News

Variety

• Venice Film Review: ‘Fish & Cat’

  All is not as it seems in Shahram Mokri's highly original second feature, filmed in one long, bravura shot.
• Toronto Film Review: ‘The Face of Love’

  Annette Bening and Ed Harris bring potent conviction to this maudlin but strangely compelling psychological love story from director Arie Posin.
• TV Review: ‘Back in the Game’

  A not-particularly-fresh take on “The Bad News Bears” — which already spawned multiple movies and a 1979 series — “Back in the Game” isn’t without its modest charms.
• Anthony Hopkins’ Freddy Heineken Movie Adding Cast (EXCLUSIVE)

  Anthony Hopkins' "The Kidnapping of Freddy Heineken" is heading toward production next month in Europe with Australian actor Tom Cocquerel joining the cast.
• CNN’s ‘New Day’ Ratings Continue to Plunge

  CNN’s “New Day” has been struggling to bring up its already ailing ratings, as the new morning show fell behind its previous lows on Monday and lost to competitors Fox and MSNBC. According to Nielsen, “New Day’s” Monday ratings were down 17% in total audience and 5% in the 25-54 demographic from last week and... Read more »

Filmmaker Magazine

• Richard Linklater to Receive Tribute at Gotham Awards

  IFP announced today that Richard Linklater will receive the Director’s Tribute at this year’s Gotham Independent Film Awards. The helmer of Before Midnight, one of the most respected, gifted and prolific figures within U.S. independent film over the past two decades, will be the recipient of this honor 21 years after making his breakthrough feature with Slacker. Last year at the Gothams, Bernie (his 16th feature), was nominated for the Best Feature award. “It is with great enthusiasm and pride that we give honor to a man who has played a significant role in expanding the language of film throughout the […]
• Documenting the Life of George Plimpton: Interview with Luke Poling and Tom Bean Part II

  In the second part of the interview with filmmakers Luke Poling and Tom Bean about the documentary, Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself, they discuss structuring the movie, getting to the final edit, and distribution. Read Part I here: Documenting the Life of George Plimpton: Interview with Luke Poling and Tom Bean Part II   Filmmaker: You said you did 50 or 60 interviews. How did you choose those people? Bean: A lot of them were people who had either written about George or knew George. Whenever you interview someone they go, “Have you talked to such and such a person?” […]
• Win a DVD/Blu-ray Copy of Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring

  Filmmaker has teamed up with A24 and Lionsgate to offer five lucky readers the opportunity to win a DVD or Blu-ray copy of Sofia Coppola’s kinetic drama about a gang of Los Angeles teens who targeted and robbed the homes of celebrities they were obsessed with. The film is out to buy from tomorrow, but to get your own free copy from Filmmaker all you have to do is be among the first to email nick AT filmmakermagazine DOT com with the correct answer to the following question: The Bling Ring was the final film of which revered cinematographer?   […]
• “Cinema is Not Dead!” – Producer Jon Kilik at the IFP Conference

  There doesn’t seem to be any disagreement that it’s tough out there in the world of independent film. The country’s financial uncertainty coupled with an over-saturation of films in the marketplace with no real avenues for revenue have made establishing a career as a film director very difficult. Pair that with the unending stream of big-budget, low-revenue, Hollywood-produced tentpole pictures and one could say these are the Dark Days of filmmaking. And most of the speakers on the first day of the Filmmaker Conference did reiterate that. Well…all but one: independent film producer Jon Kilik. Known for his early work […]
• Six Quick Doc Tips: Blitz Wisdom with Call Me Kuchu Director Malika Zouhali-Worrall

  The IFP Independent Filmmaker Conference’s “Blitz Wisdom” panels are quick, TED-like talks from filmmakers discussing their projects and/or offering tips and pointers. Here are a few highlights from Malika Zouhali-Worrall’s Blitz Wisdom on the making of the documentary Call Me Kuchu and how they created this successful and highly provocative documentary about the first openly gay man in Uganda: – When researching a topic for your film, find a cause that is topical and personal to you and research, research, research. While the filmmakers had no direct connection to the LGBT situation in Uganda, they had learned a great deal […]

Hollywood Reporter

• 'Suits' Boss on the Summer Finale Aftermath, Harvey/Scottie and Louis' Discovery (Q&A)

  Showrunner Aaron Korsh talks to THR about where Pearson Specter is headed in the second half of the season and snagging Michael Phelps ("he's a pretty good actor!").read more
• WhoSay Launches Mobile App for Fans

  The digital media company allows fans to build their own celebrity-focused feeds from content generated by the stars themselves.read more
• 'Covert Affairs' Creators Discuss Annie's Life-Altering Move and What's Next (Q&A)

  Co-creators Matt Corman and Chris Ord talk to THR about the aftermath of the summer finale and preview a darker, grittier Annie Walker. read more
• 'Dads' EPs Court Criticism and Make Changes After Accusations of Racism

  Alec Sulkin and Mike Scully speak with THR about those scathing reviews and using the attention to their advantage: "I think a thumbs-up from the Parents Television Council is almost a kiss of death for a show."read more
• Parkinson's Changed Michael J. Fox's Approach to Acting

  The actor tells Rolling Stone how the disease changed the way he'd behave in and prepare for scenes.read more

NYT > Movies

• ArtsBeat: Spike Lee Wins $300,000 Gish Prize

  The filmmaker Spike Lee will receive the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the largest in the arts.    
• Movie Review: ‘Enough Said’ Stars James Gandolfini

  Nicole Holofcener’s “Enough Said” stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini and Catherine Keener.    
• ArtsBeat: McQueen Film Takes Top Award at Toronto Festival

  “12 Years a Slave,” from the director Steve McQueen, wins the Blackberry People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.    
• Saul Landau, Maker of Films With Leftist Edge, Dies at 77

  Mr. Landau’s passion for asking what he called “the most intrusive questions” yielded penetrating cinematic profiles of leaders like Fidel Castro and Salvador Allende.    
• Hollywood Wants Numbers on the Digital Box Office

  As digital distribution takes off, some players in the film business are chafing about a lack of open information on how movies perform in on-demand channels.    

LA Weekly | Films

• The Wookiee Wins: Meet the Director of the Chewbacca Doc That Conquered Kickstarter

  Understandably, Peter Mayhew is not as well known as Harrison Ford or Mark Hamill. But W. Ryan Ziegler wants to change that. The first-time filmmaker is now raising money on Kickstarter fo...
• Isaiah Washington Explains How He Played the D.C. Sniper

  Isaiah Washington didn't want to play John Allen Muhammad, the Beltway sniper who triggered three weeks of terror in 2002. The man — make that murderer — felt too familiar. Like Washington, Muhammad was a veteran and a father of three. Both were analytical, observant and quick to vent...
• Pleasure in the Rubble: Why the Summer's Last, Smallest Blockbuster Was Its Best

  We'll always have Iron Man, they must be telling each other in Hollywood. As summer wanes, the hulking corpses of would-be blockbusters litter the home-video distribution channels like fallen kaiju from Guillermo Del Toro's giant-'bots-vs.-giant-beasts movie
• Wadjda Is a Moving Film From Saudia Arabia, Where Cinemas Are Outlawed

  Like all kid protagonists in movies, Wadjda's Wadjda wants one pure thing so much that the very concept of want shades into need. If this plucky Saudi Arabian girl (played by preteen Waad Mohammed) doesn't get a bicycle, it seems, some fundamental quality of hers might ...

indieWIRE News

• Despite Her Best Efforts, Still Not a Dainty Ingenue: On the Return of Mindy Kaling's 'The Mindy Project'

  We are in an interesting era rife with self-lacerating television heroines, ones who don't look like or act like your typical leading ladies and who directly confront that fact on screen by shouldering criticism and humiliation, some of it self-generated. Tina Fey's Liz Lemon may be gone, but Lena Dunham has trudged to the forefront of this trend with her defiantly slovenly Hannah Horvath on "Girls," a character who seems created to challenge every built in expectation we have about a female protagonist's need to win our affections by being competent, lithe and perky and by waking up every morning with a full face of makeup already in place. This fall Rebel Wilson joins her with her new ABC sitcom "Super Fun Night," which is an unfortunate mess of a series, but is also one that aggressively pushes its main character Kimmie's plus-sized figure, geekiness and social awkwardness to the forefront not just of the jokes but of her situation in life as a reliable "workhorse"...
• BitTorrent Takes On Freedom of Expression with New Madonna Film

