25 New Faces of 2011
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Dean Fleischer-Camp & Jenny Slate
Dean Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate came up with the idea for their utterly charming and unexpectedly poignant lo-fi animation, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, while at a friend’s wedding. Slate remembers, “We were in a hotel sleeping six to a room because most of us were really broke, and I was beginning to feel really small. I had been doing this little voice over the weekend, so I started talking like Marcel: [in a squeaky, slightly forlorn voice] ‘I’m just feeling really squished here.’” “We were both feeling unfulfilled in our jobs,” Fleischer-Camp adds. “We were coming from a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 17, 2011 -
Alma Har’el
L.A.-based Alma Har’el was making a Beirut music video with the band’s Zach Condon at the Coachella festival when she decided to find a less distracting location. A friend told her about Bombay Beach, the spare, sun-blasted community in California’s Salton Sea, so she hopped in a car with a $600 Canon Vixia camera and shot footage that made it into the video. Rather than return to L.A., she stayed by herself in the economically-distressed, end-of-the-world-seeming town, using her DV camera to go a level deeper into not only the lives but the imaginations of the people she met there. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 17, 2011 -
Joe Nicolosi
Most short filmmakers have a hard time getting people to watch their work. Joe Nicolosi has had the opposite problem. His filmmaking career recently took off because of the playfully inventive and technically accomplished bumpers he wrote and directed for the SXSW Film Festival. Because they play in front of every film, his shorts were guaranteed audiences as they screened again… and again… and again. “There is a certain responsibility in making something that people will watch as many as 30 times,” Nicolosi admits. “So I try to cram these pieces full of details so there will always be new […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 17, 2011 -
Alrick Brown
Asked when he realized he wanted to become a filmmaker, moments quickly came to Alrick Brown’s mind. The first time was while taking a summer course in college on Hitchcock. Another was when, while substitute teaching at a middle school in his hometown of Plainfield, N.J., he realized the only thing his kids paid attention to were movies and music videos. But the defining moment came in the early 2000s during his time in the Peace Corps when he was brought to the slave castles in Ghana. Setting foot in these atrocious landmarks, Brown realized what his calling was. “I […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jul 17, 2011 -
Rob Hauer
When asked who his professional role models are, L.A.-based d.p. Rob Hauer, who has lensed some of the best shorts of recent memory, cites some obviously inspirational folks, including Robert Richardson, Emmanuel Lubezki and Robert Elswit. “They show a wonderful range and their work elevates their stories, which I’d like to do as well. And none of them had overnight success — they had to work hard to get where they are, like all of us do.” But he cites other artistic influences too, harkening back to his early study as a still photographer at California State Polytechnic University, San […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 17, 2011
