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I Found It At the Movies: 2000—Yi Yi (Edward Yang)
The great art of humanism is alive and well. Well, of course it is, as long as Abbas Kiarostami is still making movies. But this year, for once, it's not an Iranian film that I thought was the most humanist, but rather this entry from late Taiwanese director Edward Yang. Yi Yi has the depth of character of the great Dreyer and Ozu films but with a little less austerity and a little more warmth. It's nothing flashy, just committed, engaged cinema that wants us to look at ourselves and come away with a little more understanding. Yang has a very natural, unobtrusive style that's rigorous without being cold.
February 29th, 2012 | Category: I Found It At The Movies | By Jeffrey Goodman
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Just Crowdfund the $&*# Movie!: Saying "Thank You"
Sundance and the Oscars are over, and it’s high time to get back to the business of getting our own movie, Tiny Dancer, made. We currently have $25,000 being held by our fiscal sponsor the New York Foundation for the Arts, but there's more money to raise. Tomorrow evening (Wednesday, February 29th) we’re having a “thank you” event for our donors: An Evening of Beauty at the Benefit Cosmetics Soho Store, where anyone who has contributed to Tiny Dancer by becoming a member of The Independent Collective (our little organization for fundraising), gets a makeover, makeup and vodka. What could be better?
February 28th, 2012 | Category: Just Crowdfund the $&*# Movie! | By Jayce Bartok
Just Crowdfund the $&*# Movie!: And the Oscar Goes to... Crowdfunding!
I realize that my last post or two might have been sending some of you toward Downerville, so for this week’s blog—the last before this Sunday's Oscars—I've decided to envision a happy future: It's 2020, and three of the Best Picture Oscar nominees are crowdfunded. You may think it couldn’t happen, but the fact of the matter is that it’s not that far off. Did you know that last year’s Oscars saw director Jennifer Redfearn’s Sun Come Up, a Kickstarter-funded documentary short about the relocation of the Carteret Islanders, pick up a nomination? The film met its funding goal of $14,000 in February 2010; then, a year later, the moviemakers were at the Oscars!
February 23rd, 2012 | Category: Just Crowdfund the $&*# Movie! | By Jayce Bartok
I Found It At the Movies: 1999—The Insider (Michael Mann)
Starting with The Insider, Michael Mann, already a masterful stylist by this point in his career, began going in a new direction. His films became more abstract, less rooted in cinematic realism and more concerned with forging something completely modern, perhaps even without precedent. Mann has always been interested in filmic vocabulary, but with this next stage he put his experimentation fearlessly at the forefront of his work. Although I still struggle with this later chapter in his career, I can't deny my love for this film.
February 22nd, 2012 | Category: I Found It At The Movies | By Jeffrey Goodman
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Directing on a Dime: 10 Things to Never Go On Set Without
I live my life on set by Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go will go wrong. You have to expect (or at the very least pray for) a certain amount of responsibility from your cast and crew, hoping they will be prepared and have all the tools they need when it’s time to shoot. Naturally, they expect the same level of responsibility from you, the director. When it comes to Murphy’s Law, you can’t be expected to take care of each department’s every need, but at least you can be prepared. So here are 10 things I’m always sure to have with me on set.
February 17th, 2012 | Category: Directing on a Dime | By Andy Young
Mixed Reviews: Shoot It!: Hollywood Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film
With Shoot It!: Hollywood Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film (Arsenal Pulp Press, 320 pages, $22.95), author and film critic David Spaner has crafted an engaging, comprehensive history of the highs and lows of independent film, with special attention paid to how it's interacted over the years with its big brother (or evil twin, depending on how you look at it) the studio system. Shoot It!'s two sections—the first on the studio system, the second on independent film—cover a broad range of material, which is both good and bad. First, the good: Spaner's far-reaching approach will introduce readers to film, directors and even independent movements that they might not have been previously familiar with.
