Ever wonder what a data visualization of every file transfer bouncing around the internet airwaves might look like? The Pirate Cinema, from artist Nicolas Maigret, has rendered something close to it. Described as a “cinematic collage generated by peer-to-peer network activity,” the project is comprised of arbitrary clips from real time BitTorrent file sharing. Users IP addresses and countries are displayed in the upper corners, turning purportedly private transactions public. For Maigret, “this horizontal network architecture…recalls the utopian vision of openness and free appropriation that arose in the early days of the Internet.”
We’re excited to feature this story from our friends at Narratively, a platform devoted to untold human stories. Narratively explores one theme each week and publishes one story a day, and this week is all about “The Movie Life.” In this Narratively video by Emily Kwong, after a barn fire destroys a lifetime of master reels and priceless memories, one documentary filmmaker picks up the pieces of his career’s cruelest plot twist. From the Narratively site, here’s more: Richard Searls is a warrior among documentarians. He has an indent on his forehead from getting bumped with a tripod leg and […]
For the video to their single “We Are Explorers,” Cut Copy paired with the Tokyo-New York creative lab Party to relate the tale of a couple of 3-D printed night owls. Cinematographer Sesse Lind shot roughly 200 figurines, printed from a yellow, UV-reactive filament, under black light flashlights, only at night, to achieve the desired effects. The result is downsized nocturnal epic whose scale belies its ambitions. To accompany the release, the creative team packaged a BitTorrent Bundle that includes the musical track, the video and the 3-D printing files, so that fans can craft and upload their own versions. With the […]
Filmmaker is delighted to be streaming exclusively Ian Clark’s third feature, MMXIII, on our site until February 27. Clark was one of our “25 New Faces” in 2012, off the back of his gorgeous short Searching for Yellow. A resident of La Grande, Oregon, where he also co-programs the Eastern Oregon Film Festival, Clark beautifully captures, in quiet moments and small details, the essence of small-town life in the Pacific Northwest. Clark previously made the features Pool Room and Country Story, and now with MMXIII has made an expansive third feature that was described as follows on the EOFF website: An experimental self-portrait, […]
Director Matthew Riggieri and d.p. Michael Patrick O’Leary set a camera in concrete to film the music video for Bosley’s “Just Like You.” Then, they left it there for nine months, and built an outhouse on top of it, so that no one could steal it. With its quick cuts, the result isn’t a time lapse per se, but it does give you some idea of the changing seasons.
Legendary film editor, sound designer, writer, translator, amateur astronomer and director Walter Murch needs no introduction. (Oh, what the hell, his credits include The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Tetro and more.) In addition to being a great filmmaker, he’s also a great teacher and talker about film. Here, at the 2013 Sheffield Doc Fest, where he accompanied the doc, Particle Fever, he gives an inspiring speech on film editing, technology, audience expectation, how film grammar is changing with digital technologies, and physics. Don’t miss this.
Vivian Kubrick shot a reported 18 hours of footage while on the set of her father’s Vietnam War film Full Metal Jacket. Though Ms. Kubrick eventually abandoned her documentary project, bits and bobs of the footage surfaced in comprehensive collections such as Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures. A condensed version of the behind-the-scenes action is now available on YouTube, featuring Kubrick directing Matthew Modine and the gallery of extras during the “this is my rifle, this is my gun” sequence alike. The clips also provide insight into Kubrick’s on-set personality, which — at least, here — does not appear quite as […]
The Sacrament, Ti West’s found footage horror film, tracks an innocuous visit gone awry. Kentucker Audley, Joe Swanberg and AJ Bowen star as a coterie of photographers who visit Audley’s sister, played by Amy Seimetz, on the Eden Parish commune, where she has lived since completing her rehab program. Turns out the place isn’t as forgiving as Audley and co. suspected. The Sacrament hits theaters on May 1, and you can watch the red band trailer above.
Zero Point, a meta-documentary about the virtual reality industry, is about to remove the popular practice of 3D filmmaking from theaters. Founded by Oscar-nominated director Danfung Dennis, the tech company Condition One has created the first film to be viewed with Oculus Rift, those nifty goggles made for 3D gaming. The virtual reality headset will allow the viewer to control the visuals through movement — effectively positioning the audience as a character, or even a real-time cinematographer, in the film. Condition One plans to project Zero Point on “the inside of an imaginary sphere, surrounding a viewer with an [Oculus] Rift headset,” according […]
Swede: to remake a film with limited resources, cheap effects and obsolete technology, as per Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind. The idiosyncratic Frenchman put his own concept to the test with his low-budget re-imagining of Taxi Driver. Upon watching the short, screenwriter Paul Schrader had this much to say: “I always maintained Taxi Driver should never [have a] sequel or [be] remade. Michel Gondry is making me rethink this position.” With Schrader recently dismissing talk of a Lars Von Trier Taxi Driver remake, now is the time to revisit Gondry’s version.