I'm currently reading David Stratton's autobiography, "I Peed on Fellini". His life doesn't really seem that exciting (apparently on the advice of friends, he took out most of the sex. I'm not sure whether I should be annoyed or grateful) and his descriptions of his interactions with the great directors of previous eras, beyond the titular incident, haven't yet gone passed the depth of "I met Godard, we talked briefly", which is a real shame. What's the opinion of Stratton as to how the personalities of the directors he met affected the films they made? It would have been nice to know.

What is interesting is seeing the growth of the Sydney Film Festival, which he directed for 17 years, and his fights against censorship. Before his protests censorship was simply seen as the norm in Australia, and the changes he brought about helped get Australia out of the middle-ages mentality it was in. Previously, festival audiences weren't even informed that cuts had been made, something that sounds completely ridiculous now.

Check out this story from the book that highlights just how silly the censors were (and probably still are) about screening Luchino Visconti's film "Sandra" to the censorship board:

Although I hadn't seen Sandra I knew its content and I was rather nervous because I hadn't included in the syopsis, which I was obliged to send to the censors' office prior to the screening, the fact that incest was involved. At the climax of the film, a brother and sister (played by Claudia Cardinale and Jean Sorel) engaged in discreet sex (just off-screen) on a woollen rug in front of a blazing fire in a sequence well in keeping with Visconti's operatic modern take on Greek mythology. How would Prowse and his colleagues react to the incest scene, even though it was very tactfully presented? I soon found out. After the screening, Prowse took me to one side 'You film festival people are a strange lot,' he said. 'You like films no-one else can understand. Didn't you find that confusing? I thought, at the beginning, they were brother and sister.' The film was passed, without cuts.

 A guy finds a time capsule from the 1950s, containing children's drawings that seem strangely prescient they show catastrophes that have happened already. One drawing shows an event that hasn't taken place yet, and the man tries to prevent it from happening.  Find Out More About This Movie At IMDB

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Other critics of the new SBS accuse it of betraying its mulicultural charter.  Perhaps these criticisms are valid, although the broadcaster previously suffered from characterisation as a European free-soft-porn channel.  I've never watched Inspector Rex but I have regularly watched Mythbusters, South Park, Big Love and Top Gear, which are not at all multicultural (Grant Imahara is probably the only non-Anglo-Saxon represented in these shows).

All these criticisms aside, SBS wins my support just for the annual broadcast of the Tour de France.  Every stage of the race is covered, live.  Not just every stage, but more of each stage than most broadcasters show.  Just one thing, SBS.  The commercials.  I have, unfortunately, reached the stage where I have accepted the reality of commercials on SBS.  Just not the commercials shown repeatedly during the coverage of the Tour de France.  Women watch cycling too!  I don't want to see "interrupted stream" and "erectile dysfunction" while I am enjoying a glass of Moet and the scenery of Brittany.  I don't want to watch Stage One, knowing that the next three weeks will be a constant (sorry, Mr Interrupted) stream of these ads.

Show some more of those clever French car ads...  Please.

Here Is the music video to the new movie, "Mumma Mia" The Movie looks good. "Mamma Mia" Is due for release July 10th 2008. Visit The Official Website to find out more about this movie.
 

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1363199&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] 

The Trailer

[wp_caption id="attachment_21" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="I Got What I Wanted"][/wp_caption]

GRADE: A+

Wow What a movie, It was ALL action from beginning to the very end.

Many movies out at the moment that I have seen have really stupid endings, Well not this one.

I feel in love with "Wesley" Played by James McAvoy, going from the geeky office nerd to a Killer Assassin! Made him a very sexy carector. Angelina Jolie was Amazing. There is nothing negative that I can say about this movie, if you looking for a movie jam packed with action and twists and turns then this movie is for you.

The movie effects were magnificent, The Storyline was full of twists and turns, The acting to top rated. I think what topped of this movie was the hint of humour here and there.  

GREAT OVERAL ACTION MOVIE.

GRADE: A+

There was a real buzz at the cinema last night; the stewards were all wearing hancock hats and T-Shirts. Anyway the movie for me was one of the best I have seen in a very long time.
Will smith played the roll as “John Hancock” Brilliantly. At times his carector is vulgar and just plan horrible but then you end up feeling so sorry for him, You really feel his loneliness, He had me hooked.
The visual effects are great. The Storyline is great, The comedy aspect had me in fits, The acting from Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman was just brilliant.
Overall this movie is now one of my all time favorites.
I think this movie went down well at the cinema because when the credits rolled and everyone got up to leave and then suddenly there is a little more of the movie, everyone stopped to watch the last 30 seconds.

