Wednesday 31 January 2018
It’s Up to Fans to Promote Hidden Streaming Gems
We have the power.
However much money the streaming giants spend on original content, it seems they will always bury certain noteworthy titles. Buzzy festival acquisitions or indie-leaning original productions can easily get lost behind the week’s big new original series, Hollywood blockbuster… or Bright.
As Hollywood moved away from searching for the next word-of-mouth hit and towards all-marketing-all-the-time tentpoles, the big streaming services have subsumed that initial mindset. Yes, it’s amazing to have 15m viewers in three days, but the infamous opening weekend is far less of a make-or-break proposition for Netflix, Amazon and the like than it is for the theatrical majors.
That does mean, however, that these new studios are more than happy for an original production – particularly a one-off, such as a film – to just sit there and rack up the views over time, as and when subscribers stumble upon it. But distinctive, memorable films like Mudbound, Beasts of No Nation, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, or The Meyerowitz Stories deserve more than an accidental watch.
More than ever, it’s down to fans to spread the word about these films. And I don’t just mean waxing lyrical on Film Twitter or your cinephile group chat, but instead to friends and colleagues that may be out of the loop. Your average user is likely to only be exposed to the films and shows the services’ algorithms push in their faces.
So when sites like Netflix search engine Flixable make the news cycle based on a Reddit post, those in the know shouldn’t bemoan the fact that there are a bunch of sites out there that have been doing the same thing, and better, for years (New On Netflix and JustWatch, to name just two). Instead, we should champion the fact that there is yet another means of democratizing the streaming giants’ machine.
An extra way to keep up with all the new additions and search the back catalog is no bad thing. It’s up to us to create and promote sites like Flixable and to keep tabs on major new arrivals. And it’s up to us to keep reminding people that we live in a world where a terrific, four-time Oscar nominee is currently available to stream for close to free, at any time.
And keep telling them. It’s not like pestering someone into shelling out $20 for a movie ticket, transport, and expensive snacks. Sarah from work probably already has a Netflix account (over half of Wi-Fi connected homes in the US use a streaming service), so all you’re asking for is two hours of her time.
It’s a shame that these influential studios and distributors don’t do a better job allotting their marketing focus, but we do have the power to spread the word. Unlike theatrical moviegoing, there’s a minimal cost involved and no uncompromising theatrical window to battle.
8am PST tomorrow. Join me for a trickle of @Mute info! #ItBegins
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 19, 2018
So, when Duncan Jones’s Mute — which had a depressingly quiet promotional campaign until this week’s trailer — arrives on Netflix later this month, we can’t rely on the streaming giant or even the director’s passionate, and heartwarmingly lo-fi, social media posts to get this movie seen. It’s evangelistic fans that will make the difference when it comes to his neon-drenched sci-fi noir.
The article It’s Up to Fans to Promote Hidden Streaming Gems appeared first on Film School Rejects.
[The Daily] SXSW 2018 Features Lineup
The SXSW Film Festival, whose 2018 edition runs from March 9 through 18, has announced a lineup of 132 features—with more on the way. With descriptions from the festival . . . NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION Family. Director/Screenwriter: Laura . . .
Watch: Stunning Experimental Short Film 'Edifice' Made by Ash Thorp
"A complex system of beliefs." We're taking a brief step outside of our comfort zone to share this fascinating, mesmerizing short film titled Edifice, made by designer / filmmaker / visual artist Ash Thorp (follow him @ashthorp). This experimental short features stunning imagery designed to consider existential questions about "who we are, where we come from, and where we are heading." It's only seven minutes and features no dialogue, only visuals. The concept is to present visually a "journey from stardust to singularity." Most of the short films we share contain some sort of narrative or plot device, but this one is all about the concept, evoking profound existential & philosophical thoughts through an entrancing visual experience. See below.