February 15th, 2012 | Category: Mixed Reviews | By Rebecca Pahle
I Found It At the Movies: 1998—The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick)
It's amazing to think about the career of Terrence Malick. He made two critically acclaimed films—Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978)—then disappeared for twenty years. I'll never forget when I first saw this one. It was at my single favorite theater in all of Los Angeles, the Mann Village Theatre, in the middle of the day. I was up in the balcony, and the film left me completely mesmerized. I'm in the camp (a small one, it seems) that considers The Thin Red Line their favorite of all of Malick's films. Though his style always interests me, I like the way it works best here. It's one of the most visually stunning films I've ever seen. Cinematographer John Toll's colors and Malick's unmatched relationship with nature combine to create an experience that had synapses firing that I never knew existed.
February 15th, 2012 | Category: I Found It At The Movies | By Jeffrey Goodman
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Just Crowdfund the $&*# Movie!: The Pain of Loving Film
It’s Valentine’s Day, so I figured I’d post something about the nature of the love affair moviemakers have with the beautiful and brutal lover called film. We pour our hearts, souls and wallets (and our friends’ and familys’ wallets!) into our films—our labors of love—only to be repeatedly heartbroken. It’s not unlike dating in New York City. You fall for all these crazy, passionate ideas, mold them into scripts and trick your friends into believing they're good... only to be left heartbroken and crying on the floor when they get rejected.
February 14th, 2012 | Category: Just Crowdfund the $&*# Movie! | By Jayce Bartok
Directing on a Dime: Shorts, Austin and Bradley Jackson
Bradley Jackson is quickly becoming a rising star on the short film circuit. His latest short, The Man Who Never Cried, won the top prize at last year's Doorpost Film Project. The win, not to mention the $110,000 that came with it, has definitely helped the up-and-coming writer/director get his foot in the door out in Hollywood. While Jackson currently has two scripts in the works and anticipates a later move to features, one question remains unanswered: Will this proud Austinite stay in Texas... or make the move out to L.A.? I sat down to talk with Jackson about how he got into making movies, his experience at film school and how he lucked upon a well-known actor to star in The Man Who Never Cried.
February 10th, 2012 | Category: Directing on a Dime | By Andy Young
I Found It At the Movies: 1997—Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
I don't know if it's the Virgo in me, but I always prefer simple to complicated. Particularly as our world seems to be getting more and more complex, I want art to strip that complexity away to give us a view of something pure, clean and fairly uncluttered. I want art to be a respite from my daily life. Many of my favorite moviemakers (Bresson, Jarmusch, Rohmer, Dreyer and early Wenders, to name but a few) make films that fall into this category. They are simplifiers, always looking to distill their work to its most basic essence. "What else can I take away?" must be one of the most important questions in their approach. Another moviemaker I'd put into this category is Takeshi Kitano. Like those mentioned above, Kitano keeps things spare and minimal.
February 8th, 2012 | Category: I Found It At The Movies | By Jeffrey Goodman
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Just Crowdfund the $&*# Movie!: Park City Diary, Part 2
It’s only been a week since Tiffany and I were sitting in Ron Nyswaner’s condo in Deer Valley, Utah awaiting the Sundance premiere of Predisposed, the film Nyswaner co-directed with Phil Dorling. Already, it seems like it never happened. The mix of altitude and headiness has given the whole affair the feel of a dream, especially seeing as Tiffany and I have since returned to the grind of trying to raise the rest of our budget for Tiny Dancer, and I’ve jumped into the TV pilot season as an actor.
February 7th, 2012 | Category: Just Crowdfund the $&*# Movie! | By Jayce Bartok
I Found It At the Movies: 1996—Fargo (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Roger Deakins began his collaboration with the Coen brothers with their 1991 film Barton Fink. Since then, the two directors and the cameraman have proven that they have one of the most vital, important and powerfully artistic relationships in film. All of their collaborations have visual interest, but Fargo remains my favorite of their aesthetic accomplishments. I'm a sucker, as I've mentioned a couple of times now, for snow-covered imagery, and this is a film about as white as any ever made. It's a gorgeously controlled work in terms of its color palette, camerawork and production design. Everything is deliberate and feels unusually cohesive.
February 1st, 2012 | Category: I Found It At The Movies | By Jeffrey Goodman
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