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Form Meets Function with Rampart
Something about procedural cop dramas makes them inherently powerful, and director Oren Moverman’s Rampart is no exception. Millenium Entertainment brings this intense feature film—about an arrogant, macho cop (played by Woody Harrelson) on an emotional downward spiral—to theaters this Friday, February 10th. Many of the reviews to have come out since the film’s premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival focus on Harrelson’s gritty performance as the corrupt cop Dave Brown. But much of the grittiness of the film itself comes from its visual style, which took Moverman and DP Bobby Bukowski a special creative approach to achieve.
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Celebrating the Flavors of Filmmaking at Slamdance
Last month, Josh Gibson went to the Slamdance Film Festival with his short film Kudzu Vine… and came back with his very own Panasonic AG-AF100, a full HD camcorder that retails for $4,995.00. Gotta say, not too shabby. For Gibson, an associate director and instructor of film at Duke University, the boon came courtesy of Panasonic's Five Flavors of Filmmaking contest, held in cooperation with Slamdance. The contest called upon five teams to use the AF100, the official camera of the festival, to create a one-minute film based on a flavor. Gibson chose to interpret the flavor he was assigned—watermelon—with an experimental film that brought to life three haiku poems by the 17th century Japanese poet Basho.
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Who Needs HD When You’ve Got 4K?
Techies rejoice! A new toy is hitting the market. Of course, JVC's GY-HMQ10, the world's first handheld 4K camcorder, isn't a toy, per se; the high-tech wonder captures, records and plays video at a resolution that trumps the 1080p image quality of high-definition television four times over.
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Haskell Wexler: The Last Indie Rebel
As the director’s cut of Latino is released, the Oscar-winning moviemaker/social philosopher looks back on his long career
Haskell Wexler is simply one of our greatest living cinematographers. He’s in a class by himself as much for his fearless sense of justice as for his groundbreaking technical innovations, but it’s his lifelong commitment to putting his lens where his mouth is—as with his second film as a writer-director, 1985's stunning Latino—that makes Wexler such a unique source of inspiration to so many moviemakers.
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Robert Richardson’s 3-D Journey Back to the Future
Noted cinematographer gives the past a cutting-edge look in Martin Scorsese's Hugo
Martin Scorsese's Hugo takes audiences on a 3-D journey inside an underground train station in Paris during the 1930s. The story revolves around a 12-year-old orphan named Hugo, who makes a home for himself behind a wall at the station after his father dies. Hugo interacts with the owner of a small toy booth in the station, an eccentric girl, passengers on the platform and a mechanical man that his father created.
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Mark Friedberg Designs The Tempest
Mark Friedberg has served as production designer on some of the most visually striking films to come out in recent years, among them Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Julie Taymor's Beatles-infused musical Across the Universe. With his recent work on Taymor's The Tempest, Friedberg faced the challenge of rendering the magical island that serves as the locale for Shakespeare's strangest play using natural settings and locations. To celebrate the recent home video release of The Tempest, MM spoke with Friedberg about working with Taymor and creating a magical setting from a barren landscape.
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Tintin Leads the Pack in VES Awards Nominations
With all the buzz resulting from the Producers, Directors and Writers Guilds of America announcing the nominees for their respective awards, you might have missed yesterday’s announcement of the nominees for the Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards. Steven Spielberg’s performance capture epic The Adventures of Tintin was the most honored film, receiving six nominations. Among the live-action films to be honored, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Transformers: Dark of the Moon came out on top with five nominations each.
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Tarsem Singh Draws from the Classics (Literally) with Immortals
Tarsem Singh is on a roll. With his new film Immortals soon coming out in theaters across the globe and Mirror Mirror—his highly anticipated take on the story of Snow White—making its way through post, the director is picking up the pace. No more the promising, often brilliant visual stylist who comes out with a rare movie gem (The Cell, The Fall) every few years, Singh has set his sights on becoming a more constant force in moviemaking, and he certainly has the potential to become one to be reckoned with. Singh recently chatted with MovieMaker about how he constructs the always-striking visuals of his films and the somewhat unlikely inspiration for the overall look of Immortals, in theaters this Friday.
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Aaron Yeger Discovers A People Uncounted
In his feature directorial debut A People Uncounted, directed Aaron Yeger sheds light on the story of the Roma, commonly referred to as Gypsies. While the Roma have to a large extent been romanticized in popular culture, the real-life intolerance and persecution, both past and present, inflicted upon them has been largely ignored. With his documentary, Yeger explores the rich culture of the Roma, linking their present state to the tragedies of their past, notable among them the murder of an estimated 500,000 of the Roma during the Holocaust.
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Craig Brewer & Amy Vincent Cut Loose for Footloose
When director Craig Brewer took on a re-imagining of the 1984 dance classic, Footloose, he turned to someone he could trust to capture the image: Cinematographer Amy Vincent, ASC, the DP of his previous two indie hits, Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan.