Thanks to Ash for the note on this. Original description from Vimeo: "Edifice is an experimental short film inspired by personal beliefs of who we are, where we come from, and where we are heading; it's a journey from stardust to singularity. This purely cinematic film is intended to stimulate your mind and senses, while provoking further thought about our passage and presence in this world. To optimize your experience of the film, Edifice is best viewed on a full screen, with no surrounding artificial light intrusion, and very ample sound." Edifice is made by Ash Thorp (visit his official website), featuring a score by Ben Lukas Boysen. For more info on this and behind-the-scenes, visit the website. For more shorts, click here. Your thoughts?
To introduce a new section of short pieces on the Criterion Channel, we’re sharing a video about one of Orson Welles’s favorite actorly aids: prosthetic noses.
Where to Watch This Year’s Oscar Nominees
How many of these films will you see before March 4th?
The nominees have been read, the snubs have been discussed at length, and now it’s time to get down to the fun part of awards season: acting like you’re an Academy voter. There are 59 shorts and features in the race this year and, with just over a month until the big night, you should be able to make a good dent in the list of nominees. We’ve created a guide to get you started on your Oscars-binging journey, complete with information about where to stream, purchase, or see each movie, along with some behind-the-scenes tidbits.
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
(Documentary Feature)
Now showing on Amazon Prime
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
All the Money in the World
(Supporting Actor)
In theaters
Available on home video: TBD, expected March (preorder)
Baby Driver
(Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing)
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
Watch the thrilling opening sequence here:
Beauty and the Beast
(Production Design, Costume Design)
Now showing on Netflix
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
The Big Sick
(Original Screenplay)
Now showing on Amazon Prime
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
Blade Runner 2049
(Cinematography, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Production Design, Visual Effects)
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
The Boss Baby
(Animated Feature)
Now showing on Netflix
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
The Breadwinner
(Animated Feature)
In theaters
Available on home video March 6th (preorder)
Call Me by Your Name
(Best Picture, Lead Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Song)
In theaters
Available on digital February 27th (preorder)
Hear the song via YouTube:
Coco
(Animated Feature, Original Song)
In theaters
Available on digital February 13th (preorder)
Darkest Hour
(Best Picture, Lead Actor, Cinematography, Production Design, Makeup and Hair, Costume Design)
In theaters
Available on home video February 27th (preorder)
Dear Basketball
(Animated Short)
In theaters February 9th
Now showing on go90
DeKalb Elementary
(Live Action Short)
In theaters February 9th
The Disaster Artist
(Adapted Screenplay)
In theaters
Available on home video: TBD, expected in March (preorder)
Dunkirk
(Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Production Design, Original Score)
In theaters
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
Sample the score via YouTube:
Edith+Eddie
(Documentary Short)
In theaters February 9th
The Eleven O’Clock
(Live Action Short)
In theaters February 9th
Faces Places
(Documentary Feature)
In theaters
Available on home video March 6th (preorder)
A Fantastic Woman
(Foreign Language Film)
In theaters February 2nd
Ferdinand
(Animated Feature)
In theaters
Available on home video March 13th (preorder)
The Florida Project
(Supporting Actor)
Available on digital (buy or rent on Amazon)
Available on home video February 20th
Garden Party
(Animated Short)
In theaters February 9th
Get Out
(Best Picture, Lead Actor, Director, Original Screenplay)
Now showing on HBO/HBO Go/HBO Now
In theaters
Available on home video everywhere (buy on Amazon)
The Greatest Showman
(Original Song)
In theaters
Available on home video: TBD, expected in March (preorder)
Hear the song via YouTube:
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
(Visual Effects)
Now showing on Netflix
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
(Documentary Short)
Now showing on YouTube
In theaters February 9th
Heroin(e)
(Documentary Short)
Now showing on Netflix
In theaters February 9th
Icarus
(Documentary Feature)
Now showing on Netflix
The Insult
(Foreign Language Film)
In theaters
I, Tonya
(Lead Actress, Supporting Actress, Editing)
