Previously I linked to David Bordwell’s analysis of Scorsese’s The Departed, in which he traced the average shot length in the director’s films over the years. Now, Bordwell has posted even more fascinating piece on editing and shot length. In a post entitled “My Name is David and I’m a Frame Counter,” Bordwell discusses mathematical relationships within edited sequences: Directors have been counting frames for a long time. Experimental filmmakers like Brakhage did. Ozu had a special stopwatch built to register feet and frames during filming. Hitchcock cared about frame counting too. In Film Art’s chapter on editing (pp. 224-225 […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 2, 2007In the wake of the controversy involving Hounddog, the Sundance premiere which featured a brief scene in which the character played by young actress Dakota Fanning is raped, a North Carolina politician is proposing that the state Senate review and approve screenplays for films receiving the state filming tax incentive. From an article by Mark Schreiner in the Wilmington Star: Citing the controversy surrounding the Dakota Fanning film Hounddog, the leader of the state Senate Republicans says he wants the government to review scripts before cameras start rolling in North Carolina. That system, said state Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, would […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2007Over at her Risky Business blog, Ann Thompson writes about the Academy ruling that producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa of Bona Fide Films will not be eligible to accept the Oscar if their film Little Miss Sunshine wins Best Picture. This seems to deeply suck. They are the guys who developed the material early on, championed the directors and brought it to financiers Big Beach. But because of the Academy’s “rule of three,” they have been nixed from eligiblity in favor of Mark Turtletaub, David Friendly and Peter Saraf. I’m not saying that any of the other producers should […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2007Over at the Sundance 2007 main page, Bob Fisher talks with d.p. Amy Vincent about Black Snake Moan.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2007As you can tell from my post below, I didn’t like the Sundacnce Competition film Grace is Gone. At the time, I thought I was in the minority but in the last few days a number of reviews and criticisms have come out faulting the film for its disingenuously “even-handed” use of the Iraq war to kickstart what is ultimately a conventional indie film road movie. The weird thing about the movie is that star John Cusack has been a vocal opponent of the war, and my guess is that its makers are also sensitive anti-war folk. (I don’t know […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2007Two more interviews by James Ponsoldt up on our Sundance home page. David Kaplan talks about his animated The Year of the Fish. And: Chris Zalla discusses his Padre Nuestro.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2007Mike White’s comedy The Year of the Dog, which premiered in Sundance this week in the Premieres section, shares a premise with the similarly titled Joan Didion memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking. That is, when one is grieving, one experiences a kind of insanity, the “magical thinking” of Didion’s title. One’s relationship to the rest of society as well as one’s self is occluded by the memory of the deceased. Of course, Didion’s departed was her husband, the novelist John Gregory Dunne. It’s typical of White’s unsettling wit that the protagonist of his film – a retiring and unmarried […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2007I was saddened to see over at Pitchfork Media that Uwe Nettelbeck, one of the founders of the great German art rock group Faust has died. Here’s Pitchfork: Nettelbeck, a producer and one-time music journalist, founded Faust in Wümme, Germany in 1971. The group was one of Virgin Records’ first signings and went on to record several highly-influential albums over the next few years, including the seminal Faust and Faust IV, before disbanding in 1975. Several of the original members have since regrouped under the Faust banner to tour and record. No further details of Nettelbeck’s death are known at […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 24, 2007If you’re only checking out this blog, make sure to click over to James Ponsoldt’s interviews with the three directors of the American indie horror pic The Signal, which was bought here at Sundance by Magnolia Pictures.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 24, 2007Ann Thompson at her Risky Business blog has been detailing what she calls “an unexpectedly insane feeding frenzy” at the Sundance Film Festival. Midway through the first weekend people were saying that this seemed to be a weak year at Sundance and that sales would be slow. Then, all of a sudden, a number of unexpected titles caught the fancy of audiences and distributors. There has been one big sale (Son of Rambow to Paramount Vantage for $7 million), several medium sized ones (Grace is Gone and Dedication, both to the Weinstein’s for $4 million or so), and heartening pickups […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 24, 2007