“So, ‘Slacker’ or ‘Clerks’?”
We had spent dinnertime watching the trailers for the movies I had in my computer. I was at my friend’s in Lisbon, and since she was feeling a bit sick I decided to stay home with her and watch some film together. We had already spent some time pitting trailer against trailer, and by then already crossed off the list films such as Brazil, Son of Rambow, Mister Lonely, and a few other still unwatched movies I had ripped to my laptop while packing for my six-day trip down south. In the final round we had Richard Linklater’s first feature versus Kevin Smith’s. Her pick.
“‘Slacker’”, she said.
Best film choice of the year. We watched it and after it was over we went silent for a while, perhaps letting out a timid “Wow”. It’s easily the most influential thing I watched in a long time, and I just couldn’t believe I hadn’t watched it before. Especially since it turned out you can watch the entire film for free on YouTube.
Later the same night I watched Clerks. Not quite the same thing.
Skokiaan by the Bulawayo Sweet Rhythms Band is a hit song from the 1950s I can’t get off my head since I watched the ending of Richard Linklater’s Slacker.
A two-minute minidocumentary about the Big Bang. Personally, it’s thrilling to see the short-form science doc evolve. But seriously: magenta?
As you probably know, since the 50s that most films are shot for a 1.85 or even narrower (2.2, 2.35, 2.85, etc) aspect ratio, meaning an image much wider than the 4x3 (1.33) aspect ratio of ordinary television sets. So while films on television should obviously be letterboxed (meaning the addition of black padding outside the film frame), stupid viewers everywhere (I’m sorry, there’s no other way to put it) demanded the ‘stolen’ area of their TV sets back, which gave rise to the practice of doing ‘pan and scan’ reedits of the films, with the frames (and many times the actual editing) readjusted for 4x3 screens.
I absolutely hate watching pan-and-scan films. You keep all of your TV set’s pixels in use and instead it’s the actual film that’s being stolen (as if advertising breaks weren’t annoying enough). This video pretty much explains it all.
Google recently unveiled Street View for both Porto and Lisbon. Privacy concerns apart (I actually believe Street View fits nicely in a discussion of photographers’ rights, in which my personal view is that public spaces are precisely that - public), I think Street View might actually be quite an interesting tool for scouting locations for indie films. Of course, it’s insane to go shoot somewhere without checking it out for yourself first, but SV does allow me to see if there are interesting streets worth a visit in person, besides being very useful in checking out details that might have been missed.
I take pride in trying to know as many places here in Porto as I can, but a certain shyness of taking the camera to the streets prevents me from being less conservative in the street locations I choose for my short films. I always try to be aware of lighting conditions, parking, and the residents’ nosiness towards people with video cameras (to prevent the type of situation which really ruins my day, such as having an actor giving a great performance while some old bastard across the street decides to stop and stare at the camera). Shame that Street View can’t help you with that.
I’ve watched the entire series of Tim Hunkin’s The Secret Life of Machines (page includes torrent links, you can also stream it here). Not only it is a example of really good television that is entertaining and educational, it’s also a reminder of a simpler, gentler era when TV documentaries could be concise, without all those constant “later on… but first”, “after the break…” that are the scourge of cable television documentaries. Despite being twenty years dated, SLOM does a great job at explaining the fundamental building blocks of today’s technology. When technology is deliberately mystified and made to seem like magic (I’m sick of those docs that promise to tell you How It’s Made and then just show you some assembly line without explaining much), The Secret Life of Machines may very well be essential viewing.
I’ll now watch Why Things Go Wrong, which also seems pretty interesting.
42 Essential 3rd Act Twists by Dresden Codak. Cross this with the 36 Dramatic Situations and you’ve got your instant screen/stageplay. (via Pullquote)
Loved this video: Artificial Paradise, Inc by Jean-Paul Frenay. I found it reminiscent of some of Chris Cunningham’s music videos. (via CDM)
I didn’t wish for it to be a re-ocurring phenomenon, but it had happened again. Almost one year ago, I spent a weekend shooting a short film with some friends. I immediately assembled a rough-cut, did a trailer, and then let the film be buried beneath lots of other stuff. I only resumed work in editing my short a few weeks ago, but now, the much delayed The Things We Found in the Attic is ready and online for your own viewing pleasure*:
It’s a magical realist short story, perhaps the A-side to that Ultravioleta music video I directed B-side (both share the same base concept, mechanics and even some of the locals). This was as raw and as ‘indie’ as a film can be - the two sisters’ grandparents house is actually my own grandparents’ house, and the beach was actually somewhat crowded making shooting there rather jarring (lots of takes, bizarre camera positions so people wouldn’t be there and a severely reduced shotlist). Thanks again to my good friends Margarida, Inês, Marcelino and Joana for their time and their help. I love you all.
* I do recommend you click on to the film’s Vimeo page, so you can watch it in fullscreen HD.
Joel and Ethan Coen’s World Cinema is the duo’s contribution to Chacun Son Cinema, an omnibus movie made in 2007 to celebrate the 60th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. I saw the whole thing recently and somehow this short was missing - according to Slashfilm the same happens in the DVD release (perhaps some rights issue got this short pulled after the first screenings?). Anyway, it’s good, so watch it.
Since we’re on the subject of Chacun Son Cinema, I thought most shorts were kind of meh-ish, but there were quite a few wild extremes of quality in there. Youssef Chahine’s and Gus Van Sant’s were embrassingly bad (both great directors signing stuff that I’d be hard pressed to tolerate from 18-year old film students), while Amos Gitai’s, David Lynch’s and Atom Egoyan’s were ‘just’ really bad shorts. On the other hand, there were positively great moments from Nanni Moretti, Lars von Trier, Takeshi Kitano, Elia Suleiman and perhaps my favourite, Aki Kaurismaki’s portrayal of an after-hours cinema at a foundry. Add the Coens to this later lot.
For a long time now I believe technological democratization will lead to a balkanized distribution playing a major role in the future history of cinema. However, how do we deal with a balkanized audience? The future must be much, much cheaper.
The Fifty Greatest Movie Trailers. Citizen Kane’s may be at #6 and Psycho at #2, but it’s interesting most movies in this list aren’t that good, are at least not historically resonant. For instance, I have no issue with Cloverfield’s trailer being third on the list - the great work of art was exactly the trailer, not the film.
“ Michael Bay used a squillion dollars and a hundred supercomputers’ worth of CG for a brilliant art movie about the illusory nature of plot. ”
Michael Bay Finally Made An Art Movie - This review of Transformers 2 is one of the funniest I ever read. I haven’t seen it yet and I’m pretty sure it’s a horrid movie but still this review made me want to watch it: It’s like a road accident ahead, you can’t avoid wanting to look. But perhaps I’ll wait for the DVD, so I can organize some drinking games.
