Ottawa International Animation Festival

When it comes to the film festival circuit, animated films often get a raw deal. Of the fests that do accept animated shorts and features, they’re often considered a sort of “special programming” and relegated to one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-them time slots… Except when it comes to the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

For more than 30 years, Ottawa, Ontario has been the place to showcase the best in animated content--for aspiring moviemakers and veterans alike. As the medium has grown so has the OIAF’s definition of acceptable submissions, which today includes not just shorts and features, but interactive gaming projects as well as cell phone and made-for-the-Web content, too.

As the largest event of its kind in North America, OIAF has succeeded not only in proving that animated projects deserve just as serious attention as their live-action counterparts (even if Oscar does recognize them separately), but in bringing the talented artists who come here to showcase their toons together with their fans and the industry executives who can take them to the next level.

Think you’ve got what it takes to make it in the high-stakes world of animation? The Ottawa International Animation Festival is accepting entries to its 2007 event, happening September 19 - 23, until Friday, June 15th. Log on to https://ottawa.awn.com for more information.

June 11th, 2007 | Category: Festival of the Week, Festivals | By MovieMaker Staff

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Top of the Box Office

1. Ocean’s Thirteen
Warner Bros.
Weekend Gross: $37,080,000
Total Gross: $37,080,000

2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Buena Vista
Weekend Gross: $21,316,000
Total Gross: $253,614,000

3. Knocked Up
Universal
Weekend Gross: $20,016,960
Total Gross: $66,240,900

4. Surf’s Up
Sony Pictures
Weekend Gross: $18,000,000
Total Gross: $18,000,000

5. Shrek the Third
Dreamworks SKG
Weekend Gross: $15,750,000
Total Gross: $281,892,000

Totals courtesy of www.the-numbers.com.

June 10th, 2007 | Category: Top of the Box Office | By MovieMaker Staff

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Shia LaBeouf

In one April weekend, actor Shia LaBeouf, born this day in 1986, ensured himself a bona fide young star by starring in the #1 movie at the box office (Disturbia), hosting “Saturday Night Live” and announcing his participation in the next installment of the Indiana Jones epic. Born in Los Angeles, LaBeouf began his career performing stand-up at local comedy clubs. After guest spots on shows such as “The X-Files” and “ER” he landed a lead role on the Disney Channel series “Even Stevens,” for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award for his role as the scheming, mischievous Louis Stevens. LaBeouf soon transitioned to feature films by leading the casts of Holes and The Battle of Shaker Heights, and later guesting in I, Robot and Constantine. As his acting chops have grown, so have LaBeouf’s roles, including his latest in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and Bobby. Next up you can hear his voice in the latest animated penguin tale Surf’s Up and see him once again challenging robot rule in the much-anticipated summer blockbuster, Transformers.

Quotable: “I am making a quality cucumber shake here."—Shia LaBeouf, as the quirky Louis Stevens.

June 10th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Robert Preston

The son of a garment maker, Robert Preston Meservey was born on this day in 1918 in Newton, Massachusetts. He grew up in Los Angeles, California and became involved in theater in high school. He dropped his last name and joined the Pasadena County Playhouse where he performed with a number of other up-and-comers and was eventually discovered. Preston gained notoriety when he became a favorite casting choice of director Cecil B. DeMille. The two collaborated three times in four years, but Preston openly detested his benefactor. He is probably best known for his portrayal of Harold Hill in 1962’s The Music Man.

Quotable: “A man can’t turn tail and run just because a little personal risk is involved. What did Shakespeare say? ‘Cowards die a thousand deaths, the brave man… only 500’?” --Preston as Harold Hill in The Music Man

June 7th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Short Takes: The Wide Shots and the Close-Ups

New Release of the Month: Apocalypto (2006)
As a director, Mel Gibson is a sadist. He revels in blood and gore, happy to provide us with three beheadings when one is probably enough. He has an antediluvian view of civilization: Life is nasty and brutish and shorter than the running time of his films. He is a simplistic storyteller, with a moral view as blunt as a caveman’s club. But as a cineaste, he is a savage lover of film, and Apocalypto is a forceful and powerful piece of moviemaking. Gibson is committed to a vision so uncompromising and vividly realized that you are willingly transported to the vanished world that he and his crew have created. Apocalypto is a spellbinding adventure tale, a journey filled with heart-stopping action and suspense and a final climax that involves you completely in the fate of the main character, a Mayan warrior named Jaguar Paw.

