Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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INDEPENDENTS AND THE ECONOMY
Shortly after hitting send on this week’s newsletter, in which I wondered whether our current economic situation is similar to 2008, I came across this Reuters article by Joshua L. Weinstein, which wonders pretty much the same thing. Both he and I riff off this week’s Dow roller coaster ride, and while the Friday close was more optimistic than might have been expected on Tuesday, the macro challenges facing both the investment community and consumers remain. Hence, a potentially rocky road ahead. From Weinstein: But Hal Vogel, of Vogel Capital Management and the author of Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide […]
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Project Nim vs. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
After watching Project Nim, the first half of Rise of The Planet of The Apes is like seeing a documentary (albeit a high production one starring James Franco). Or maybe it’s more accurate to say it’s like seeing the Hollywood-cast, fictionalized version of Project Nim, starring a remarkable digitally-captured performance by Andy Serkis as Caesar, our heroic chimpanzee; our Nim. Of course, like any good Hollywood adaptation of a documentary, halfway through Rise of the Planet of The Apes, the plot veers off from that of Project Nim into a more satisfying conclusion for the apes. Caesar is able to […]
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The Blue Velvet Project, #3
Second #141 Some considerations: • Frederick Elmes’s lush, Freudian colors. • The hyper-red STOP sign, a warning to the audience? • The Eraserhead-like hair of the crossing guard. • The second and fourth child, carrying the same sort of brown paper lunch bag that Jeffrey would use later to transport the scissored ear to Detective Williams. • The cultishness of the film, already gathering in the open-furnace sky in the background. • The fact of SCHOOL taking up the entire lower-third of the screen, and the fact that Jeffrey is “home from school.” • The trust of children. • The […]
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“LITTLEROCK”‘S ATSUKO OKATSUKA AND MIKE OTT
Tonight at the HSBC offices in midtown was the IFP’s Independent Film Week launch party. Attending were participating filmmakers, several of our 25 New Faces, and many folks from the New York production community. But flying in from L.A. were Mike Ott and Atsuko Okatsuka, whose Littlerock — winner of the Filmmaker-sponsored “Best Film at a Theater Playing Near You” Gotham Award — premieres today at Cinema Village. Read Ray Pride on the movie here, and then check out the film. It’s highly recommended.
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IFP ANNOUNCES 150 TITLES FOR PROJECT FORUM 2011
The IFP announced today the slate for this year’s Project Forum, which will take place during the 33rd edition of Independent Film Week on Sept. 18-22 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center. The centerpiece of Independent Film Week, Project Forum is designed specifically as a place for industry to meet with new talent, as well as discover fresh projects from emerging and veteran filmmakers. Read the complete press release and full list of titles in this year’s Project Forum. All 150 projects showcased in the Project Forum this year are narrative and documentary features […]
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HAMMER TO NAIL REVIEW — “BAD POSTURE”
(Malcolm Murray’s Bad Posture, which premiered in Rotterdam, opens tomorrow in New York at Brooklyn’s reRun Gastro Pub theater.) You stay on this beat for long enough and things start to bleed together. One low-budget, poorly lit, competently acted, overhyped, overpriced festival hit after another seem to flood your brain with little sense of lived experience or aesthetic invention. No wonder the underpaid and overstimulated fall so hard for movies that have all of the symptoms of this toxic stew, as long as one seemingly clever gimmick is thrown in. (Oh look, a blonde who also writes! And jeeze Louise, […]
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PAUL RUDD ON MARKETING “OUR IDIOT BROTHER”
Funny or Die has made a very funny video with Paul Rudd pitching Harvey Weinstein marketing ideas for Jesse Peretz’s upcoming Our Idiot Brother. Check it out below. Paul Rudd Pitches Harvey Weinstein from Paul Rudd
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FLAMING LIPS AND THE WOMB GALLERY
On a trip last weekend to Oklahoma, the IFP’s Amy Dotson attended the opening of the Womb Gallery, spearheaded by the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne. Her short report follows. When you think Oklahoma City, usually Bigfoot, giant balloon-filled walk-in vagina sculptures and samurai serving alcoholic snow-cones are not what come directly to mind. But thanks to Flaming Lips front-man Wayne Coyne and his collaborators, all that is about to change. With its psychedelic exterior from Brooklyn artist Maya Hayuk and featuring campy, graffiti inspired art by Bigfoot One, The Womb Gallery launched this weekend. Not even the 114 degree night […]
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The Blue Velvet Project, #2
Second #94: Lynch had been thinking about Blue Velvet since at least as early as 1973, and while his previous two films (Dune and Elephant Man) had been based on well-known stories, Blue Velvet was a return to the trembling, inner-psychic terrain of Eraserhead. In an earlier version of the script, Jeffrey’s mom and his Aunt Barbara pick him up from the airport after he’s forced to leave college because of the financial burden of his stricken father’s medical bills. As they drive into town, there is this exchange: AUNT BARBARA: They tore down the A & P, Jeffrey. Did […]
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SONY DISTRIBUTION CENTER DESTROYED DURING LONDON RIOTS
As the riots in London continue, with statistics including 563 people arrested, one man shot, emergency services attacked and multiple police officers injured in the last three days, last night the Pias/Sony distribution center in Enfield, London was set on fire by looters (see video below). Hundreds of thousands of CDs and DVDs were destroyed. Reports say independent filmmakers and music producers will be hit the hardest as the building was Sony’s only depot for CDs and DVDs in Britain.
