The Oscar-winning director of Traffic has signed a groundbreaking deal with Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban's HDNet for a series of six pictures to be shot on high-definition video that will be released simultaneously in theaters, on DVD and television.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/29/2005 05:40:00 PM Comments (0)

Film Threat is taking the best of indie cinema into retail chains across North America through its newly launched Film Threat DVD line.

The first two Film Threat DVD titles, Glenn Rockowitz's Hacks and Nick Clark's The Ultimate Truth, will ship May 31 and sell for the suggested retail price of $29.99 each.

"Film Threat DVD is the creation of Chris Gore, founder and publisher/editor of Film Threat and an independent filmmaker himself. 'I was tired of seeing great indie movies made by emerging filmmakers simply languish in the market without distribution,' says Gore, who is also celebrating Film Threat's 20th anniversary. 'There are literally thousands of these 'cine-orphans,' movies without distribution. I have the luxury of being able to see these movies by traveling to film festivals and because of tapes I receive through Film Threat. But the average consumer and even the hardcore indie movie geek won't get to see any of them.'

"Film Threat had previously distributed titles on VHS in the 1990s, most notably Jorg Buttgereit's feature Nekromantik and Gore's own Red, starring Lawrence Tierney (which will debut on Film Threat DVD later this year). ... 'I felt the time was right for a new kind of distribution,' says Gore. 'But it took me about a year to put all the elements into place and work out the details of this unusual business model. And, frankly, elements of this plan are not very smart for me since it puts most of the power in the hands of the filmmaker, as opposed to me, the distributor. However, I feel that this unique form of distribution could have a very positive effect on the industry -- mainly exposing new filmmakers to audiences hungry to see the next generation of indie filmmakers.'"

Film Threat DVD recently signed a distribution deal with Niche Media Ventures to distribute 24 titles a year.

Upcoming Film Threat DVD titles include Ligeia, Frontier, Living in Missouri, Sorority Girls' Revenge, Jerkbeast and Joyful Partaking.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/29/2005 12:32:00 PM Comments (1)

From an interview with Jean-Luc Godard in The Guardian today:

"To illustrate the point, he tells a story of how he recently flew from Montreal to New York. When he arrived, the customs officer asked him: 'Mr Godard: what are you coming here for? Business or pleasure?' Godard indicated the former. The officer asked what business he was in. 'Unsuccessful movies,' Godard replied.
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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/29/2005 11:32:00 AM Comments (0)

As we begin putting together our annual "25 New Faces" issue of Filmmaker, in which we identify and profile the filmmakers who we believe will the independent stars of tomorrow, we also check back on the successes of our past selections. So, when a press release from the Tribeca Film Festival arrived in my in-box this morning I noticed that of the three winners of the Tribeca All Access Award, two -- Dennis Lee (a member of the company Kulture Machine) and Mario de la Vega (pictured) -- were directors spotlighted in last summer's issue.

From the press release:

"The Tribeca All Access Connects (TAA) program, which fosters relationships between U.S.-based filmmakers of color and the film industry, announced today the winners of the second Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Awards. At last night’s Tribeca All Access Connects Awards and Closing Party at the Tribeca Grand, sponsored by the Playboy Foundation:

Dennis Lee won the award for the narrative section prize for his current screenplay The Life & Times of H.J. Hermin. Dennis has previously directed a short film entitled Jesus Henry Christ.

Usama Alshaibi won the award for documentary section prize for his documentary proposal Nice Bombs.

Mario de La Vega won the award for the screenplay section prize for his screenplay The Undeniable Charm of Sloppy Unruh.

The winners were selected upon the strength of their vision and filmmaking promise. The TAA Creative Promise Award offers a prize of $10,000 for narrative and documentary and $5,000 for screenplay. All of the filmmakers participating in the program have scripts or documentary proposals for which they are seeking funding.

Narrative winner Dennis Lee is set to direct The Life & Times of H.J. Hermin (which he also wrote) which tells the story of 13-year-old genius and college freshman Henry James Hermin on his quest to solve an unbreakable computer code and find his biological father. Lee previously directed the short film Jesus Henry Christ.

Screenplay winner Mario de Le Vega's The Undeniable Charm of the Sloppy Unruh tells the dramatic tale of charismatic 1950s con artist Sloppy Unruh who returns to his hometown in Texas determined to con his way back into his family's good graces.

Documentary winner Usama Alshaibi's documentary will document he and his father's journey through the terrain of war torn Iraq after a 24-year exile."
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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/29/2005 11:12:00 AM Comments (0)

"The oversized, obstinate title character in Vladimir Radunsky's latest picture book, The Mighty Asparagus (Harcourt/Silver Whistle, May), surely lives up to this appellation," writes Sally Lodge in Publisher's Weekly. It refuses to budge when a king, queen, princess and even the ruler's rhino try to remove it after it suddenly appears on the monarch's lawn. And as the subject of a forthcoming documentary film, Asparagus! (Stalking the American Life), it has consumed the lives of two filmmakers for nearly two years. The vegetable clearly has drawing power."

Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly's feature-length film Asparagus! "takes viewers to the small town of Oceana, Michigan, the self-proclaimed asparagus capital of the world. After 30 years, Oceana is facing the destruction of its farming base because of a little known provision in a trade bill resulting from the 'war on drugs' [which has inadvertently created a a strong Peruvian asparagus competitor]. Faced with economic ruin and the loss of their beloved vegetable, the community decides to fight back."

The filmmakers were recently awarded $5,000 in seed money from American Documentary, Inc., producer of the PBS documentary series P.O.V., as the winners of its first emerging filmmaker award at the popular workshop "The Art of the Documentary Pitch" at the annual Television Documentary Festival at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York.

The directors expect to debut the film at the National Asparagus Festival... "We'll roll out the green carpet," says Kelly, "and see who comes!" After that, "we plan to go to Sundance and bring a busload of folks from Oceana dressed as asparagus if we need to."
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/29/2005 09:59:00 AM Comments (0)

If you pick up the new issue of Filmmaker, you'll notice by reading our cover articles on Miranda July and her first feature, Me and You and Everyone We Know, the large role the Sundance Institute had in developing that film and supporting its production. July's film was a Summer 2003 Sundance Lab project and it went to become a hit at the Sundance Film Festival and will open from IFC Films this June. And then there's another Lab project I'm very interested in -- David Jacobson's Down in the Valley, which I thought was an amazing script and which will premiere in Cannes next month.

Now, Sundance has just announced its 2005 Summer Lab projects. (Off the bat, I'm excited to see Annemarie Jacir on the list as she was one of Filmmaker's "25 New Faces" of 2004.) From the press release:

"Over the course of the Filmmakers Lab, the selected eight filmmakers collaborate with professional actors and digital production crews, shooting and editing key scenes from their scripts. Through this hands-on process, the directors can do a 'dress rehearsal' of their material in an atmosphere where experimentation is encouraged. Filmmakers Lab participants also take part in the week-long Screenwriters Lab, when writers involved with five additional projects join the group to participate in one-on-one story sessions with established screenwriters.

"'We're excited to be supporting such a unique group of emerging filmmakers who bring their authentic voices to stories that are bold in content and aesthetic,' said Michelle Satter, Director of the Feature Film Program. 'We look forward to joining them on their creative journeys and see the June Lab as a centerpiece of our year-round program. Our commitment to including international work at the Labs continues with filmmakers from places as diverse as South Africa, New Zealand, the Middle East and Pakistan.'