  A short film co-directed by Madonna with Steven Klein will be distributed by BitTorrent via a new format, BitTorrent Bundle. It seems only fitting that BitTorrent, the company which has long been associated with digital piracy, would support a project about freedom of expression. The 17 minute-film, "secretprojectrevolution," will launch "Art For Freedom," an online global initiative to support freedom of expression. Created by Madonna, the initiative will be curated by VICE and distributed by BitTorrent. It will encourage users to submit video, music, poetry and photography that examines the issue of freedom and revolution around the world.READ MORE: Can BitTorrent Be Used as a Platform for Indie Television? One Music Biz Comedy Is Giving It a Try "My goal is to show by the example of secretprojectrevolution my creative commitment to inspire change in the world through artistic expression," Madonna said in a statement. "I hope my film and other submission to...
• The Final Season of 'Mad Men' Will Air in Two Halves Over 2014 and 2015

  AMC will give the seventh and last season of "Mad Men" the "Breaking Bad" treatment and split it up over two years. The network announced today that the upcoming final season will run for 14 episodes instead of the usual 13 and will air seven in the spring of 2014 and seven in the spring of 2015. "This approach has worked well for many programs across multiple networks, and, most recently for us with 'Breaking Bad' which attracted nearly double the number of viewers to its second half premiere than had watched any previous episode," explained AMC's Charlie Collier. "We are determined to bring 'Mad Men' a similar showcase. In an era where high-end content is savored and analyzed, and catch-up time is used well to drive back to live events, we believe this is the best way to release the now 14 episodes than remain of this iconic series." "We plan to take advantage of this chance to have a more elaborate story told in two parts, which can resonate a little bit longer in the minds of our...
• Review: Why James Gandolfini's Performance in Nicole Holofcener's 'Enough Said' Is His Best Movie Role

  Nicole Holofcener's movies tend to focus on conflicted women, but the men sure don't have it any easier. With the tender-hearted "Enough Said," her first studio production and one of the late James Gandolfini's final screen credits, Holofcener returns to the terrain of her 1996 debut "Walking and Talking" with another awkward romance threatened by conflicting agendas and poor judgement. As much as "Enough Said" revolves around single mother and neurotic masseuse Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), it also foregrounds the impact of her romantic confusion on good-natured suitor Albert (Gandolfini), who doesn't realize that Eva has been treating his ex-wife Marianne (Catherine Keener) and secretly gleaning information from her about Albert's flaws. The cringe-worthy setup might provide sufficient fodder for an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," but Holofcener's unassuming script gives the situation a more credibly delicate balance of humor and sadness. However, there's a secret weapon in the...
• Watch: 'American Horror Story: Coven' is Really Embracing the Whole Sexualized Snake Swallowing Motif

  First FX unveiled a provocative poster for "American Horror Story: Coven" that featured... let's just go ahead and call it interracial group snake fellatio, but symbolic, probably. And the latest promo for the series takes that imagery even further, pairing up benign-sounding guitar strumming and female vocals with a female mouth being confronted with, opening up and swallowing a snake. Given the new season of the never-subtle series has for a central setting an embattled New Orleans coven and the prominence of Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates, no one would ever accuse the series of short-shrifting its formidable female characters, and last year the series directly dealt with themes of sexism, oppression and repression. So there's no doubt this combination of sexualized imagery and ones of power and devouring are deliberate, as much as they're also button-pushing. New season premieres October 9.

Film News Briefs

• FNB Editorial: One Door Closes, Another, Inevitably, Opens

  Well, it was bound to happen. After almost five years of covering the entertainment world, we’re ending publication of Film News Briefs today as we join forces with Studio System News starting tomorrow. Actually, to be fair, this little newsletter began in 2007, but I didn’t take over as editor until August of 2008, which [...]
• Andrew Hurley’s Ex-Pat Whining: Let’s Not Forget What Kickstarter Does Best!

  I’m coming to the FNB farewell bash about Kickstarter late, as usual, but what could be more appropriate as we look to the future than to consider something that represents such a drastic change in the entertainment business? I’ve been hearing about crowdsourcing for a lot longer than the “Veronica Mars” thing because I’m an [...]
• Catherine Clinch’s Media Grazing: The Mother Of All Crowdfunding Campaigns

  When I was 24-years-old, I came to Hollywood to make movies. I had been through film school and The Directors Guild Training Program. I was a signed client at The William Morris Agency and I’d had my first jobs writing for television. Then life ensued. Television writing assignments came easily while film writing jobs were [...]
• FNB Editorial: Why Roger Ebert’s Death Is An Even Bigger Deal Than You May Have Thought

  We’ve been kind of astonished this week seeing the outpouring of affection and reaction to Roger Ebert’s death. Not that he isn’t worthy of it, it’s just a bit of a surprise. The man was a critic. A very good and insightful one, but a critic nonetheless. And now that he’s gone, we think what [...]
• Catherine Clinch’s Media Grazing: Mobile Media Summit Gets Excellent Reception

  It’s no secret that the future will be entirely mobile. Still, questions remain about how the transition will be accomplished and who will facilitate and/or enable the transition. Tuesday’s Mobile Media Summit offered some surprising answers, not the least of which is the fact that the entire event focused on the ways that advertising sales [...]

The Tracking Board

• The Evening Edition (09.17.13)

  Your daily digest for the hottest stories of the day! CLICK HERE TO DIG DEEPER
• AUTOMATA (SPEC) **HEADS INTO MAJOR TERRITORIES!!**

  There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
• Kelsey Grammer Brings Some Intelligent Intensity To “The Expendables 3″

  "Cheers" star joins The Great Muscle Caper 3. CLICK HERE TO DIG DEEPER
• Etan Cohen Does His Best To “Get Hard”

  What we're trying to say is he's directing the film. CLICK HERE TO DIG DEEPER
• WME Signs Sophie Cookson

  There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

paidContent

• Google ready to toss cookies as ground shifts for online ad rules

  Google is planning to replace third party cookies as a way for advertisers to target users. The move comes the same day as the chance of Washington passing a "Do Not Track" law increased.    
• Shazam nabs Chief Revenue Officer from Hulu to cash in on TV ad dollars

  Shazam just announced that it has hired Kevin McGurn as its new Chief Revenue Officer. McGurn joins the company from Hulu, where he was SVP of Ad Sales. Why Hulu? Because Shazam wants to grow its revenue from ads around TV shows, which the company’s mobile […]    
• Etsy takes a cue from Pinterest with new curation feature for brands and bloggers

  Need a new way to find stuff on Etsy? On Tuesday, the company launched Pages, a feature that lets well-known brands and bloggers curate Etsy products on Pinterest-like boards. But what will motivate those brands to keep curating when they already have a presence on Pinterest?    
• Amazon’s Instant Video iOS app now lets you stream to Apple TV via AirPlay

  Amazon's Instant Video iOS app now lets users stream content to Apple TV using AirPlay. Thousands of users of the app had requested the feature in iTunes reviews.    
• Reddit’s crowdsourced media is a lot like the regular kind — good at some things, not so good at others

  This time, Reddit was the one that avoided naming the wrong suspect, while mainstream outlets bungled the story -- but the bigger picture is that both traditional media and crowdsourced media have their strengths.    

Blogs & Opinion

Thompson on Hollywood

• Review and Roundup: Finger-Clenching Thriller 'A Single Shot' Stars Sam Rockwell, Kelly Reilly, William H. Macy

  A dark, tightly wound backwoods thriller with a twist, "A Single Shot" premiered earlier this year at the Berlinale, and hits theaters September 20. Well-designed and executed by director David M. Rosenthal ("Janie Jones") from Matthew F. Jones’s script and novel of the same name, the film features uniformly fine performances by a cast including Sam Rockwell as an unlucky ex-farmer and hunter, Kelly Reilly as his estranged wife, an unrecognizable Jeffrey Wright as his alcoholic friend, William H. Macy as a gimpy small-town lawyer, and Joe Anderson and Jason Isaacs as seriously creepy denizens of the deep, wet forestlands. Atli Örvarsson’s eery score and Edward Grau’s claustrophobic cinematography further the finger-clenching suspense. A review roundup is below: Guardian:As befits the blood-and-mud spattered backdrop, there's much gruesome razor-slicing and corpse-lugging on display: a forceful reminder, you would suppose, of the elemental natural forces at work. Only...
• In the Works: Joe Wright and Chiwetel Ejiofor Join Forces for Big-Screen Version of 'A Season in the Congo' (VIDEO)