In theaters
Available on home video March 13th (preorder)
Loveless
(Foreign Language Film)
In theaters February 16th
Knife Skills
(Documentary Short)
Available for download on iTunes
In theaters February 9th
Kong: Skull Island
(Visual Effects)
Now showing on HBO/HBO Go/HBO Now
Available on home video everywhere (buy on Amazon)
Lady Bird
(Best Picture, Lead Actress, Supporting Actress, Director, Original Screenplay)
In theaters
Available on home video March 6th (preorder)
Last Men in Aleppo
(Documentary Feature)
Now showing on Netflix
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent)
Logan
(Adapted Screenplay)
Now showing on HBO/HBO Go/HBO Now
Available on home video everywhere (buy on Amazon)
Lou
(Animated Short)
Available to rent on YouTube
In theaters February 9th
Loving Vincent
(Animated Feature)
In theaters
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
Marshall
(Original Song)
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
Molly’s Game
(Adapted Screenplay)
In theaters
Available on home video: TBD, expected in April (preorder)
Mudbound
(Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Song)
Now showing on Netflix
Hear the song via YouTube:
My Nephew Emmett
(Live Action Short)
In theaters February 9th
Negative Space
(Animated Short)
In theaters February 9th
On Body and Soul
(Foreign Language Film)
Showing on Netflix February 2nd
Phantom Thread
(Best Picture, Lead Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Original Score, Costume Design)
In theaters
Available on home video: TBD, expected in April (preorder)
The Post
(Best Picture, Lead Actress)
In theaters
Available on home video: TBD, expected in April (preorder)
Revolting Rhymes
(Animated Short)
In theaters February 9th
Roman J. Israel, Esq.
(Lead Actor)
In theaters
Available on digital (buy on Amazon)
Available on home video February 13th (preorder)
The Shape of Water
(Best Picture, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Production Design, Original Score, Costume Design)
In theaters
Available on home video: TBD, expected February 27 (preorder)
The Silent Child
(Live Action Short)
In theaters February 9th
The Square
(Foreign Language Film)
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
(Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Original Score, Visual Effects)
In theaters
Available on home video: TBD, expected March or April (preorder)
Strong Island
(Documentary Feature)
Now showing on Netflix
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
(Best Picture, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Film Editing, Original Score)
In theaters
Available on home video: TBD, expected February (preorder)
Traffic Stop
(Documentary Short)
Showing on HBO March 12th
In theaters February 9th
Victoria and Abdul
(Makeup and Hair, Costume Design)
In theaters
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
War For the Planet of the Apes
(Visual Effects)
Available on home video everywhere (buy or rent on Amazon)
See a sample of the visual effects work here:
Watu Wote/All of Us
(Live Action Short)
In theaters February 9th
Wonder
(Makeup and Hair)
Available on digital (buy on Amazon)
Available on home video February 13th (preorder)
The article Where to Watch This Year’s Oscar Nominees appeared first on Film School Rejects.
Why Are Limited Release Movies Still A Distribution Method in 2018?
By Max Covill
The Florida Project and Call Me By Your Name were films damaged by this antiquated distribution strategy.
Limited released films have been a staple of Hollywood. The idea comes from a film distribution strategy of releasing a film in select markets. Spend a few dollars to have the film screen in NY and LA, and then the decision can be made to expand following the reception of the film. This tactic is also used to give award-worthy films a chance to qualify for the Academy Awards. Per the Academy’s rules, these films should be released by December 31st in LA to qualify. These films get a bigger release after the holidays in January (for example The Post and Phantom Thread).
That concept might work for films with stars like Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Daniel Day-Lewis, but for films featuring virtual unknowns like Timothee Chalamet and Brooklyn Prince, it doesn’t work. The studios that release films like Call Me By Your Name and The Florida Project were hoping for major award recognition to launch into bigger territories, but by then, the pre-release hype and the desire to view the films had diminished. Audiences were frustrated that the movies never played in their market and had resorted to illegal streams or passed on the films altogether. In an age where VOD and streaming exist in so many homes, there needs to be a new solution to this antiquated distribution strategy.
