It’s been a busy year for Spike Lee, whose Da Sweet Blood of Jesus came out earlier this year and who will bookend the year with his Chicago gang violence film Chi-Raq, out December 4. It turns out that his feature film release count for the year is actually three if you put together all the cut scenes for NBA 2K16, which clock in at nearly two hours. Hat-tip to Nick Newman over at The Film Stage for sharing this odd little item. As he notes: It might make sense if Lee took the time to craft 10-20 minutes of generic cut scenes for a […]
What are props, and how do they work? Rishi Kaneria’s video essay considers the many functions props serve: as symbols of death (The Godfather‘s oranges), as ways to transition from one scene to another (Lawrence of Arabia‘s famous match cut), as objects indelibly associated with their characters (Indiana Jones’ bullwhip), and — of course — as weapons.
Jorge Luengo Ruiz’s straightforwardly titled supercut breaks down Hitchcock’s close-ups (from Rebecca to Family Plot; the British films await their own supercut) by category: hands, money, letters, paintings. Brisk work.
With backing from Google, Andreessen Horowitz, Qualcom and movie studio Legendary Entertainment — and an on-staff Chief Futurist in the form of science-fiction author Neal Stephenson — the somewhat mysterious Magic Leap is one of the most fascinating tech start-ups around. For the vision — not virtual reality but augmented reality — the company is going for, check out their startling home-page. For the current reality, check out the video above, which is a real-world demo of some galaxy clusters hovering over an ordinary workspace. For an explanation of why this simple video is more impressive than the rigged concept […]
Any filmmaker who has been around the block knows something about reactions to films — when you’re first praised for the cinematography, something has gone wrong. And when a critic spends more time on plot description than on analysis or commentary, well, then, he or she is just aiming to hit their word count. I thought of these two truisms while watching Review, the latest short from Filmmaker 25 New Face Dustin Guy Defa. Watch it above.
Miami-based filmmaker Carla Forte is one of the three filmmakers I’ll be speaking to tomorrow night at the Miami Beach Cinematheque, and our talk sits right in the middle of the Indiegogo campaign for her latest feature, Ann. Forte is a performer, screenwriter and director, as well as Executive Director of Bistoury Physical Theatre and Film. Read the information below, check out the video above and consider donating to her campaign. From Forte’s Indiegogo page: Ann is a feature film narrating the story of Ruben, a lower-class visual artist who has decided to abandon his tormented life by taking refuge […]
Director Arnaud Desplechin (A Christmas Tale, the excellent forthcoming My Golden Years) is a voraciously catholic viewer in his tastes; see, for example, this recent interview where he talks up the virtues of Superbad and Dazed and Confused relative to French coming-of-age films. So it’s not necessarily surprising that he’s a Notting Hill fan, but his explanation of how one scene uses Julia Roberts’ hidden nudity as a metaphor for cinema itself (!) will definitely throw you for an interpretive loop.
Kentucker Audley might have been reading Mike Ryan’s “TV is Not the New Film,” in which the producer concedes that TV is dominating our cultural conversation right now. And he’s decided to do something about it. Audley has taken to Kickstarter to sell a simple item of apparel that will tell the world that, yes, you’re a movie fan.
Maybe you’re storyboarding and know you need a Venice aerial. Or you’re in post and realize a cutaway would make all the difference. When time is at a premium, budget at a minimum, and those shots are non-existent, Dissolve’s free research service can help. Creative thinkers themselves, Dissolve’s research team will work with your storyboard, shot list, even one specific clip request to find the stock footage you need. You’ll get only the best results — no wading through pages and pages of irrelevant content. The team works quickly too, usually delivering within one day. Ally Oleynik, a producer at […]
It’s easy to take Frederick Wiseman for granted when he churns out nonfiction masterpieces at such a hair raising clip, but his latest, In Jackson Heights, is not to be missed. At once a paean and an elegy to the Queens neighborhood, Jackson Heights tracks the gentrification of the historically multicultural area, and the grassroots resistance among its immigrant and queer communities. It opens at New York’s Film Forum on November 4.