» Posts Tagged ‘watch’
I always find it comforting to watch the early work of big-time directors. Not because it’s terrific or terrible — it’s usually somewhere in between, which just goes to show that you never know where your filmmaking career is headed. The important thing is to get started. Christopher Nolan
Every year I make it a point to watch all of the Webby Award film/video winners (self promotion alert: since winning one myself, that is… ), as it’s a good way to catch up on the online video projects that you might’ve missed over the past year. The “Oscars of the Internet” were announced the other day, so if you’re looking for the best projects that premiered online recently, check ‘em out: More »
I like music videos that tell stories, as opposed to ones in which the band plays their instruments and lip-synchs in front of the camera (as if to explain they are a band and they play music). DANIELS (so named because both co-directors are named Daniel) tell a wonderfully dreamlike, mixed-up story of a car crash with their video for the title track off Manchester Orchestra’s forthcoming album Simple Math: More »
Joanna Lurie's Atmospheric 'The Silence Beneath the Bark' Mixes 2D Photo Textures with 3D Characters
With so much ongoing coverage of NAB, it’s easy to get lost in the technical side of filmmaking. I don’t want to give the storytelling side short shrift, however, so here’s the evocative and beautiful dialogue-free animated short “The Silence Beneath the Bark,” which was shortlisted for an Oscar this year. Joanna Lurie filtered and modified photos in Adobe Photoshop to create abstract, textured backgrounds, and then brought to life animated 3D characters. It’s easy to forget about the technical details and get lost in the fictional setting, however — as it should be: More »
Eddie O’KEEFE’s no-budget short “The GHOSTS” was shot in a small town west of Chicago this year, but manages to effectively evoke a bygone American era. One kid takes a baseball bat to a mailbox in the film, which I’m pointing out only to launch into a personal anecdote: growing up in North Carolina, some neighborhood ruffians were busting up mailboxes with bats, and so our neighbor filled his mailbox with bricks. A kid hit the box, broke his hand, sued the neighbor, and won. True story. I think. Anyway, check out Eddie’s skillful, atmospheric, playful short: More »
I meant to post this months ago, but like so many stories on this under-staffed (single-staffed) site, it slipped through the cracks. Then the NewTeeVee article Forget Festivals, Go Online Instead re-brought it to my attention, and so here it is: if you haven’t already seen The Thomas Beale Cipher, the animated short directed by Andrew S. Allen and produced by Jason Sondhi (both from Short of the Week), here’s the 10-minute texture-tastic mystery in full: More »
Watching the inspirational true story of Panyee FC, a youth soccer team formed on an island in South Thailand, you wouldn’t know the film was paid for in full by Thai Military Bank. There are no logos in the film itself (until the end), no scenes in banks, and in fact the film has nothing to do with banking at all. It is, however, reportedly a true story, and a touching one at that: More »
Oscan-nominated Irish animator Ruairi Robinson directs this 13-minute short starring Where the Wild Things Are‘s Max Records, in which robotic home companionship comes with a price. Don’t be fooled by the smiling face: this isn’t G-rated. More »
As part of the Tribeca Film Institute’s ongoing video series, they recently put on a panel at The New School to address the following question: “how in the world do you (can you?) make a living as a filmmaker?” This video is of proper classroom length, clocking in at over 90 minutes. It’s not highly visual, so if you’re at a day job, put on some headphones, hit play, hide the tab, and get paid to learn from working filmmakers: More »
Timelapse photography is everywhere now, but other than to show the passage of time, it’s rarely used as a storytelling device. Director Adam Anthony’s short “The Maestro” was a finalist at this year’s Tropfest, and finds a way to integrate the effect into the story: More »
After writing the above headline and picking the image at left, I realized it might seem as if I’m suggesting that the depicted model is less than comely. That’s not at all what I mean: what I’m saying is, the RED’s RAW workflow really needs a full color grade to shine, and the following video looks like… well, what you’d expect it to look like. It’s certainly not pushing the camera’s capabilities in any way. It’s also NSFW, unless your place of work is cool with you watching fullscreen HD videos of scantily clad ladies prancing about: More »
Surf, ski, and snowboard films frequently make use of slow motion to emphasize the effects of gravity (or lack thereof). One could easily think “it’s all been done” when it comes to snowboarders catching air in slow motion. But Brain Farm Cinema’s forthcoming feature The Art of FLIGHT, filmed at snow-dusted locations the world around, should cause even jaded jaws to drop: More »
Tze Chun’s feature Children of Invention was the subject of a NoFilmSchool interview, and the film’s much-talked-about D.I.Y. distribution has now landed it on Hulu for the next two months. Hit the full-screen button and kick back to the indie film Variety deemed “austerely poetic”: More »
One of the best aspects of shooting on a big-sensor DSLR is the way it can turn something that’s pretty ugly (to the naked eye) into something that looks halfway decent on screen, thanks to aesthetically-pleasing bokeh. One genre of film that doesn’t take advantage of this aesthetic, however, is 2D animation. Sure, many modern computer-assisted animations introduce some background blur, but sometimes I find the crisp flatness of old-fashioned, two-dimensional animation refreshing. This animated short is also relevant to our times: More »
In a genre that’s since come to be dominated by the often crass commercialism of, say, Dreamworks Animation, the originator of the 3D animated feature — Pixar — remains a cut above the rest. Watching this compendium of their 15-year history, it strikes me that these movies feel like real events, with real people, begetting real memories — but amazingly, they’re just 1s and 0s. And despite the billions of dollars made and every manner of commercialism pursued, Pixar films still feel driven by imagination, not merchandising. Here’s a look back, expertly edited by Leandro Copperfield: More »
This came out a couple of weeks ago, but this clip is a great recap of the past year in (major) movies. It’s edited extremely well (by college student Gen Ip) and includes so many recognizable sequences and shots (from 270 films in all) that it reminded me of several films that I’ve been meaning to see, despite already making my own list. If you haven’t already seen this mashup, check it out: More »
Filmmaker Jamie Stuart hauled out his Canon 7D (and winter parka) during the blizzard that recently slammed the U.S. East coast to film Idiot with a Tripod, a short film depicting New York City getting blanketed in powder. So named in homage to Dziga Vertov’s 1929 silent film Man With a Movie Camera, the clip garnered the following praise from Roger Ebert: “this film deserves to win the Academy Award for best live-action short subject.” Oscar or not, it’s nice to see a clip that’s in no way sophomoric go viral. Check it out: More »
If my own experience is any indication, most people celebrated Halloween last night, on Saturday — which leaves the actual date of October 31st in no-man’s land. If you’re not inclined to dress up two nights in a row — or at all — here are five videos to watch in the comfort of your zombie-free home. Note many of these have NSFW violence and/or language: More »
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