Word of mouth is still a successful way to market a film. Get Out is an easy example of that method working its magic. The film opened with little pre-release hype and became one of the biggest films of the year due to positive reviews and social media buzz. That would be the ideal situation. Years ago, movie studios didn’t want to manufacture expensive film reels for a movie they were timid on. That isn’t the case in 2018. Getting eyes on a feature film is easier than ever. Digital is king and the cost of shipping a film today is less, due to the investment in digital systems where DCP playback is the norm. The whole endeavor of releasing a film has become less expensive. This makes a staggered film release that much more frustrating.
Frustrating is the perfect word for how limited release distribution works. As someone who doesn’t live in one the bigger film markets myself, there have been countless times over the last fifteen years where I’ve traveled for these features. In fact, The Florida Project is one such movie where I visited a theater an hour away to catch the film. There are countless others who have felt the dismay over a hot new film not being available in their market.
You know what’s annoying? The Florida project is filmed in Orlando. I am in Orlando. The Florida project had a limited release.
— syd
(@veepthroat) December 10, 2017
How the hell is a movie called The Florida Project opening in NY/LA first?
I hate some of these limited release schedules. https://t.co/qWWr511AOV
— MttThms (@MttThms) October 4, 2017
Can we talk about the greatest injustice of my life right now that isn't YT related?
It's about Call Me By Your Name, and being a Midwest queer NOT from Chicago, and limited theatre releases
Also my recently reinvigorated Armie Hammer obsession pic.twitter.com/5Z2AE6MrG4
— Chelsea (@anoutlawlife) January 17, 2018
The Florida Project had its share of woes being a limited release feature. Director Sean Baker has been active on Twitter sharing when and where the film would play as he received countless inquiries from aggravated fans. It even got so bad he addressed public inquiries to leak his feature online.
There’s been about 30 tweets in the last 24 hours asking for a Florida Project leak. How about we don’t do that.
— sean baker (@Lilfilm) December 28, 2017
For people around the world, the desire to watch the film was strong. Piracy hurts all films, but especially ones of this size. These films don’t have the marketing budget of the newest Marvel movie and inherently have a smaller pool of interested patrons. When those patrons pirate the film before its release date, the chances of them going to the theater to see the film are reduced. (Note: The Florida Project is now available in Digital HD on streaming platforms, please support the creators.)
Call Me By Your Name, by all accounts, should have seen better business than it has. After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, the film was kept quiet until its resurgence at the Toronto International Film Festival. There, the film wowed critics all over again.
Without question, "Call Me By Your Name" is the best movie I've seen this year. I hate myself for not seeing it at Sundance.
#TIFF
— Amy Kaufman (@AmyKinLA) September 8, 2017
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME was exactly the film I needed. Feel everything, even if it hurts – stay full of bittersweet nectar. #TIFF
— Sophie Monks Kaufman (@sopharsogood) September 7, 2017
The film was in an excellent position to make good on high critical appraisal and receiving the most Independent Spirit Award nominations. According to Deadline, Call Me By Your Name had the year’s highest per-theater average opening at $101,219. That surpassed the previous record for 2017 limited box office made by Lady Bird. The release for Call Me By Your Name was on Thanksgiving weekend. Nine weeks later, after the dust had settled and Call Me By Your Name earned a Best Picture nomination, the film was released in a paltry 800 theaters. The results of that modest expansion saw the box office of Call Me By Your Name decreasing following the Best Picture nomination. The limited release had backfired on Sony Pictures Classics.
Streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, and even YouTube are providing easier access to small and mid-sized films that would suffer from a limited release roll out. The buzz for films is immediate with Facebook and Twitter giving audiences the world over instant reactions to films. That is when hype is at its peak and their needs to be a more efficient way to capture that buzz and turn it into views.
