Filmmaking
Filmmaking
-
New Super 35 Digital Motion Picture Cameras from Canon and Red – What They Are and Aren’t
-
DARREN ARONOFSKY’S UNSETTLING ANTI-DRUG ADS
Likely thanks to his work on the still-disturbing Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky was recently tapped to direct a series of anti-drug commercials for non-profit organization The Meth Project. The use of scare tactics in anti-drug campaigns is no new innovation (remember what happened to Rachel Leigh Cook’s brain?), but one has to wonder if the people responsible for commissioning these ads, which are set to air during an upcoming episode of Gossip Girl, would turn out quite so unsettling. Watch all four ads below. This one takes the cake for 30-second spot that you’d least expect to see […]
-
Werner Herzog on Into the Abyss
In his films, Werner Herzog has traveled the Amazon, journeyed to Antarctica and, most recently, descended through time into the caves of France to uncover centuries-old cave paintings. So, his trip to a small town in Texas awaiting the capital punishment of a young murderer might have been less epic were it not for the moral dilemmas, lingering anguish and genuine strangeness he finds there. Eschewing the tropes of typical capital punishment documentaries, Herzog, with his German-accented voice jutting from behind the camera, lends an empathetic ear to the words of not only the killer but his accomplice, the victims’ […]
-
The Blue Velvet Project, #41
Second #1927, 32:07 Jeffrey and Sandy have agreed on four honks of the car horn: this will warn Jeffrey to leave Dorothy’s apartment. Sandy waits in the car outside, in the night, in her own cocoon of nervous electricity. This is when Blue Velvet begins to go very, very dark, as Jeffrey makes his way through the India Ink of the screen into ever deeper and deeper blackness in what are perhaps the most psychologically violent moments in the film. Where has Blue Velvet taken you? When he woke up he thought he’d dreamed about a movie he’d seen the […]
-
Karen Mintz and Simon Egleton on Their Frank Bender Doc
Karen Mintz has just finished shooting her documentary, The Recomposer of The Decomposed, about the forensic artist Frank Bender, who died recently. She is about to move into the post-production phase. I had the opportunity to meet with her and her producer Simon Egleton and talk about her film, the pros and cons of no-budget filmmaking, and the friend that she made, and also lost, during the process. Filmmaker: Can you start by telling me a little about how you became a filmmaker and what your background is? Mintz: I started working in production 15 years ago. I just kind […]
-
TWO CLIPS FROM SUNDANCE HIT “PARIAH”
Over at the Shadow and Act blog Tambay Obenson has post two clips from one of the favorites from this past Sundance, Dee Rees‘ Pariah. Opening Dec. 28 through Focus Features, the film highlights the impressive talents — and relentlessness — of its writer-director (who along with being a 25 New Faces alum is nominated for Breakthrough Director at this year’s Gotham Awards) and star Adepero Oduye; as you’ll see in the clips and the trailer below. If you’re a reader of this site you already know a lot about Pariah. One of my favorite pieces on the film is […]
-
TIM AND ERIC’S NEW VIRAL DYSTOPIAN GAME SHOW
Leave it to Adult Swim absurdists Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim to push the possibilities of viral video marketing to sick new extremes. The pair recently posted a demented new thirteen-minute advertisement for upcoming Xbox videogame Saint’s Row 3 to YouTube. The ad, which takes the form of a vaguely futuristic, dystopian game show, is hosted by a sadistic psychopath in a pink suit played by standup comic Greg Turkington. On the show, contestants (or are they prisoners?) compete in challenges such as “Replicate a Building Using Rotten Chicken” and “Eat Yourself”, all under the watchful gaze of Genki, a […]
-
Buck — A Hammer to Nail Review
On its simplest level Cindy Meehl’s documentary Buck tells the story of the cowboy Buck Brannaman, a horseman who travels the United States conducting clinics for “horses with people problems.” First-time director Cindy Meehl met Buck at one of his clinics, and wanted to share his wisdom with a wider circle than the ardent fans he’s built among “horse people.” A wise cowboy, eh? It doesn’t help that the film opens with iconographic Western shots: a cattle herd, a yellow sun, and galloping cowboys, all underlined by David Robbins’ thrumming score. I admit I was a bit skeptical. The census […]
-
OLIVER PLATT & EDIE FALCO NAMED CO-HOSTS OF GOTHAM AWARDS AND AUDIENCE AWARD NOMINEES ANNOUNCED
In a release sent out today, the IFP has announced that actors Oliver Platt and Edie Falco will serve as co-hosts for this year’s Gotham Independent Film Awards, which take place this year on Nov. 28 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. This is the second straight year two actors known for their work in indie films will be hosting the event. Last year Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson did the honors. Also announced today are the five finalists for this year’s Gotham Independent Film Audience Award. Comprising 29 audience award winners from the top 50 US and […]
-
Director Matt Osterman on Ghost From the Machine
When Matt Osterman attended the IFP Narrative Lab a few years ago, his $25,000, science fiction/supernatural thriller, about a grief-stricken man who builds a machine to communicate with the dead, was titled Phasma ex Machina. But when the film was finished and released this summer on DVD and, later, iTunes and Netflix by Screen Media, it went under the less obscure title of Ghost from the Machine. Now, however, another name change is in the works. This August Universal Pictures acquired the remake rights, attaching Gary Shore and Nathan Parker to write and direct. The new film will be called […]