"During the Labs, participants work with a group of accomplished creative advisors as part of a month-long mentoring process. Gyula Gazdag returns for his 9th year as Artistic Director for the Filmmakers Lab. This year's creative advisors include: John August, Walter Bernstein, Kathryn Bigelow, Robert Caswell, Erin Cressida Wilson, Joan Darling, Anthony Drazan, Suzy Elmiger, Sally Field, John Gatins, Keith Gordon, Robbie Greenberg, Catherine Hardwicke, Robert Nelson Jacobs, Michael Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeremy Kagan, Michael Lehmann, Malia Scotch Marmo, Peter Medak, Sally Menke, Walter Mosley, Ron Nyswaner, Harold Ramis, Robert Redford, Howard Rodman, Susan Shilliday, Stewart Stern, Joan Tewkesbury, Barbara Tulliver, Jon Turteltaub, Tyger Williams, Doug Wright, and Boaz Yakin."

Here are the projects in this summer's Lab:

Taika Waititi (writer/director), A LITTLE LIKE LOVE, New Zealand: For two awkward misfits, life is the question, and love is the answer. Taika Waititi is of Te Whanau-A-Apanui descent, from the east coast of New Zealand and directed the Academy-Award nominated short TWO CARS ONE NIGHT.

Cruz Angeles (co-writer/director) and Maria Topete (co-writer), DON'T LET ME DROWN: In a post-September 11th world overflowing with fear and hate, two Latino teens discover that sometimes the only thing that can keep them from drowning is love. Born in Mexico City and raised in Los Angeles, Cruz Angeles is an award-winning student filmmaker from the graduate film program at NYU. A Bay Area native, Maria Topete began her film career while studying at U.C. Berkeley, and has collaborated as co-writer and producer on several award-winning short films.

Dante Harper (writer/director), DREAMLAND: An unflinching portrayal of the origins of domestic terrorism, DREAMLAND is the tragic story of Tim McVeigh, from his boyhood dreams of being a soldier to his life as a man at war with his own country. Dante Harper is an independent filmmaker, video artist and co-founder of CLC Films and director of the independent film THE DELICATE ART OF THE RIFLE.

Andrew Dosunmu (co-writer/director) and Darci Picoult (co-writer), MOTHER OF GEORGE: Torn between her African culture and new life in America, a woman struggles to please her husband and give him the son that will carry on his family's legacy. Originally from Nigeria, Andrew Dosunmu has photographed artists including Outkast, Erykah Badu, and Mos Def and recently directed several episodes of the highly acclaimed South African television series YIZO YIZO 3.

Catherine Stewart (writer/director), TRANSIT CAFE, South Africa: Set in post-apartheid South Africa amid a volatile landscape of fear, hybrid cultures, and shifting identities, three unusual love stories intertwine with startling results on the streets of Johannesburg. Catherine Stewart received and MFA in screenwriting and directing from Columbia University in New York City before returning to Johannesburg to direct documentaries and the thirteen-part dramatic television series TSHA TSHA.

Eva Husson (writer/director), TINY DANCER: In Spanish Harlem, a talented high-school girl struggles to find the right balance between her overpowering family, her need for love, and her passion for contemporary dance. Eva Husson attended the Sorbonne-Nouvelle University in Paris before graduating from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, where she wrote and directed the award-winning short film HOPE TO DIE.

Stew (co-writer/director) and Heidi Rodewald (co-writer), WE CAN SEE TODAY: The vibrant and authentic story of the deeply intimate and complex relationship between two families -- one black, one Jewish -- living in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles circa 1973. Stew is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter whose releases have won numerous "Album of the Year" accolades. Born in Pomona, California, Heidi Rodewald is the other half of the multi-disciplinary art team known as STEW.

Ryan Eslinger (writer/director), WHEN A MAN FALLS IN THE FOREST: The lives of three lonely men intersect as they struggle to overcome their deepening isolation and search for connection. Los Angeles resident Ryan Eslinger directed his first feature, MADNESS AND GENIUS, at the age of 23.

These filmmakers will be joined at the 2005 June Screenwriters Lab by the following participants and projects:

Martin Moran (writer), CELESTIAL NAVIGATION: Celestial Navigation is the story of a Roman Catholic boy's sexual relationship with an older man and its effect on the man he becomes. Martin Moran grew up in Denver and attended Stanford University and The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. He won a 2004 Obie Award for his one man play, THE TRICKY PART, which was developed at The Sundance Theater Lab.

Jake Mahaffy (writer/director), FREE IN DEED: Three years after attempting to perform a miracle in Oil City, a religious man returns to confront the town's few remaining residents with the reasons for his criminal act. Born in Ohio and currently residing in southwest Virginia, Jake Mahaffy has made award winning short films and the feature-length WAR.

Sabiha Sumar (writer/director), RAFINA, Pakistan: Rafina is the story of a young woman struggling to define herself in a new, emerging Pakistan -- a Pakistan that is steeped in a timeless way of life and, at the same time, is in the throes of cataclysmic change. Born in Karachi, Sabiha Sumar studied Filmmaking and Political Science at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and then studied International Relations at the University of Cambridge. KHAMOSH PANI (SILENT WATERS), her first feature film premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2003 where it won the Golden Leopard for Best Film, Leopard for Best Actress and three other awards.

Annemarie Jacir (writer/director), SALT OF THIS SEA, U.S.A./Palestinian: A Palestinian-American girl, intent on asserting her right of return, travels to the West Bank and meets a dynamic young man who joins her on an adventure journeying across borders. Palestinian-American filmmaker Annemarie Jacir has written, directed and produced both narrative and documentary shorts.

Salvatore Stabile (writer/director), WHERE GOD LEFT HIS SHOES: A struggling ex-boxer and his family, desperate to leave the shelter they've been living in, get a Christmas Eve gift of an apartment to call their own -- but only if Dad can find a job by the end of the day. New York native and L.A. resident Salvatore Stabile made his directing debut when he was 21 years old with the film GRAVESEND.
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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/27/2005 05:10:00 PM Comments (0)

I met with a young filmmaker the other day who told me that she couldn't decide whether she should try to make her film for $2 million, $1 million, $500,000 or even do it no-budget at $150,000. She said she wanted to make sure that whatever she did, her film would make its money back.

My response was to recommend that she construct her budget based on the creative and production needs of the film as well as the resources she's able to tap into. But to bring in the specter of profitability? Well, as I explained, a $150,000 film can turn out to be a terrible investment, losing all its money, while a bloated Hollywood blockbuster that careens over-budget can still be a good investment for its studio. When it comes to smaller films, there is just no equation between the lowermost end of the budget and profitability. Either a film sells or it doesn't, and you just have to make sure that your budget and your creative development process allows you to make the best and most sellable version of your film.

In this fascinating article in Slate, Edward Jay Epstein walks you through the new Hollywood accounting, explaining why films like Tomb Raider and Gone in Sixty Seconds are virtually no-risk propositions for the studios. Epstein is the author of The Big Picture: The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood, a book I'm going to pick up after reading this Slate piece.
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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/27/2005 04:54:00 PM Comments (0)

"Personal documentaries -- films being made by people about their own lives or those very close to them -- are more prevalent than ever, and if the programming at the recent doc festivals around the world is any indication, the trend isn't slowing down." Via indieWIRE.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/27/2005 12:27:00 PM Comments (0)

Cam Archer, who was kind enough to interview Mysterious Skin co-stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbett for Filmmaker while he was at Sundance earlier this year to premiere his short Forgetting Jonathan Brandis, wrote via e-mail to let us know he has just completed a new music video for the band Six Organs of Admittance.