Paramount is exploring new strategies for their risky endeavors, but that means more eyes than ever will view Alex Garland’s Annihilation two weeks after opening. Paramount sold the international rights to Annihilation to Netflix who will stream the picture seventeen days after its domestic release. YouTube announced that they’d gained Joseph Kahn’s Bodied and will give it a limited release and then put it on their YouTube Red service, making it more convenient for audiences to catch the movie if it wasn’t playing in their market. These streaming services are using the profile of these movies to drive subscriptions, but in an age where studios still rely on limited release to create buzz, the move to streaming isn’t all that bad.
Audiences are tired of hearing about a film they can’t see. Social media has influenced our lives in countless forms. The way we experience news and how we hear about the latest movies is instantaneous. Word of Mouth doesn’t need the same amount of time to build, films like The Florida Project and Call Me By Your Name needed to be in front of as many eyes as possible within days of release, not weeks. Every year there are films that half the country never saw. There needs to be a change. Otherwise, small films will continue to suffer.
The article Why Are Limited Release Movies Still A Distribution Method in 2018? appeared first on Film School Rejects.
Clint Eastwood Could Direct A Film About a 90-Year-Old Drug Trafficker
By Sheryl Oh
Eastwood may also star as said drug mule.
Clint Eastwood may have his next directorial and acting project lined up, as reported by The Tracking Board. You read it right. Eastwood, who was last seen in a lead role in Robert Lorenz’s Trouble with the Curve, could return to center stage — or rather, screen — with The Mule.
Eastwood is currently circling The Mule, which has been floating around in development for a few years now. The film tells the true story of Leo Sharp, an award-winning horticulturist and decorated WWII veteran who started running drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel in his 80s. Sharp was then sentenced at the age of 90 for transporting $3 million worth of cocaine. Despite such a severe charge, Sharp only got three years in prison after his lawyer used dementia as a defense.
The Mule, in some ways, fits Eastwood’s M.O., no less because it’s a story about an ex-veteran trying to find his way in the America of today. From his extensive work in the western genre to more contemporary examinations of regular life, Eastwood’s movies are basically about white dudes who may or may not be morally ambiguous (and violent) and especially more recently, extremely pro-America. Eastwood has honed his skills by occasionally deconstructing symbols of power, but patriotism (especially via Big Acts of Bravery) has been flourished onscreen for a good number of years now.
Interestingly, the surprises of Sharp’s rather singular life could perhaps take the tenets of typical Eastwood filmmaking further than we’ve seen in a while. The New York Times article that The Mule is based on sets the scene; one of heightened suspense and drama. Sam Dolnick’s profile of Sharp — which doesn’t include much, if any, direct contact with Sharp himself — reads like a thriller script at times; for example, going through the cast of characters on the day Sharp was arrested for trafficking 104 kilos of cocaine, and documenting the car chase between ‘Tata’ (the cartel’s nickname for Sharp) and the DEA.
But peel back that layer of Sharp’s life story to reveal the apparent level of intensity he had as a horticulturist and we’re even more curious. He was practically a celebrity:
“Day-lily admirers are as intense as boxing fans, arguing passionately about the beauty and staying power of this or that varietal. And Leo Sharp is their Don King — a widely admired hybridizer with nearly 180 officially registered day lilies to his name.”
This was a man who was so renowned for his flowers that people arrived by the busload to see his work. Hence, Sharp’s overall motivations for his sudden embrace of a life of crime towards his twilight years evolves into something puzzling and far more intriguing.
Dolnick wrestles with reconciling the various presentations of Sharp throughout his article. The piece points out the juxtapositions between the perceptions of a typical drug trafficker and Sharp’s actual physical appearance in the Detroit federal courthouse: “it was hard to square the prosecutor’s descriptions of Sharp’s crimes — “the amount of wrecked lives is staggering” — with the kindly old man with crepe-paper skin slouching at the defense table.”
