Trailer: http://fabriziofederico.moonfruit.com/#/film/4556057968
From Fabrizo Federico:
The film was shot on mobile phones and childrens cameras. I decided to go about creating a different type of film with no script, and a cast of non-actors (homeless people, sex workers, handicapped folk, ex-pimps and an ex-child ping pong champion).
It was made under the PINK8 manifesto: http://blackbiscuit101.moonfruit.com/#/pink8-manifesto/4556009845
My aim is to inspire upcoming filmmakers to explore a more non-linear form of cinema, and to stop relying on outside funds in order to make feature films.
This way movies will be more crazed and real, call it punk LSD Cinema.
Kind regards and keep up the genius.
Fabrizio Federico
http://fabriziofederico.moonfruit.com/
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Film Is Dead
From Salon.com:
An article at the moviemaking technology website Creative Cow reports that the three major manufacturers of motion picture film cameras — Aaton, ARRI and Panavision — have all ceased production of new cameras within the last year, and will only make digital movie cameras from now on. As the article’s author, Debra Kaufman, poignantly puts it, “Someone, somewhere in the world is now holding the last film camera ever to roll off the line.”
What this means is that, even though purists may continue to shoot movies on film, film itself will may become increasingly hard to come by, use, develop and preserve. It also means that the film camera — invented in 1888 by Louis Augustin Le Prince — will become to cinema what typewriters are to literature. Anybody who still uses a Smith-Corona or IBM Selectric typewriter knows what that means: if your beloved machine breaks, you can’t just take it to the local repair shop, you have to track down some old hermit in another town who advertises on Craigslist and stockpiles spare parts in his basement.
As Aaton founder Jean-Pierre Beauviala told Kaufman: “Almost nobody is buying new film cameras. Why buy a new one when there are so many used cameras around the world? We wouldn’t survive in the film industry if we were not designing a digital camera.” Bill Russell, ARRI’s vice president of cameras, added that: “The demand for film cameras on a global basis has all but disappeared.”
Theaters, movies, moviegoing and other core components of what we once called “cinema” persist, and may endure. But they’re not quite what they were in the analog cinema era. They’re something new, or something else — the next generation of technologies and rituals that had changed shockingly little between 1895 and the early aughts. We knew this day would come. Calling oneself a “film director” or “film editor” or “film buff” or a “film critic” has over the last decade started to seem a faintly nostalgic affectation; decades hence it may start to seem fanciful. It’s a vestigial word that increasingly refers to something that does not actually exist — rather like referring to the mass media as “the press.”
In May 1999 — a year that saw several major releases, including Toy Story 2, projected digitally for paying customers — editor and sound designer Walter Murch wrote a piece for the New York Times headlined, “A Digital Cinema of the Mind? Could Be.” In it, Murch pointed out that only two major aspects of the analog filmmaking process had survived into the late ’90s, the recording of images on sprocketed celluloid film and their projection onto big screens by casting a beam of light through the images. Murch predicted that once digital projection became widespread, it would “trigger the final capitulation of the two last holdouts of film’s 19th-century, analog-mechanical legacy. Projection, at the end of the line, is one; the other is the original photography that begins the whole process. The movie industry is currently a digital sandwich between slices of analog bread.”
Near the end of 1999, my former New York Press colleague Godfrey Cheshire published a two-part article titled “Death of Film/Decay of Cinema“, which in hindsight seems eerily prescient. He predicted just about everything that would happen within the next decade-plus, including the replacement of old-fashioned film print projection by digital systems, the replacement of film cameras by digital cameras, and the near-total takeover of traditional cinematic language by techniques that had once been the province of television...
R.I.P., the movie camera: 1888-2011
Major manufacturers have ceased production of new motion picture film cameras; cinema as we once knew it is dead
Matt Zoller Seitz
Thursday, Oct 13, 2011
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/13/r_i_p_the_movie_camera_1888_2011
An article at the moviemaking technology website Creative Cow reports that the three major manufacturers of motion picture film cameras — Aaton, ARRI and Panavision — have all ceased production of new cameras within the last year, and will only make digital movie cameras from now on. As the article’s author, Debra Kaufman, poignantly puts it, “Someone, somewhere in the world is now holding the last film camera ever to roll off the line.”