  Director Joe Wright ("Anna Karenina") is in the works adapting Aime Cesaire's 1966 play "A Season in the Congo," which centers on the 1960 Congo rebellion and the assassination of political leader Patrice Lumumba, for the big screen. Chiwetel Ejiofor, star of this awards season's current title to beat "12 Years a Slave," is set to star as Lumumba. Ejiofor played Lumumba this past summer in Wright's stage version of "A Season in the Congo" at UK theater the Young Vic. It was Ejiofor's first return to the stage following his 2007 turn as Othello. The film is one of two productions resulting from the Young Vic's recently announced plans to shoot feature films. The theater has made a name for itself in presenting modern, edgy versions of stage classics, new plays and casting emerging talent alongside well-known stars. Now it is looking to make original films of plays, borrowing heavily from the stage versions' cast and crew. Watch the trailer for the stage production...
• WATCH: First Trailer for Alexander Payne's 'Nebraska,' Starring Bruce Dern

  The first trailer has arrived for Alexander Payne's "Nebraska," starring Bruce Dern and Will Forte as a father and son who make a trek out to the eponymous state to claim a supposed sweepstakes prize of $1 million. The film, which debuted at Cannes (where Dern won the Best Actor award), generated good buzz at both Telluride and Toronto, with Oscar talk swirling for Dern's performance. The black-and-white film, co-starring June Squibb, Stacy Keach and Bob Odenkirk, hits theaters on November 15 via Paramount Vantage. Watch the trailer below, as well as a clip (with MILD SPOILERS) released during Cannes.
• IFC Films Takes 'Hateship Loveship,' Starring Wiig, Pearce, Steinfeld and More

  IFC Films has scooped up TIFF special presentation title "Hateship Loveship," starring Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Steinfeld, Nick Nolte, Christine Lahti and Jennifer Jason Leigh.  Directed by Liza Johnson ("Return"), the film is adapted by Mark Poirier ("Goats") from a short story by Canadian author Alice Munro. Here's the official synopsis:HATESHIP LOVESHIP is a multi-dimensional portrait of a young woman who has a life-altering effect on a fractured family. Kristen Wiig stars as Johanna Parry, a profoundly shy, unadorned woman who is hired by Mr. McCauley (Nick Nolte) as a housekeeper and a primary caregiver to his granddaughter Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld). When Sabitha uses technology to foster a pseudo-relationship between her widowed father and new caretaker, Johanna is finally able to indulge in something long missing from her life: the dream of a future and a home of her own.No word yet on a stateside release.
• WATCH: Ben Affleck Talks Batman Casting, and Being Humbled by Internet Reactions

  Ben Affleck finally opened up about being cast as Batman on last night's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." The actor-director, who took home a Best Picture Oscar for "Argo" earlier this year, said he initially thought he could handle the inevitable backlash to the news of him donning the Bat Suit. But when he spotted even one internet comment (reading: "Noooooooo"), he opted to be a Luddite for a few days. Watch below. Affleck also had some funny stories to tell about his kids. When his daughter saw a wax figure of Affleck at an exhibit in Las Vegas, her response was: "Daddy, why would anyone care?" Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder's Superman/Batman sequel to "Man of Steel," co-starring Henry Cavill as Superman, hits theaters July 17, 2015.

Anthony Kaufman’s ReelPolitik

• "Informant": How Brandon Darby Went from Anarchist to F.B.I. Stool-pigeon

  One of the best political documentaries last year, "Better This World" examines the government's crackdowns on civil disobedience, the ubiquity of surveillance and the injustice of our justice...
• My Best and Worst from Toronto 2013

  This is hardly a comprehensive list. In fact, it's downright idiosyncratic based on my various festival agendas, reviewing for Screen Daily and covering docs for SundanceNow. But during my 5 days...
• Is "12 Years A Slave" Too Brutal for Oscar?

  Steven McQueen's "12 Years A Slave" is a stunner. Twitter lit up on fire after Friday's world premiere and newspapers around the world are touting its Oscar Best Picture chances. But is the movie too...
• The False Liberal Promise of "Elysium"

  Of course, Neill Blomkamp's "Elysium" is political, but news pundits, never exactly attuned to the subtleties of narrative and ideology, miss the big picture. Critics and observers have endlessly...
• A Business of Ignorance: 6 Lessons from the New Digital Distrib Universe

  What's the next trend in indie filmmaking thanks to the digital universe in which we live? Tween TV stars. Yes, that's right. Turns out Harmony Korine was ahead of the curve with his casting of...

GreenCline Daily

• Made in the Shade

  by Steve Dollar[Editor's note: due to budget cuts and internal restructuring, Steve's review will likely be my final post for GreenCine Daily. Thank you all for reading during my four-year tenure, and be sure to follow me, Steve, Vadim and Nick on Twitter for more cine-obsessed discourse.]Notions of "the real," and the million micro-shadings of subjectivity (the perspective of the filmmakers, the characters) that are attenuated in any contemporary film with aspirations towards naturalism, consumed my thoughts this year at the Sundance Film Festival. That, and often a certain puzzlement over directorial intent: Third acts often felt like a let-down, in films that had otherwise been exemplary displays of jaw-dropping talent. Too much plot. Not enough. Phantom motivations. Underbaked cookies. Did I miss something? Why was I, on a gut level, so disappointed?I probably should have stuck around for the Q&A. But strangely enough, my reaction when I was troubled by a film was to let the mystery be, in hopes of circling back to it later on a second viewing, away from the festival crazy. With that experience in mind, I feel even stronger about the accomplishment of Matt Porterfield's I Used To Be Darker. Like a lot of folks, I was hooked by the filmmaker's 2010 Putty Hill, a BAMcinemaFest standout that used a conceptual gambit (the faux documentary) to enter the lives of a working-class Baltimore community impacted by the drug-related death of one its children. The device gradually evaporates, by which point the camera freely drifts between characters (played by a largely non-professional cast, without a formal script), latching onto moments of piercing emotional revelation. By the end of the film, the mourners gather at a dive bar for a wake, consecrated in whiskey and a gorgeous karaoke rendition of "Wild Horses." (Unfortunately, the Rolling Stones song had to be replaced, since the film's budget was something like $7,000).
• DVD OF THE WEEK: Seven Psychopaths

  by Vadim RizovIt begins with a Shih Tzu. Actor Billy Bickle (Sam Rockwell) isn't landing work, so instead he's taken to snatching canines while their owners' heads are turned, then mock-innocently returning them after a suitably panic-inducing period and collecting a healthy reward. Billy doesn't know his latest acquisition belongs to Charlie Costello (Woody Harrelson), the kind of gloweringly charismatic, fearsome mobster who'll expend Scarface-level mayhem to retrieve his beloved pet. There's something equally off about Billy, as his last name implies and both he and Charlie seem like expertly played only-in-the-movies types.
• SUNDANCE 2013: Outro

  by Steve DollarAnother Sundance Film Festival concluded this weekend, and if this year there was no phenomenon as compelling or, well, phenomenal, as Beasts of the Southern Wild, I'd wager that it was a stronger line-up overall: More consistent, with a good number of indie filmmakers turning their focus to tougher themes executed with greater ambition and risk. I'm still processing, quite honestly, and catching up with screeners to supplement the 20 or so titles I caught in Park City last week. Here's a capsule perspective of several that impressed.
• RETRO ACTIVE: Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)

  by Nick Schager[This week's "Retro Active" pick was inspired by the large-ensemble sketch comedy Movie 43.]If ever a movie was made for the small screen, it was Amazon Women on the Moon. A sketch-comedy compilation spearheaded by John Landis and directed by not only him but also Joe Dante, Carl Gottlieb, Peter Horton and Robert K. Weiss, the 1987 film is a loving ode to the cinema's main rival, television, which it mocks with ribald affection. As a parody, it's a scattershot effort, lurching between its 21 skits, and yet courtesy of its connective tissue—a spoof of a 1950s sci-fi movie—it manages to capture an overarching sense of the silliness of so much late-night television. Be it infomercials, true-life reality TV shows, romantic dramas, or soft-core porn, no subject is safe, though it's a late sketch directed by Weiss dubbed "Video Pirates" that truly encapsulates the anarchic spirit of the endeavor. Focused on a band of buccaneers who overtake a ship so as to confiscate its booty of VHS and Betamax tapes, laser discs, and illegally copied movies—which appear as gold cassettes, and whose FBI warnings are laughed at by the scalawags—it's a loving tribute to the burgeoning phenomenon of home video as a veritable cinematic bounty, one to be reveled in with wild, gleeful abandon.
• DVD OF THE WEEK: Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

