A Shadow of Blue (2011)
A touching story in which fantasy and reality merge to make dreams come true. How determining can reality be, and how can fantasy unleash an unexpected freedom? Can a fragile world of lights and shadows show us more than a silhouette drawn against the sunlight?

I hear that if you follow this link and use the password shadow you might just get a sneak peak of the full film.

A thought-provoking meditation on the seal-hunt and what it means to the traditional way of life for Inuit.

Starring internationally renowned throat singer Tanya Tagaq, and Cannes-winning filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner), Tungijuq is a cinematic and musical expression of the organic and indisputable reality of hunting in Inuit culture. – (www.isuma.tv)

A Man has to choose between paying money or possibly losing his life.

And here’s the making of video:

Swelter, the second year film from Calarts student Jacob Streilein sees a desperate search for water, in a universe ravaged with extreme heat, end in a dangerous confrontation.

You can get a look at storyboards, background plates and help the team fund their next animation Bluebeard by buying t-shirts over on the Arithmétique blog.

The zombie apocalypse happened — and we won.

But though society has recovered, the threat of infection is always there — and Los Angeles coroner Tommy Rossman is the man they call when things go wrong.

Self financed, shot at weekends with a skeleton crew and released online for free, Brad Bores’ Wishful, Sinful could be said to be the definition of the indie feature. Brad joins us this week to discuss finding your film cinematically during the production process and the need for honest festival feedback.

You just wanna know some sort of information of how your film’s being critiqued[…] & when you don’t get that, the filmmaker’s not learning anything.

Showlinks
Brad Bores
Zero Film Fest
Panasonic AG-DVX100
Nobudge
When the Bell Rings

If you’re a fan of short film and you’re yet to see Mikey Please’s 2011 BAFTA award winning animation The Eagleman Stag, then you’re probably in for one of the most enjoyable 9 minutes you’re likely to have sat in front of your computer screen. Astonishingly created “100% in-camera” via stop-motion Please’s, striking visuals are equally matched by the filmmaker’s ambitious epic narrative.

Wishful, Sinful (2011)
A brutally honest and sometimes humorous view of two small town guys failing at mediocre lives.

You can watch the full 72 minute Wishful, Sinful feature for free over on NoBudge now.

Gevinson also ‘muffin face’ animated a promo for earlier Stealing Sheep promo Love You Are A Record.

Here’s a making of from Morris:

And also a beautifully observed portrait of Morris at work on one her characters from Danny Gregory’s Sketchbook Films series.

A film most likely to find its audience with film festival goers, students and those truly interested in the magic of movie making, Side by Side takes an in-depth look at how a digital process has emerged to challenge photochemical filmmaking. As the official website states: “SIDE BY SIDE is a new documentary produced by Keanu Reeves that takes an in-depth look at this digital revolution through interviews with directors, cinematographers, producers, editors and exhibitors.” I can only imagine that having Reeves as a producer on the film made getting interviews with Hollywood heavyweights such as Steven Soderbergh, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher and George Lucas a bit easier.

It’s not just the directors who get to voice their opinions though, the film continues the conversation with cinematographers, editors, special effects supervisors and color correctors, who each explain in layman’s terms how digital has changed the way movies are produced and finalised. Overall the film is fast paced and packed with candid interviews that made the audience laugh out loud, intercut with a very thorough history of how emerging digital technology has impacted filmmaking.

As part of the team behind the documentary PressPausePlay I was very excited to see the premiere of Side by Side at the Tribeca Film Festival. While our documentary focused on how digital tools have helped unleash creativity in an unprecedented way to create a democratised culture, this film looks specifically at how digital technology is increasingly pushing out traditional use of photochemical stock to make movies.

Director Chris Kenneally has successfully created an educational documentary that captures not just the art of making film, but the extremely technical process required to make an artist’s vision a reality. The film, narrated by Reeves, asks industry insiders to explain why they choose to continue shooting on film or why they’ve gladly jumped to digital. From the most vocal supporters of digital which include George Lucas and James Cameron, to holdouts like Christopher Nolan, the film presents the varied views in Hollywood today in an unbiased way. While there isn’t a strong argument for either format, nearly everyone agrees that the balance of power is shifting continually towards digital.

One of the points we realized making PressPausePlay was that digital tools have created an inexpensive, convenient way for anyone to tell their stories. As James Cameron points out in Side by Side digital tools now allow us to realize anything we can create in our heads and that means incredible possibilities. I, like many others in the Tribeca screening, left feeling that we truly are witnessing a turning point in history and this film captures the excitement of it all.

Calarts’ student Eusong Lee’s animated short will makes neither of these mistakes. What it does, through a tight script, well thought out colour palette and Julian Kleiss’ minimal score, is bring the events of that terrible day back to the level of a simple human interaction that makes clear what so many lost and the impossibility, no matter the strength of desire, of reclaiming it.

Will is a short that hits you hard. I’m not ashamed to say that it brought me close to tears and not just on my initial viewing either. Lee took on a challenge I’d advise most to walk away from and he did those who died and the loved ones they left behind more than proud.

Despite the success of his 2011 entry No Escape (the film placed in the competition’s top 3 and landed him a job at The Mill), McGregor felt he’d played things relatively safe with regards to his skill set and so conceived Eradicate as a way to push him and his team into the creative unknown. The result is a short where the relationships take the lead with tech as a backdrop for them to play out on.

And while we’re at it here’s McGregor’s 2011 entry No Escape: