I’m still typing up my thoughts on day two of the Open Video Conference, but in the meantime, here is an example of open video in action. At his Mind Flip blog, Jay Cousins writes about “augmented content” as being a potential driver for video monetization on the web. He gives an example of the technology at play by embedding the below video which demonstrates some of the functions of Firefox’s new version 3.5, which supports Ogg video. Check it out.
Tonight our first Filmmaker/Apple “Meet The Filmmaker” event takes place at the Apple Store in SoHo at 8pm (103 Prince St.). Nick Dawson will be interviewing our Spring cover director Kathryn Bigelow about her new film, The Hurt Locker, which opens this weekend. The event is open to the public. Following the first 38 days of army bomb expert Sgt. Will James (Jeremy Renner) in Iraq, The Hurt Locker (pictured) is a trademark Kathryn Bigelow film. Like Near Dark, Point Break or Strange Days the action is non-stop and includes a breakout performance by Renner. Check out what we mean […]
The surprise guest at the conclusion of this weekend’s Open Video Conference was Peter Sunde of The Pirate Bay, which bills itself as the “world’s largest BitTorrent tracker.” As many of you know Sunde and three of his colleagues were recently convicted in a Swedish court and were sentenced to a year in jail and a $3.6 million fine. They have accused the judge of bias and are now battling the verdict on appeal. The Open Video Conference organizer introducing Sunde, who appeared via Skype from Sweden, acknowledged the controversial nature of his activities, particularly for the content creators in […]
Michael Moore‘s upcoming untitled film will look at the global financial crisis. Below is the teaser that began running in theaters this weekend. The film opens in early Oct.
RICHARD BERKOWITZ IN DIRECTOR DARYL WEIN’S SEX POSITIVE. COURTESY REGENT RELEASING. Most young filmmakers quickly define themselves in terms of both their creative roles and genre specialties, however Daryl Wein has so far benefited from doing exactly the opposite. Born in Santa Monica in 1983, Wein grew up in Connecticut and commuted to auditions in New York City as he pursued a career as a child actor, mostly in commercials. At the same time, Wein’s father’s interest in chronicling their family life on home video lead the young thespian to become fascinated with being on the other side of the […]
At the end of March, an exceedingly odd trailer for a feature film showed up on Apple’s trailer page. For a film titled After Last Season, the trailer was a collection of almost random moments and conversation between students, researchers and a doctor seemingly involved in some kind of science experiment involving perception and telekinesis. The sheer mysteriousness of the whole endeavor — the fact that the trailer conveyed so little information about the film itself as well as its low production values (an MRI machine seemed clearly made from cardboard) — spawned an instant internet cult, with fans debating […]
After Last Season director Mark Region is as mysterious a presence as his film is within today’s independent moviemaking community. After Filmmaker wrote about the film a couple of months ago, I’ve tried to get more info on him and his film. However, after the trailer went viral and the film seemed a new cult hit, the production company, Index Squared, has taken a very low-key approach to promoting the movie. But I was able to get in touch with one of the lead actors, Jason Kulas. I asked him some questions about the film over email, and he sent […]
You may recall Scott’s post in late March where he showed the trailer for a bizarre film called After Last Season which included an MRI machine that looked like it was made out of cardboard (pictured) and perplexing lines like “They’ve got printers in the basement you can use.” Since then the debate has raged if this is a real movie. Well, the time has come. After Last Season opens today in Lancaster, CA, North Aurora, IL, Rochester, NY, and Austin, TX. Michael Tully earlier this week on Hammer to Nail said he may take a drive from the Newport […]
The IFP has announced today that executive director Michelle Byrd will be stepping down when her contract expires on Dec. 31. Byrd has been with the organization since 1992 when she was in charge of a number of membership and programming responsibilities before being promoted to deputy director in February 1996 and then executive director in April 1997. The IFP is the publisher of Filmmaker Magazine. From the release: In her role as Executive Director she has overseen the strategic direction and growth of all of IFP’s activities, including:– re-positioning the founding program (now called Independent Film Week™) and its […]
When it comes to the visualization of gender imbalance in the workforce, a woman being sawed in half is perhaps the ultimate metaphor. And that’s not due to any judgement on the imagery inherent in such a presentation but a simple truth regarding the labor involved: while the magician spins the boxes and takes his bows, it’s actually the assistant who, during the performance, does most of the physical work. Writer/producer Blaire Baron-Larsen and directors Harry Pallenberg and Phil Noyes have spun an entire documentary, Women in Boxes, from this observation. From the movie’s Facebook page: Women In Boxes is […]