What this means is that, even though purists may continue to shoot movies on film, film itself will may become increasingly hard to come by, use, develop and preserve. It also means that the film camera — invented in 1888 by Louis Augustin Le Prince — will become to cinema what typewriters are to literature. Anybody who still uses a Smith-Corona or IBM Selectric typewriter knows what that means: if your beloved machine breaks, you can’t just take it to the local repair shop, you have to track down some old hermit in another town who advertises on Craigslist and stockpiles spare parts in his basement.
As Aaton founder Jean-Pierre Beauviala told Kaufman: “Almost nobody is buying new film cameras. Why buy a new one when there are so many used cameras around the world? We wouldn’t survive in the film industry if we were not designing a digital camera.” Bill Russell, ARRI’s vice president of cameras, added that: “The demand for film cameras on a global basis has all but disappeared.”
Theaters, movies, moviegoing and other core components of what we once called “cinema” persist, and may endure. But they’re not quite what they were in the analog cinema era. They’re something new, or something else — the next generation of technologies and rituals that had changed shockingly little between 1895 and the early aughts. We knew this day would come. Calling oneself a “film director” or “film editor” or “film buff” or a “film critic” has over the last decade started to seem a faintly nostalgic affectation; decades hence it may start to seem fanciful. It’s a vestigial word that increasingly refers to something that does not actually exist — rather like referring to the mass media as “the press.”
In May 1999 — a year that saw several major releases, including Toy Story 2, projected digitally for paying customers — editor and sound designer Walter Murch wrote a piece for the New York Times headlined, “A Digital Cinema of the Mind? Could Be.” In it, Murch pointed out that only two major aspects of the analog filmmaking process had survived into the late ’90s, the recording of images on sprocketed celluloid film and their projection onto big screens by casting a beam of light through the images. Murch predicted that once digital projection became widespread, it would “trigger the final capitulation of the two last holdouts of film’s 19th-century, analog-mechanical legacy. Projection, at the end of the line, is one; the other is the original photography that begins the whole process. The movie industry is currently a digital sandwich between slices of analog bread.”
Near the end of 1999, my former New York Press colleague Godfrey Cheshire published a two-part article titled “Death of Film/Decay of Cinema“, which in hindsight seems eerily prescient. He predicted just about everything that would happen within the next decade-plus, including the replacement of old-fashioned film print projection by digital systems, the replacement of film cameras by digital cameras, and the near-total takeover of traditional cinematic language by techniques that had once been the province of television...
R.I.P., the movie camera: 1888-2011
Major manufacturers have ceased production of new motion picture film cameras; cinema as we once knew it is dead
Matt Zoller Seitz
Thursday, Oct 13, 2011
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/13/r_i_p_the_movie_camera_1888_2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Top 10 Film Stock Risings 2001-11
Robert Sterling
Konformist.com
http://robalini.blogspot.com/
If films were stocks, some would scream "BUY!" Here's my list of ten movies that have risen the most in cultural appreciation over the last decade.
10. Pulp Fiction (1994)
In some ways, this one may be a surprise pick, since its always been a very well received film. Still, Pulp Fiction is a movie that has always had a chip on its shoulder, snubbed in 1994 Oscars by Gump fever and overtaken in Web popularity by another 1994 film, The Shawshank Redemption (probably the most popular film of the Internet age, and another film with high stock returns.) No matter: 17 years later, Pulp Fiction is decidedly now recognized as a landmark film which changed the entire film industry almost singlehandedly, and the fact that Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill & Inglourious Basterds were both so well received make his status as a supreme auteur unquestioned.
9. Suspiria (1976)
Perhaps the most obscure movie on this list, you'd be forgiven if you've never heard of this Italian-made horror flick by Dario Argento. But it seems every Halloween season when lists of greatest horror films are published, this one is always among them. There's a good reason, as even 35 years later, this film knows just how to scare the crap out of people.
8. Back to the Future (1985)
Though it was the box office hit of its year, you could perhaps be forgiven if you dismissed it as a second-rate wannabe Spielberg popcorn flick when released. (Though Spielberg was executive producer, the actual director and brains of the film was Robert Zemeckis.) After the adulation it received last year on its 25th anniversary, it's clear it has stood the test of time, and having Michael J. Fox as its star (perhaps the most personally beloved actor of his generation due to his fortitude in personal health battles) has certainly kept the film in a positive limelight.
7. The Matrix (1999)
While it was extremely well received upon release, it suffered some appeal after its sequels failed to capture the public imagination. Still, twelve years later, it's clear The Matrix is the most important sci-fi film since Blade Runner, which is no small feat.
6. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Being the sequel to what is arguably the most culturally important film in the history of cinema is a no-win situation. Yet 31 years later, there are many who think this is best of the Star Wars series.
5. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
John Hughes is a director whose work is increasingly more appreciated as time goes by, with films like The Breakfast Club, Home Alone and Planes, Trains & Automobiles all being recognized as classics. But the one Hughes film that seems most well received is his tale of a teenage hero with the luck of James Bond.
4. The Shining (1980)
Even from the start, this was considered one of the best horror films ever made. But over the last decade, enough film analysis and theories have been floated on the Web to put this on the top tier of Stanley Kubrick films along with Dr. Strangelove, 2001 and A Clockwork Orange.
3. Toy Story (1995)
The movie was a box office hit and beloved from the start. But with the ridiculous run of hits released by Pixar since this was released has turned this film into a defining moment in the history of cinematic animation.
2. Fight Club (1999)
When the movie was released, it was considered a flop and passed over during Oscar season. Now, it is widely viewed as the last great movie of the 1900s.
1. The Big Lebowski (1998)
Could anything besides this be number one? Here is the latest and biggest cult film hit, the Rocky Horror for lazy stoners. Drink a White Russian and press play on the DVD!!!
Honorable Mention: Movies from the last decade aren't on this list, but Donnie Darko, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Hangover are definitely on the rise...
Konformist.com
http://robalini.blogspot.com/
If films were stocks, some would scream "BUY!" Here's my list of ten movies that have risen the most in cultural appreciation over the last decade.
10. Pulp Fiction (1994)
In some ways, this one may be a surprise pick, since its always been a very well received film. Still, Pulp Fiction is a movie that has always had a chip on its shoulder, snubbed in 1994 Oscars by Gump fever and overtaken in Web popularity by another 1994 film, The Shawshank Redemption (probably the most popular film of the Internet age, and another film with high stock returns.) No matter: 17 years later, Pulp Fiction is decidedly now recognized as a landmark film which changed the entire film industry almost singlehandedly, and the fact that Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill & Inglourious Basterds were both so well received make his status as a supreme auteur unquestioned.
9. Suspiria (1976)
Perhaps the most obscure movie on this list, you'd be forgiven if you've never heard of this Italian-made horror flick by Dario Argento. But it seems every Halloween season when lists of greatest horror films are published, this one is always among them. There's a good reason, as even 35 years later, this film knows just how to scare the crap out of people.
8. Back to the Future (1985)
Though it was the box office hit of its year, you could perhaps be forgiven if you dismissed it as a second-rate wannabe Spielberg popcorn flick when released. (Though Spielberg was executive producer, the actual director and brains of the film was Robert Zemeckis.) After the adulation it received last year on its 25th anniversary, it's clear it has stood the test of time, and having Michael J. Fox as its star (perhaps the most personally beloved actor of his generation due to his fortitude in personal health battles) has certainly kept the film in a positive limelight.
7. The Matrix (1999)
While it was extremely well received upon release, it suffered some appeal after its sequels failed to capture the public imagination. Still, twelve years later, it's clear The Matrix is the most important sci-fi film since Blade Runner, which is no small feat.
6. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Being the sequel to what is arguably the most culturally important film in the history of cinema is a no-win situation. Yet 31 years later, there are many who think this is best of the Star Wars series.
5. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
John Hughes is a director whose work is increasingly more appreciated as time goes by, with films like The Breakfast Club, Home Alone and Planes, Trains & Automobiles all being recognized as classics. But the one Hughes film that seems most well received is his tale of a teenage hero with the luck of James Bond.
4. The Shining (1980)
Even from the start, this was considered one of the best horror films ever made. But over the last decade, enough film analysis and theories have been floated on the Web to put this on the top tier of Stanley Kubrick films along with Dr. Strangelove, 2001 and A Clockwork Orange.
3. Toy Story (1995)
The movie was a box office hit and beloved from the start. But with the ridiculous run of hits released by Pixar since this was released has turned this film into a defining moment in the history of cinematic animation.
2. Fight Club (1999)
When the movie was released, it was considered a flop and passed over during Oscar season. Now, it is widely viewed as the last great movie of the 1900s.
1. The Big Lebowski (1998)
Could anything besides this be number one? Here is the latest and biggest cult film hit, the Rocky Horror for lazy stoners. Drink a White Russian and press play on the DVD!!!