Favorite of the Month: The Good German (2006)
This picture is a dazzling exercise in style, and, for much of the movie’s running time, a crackerjack film noir. It’s another example of how Steven Soderbergh is one of the few directors working today willing to experiment with the formal process of moviemaking and storytelling. The experiments sometimes fail (just watch, if you can, last summer’s hideous Bubble). Some critics called The Good German a disaster as well but in nearly every way the movie accomplishes exactly what Soderbergh set out to do, which was to recreate a 1945 post-war black and white thriller, shot on studio back lots with rear projection exteriors, inserted newsreel footage, glamorous stars and a complex plot involving a femme fatale, a morally compromised hero and the early rumblings of the Cold War.
 
Under-the-Radar Movie of the Month: In This World (2002)
British moviemaker Michael Winterbottom took a small crew and two even smaller digital cameras to Pakistan shortly after 9/11 to make this breathless, poignant true-to-life story of two Afghan teenagers who embark on a cross-country journey from the refugee fields of Pakistan to the slums of London. Even though the story is a set-up, and the two boys are “acting,” everything else feels real and immediate in this picture. It’s a gripping, exhilarating example of how the tools of digital moviemaking, used with care and without the baggage of demanding big studio budgets, can result in bracing, topical cinema.

Documentary of the Month: Touching the Void (2003)
This is an absorbing, almost physically wrenching viewing experience. It’s the tale of two men mountaineering in the Andes and what happens when one of them has an accident that results in a life-and-death decision made by his climbing partner. And that’s just the beginning of the story! Normally the mixing of present-day, real-life interviews with dramatic reenactments results in a cheesy, unfulfilling attempt by moviemakers to cover up what should have remained an article in Outside magazine. But the technique works thrillingly in this documentary, a film about friendship and survival that evolves into a philosophical consideration of regret.
 
Classic Movie of the Month: Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Director Stanley Kubrick was often criticized for the cold, malevolent view of humanity presented in his films. But does the diabolical media brainwashing in A Clockwork Orange or the mechanical soldiers conditioned by a brutal boot camp sergeant in Full Metal Jacket seem so farfetched? How about a group of white male politicians planning their post-apocalyptic utopia in an underground bunker? Kubrick first intended Dr. Strangelove to be played as straight drama, but he thought the plot was too outlandish for audiences to believe it. What would he think now, with a current American administration that is, to quote Martin Scorsese, “beyond parody?” Satire seems an ancient lost art in comedies these days, since it requires a world-weary wit and performers with finesse and timing. Watch Peter Sellers in this timeless masterpiece and you’ll see what I mean.
 
Give this a Miss: Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Pan’s Labyrinth is a cold and grim piece of work. It feels mechanically assembled rather than crafted. All spontaneity seems ground out of the plot. Its motive as allegory is obvious, and the film’s fantasy elements, including a grotesque talking faun, a giant bullfrog and twittering, shape shifting, flying fairies are—if you’re not into these kinds of things—too repulsive to look at. Fans of horror and fantasy will love this, but reality-based audiences are likely to blink more than once at director Guillermo del Toro’s self-indulgent sadism and creepiness. The story, set in a Spanish forest during Franco’s repressive regime, is the kind of metaphorical fairy tale that contains its own synthetic and malleable logic, so it doesn’t seem to me to be a particularly profound task to bend the fantasy creatures to the necessities of the plot. This makes del Toro’s reliance on shock effects such as the gnawing off of tiny fairy heads and a mandrake root that transforms into an infant seem random and beside the point.  

Check back in July for Rustin Thompson’s next edition of “Short Takes.” Read more about Rustin Thompson at www.rustinthompson.com.

June 7th, 2007 | Category: | By MovieMaker Staff

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Dean Martin

Dean Martin was born on this day in 1917 in Steubenville, Ohio. His real name was Dino Paul Crocetti, which he used until around 1940, when he started performing on radio broadcasts with local acts. In 1946, he teamed up with longtime comedy partner Jerry Lewis and together they achieved stardom. He took up acting and together the two starred in 11 films. In 1958, friction drove the comedy duo apart but Martin’s career continued to be a prosperous one. All told, Dean Martin appeared in 51 movies and hosted many television programs. He had his own show (under different names) for 19 years and had 40 Top 100 singles between 1951 and 1968. He died on Christmas Day, 1995.

Factoid: Only three of Martin’s songs ever went to number one: “That’s Amore,” “Memories Are Made of This” and “Everybody Loves Somebody.”

June 6th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Online Film Casting Call from MySpace and Paramount Vantage

You think you got the moves to stand out in a MySpace crowd? Prove it!

Paramount Vantage and MySpace have partnered to create the first ever, online film casting call. Three grand prize winners will have their on-camera debut in Paramount Vantage’s major motion picture, How She Move.

Three (3) lucky grand prize winners will be flown out to the Toronto movie set on an all-expense-paid trip to meet the cast and be in a major scene in the film. Submit your photo now to http://www.myspace.com/howshemove.