The gorgeous, lyrical video for the song "Eighth Cognition/All You've Left," from Six Organ's new album School of the Flower (Drag City), can be viewed on Cam's Web site.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/27/2005 11:46:00 AM Comments (0)

The Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Realisateurs) of the Festival de Cannes announced its lineup today. Among the films debuting in the festival sidebar, begun in 1968, are: Factotum (Germany), an adaptation of Charles Bukowski's eponymous story, from the Norwegian director Bent Hamer, and starring Matt Dillon; American director Lodge Kerrigan's Keane, produced by Steven Soderbergh and featuring a breakthrough performance by Damian Lewis; and two films which debuted earlier this year at Sundance, Kyle Henry's Room and Greg McLean's Wolf Creek (Australia).

I am also thrilled to see Joao Pedro Rodrigues's second feature Odete in the lineup. Joao Pedro's controversial first feature O Fantasma debuted at Venice and was subsequently released in the States via PictureThis! Entertainment. (You can buy it on DVD through TLA Video.) I met Joao Pedro through our mutul friend Ian Birnie, and he and his partner Joao Rui took me on a tour of Lisbon's nightlife during a memorable trip to Portugal some years back. (Full disclosure: I was on the jury of the New Fest in NY the year O Fantasma was named Best Feature, but I didn't meet Joao Pedro until after this.)

According to the Directors' Fortnight Web site: Odete features two interlocking stories: "Odete works in a hypermarket in Lisbon. She dreams of having a child with her boyfriend, Alberto, who works in the same hypermarket as a night watchman. But when Odete tells him about her desire for a child, Alberto runs away. Left alone, Odete becomes obsessed with her dream. Two youths, Pedro and Rui, are kissing outside a bar. They have been together for a year now and exchange engagement rings and oaths of love. Pedro goes home by car and Rui returns to the bar where he works at night. A few streets away, and a few minutes later, Pedro has a car accident. He dies in the arms of Rui, who comes running to help him. Rui, forlorn and hopeless, loses the desire to live. But the love between Pedro and Rui is eternal. Strangely, their destiny will meet that of Odete, who is summoned by Pedro's ghost."

"Directors' Fortnight has a reputation for elitist or difficult films," said artistic director Oliver Pere, "but my aim was to showcase films that are intelligent and achieve what they set out to do."
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/26/2005 11:01:00 AM Comments (0)

Among the many new DVD titles listed for sale at Luminous Film and Video Wurks is Hans-Jurgen Syberberg's 7-hour-long magnum opus Hitler, a Film from Germany (1977). It's not clear from the LFVW site whether this an imported copy of the BFI box set from 1994 -- but at $14.95 it's a real bargain. (For those with really high-speed connections and limitless patience, the entire film can also apparently be viewed online at Syberberg's own Web site free of charge).

"Originally presented on German television in four parts, Syberberg presents a simple theme: Such evil as occurred in Hitler could never have existed without the support, however unwitting, of the rest of humanity. The presentation is the stuff of nightmares. The music of Hitler's beloved Richard Wagner is included to suggest a sort of decadent, modern Wagnerian opera. Syberberg's vision is not an optimistic one; it is forthright and brutal in its honesty, a vision of humanity's dark, unsettling dreams."

"Susan Sontag [was] one of the most perceptive critics to engage Syberberg's Hitler, A Film from Germany, which was released in the United States under the title Our Hitler by Francis Ford Coppola. The film itself, made in twenty days of shooting after four years of preparation on a budget of $500,000, caused an enormous controversy when it was released in 1979, and continues to call for responses, both positive and negative, in critical circles today.

"Syberberg's two themes are film and Hitler, the art medium of the twentieth century and the subject of the twentieth century. One might include here all of the permutations of these two terms: Hitler as film, Hitler in film, film as Hitler's privileged medium, and our own, contemporary construction of Hitler as one that is, ultimately, cinematic in the sense that Hitler functions as a 'screen' for many of the internal projection machanisms of modern mass culture, Germany in particular. These two themes in their entwinement are articulated and interrogated on a grand, even 'mythic' scale, enacted theatrically on a stage, combining and mixing different modes, genres, media: the puppet show, the fairy tale, circus, morality play, philosophical dialogue, and, of course, film itself. "
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/25/2005 02:53:00 PM Comments (0)

Two new Web sites have launched as resources for filmmakers looking to network or to manage their productions online:

"Some friends and I sat down two years ago to design a Web site for film/TV production," writes Steve Kleiman. "We wanted it to manage the little things that get reinvented every production we worked on. Two years later the result is up at ProdInfo.net."

"Prodinfo differs from other tools you might use to manage your film or television project. ProdInfo is a specialized tool meeting the unique needs of a demanding industry. The system knows what a 'Grip' is, how to sort your scenes in script versus shoot order, and how to adjust a call time. ProdInfo [also] shares information instantly on the Web. Other software tools revolve around one person controlling information from a single computer. Updates are printed out and faxed. Since ProdInfo is entirely Web-based, everyone on your project can access current information at anytime from any Internet-connected computer in the world. There's no special software to install."

StrongEyeContact.com, a new networking Web site for filmmakers and entertainers, is described as "Craig's List meets the Actor's Studio." The site is designed to allow filmmakers to find everything they need to make their film a success: namely, actors, crew members, and publicity.

"Online networking is white hot these days," says Brad Hinley, co-founder of Gorilla Films, a division of StrongEyeContact.com, "but Web-based technology simpy hasn't beed used to help those in the entertainment industry -- until now."

Producers, soundmen, makeup artists, lighting techs, actors, post editors, camera men -- they all have something in common. They are forced to pursue projects through traditional indirect avenues. "Thanks to Web-based social networking technologies -- including Web service alerts, project management tools and centralized communications -- the process is being democratized. [StrongEyeContact's] ease-of-use interface speeds up film and commercial production collaboration directly between people breaking into the industry."
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/25/2005 11:10:00 AM Comments (0)

Early last month Screening Room Digital Cinemas announced an e-cinema initiative to develop a network of 100 Digital Boutique Arthouse Cinemas over the next year. The cinemas will be company-owned and available as franchises for independent operators.

"The Digital Boutique Arthouse is a unique, modular designed deluxe cinema concept combining digital technology with an initimate 'eatery' style design... Cinemas will be equipped with projection, server and satellite technology, and will have access to an ongoing slate of independent, arthouse, and classic programming."

Screening Room Digital Cinemas is a division of The Screening Room, Inc. of Amherst, NY, which also operates Screening Room Entertainment, a digital releasing division, and The Screening Room Cinema & Cafe, one of the country's first alternative digital cinemas, in operation since 1993.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/25/2005 10:53:00 AM Comments (0)

In today's Arkansas Democrat Gazette is an another indie-film horror story. Written by composer Jason Morphew (who made it into our "Super 8" last year) about his ill-fated experience on Tim McCann's Runaway (which premieres this week at the Tribeca Film Festival), the piece details what happens all too often when budgets are low and the lines of communication between the producer, director and financier are less than transparent. Since the piece will go off-line within the next couple of days, I've posted it in its entirety below. Read and weep.

"Just Dying to Score"
By Jason Morphew

It took an hour and two ink cartridges to download and print the Runaway Boys screenplay.

Once done, I realized the pages weren't numbered. I had placed the hundred-plus sheets, about five at a time, face down on the table next to my girlfriend, Krissy's, computer, assuming I could easily collate later.

So I read the screenplay out of order on my back patio, in the squint-inducing summer sunlight of Los Angeles. Again, I had assumed the author's intended sequence of scenes would manifest itself to me as I read. Unfortunately, this screenplay contained several near-identical scenes featuring the same two boys saying similar things to each other in a motel room. It was an accidental-postmodern reading experience.

My old friend Bob had e-mailed Runaway Boys to me earlier that day. He was producing the small-budgeted film for a small New York production company with only one other theatrical release to their credit, something relatively well-received featuring Robert Wagner. Bob wanted me to write some songs for the film, songs that sounded "rural." He suggested that I use accordion and harmonica; he even threw out some guitar chords for consideration.