Honorable Mention: Movies from the last decade aren't on this list, but Donnie Darko, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Hangover are definitely on the rise...
Sunday, August 21, 2011
CGI & Rise of the Planet of the Apes
From Time.com:
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a reboot of the original movie series, which is a cult favorite. A prequel to the futuristic story of the 1968 Charlton Heston film, Rise is set in present-day San Francisco, years before apes take over the world. James Franco plays Will Rodman, a scientist looking to discover a cure for Alzheimer's disease. His drug trials are done on, you guessed it, chimps.
After an experiment goes awry, he finds himself caring for Caesar, a baby chimp whose intelligence has been dramatically increased by the testing. Caesar is easily the star of the film, as the chimp that's responsible for galvanizing apes against the oppressive practices of humans. (By the way, no one should be surprised when PETA has a field day with this plot.)
Early on, the film's director Rupert Wyatt decided that they wouldn't be using live chimps in the film (too complicated and unpredictable) so he initially struggled with a way to portray them. “Then performance capture came along in terms of providing us with that opportunity,” he tells TIME, referring to the fast-evolving technique of using computer-generated characters based on real actors' performances.
Once it was decided that CGI apes were the way to go, it wasn't that much of a surprise that Andy Serkis was cast in the role of Caesar. Serkis, who played Kong in King Kong and Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, is no stranger to CGI technology and performance-capture acting. And thanks to his nuanced performance and Peter Jackson's digital technology company Weta Digital, Caesar is the most believable character in the film (sorry, James).
Though he makes bringing Caesar to life look easy, Serkis admits that it was a challenge. “You're trying to do that without dialogue,” he says. “It's all conveyed through the eyes and through body language and through projecting your emotions.”
But whatever challenges Serkis faced, his performance helped the rest of the cast. Previous CGI movies have been filmed in front of a green screen, with some characters added in post-production, which, as you can imagine, would be an added hurdle for actors. However, in Rise, every interaction between Caesar and the other characters was filmed in real-time. Frieda Pinto of Slumdog Millionaire fame, who plays Franco's girlfriend Caroline, says she didn't find acting across from a faux-chimp difficult. “It would have been a challenge if Andy did not play Caesar,” she says. “I feel it was easier having Andy play the whole emotion in order for us as actors to play off of him.”
And it'll likely be Andy-as-Caesar's emotion that wins over even the biggest CGI skeptics. It's also a prime example of a way the latest film trumps the original (yeah, I said it, and I'm pretty sure Richard Corliss agrees with me). It's Caesar's amazing evolution that makes the movie and that performance is thanks to Serkis's talents via performance capture...
Aping Reality: Behind the Scenes of 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'
Megan Gibson
8-5-11
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/05/aping-reality-behind-the-scenes-of-rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a reboot of the original movie series, which is a cult favorite. A prequel to the futuristic story of the 1968 Charlton Heston film, Rise is set in present-day San Francisco, years before apes take over the world. James Franco plays Will Rodman, a scientist looking to discover a cure for Alzheimer's disease. His drug trials are done on, you guessed it, chimps.
After an experiment goes awry, he finds himself caring for Caesar, a baby chimp whose intelligence has been dramatically increased by the testing. Caesar is easily the star of the film, as the chimp that's responsible for galvanizing apes against the oppressive practices of humans. (By the way, no one should be surprised when PETA has a field day with this plot.)
Early on, the film's director Rupert Wyatt decided that they wouldn't be using live chimps in the film (too complicated and unpredictable) so he initially struggled with a way to portray them. “Then performance capture came along in terms of providing us with that opportunity,” he tells TIME, referring to the fast-evolving technique of using computer-generated characters based on real actors' performances.
Once it was decided that CGI apes were the way to go, it wasn't that much of a surprise that Andy Serkis was cast in the role of Caesar. Serkis, who played Kong in King Kong and Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, is no stranger to CGI technology and performance-capture acting. And thanks to his nuanced performance and Peter Jackson's digital technology company Weta Digital, Caesar is the most believable character in the film (sorry, James).
Though he makes bringing Caesar to life look easy, Serkis admits that it was a challenge. “You're trying to do that without dialogue,” he says. “It's all conveyed through the eyes and through body language and through projecting your emotions.”