The Trailer:

Auch bei den Beiträgen wird sich was tun: Jeder Beitrag bekommt ab heute eine farbige Headline - so wie dieser hier. Diese wird die kleinen Piktogramme (oben rechts bei jedem Beitrag) ablösen. Und nach und nach werde ich dies bei den alten Beiträgen noch nachholen.

Was meint Ihr?

I wonder what movie "Doctor" McCain is destined to become???

Yeah, yeah, I know. 

So, I've been posting about the "At the Movies" VFX trailer, but there's a whole other side to the campaign. All of the print, animation and lobby elements are based around a "drive-in movie" theme.

To tie everything together, I built the art in 3D (using Lightwave - see previous post on how I feel about that) so I could animate the elements later. All of the cars are stock 3D models that I got online and resurfaced (I don't have the hours -or the skill- to model 20 different cars in detail), but the drive-in was created from scratch (OKC residents might recognize the structure is based on our very own Winchester Drive-In - though the sign is completely made up).

Here's the animation:

And here's a little bit of the process (though getting too in-depth would take a few pages on this one):

Plus, some people seemed interested in the making of the special effects, so here are a few images of the process:

A CGI explosion. Composited in After Effects with our background plate & stock detonation clips.

Car jump. 3D car surfaced & rendered in Lightwave3D, then composited with After Effects. The same process was used for the helicopter & jet shots.

Stephen hanging from the ledge. This was shot right outside our building. We shot the background plate from a rooftop in downtown OKC.

Dune

Enjoy!

In case you were wondering, you can find this song and a collection of other fabulous tunes on Sting's Mercury Falling.

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Here's the promo for the upcoming "At the Movies" series at LifeChurch.tv (which was alluded to a few months ago here ). All I can say is this is probably the most fun I've ever had on a project. One of those "I can't believe I'm getting paid for this" things.

I'm still pretty sure I only got the screen time because I offered the FX work, but I'll take what I can get.

Created the effects with green screen footage (shot by Grant Downing & Beth Johnson), Lightwave3D 9 and AfterEffectsCS3. Edited by Beth Johnson.

Artist: Dave Koz
Album: At The Movies

Tracklist :

• Over The Rainbow
• Moon River (Feat. Barry Manilow)
• As Time Goes By
• Somewhere (Feat. Anita Baker)
• The Shadow Of Your Smile (Feat. Johnny Mathis and Chris Botti)
• The Pink Panther
• The Way We Were (Feat. Vanessa Williams)
• The Summer Knows
• It Might Be You (Feat. India.Arie)
• Cinema Paradiso Suite
• A Whole New World (Feat. Donna Summer)
• Schindler's List
• It Might Be You (Feat. Peter White)
• The Shadow Of Your Smile (Feat. chris botti and norman brown)

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What a beautiful movie, "Once" is!

I know we Malaysians are catching it late but at least GSC's international cinema circuit is showing it. Thanks for that!

"Once" is an Irish film that is essentially a love story told through music. A street vendor is attracted to a busker cum vacuum cleaner repairman's musical efforts and a friendship strikes between them. Things are complicated by external factors i.e. the girl is married with a daughter & her estranged husband is away in the Czech Republic. The boy on the other hand yearns to be reconciled with his ex. In the middle of all this, they both share a passion for music and eventually develop feelings for each other. On the musical front, the both of them joined up with 3 other musicians to make a recording of the boy's compositions in a bid for him to get some recording deals in London.

The movie stars real life musicians Glen Hansard (songwriter, vocalist & guitarist for Irish rock band The Frames), & Marketa Irglova (songwriter, musician, singer).  All but one were original songs written by them in the movie. It was refreshing to be able to explore  the on-screen character's emotions and thoughts through songs in the movie. Feel the pain of unrequited love in Marketa's life as it is depicted to be an uphill climb in the song "The Hill". Feel the intensity of the guy's frustrations as he goes through the motions of lost love with his ex - girlfriend. Join him in the emotional roller coaster as he grows red singing songs like "Say It To Me", "Lies", & last but not least "Falling Slowly".  And yet ...... it all came together so romantically, in the movie.

My take on the movie....I think its original, it deals with real life people with real life ups and downs, its totally unpretentious & authentic.

Some quick facts on the movie:

1. The Movie was done on a shoe string budget.

The movie was shot for only €130,000 ($160,000),  75% was funded by Bord Scannán na hÉireann (The Irish Film Board), plus some of director John Carney's own money. How did they do it for so cheap?