  by Vadim RizovInternationally known for his disdain for quality control, propensity for making three to five features every year in all conceivable genres and bizarre, YouTube ready non-sequitur sequences, Japanese auteur Takashi Miike made his first Cannes competition appearance with Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, in turn the fest's first premiere of a 3D film. Flattened to two dimensions for DVD and Blu-ray, Hara-Kiri looks just fine; depending on who you believe (I haven't seen it in 3D), it may even benefit from regaining the light normally lost with 3D. A stately samurai drama closely following the plot of Masaki Kobayashi's essential 1962 original, Hara-Kiri totally suppresses Miike's usual ADD doodles and digressions at the narrative margins. This straight face suits him well. In December 1632, Hanshiro (Ebizo Ichikawa) arrives at the House of Ii, whose courtyard is available to impoverished samurai who wish to commit hara-kiri (formalized suicide via self-disemboweling) rather than suffer in undignified poverty. Of late, the country's been swamped with supplicants who have no intention of killing themselves. Instead, they arrive at a clan's stronghold proclaiming their urge to die honorably but leave when they're offered work or a small sum of money. When Motome (Eita) arrives, Ii strongman Hikokuro (Munetaka Aoki) says he must be made an example of to warn off further fake applicants. Surrounded by swords-drawn samurai and forced to go through with a death he had no idea of completing, civilian Motome repeatedly punctures his stomach with a bamboo sword. "Twist it!" Hikokuro yells, demanding that the standardized movements of self-annihilation be completed before Motome's head can be chopped off, increasing up the already-gory original scene's length.

SydneysBuzz

• Locarno FF: Interview with Carlo Chatrian

  I recently sat down with Carlo Chatrian, newly appointed artistic director of the Locarno International Film Festival at his office which is only blocks away from the strikingly picturesque Piazza Grande where the outdoor screen and 8,000 seats are now being set up. We discussed his new position, his vision for the Festival, the American films that will be screened in and out of competition, and some of the many highlights and events that begin on August 7 and run for eleven days. Of his new role as artistic director of the Festival, Chatrian states: “It was an honor and pleasure to take this position.  It is a new adventure for me.”   Chatrian’s passion for filmmakers, cinema and its history is zealously conveyed whether talking about the Festival’s tributes to Christopher Lee, Anna Karina, Faye Dunaway, Sergio Castellitto, Otar Iosseliani, Jacqueline Bisset, Margaret Ménégoz and Douglas Trumbull -- to the Pardi di domani (Leopards of tomorrow) a competitive section that will screen shorts and medium-length films by young independent auteurs or film school students, who have not yet directed a feature -- to the films screened on the Piazza Grande -- to the Festival’s sidebar Histoire(s) du cinéma. “Films belong to a wider history,” Chatrian further emphasizes when discussing Histoire(s) du cinéma, (a reference to Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece).  Dedicated to the history of cinema, “this section embodies the identity of the Festival.”  These offerings include newly restored prints of rare and important works in film history; (for the George Cukor retrospective an international preview of a remastered 3D version of The Wizard of Oz), documentaries about actors and filmmakers the Festival is honoring, as well as works presented by the Cinémathèque Suisse as part of Swiss Cinema rediscovered. Chatrian’s Vision “When you compose a competition you have to work with new films; it’s important to combine various aspects into a wider program. One of the things that is really important in Locarno, here, maybe more than other film festivals, are the films belonging in dialogue with past films to new. To look at cinema in a new way.” Chatrian describes his vision of the Festival “as a mosaic, composing the puzzle of the story of cinema.” He adds:  “Diversity is important.” This diversity is further explored in Chatrian’s Director’s statement in which he writes:     In line with the Festival’s tradition and our own wish to break down barriers, we have tried to establish a dialogue between historic and contemporary cinema, between independent and mainstream productions, documentary and fiction, experimental and essay forms. The only categorical imperative was to work with diversity, take it to extremes, to the point where contradictions emerge. Behind the organization of this year’s Festival lies a concept fed by opposites: not with any intention of molding them into a single line of thought, but rather welcoming them as the different souls that make up cinema and the world. Reflected in this year’s programs are the connections to past films and how these works are linked to each other, and at times come full circle.  Chatrian cites the examples of the Festival’s posthumous tribute to Portuguese director Paulo Rocha, whose films were launched at the Locarno Film Festival fifty years ago -- to the tribute to Anna Karina, “not only a great actress who worked with Godard and George Cukor, there is that connection to Rocha’s films in the Portugal New Wave and Anna Karina’s relationship to the French New Wave.” Chatrian continues: “It’s like a web that makes different connections. Another example: Joaqim Pinto, Portuguese director of the film in competition, Eagora?? Lembra-Me? (What Now? Remind Me) was just a child when he went on set when Paulo Rocha was shooting his second feature.” New American Films at the Festival The five films coming from the United States include SXSW Grand Jury winner Short Term 12 by Destin Cretton and The Dirties directed by Matthew Johnson, which Chatrian describes as “a challenging work of editing. A film within a film. The main characters are supposed to shoot a film, but at the same time they are being bullied by a group of other students because of their identity.  The film is funny; sometimes a tribute to Ed Wood, but it also conveys a sort of criticism of the world of school.” Dedicated to emerging international directors and devoted to first and second features, Chatrian comments on the Concorso Cineasti del presente – (Filmmakers of the Present) “Some of these films raise a lot of questions rather than give answers. They are not straight forward; they are more art-house.” Chatrian describes Forty Years From Yesterday directed by first-time feature directors Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck: “Works with lengths of shots; it’s deeply emotive.  It tries to convey something that is difficult; grief, and empathy between camera and character.” “Two films that challenge cinematic form are Manakamana and The Unity of all Things.”  The feature documentary Manakamana is synopsized by its directors Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez:  High above a jungle in Nepal, pilgrims make an ancient journey by cable car to worship Manakamana. Chatrian calls it “a contemplative film with powerful sequences of long takes.” On the first feature The Unity of all Things directed by Alex Carver and Daniel Schmidt, Chatrian states: “A very experimental film based on a big subject, a tough subject -- the idea of time; it has a metaphysical point of view.”  The science fiction film Dignity, directed by James Fotopoulos, is described by Chatrian, “like a 1960s trip” and remarks on this film’s connection to Douglas Trumbull, the special effects artist and director, who will receive Locarno’s Festival First Vision Award. “It is a nice tribute to Trumbull and how it relates to his work on 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and as the director of Silent Running.” Filmmaker as Journeyman – Werner Herzog Another connection to the United States is from European director, Werner Herzog, (this year’s honoree of the Pardo d’onore Swisscom) who is now living in the states.  The Festival will present the world premiere of the four episodes that comprise Herzog’s new mini-series Death Row II, which documents four more cases from death row prisons in Texas. Chatrian says of this work: “a precise look at the American justice system and the American people.” For cinephiles the world over, the Locarno International Film Festival offers a wide range of work from the past and present, and inspiration for the future of cinema around the globe.  The Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 7-17, 2013.  For more information visit: www.pardo.ch About Susan KouguellAward-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting and film at Tufts University and presents international seminars.  Author of SAVVY CHARACTERS SELL SCREENPLAYS! and THE SAVVY SCREENWRITER, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide.  www.su-city-pictures.com
• Baja International Film Festival, Los Cabos (BIFF 2013) Awards US$15,000: Enter Now!

  Baja International Film Festival, Los Cabos (BIFF 2013) is pleased to announce its second edition to be held from November 13-16 in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur.In order to help and support the film industry, BIFF 2013 presents its call for entries.Official competition- Competencia Los Cabos (Los Cabos Competition). National and international, fiction or documentary films, to be awarded with a US$15,000 cash prize (fifteen thousand US dollars), given by the Festival.- México Primero (Mexico First). First or second, fiction or documentary films by Mexican directors, to be awarded with a US$15,000 cash prize (fifteen thousand US dollars), given by the Festival; and a second prize valued in US$40,000 (forty thousand US dollars), given by Moviecity.Download Call for EntriesThere is also a call for entries for:Work in Progress- Work in Progress. Six Mexican films in post-production stage, to be awarded with a cash prize of US$10,000 (ten thousand US dollars), given by the Festival; and a second prize valued in US$30,000 (thirty thousand US dollars), given by Moviecity.Download Call for EntriesGabriel Figueroa Film FundFilm support fund for projects in early stages of development, and in collaboration withLabodigital S.A. de C.V., for films in post-production stage.- Films in post-production. Support in post-production services for up to US$51,620 (fifty one thousand six hundred and twenty US dollars), given in collaboration withLabodigital S.A. de C.V. to two Mexican feature films, fiction or documentary.- Projects in development. A cash prize of US$5,000.00 (five thousand US dollars), given by the Fund to seven Mexican feature films, fiction or documentary, in development stage.Go to GFFF WebsiteEntry deadline: August 30, 2013For further information visit:www.bajafilmfest.com.mx
• Next's "A Teacher" Trailer Now Available!