I disregarded his suggestions because rural comes naturally to me, without coaching. Besides, the production company wasn't offering me any money yet. Bob was in charge of the budget, however, and he assured me that if I "threw my hat in the window" soon, the money allotted for the film's music would be mine.

He added, "And let me know if you think of a better title. Runaway Boys sounds so sissy."

This was in late August. I had scheduled a performance at Lyon College in Batesville for mid-September, so I knew I would be in Arkansas then, my pockets full of gig-cash as I rattled down the highways of my home state. I called my bass-player friend, Rod, in Little Rock and asked him if he'd be interested in collaborating on the project, if we could record it in the tool shed in his back yard. I offered him all the money I was to make from the Lyon College show.

He agreed and suggested a friend named Zach should play drums. When my guitarist pal, Alex, agreed to record with us, the band was in place. Bob had only asked for four or five songs, but I wanted to record an album's worth, so I made the two-day drive to Arkansas planning to record at least five more numbers than the film needed. I had written the film songs quickly, inspired by descriptive phrases in the screen play and the tones of my favorite scenes. All of these inspirational phrases and scenes would be removed during the filming process, but I didn't know that then, as I blew through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma in my '92 Chrysler New Yorker, J.J. Cale and The Magnetic Fields pouring out through my open windows.

We began recording a few days before my show at Lyon, starting with the songs I'd written in the screenplay's margins before moving on to slightly older material..., me singing into an antique Dictaphonestyle microphone that Rod had bought for less than a dollar at a south Arkansas yard sale. I strummed along on a 1950s-era Silvertone classical guitar that only has five strings. I liked the weird, broken chords I'm forced to play with the D string missing.

"That guitar sounds like gravel shaken in a plastic cup," Rod said of my Silvertone. We broke for the weekend and my gig at Lyon, agreeing to reconvene early the following week.


NO "TRIUMPH"

Moments after I'd finished my show at Lyon, the nervous, red-haired undergraduate who'd been charged with paying me said the college had either already mailed my fee to L.A. or would do so on Monday. This delay frustrated me, but I didn't imagine it would result in the desperate tug-of-war I found myself waging three days later with Rod in his Stifft Station record store, each of us red-faced and grimacing as we pushed each other out of the way, scrambling to grab the tapes we'd been recording the new songs on.

You can have 'em when I get paid!" Rod growled.

I managed to escape Rod's store and Arkansas with the tapes in my bag. The Lyon check was in my mailbox the night I returned to L.A. The next morning, after I'd mailed the money to Rod, Bob phoned. He said that he and Tim, the film's director, had begun to edit the movie, and they didn't think the film had any room for songs now. I looked over at the stack of tapes on the kitchen table.

"But," Bob continued, "This guy Drew who was supposed to do the score ain't cuttin' it. We're thinking that maybe you could give it a whack."

This combination of bitter disappointment, followed closely by a vague sense of hope, came to characterize my experience of working on this project.

"Sure, of course, I'll score it," I stammered.

I'd never scored a film before, but was eager to try. Eagerness and Hollywood is a poisonous cocktail. If you insist on persevering, you drink it down again and again, hoping you survive long enough to let go of one or the other. Several days later, director Tim called from upstate New York, where he teaches a college course in filmmaking.

"I'm thinking there should be three themes -- no, four themes," Tim said.

He proceeded to name five, all of which, though "hopeful," weren't supposed to sound "triumphant" or "fulfilled." The music should suggest "potential," should be full of a "shyness" that conjured the atmosphere of recurring nightmares while also possessing a "minimalist," "abstract," "subterranean" quality. The music must be "inconspicuous," Tim said, but it should also sound "like a disease that's eating" at the main character. He wanted lots of "pulsing" and "humming," too.

So of course I told him I knew just what he meant and asked when I could see the film.

"Soon," Tim said. "The editor's in the middle of a new cut right now."

A DVD copy of this new version of the film -- the name now vastly improved to Runaway -- arrived at my house several days before I was booked to fly back to Little Rock to record the film music with Alex, Zach, and a keyboard player named Aaron. Along with the DVD came a small check from the production company, which I would soon spend on traveling to and from Little Rock and paying the musicians.

I watched the film with my old Silvertone in my lap, experimenting with chord progressions, getting a feel for the movie. Filmed on digital video, the colors looked washed out, with watery red dominating the claustrophobic interior scenes.

I associate red with the musical key of A, so I instantly decided to compose all of the film's music in that key. I composed five themes and felt sure that if the musicians in Little Rock and I recorded enough good versions of those themes for Tim to choose from, we'd easily complete a score he'd like.


NO INSTRUMENTS

This time the guys and I would record at guitarist Alex's house, with his pug, Hankie, snoring at our feet and his roommate, Adam, politely enduring our conspicuous din. Adam owns a harp, and I thought that decorating our work with that oft-employed film score instrument would make our music more movie-esque.

We taped close to six hours of music over the course of a week, playing my five themes repeatedly -- sometimes we all played at once, sometimes two of us would drone along together, and sometimes one of us would earnestly pluck out the tune alone. Sometimes the music sounded organic, natural, and at other times we ran every instrument through as many effects pedals as we could find.

The keyboardist, Aaron, with whom I'd never played before, seemed the most bored, banging out the same four chords hour after abstract hour. From time to time, Aaron would jump to his feet and pace around the room, massaging his neck, seeming to long to be back at his job in west Little Rock, or at the dentist's office, or picking up trash on the freeway -- anywhere but in Alex's living room, playing the same strange chord progressions for days.

When those long, minimalist-music days were through, I flew home to L.A., pleased with the music we'd recorded. I booked time in the Writers' Studio at Sony -- which I was relieved to learn that I could still use for free -- in order to mix the music, and I asked Bob to meet me at the studio to listen to what I now proudly referred to as "the score."

Bob loved what he heard, which gave me the confidence to overnight Tim the rough mixes of what I was now convincing myself was an uncommonly clever little score, rich in suggestion, somehow bold in its restraint. My only real gift is fantasy, and I was putting the finishing touches on a vision that contained droll acceptance speeches.

But then Tim called the next night to tell me that the film's editor had been fired, thus making the DVD to which I'd composed obsolete; that the music I'd mailed to him was too "busy" and "musical" for him to use; and that I shouldn't listen to anything that Bob says, since he's not the director and Bob has no idea what he's talking about.

I've endured some hard phone calls in my time, but this one was especially difficult, not only for the information it contained but also for the awkward silences that punctuated that information. Tim and I hardly knew each other.

"Can you make it sound, ah, less melodic?" Tim asked.

"Of course. I can isolate a note and loop it, make it sound distorted," I assured him.

"Well, I don't want it to sound too space-agey. This isn't Blade Runner."

"Yeah, 'rural.' Right?" "No," he said, without following it with a suggestion.

I rushed to fill the silence with, "Something more neutral ?" "Yes."

Another long pause. Then, almost comprehensibly, "I don't want to be able to tell what instrument is being played."

"Well, there's a synthesizer at Sony I can use," I tried.

"Great. Do that, and put lots of pulsing underneath it," he said in an almost excited tone, having found a path that led out of the call.

"Can I see the new edit of the film?"

"I'll send you something soon," he said, like it didn't matter whether I saw it or not.


NOT A NAME

Thus began months of more recording at Sony. I abandoned the key of A, along with my fantastical optimism. Now I only had a job to do, and I was determined to struggle through it, even if it required writing and recording the score to a film I couldn't see.

The struggle seemed to be drawing to a close in mid-February. Tim, though unwilling to praise my ever-devolving score, at least had been saying of the new music I'd been sending to him, "I think I can use some of this." Coming from him, this was ecstatic.