Not to say that judging a book by its cover is in any way advisable, but there is something about Sharp that resists categorization, making for a potentially interesting film. Although I don’t think there needs to be another white dude with morality issues onscreen anytime soon, Sharp’s age and unique circumstances lend some eccentricity to The Mule. There could be a story in there about how the ‘American Dream’ isn’t ever enough, and the quest for it will never stop if any opportunity presents itself no matter what age you’re at.
“One fundamental question looming over the case is whether Leo Sharp was savvy or senile.”
The Mule would likely investigate Sharp’s case and attempt to moralize him, but there’s something more to the character that changes things up for Eastwood movies. The combination of Sharp’s idiosyncrasies and Eastwood’s penchant for a holistic American identity will definitely make for a different kind of old-veteran-with-unclear-motivations movie.
The article Clint Eastwood Could Direct A Film About a 90-Year-Old Drug Trafficker appeared first on Film School Rejects.
After the Credits Podcast: ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’
This week on After the Credits, Alisha persuades Matt to fall madly in love with the ‘Maze Runner’ trilogy.
This week on After the Credits, Matthew is joined by freelance film critic Alisha Grauso to discuss Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the third and final installment of the Maze Runner trilogy. And while we don’t want to spoil everything that happens, let’s just say that between the first and second parts of this week’s episode, the Maze Runner fanbase added one new member.
Follow host Matthew Monagle (@labsplice) and guest Alisha Grauso (@AlishaGrauso) on Twitter, and don’t forget to subscribe to One Perfect Pod wherever you get your podcasts (AND leave us a rating or review!).
The article After the Credits Podcast: ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure’ appeared first on Film School Rejects.
Xavier Dolan is Going Back to His Roots With His Eighth Feature
By Sheryl Oh
‘Matt & Max’ sounds beautifully reminiscent of the films that shot Dolan to stardom.
Ever the busy bee, Xavier Dolan is already thinking about his eighth feature film. His seventh movie, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, is still in the final stages of post-production. But according to The Hollywood Reporter, Dolan has the script finalized for Matt & Max, a gay love story about two best friends who fall for each other.
This is especially exciting for fans of Dolan’s earlier work, as it feels like more of a throwback to his first couple of features. Starting out as a teenager writing and directing his wildly-successful debut film, I Killed My Mother, Dolan has explored gay stories throughout his career, whether explicitly or implicitly. Gay identity hasn’t been a part of Dolan’s recent filmography, at least not in the way of I Killed My Mother or Heartbeats. But with Matt & Max, that’s set to return in a big way.
Per his own admission, one of Dolan’s primary concerns as a filmmaker has always been about looking at society’s biases in construing gayness and its representations. Even if the final product diverges towards different focal points (such as family drama, which his last two films have explored extensively), the underlying concept remains the same. Since landing a role in Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased, Dolan says he’s ready “to go back to writing a script about characters who are gay.” Dolan adds:
“I have been confronted with such mature material, like ‘Boy Erased,’ ‘Call Me by Your Name’ and ‘God’s Own Country,’ and that gave me the desire to talk about homosexuality from an adult — and not a post-adolescent — point of view, and to talk about my generation and my friends and friendships. It made me want to write about two best friends falling in love who had never realized they could have a preference for men. I want to talk about true friendship and true love.”
I’ve never been one to focus specifically on Dolan’s age when it comes to his films. Perhaps it’s because I’m of that same generation. Any understanding and identification with his work seem doubly powerful in light of feeling understood by someone close to my age; someone far more fluent than myself at expressing these emotions. But in the midst of growing up — both for him and me — it truly feels like the right time to explore relationships in adulthood. It may be a comeback to themes and characters that Dolan has explored in the past, but not in the same manner of execution.
For example, Heartbeats is also about friends and relationships, albeit ones that are portrayed in a radically exaggerated, comical fashion. The film is about an insufferable love triangle where two best friends seek to outdo each other for a third party’s affection, and in doing so, they hurt one another. Thankfully, not irreparably, as true love comes about in friendships renewed. But by the end of Heartbeats, it’s debatable if the characters learned anything at all.
