Filmmaker Videos
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Watch: iPhone 6 Plus 240 fps Slow Motion Test Footage
Our friends at No Film School have a good round-up of 240 fps test footage shot with the iPhone 6 Plus. I’m particularly mesmerized by this 39-second snippet, which is nothing more than wine being poured from a bottle into a glass. The same way NFL Films render just about anything hypnotic by breaking it down to the tiniest movements, so here: wine’s trajectory through air is captured in all its separate streams, then blood-like bubbles and blobs pop up as liquid hits glass.
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Watch: Breaking Down David Fincher’s Directorial Techniques
While the gender politics behind David Fincher’s much-anticipated Gone Girl adaptation may be muddled, the “dark lord of cinema”‘s direction is as crystalline and precise as ever. Tony Zhou, in his latest Every Frame A Painting, examines how Fincher manages to make even the most expository exchanges cinematic by using framing to relate character dynamics. He also takes a close look at Fincher’s faithfulness to the tripod, sparing use of close-ups, and almost inhuman camera movements. It’s a must watch for anyone who values the abilities of visual language.
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Trailer Watch: Interstellar, Now with Giant Waves
Here’s the latest trailer for Christopher Nolan’s global warming/space travel epic Interstellar, now reported to clock in at a you-better-deliver 175 minutes. Where the last trailer had Michael Caine orating Dylan Thomas to urge humanity to not go gentle into that good night, this time the exposition gives a more concrete idea of what to expect, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your tastes. There’s also lots of Matthew McConaughey urging people not to give up and what appears to be the biggest tidal wave since The Abyss‘ director’s cut.
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Trailer Watch: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice
Paisley, mutton chops and “It’s a Wonderful World” — here’s the brand new trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s eagerly awaited Inherent Vice, adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s novel. Joaquin Phoenix, Benicio del Toro, Katherine Waterston, Owen Wilson and Reese Witherspoon all star in PTA/Pynchon’s woozy comedy about the end of the ’60s.
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Steven Soderbergh Re-imagines Raiders of the Lost Ark as a Masterclass in Staging
A little belated in posting the latest installment from Steven Soderbergh’s guerrilla film school, but better than never, as the saying goes. Here, Soderbergh sets Steven Spielberg’s seminal blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark to an electronic tinged soundtrack and black-and-white wash. His reasoning is that a dialogue-free version allows the film to be appreciated as a master class in the elusive technique of staging. In my book, Fassbinder is the top of the heap as far as blocking goes, but Soderbergh makes the case for the other Steven in the following terms: I value the ability to stage something well because when […]
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“Even If It’s a Bad Movie, You Get a Good Running Commentary”: Slavoj Zizek at the Criterion Offices
Philosopher and critic Slavoj Zizek stopped by the Criterion offices the other day, resulting in this video in which he talks his way through some of the titles in the stockroom. In just five minutes he tosses off tons of quips and instant analyses about films like Louis Malle’s Murmur of the Heart (“It’s one of those nice, gentle French movies, where you have incest”), Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo (“a pretentious fake” but with a good commentary track), and Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, which he compares to Tarkovsky’s Stalker.
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Watch: Don Hertzfeldt’s Fantastic The Simpsons Couch Gag
You’re hopefully familiar with animator Don Hertzfeldt’s fatalistic, sinisterly humorous, one-of-a-kind body of work. Last night The Simpsons let him take over the opening couch gag. The result is a phantasmagoric two-minute short that turns the clan into protozoa and reverses the flow of time. It’s very much of a piece with his recent work as anthologized in 2011’s It’s Such a Beautiful Day. Watch Homer chant “I AM SIMPSON!”; deriders of the show’s deathless downward spiral, you’ll be convinced that The Simpsons is still good for something. If you’re not familiar with Hertzfeldt’s work, you should follow that up […]
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Kirsten Dunst on Celebrity Fandom in the Age of Instagram
Director Matthew Frost and actress Kirsten Dunst team up for this short film, Aspirational, about celebrity fandom in the age of the selfie. A tag is worth more than a moment as Dunst encounters two fans outside her house. Via VS Magazine.
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Watch: The Eyes of Hitchcock by :: kogonada
Here’s the latest from video essayist :: kogonada, who Scott Macaulay interviewed earlier this week. Beginning, as you might expect, with the zoom into red eyes from Vertigo‘s opening credits and the zoom out from Janet Leigh’s dead eyes in Psycho, :: kogonada captures Hitchcock’s characters’ eyes in states of fear, hypnosis, dawning comprehension et al. This one’s via the Criterion Collection.
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Watch: Werner Herzog on What Makes a Filmmaker
“I think cinema can express our dreams more than any other medium,” begins Werner Herzog in this characteristically quotable conversation at Indiana University. Herzog talks his influences, or lack there of, as well as his belief that his written work will outlast his films. Perhaps it has something to do with his axiom that, “If you don’t read, you’ll never be a filmmaker.” That, and more, above.