So I felt relatively confident as I boarded the plane in Mexico, coming back from a vacation to return to Los Angeles. I decided to phone Bob to see if he wanted to get a beer. We met at a bar around the corner from my house, I told him about my vacation, and I asked him what was happening with the film.

Bob looked over my shoulder, toward the jukebox, and said, "Well, the production company hired this music supervisor who worked on their other film, and she wants to put her imprint on the project, so she's brought in some guy named Anton to do the score."

"Wait. What?" I asked, not attempting to temper the panic in my voice. "What did Tim say?"

"Tim quit the film three times while you were in Mexico," Bob said. "They keep changing the edits from the way he wants them, and then this Anton thing pushed him over the edge. I had to call him and say, 'OK, take your head out of the oven...'"

Bob was being funny. I didn't laugh.

"So what happens now?" I asked, somewhat afraid to hear his response, briefly reflecting on the fact I hadn't yet been paid.

"Well, if this is gonna be a contest, I wanna win. I say we go over to my editor friend's house by UCLA -- you remember Sven -- and hammer this thing out. Let's put your music in, wall-towall, send it to New York, and say, 'Here you go -- top this.'"

Over the next two days we made our own version of Runaway, with my music in almost every scene. It was long, tedious work, and I was grateful to Bob and Sven for doing it.

New York didn't like our version. They didn't not like my music -- it was just that Anton had scored several semi-successful independent films before and so he was more of a "name." Tim didn't like our version, either, but when he heard Anton's ideas for the score several days later, he liked those even less, and Anton didn't get the job.

When Tim called with more instructions for revising my score, soon after rejecting Anton's work -- which was also shortly after the film had been accepted into the fast-approaching Tribeca Film Festival in New York -- I felt I'd weathered the last, most humiliating storm of this journey. Bob told me to expect a call from my mysterious nemesis, the music supervisor, soon, and to keep my schedule open, because the production company would probably need to fly me out to New York to help them put my music in the final edit of the film.

As I write this, Tribeca is three weeks away, and New York hasn't called. I've kept my schedule open, which is its natural state. In passing the other day, as if I wouldn't find the information remotely interesting, Bob mentioned that the music supervisor had hired yet another film composer -- named Robert Miller -- to write the score.

"She took the Anton thing personally, and she's trying to save face," Bob said.

Once again I helplessly asked, "What did Tim say?"

"I sent him an e-mail about it, and he just replied, 'Whatever, dude,'" Bob said, and laughed.

When I didn't laugh, Bob said, "I wouldn't sweat it. They're mixing the film in three days."

"There's no time for this guy to write and record a whole film score in less than a week."

"Exactly."

"It was my music in the version that got accepted to Tribeca !"

"Tell me about it. Hey, we're looking for a song to go over the last shot of the movie. Something rural. What do you think of Patti Griffin?"

Runaway -- featuring a score by Robert Miller -- premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday.
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# posted by Matthew Ross @ 4/24/2005 04:01:00 PM Comments (2)

Via Wiley Wiggins comes the following online viewing tip: Doctor Macro image archives.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/24/2005 01:01:00 PM Comments (0)

Via the Maddogmovies blog: Encore's new documentary, Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream, directed by Stuart Samuels, is screening out of competition at the Festival de Cannes -- as a midnight movie.

"Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream ... focuses on movies that re-invented the film medium while pushing the boundaries of 'bad taste' and 'social taboos.' These filmmakers shared a common desire to upset the traditional aspects of making films -- taking filmmaking beyond the norm by making films for ritual viewing, not box office success."

"Exploitation movies were over [by the 1970s]," explains John Waters. "Sexploitation was over; porn was legal, and Deep Throat became radical chic... I had to go further than something like Deep Throat... [to make a film] that society [hadn't] made up a law for yet!"

"These films grew out of 'an America split down the middle' by the Vietnam War," Samuels is quoted as saying on the JSOnline Web site earlier this year, when the doc screened at the Sundance Film Festival. "The reason they were on the margin at the time was because they offended everybody. To break taboos as an indication of political, social and individual worth was new with these films."

Of course, subversive cinema had been around long before the 1970; Amos Vogel's Film as a Subversive Art (reprinted this year by CT Editions and distributed by DAP) traces transgressive tendencies in filmmaking to much earlier periods in the history of film. What was really pioneered in the 1970s -- and which Samuels' documentary, loosely based on Jim Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum's book Midnight Movies, illustrates in great detail -- was the practice of programming films like Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo in arthouses for open runs at midnight -- which made the film an "event" and also allowed it to build a much larger audience through word of mouth.

"Midnight movies were pothead movies," says Waters. "They were a party for ironic insomniacs."

"Midnight movies loosened up everything else," he added, "and then everything changed... As soon as video came out, it was over. You [could have] your own midnight movie in your own home: you could smoke pot, you could have sex, you could do everything people did at midnight movies [in the privacy of your own home]."

"The 'original purpose of such films was to throw a finger in people's face -- to make them wake up or think about things,' says Samuels... Once they were absorbed by the mainstream... that intent had 'become neutralized.' All that remained of their roots was their ability to shock."

"I don't think I've changed," says Waters. "I think my humor is the same. I think the American public has changed."

Following the broadcast premiere of Midnight Movies on August 5th, Encore will air a series of midnight movies that have achieved cult status, including El Topo, Night of the Living Dead, Pink Flamingos, The Harder They Come, Eraserhead, and the most commercially successful of all midnight movies, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/22/2005 03:57:00 PM Comments (1)

When Lars von Trier's Dogville screened in competition at Cannes two years ago, some members of the American press, most notably Variety's Todd McCarthy, took the naughty Dane's anti-American's potshots rather personally. This week, the festival announced that Manderlay, the second installment in the director's "American Trilogy" would be making its way to the Croisette next month.

According to the film's website, Manderlay picks up where Dogville left off. This time, our erstwhile 1930's heroine Grace (played by Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of Ron Howard, who took on the role after Nicole Kidman dropped out), discovers a town in Alabama where people have been living as if slavery had never been abolished. She then decides to make things right. While I haven't seen the film, I've got a pretty good idea of what von Trier likes to do to people with good intentions, especially when they're dealing with "Americans," so I'm keeping my fingers crosses for poor Grace. (Will she ever learn?)

After watching the film's trailer, in which John Hurt soberly intones the different classifications of "nigger" over shots of Danny Glover and Isaach De Bankole, among others, I can only imagine what McCarthy is going to say about this one.
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# posted by Matthew Ross @ 4/22/2005 02:50:00 PM

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

CINEMAD NO. 9 

Sundance and Cinvegas programmer, journalist and very occasional Filmmaker contributor Mike Plante emailed to say that the new issue of his spirited film zine Cinemad is now online. Click on the link for the current issue, which contains interviews with Bruce Conner, Crispin Hellion Glover, Alejandro Jodorowsky and more.

Plante also passes on some festival deadlines in his email which I'll cut and paste below:

"Some rad festivals coming up:

MadCat Women's International Film Festival seeks provocative and visionary films and videos directed or co-directed by women. Films can be of any length or genre and produced ANY year. MadCat is committed to showcasing work that challenges the use of sound and image and explores notions of visual story telling. All subjects/topics will be considered. Submission Fee: $10-30 sliding scale. Pay what you can afford. For an entry form and more details go to www.madcatfilmfestival.org or call 415 436-9523. Preview Formats: VHS or DVD. Exhibition Formats: 35mm, 16mm, Super8, Beta SP, Mini DV, VHS. All entries must include a SASE for return of materials. Early Deadline: March 25, 2005. Final Deadline: May 13, 2005.

