Filmmaking

MADONNA AND THE UNCANNY VALLEY

Jason Kottke has a fascinating entry today at his Kottke.org entitled “Approaching the Uncanny Valley from the Other Direction.” In case you haven’t heard about the “uncanny valley,” it’s a term originally created to apply to robotics that can now, Kottke says, refer to the human visage in the age of plastic surgery. First, from Dave Bryan at Glimpses: Japanese roboticist Doctor Masahiro Mori is not exactly a household name—but, for the speculative fiction community at least, he could prove to be an important one. The reason why can be summed up in a simple, strangely elegant phrase that translates […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 13, 2008 Filmmaking
IFP ANNOUNCES ’08 DOC LAB PARTICIPANTS

Created to support high-quality, independent projects at the rough cut stage of production prior to submission to film festivals, IFP announced today the films that will take part in its May Documentary Lab that connects first-time feature filmmakers with leading industry mentors, which this year includes filmmakers Doug Block (51 Birch Street), Liz Garbus of Moxie Firecracker Films (The Farm: Angola, USA) and editor Keiko Deguchi (Cats of Mirkitani). Excerpts from the films will then screen at IFP’s Independent Film Week in New York City this September. The 10 selected films include: Burning in the Sun – A young entrepreneur […]

By Jason Guerrasio on May 13, 2008 Filmmaking
LINKAGE

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch reports on a way you can make money while in Cannes. (Actually, there are a bunch of ways you can make money in Cannes, but this one is legal.) The arthouse download site The Auteurs is sponsoring a contest in which you arrive at the festival, pick up one of 250 Flip cameras, make a film while there, and compete for a $10,000 prize. More details at the link. Previously we wrote about the Obama Campaign’s “Obama in 30 Seconds Competition” user-generated political ad competition. You can see the winner and the runners-up at the link. […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2008 Filmmaking
THE POST USER-GENERATED ERA?

After just a few postings, Jamie Stuart has reached a conclusion at his nascent blog over at Wonderland: user-generated video is dead. (Oh, and by the way, long live user-generated video.) From the piece: Well, so much for that. Hope you enjoyed it. And I’m sure you never even realized it was over. Trends rarely last longer than 4-5 years, so by that measurement this recent burst of online DIY activity is finished. By my estimation, this trend in film culture and filmmaking encompassed the period spanning roughly from 2002-2007, give or take…. During this same period, sites like MySpace […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2008 Filmmaking
ONLY IN CANNES…

Will you see a huge billboard of Robert Downey Jr. in blackface. The promotion is for the upcoming summer release Tropic Thunder, which also stars Jack Black and Ben Stiller (who co-wrote-directed) as a group of actors making the most expensive Vietnam War film and finding themselves in real combat. Downey Jr. plays super serious actor Kirk Lazarus who’s been cast in the role of a black solider. Not enough? Tom Cruise has a cameo as a bald, foul-mouthed studio head. Image courtesey of Variety’s The Circuit.

By Jason Guerrasio on May 12, 2008 Filmmaking
HOW TO BEHAVE IN CANNES

Over at Variety‘s The Circuit, Mike Jones digs up a very helpful article by a director who travelled to Cannes to pitch his project… that happened to appear a couple of years ago in Filmmaker. Producers and directors about to make the trip over would do well to check it out. An excerpt from Richard Press’s Cannes Diary: A week before I leave for cannes to participate in L’Atelier du Festival, the co-production market of the Cannes Film Festival, I receive an e-mail from the festival reminding me to bring my black tie; without it I will not be allowed […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2008 Filmmaking
WHO RUNS THE YAKUZA, OR THE MASONS, OR THE M15?

The New Yorker this week reports on a Hollywood job opening in this generally deteriorating entertainment economy. The “Talk of the Town” piece by Lizzie Widdicombe quotes an “unofficial” email about what is apparently a real position: cultural attache to Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer. Here’s the email: This person would be responsible for keeping Brian abreast of everything that’s going on in the world; politically, culturally, musically. . . . They’re also responsible for finding an interesting person for Brian to meet with every week . . . an astronaut, a journalist, a philosopher, a buddhist monk. . . . […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2008 Filmmaking
RICKY JAY ON SWORD OF VENGEANCE

Here’s Ricky jay, who co-stars in David Mamet’s Redbelt, currently in release, performing a card trick alongside his discussion of Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance. Both Mamet and Jay were interviewed this week, separately, on the XMPR Bob Edwards radio show, and the discussions can be listened to or downloaded here. Both men are fantastic raconteurs and interview subjects, so this is a great hour, with Mamet talking about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the fight film and noir genres, the link between drama, magic and con games, and his approach to rehearsing film actors. Jay discusses performing, card magic, and […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 8, 2008 Filmmaking
ROSSELLINI’S GREEN PORNOS

I’ve wondered several times on this blog why more filmmakers don’t try to make original works for the web, works that challenge and alter the storytelling conventions of their feature or other narrative work. Well, now on the Sundance Channel website comes Green Porno, a series of shorts designed to be watched on computers and cellphones. Here’s what Sundance and Rossellini say about the project: Green Porno is a series of very short films conceived, written, co-directed by and featuring Isabella Rossellini about the sex life of bugs, insects and various creatures. The films are a comical but insightful study […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 8, 2008 Filmmaking
PICTUREHOUSE AND WIP SHUT DOWN!!!

Variety is reporting the stunning news that Warner Bros. is shutting down both Picturehouse and Warner Independent. Speculation has been running in the indie community about the fate of the companies following the demise of New Line (which was a co-owner, with HBO, of Picturehouse) as a standalone studio and distributor. Observers had imagined a variety of scenarios, but I don’t think anyone thought that both companies would be folded. Here’s Warner prez and COO Alan Horn’s statement: “With New Line now a key part of Warner Bros., we’re able to handle films across the entire spectrum of genres and […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 8, 2008 Filmmaking

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