But whatever challenges Serkis faced, his performance helped the rest of the cast. Previous CGI movies have been filmed in front of a green screen, with some characters added in post-production, which, as you can imagine, would be an added hurdle for actors. However, in Rise, every interaction between Caesar and the other characters was filmed in real-time. Frieda Pinto of Slumdog Millionaire fame, who plays Franco's girlfriend Caroline, says she didn't find acting across from a faux-chimp difficult. “It would have been a challenge if Andy did not play Caesar,” she says. “I feel it was easier having Andy play the whole emotion in order for us as actors to play off of him.”
And it'll likely be Andy-as-Caesar's emotion that wins over even the biggest CGI skeptics. It's also a prime example of a way the latest film trumps the original (yeah, I said it, and I'm pretty sure Richard Corliss agrees with me). It's Caesar's amazing evolution that makes the movie and that performance is thanks to Serkis's talents via performance capture...
Aping Reality: Behind the Scenes of 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'
Megan Gibson
8-5-11
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/05/aping-reality-behind-the-scenes-of-rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes
Thursday, August 18, 2011
"Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow"
Here's another interesting film out on very limited release (and hopefully soon on DVD.) From Salon.com:
Sophie Fiennes' highly unconventional documentary "Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow" takes you inside the symbolic and apocalyptic world of German artist Anselm Kiefer, who has spent almost 20 years building a dreamlike city to house his paintings in the south of France. It's difficult to use words to describe what Fiennes' camera captures as it travels slowly and deliberately through the buildings, tunnels, caverns and outdoor spaces Kiefer has constructed at La Ribaute, an abandoned silk factory near the town of Barjac. You could describe it as a permanent construction site, a ruin meant to evoke places like Pompeii, the set for a "Road Warrior" sequel or an almost fascistic museum and theme park built by Kiefer to honor himself.
Whatever else it may be, La Ribaute is clearly a mythic and aesthetic space that suggests various things in the outside world but never engages with them directly. On one hand, Kiefer's somber and often monumental work, with its ash and brown and gray and blue-black tones, has often been described as a reflection of his childhood in postwar Germany. He makes frequent references to the Holocaust, and to such related phenomena as the poetry of Paul Celan and the Jewish spiritual traditions of the Kabbalah. On the other hand, Kiefer's explanations of what's going on at La Ribaute have more in common with science fiction or ancient myths than with, say, replicating Berlin in 1945 (which was, not coincidentally, the year he was born). One building, he tells an interviewer, is supposed to have been hit by meteorites, represented by large boulders that have punched clear through the structure into the underlying tunnels. A basement has been filled with broken glass to represent "Sternfell," the mythical falling of stars to earth...
"Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow": Inside Anselm Kiefer's apocalyptic theme park
Andrew O'Hehir
Thursday, Aug 11, 2011
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/andrew_ohehir/2011/08/11/over_your_cities_grass_will_grow/index.html
Sophie Fiennes' highly unconventional documentary "Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow" takes you inside the symbolic and apocalyptic world of German artist Anselm Kiefer, who has spent almost 20 years building a dreamlike city to house his paintings in the south of France. It's difficult to use words to describe what Fiennes' camera captures as it travels slowly and deliberately through the buildings, tunnels, caverns and outdoor spaces Kiefer has constructed at La Ribaute, an abandoned silk factory near the town of Barjac. You could describe it as a permanent construction site, a ruin meant to evoke places like Pompeii, the set for a "Road Warrior" sequel or an almost fascistic museum and theme park built by Kiefer to honor himself.
Whatever else it may be, La Ribaute is clearly a mythic and aesthetic space that suggests various things in the outside world but never engages with them directly. On one hand, Kiefer's somber and often monumental work, with its ash and brown and gray and blue-black tones, has often been described as a reflection of his childhood in postwar Germany. He makes frequent references to the Holocaust, and to such related phenomena as the poetry of Paul Celan and the Jewish spiritual traditions of the Kabbalah. On the other hand, Kiefer's explanations of what's going on at La Ribaute have more in common with science fiction or ancient myths than with, say, replicating Berlin in 1945 (which was, not coincidentally, the year he was born). One building, he tells an interviewer, is supposed to have been hit by meteorites, represented by large boulders that have punched clear through the structure into the underlying tunnels. A basement has been filled with broken glass to represent "Sternfell," the mythical falling of stars to earth...
"Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow": Inside Anselm Kiefer's apocalyptic theme park
Andrew O'Hehir
Thursday, Aug 11, 2011
http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/andrew_ohehir/2011/08/11/over_your_cities_grass_will_grow/index.html
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