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James Whitaker Captures Post-September 11th Rebirth
When Jim Whitaker, at the time an executive at Imagine Entertainment, visited New York City a month after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he knew at once that he wanted to do something to record the process of rebuilding Ground Zero. The resulting film, Rebirth, would take Whitaker a decade to complete. The film combines time-lapse photography of Ground Zero and interviews with five people whose lives were forever changed on September 11th to create a compellingly personal document on the power of hope and the ability of the human spirit to recover from near-unimaginable trauma over time.
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Don’t Go Near the Water…
Think staying away from the ocean will keep you safe? David R. Ellis brings the sharks to you in Shark Night 3D.
Each year, scientists learn more and more about the beauty and intricacy of our home planet. This increased knowledge impacts biology, medicine, anthropology... and the horror genre, which has evolved to reflect our understanding of all the deadly things we live with that can kill us. Traditional horror movie stapes like werewolves, mummies and (non-disco ball) vampires have recently started taking a back seat to more realistic (or semi-realistic) horror monsters in movies like Snakes on a Plane and Piranha 3D.
Sure, the idea that passengers on a plane would be terrorized by a batch of snakes is ridiculous, but seeing those passengers exposed to snake venom is disturbingly real. And while an earthquake would probably never set free a a school of prehistoric piranha (during Spring Break, no less), man-eating fish embarking on a feeding frenzy makes for a real enough visual to scare most any audience member.
Enter Shark Night 3D, directed by Snakes on a Plane‘s David R. Ellis, in which a group of college students find that the lake they’ve chosen as their vacation spot has been filled with hundreds of sharks. Is the concept outlandish? Yes. Is it believable? Well, sharks can’t survive outside of saltwater. However, Shark Night 3D establishes from the get-go that that the lake in question is a saltwater lake (yes, those exist). So if someone with a large disposable income, lots of free time and a murderous streak decided they wanted to create their own deadly version of Sea World... they might conceivably be able to pull it off. Scared yet?
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André N. Anton is Defying Deletion
Documentary Short Increases Awareness of the Persecution of Assyrians in Iraq
Defying Deletion: The Fight Over Iraq’s Nineveh Plains portrays the struggle of the Assyrian race since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Assyrians are part of Iraq’s surviving indigenous population, but they are being persecuted and pushed to the brink of extinction. The emotionally-charged story told in Defying Deletion is an important one because of how this injustice has gone largely unreported by the mainstream media. Assyrians have faced persecution in Iraq—largely as a result of their Christianity—for generations, but in my documentary short Defying Deletion, I chose to focus on on post-Saddam Iraq, because the acuity of the current persecution threatens the very survival of the Assyrians as a people.
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Sol Negrin Finds a Home at Five Towns College
Sol Negrin, ASC, the cinematographer for "Kojak" and Coming to America, knows first-hand how important it is for newcomers to have the support of an experienced professional. Which is why he is now a professor of Cinematography, passing his knowledge on to the students of Five Towns College in Long Island, New York. MovieMaker spoke to Negrin about his creative influences and the advice he shares with his pupils.
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Panasonic Introduces AG-AC7PJ Camcorder
Great news, techies: Panasonic has just introduced its newest camera, the AG-AC7PJ. This lightweight, low-cost, professional AVCHD shoulder-mount camcorder is perfect for independent moviemakers on-the-go and on a budget. Weighing under four pounds and retailing for around $1,300, the AG-AC7PJ boasts some great features, including an easy operation touch screen, full HD and SD memory card recording, a wide angle 38.5.8mm lens, Intelligent Zoom, six recording modes, MPEG-4 encoding and an intelligent auto function that can determine shooting conditions and program the camera’s settings to capture the clearest image possible. The AG-AC7PJ is also compatible with Macs and PCs and Final Cut and Adobe editing software.
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Best Apps for Moviemakers 2011
From Pre-Production to Post, The Perfect Assistant Fits in the Palm of Your Hand
Ah, how things have changed in just one short year. When we published our first list of 25 must-have apps for moviemakers in last year’s Future of Moviemaking edition, the world of apps was still a relatively new one. Last year’s list included only one app exclusively for the then-brand-new iPad, and today’s newest technological toy du jour, the iPad 2, wasn’t even on the radar.
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Ron and Bryce Dallas Howard Partner with Canon
Moviemakers, it’s time to use your imagination. Canon, a leading brand in digital imaging equipment, has launched a “Long Live Imagination” campaign, which celebrates the creativity of Canon consumers. Canon has teamed with Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) for “Project Imagin8ion” where photographers were invited to submit photographs—eight of which will be chosen—to inspire a short film executive produced by Howard and directed by his daughter, actress Bryce Dallas Howard (Hereafter, The Help).
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Industry Expert Tim Caldwell Joining Fletcher Camera & Lenses
Fletcher Camera & Lenses, the Midwest’s leader in high-end camera and lens rentals for the television, film and commercial industries, has announced Tim Caldwell as their new Technical Services Manager. “Tim’s rich technical background and commitment to service make him an ideal fit to lead our Services Division,” says Zoe Borys, General Manager of Fletcher Camera & Lenses.
