Authors — Sarah Salovaara
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Five Questions with A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night Director Ana Lily Amirpour
Another vampire flick? For her debut film, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Ana Lily Amirpour shrugged off suggestions that the genre’s been tapped one too many times in crafting a Lynch and Leone mash-up that gets to the root of our fascination with the timeless character. Shot in black and white and set to a distinctive soundtrack, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night unfolds in the depraved (and fictional) Bad City, where a vampiric young woman and loner forge an unlikely love story. Filmmaker spoke with Amirpour about the stylistic influences and flourishes in the film, as well as its […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 19, 2014 -
No Green Screen? Try the Kubrickian Front Screen Projection
A new video from Shanks FX and PBS Digital Studios illustrates the process behind front screen projection. The technique, famously used by Kubrick in the “Dawn of Man” sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey, combines foreground action with background footage to allow for substantial depth of field that cannot otherwise be achieved on location. Merely reflecting a projection off a one way mirror, and capturing the results with a camera, can produce footage that rivals most computer generated images.
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 17, 2014 -
Set Smarts
Gadgets, now more than ever, are the enablers of DIY filmmaking. For the tech-savvy, even the most common of tools can play a pivotal role in elevating a project beyond its modest means. I’m not speaking solely of camera equipment and assorted gizmos, but rather the toolkit in your pocket: a smartphone. The following reports section highlights filmmaking-related apparatuses that are available with the click of a button to facilitate production. 1. MixBit (free) The brainchild of YouTube co-founders, MixBit allows you to record multiple clips as long as 16 seconds each and stitch them together for up to an […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 17, 2014 -
Watch Lance Bangs’ Short Documentary Her: Love in the Modern Age
Using Spike Jonze’s her as a springboard, Lance Bangs shot a documentary about the modern person’s relationship to love. Culling a wide range of perspectives — from Charlyne Yi to Olivia Wilde to Bret Easton Ellis — Bangs asks us to consider how we relate to Jonze’s unusual tale of boy meets girl. Offers Yi, “Recently, I was thinking about relationships like shoes, and how it’s cheaper to buy new shoes than work on the shoes that you really love and care about.” If the trailer’s any indication, we can expect an eclectic offering. Keep an eye out for Her: Love […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 17, 2014 -
Sundance 2014: First Teaser Trailer for Alex Ross Perry’s Listen Up Philip
In advance of its world premiere on Monday, Alex Ross Perry has released a teaser trailer to his latest, Listen Up Philip. Clocking in at under two minutes, the clip features various men and women addressing Jason Schwartzman’s titular character. One gets the sense that Philip’s not the most agreeable fellow, and his ego has grown even more insufferable on the eve of the release of his second novel. Co-starring Elisabeth Moss, Krysten Ritter, Jonathan Pryce, Josephine de La Baume, Jess Weixler, Dree Hemingway and Keith Poulson, this idiosyncratic ensemble looks to promise some of Perry’s brand of quick wit. Watch above.
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 17, 2014 -
“Trusting the Subject as a Collaborator:” Jillian Schlesinger on Maidentrip
You may have heard of Laura Dekker, the Dutch wunderkind who announced at the ripe old age of 13 that she planned to sail around the world, by herself. Despite initial intervention attempts by her home government, Ms. Dekker set off from Gibraltar in August of 2010, in her 38-footer by the name of “Guppy,” and arrived in Sint Maarten 16 months later, fully intact. Much like her subject, Jillian Schlesinger did not go the safe route in her first full-length voyage as a filmmaker. A project four years in the making, with no opportunities for reshoots or reenactments, Schlesinger’s […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 17, 2014 -
Michael Tully and Eric Lavallée Found the American Independent Film Awards
Do we really need another award show? Michael Tully, filmmaker (Ping Pong Summer, Septien) and editor of Hammer to Nail, and Eric Lavallée, founder of Ioncinema, can assure you we do. Tully and Lavallée have partnered to announce the creation of the American Independent Film Awards (AIFAs), a soon-to-be annual celebration of “a distinctive category of micro-budget films.” Says Tully, “There are way too many awards shows as it is, and yet Eric and I have become frustrated with the way truly excellent work is marginalized every year simply because it doesn’t have the money to play with the big boys. We feel […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 16, 2014 -
First Announcements from Robust Berlinale Slate Include Two Josephine Decker Titles
The Berlinale has a rather hefty program: Competition, Out of Competition, Special, Panorama, Forum, Forum Expanded, Generation, Perspective, Retrospectives — and that gets us about halfway there. In the last few days, three section lineups have trickled out of the press office, offering Berlin’s signature mix of international auteurs, Sundance holdovers and the downright esoteric. Familiar titles for a plebe like me include the Park City world premieres 52 Tuesdays; Boyhood; Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter and God Help The Girl, as well as the out of competition, Vincent Cassel and Léa Seydoux starring Beauty and the Beast — which appears to be more Disney than Cocteau. […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 16, 2014 -
Vimeo to Team with Crowdfunding Platforms
It’s a busy 10 days for news breaks as Sundance is now officially underway. To start things off, Vimeo has just announced its partnership with crowdfunding platforms Indiegogo, Kickstarter and Seed&Spark, in a program that will allow them to cherry pick projects that have raised at least $10,000 for an exclusive digital premiere window on Vimeo on Demand. In exchange, the filmmakers will receive free Vimeo Pro accounts and access to a $500,000 Audience Development Fund to aid in project promotion. This announcement comes on the heals of Vimeo’s acquisition of 13 TIFF titles that will stream exclusively on VoD […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 16, 2014 -
2014 Academy Awards Nominations
The Academy Awards are an anomaly in that they manage to inspire outrage and debate around often obvious and safe selections. I could sit here and pout and tell you how shocked I am that Inside Llewyn Davis was “snubbed” in the major categories, but is that surprising given the Academy’s proclivities? This is a body that lives for pomp, circumstance (not for nothing does a David O. Russell film score four acting nominations, two years in a row) and Alexander Payne, the cinematic embodiment of Wonderbread. But let’s focus on the positives: The Act of Killing and the IFP-supported Cutie and the Boxer […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 16, 2014
