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Editing
Kung Fu Panda Drop Kicks the Competition
Seems like all those promos must have paid off—first at Cannes, then the TV commercial onslaught—as Kung Fu Panda kicked some serious butt at the box office over the weekend, out-grossing Adam Sandler's new film, You Don't Mess With the Zohan, by 50 percent. The animated action flick, featuring the voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman and Jackie Chan, took in $60 million over the weekend—while Zohan earned $40 million.
Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull held strong in the number three position with $22.8 million, while last year's surprise topper, Michael Patrick King's Sex and the City, saw a more than 62 percent decline in ticket sales, with a weekend total of $21.3 million.
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Indiana Jones Whips the Competition
Indiana Jones proved he's still got what it takes—at least in box office clout—as the latest film in the George Lucas-Steven Spielberg franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, whipped the competition, with a box office total on track to be the second biggest Memorial Day movie opening ever. The film, which brings Harrison Ford back in the titular role alongside Cate Blanchett and Shia LaBeouf, brought in just over $125 million for the holiday weekend, putting it just behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which had a Friday-through-Monday total of $139.8 million in 2007.
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Sneak Peek: Sex and The City
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Lights! Camera! Geritol!
Are audiences ready for a rickety Indiana Jones?
Today’s stars keep themselves in better shape than ever before, and audiences seem to like that. In fact, box office receipts for recent flicks featuring some of our favorite aging action heroes are so encouraging that studio execs are practically rubbing their hands together in anticipation of the new Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) and Sylvester Stallone (Rambo) vehicles. Stallone certainly didn’t hurt himself when his more famous screen persona—Rocky Balboa—earned critical acclaim and a respectable $70 million in last year’s titular blockbuster, chasing doubts that the actor-director was simply giving himself a starring role in order to slow a career slide.
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Last Exit to Film Geekdom
Film geeks like to show off; it's in their job description. Whether it's debating the merits of Lars von Trier or discussing which Evil Dead film is the true masterpiece, it's just what they do. Well, thanks to entrepreneur Mike Ford, what they do has just gotten a bit easier to show off. Ford's UK-based company, Last Exit to Nowhere, sells T-shirts based on fictional companies and locations from films. And although the movies represented tend to skew a bit toward cult favorites (designs include the Winchester Tavern from Shaun of the Dead, the Urban Achievers from The Big Lebowski and Jaws' Amity Island), Ford says this was not deliberate.
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Harry Potter’s World Comes to a City Near You
It’s really impossible to hear something like “sorting hat” or “invisibility cloak” and not feel at least a little of the allure of Harry Potter's universe. When the films brought the J.K. Rowling books to life, it was through the costuming, set design and props. In 2009, “Harry Potter: The Exhibition” will bring 10,000 square feet of artifacts from the enchanting films to 10 or more cities around the world over a five-year period.
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Avid Wins Big at the Oscars
Christopher Rouse (The Bourne Ultimatum) may have walked away with the award for Best Editing at this year's Oscar ceremony, but Avid Technology is the real winner. The company, already synonymous with Hollywood editing technology, recently announced that all of the nominated films in eight categories at the 80th annual Academy Awards employed at least one Avid system.
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MovieMaker Goes for the Gold
Academy members may have the final say on who will walk away with the gold at this Sunday’s Oscar ceremony. But that doesn’t mean that we here at MM can’t have a little fun getting in on the action, too. Here, five editors and longtime contributing writers weigh in on Oscar’s hits, misses and most egregious snubs!
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Top 10 Movie Cities 2008
MM’s eighth annual countdown of the best places to live, work and make movies
From Austin to Albuquerque and plenty of places in between, MovieMaker's eighth annual countdown of the 10 best places to live, work and make movies in the U.S.
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Geoffrey Richman Is No Slouch in the Cutting Room
Editor Geoffrey Richman’s credits include some of the most respected documentaries of the past few years, including SiCKO, God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys in Sudan and Murderball.
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Geoffrey Richman: Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
"Finish a first cut as fast as possible" and other lessons from the editor of SiCKO, If I Didn't Care and May the Best Man Win.