And I'm a juror for a festival of films three minutes and shorter. It's like they're reading my mind: Extremely Shorts 8: Works Three Minutes and Under. Entry Deadline May 1 as part of Aurora Picture Show's 7th Anniversary."
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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/20/2005 09:57:00 PM Comments (0)

PUNK TV 

Danny Vinik's TV Party, a documentary about Glenn O'Brien's TV Party, the legendary public access TV show from the late-1970s, is among the many films premiering at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

According to the film's press release, "In [the late 1970s], two revolutionary trends emerged in New York City: public access TV and punk rock. Punk rock was about do-it-yourself television. Punk rock was about do-it-yourself music. These two phenomena were made for each other and they came together spectacularly in Glenn O'Brien's TV Party. "

Capitalizing on the novelty and low cost of producing public access television, Glenn O'Brien, a columnist for Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, sought to create a weekly hour-long program that would feature a who's who of New York's downtown glitterati. Part variety show and part Happening, O'Brien modeled his offbeat show on Hugh Hefner's Playboy After Dark -- a TV show in the form of a party.

As O'Brien writes on the film's Web site: "The TV Party gang came together spontaneously. My best friends were Chris Stein, the guitarist of Blondie, Edo Bertoglio, a photographer, with whom I collaborated on many magazine jobs (and later on the film Downtown 81), and the film director Amos Poe. Edo became a cameraman. Amos became the director. Chris became the show's co-host. [Walter Steding provided musical accompaniment to the madness at hand.] Chris and I had a lot of things in common: friends, music, art, drugs and delinquincy. We were serious potheads and we were always trading buds and talking big ideas...

"'[We described] TV Party [as] the show that's a cocktail party but which could also be be a political party.' That was the slogan. My idea," says O'Brien, "was that socialism meant going out every night, and that social action started with socializing. I think we were trying to inject a sort of tribal element into things. That's what happens when you smoke reefers and read Marshall McLuhan... I thought we could do subliminal politics as absurdist comedy. I actually did believe in anarchy, as the peaceful society that comes after the 'withering away of the state.' I thought withering away the state sounded like fun, so we made fun of the state every chance we got.

... "I guess it was punk TV," he adds. "We were anti-technique, anti-format, and anti-establishment. We liked to break all the rules of good broadcasting... They say 'dead air' is the kiss of death in broadcasting, but we liked it. Sometimes we would sit perfectly still, like a tape on pause, but it was live."

Glenn O'Brien's TV Party -- which featured appearances by Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Klaus Nomi, Debbie Harry, John Lurie, Tuxedo Moon, DNA, David Byrne, Jean-Michel Basquiat, hip-hop pioneers Fab Five Freddie and Funky Four Plus One, among many other guests -- ran for four years, from 1978-1982.

Following the screenings of TV Party at the Tribeca fest on April 27, 29 and 30, Brink DVD plans to release a limited edition 3-DVD box set on May 15 that will include Danny Vinik's feature documentary and two original episodes of Glenn O'Brien's TV Party. The documentary, produced by Kai Eric and Danny Ninik (Spun), includes interviews with Glenn O'Brien, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Walter Steding, Amos Poe, Arto Lindsay, Fred Brathwaite and company, along with hilarious footage from the original show.

A stand-alone episode of TV Party, TV Party Crusades Show, can also be purchased from Brink DVD.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/20/2005 12:11:00 PM Comments (1)

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

FESTIVAL DE CANNES LINEUP ANNOUNCED 

"North American films dominate this year's Festival de Cannes lineup announced Tuesday," write Charles Masters and Stuart Kemp in the Hollywood Reporter, "with 10 films from the United States, Canada and Mexico set to unspool, including seven in Competition."

According to Cannes' artistic delegate Thierry Fremaux, the Festival "will present 53 films from different 28 countries. In total, there will be 50 world premieres, bearing witness to the Festival de Cannes' desire to show previously unseen work. There are 20 feature films in competition from 13 different countries. The Selection is also presenting 11 first films, one of which is in competition."

The complete lineup of all sections can be found on the fest's Web site.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/19/2005 12:42:00 PM Comments (2)

THE LEGEND OF LUCY KEYES: TAPELESS HD PRODUCTION 

According to a press release received today, Moody Street Pictures' The Legend of Lucy Keyes made a splash at NAB2005 in Las Vegas:

"...The Legend of Lucy Keyes, [co-starring Julie Delpy and Justin Theroux, directed by John Stimpson, and] shot entirely on location in central Massachusetts... has delivered upon the full promise of High Definition moviemaking.

"In addition to the high-profile cast, the project was edited with a new all-digital process that features a seamless integration of [footage from Panasonic's VariCam's HD 24p camera (pictured below)] and the latest version of Apple's Final Cut Pro software. The post-production and editing process is being executed in the same digital HD format as the camera originals. The result has been a revolutionary and efficient digital production and post-production process, complete with high-tech visual effects sequences that have set a new standard for independent filmmaking.

"Bypassing the traditional offline to online process, once the picture is locked the editing system will output a final non-color corrected series of files for film transfer at Technicolor in New York. Technicolor will then color correct the uncompressed media, and using a laser recorder, will scan the images back onto negative film. Prints can then be made of this negative master and be distributed to traditional film projection theaters.

..."Dave Bigelow, a pioneering HD editor and the film's post-production supervisor, orchestrated the workflow and oversaw much of the HD process [which he shocased at] this years NAB Conference before a number of eager Final Cut users and production professionals. 'With the relatively low cost of digital storage, the whole post-production process has been handled in the very same HD format on which we shot -- there was no need to down-res for an offline edit,' said Bigelow. 'On top of that, the relatively small size of the VariCam's digital format, allowed us to have Brickyard VFX, our special effects house, deliver their completed effects sequences over the Web. In fact the sound mix process worked in the exact same way. As a result, we were inserting and matching visual effects scenes into the film's timeline as we were shooting. This has been a truly digital filmmaking process and we couldn't be happier with the results. I think the production of this film is proof of a new method to make films at a fraction of the cost and complexity of traditional filmmaking.

"The Legend of Lucy Keyes was shot on the Panasonic VariCam's 720p/24fps digital format. Due to its relatively small size and portability the camera allowed for the majority of the footage to be shot handheld, giving the filmmakers the ability to move about freely and quickly and accommodate as many as 30 set-ups a day. Since there were no expensive film stock concerns the director and cinematographer were able to experiment with shot selection and angles without sacrificing cinematic image quality. Because of the VariCam's compatibility with Final Cut Pro the post-production process could begin immediately on set in full resolution 720p HD. 'There were no additional compression issues and no quality loss,' Stimpson says, 'I was dumping the HD footage, in its entirety, directly onto my portable hard drive and cutting shots directly into the film on my Powerbook G4. I have a completely portable edit suite and every stage of the post-production process has been 100% tapeless.'"
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/19/2005 11:31:00 AM Comments (2)

Monday, April 18, 2005

THREE WITH PRIDE 

Over at Movie City Indie, Ray pride has scores of new posts and links up, three of which particularly caught my eye.

First, he notes the forthcoming Rubber Johnny, a new short film and 40-page book by the greatest director in the world... er, I mean, the interesting U.K. music video director Chris Cunningham. The film will be scored by Cunningham's frequent collaborator Aphex Twin.

And then there's an interesting article in the French-language Liberation about how French distribution great Marin Karmitz, citing economic reasons, has unilaterally made the decision to release Gregg Araki's new film, Mysterious Skin on digital projection only in France. Apparently Araki wasn't informed.

And then, finally, a piece he picked up via Green Cine Daily: this promotional short on the Apple Site in which the great editor Walter Murch discusses the new Apple application Soundtrack Pro, which looks to be the Mac riposte to Pro Tools.
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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/18/2005 11:44:00 PM Comments (0)

Friday, April 15, 2005

I AM A SEX ADDICT (& PHILOSOPHER) 

Director Caveh Zahedi talks with braintrustdv.com about his latest feature I Am A Sex Addict, which screens next week at the Tribeca Film Festival:

"The film is a portrait of a sex addict, and the women are seen through his eyes.

