Fall 2013
A Speck in the Ocean
At sea — we have all felt it, paradoxically unmoored even in our hyper-connected age. In only two pictures, that sense of disconnection, emotional confusion and fear is the metier of New York-based writer/director J.C. Chandor. His 2011 debut film, Margin Call, was a tightly focused drama about Wall Street traders fighting for their financial lives amidst the economic meltdown. Unfolding over 24 hours, Margin Call is a talky and claustrophobic movie plumbing the specific ethical quandaries of our current political moment. Assuredly directed and extremely well-acted, it would seem to have set Chandor up to make any number of […]
Features
History, Continued
Documentaries are supposed to shine a light on the world, but some tackle subjects that are more pressing and timely than others. Over the course of her career, Egyptian-American director Jehane Noujaim has created films that are prescient to the extreme. Her 2001 debut, Startup.com, co-directed with Chris Hegedus, chronicled the genesis of the govWorks website just as the dotcom bubble burst. Noujaim’s 2004 follow-up, Control Room, focused on the way the ongoing Iraq War was being presented by news channels, particularly the Arabic news network Al Jazeera. Both films had their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival, using […]
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The Happiest Place on Earth
The memories of our childhood are owned, their copyrights controlled by giant multinational corporations. Whereas the fantasy figures of the 20th century hail from centuries-old sources — the Brothers Grimm, Greek and Norse mythology — their contemporary incarnations, found on T-shirts, lunchboxes, mugs, iPhones and in video games, constitute precious intellectual treasure, their value diligently upheld by World Trade Organization rulings. Or, to phrase things a bit differently: If you’re an independent filmmaker, make sure your lead actor isn’t wearing a Mickey Mouse T-shirt you haven’t cleared! Despite the forces aligned against pop culture-deploying media artists in our mash-up, remix […]
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Voices From the Street
A first feature by Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq (chosen for Filmmaker’s 2012 25 New Faces of Independent Film), These Birds Walk is an observational documentary following the hopes of a young Karachi runaway named Omar. The boy, no more than 10-years-old, escapes his rural village and, as the film begins, is ready to run away from his city youth home. Omar is befriended by Asad, a young ambulance driver who works near the orphanage, which is maintained by one of Pakistan’s great philanthropists, elderly Abdul Sattar Edhi. Two questions resound through Omar’s days, through ups and downs: Where is […]
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Hot to the Touch: Abdellatif Kechiche on Blue is the Warmest Color
When Adèle eats spaghetti, it’s a sensual affair. The camera studies every move of her mouth, every lick of her fingers and knife. Her eyes are saucers. Her full lips pout. Unlike the slurpy absurdity of noodle-eating in Juzo Itami’s Tampopo, in Blue is the Warmest Color, spaghetti is no laughing matter; it’s a matter of love. And, since it’s directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, it’s also a matter of class: Adèle’s comfort food indexes a working-class background that cannot be left behind. “That is a theme that one could say is central across all my films,” Kechiche said to me […]
The Happiest Place on Earth
Voices From the Street
Hot to the Touch: Abdellatif Kechiche on Blue is the Warmest Color
Other articles
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A Fresh Look at Apple’s Final Cut Pro X
Hard to believe, but FCP X is well over two years old and already into its ninth iteration. Its popular multicam tool arrived with version three in January of last year. In the past 12 months alone, no less than four new versions have been released, bringing dual viewers, a unified import window, support for native REDCODE RAW, MXF, Sony XAVC (up to 4K) and optional Rec. 709 display of ARRI ALEXA ProRes captured in Log C. Recent improvements also include a handy freeze-frame tool, chapter markers for QuickTimes and DVDs, better audio channel editing tools, and FCPXML 1.2 to […]
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Avid Media Composer
For many film editors, including yours truly, Avid’s Media Composer is the preferred software for cutting our work. It’s rock solid, powerful and once you really know how to use it, one of the most versatile tools for getting the job done. However, over the past several years the future of the Media Composer platform has been in doubt. Strong competitors moved into the marketplace, and Avid, once king of digital editing, seemed headed to the sidelines. But as fast as it seemed to fall, Media Composer may be making a comeback, due in part to major enhancements to the […]
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Autodesk Smoke 2013 – Super NLE?
Once life was simple. NLEs were NLEs. They did offline editing of conspicuously compressed picture with unmixed audio tracks and limited titling. Maybe it started with the MiniDV revolution 15 years ago, but over time low-end NLEs competed with high-end NLEs in tools and feature sets, becoming today’s desktop online systems and sealing the fate of many midlevel post facilities. Along the way several NLEs became suites of applications called “studios.” Back in 2005, for instance, Final Cut Studio arrived as FCP bundled with DVD Studio Pro, Motion, LiveType, SoundTrack Pro, Cinema Tools and Compressor. Two years later, Color, for […]
A Fresh Look at Apple’s Final Cut Pro X
Avid Media Composer
Autodesk Smoke 2013 – Super NLE?
Also: Primal Direction Bad Metrics Space Invaders Bright Ideas Out of the Ashes All Clear Toronto International Film Festival 2013 Toronto International Film Festival 2013 Venice International Film Festival 2013 Super 8 Load & Play Jared Leto Editor’s Letter