• The director sacrified his own salary to give to the two actors.
• Expensive lighting was dispensed of, so natural lighting was used.
• No sets were built, some scenes were even shot in friends homes for eg. the musical party scene in the film was shot in Glen Hansards very own flat.
• The skeleton crew shot the movie in only 17 days. The speed of the movie probably explains why the Dublin street scenes were done without permits.

2. Did you realize the GUY and the GIRL are unnamed in the movie.

Interesting. Although their names are not revealed to us, we the audience, still managed to feel a closeness to the characters. We sensed their pain, their frustrations, their hopes. Maybe it is this very anonymity that drives through the point that it could be you or me or anyone in the audience experiencing all these emotions in the movie. Brilliant.

3. Other Glen Hansard / Marketa Irglova collaborations besides acting together in the movie.

• Hansard collaborated with Irglova in composing and performing all but one of the songs in the movie. The soundtrack album was released on May 22, 2007 in the U.S. and on May 26 in Ireland.
• Hansard's first solo album, released Apr 21, 06, The Swell Season, on Overcoat Recordings was in collaboration with Irglová, and 2 other musicians.
• They are a also a "collaboration" in real life. They got together while doing a promotional tour in the U.S. although Glen acknowledges that he knew all along he was falling in love with Marketa but had reservations because she was too young. Marketa was 17 when she made the movie and Glen 36. Well, their passion for music seems binding enough. They now live together in Hansard's flat in Dublin.

3. Glen Hansard was not the first choice to play the lead role

Director John Carney wanted Cillian Murphy, an actor, to play the lead role. Cillian was to be one of the producers & investment partners too. However he pulled out when he heard that his co star was going to be a 17 year old. He did not think the film would work out.

As for Hansard, he was originally called to  provide songs and anecdotes of life as a busker given that he's busking since the age of 13. After Cillian turned the role down, it went to Hansard. Well, there's no denying, the film worked out fine, winning the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. As for the 17 year old issue, that worked out fine too since Glen's song collaboration with Marketa  won them the Best Original Song for the Academy Awards 2008. The song "Falling Slowly" even peaked at #2 for the Irish Song Charts.

4.  Great acceptance speeches at the Awards ceremony, if only there was time for 2 speeches ....

When Glen Hansard & Marketa went up on stage to give their thank you speeches ... poor Marketa was cut off as soon as she started to speak by the orchestra music (which was a cue to indicate that their time was up). The organisers insisted that it was an accident but the host Jon Stewart was gracious enough to invite Marketa up again to give her thanks.

Check out the blooper and both their acceptance speeches here  in this link.

5. Some production secrets. 

The movie was filmed using two handycams and through a long lens. This meant that the actors did not have to mind the cameras too much. This way, they could be act more naturally and this was important given that most of the actors in the film were relatively inexperienced or not experienced at all. A bonus that came out of it was that this gave rise to some script improvisations which added to the authenticity of the movie. In fact, some of  the street scenes were truly authentic as passersby did not even realize that a film was being made.

6. And so what did she mean by "Miluju Tebe" ...?

This was one of the most memorable moments in the movie. On a romantic motorbike jaunt, the 'GIRL' reveals, much to the 'GUY's' consternation, that she is married, though her estranged husband is back in the Czech Republic. When the guy asks her if she still loves her husband, she replies in Czech, "Miluju tebe" but coyly declines to translate what it meant.  

The answer was unsubtitled. So the audience is left wondering, "Did she say YES or NO?" .....  but actually, she was telling him "I LOVE YOU"..... if only he knew what she had just said.

I shan't spoil it for you by telling you if the love between the two of them is requited or unrequited - so go watch the movie if you can...

7. Well, the movie title ONCE is more ominous for both Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova than you think.

Both Hansard and Irglova give the impression in interviews that they are unlikely to pursue further acting, so this could be a one off thing for them. Irglova has spoken about being nervous in front of a crew, saying "I don't think I would be a good actress, overall", and Hansard generally refers to the movie as a one-off, talking of "moving on... living a different life".

 Well, I do hope they will change their minds coz I really like these two. They seem so natural, so genuine and a critic even described Marketa as being 'luminous'.   Yes, I certainly hope to see more of them, so for me....

ONCE is definitely not enough.

 P.S. Check out Glen Hansard's guitar in the movie (& in the pic above)...its seen better days & sports a huge hole in the middle. But I thought it showed great character and seemed to be a convenient resting place for Glen's fingers :-) BTW, it truly is Glen's guitar in real life.

P.P.S. For a sampler of some of the songs in the movie check out these links:

• Falling Slowly
• The Hill
• Lies
• What does it feel to be in love
• Minds Made Up
• Say it to me now

Dies als kleine Vorwarnung. Morgen gibts Pinguin-Content.

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