Latest Note

DN EP 155: The VICE Guide to Liberia – Shane Smith & Andy Capper

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] I’m very pleased to welcome Andy Capper back to the show, to discuss the journey he and VICE founder, Shane Smith, took into the dangerous heart of Liberia for the latest revelatory film in The VICE Guide to… series. Showlinks VBS CNN Presents VBS.TV Liberia Lariam William Bennett / Cut Hands Jihad Milkshake

Featured Notes

Yes to nofilmschool

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one saddened at the announcement that Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo and Zachary Lieberman vehicle, The West Side was going on hiatus, perversely due to Ryan and Zac’s success with the series. Well things have been a little quiet since then and whilst I had no doubt our past guests were [...]

The Third and The Seventh

The short film has taken many forms and styles through the years and with the rapid development of technologies and software over the past decade or so, we have seen the medium evolve to a whole new level. In recent years, the equipment needed to create films, whether live action or animation, has not only [...]

Playing to the Crowd

There’s no denying that in recent years the consumption of media has changed. With the rise of new spectatorship models it seems that the old models of production and distribution are becoming less and less viable, especially for low budget projects. In the place of the old models therefore, there are a number of new [...]

MarBelle 2009 Top Ten

I begin each year with the heady intention of watching a film a day. A goal I’ve so far fallen short of (187 for ‘09 as of today), but if I ever do reach it God alone knows how much extra hair pulling and gnashing of teeth it’ll take to get down to this final [...]

El Vez 2009 Top Ten

Gaining a press pass for the London Film Festival this year, has almost certainly not made the task of writing an annual top ten film list any easier. After drawing up an initial list, which consisted of at least double the amount of films I needed, I’ve now completed the cull and whittled it down [...]

Asides

• Scintillation is an experimental film made up of over 35,000 photographs. It combines an innovative mix of stop motion and live projection mapping techniques. #
• I talked about animated style in my post on Pivot yesterday and it's not often you find two such stylized pieces of animation in the space of 24 hours, but after the frantic stylings of Pivot, comes the epic tale of Codehunters. Codehunters was created by the awesome Ben Hibon for MTV Asia and was broadcast as both a standalone short film and used to brand the MTV Asia Music Video Awards. Again, another inspired titles sequences sets the scene instantly and what follows is a Sci-fi Western with all the on-screen panache of Jamie Hewlett's Gorillaz, lets just hope there's more to come Thanks once again to Aziz K and his fantastic Everything Animated Vimeo site, for his dedication to discovering the best animations online. Codehunters from axisanimation on Vimeo. #
• Was a time when the filmmaker's strategy began with the gamble of maxed out credit cards and (hopefully) ended with the win of an acquisition bidding war at Sundance or the like. However, with the number of festival film buys shrinking and the cash amounts garnered by the lucky few doing likewise, what's a filmmaker to do to avoid ending up in a financial hole they may well never climb out of? Esther B. Robinson has, if not found the solution, presented a well thought out strategy in her Big Art, Little Debt Plan for Filmmaker Magazine. The plan comprises three commandments; 1) Make work that matters, 2) Get right with thy personal cash & 3) Know and keep to thy limits, coupled with five steps to help you adhere to them. Filmmaker Magazine have also been running the filmmaker responses to the questions Esther initially posed when formulating the plan. via Jonathan Goodman Levitt #
• Sometimes you can tell from the opening frames of a short film, just how much you're going to love it! With Pivot, I knew the moment I saw it's Saul Bass styled opening credits. When creating an animation you have a limitless world at your fingertips, but often the animators and artists can use the same old tried and tested techniques and styles over and over again, making you feel like you've seen it all before. This certainly isn't the case with Pivot, which employs a polygon styled technique to deliver it's frenetic style. However, this short delivers not only with aesthetic flair, but also in storytelling and tension. In fact, I can easily say I haven't felt this tense watching a short in a long, long time. When a man is witness to a murder and takes pictures of the killer, he has to run for his life. During the chase he is able to turn the tables and the prey becomes the hunter. All resulting in an unfortunate ending. Pivot from Pivot on Vimeo. #
• Just found this fantastic article from Mike Le at Geek Week highlighting the 20 Greatest Extended Takes in Movie History, complete with embedded Videos. #