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Chris Tellefsen’s New York Story
Seasoned editor looks back on the lessons learned from Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan
In 1988, early in my career, I received a feature script that excited and intrigued me. It was an odd, timeless story about New York debutantes and their escorts which offered a surprising take on the human condition, examining the virtually unexplored phenomenon of downward mobility among the upper class. It asked if privilege could be a curse to ambition and success by telling a story about people with whom we are rarely put in a position to genuinely empathize. This world was alien to me outside of the George Cukor films of Philip Barry plays like Holiday and The Philadelphia Story. The fascinating script for Metropolitan was entirely different.
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Editor Chad Beck Cuts from the Heart
The editor of No End in Sight is looking for some action
For Chad Beck, the choice to become an editor was an easy one to make. Since his beginnings as a student at the New York-based Edit Center, Beck has taken to the art with a clarity that only comes from true passion.
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Alex Rodriguez’s International Language of Editing
The Oscar-nominated editor of Children of Men gets the final cut
With a recent Oscar nomination for Children of Men and his latest film, Gael García Bernal's Déficit, playing major festivals like Toronto and Cannes, French-born editor Alex Rodgriguez has become a vital part of the new wave of Latin American cinema.
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Using Movie Title Sequences Effectively
An opening title sequence can set the stage for mood, backstory, transition, character development and more
Released in the mid-1950s from the relatively static role of simply assigning credit, title sequences have evolved into an art form in their own right.
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Classic Movie Title Sequences
Inspired by the legendary Saul Bass, these title sequences are just some that have set the bar for everyone that follows
Take a closer look at some of the most memorable title sequences of the past few years.
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Christopher Rouse: Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Story comes first. And last.
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One Day in September
Oscar-nominated editor Christopher Rouse reunites with director Paul Greengrass to retell the events of September 11th in United 93
From bringing the world's last pregnant woman to safety in a post-apocalyptic London to sniffing out a rat in Boston's Irish mob, this year's collection of Oscar-nominated editors were faced with a host of tough obstacles. But no editor had as difficult a challenge as Clare Douglas, Richard Pearson and Christopher Rouse, the trio of editors who were tasked with the delicate duty of cutting Paul Greengrass' United 93.
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Things I’ve Learned As A Moviemaker
One piece of advice I give to people of both sexes in this business is don't let anyone abuse you-life is too short.
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Walking the Tightrope
Longtime David Lynch producer/editor Mary Sweeney talks about their latest collaboration, Mulholland Drive
Beginning her career as an apprentice sound editor on Reds, Mary Sweeney began her now more than 15-year editing and producing collaboration with David Lynch on 1986's Blue Velvet. With their latest film, Mulholland Drive, in theaters across the country, Sweeney talks about her relationship with one of the world's most original directors and the struggles of being a woman in a man's industry.
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Apocalypse Now and Then
A Conversation With Editor/Sound Designer Walter Murch
Editor/Sound Designer Walter Murch has worked with some of the film industry's most talented directors and stood alongside each one as an equal collaborator. With eight Oscar nominations to his credit and three wins, he has proven himself a true master of his craft. Here, he talks with MM about about the digital revolution, the challenges of a dual career and how his Apocalypse experience defined his life as an editor.
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What I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
When you're the editor, you're not the director. You didn't conceive or shoot the film. When the footage for a scene arrives, try to forget every notion you had about what the scene was supposed to be like and take all your cues from the film that was actually shot. There will be time later to try to push the scene in some other direction, but it's important for me to not have a plan, and to simply find the scene in the footage.
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Breaking Away
Editor Tim Squyres on his longtime collaboration with Ang Lee and his latest work on Robert Altman's Gosford Park
If Tim Squyres' name is not immediately recognizable, most of the features he's edited in the past decade are: Eat Drink Man Woman, The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are four of Squyres' collaborations with director Ang Lee.
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Things We’ve Learned as Moviemakers
Decisiveness. Confidence. Being able to set your ego aside, because an editor doesn't always get stroked a lot. Most things you hear are criticisms. So you need to have a thick skin and not take things personally. That's a crucial thing for an editor to learn.
