Making the Movie

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83588872009-12-27T08:38:51.601-08:00Making the MovieFilmmaking tips, resources, reviews, news and links.J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01006485197696149031noreply@blogger.comBlogger2012125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-90215476118900213322009-12-25T07:25:00.000-08:002009-12-25T07:26:54.687-08:00The Movies of 2009

A nice recap using trailers to make an epic montage...

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-9239612205085876652009-12-24T07:08:00.000-08:002009-12-25T07:36:23.571-08:00Someone must've been very good for Christmas...

UPDATE: All is right with the world again. Avatar beat Alvin by several million in the Thursday numbers.Because Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel is beating Avatar and Princess and the Frog at the box office.A sad day for cinema. A sad day for America.Actually, who knows. Maybe somehow in this one they were able to capture the spirit of the original characters I grew up with... oh,

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-91105909558051836022009-12-22T08:25:00.001-08:002009-12-23T19:57:41.210-08:00Ten Movies I Enjoyed in 2009

I've been asked to give my Top Ten of 2009. I still don't feel like I've seen enough of the movies of 2009 to do a ranking. But I can name a bunch of movies I enjoyed. If you don't see your favorite film on here, just assume it's because I haven't seen it yet. (Nevermind any negative reviews of it in the review section of the blog -- it's the holiday season.)In no particular order...Hump

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-39898493093518005392009-12-19T17:18:00.000-08:002009-12-19T17:18:29.912-08:00Terry Gilliam talks about the imagination behind Imaginarium

Apple.com/trailers has a fun little featurette up with Terry Gilliam sharing some concept artowrk for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus...Apple - Movie Trailers - The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Featurette

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-82969250384444869042009-12-18T07:49:00.000-08:002009-12-18T07:49:18.867-08:00Production Notes on Homeschool Dropouts

Some good making-of info on a documentary about homeschooling over at Outside Hollywood:After shooting all of our interviews, we transcribed the strongest segments (Adobe Premiere CS4’s new auto transcription feature almost worked, but not quite), and began to organize the clips. Despite already having a clear direction for the film, the material we got from the interviews suggested and provided

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-47609071823805546002009-12-17T06:13:00.000-08:002009-12-17T06:13:25.479-08:00Bohemian Cinema reviews #2wkfilm Blanc de Blanc

Jonathan Pacheco reviews Lucas McNelly's #2wkfilm Blanc de Blanc:With such a limited timeframe for production, you would think a low-budget film would go plotless out of sheer convenience. While McNelly’s previous short, gravida, centered around a simple scenario, Blanc de Blanc adds a bit of a plot, but chooses to keep the details a mystery. David (Jason Kirsch) shows up in Pittsburgh with the

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-28355439735571646652009-12-16T07:04:00.000-08:002009-12-16T07:04:51.219-08:00Eyes Wide Shut v. The Ninth Gate

Jacques Vallee compares Eyes Wide Shut, directed by Stanley Kubrick, with The Ninth Gate, directed by Roman Polanski.I was struck by the suspicious similarities and the enormous differences between them. In earlier viewings both had thrilled me with the superb photography, the great acting, and the expansive landscapes. A second experience made me wonder about the themes themselves: the contrast

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-4832123363751535082009-12-14T07:40:00.000-08:002009-12-18T07:55:01.487-08:00Movie Reviews: Invictus, Up in the Air

InvictusClint Eastwood is a force of nature. His films aren't perfect, but sometimes, as in the case of Invictus, they are damn good. Leaning on a brilliant script by Anthony Peckham (based on the book by John Carlin), Eastwood and co. tell the amazing true story of Nelson Mandela uniting the country of South Africa behind the Springboks, the national rugby team -- a former symbol of

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-33534916818861022782009-12-12T06:28:00.000-08:002009-12-12T06:28:59.597-08:00Hollywood Recycles... Sets, Props, Plots

5 Things Hollywood Reuses More Than Plots | Cracked.com

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-83390851426458085832009-12-08T08:00:00.000-08:002009-12-08T08:00:22.340-08:00How OK Go made their new video

YouTube - OK Go - HTF? - Official Making of WTF?

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-78568926649157732742009-12-07T07:51:00.000-08:002009-12-07T07:51:26.965-08:00Ted Hope's List of Indie Film Publicists

The first people you call when your movie gets into a major festival...Truly Free Film: Indie Film Publicists List

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-67174539040920400392009-12-05T04:11:00.000-08:002009-12-07T07:57:58.206-08:00Book Review: Filmmakers and Financing, 6th Edition

Before a movie is sold to the masses, it must be sold to investors. Getting someone to invest big chunks of cash in a movie project is something I one day hope to do. Judging by this book, the key ingredient is this thing called a "business plan". For 268 pages, Louise Levison, movie entrepreneurship consultant, professor and, most importantly, "creator of the business plan for The Blair Witch

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-63250293198110165942009-12-04T07:59:00.000-08:002009-12-04T08:05:39.535-08:00Your Weekend Viewing: Honest Work

A funny low-budget short directed by Phil Holbrook, written by Ross Farro.The filmmakers are providing not only a free download of this on their site, but also a free download of the soundtrack.