  A Teacher by Hannah Fidell is being released theatrically by Oscilloscope after its Sundance Institute's NEXT WEEKEND replay in Los Angeles and other cities in August.  We on the jury of U.S. In Progress at the Champs Elysees Film Festival 2012 awarded it the top prize which enabled its post-production to be funded and which enabled it to be seen by Europa Distribution's indie distributors from all over Europe.  We are very proud of this film and the coverage it is garnering is gratifying.  Congratulations Hannah!!GO BACK TO SCHOOL WITH "A TEACHER"!Trailer Now AvailableJust as students head back to school this fall, Hannah Fidell’s controversial and salacious film "A TEACHER" opens theatrically and on video-on-demand September 6th"Hard to look away from this head-on exploration of a woman escaping the demands of adult life by surrendering to inappropriate passion."- David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter"A taut, closely-observed psychological tale."- Mark Olsen, Los Angeles TimesPart psychological thriller and part provocative character study, A Teacher explores the unraveling of a young high school teacher, Diana (Lindsay Burdge), after she begins an affair with one of her teenage students, Eric (Will Brittain). What starts as a seemingly innocent fling becomes increasingly complex as the beautiful and confident Diana gets fully consumed by her emotions, crossing boundaries and acting out in progressively startling ways. Lindsay Burdge delivers a deeply compelling and seamlessly naturalistic performance that brings us into the mind of an adult driven to taboo against her better judgment. A Teacher made its world premiere at The Sundance Film Festival in 2013 and will be released theatrically and on-demand this September by Oscilloscope Laboratories.MEET THE TEACHER:Lindsay Burdge / Diana WattsLindsay Burdge is one of the hottest young actresses in indie cinema today. For A Teacher, Lindsay has received much critical praise and was highlighted by Variety, IndieWire, Verge among other publications as one of the actresses to watch at Sundance 2013.  The role of Diana in A Teacher was written and developed specifically for Lindsay by Hannah Fidell.Lindsay has also appeared in Joe Swanberg's All The Light In The Sky, opposite Ti West, which played at AFI Fest last year.  She also appeared in Ben Dickinson's First Winter, which played at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival.  Lindsay also worked on the other side of the camera as both a producer and casting director on Adam Leons’ Gimme The Loot.Lindsay’s upcoming projects include Up The River (director: Ben Greenblatt), Some Beast (director: Cameron Bruce Nelson), Anguish (director: Sonny Mallhi), Invitation (director: Karyn Kusama)MEET THE STUDENT:Will Brittain / Eric TullA Teacher marks the on-screen debut of Will Brittain, a fresh-faced young actor from Austin, Texas.  Prior to his role in the film, Will appeared on stage in several prominent theatrical productions in Austin including: “Colossal”, “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde”, and “D’Angelico”.Will was featured as a Sundance Breakout Star by Indiewire and named one of their Ten Actors to Watch at SXSW.  MEET THE WOMAN BEHIND THE FILM:Hannah Fidell / Director, Writer, ProducerHannah Fidell is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. Her first feature film, A Teacher, debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and recently played in the Festival Favorites section of SXSW where Fidell was awarded the Chicken & Egg Emerging Narrative Female Director award. She was also included in Filmmaker Magazine’s annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film” list in 2012. Hannah had two short films, “The Gathering Squall” and “Man & Gun” play at SXSW in 2012. She is currently in pre-production on her next film.
• LatinoBuzz: FIVE RULES OF MAKING A FILM with BRYAN RAMIREZ (Mission Park)

  San Antonio filmmaker Bryan Ramirez has dug filmmaking since he was a kid when he would spend time creating Ninja Maniacs (which I'm dying to see!). After graduating Full Sail Film School in Orlando, he stayed true to his roots and never did the 'Hollywood' thing. Instead he gathered friends in Tejas to make his first feature film debut, the award winning Mission Park which has had a successful festival run and got picked up by AMC Independent to be released in September. The crime drama stars Jeremy Ray Valdez (Walkout), Walter Perez (The Avengers), Fernanda Romero (Drag me to Hell), Joseph Julian Soria (Crank: High Voltage) and Will Rothhaar (Battle Los Angeles). It also features Vivica A. Fox, Will Estes and Sean Patrick Flanery. So, we asked Ramirez to tell us his 5 rules of making a film. “It starts with the script, it speaks to you as you write it, let it tell the story. When writing and reading a script, the characters come to life, you see them, hear them and feel them. You have to be true to this when casting. If they offer you a big name but you don't think they'll fit your vision. They won't fit. There are other options and you must be adamant about who you want.” “Your vision is your vision. You have be able to tell your story the way you want to tell it. It has to look and feel the way you want it to. Make sure you get a DP who trusts your vision and assist you in bringing it to life. At the same time you have to trust your DP, he may have an idea that will blow your mind.” “Collaborate, but don't lose control of the set. You're the Director, a lot of times an actor will have an idea of how they want to bring a character. Hear them out, this just means that they are as deeply involved as you are and they will move mountains for you in order to bring the words to life.”Watch the trailer for Mission Park “Hire a seasoned AD, and trust him 100%. Remember though, you set the pace of your crew, if you're excited to be there, know your shots, know your blocking, and know your story, they will all keep pace with you. The moment you lose control or show signs of confusion, don't know what you want or how to get it, you will lose your crews respect and the actors trust.” “If you're just starting out and want to be a director, watch movies, a lot of movies. Then watch them with no sound, look at the shot selection, the actor's facial movement and body motions, the set, the props, even the lighting. How do all these elements help tell the story?" For all the good stuff, check out: http://missionparkthemovie.com/ Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow @LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook.
• LatinoBuzz: Europa Report

  Europa Report, a feature film by Ecuadorian director, Sebastián Cordero, was so impressive.  On a personal note (not to brag…), my niece is exploring alien life in the form of starfish at the Stanford Marine Station in Monterey as the subject of her NASA- funded PhD program, so this movie about exploring alien life in a watery environment touches close to home for me.  In addition, I am very interested in Ecuador as a filmmaking country (or a non-filmmaking country) whose revenues from homegrown cinema has grown 300% in 2012, so I did something I rarely undertake, I interviewed the filmmaker.  Sebastián Cordero was in L.A. for ten days after attending Comic-Con and stayed through last night's KCRW Special L.A. Screening at the Landmark Theater on Pico Blvd.  Today he left for NYC.  Magnet Releasing will release the film theatrically on August 2  and it is available now on VOD. Europa Report opens this Friday, August 2, 2013 in Los Angeles at the Sundance Sunset in West Hollywood, D.C.  at the E Street Cinema in Washington, and New York at the Cinema Village this Friday and will be followed by a national roll-out. See playdates here.Attending Comic-Con was a great experience for Sebastián. He says that the L.A. Times coverage describes the experience very well and definitely gave the film a boost in fandom.  The panel at Comic-Con's largest venue was unique for Sebastián, an Ecuadorian whose two films, the 2004 Cronicas produced by Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, Isabel Dávalos, and Bertha Navarro, and Rabia have created their own exclusive cult fan clubs.  Rabia (ISA:Wild Bunch), a Spanish-Colombian coproduction premiered in 2009 at the Toronto Film Festival.  The 2004 film Cronicas caused quite a stir among the acquisitions community and the cognoscenti of genre-art house films.  It won the Sundance/ NHK International Filmmakers Award in 2002, premiered in Cannes' Un Certain Regard, played Toronto, San Sebastian, Sundance and Rotterdam, sold worldwide and was picked up for U.S. by Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures, thus confirming its cult status. His earlier film Ratas, Ratones, Rateros premiered in Venice in 1999, received over 12 international awards and played in more than 50 film festivals and Pescador, a Colombian-Ecuadorian coproduction won acting and directing awards at the Guadalajara Film Festival in 2012.The Europa Report team's Comic-Con presentation included scientists from JPL which lent real-life credentials to the film as they discussed the movie in front of 6,000 interested people who knew very little about the film until then.  The mythology of Europa is well known to sci–fi fans from its prominence in Stanley Kubrick's classic 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel 2010: Odyssey Two, but the general public is not aware of it.  The movie in fact seems poised somewhere between NASA and Star Trek.The dreamy calmness of professionals in an extraordinary mix of talents in the movie itself mirrors the mix of talents that went into the making of this piece of cinema.  No wonder it was previewed at Comic-Com.  It seemed incongruous to the mega-size this event has become.  It would be nice to know that it was the sleeper hit of Comic-Con and of the summer season.  We shall see as it opens this week.  Even if it proves too intellectual for the masses, its credit to Team Sebastian Cordero will stand the test of time. It takes a filmmaker from Eucador to probe our collective curiosity about life on Europa, the moon of Jupiter most likely to contain life.  While I do not agree 100% with the review by Carlos Aguilar in Filmophilia today, I find his review the most intelligent of all I have read to date.Europa Report could be called a Latino film which illustrates the draw Hollywood independent filmmaking holds on filmmakers from our South American continent.  Reading the bios of the production team and the bios of the cast further illuminates this luminescent film, put together primarily by men but casting both the main interlocutor and the chief of the mission as women: Embeth Daviitz who plays Dr. Unger, the chief of the mission was the Jewish maid who survives both the abuse and attraction of Ralph Fiennes' sadistic commander 'Goeth' in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and costars with Gabriele Byrne in In Treatment, was in Mad Men and Californication.How did producer Ben Browning find you after he developed the script?Ben had seen Rabia and Cronicas…both were very different from this, dealing with social issues, told as social realism, but Rabia is 90% told while the protagonist is hiding in a house, where the claustrophobia and tension might be points of reference for this film.You usually make films about social issues, what was it about this film that attracted you?  I am an actor's director.  I need a good story and a good script but one major aspect of this film for me was its six characters.  It was a challenge to put together a great cast  and give them one space in which to act.  I liked the story and the real science behind it. There have been no significant manned explorations of space since the Apollo expeditions in the 70s.   I did lots of research, and we had great science advisors.I was an unusual choice, but I felt an immediate connection to the project.You seem to have gathered an award winning production team for casting, cinematography, production design, music and sound design.I had a great team.    It is my first English language film in Hollywood.  My cinematographer, Enrique Chediak, and production designer, Eugenio Caballero, have worked with me on three of my films. The production designer was excited to design a realistic space ship. Enrique liked the found footage idea which was still high tech, it did not have the degraded handheld effect you see in the current run of horror films.  I had been unsure of his reactions to such limitations in the project, but he actually liked them.  He built a 360 degree set with eight cameras shooting continuously.  It was very immersive. The cinematographer also liked the challenge. (Editor: Production designer, Eugenio Caballero, won the Academy Award for his work on Pan's Labyrinth.  Enrique Chediak was named on Daily Variety's "10 Cinemagraphers to Watch" in 1999 and has not disappointed with his credits which include Danny Boyle's 127 Hours.)What about the cast of international actors?Casting international actors was also exciting.  They are not not huge stars but they are the top thespians in their countries.  (Sydney, the blogger here: Wednesday's news that casting directors will get their own branch in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, puts this film's casting director, Avy Kaufman, in line for an Oscar for sure.)  Producer Tod Browning interjects here that casting actors from all over the world was also a key part of the film's financing plan.  "Each of these actors brought value in territories we were able to pre-sell based on their involvement. Michael [Nyqvist] and Anamaria [Marinca] are very popular in Europe and Daniel Wu is a major star in Asia which allowed us to secure Chinese distribution up front", Browning says.  (The international sales agent is Nick Meyers' Sierra Affinity.)Back to Sebastian: When Michael Nyqvist (who played Andrei Blok) came on board, that made the project attractive to others.  I wanted him, not just because of his work in the Millennium series, but because of his other work with Lukas Moodyson (Together).Anamaria Marinca (who played Rosa Dasque), the actress from Romania's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, (which won the Palme d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival) was not an obvious choice and I was unsure of what her reaction would be, but she said, Are you kidding?  She said she loved having such an offer.  No one ever offered her a role in a science fiction film before.What about you?  Do you like the lure of Hollywood?  Do you want to make more films here?I am torn between two worlds.  I want to continue in both places.  I enjoy Hollywood but I know, during the time of Cronicas there was a moment when I was being offered projects but in the end, nothing happened, and I understand the process now.  Here when a project falls apart, all the work you have put into it is for nothing - it might waste six months of intense work.  In Ecuador I have confidence that any film I am working on will eventually be made.  But I am also interested in working in the U.S.  There are a lot more resources here, but it must be good project.  I am looking for projects here, but I generate my own material in Ecuador.  Here, when a project falls apart here all the work is for nothing.I am now working on a film to shoot early next year in Ecuador, Sin muertos, no hay carnaval, which literally means Without the Dead, There is No Carnival.  However, its English language working title is Such is Life in the Tropics.  It is about property management, and more specifically about a squater as told from many perspectives.  Its strong script is written by the actor in Cronicas who is also a producer in another film.Thank you Sebastian.  I wish you great success with this film and with your career.  And I thank Ben Browning for undertaking this exciting project and bringing it to life.Sebastian Cordero spent his childhood in Ecuador where he was born, his teenage years in Paris and his college years in Los Angeles, where he studied at USC's Filmic Writing program. He seems to be building a team much the way Clint Eastwood has.  And like Clint Eastwood, the lure of Hollywood with its ease of procuring resources and the necessary filmmaking tools is tempered by the continuous lower budgeted filmmaking using international Iberoamerican coproductions to finance the films.  About Wayfare Entertainment:In May 2013 New York-based Wayfare Entertainment announced its rebranding as Start Motion Pictures.  Parent company Start Media LLC is unifying its branding and operations as its portfolio of entertainment and media holdings grows. Wayfare Entertainment was set up five years ago by Ben Browning and Start Media CEO Michael Maher and has produced and fully financed films that have grossed over $130 million worldwide. Wayfare’s past films include Universal’s Sanctum produced with James Cameron, the Focus Features’ drama It's Kind Of A Funny Story, Neil Jordan’s Ondine, and Sebastian Cordero's space thriller Europa Report to be released by Magnolia Pictures in summer 2013 and being sold internationally by Nicolas Meyer's Sierra Affinity. Upcoming Wayfare projects include an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book for Disney; the recently announced Passengers, to star Keanu Reeves and Reese Witherspoon; and a development slate including Josh Zetumer’s Villain, an adaptation of Matt Westrup’s award winning creature short The Gate and the Princess Diana conspiracy thriller Inquest.  With a slate like this, it is no wonder Comic-Con was interested in showcasing Europa Report.Start Media is a privately held media company with interests in exhibition, publishing, and technology. Start Media is acquiring and building content-driven companies well positioned to capitalize on value dislocations emerging from the rapid evolution of media and media consumption. In late 2012 Start Media partnered with exhibitor Digiplex Destinations, an industry pioneer and champion of digital conversion and alternative cinema content, to aggressively grow the Digiplex footprint to 1000 screens in the top 100 markets. The acquisition of UltraStar Cinemas earlier this year was the first acquisition of the partnership. Wayfare’s staff, upcoming film slate and film library will be folded into Start Motion Pictures, which will continue normal business operations producing and financing feature films. Browning will be the President of Start Motion Pictures.