What makes Matt & Max even sound so different and exhilarating is the potential deconstruction of the childishness in Heartbeats. The commentary won’t have to run counter to what’s presented onscreen. I’m getting the implication that Matt & Max will be a more grounded film, and that’s very much welcomed. As Dolan fans can attest, the highly-stylized nature of his work doesn’t remove the very real emotions.
This is exactly what Dolan plans to achieve, and we’re all aboard. If his words about the film’s planned fall production are anything to go by, Matt & Max “would be a combination of Tom at the Farm, aesthetically, and Mommy in terms of energy and spirit.” Dolan will also star as Max. He will also reunite with Anne Dorval, who will once again play his mother (as she did in his debut feature). If that’s not an indication of going back to his roots — in the best possible way — I don’t know what is.
The article Xavier Dolan is Going Back to His Roots With His Eighth Feature appeared first on Film School Rejects.
Journey's End - Trailer
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Journey's End - Trailer Set in a dugout in Aisne in 1918, this is the story of a group of British officers, led by the mentally disintegrating young officer Stanhope, variously awaiting their faith Directed by: Saul Dibb Starring: Sam Claflin, Asa Butterfield, Toby Jones, Tom Sturridge, Stephen Graham, Paul Bettany |
Antonio Banderas as Maestro in Official 'The Music of Silence' Trailer
"Love is the wonderful symphony of every beating heart. It is the divine music that whispers to us…" Ambi Distribution has released a new official US trailer for an Italian biopic film titled The Music of Silence, from filmmaker Michael Radford. The film tells the story of an Italian musician named Andrea Bocelli, who went blind when he was a child. Years later he became one of the most famous musicians, but not without trials and tribulations, of course. Toby Sebastian plays Bocelli, and the cast includes Antonio Banderas, Jordi Mollà , Alessandro Sperduti, Luisa Ranieri, and Antonella Attili; with a special appearance by the real Andrea Bocelli. This looks like a very Italian film, with lots of opera singing and beautiful scenes in the countryside. The cinematography here is particularly impressive, I just hope the rest of it is that good.
Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Michael Radford's The Music of Silence, direct from YouTube:
Born with a serious eye condition that eventually leads to his blindness, Bocelli nevertheless rises above the challenges, driven by great ambitions towards his passion. The silent pursuit of his daily mission continues. Based on the extraordinary true story of Andrea Bocelli, who against all odds becomes one of the most world renowned opera singers. To date, he has sold over 80 million records. The Music of Silence is directed by veteran filmmaker Michael Radford, of the films Nineteen Eighty-Four, White Mischief, Il Postino, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, The Merchant of Venice, Flawless, La Mula, and Elsa & Fred. The screenplay is written by Anna Pavignano and Michael Radford. This first premiered at the Deauville Film Festival last year. Ambi will open The Music of Silence in select theaters starting February 2nd. Anyone?
‘Early Man’ Review: A Fun, If Flawed, Reminder of Aardman’s Simple Charms
By Farah Cheded
Nick Park’s latest doesn’t entirely re-invent the wheel, but it does remind us that animation can be full of ancient, rustic delights.
Nick Park and Aardman Animation‘s films have always flown in the face of accepted wisdom about modern animation. While other major animation studios make movies with a catch-all appeal, Aardman’s are decidedly provincial pictures, with the UK-based studio championing a particular brand of wry, slapstick-heavy northern English humor across all of its universally-loved creations, from Oscar-winning short Creature Comforts to the Wallace and Gromit series. Aardman isn’t sold on innovating for innovating’s sake, either; while CGI has been used to enhance some of their latest features, the studio has been careful to ensure that its use never detracts from the humble, homely appeal endowed by their use of traditional stop-frame claymation techniques.