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-63930096106332934602009-12-03T08:12:00.000-08:002009-12-03T08:17:17.435-08:00NBC Universal - Comcast Merger

I look forward to the day when there is just one big media company with one long name NBCUniversalComcastTimeWarnerDisneyParamountDreamWorksVivendiSony. (30 Rock makes great hay out of how NBC is owned by GE. They will remain 49% owned by GE, so hopefully the jokes will keep coming.)G.E. Agrees to Sell NBC to Comcast - NYTimes.comSo what's the value of a major movie studio / major t.v. network?

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-2101762848562945322009-12-01T19:49:00.001-08:002009-12-01T19:50:32.217-08:0022 of This Year's Top Screenplays for Free Download? Yes, Thanks

Run, don't walk over to MCN where you can download 22 of the awards contender screenplays for this year. (In the worst of all formats, the hated PDF, but still...!)Tom Ford's A Single Man; Anthony Minghella and Michael Tolkin's Nine, as well as Joe Penhall's adaptation of The Road and a spiffed-up copy of Inglourious Basterds. Sony Pictures Classics: Almodovar's Broken Embraces; Duncan Jones'

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-25662905305021185712009-12-01T08:30:00.000-08:002009-12-01T08:30:56.237-08:00Ken Stone's Compressor 3.5 Basics

I haven't linked to a Ken Stone tutorial in a while. Here's a great one on Compressor 3.5 which covers web formats, maybe the only formats that are really important going forward.

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-86478618718017344182009-11-30T07:43:00.000-08:002009-11-30T07:56:16.828-08:00Reitman Profile Fires Shot Across the Bow of Best Director Race

The New York Times ran a gushing profile of Jason Reitman last week. If I had to pick now, I'd say Up in the Air is a front-runner in several Oscar categories. Of course, I haven't seen the movie or probably most of the other movies that consensus will eventually peg as Oscar caliber, so I'm just making wild predictions.Reitman is pretty young to get Best Director consideration, which often

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-2788831018422512262009-11-28T23:47:00.000-08:002009-11-28T23:47:05.691-08:00The Coming CCD Explosion

An inflection point may be coming for the imaging chips known as CCDs, which are in pretty much every video camera out there. They are getting super-cheap to produce. Cory Doctorow ruminates about the implications:If I hang one over my kitchen table will it be able to count calories for me? Can I hang one over my desk and not need to buy a scanner? How about one in the bathroom? How much health

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-13742290665963174212009-11-26T10:25:00.001-08:002009-11-26T10:37:46.697-08:00Your Thanksgiving Weekend Viewing: Natural Victims Trailer

Thanksgiving weekend brings, in the US at least, good food, family and low internet usage. (As well it should.) So the trailer for Natural Victims could hardly be more ill-timed. But I just finished it last night and am too excited to wait.A trailer is the most important piece of marketing for a film, bar none. And, dang, do I have a new-found respect for people who cut them! It actually

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-77116071995107265942009-11-24T19:23:00.000-08:002009-12-03T23:03:54.073-08:00The Botany of Avatar

While I wasn't blown away by the footage I saw of Avatar, I appreciate the detail that went into the planet Pandora. The most visually stunning of all the preview footage may be a scene where the main character is lost in a bioluminescent forest. It doesn't shock me at all that James Cameron, the filmmaker who demanded the reconstruction of the Titanic be accurate down to the rivet, brought in

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-3685743321012089982009-11-23T08:06:00.000-08:002009-11-23T08:06:04.571-08:00Sam Longoria's Thanksgiving Movies Guide

Rather than re-post my own list of Thanksgiving movies, as I've done in years past, I'll link to Sam Longoria's Thanksgiving movie memories:Here's an odd Thanksgiving selection, but it has Thanksgiving significance for me. I remember Thanksgiving 1989. A bunch of us pale NW Evergreen animation people, at my pal Craig's Hollywood place for a nice dinner.I helped Craig with his 2x4 16mm animation

J. Otthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13273173096224691599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8358887.post-83114207610238733082009-11-20T07:42:00.000-08:002009-11-20T07:44:43.110-08:00Your Weekend Viewing: World's 2nd Largest Aquarium