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Digging for Deep Gold with Michael Gleissner
In the new action-thriller Deep Gold, a champion free-diver and her sister are drawn into a deadly conspiracy while investigating the disappearance of a government plane carrying a fortune in gold. Filmed entirely in and around the exotic islands of Cebu and Palawan in the Phillipines, Deep Goldfeatures eye-popping 3-D action sequences.
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Sony Invites Students Behind the Lens
Sony is putting the power of HD in students' hands. The company just announced its three-month “Behind the Lens” competition, open to students enrolled in a film or digital media program at an accredited college or university. Following each of the three rounds, online voters and a panel of expert judges will determine which students will advance in the competition.
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Indies (and Colin Firth) Reign At the Oscars
At last night’s Academy Awards, indies were king. Seven of the major awards, including Best Picture, were won by independent films; in the last 30 years, a non-studio film has received the Best Picture Oscar 19 times.
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Inception's Wally Pfister Earns Top Honors at ASC Awards
Renowned DP Wally Pfister (The Prestige; The Italian Job) has a reason to celebrate this week—over the weekend, he nabbed an ASC Award for his work on Christopher Nolan's Inception. The 25th annual American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards took place on Sunday at the Hollywood Highland Grand Ballroom.
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The King's Speech Reigns Supreme at BAFTAs
Winners of the 2011 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards were announced yesterday, with very few surprises. The night's big winner was The King's Speech, which won seven awards, including those for Best Film and Best British Film, plus acting awards for Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter. The British historical costume drama has been picking up steam heading towards Oscar night, focusing much awards speculation away from The Social Network, which was previously considered the frontrunner.
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King Rules 2011 Oscar Nominations
The nominees for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning—shortly thereafter followed the inevitable discussion of who was unjustly snubbed. Among those who didn't receive their expected nominations are Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter) and Mila Kunis (Black Swan). Also snubbed was Christopher Nolan, who received nominations for writing and co-producing Inception, but not for directing it. He also missed out on a directing nod for 2008's The Dark Knight; did he kick Academy President Tom Sherak's dog or something?
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Roger Deakins Show True Grit
With more than 30 features under his belt, Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC is one of the world’s master cinematographers. While Deakins has collaborated with some of today’s top moviemakers, including Martin Scorsese (Kundun), Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) and Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road), he has enjoyed an especially fruitful relationship with Joel and Ethan Coen, with whom he has worked for nearly two decades.
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ASC Announces 2011 Nominees
The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) recently announced the nominations for the 25th annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards.
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Jeff Cronenweth Captures The Social Network
The movie to beat this awards season is undoubtedly David Fincher's The Social Network, which has already nabbed several prestigious honors, including awards from the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
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Panasonic Teams Up with EARTH University for $200,000 in Scholarships
The new year is already looking bright for three very lucky students. Panasonic Corporation of North America just announced a commitment of $200,000 to provide full, four-year scholarships for three students at EARTH University, which provides opportunities to young people who want to make a difference in the world, but lack the financial resources for a higher education.
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2010 Spirit Award Nominees Announced
Just hours after the Gotham Independent Film Awards were handed out, Los Angeles-based Film Independent has announced the nominees for its 2010 Spirit Awards, kicking awards season into even higher gear. And the nominees are...
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Matt Katsolis Shoots and Scores with Panasonic
When Florida-based moviemaker Matt Katsolis stumbled upon a contest link this past summer, little did he know that he would soon be named the grand prize winner in Panasonic's "Shoot It. Share It" video contest.
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Matty Libatique's Swan Song
Matty Libatique, ASC was a still photography hobbyist in elementary school. He played the guitar in high school and dreamed about making it his life’s work. Libatique belonged to a film club in college, which screened and discussed movies.
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Jeff Deutchman Captures 11/4/08
Now in theaters and available on Amazon Video On Demand, the new documentary 11/4/08 takes a unique approach in capturing the historic 2008 election day, on which Barack Obama was elected President. The film is a shining example of a fascinating new genre: A user-generated, participatory documentary. Director Jeff Deutchman asked a wide range of moviemakers—from up-and-coming talent to established indie auteurs like Henry Joost (Catfish), Margaret Brown (The Order of Myths) and Joe Swanberg (Alexander the Last)—to record their experiences of 11/4/08.
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Grete Eliassen Hits the Slopes in Say My Name
23-year-old Grete Eliassen is quickly emerging as a breakout star in the skiing world. Raised in Minnesota and Norway, Eliassen started skiing at the age of two, began competing when she was 10 and turned pro at 17.
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Spike Lee in HD, Courtesy of Canon
Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, famed director Spike Lee returned to document the city’s ongoing recovery efforts.
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How to Get Hollywood Production Value on an Indie Budget
It’s sometimes said that if you have a small budget you shouldn’t try to look like a Hollywood movie. But all movies seem like low-budget movies when you’re in the heat of battle. You’re always fighting the weather, the clock and the budget. That’s why A-list directors work the same long, stressful hours as the more independent directors. When the big guys’ films look good, it’s not because of the money they have, but how well they used that money. Every cent you spend should be seen on the screen. Whatever your budget, try to make your film look like it cost 10 times that amount. The big directors do that every day, and you can, too.
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