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Hill and Hanley: Twenty Years of Continuity
Ron Howard's editors discuss their longstanding collaboration
Film editors Mike Hill and Dan Hanley have a lot to celebrate
these days, including the fact that their baby, A Beautiful
Mind, just won the Best Picture Oscar. This prolific duo
of veteran cutters just marked their 20-year anniversary as
partners in the cutting room, almost exclusively for director
Ron Howard.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Choosing projects is kind of harrowing because editing a feature is a huge time commitment (six months to a year). I try to take on projects with people that I like spending time with and whom I feel can help me learn or grow. It has to be something that's going to stretch my boundaries as an editor and as a person.
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The Tao of Steve
Steve Hamilton, longtime editor for Hal Hartley, talks about their latest collaboration, No Such Thing
Containing a virtual who's who of the New York independent
film community on his resume, editor Steve Hamilton has worked
with Michael Almereyda (The Rocking Horse Winner),
Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility) and Bart Freundlich
(The Myth of Fingerprints). Since 1990, his most frequent
collaborations have been with Hal Hartley. Hamilton
is also the founder of Spin Cycle Post, and pioneered the
use of AVID technology for post-production on low budget features.
He currently runs his own digital editing facility, Mad Mad
Judy, in New York City.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
It takes a lot of devotion and love to make a film, and it is hard work. It just becomes more fun if you love what you're working on and you enjoy the people you're spending those long hours with.
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The Thrill of Living on the Edge
A Conversation with Insomnia Editor Dody Dorn
After working a number of production positions, including
assistant to the producer, script supervisor, and assistant
location manager, Dody Dorn found the place that suited
her best was in the cutting room. She received an Oscar nomination
earlier in the year for her work on Christopher Nolan's Memento
and she's teamed up with him again for the crime-thriller
Insomnia, in theaters now.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Always fight for what you believe in.
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The Power of Positive Friction
A Conversation with Editor Saar Klein
After serving as the post-production intern on Oliver Stone's
JFK, editor Saar Klein's resume has grown to include
collaborations with some of the film industry's most celebrated
directors, including Terrence Malick on The Thin Red Line
and Cameron Crowe on Almost Famous. Most recently,
Klein teamed up with director Doug Liman to cut the eagerly
awaited The Bourne Identity, at theaters now.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
We all started working together when we first got out of film school, and I've worked with many of the same people ever since. It's not so much about climbing over the wall to get into the film business; you just get a group of people and walk through the front gate together. And that makes it a lot easier than going one by one.
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Getting the Acting Right is What Counts
Performance-driven films suit One Hour Photo Editor Jeffrey Ford
Performance-driven films suit One Hour Photo Editor
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
AVID] really does allow you to try a lot of different things and to experiment. However, I'm glad I have the discipline of film, where you work on a scene until it works. It's like practicing an instrument: you do it again and again until it works. It's not about slapping it together. Unfortunately, too many films are cut that way today.
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An Orgy of Filmmaking
An Interview with Editor Carol Littleton
Some people plan and scheme for years about how to
forge a career in the film business. For a lucky few, it's
almost a divine accident. Such is the case with editor Carol
Littleton, who has collaborated with high-profile
directors like Jonathan Demme, Robert Benton and Lawrence
Kasdan during her long career. Her latest picture, Demme's
The Truth About Charlie, cut in the French New Wave style,
gave her a new kind of freedom she says she'll take with her
in the future.
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It’s Official—Pre-production Begins
“I never ask people for permission to make a film. Instead, I present them with the fact that I’m making a film. If they’re wise, they’ll get in on it early.”
—Francis Ford Coppola
Last week our unit production manager for Rufus Rex officially started work and I paid UPS an astounding amount of money to deliver a letter to the Republic of Georgia officially inviting our lead actress to the United States. We’re also officially in pre-production on the grassroots (my preferred term, since I dislike “microbudget”—no art should be defined by its budget) movie Rufus Rex, which my 15-year-old son, Nick, and I wrote together last winter.
Posted 07.8.08 | Grassroots Moviemaker | No comments yet...
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