Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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APPLE RETURNS FINAL CUT STUDIO TO MARKET
Macrumors reported today that Apple is now selling again Final Cut Studio, the “old” version of its desktop editing software that was retired upon the launch of its new Final Cut Pro X. The software is not available in stores or even via online sale; customers must call 1-800-MY-APPLE to order the software. As has been reported here and elsewhere, the Final Cut Pro X release has been a controversial one. Although many editors applauded its rethought paradigm and powerful tools, just as many pointed to missing features and declared it not suitable for professional use. Final Cut Pro X […]
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SHIA LABOEUF DIRECTS NSFW MARILYN MANSON VIDEO
Shia LaBeouf’s directing credit makes this video for Marilyn Manson’s new “Born Villain” something of a curiosity. I will give him a nod, though. Many videos from established rock stars trafficking in violence and theatricalized SM imagery gloss it up too much. But there’s something genuinely sleazy about this one, even with all the obvious references (Jodorowsky, Gilles Berquet, David Cronenberg, Cinema of Transgression). Says LaBeouf to MTV, “The song has all these references to ‘Macbeth’ and all this Shakespeare and heavy theology, so we tried to make Manson’s ‘Un Chien Andalou’ macabre ‘Macbeth’ — that’s sort of what that […]
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Slacker — A Hammer to Nail Review
(Richard Linklater’s seminal indie feature was released 20 years ago this summer. In celebration, 24 Austin-based filmmakers have crafted Slacker 2011, a collage/montage/homage, which premiered on August 31 at the Austin Film Society. For our part, we’re posting Nelson Kim’s essay on the film, which originally ran at Hammer To Nail on January 5, 2009. Buy the Criterion edition on DVD, or watch it at Amazon Instant.) A young man (the then-31-year-old writer, director, and producer) gets off a bus in Austin, hails a cab, and tells the driver about his theory that every choice we make in life creates […]
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SEPTEMBER VOD CALENDAR
Now on our VOD calendar are titles available for the month of September. Some highlights: You’ve heard about Kevin Smith putting together an auction at Sundance for his latest film, Red State, only to buy it himself and go on a self-distributed nation-wide theatrical roadshow. Well, now you can see what all the fuss is about as it premieres on VOD today. There’s also Richard Press‘ doc Bill Cunningham New York on the iconic New York Times photographer; Andrew Haigh‘s fest favorite, Weekend; and Cameron Crowe‘s doc Pearl Jam Twenty, which gives a candid look at the legendary band. For […]
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The Blue Velvet Project, #11
Second #517, 8:37 Peter Carew, who plays the coroner and who appears onscreen for just under twenty seconds, delivers perhaps the most tilted line in the movie: “We’ll check the morgue records but I don’t recall anything coming in minus an ear.” This either could be the punch line to the whole sordid blood-drenched twentieth century, or else a few words tossed off by a bald man who refuses to look at the characters on screen with him, as if he speaks to (into?) the ear and the ear alone. Blue Velvet was Carew’s first movie in twenty years. Previously, […]
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MANAUGH AND TWILLEY ANNOUNCE STUDIO-X NYC
Filmmaker readers know I’m a fan of BLDGBLOG, the speculative architecture and criticism site run by Geoff Manaugh. There’s a link on our home page, and I picked the BLDGBLOG Book as one of our “Super 8” selections several issues ago. So, I was happy when Manaugh contacted me to announce he’s moving from Los Angeles to New York to embark on a new project. Manaugh and partner Nicola Twilley are co-directors of Studio-X NYC, an “off-campus event space, gallery, classroom, and urban futures think tank, part of a global network run by Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and […]
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HARUKI MURAKAMI ON PRE-WIRED FICTION
There’s an excerpt from Haruki Murakami’s upcoming novel, IQ84, in this week’s New Yorker. At the magazine’s website there’s an accompanying short interview, which contains this interesting exchange about fiction and our wired world. Several times recently I’ve read scripts and had to comment that they’ve failed to acknowledge the ways in which we communicate and gather information these days. Throw a cell phone or internet connection into these tales and their plots collapse. Murakami dealt with this challenge by dispensing with it; his new book is set in 1984. In this excerpt from the interview, he discusses the effect […]
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THE MEXICAN WAVE ROLLS IN
Mexico remains a heavily stratified society, despite the strides made over the past 50 years in bridging an enormous socio-economic gap. A non-centralized wave of films has been building there over the past decade, and cinema, the most accessible of art forms, reflects the divide. One could argue that the directors make a choice: poverty or the bourgeoisie. You can observe the schism for yourself in the excellent 10-film series GenMex: Recent Films from Mexico, running September 9-22 at New York’s Anthology Film Archives. The exhibition begins with a one-week run of Eugenio Polgovsky’s The Inheritors, September 9-15. The other titles each […]
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VIDEO BLOGGING, THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND THE POLICE
In an important ruling today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled in favor of a man suing the police for arresting him when he used his cell phone to record their actions in a drug arrest. The police claimed the arrest was proper due to a state law barring audio recordings without the consent of both parties. The court, however, disagreed… and video blogging played a part. Although some have argued that First Amendment protections in cases like this one should be restricted to professional journalists, the court felt differently. Here’s an excerpt from […]
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AN ANGRY SEA
WPIX Channel 11 had a reporter out during the early hours of Hurricane Irene and caught these familiar-seeming people checking out the Hudson. Here’s Josef from the Ukraine (or, in a Bloombergian nod to Tarkovsky’s Stalker, “Zone A”).
