| Filmmaker Magazine

GUATEMALAN IN THE NORTHWEST

One of the coolest and most original indies of the last year gets its theatrical debut this Friday in Seattle at the Northwest Film Forum. Todd Rohal’s The Guatemalan Handshake runs for a week in Seattle before moving on to Portland where it opens at the Hollywood Theater on February 17. Rohal, who will attend every screening along with producer Megan Griffiths, has organized a series of special events to go along with the screenings. There will be live performances by composer David Wingo (whose new album, recorded under the name Ola Podrida, is released on Plug Research) and Kimya […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 5, 2007

FASCINATING FASCINATION

Steve Loff and Prichard Smith, the filmmakers behind Mr. Fascination, a doc in post-production, have launched a MySpace page full of clips and info about their film, which tells the story of a man obsessed with a vintage boardwalk game. Here’s what they say about it: Mr. Fascination, a feature-length doc currently in post-production, tells the story of Randy Senna, a man obsessed with a dying boardwalk game called Fascination. The film follows him over the course of his 2006 season at Flipper’s Fascination in Wildwood, NJ, as he looks for new ways to make the game more appealing to […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 5, 2007

“AN IMPRESSIVE DEPTH OF FIELD”

Ann Hornaday has a long overdue mainstream media piece on the aesthetic virtues of short-form web video in The Washington Post. It’s a must read as she quite thoughtfully provides some words of wisdom — “Your limitions are your strength,” “You’ve made us laugh, you’ve made us link, now make us think” are two examples — for aspiring web filmmakers. And, among her examples, Jamie Stuart’s White Plastic Flower, his impressionistic reportage from this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Here’s what she had to say about his podcast: But a foreshortened, small-box format doesn’t have to limit cinematographic ambition. In White […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 4, 2007

ONCE BOUGHT BY FOX SEARCHLIGHT

Ann Thompson is reporting that Fox Searchlight has bought Sundance audience fave Once. The no-budget Irish musical (it was made for a reported $100,000) features members of the band The Frames, which director John Carney played bass in in the early ’90s. From a Gregg Goldstein interview with Carney contained within Thompson’s piece: Carney, meanwhile, had music junkies in mind when he made his film Once. “I wanted to create a visual album, something you could watch over and over again,” he said. In the process, the filmmaker created one of the most unique musicals in recent memory, telling the […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 2, 2007

THE ART OF FILM CRITICISM

One critic who you wont’ see linked on Rotten Tomatoes is Rick Trembles… and, at the least, that’s because his film reviews in the form of graphic art can’t be cut-and-web-pasted. Trembles is a filmmaker, writer and musician — his band, The American Devices, is called “Montreal’s longest-running post-punk band.” He maintains an oddball website that promotes his musical appearances, notes screenings of his short, Goopy Spasms (an “animated cartoon film ode to butt-play”), and runs bits of cultural news, like this memorial to Don Dohler, creator of the fanzine mascot Projunior. His site is also full of his funny, […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 2, 2007

FRAME BY FRAME

Previously I linked to David Bordwell’s analysis of Scorsese’s The Departed, in which he traced the average shot length in the director’s films over the years. Now, Bordwell has posted even more fascinating piece on editing and shot length. In a post entitled “My Name is David and I’m a Frame Counter,” Bordwell discusses mathematical relationships within edited sequences: Directors have been counting frames for a long time. Experimental filmmakers like Brakhage did. Ozu had a special stopwatch built to register feet and frames during filming. Hitchcock cared about frame counting too. In Film Art’s chapter on editing (pp. 224-225 […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 2, 2007

VIVA PEDRO!

If you missed it in theaters late last year (or if you just want to build up your home library) out on DVD is the Pedro Almodóvar Classics Collection. Released by Sony Pictures Classics, the eight films include Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), All About My Mother (1999), Talk to Her (2002), Flower of My Secret (1995), Live Flesh (1996), Law of Desire (1987), Matador (1986) and Bad Education (2004). It is a must have for the Almodóvar fan. GreenCine has this story up by Michael Guillén on the films. Here’s an excerpt: Not only does […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 2, 2007

STUDIOS PASS ON SUPER BOWL

For those expecting to see teasers of summer tentpoles like Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third while munching on chips and wings this Super Bowl Sunday, Variety reports that’s unlikely to happen. In a game that’s watched by millions, most studios are passing on showing their ads during the game (one exception: Eddie Murphy’s latest Norbit, which you’ll see a lot of during the pregame show). Here’s how one consultant explains it in the story: “The problem is, if you’re not ready with your creative, you are left way too exposed,” noted one gun-shy marketing consultant. He cited the now-classic […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 30, 2007

WHITE PLASTIC FLOWER

If you only bookmark this blog, make sure to check out Jamie Stuart’s latest Filmmaker-sponsored podcast short from the Sundance Film Festival.

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 29, 2007

WHITE PLASTIC FLOWER

Jamie Stuart takes on the Sundance Film Festival in his latest short. Download the short here by right clicking and choosing Save Target or Save Link. Please visit Jamie’s site at www.mutinycompany.com.

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 29, 2007

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