Here are a few noteworthy links from the last few days.
First, a must-read (or must-listen) is
an interview with Matt Zoller Seitz on his blog, The House Next Door. (The hour-long talk is available as a transcript or as a download.) In the piece, Seitz discusses his decision to abandon print criticism and concentrate on both moviemaking and things other than movies. Here's how he opens:
Well, the short of it is: I’m out of print criticism. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and for a variety of reasons. One of them is that I’ve been doing it for seventeen years now as of May of this year, and I’ve done it for a variety of different outlets in a variety of different forms. I’ve enjoyed it… I’ve always enjoyed it, but I just don’t want to do it anymore. Part of the reason for that is that I don’t write as quickly as I used to and I don’t have as much time to do it as I used to. But the more important thing is that, according to the actuarial tables, I’m probably about halfway through my life, if I’m lucky. And there’s a lot of things that I would like to do, and I haven’t done them yet. And I want to get started on it.
Scott Kirsner at his Cinematech blog lists and has commentary on five internet sites that
help filmmakers raise funding for their films.Over at
FilmInFocus, the site has one of their periodic "Five in Focus" lists. This time, over the course of the next week five designers list their favorite feature films from the standpoint of design. First up:
Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz.A click away at the
Filmmaker home page, we reprint David Gordon Green's essay on Todd Rohal's
The Guatemalan Handshake, which is included in the new
Benten Films-released DVD. The essay is entitled
"Outrage the Rooster: Words about this Film."Finally, there seems to be only one mainstream entertainment story today: the release of Rock Star Games'
Grand Theft Auto 4. The pre-sale of this game hit $60 million before it's release. We don't have the game yet at Filmmaker, but our new gaming columnist, Heather Chaplin, has
checked it out and contributes her report to "All Things Considered" at NPR. If you've been hiding under a rock and haven't read about the game, then you may not be aware that the latest installment is set in a scuzzed-out, nostalgia-confirming version of New York City. Here's an excerpt of her piece, in which she takes the game for a spin with one of its writer/directors, Lazlow Jones:
But the game is more than merely satire. Video games have never been known for expressing the finer points of human emotion. But I took a turn at the console with Jones, and the more I played GTA IV, the more I felt I knew Niko.
He's haunted by violence. He walks slowly, and every action is deliberate, as if he were conserving energy. When he steals a car, he matter-of-factly pulls the driver out of the seat and deposits him on the road. There's no joy in it; it's just what needs to be done.
And everything about Niko feels uniquely Niko — like when a great actor disappears into a character. It's just not something you see that often in videogames.
The key, Jones says, is storytelling — "fundamental storytelling that becomes so engaging that you find yourself emotionally involved with polygons. None of this exists, but we've made a living, breathing world."
Related: Over at the Bowery Boys, the bloggers
trace the history of New York City in videogames, considering everything from
Mario Brothers to the recent
Warriors.
Comments (1)
“Wages of Fear,” “Convoy,” Smokey and the Bandit” and “Duel”
Remember these great flicks? What are they? Road movies, of course, but more importantly, they are trucking films. Here is a genre nearly forgotten that Navistar, which builds legendary International trucks, hopes to single-handedly revive.
The company that just launched a revolution in long haul trucking by building the mold-shattering LoneStar Class 8 tractor is now launching another first - a student film competition that will ask aspiring auteurs and cineastes to celebrate the lives and labors of long-distance truck drivers in a short film format.
You could be the next Spielberg, Sam Peckinpah or even Henri-Georges Clouzot.
On May 1, 2008, Navistar is sending out a call for entries to approximately 50 universities and film schools around the country asking ambitious filmmakers to hit the road and produce short films or videos that honor the American trucker. These emerging mavericks will then submit their final product in a competition to win film school tuition or top-notch camera equipment.
Academy award nominated producer/director Brett Morgan (Chicago 10, The Kids Stays in the Pictures) will chair a jury of filmmakers who will judge all submissions. First, second and third prize winners will premiere their films at The Great American Trucking show in Dallas, Texas, on August 22, 2008, and will be featured as streaming content on InternationalTrucks.com. The films will also be included as bonus material on a DVD with “Stand Alone,” Brett Morgen’s upcoming feature length film about truckers.
It’s time for new filmmakers to release the jake-brake, hammer down, and make cinema that really matters, films about real life on the road. Put it this way: if America’s drivers decided to stop working, the entire country would shut down. We depend on truckers to deliver everything we own and consume. Truckers are that important. They are true American heroes.
Merle Haggard sang it this way: “The whiteline is a lifeline for the nation… It takes a special breed to be a truck drivin' man, And a steady hand to pull that load behind.”
#
posted by @ 4/30/2008 3:58 PM
