» Posts Tagged ‘watch’
When we dig into the specs of the latest and greatest camera gear here at NFS our natural bias tends to be reporting how these affect the work of the live action director, but long before Nikon and Canon began considering video as a viable feature to add to their DSLRs, stop motion filmmakers were already busy at work with these cameras creating their films painstaking frame by frame.
British animator Lee Hardcastle is probably one of the most prominent stop motion directors — at least in the online space, his YouTube channel has clocked up nearly 24 million views — at the moment, building a growing army of fans for his original and re-imagined claymation work such as the recent re-telling of Gareth Evans’ action feature The Raid featuring claymation cats (warning: Hardcastle’s work is DEFINITELY not for kids): More »
Ted Griffin had no idea his script for Ocean’s Eleven was really about a guy using an elaborate heist just to show his ex-wife he still loved her until he reached page 100 in his writing process. Callie Khouri actually would have killed a dirty old man who shouted obscenities at her from a car if she only had a gun at that moment, so instead she used it as inspiration for Thelma and Louise. Jim Uhls breaks the first rule of Fight Club: he talks about Fight Club. To hear each of these writers talk about their writing process in their own words, check out their videos from The Dialogue Series below: More »
Speaking of making storytelling a priority over camera tests, Ken Burns is in a league of his own when it comes to filmmaking. His documentaries are widely known and his visual techniques have been adopted by countless productions, so much so that panning and zooming into a still image has been dubbed the “Ken Burns Effect.” For once, however, the lens is turned the other way, and filmmakers Sarah Klein and Tom Mason have produced a short documentary called Ken Burns: On Story. In the film embedded below, Burns talks about good storytelling and the ways in which we manipulate audiences. More »
Now for something completely different. From one end of the film spectrum to the other, here is a short documentary called A Brief History of John Baldessari, directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. You may or may not know their names, but you certainly have heard of the films they’ve directed, like Catfish and Paranormal Activity 3. While much of the film is graphics, photos, and text, it’s the voice-over that adds to the film’s larger than life personality. More »
When a much anticipated camera such as the Canon 5D Mark III makes its way to market it’s inevitable that filmmakers will rush to be the first to shoot a fully formed story on it. While not officially the first, Barry Andersson’s ‘based on true events’ short Incident on Marmont Ave is certainly among the vanguard of Canon 5D Mark III shorts to hit the web. More »
Speaking of watching films instead of camera tests, we’ve got another short curated by the wonderful people at Short of the Week. If you haven’t been following the site, one of the creators of Short of the Week, Andrew S Allen, was involved in the design of a beautiful iPad app called Paper that we reviewed here at NoFilmSchool. The Division of Gravity, embedded below, is a short film directed by Rob Chiu. With gorgeous cinematography and moving performances, we’re taken on the journey with the characters from the beginning of a relationship all the way to the bitter end. More »
Home may not always be where the heart is, but it is the place where we — and the strangers who came before us — live out our lives, building some of our most abiding memories in the process. Los Angeles based director Laura Yilmaz mixes a whole host of animation techniques (stop motion, hand drawn, pixelation, rotoscoping) with family interviews in Places Other People Have Lived to deconstruct the relationships which play out in the various rooms of the house her family called home for over 25 years. More »
When a story traverses from stage to screen it can often be a less than rewarding experience. Those beautiful flowing prose which wow audiences in the theatre become somewhat redundant in a medium which has ‘show don’t tell’ as one of its most abiding rules. Even worse is the monologue, which requires action to stop whilst we concentrate on an actor’s singular delivery, often direct to camera (admittedly Neil Labute pulls this off to disturbing effect with Jason Patric’s frank ‘confession’ in Your Friends and Neighbours). The fact that many filmmakers have attempted and failed in this translation endeavour makes the recent duo of projects from Sydney-based Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) Boot and Bat Eyes, all the more impressive as powerful pieces of short cinema. More »
Ever wished you could just chat with one of your filmmaking heroes, hear their thoughts on various films, and get a list of recommended viewing? Well this comes pretty close to doing that for me. A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies is a 4 hour documentary film produced by the BFI (British Film Institute) back in 1995. In it Scorsese takes you through almost 70 years worth of American films, mentioning notable picks, not only for their aesthetic merit but by how they reflect cultural tensions of their day as well as changes in the art of film. If you’re ready to watch some great stuff, discover new filmmakers, and learn something beside one of the masters of our artform, check this out: More »
Watch, Vote and Be Inspired - Vimeo Festival + Awards Voting Now Open