CinemaTech

• Now totally free, forever: The e-book version of "Fans, Friends & Followers"

  I've been slow to do this, with busy-ness as my only excuse, but I'm now making the PDF/e-book version of my 2009 book Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age available as a free download. It's about 5 megabytes. Share it with anyone you'd like. If you find it useful, you can make a PayPal donation using the button below.Info about how to purchase the paperback or Kindle versions are here, on the book's website.
• Goodbye to Bob Lambert, one of Hollywood's true champions of innovation

  Visiting Bob Lambert in his office in the ABC Studios Building, for me, was like going to see an archivist, an oracle, and a city councilman. Bob, who spent 25 years at Disney, eventually becoming the media company's top technology executive, was all of that. He knew the history of technologies in Hollywood — both celebrated and forgotten. He could see the future. And, like any good city councilman, he understood the politics and alliances required to actually get things done.I learned today that Bob died last Friday. Here is an obituary from The Hollywood Reporter, and there are many remembrances on his Facebook page. He was 55.I'd met Bob only a few times as a reporter for Variety, and a blogger for CinemaTech, before he offered his help on a book I was working on about Hollywood's technological history. He was generous with his time, with introductions, and with his files. As someone who had helped introduce Disney to non-linear editing, worked to digitize the animation process in collaboration with a startup called Pixar, and nudged the movie industry toward digital delivery of its product, in cinemas and over the Internet, you couldn't have asked for a better guide than Bob. He was one of the central nodes in Hollywood's new technology network. Just about every emerging technology was on his radar screen, and he had a strong opinion about all of it. Bob was funny, curious, encouraging...and he had a remarkably small ego for someone who had operated in the movie business for almost his entire career.The last time I saw Bob was a surprise. I'd gone up to visit a company in New Hampshire, Laser Light Engines, that was working on a laser-based lamp system for digital projectors. One benefit was that it would brighten the gloomy look of most 3-D films. (Bob would later join the company as a board member.) Nashua, New Hampshire, was one of the last places I'd have expected to bump into Bob, who had recently left Disney. We did the usual chit-chat around the conference table, stared at some PowerPoint slides, and then slipped into a makeshift screening room that Laser Light Engines had set up. We sat next to each other, and the lights went down, and we watched a succession of movie clips and trailers projected using the company's technology.It was Bob in his natural habitat... getting a glimpse of the future of cinema, and weighing in later on what needed work, and how it might realistically find a path to the market.I'm sorry he won't be around to shape what happens next.
• Looking for People Who've Made the Leap

  I've started work on my next book project. It's about people who've taken the leap... leaving a secure job for the unknown.I'm hoping to interview you, or someone you know, if this describes you:- You left a job that was pretty safe and secure, but just wasn't taking you where you wanted to go with your life.- You're now chasing your dreams, doing something that you believe you were put on this earth to do. That doesn't have to be making movies or touring the world with your band... it could be starting a restaurant, surfing school, personal training business, or stained glass studio.- You've achieved some level of financial stability/success with your new career.I'd love your help and ideas. My goal is to create a guide that will hopefully be inspiring and useful to others who want to make the leap. (I did it in 1997, when I quit my last full-time job.) Tweet me @ScottKirsner, or e-mail scott kirsner at gmail dot com.Thanks!
• Upcoming: Jill Sobule in LA, and One More 'Fans, Friends' Workshop in Boston

  An upcoming events alert for those of you in the Los Angeles or Boston areas... - Jill Sobule, the singer/songwriter/entrepreneur who was such a hit at the 2010 edition of Distribution U. in LA (and who is featured in my book "Fans, Friends & Followers"), is playing a show with Julia Sweeney in LA Tuesday night. Her tour schedule also includes dates in Philadelphia, New York, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and beyond.- And next month, in Boston, I'll be doing a two-hour workshop focused on the newest strategies that artists (and arts organizations) are using to enlarge their audiences. This one is sponsored by ArtsBoston and the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston, and it's pretty affordable ($35 for people who aren't members of one of those organizations.) It happens April 6th, from 3 to 5 PM at the Boston Center for the Arts. It'll be an updated and expanded version of the talks I gave last November at the two Distribution U. events.Would love your help spreading the word about either/both events...
• Advice from Joel: Tools for Connecting with Bloggers, Twitterers, Superfans and Groups

  Indie producer and editor Joel Heller ran a great lunch discussion at last month's Distribution U. event in Los Angeles, focused on developing a powerful online outreach strategy. Joel worked on the digital marketing strategy for the excellent doc "Winnebago Man," which premiered at South by Southwest in 2009 and was recently released on DVD and on iTunes.Joel was nice enough to share the notes from his session, along with a collection of links that'll benefit anyone planning an Internet marketing campaign for a forthcoming film, especially as you think about finding existing sites and communities that are likely to be aligned with your theme — what I call "going where your audience is." (I learned a lot from Joel's notes; who knew it was possible to search people's Facebook walls?)From Joel:FINDING GROUPS & DISCUSSION FORUMSBegin to identify your film’s potential “ecosystem” by searching these websites that host groups & discussion forums.http://www.meetup.com/findhttp://groups.google.comhttp://groups.yahoo.comhttp://www.facebook.com/search.php?&type=groupshttp://www.facebook.com/search.php?&type=pageshttp://www.ning.com/searchhttp://groupspaces.com/c/searchhttp://lists.topica.comhttp://www.lsoft.com/catalist.htmlhttp://www.freelists.orghttp://omgili.comhttp://www.dmoz.orgTip: Keep an open mind when brainstorming groups that might be interested in your film. We discovered late in our release that pit bull owners were interested in WINNEBAGO MAN. The main character has a pit bull, but we didn’t think to reach out to pit bull owners until someone asked us for a flyer to promote the film to her local pit bull club. After that, we reached out to pit bull clubs in other cities and offered free tickets to the group leaders to come to see the film on opening night.Tip: When approaching group leaders to work with you, be prepared with ideas of what your can offer them of value. Can you promote their cause? A joint fundraising screening? A poster giveaway or passes to see the movie?GOOGLE’S “ALERTS MANAGER”It’s easy to monitor who’s talking about your film and what they’re saying. Google Alerts can be set up to monitor everything from mainstream newspaper sources to blogs and websites.http://www.google.com/alerts/manageTip: Set up Google Alerts, not only to monitor your movie, but for other recently released movies (with similar genre or subject matter). This will help you identify reviewers, bloggers, websites and groups that might also be interested in your film. Tip: You can configure Google Alert Manager to deliver the results as an RSS newsfeed. I prefer this to getting a deluge of emails. (You must be signed into your Google account to access the alerts manager) My settings are: Everything / As-It-Happens / All Results / RSS FeedSEARCHING FACEBOOK WALLSFacebook allows you to search the wall posts of anyone who has not set up their wall to be private. It’s the online equivalent of standing outside a movie theater and listening to how people talk about your movie to their friends.http://www.facebook.com/search.php?&type=epostsTip: This is a great way to discover superfans – who you can message and invite to join your street team. (FB is especially useful for messaging, since Twitter does not allow you to privately message someone unless they are already following you.)FINDING OLDER TWEETS USING GOOGLE SEARCH “UPDATES”While Twitter’s search function is limited to recent tweets, Google offers a robust historical Twitter search.http://google.comEnter your search term, click search, then select on left side: More > RealtimeTip: Use the the timeline tool in the upper right corner to go back in time.CAPTURING ONLINE WORD-OF-MOUTHRow Feeder is a great tool to automatically archive Twitter and FB wall posts. For each search term you choose, Row Feeder will archive every related tweet and wall post, and save it into a Google Docs Spreadsheet.http://rowfeeder.comTip: If you find yourself addicted to searching Twitter every hour, this is a great way to unplug - and know that you won’t miss anything. Google Doc spreadsheets can be shared, so your whole team can privately access the spreadsheet online.Tip: You can sort the spreadsheet by any field, so for example, you can easily identify Twitter users with the largest number of followers.WEBSITE REACH & INFLUENCEWith limited time and resources, how do you decide where to focus your online marketing efforts? These tools show you estimated website traffic. (But traffic should not be your only consideration... Most importantly, how good a fit is your film for a website’s audience?)http://compete.comhttp://alexa.comhttp://technorati.comTWITTERER REACH & INFLUENCETools to make sense of who’s who on Twitter.http://fflick.comhttp://twitaholic.comhttp://tweetmeme.comhttp://www.twellow.comhttp://listorious.comhttp://twittercounter.comTip: Study how other people are using Twitter successfully. Helpful resources include:http://mashable.comhttp://oneforty.com/http://140conf.com/KEYWORD REACH & INFLUENCEPopular key words and trends can provide a window into how people think - and what they’re looking for online. How can you make it easier for them to stumble upon your film?http://www.google.com/insights/search/#http://www.spyfu.com/http://www.semrush.com/FINDING RECENT UPLOADS TO YOUTUBENormal YouTube searching buries new videos in the results, so this is useful discovering fan reaction videos and mash-ups as they get posted:http://youtube.comEnter search term, click search, then select: Search Options > Upload DateTip: You can send a private message to any YouTube user by clicking on their username and then “send message”.ANALYZING YOUR WEBSITE’S TRAFFICGoogle Analytics offers a wealth of data to help you identify how people are using your website, and how they found you.http://analytics.google.comTip: Here are the analytics I find most useful:Traffic Sources > Referring Sites What websites linked to your site & how many visitors did they deliver?Traffic Sources > Keywords What search terms brought people to your website?Visitors > Map Overlay Visitors broken down by their geographic location. You can drill down by country, state and city.Content > Top Content What pages are popular on your site and what is the average time visitors spend on each page?