Entrants will submit photos from their profiles to the film’s dedicated MySpace profile - http://myspace.com/howshemove. Producers of the film will then choose three winners, who will be flown out to the movie set to meet the cast and participate in the filming of a major scene.

Winners will have the opportunity to film behind-the-scenes footage on the set. The winner’s footage will be professionally edited by Paramount Vantage and posted on the film’s MySpace profile and the winner’s profile. The contest will run through 6/11/07 and rules will be posted on MySpace.

Paramount Vantage’s director of interactive marketing, Bladimiar Norman said, “The partnership with MySpace is not only an exciting opportunity to offer three people the chance of a lifetime, but also an innovative way to build awareness of the film within its target audience.”

“This is the first time MySpace has partnered with a major motion picture to allow our users the chance to win a walk-on role,” said Josh Brooks, vice president of content and programming for MySpace. “MySpace is the perfect platform to spread excitement for the film and offer our users a unique casting opportunity for How She Move.”

The film centers on a high school student who is forced to leave her private school to return to her old, crime-filled neighborhood, where she rekindles her passion for step dancing. When she enters an international step competition in hopes of changing her destiny, she learns that winning may come at a price. The film is scheduled for release in early 2008.

June 6th, 2007 | Category: Happenings | By MovieMaker Staff

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Vittorio Storaro’s Caravaggio at NYC’s Lincoln Center

Oscar-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (Apocalypse Now, Reds, The Last Emperor) recently shot Caravaggio, about the renowned artist whom Storaro says was an inspiration for his own life’s work. The U.S. premiere of Caravaggio is at the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema Showcase at the Walter Reade Theater at New York City’s Lincoln Center. Screenings are scheduled at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, June 8 and at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 10. The Showcase program describes Caravaggio as “a sumptuous, riveting evocation of the life and work of the great Renaissance painter photographed by master cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.” Columbia University will also screen the film during a Caravaggio seminar on September 24 in conjunction with the New York Film Festival. Storaro will speak at that seminar. Caravaggio was produced by Institut del Cinema Català (I.C.C.), Televisió de Catalunya (TV3) and Titania Produzioni. A three-hour version of Caravaggio will air on the RAI Fiction television network in Italy in the fall. The cinema version is two hours. For more information, visit http://www.filmlinc.com.

June 6th, 2007 | Category: Happenings | By MovieMaker Staff

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Little Miss Sunshine

On this day in 2005, Little Miss Sunshine began shooting. With a budget of $8 million, the project was five years in the making as the moviemakers struggled to find financing. The film went on to debut at Sundance in 2006 where it received a standing ovation and an offer from Fox Searchlight Pictures for $10 million, one of the biggest offers ever made in festival’s history. By September 2006, Little Miss Sunshine was playing on 1,500 screens nationwide and had become a bona fide critical darling. By the end of the year, it had grossed nearly $60 million at the box office and been nominated for two Golden Globes and four Oscars (including Best Picture). Sunshine won Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (for Alan Arkin) and Best Original Screenplay (for Michael Arndt).

Factoid: Abigail Breslin wore a fat suit to play Olive, whose dream it was to win the titular pageant.

June 5th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Film School of the Week: California College of the Arts

Thanks to the digital revolution, the tools of the moviemaking trade are now easily available to everyone. And while these advancements have created a new wave of moviemakers able to utilize the technology, that does not mean that all of them are necessarily able to bring together a cohesive and compelling movie. That’s where an education becomes useful--and the California College of the Arts steps in.
Beginning in the fall of 2008, the school will launch a new all-digital graduate film program, which, much like the school’s earliest classes, will be used to teach concepts based on the latest technological advancements. “Ultimately we are approaching digital [technology] as a tool with new aesthetic possibilities," explains Academy Award winner and CCA program chair Rob Epstein.

In 1907 cabinetmaker Frederick Meyer founded the California College of the Arts to educate students on the trades of the Arts and Crafts movement--a movement developed in response to the new technology of the Industrial Revolution. German-bred Meyer began with $45 in funds, three teachers and three classrooms. Today, CCA students roam two campuses and study 19 different undergraduate program--ranging from sculpture to the written word--and six fields of graduate work. Digital, narrative moviemaking is the next logical step.

“In keeping with the goals of the college, we see exciting possibilities for a narrative film program within an arts context,” says Epstein. Plus, “we will be ahead of the digital tsunami that is about to hit every film program, as well as the film industry--if I hasn’t already.”

Applications for the first semester of CCA’s graduate film program are due later this year. For more information, visit www.cca.edu.

Sound Off: The moviemaking world is still abuzz with word of the impending “digital revolution.” Where do you think this revolution will take us next? Let us know in the “Comments” section.