Want to watch a boatload of awesome shorts? Want to participate in one of the cooler emerging film festivals from the comfort of your own home? Public voting for the Vimeo Festival + Awards is now open. With 156 selected entries across 13 categories there’s plenty to check out between now and the festival itself. Want a taste of the offerings? Check this out: More »
Canon had its big NAB screening on Sunday night, showing off both its 4K DSLR, the EOS 1D-C, and the C500. As part of the presentation they screened “The Ticket”, a short film written/directed by Po Chan, lensed by Shane Hurlbut, and shot on the EOS 1D-C. Filmed and displayed in 4K, Hurlbut showed just what the camera can do, and now we too can see what it looks like by way of his blog (albeit through the limitations of Vimeo). Hurlbut goes on to share some interesting behind the scenes tidbits, and praise that might just entice you into giving this camera a whirl: More »
FS700 Video Roundup - 4 Videos That Will Make You Want to Buy or Wait
The FS700 has dominated much of the camera buzz in the couple of weeks heading into NAB, and with the early announcement comes early footage. Last week we posted the official launch film that excerpted a number of test shorts shot by various DP’s with a pre-production FS700, and over the past week the full shorts have been coming on-line. These tests by Peter Prevec, James Miller, and Den Lennie/James Tonkin, show off just what the camera can do with a variety of subjects — from dirt bike races, to samba dancers to birds flying against the sun’s light. Throw in a balloon murdering test by Andy Shipsides and you’ve got plenty to compare and contrast: More »
While not exactly filmmaking related, it seems fitting for this site to take a look at the video of this series of photographs called Silent World. Created by photography team Lucie & Simon, they imagine the world without the bustling humans that take up so much space in several sprawling cities. More »
Earlier this week, Sony announced the Sony FS700, and today they released some of the first footage shot on the camera as part of their official launch. Yep, it’s pretty much a promo film, but it has lots of goodies to take a look at, especially in terms of the FS700′s slow-mo capabilities, along with some very interesting footage shot by candlelight. Check it out: More »
'Solipsist' - an Experimental Short That Beautifully Blends Practical and CG Effects
What do you get when you mix experimental film with fantasy via Jim Henson? Andrew Huang’s new short film, Solipsist, provides a beautiful and vaguely disturbing mind-trip of an answer. Some of you may recognize Huang’s name from his earlier viral short — Doll Face. For a film that started as a Kickstarter project last summer, it’s pretty impressive to see how quickly Solipsist was finished and released — especially considering Huang did a large chunk of the post-production himself. Coming off its recent win of the “Special Jury Prize for Experimental Short” at Slamdance, the short is now available to watch in full, along with some very intriguing “making of” footage that reveals some surprising use of practical effects: More »
Sundance has announced this year’s Jury-prize winning shorts, and one of the winners is already available to watch online free. In total there are ten shorts online, and you don’t have to be in Park City to see them. Here’s one short that’s embeddable — note that it is not for the faint of heart (bad pun intended… there is a fair amount of surgery shown): More »
I mentioned previously that I’d shot a micro-short to test out the RED SCARLET, and here it is. To put the camera through its paces, we wanted to use it in a real-world setting instead of shooting charts in a studio — but we also didn’t have the time or budget to put together a “real” short. What we set out to make (and what we ended up with) is something more than a series of test shots, and something less than a proper short. This was a no-budget, quick production on which everyone donated their time. Let me know what you think! More »
The terrific crew over at Short of the Week has launched Short of the Week Presents™, a curated series of shorts premiering online. SotW helps with with online launch planning and by bringing media and industry connections to the table. It’s open for anyone to submit; here’s “A Family Portrait,” their first third curated launch (other than their own Thomas Beale Cipher), a deservedly award-winning rotoscoped film by Joseph Pierce: More »
Director Chris Milk, whose work I’ve covered here before, has released in conjunction with some Google Chrome developers his latest music video, “3 Days of Black,” for the supergroup Rome (which, for this song, consists of Danger Mouse, Daniel Luppi, and Norah Jones). The first full 3D scene is literally eyebrow-raising and the video highlights a number of important web-based storytelling tools, like the 3D browsing technology WebGL. Requires Google Chrome. More »
In my last roundup of DSLR-shot videos, I focused on the stunning cinematography that large-chip DSLRs enabled. One year later, no one’s doubting the visual capabilities of these cameras. But the DSLR revolution isn’t just about pretty pictures; it’s about who can make those pictures. Indeed, the widespread availability and low price point of the cameras has been democratizing. So for this roundup I tried to find ten examples of the other “C”: creativity. Without DSLRs, most of these productions wouldn’t have happened, or they would’ve been very different: More »
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Shaun: Fantastic lecture. Since finding it a few days ago I've already listened t… Charlie Kaufman Gives 70-Minute Screenwriting Lecture