Editblog on PVC by Scott Simmons

• Stylish New Looks In Latest Animated Canvases Release

  Digital Juice® has announced the release of Animated Canvases™ Collection 26: Ground Support, available as either an Instant Download or boxed DVD product. Animated Canvases are subtle background animations that are designed to be the foundation for any video or motion...
• The Foundry Announces That NUKE 8 is Coming This Year

  Leading software developer, The Foundry has announced at IBC that a brand new version of its industry standard compositing software, NUKE will launch later this year.Timeline viewing and text In NUKE 8 artists will notice huge enhancements to the Dope...
• Blackmagic Design Announces DaVinci Resolve 10 Public Beta is Available Now

  Blackmagic Design today announced that DaVinci Resolve 10 public beta is available for customers to download now.DaVinci Resolve 10 is a major upgrade that includes new features for integrating the workflows of multiple different software products used in the film and television...
• Blackmagic Design Announces 3 New Mini Converters with 6G-SDI for Ultra HD Workflows

  Blackmagic Design today announced three new models of Mini Converter designed to ease the transition into Ultra HD workflows and to allow lower cost Ultra HD studios to be built. These new models are fully compatible with SD, HD and Ultra HD equipment and automatically switch between video...
• AJA Releases TruZoom™ for Realtime 4K to HD Region-of-Interest Workflows

  AJA Video Systems today announced TruZoom™ delivering high-quality region-of-interest (ROI) workflows from 4K and UltraHD video. The TruZoom software and external joystick controller drives AJA’s Corvid Ultra professional video I/O platfrom. TruZoom allows customers to scale any...

SAGIndie

• Film Review: AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS

  AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS premiered in January at Sundance 2013. The following Theatrical Premiere took place on Tuesday (August 13th) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The film stars Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon and Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network) as Ruth Guthrie. These childhood sweethearts [...]
• 12 TIPS FOR INDIE PRODUCERS from M. ELIZABETH HUGHES

  Since earning her M.F.A. in 2008, M. ELIZABETH HUGHES has quickly made a name for herself as a no-nonsense producer who can stretch a budget. Her first feature– and first project out of film school– HERPES BOY (starring Beth Grant, Ahna O’Reilly, and Octavia Spencer) was made on a shoestring budget but garnered several festival [...]
• Film & Script Submissions Now Being Accepted for HBFF!

  Film & Script Submissions Now Being Accepted for 13th Edition of the Hollywood Black Film Festival; New FILM DIASPORA Sidebar Added The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) ­­ recognized as one of the leading black film festivals in the world ­­ is now accepting submissions for the 2013 festival, to be held October 2­6, 2013 in [...]
• Adjust Your Expectations: Ted Hope’s 17 Things to Know about the Broken Film Industry

  There are a lot of interesting things in this article by the great TED HOPE. “Yesterday, we launched our A2E (Artist To Entrepreneur) program at the San Francisco Film Society with OnRamp (The Direct Distribution Lab).  This is a pilot lab of a pilot program designed to give filmmakers the necessary entrepreneurial skills to achieve a [...]
• Film Review: MUD

  MUD is the latest film written and directed by Jeff Nichols. Nichols wrote and directed 2007’s Shotgun Stories and 2011’s Take Shelter (one of my favorite Sundance movies from that year). Nichols has proven that he understands character, and Mud, a true bildungsroman, is no exception. Two impressionable teenage boys living in the rural South [...]

Shooting People

• Bad Money.

  Marina Hyde writing in the Guardian suggests that easy money from tax-loop holes has soured our films. But do we really want financiers who care?
• July Film of the Month in Collaboration with Channel 4

  Hi Everyone, July’s short film competition on Shooting People is in collaboration with Channel4.  We’ve teamed up with C4′s new short form strands ‘Random Acts’ and ‘The Shooting Gallery.’ Take advantage of this unique opportunity to get your film in front of Random Acts and Shooting Gallery Editor, Ravi Amaratunga, and do some serious impressing. If you’ve never entered Film of the Month before it couldn’t be any simpler. To Enter all you need to do is upload your film to your SP profile....
• Shot By Both Sides…

  Shooting People has now turned into a corporate machine with a crew of pirate accountants at the helm. Or has it...
• Film of the Month Finalists June

  Hi Everyone, It’s that time of the Month again when we cut our leaderboard to 10, 5 picked by you and 5 picked by us. This month Oscar nominated Documentary filmmaker, Joe Berlinger, will be judging the top 3! Here’s what the finalists had to say about their films and the competition. The Blind Date - Joe Rosen The Blind Date project started with the Sunday Film Club, a group of industry professionals brought together by Cavan Clerkin to produce...
• The Proposal

  This is a follow up to our BIFA nominated short film 0507 and, as such, is our first ever prequel.

NoFilmSchool

• Blackmagic Announces Fixes for Mysterious Sensor Artifacts on Pocket Camera

  Last month, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera started arriving at excited customers’ doorsteps. With an overwhelming sense of joy, many folks went out and shot some tests, and much to their dismay, the BMPCC produced some really strange sensor artifacts, chiefly the blatantly obvious black hole artifact that appears when the camera is pointed at a bright […]
• Ron Howard on Filmmaking: 'It's All About Taste and Judgement'

  Ron Howard has been a presence in Hollywood, either as an actor or director, for decades. As a child actor, he was beloved as the character Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. As a Hollywood director, Howard has worked in almost every genre, from family films like Parenthood to thrillers like Ransom or his […]
• An Industry Professional Reviews New Ultra-Filmic Footage from the Digital Bolex

  If it seems like we’ve been talking about the Digital Bolex a lot lately, it’s because we definitely have. A few months ago, it looked as if the release of the D16 was still quite a ways into the future. However, Joe, Elle, and the DB team have really pushed the process and gotten the beta […]
• Simple Machine: Closing The Gap Between Filmmakers and Venues

  With thousands of feature films being made each year, helping them connect to an audience has quickly become one of the biggest challenges facing the independent filmmaker today. Nandan Rao, the cinematographer behind The International Sign for Choking, Green, and the director of 2012′s The Men of Dodge City, offers his contribution to the distribution sphere in the form of Simple […]
• 2014 Tribeca Film Festival Submissions Are Now Open

  In thirteen short years, the Tribeca Film Festival, started by Robert De Niro, among others, has built itself into one of those few film festivals with serious name-brand recognition: it’s the red-carpet NYC festival that your non-film friends have actually heard of! It’s also insanely competitive, with Tribeca having received nearly 9,000 submissions in 2013. […]

WorkBook Project

• Transmedia Talk at SXSW 2012: Language and Culture in Transmedia

  Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a new podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, Robert Pratten and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century. Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes Hosts Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller Ltd @robpratten Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media @addlepated Haley Moore @toenolla Special Guest Rhodri ap Dyfrig, PHD student at Aberystwyth University, studying online communities and bilingualism.
• Transmedia Talk at SXSW 2012: Shared Storyworlds

  Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a new podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, Robert Pratten and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century. Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes Hosts Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller Ltd @robpratten Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media @addlepated Haley Moore @toenolla Special Guest Scott Walker from Brain Candy @scott_walker
• Transmedia Talk at SXSW 2012: Shared Storyworlds

  Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a new podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, Robert Pratten and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century. download Or Subscribe iTunes NB: If you’d like to give  us feedback, recommend yourself as a guest or suggest topics to cover – please email us at talk@workbookproject.com or Tweet away with the hashtag #tmediatalk Hosts Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller Ltd @robpratten Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media @addlepated Haley Moore @toenolla Special&hellip read more
• Artisanal SXSW: Wish for the Future

  With the focus of SXSW Interactive leaning toward funding and startups this year, I discovered something of a countertheme – new interest in things that celebrate an “artisanal quality” that connects you to the creator of a work. In that spirit, I was lucky enough to get my hands dirty (literally) in a workshop for Reboot Stories‘ new project Wish for the Future. The project, run by Janine Saunders and Workbook Project founder Lance Weiler, seeks to put people with big ideas for a better future (especially kids) in touch with people who can prototype their ideas. What we saw&hellip read more
• Artisanal SXSW: CraftCamp

  The spotlight was on startups at SXSW Interactive this year, but over at the conference’s first CraftCamp in Palm Park, we got to talk about a different kind of small business: artisan-driven commerce. I wish I’d had the chance to spend more time at CraftCamp this time around, because one of the most interesting panels of the conference was there.  The talk, driven by Tara Gentile and Adam King, was a crash course in premium pricing. Most artisans think of premium pricing and high end artifacture as something from a different world, even if the work they produce is high&hellip read more

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