"The film never pretends that what we are seeing is the truth about these women. If anything, it implies just the opposite. What's clear in the film is that he is unable to see them clearly and projects his own needs onto them. We, as viewers, can see that his view of them is entirely delusional. In this sense, I feel that the film is absolutely anti-objectification -- only rather than showing strong women or fully developed female characters, the film shows the consequences of objectification. This is also a very Hegelian idea -- that you have to go through the stages of history to get to the end of history."
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# posted by Webmaster @ 4/15/2005 12:21:00 PM Comments (0)

15 

An interesting article by Erika Franklin, "The Jaywalkers: Filmmaking Singaporean Style," in Firecracker -- a recently-launched online magazine specializing in East Asian cinema -- profiles the new wave of independent filmmakers coming out of Singapore. Among these is Royston Tan, whose film 15 played this past weekend at the Mix Festival in NY prior to a theatrical run, via Picture This!, at Anthology Film Archives.

As Ziad Semaan writes in his review of Royston's film in the same issue of Firecracker 3: "The notoriously controversial 15 has finally broken out of its native Singapore and into the eyes of the rest of the world. Royston Tan's nihilistic attitude towards the traditions of both his country and the filmmaking process within have attracted more attention to the film than it probably deserves -- although how can one turn down an invitation to view a film considered 'a threat to national security' by the Singaporean censorship board?

"Tan's exploration of the alienated and disturbing lives of five fifteen year-olds on the glossy streets of Singapore's metropolis provides a chilling insight into the degradation of overlooked fringes in a wealthy Westernized society. Abandoned by disintegrating value-systems, such as their schools and families, the boys drift through an aimless routine of skipping school, dealing drugs, indulging in tattoos and piercings, not to mention other ills of consumer-focused societies...

"Tan's use of real life street kids who reinterpret his vision from their eerily similar lives certainly drives home the point, but more provocative than the violence, bad language and drug use (of which the films of Larry Clark have portrayed more extremely) is Tan's heavily stylized and unconventional style. His fast-paced slicing of the film is muddled with MTV chapter titles and scenarios depicted in true video game aesthetics. But, simultaneously, Tan presents the friendship and comraderie of these gang members in some patient sequences with stunning, if sometimes inconsistent, cinematography. Tan uses the cut with skill and precision -- sometimes to present the apathy and emptiness of these boys' lives, while other times extending their suffering, editing repeated shots into extended sequences (such as boys cutting themselves or the torturous drug-trafficking)."
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/15/2005 10:51:00 AM Comments (1)

Thursday, April 14, 2005

J-POP VS. J-HORROR 

An exhibition curated by the artist Takashi Murakami at the Japan Society in New York, entitled "Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture," posits that the birth of new forms of Japanese contemporary culture -- distinguished by the kawaii ("cute") motifs found in everything from Hello Kitty to Murakami's own "superflat" art -- can be traced to the trauma and generational aftershock of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

"In Murakami's perspective, a resonant figure for Japan's contemporary condition is that of the 'little boy'--both the nickname for the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and an image of Japan's infantalized culture."

This lead us to wonder if Japan's other phenomenally succesful exports, the recent wave of Japanese horror films, can be explained as manifestations of the same trauma that lead instead to more disturbing expressions of rage, anxiety and confusion?

In an article entitled "Horror, Japanese Style: Beyond 'The Grudge'", Stefan Lovgren writes, "Movies like 1954's Godzilla grew out of Japan's World War II experience with the atomic bomb and were concerned with mass destruction. The 1960s, though, saw a spate of artfully made ghost stories.

" 'These were safe, distant fantasies for audiences that felt secure in their community,' said Stuart Galbraith IV, a film historian who lives in Kyoto, Japan.

" 'Since then I think horror movies have begun tapping into the unease many Japanese feel as the ills of the [outside] world have encroached on Japanese life.' he said. 'For instance, Japan is no longer the fantastically safe country it famously once was, and the slumping economy has destabilized the notion of lifelong job security.'

" In Japan this unease is impolite to express in public, Galbraith said, but the anxiety is reflected in Japanese horror movies.

"Today's Japanese horror filmmakers, many of whom grew up in the 1980s, may not have the same connection to history. As a result, their movies deal more with the breakdown of reality, of families, and of the mind."

Director Hideo Nakata of Ringu fame has a diferent perspective: "Since ancient times people in Japan have believed that ancestral spirits protect their descendants, and daily life is carried out in the belief that spirits naturally dwell in close proximity. Japanese instinctively feel that there is an unseen world existing all around us. This and other beliefs derive from Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan. Unlike monotheism, it is based on the animistic belief that myriad gods inhabit all natural phenomena. So the Japanese awareness of a spiritual world and the perceptions of 'horror' are vastly different from those in Western cultures.

Nakata, movie producer Roy Lee, and author Koji Suzuki, who wrote the 1989 novel Ringu, which spawned the Ring films, discuss the roots of J-Horror and America's newfound fascination with the cinematic nightmares its bombs may or may not have spawned.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/14/2005 05:38:00 PM Comments (2)

DOGME 10 YEARS LATER 

IndieWIRE's Wendy Mitchell reports from Europe on the legacy of Dogme95. The occasion is a 10th anniversary retrospective of Dogme films at the Curzon Soho Cinema in London, programmed by the Danish Film Institute.

... "Dogme isn't dead, of course. Dogme #34, Annette K. Olesen's Berlinale hit In Your Hands, [pictured right], will hit screens in the U.K. later this month from Metrodome, and Newmarket plans a U.S. release. [Newmarket's theatrical division was recently acquired by New Line and HBO, so presumably the film will be released through the new entity.] The film is about Anna, a recent theology school graduate who takes a job as a prison priest. Five other films after Olesen's are self-certified Dogme at the group's website -- those films come from Italy, Denmark, the U.K, the U.S. and Mexico.

"The Dogme [founders] themselves, [however,] have clearly moved away from the vows of chastity in their more recent work. 'I don't see evidence that Dogme left any lasting impression on their subsequent work, outside of the fact that Dogme is a diffuse concept and its fingerprints can be seen on almost any film. [Thomas] Vinterberg's It's All About Love and [Lars] von Trier's Dogville were very much anti-Dogme films,' said Jack Stevenson, a Denmark-based film journalist and the author of the books Lars von Trier (BFI) and Dogme Uncut (Santa Monica Press). Vinterberg even told a Danish magazine, 'I spit in the face of Dogme,' with his film It's All About Love."
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/14/2005 01:29:00 PM Comments (0)

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

MOBILE TV 

The MoTV: Mobile TV and Video Forum, which takes place in Las Vegas on April 19, will address the impact and business opportunities for wireless, mobile and digital distribution platforms for broadcasters, networks, television producers, and developers who are making Mobile TV and Video a reality.

"How can TV and video be monetized? What's the value proposition for broadcasters and cable companies? How much time will consumers spend watching content, what quality level will they demand and how should content be tailored to phones? What's the best delivery mechanism? And how should ancillary services such as text messaging be integrated?"

Speakers at the Forum will discuss the leading technologies and their champions: Nokia and DVBH; Samsung and satellite broadcasting; Qualcomm and MediaFlo; Verizon and Vcast; and others.
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/13/2005 01:29:00 PM Comments (0)

BOLLYWOOD BECKONS INDIES 

My friend Bergen Swanson emailed about a film he recently produced in India with Plum Pictures -- Rajapur, directed by New York-based Nanda Anand. Here's more about the film on IFC Insider, including comments from fellow producer Celine Rattray as well as On the Road Production's Dileep Singh Rathore. On the Road is an India-based service company specializing in bringing foreigners to shoot in India.

