The Oscars are not generally considered a crucial event for genre lovers; the inclusion of such films is often limited, and often ghettoized, relegated to technical awards only. This year there are several films in requisite categories like Makeup and Hairstyling, and Visual Effects (whose nominees include The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Avengers, Snow White and the Huntsman, and Prometheus). Another good category where one can snoop out genre fare is in Best Animated Film, and 2013 doesn’t disappoint, with the lovingly crafted and decidedly Gothic take on suburbia in ParaNorman and Tim Burton’s tale of a boy and […]
As I mentioned when I recommended this film’s Kickstarter campaign, I love depressing Christmas movies. At the time, its writer/director, Zach Clark (Vacation, Modern Love is Automatic), wrote, “White Reindeer takes on thirty-as-the-new-twenty and shows a suburban Virginia where sleaze and sadness may float on the surface, but hope and compassion aren’t too far away either.” From the trailer, I’d say he’s nailed it. Check it out above and the film itself at SXSW.
We’ve featured the work of filmmaker Mike Hedge on the site before, and he’s just forwarded the trailer for his “participatory documentary” shot at Burning Man, As the Dust Settles. It premieres next week at the Byron Bay Film Festival in Australia. From the site: Following a simple rule of working on this participatory documentary 50% of the time, we captured our life-changing experiences at the annual arts festival held in northern Nevada, known as Burning Man. Our documentary reveals an intimate glimpse of what we discovered about love, creativity, community, the environment, the art, the gift economy, and reality. […]
Google has released a new video demonstrating its Google Glass and is launching a new campaign, “If I Had Glass,” offering creative people a chance to buy the product early. Read details at the link but, in short, you have 50 words on Twitter or Google + to say what you’d do using Glass, the deadline is February 27, and, if selected, you have to pre-order Glass for $1,500.
Fourteen years after making an impressive directorial debut with La Ciudad, David Riker is returning with his second feature, an unlikely border tale starring Abbie Cornish. In the following exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette, Riker discusses the research he did and reveals how he conceived the story of the film.
Filmmaker Colby Moore has shot an eerie New York montage in high-dynamic range on the RED Epic-X. Underneath his Vimeo video he explains his process: A short and creepy montage of scenes shot around the ever-photogenic island of Manhattan — filmed entirely in high-dynamic range and comprised of some HDR Timelapse footage I shot, along with a collection of slow-motion and normal 24fps footage processed from Red Epic-X RAW video that I recently captured and then exported as -2,0+2 TIFF stacks to be tone mapped in Photomatix using a batch processing workflow. Please note that none of this was shot […]
Danny Boyle’s latest film snuck up on us, being added to the release schedule a few weeks ago after flying below the radar. This red-band trailer for Trance, which stars James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel, makes it seem like an enjoyably pulpy venture into genre territory.
Come Out and Play, a film produced by Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna’s company Canana, is an intriguing little chiller, coming out in March through Cinedigm, that I’m looking forward to checking out. The trailer reveals the movie’s promising narrative hook — the children on a remote island are killing all who cross their path — but what really grabbed my attention was the manifesto recorded by Come Out and Play‘s director, the single-monikered Makinov. My favorite line is, “I believe in the mystery of the spirit. That’s why I want to scream at the stupid person that keeps checking photos […]
Rambling On, an independent film interview show, is landing at Filmmaker. Produced by filmmakers Russell Costanzo and Melissa B. Miller (The Tested), the show gathers, roundtable style, producers, directors and actors to discuss their working practices. Here’s an excerpt from the duo’s previous episode, a roundtable with producers Sophia Lin (Compliance), Josh Mond (Simon Killer), Riva Marker (What Maisie Knew), Jared Goldman (The Magic of Belle Isle), and Michelle Ann Small (Gun Hill Road). The moderator here is Matt Patches from Hollywood.com, and this clip addresses a skill every producer needs to learn how to master: How — and when […]
Gary Huggins made our 25 New Faces list in 2006 on the basis of his excellent Sundance short, First Date. After a successful Kickstarter raise, he’s back now with his first feature, Kick Me. Here’s the synopsis, and the video is above. A fancy high school guidance counselor (Santiago Vasquez) ventures into unknown territory – Kansas City, Kansas – and learns crucial lessons about community, prejudice and brotherhood the hard way.