […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 23, 2014
