Okay, you’ve finally gotten around to accepting that something from your film — a trailer, some clips, whatever — should be online. But you’re the kind of person who cringes when the bulb is a little dim in the theater, or when the masking is askew, so you’d like it look good. And, yes, you think a lot of online video looks like crap. This link (hat-tipped to Noah Harlan) is for you. Over at Techvideoblog, Charbax compares the measurements, frame rates and audio qualities of all the sites offering HD video right now, including YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook.
Virginia Heffernan’s column in the Sunday Times Magazine this week, titled “Content and its Discontents,” is a must-read, concise summation of the issues facing content creators today. (Yes, that means you, filmmakers.) What I like about the piece is that it deals with not only content but form, and, particularly, how it acknowledges the relationship between the form a piece of content is embodied within and the method by which it is delivered and, particularly, advertised. She discusses how, for example, a magazine article on volunteerism is shaped by not only the perceived reader base of its audience but also […]
Below I posted a piece about the settlement Google recently made with authors and publishers involving the scanning of out-of-print books. The chief link was to a program on KCRW’s “The Politics of Culture” that discussed the legal implications of the settlement. Now on Today’s Zaman is a piece entitled “Google revolution the end of the publishing world?” It’s a collection of responses from key critics and editors about the effect of the settlement, and the key take away seems to be “good for readers, good for authors, bad for used-book stores and complicated for the ‘information wants to be […]
LUKE FORD AND RHYS WAKEFIELD IN WRITER-DIRECTOR ELISSA DOWN’S THE BLACK BALLOON. COURTESY NEOCLASSICS FILMS. Since she was very young, Elissa Down has been honing her skills as a director. Admittedly, it wasn’t strictly conscious when she was writing, acting in and masterminding little drama projects as a kid growing up in Australia, or bossing her parents around when they were reading her bedtime stories. However, her vocation as a filmmaker became ever clearer as she grew older and by the time she was a film and television student at Perth’s Curtin University, she had her eye on cinematic success. […]
Steven Soderbergh and his RED camera-shot Che is our cover story this month, and here, MovieCityIndie’s Ray Pride captures three minutes of the director talking about his work with the camera. Check it out… … and also check out Brian Chirls’s piece on Che‘s post-production in the current issue online.
This doesn’t have to do with film per se, but this podcast dealing with book copyright in the digital realm is an interesting listen, especially when one wonders if, for example, the AMPTP and Google could work out the kind of agreement that book publishers have worked out with the internet search giant. It’s from KCRW’s “Politics of Culture.” Host Jonathan Kirsch, an attorney specializing in intellectual property and publishing law, moderates a panel discussion on a landmark literary-legal settlement. It allows Google to scan and make available online many out-of-print but still-copyrighted books. The settlement portends a viable digital […]
Four interesting film sites and blogs have crossed my screen in the last few days. The first is indie producer Jane Kosek’s All About Indie Filmmaking blog. (Kosek’s producer site, Wonder Entertainment, can be visited here.) In an email she writes about the blog: It’s unique as it is geared primarily toward educating others about filmmaking. I find most popular film blogs are very specific toward an audience who knows a great deal about the industry or they discuss specific movies. I am hoping my blog helps people at all levels learn more about the industry. Perhaps if there is […]
In the New World of independent film distribution, filmmakers everywhere are having to adjust and rethink their release plans, throwing away old concepts like shepherding their film through an orderly tiered set of windows. One director, James C. Ferguson, is releasing his film in a number of different ways all around the holiday season. Appropriately, his film is called Happy Holidays and it’s described as a “small, Woody Allen-y, people-in-rooms-talking film about tolerance.” Ferguson described his journey in an email to the blog: Like so many filmmakers before me, HAPPY HOLIDAYS arose from the ashes of another failed project. We […]
Sundance has just released the remaining titles for this year’s festival. There are a lot of movies I’m excited to see on the list. I’ll write more about them in the next few days, but, for now, here’s the official spam: PREMIERES500 Days of Summer / USA. (Director: Marc Webb; Screenwriters: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber)—When an unlucky greeting card copywriter is dumped by his girlfriend, the hopeless romantic shifts back and forth through various periods of their 500 days ‘together’ in hopes of figuring out where things went wrong. Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. World Premiere Adventureland / USA […]
Lance Weiler at the Workbook Project was really kind to interview me about the new issue of Filmmaker magazine as part of his regular download series. I get to talk about what’s in the issue, some of the broader themes connecting the articles, and the general thinking that goes into assembling what’s in the book. You can listen to the interview here, over at TWB’s This Podcast is Being Recorded, or you can subscribe via iTunes via links on that page. One thing I also talk a bit about is our new digital subscription, which we are getting great feedback […]