June 4th, 2007 | Category: Film School of the Week, Education | By MovieMaker Staff

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Cannibal Holocaust

Cannibal Holocaust started shooting on this day in 1980. Directed by Ruggero Deodato, this film was part of a wave of exploitation era Italian films about cannibals and easily the most recognized of all of them. Featuring the actual killings of seven animals, graphic scenes of cannibalism and a racist portrayal of Amazonian natives, Deodato’s commentary on violence in the media has been a subject of controversy from the moment of its release. After 10 days at the domestic box office, the film was seized under suspicion of being a snuff film (a rumor that endured for years). In response, several countries banned Cannibal Holocaust, including Australia and the U.K. Still, many critics have commended Deodato on his direction and the conscientious message the film conveyed. Holocaust remains one of the most notorious grindhouse films of all time.

Factoid: Ruggero Deodato makes a cameo appearance in Eli Roth’s upcoming Hostel: Part II.

June 3rd, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Screenwriter of the Week: Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow is just a loyal, humble kid from Long Island. Or so he would have you think. The truth is, he’s a loyal, humble, funny as hell kid from Long Island. And don’t you forget it.

Influenced by the likes of Bill Murray and Steve Martin, Apatow’s career has slowly blossomed into a comedian’s fantasy. Before garnering critical acclaim as a writer-director on the television series “Freaks and Geeks,” the comedian enjoyed stints on the writing teams of “The Ben Stiller Show” and “The Larry Sanders Show.” But it wasn’t until his 2005 directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, that audiences finally discovered this was the wizard behind some of the funniest big- and small-screen comedies of the past 15 years.

Now the wizard is back with his unlikely band of brothers in Knocked Up. The comedy, starring “Grey’s Anatomy” star Katherine Heigl and Apatow regular Seth Rogen, offers the Apatow staple: A journey toward being good. “Basically, I try and make these movies with the thought that they’re about trying hard not to be an asshole,” explains the moviemaker. In this case, that means Rogen’s character will try to transform himself from pot-smoking slacker to responsible father figure in the nine months it takes his one-night stand to deliver their baby. “Hopefully,” Apatow muses, it’s “ultimately an uplifting movie about love and people trying to make connections with odd bedfellows.” And really, that’s all we ask for from this entertaining boy next door.

Sound off: While the story and screenplay might be all his own, Judd Apatow practices what he calls “writing a movie on its feet,” where improvisation is encouraged and often yields hilarious results. Of all the writer’s work, which line or exchange still manages to stand out? Share your thoughts in our comments section!

June 3rd, 2007 | Category: Screenwriter of the Week, Screenwriting | By MovieMaker Staff

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Top of the Box Office

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Buena Vista
Weekend Gross: $43,188,000
Total Gross: $216,527,000

2. Knocked Up
Universal
Weekend Gross: $29,284,000
Total Gross: $29,284,000

3. Shrek the Third
Dreamworks SKG
Weekend Gross: $26,704,000
Total Gross: $254,611,000

4. Mr. Brooks
MGM
Weekend Gross: $10,020,000
Total Gross: $10,020,000

5. Spider-Man 3
Sony Pictures
Weekend Gross: $7,500,000
Total Gross: $318,264,000

Totals courtesy of www.the-numbers.com.

June 3rd, 2007 | Category: Top of the Box Office | By MovieMaker Staff

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Moviemaker of the Week: Steven Soderbergh

In 1989 Steven Soderbergh began the Sundance Revolution--the beginning of the independent film movement as we know it today--when he premiered his low-budget feature sex, lies, and videotape at the iconic Park City festival. Its unconventional story and exceptional performances created the fest’s first true bidding frenzy among attending distributors and earned its director quite a few awards, including the Palme d’Or at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Soderbergh returned to Cannes this May with the premiere of his most recent project, Ocean’s Thirteen, the second sequel to his hit 2001 crime caper, Ocean’s Eleven. Ready to defend one of their own, the Ocean’s band of characters reunites with the goal of taking down one of Sin City’s wealthiest casino owners. Like its predecessors, the movie stars an impressive assemblage of today’s hottest acting talent, including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle and frequent Soderbergh collaborator George Clooney.

After directing Clooney in 1998’s Out of Sight, the moviemaking pair established a production company, Section Eight, out of which emerged most future directorial efforts from both men. In 2001 Soderbergh achieved a feat few before have ever experienced: Two Best Director Academy Award nominations for Erin Brockovich and Traffic--the latter of which brought him home the trophy.

“For me, as a producer, there’s Steven Soderbergh and then there’s everybody else,” explains Jerry Weintraub, who has worked on all three Ocean’s movies with the renowned director. “In everything we have done together, we have a wonderful partnership. Any accolade that can be said about the guy, he lives up to. He is simply great.”

June 3rd, 2007 | Category: Moviemaker of the Week, Moviemaking | By Mallory Potosky

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