Writes Andrea Meyer in the article:

"Celine Rattray of Plum Pictures (Lonesome Jim), one of the producers of Rajapur, an indie that recently wrapped in Jaisalmer, a town in the Rajasthan Desert, says of the film, 'The production value of this movie is the equivalent of a $20 million movie shot in the States.' Some ways in which the filmmakers got more bang for their buck included being able to shoot 29 days (as opposed to the 20 days shot on a recent Plum project with a similar budget back home), low crew salaries and housing costs, two cameras and a crane available for the entire shoot (a rarity for a U.S. indie film), 350 extras. 'We had intense stunt sequences with wind machines blowing sand and a large stunt team. We [were] surrounded by sand dunes, camels, gypsies dressed in amazing colors. In every way it felt like a large movie,' Rattray says."
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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/13/2005 10:44:00 AM Comments (16)

HELP BRUNO 

NYU film student and short filmmaker Sam Goetz worked for a bit in my production office, and I got to watch his odd and original comedy shorts. He's now working on his final film at NYU, Bruno, the story of a asthmatic, nihillstic bicyclist, Derke, and his polar opposite cousin Bruno, a gentle pianist. Goetz says he's not sure if the piece is a comedy or a drama because it "changes constantly and radically." To realize his vision, Goetz is raising money via the web. Check out his website for more about him and his films and for his rather sweet plea for funds to finish this new one.
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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/13/2005 12:48:00 AM Comments (0)

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

I-WITNESS VIDEO 

According to a lead story in the New York Times today: "Dennis Kayne put up such a fight at a political protest last summer, the arresting officer recalled, it took four police officers to haul him down the steps of the New York Public Library and across Fifth Avenue.

"... Accused of inciting a riot and resisting arrest, Mr. Kyne was the first of 1,806 people arrested in New York last summer during the Republic National Convention to take his case to jury. But one day after Officer Wohl testified, and before the defense called a single witness, the prosecutor abruptly dropped all charges.

"During the recess, the defense had brought new information to the prosecutor. A videotape shot by a documentary filmmaker showed Mr. Kyne agitated but plainly walking under his own power down the library steps, contradicting the vivid account of Officer Wohl, who was nowhere to be seen in the pictures...

"A sprawling body of visual evidence, made possible by inexpensive lightweight cameras in the hands of private citizens... has shifted the debate over what precisely happened on the streets during the convention."

..." 'The police develop a narrative, the defendent has a different story, and the question becomes, how do you resolve it?' said Eileen Clancy, a member of I-Witness Video, a project that assembled hundereds of videotapes shot during the convention by volunteers for use by the defense lawyers."

Clancy, who I worked with briefly at The Kitchen in the early '90s, has long been an engaged activist, advocating for the rights of people with AIDS and, famously, taking on the organizers of the St. Patrick's Day parade in NY when they refused to let Irish gays and lesbians march. Way to go Eileen!
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/12/2005 10:10:00 AM Comments (0)

ANDREA DWORKIN 

Feminist author and anti-porn crusader Andrea Dworkin died last Friday of complications from surgery.

As author Susie Bright writes in her weblog, Dworkin was the first woman to take porn seriously. "She was the one who got us looking at porn with a critical eye," Bright notes. "She made you feel like you could just stomp into the adult bookstore and seize everything for inspection and a bonfire. The funny thing that happened on the way to the X-Rated Sex Palace was that some of us came to different conclusions that Miss Dworkin. We saw the sexism of the porn business... but we also saw some intriguing possibilities and amazing maverick spirit."

Dworkin was a complicated figure, known as much for her unruly appearance as her writings. She was a woman of enormous paradoxes; her own writing, for instance, owed heavily to the Marquise de Sade. Bright obviously wrestles with complicated feelings in her obit, even resorting to Googlism to author part of it. Still, she ends brilliantly:

"I'm sorry Andrea Dworkin started a sexual revolution that she ended up repudiating. She never got to see people like me, Carol, and the rest of us little protegees who took her inspiration and flew to a new dimension. She got stuck, and then she got sick, and when you're famous for one thing, no one wants to see you change unless you repudiate it all, like a pathetic sinner seeking redemption. She was too stubborn and too old-fashioned for that. Andrea Dworkin never would have admitted that she was a superstar. She was the animator of the ultimate porno horror loop, where the Final Girl never gets a chance to slay the monster, she only dies, dies, dies, with the cries of the angry mourners to remember her."
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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/12/2005 12:59:00 AM Comments (0)

Friday, April 08, 2005

FAREWELL MGM/UA 

Via Anne Thompson in the Hollywood Reporter comes the following news:

"The deal, expected to close today, for a consortium of companies (including Sony Corp.) to purchase the MGM assets for some $4.8 billion reminds us that in today's entertainment universe, it's all about selling DVDs. Ted Turner was right: It's the library, stupid. All 4,000 titles.

"...Sony will divvy up the outstanding MGM and UA titles for release through its divisions including Columbia, TriStar, Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics. If MGM continues to co-produce films with Sony, it's mainly to keep the library refreshed, insiders say.

"...New Sony corporate chief Sir Howard Stringer originally wanted to acquire the MGM/UA library outright but was forced by his Sony bosses to seek partners. Now that he heads the company, Stringer might eventually want to buy out the consortium to gain control over MGM/UA, which he could then spin off into a separate public company. MGM and UA already have had many lives."
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/08/2005 05:44:00 PM Comments (0)

GOD OF WAR 

"Within the first five minutes -- even before the gameplay begins -- you know that God of War is about to blow your mind, setting a new standard by which all other games hence inevitably will be judged," writes Chris Kohler in Wired.

..." What makes God of War so special is not merely the polish on its gameplay, but the incredible cinematic presentation. Unlike 99 percent of action games, the God of War player has absolutely no control over the camera. Instead, it is carefully programmed to be always in just the right spot, automatically rotating and zooming to create a fluid, deliberately controlled visual experience.

"This precise camera work, coupled with the high graphic quality, leaves you staring slack-jawed at the detail of each new room, the majesty of each new vista. The story is told sparingly but concisely, punctuated by what the game's fans have dubbed 'holy shit! moments' on gaming message boards. The orchestral score prominently features a full choir, further blurring the line between game and film."
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/08/2005 12:42:00 PM Comments (0)

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

GIVE IT AWAY 

"Always on the edge, David Byrne recently cranked up his own internet radio station. (If you have iTunes you can find it in the 'eclectic' category)... Xeni Jardin interviewed Byrne a few days ago" for NPR's "Day to Day", in a show about filesharing, and here's a bit of his thinking, via Ratchet Up:

"I would love to have compensation for [my music]. But the argument of record companies standing up for artists rights is such a load of hooey. Most artists see nothing from record sales -- it's not an evil conspiracy, it's just the way the accounting works. That's the way major record labels are set up, from a purely pragmatic point of view. So as far as the artist goes -- who cares? I don't see much money from record sales anyway, so I don't really care how people are getting it."

Most musicians make ends meet through constant touring and from the sale of merchandise at concerts.

The corollary for filmmakers, I suppose, is the non-theatrical speaking gig. Why have no enterprising companies sprung up to capitalize on this by organizing and booking the circuit (at universities, film societies, and other grass-roots organizations) for indie filmmakers whose films have not been picked up for distribution?
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# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 4/05/2005 10:07:00 AM Comments (0)

Monday, April 04, 2005

TOUCHE, GUYS... 

Check out Gawker today for a funny take on what makes Filmmaker different from some other magazine out there.
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# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 4/04/2005 12:30:00 PM Comments (0)