Early Man, Aardman’s latest movie (and Park’s first stint as a solo feature director), is made in this same winning mold. As with Chicken Run and the Wallace and Gromit films, it plays off the everyman, who here takes the form of a young Stone Age man named Dug (endearingly played by Eddie Redmayne). Dug wishes his tribe would hunt mammoth rather than rabbit in the lush valley they live in, but otherwise, he and his little clan are quite contented in their primitiveness. One day, however, the tranquillity of their small patch of Eden is disrupted by a foreboding sound: the clang of stone on bronze (a neat analogy of the film’s central conflict).
That noise is the harbinger of the Bronze Age, and of a civilization led by aristocratic metal maniac Lord Nooth (an unrecognizable Tom Hiddleston doing a comical caricature of a French accent). Nooth loves two things: bronze, and football (or soccer). His first love is what has led him to the valley, which he believes would make a great site for an ore mine. A desperate Dug seizes upon Nooth’s other passion as a means to preserve the peaceful serenity of tribe life, proposing a winner-takes-all match between his un-athletic tribe and Nooth’s top team, the cheekily-titled Real Bronzio. It’s a risky wager: if Dug’s team wins, they get to keep their valley, but if they lose, they’ll be mining the “cold, hard, slippery” stuff Nooth likes to rub against his face forever.
It’s this game that entirely forms the movie’s plot, essentially making Early Man an underdog sports movie. While we do root for Dug and his tribe, however, we aren’t given anything else to care about. And with the outcome of the game being somewhat predictable, it feels like Early Man‘s story would play better as an amusing diversion – a half-time show, perhaps – rather than as the main event itself.
To be sure, though, Early Man is not a total let-down. Visually, it remains as joyously mesmerizing to watch as all the earlier Aardman films are. From the toothy under-bite of protagonist Dug to the primitively jutting jaw of Dug’s loyal warthog Hognob (whose grunts are voiced by Park himself), Early Man’s characters are as endearingly ugly as the studio’s creations always have been. At one point in the film, a “giant, man-eating mallard” turns up, and the sight is as genuinely terrifying as the dumpy friendliness of plasticine allows. In every frame, there’s that ancient appeal of Aardman’s – it’s refreshingly goofy, homely charm – reminding us that animation needn’t be realistically rendered in twelve different dimensions to be good.
Although its narrative feels somewhat one-note, Early Man is bulked up with a wealth of gags and Easter eggs for audiences of all ages, thanks to a collaborative screenwriting effort from Mark Burton, James Higginson, Park and John O’Farrell. For film fans, there are plenty of nods to the movie’s cinematic ancestors: we glimpse a food stall named “Jurassic Pork,” a pots-and-pans shop that trades under the name “Flint Eastwood,” and there are several scenes inspired by both Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and the work of Ray Harryhausen. There’s also a terrific ball-over-the-fence moment that will elicit a chuckle from anyone who’s ever played a ball game before, plus some stellar slapstick stuff that will strike gold (or bronze) with any generation.
Given the centrality of the film’s football theme, however, it’s the UK’s favorite sport that gives Early Man much of its comic force. From the film’s kick-off scene, in which the accidental creation of football is shown as taking place somewhere “near Manchester” – a tongue-in-cheek reference to the northern English city’s passion for the beautiful game – to Nooth’s official title (“your Premiership”), Early Man is full of football-themed gags that will score even amongst those with only a passing knowledge of the sport. For fans in the know, more jokes hit the back of the net thanks to comedian Rob Brydon, who lends his considerable impressionist talents to the movie by lampooning British sports commentating.
The rest of Early Man’s supporting cast is equally brilliant, although the film misses an easy opportunity to enrich itself by granting them a few more lines. Dug’s tribe is a zany, multi-accented coalition made up of the voices of Timothy Spall, Richard Ayoade, Mark Williams, Johnny Vegas and Gina Yashere, while the always excellent Miriam Margolyes gives shrill vocalization to Queen Oofeefa, the sovereign ruler of the Bronze civilization. Maisie Williams is also on hand to put in an affirming performance as Goona (whose name is another wink to the sport), a stereotype-smashing, football-obsessed ancestor of Arya Stark who is tasked with turning Dug’s oafish tribe into a top team.
Early Man isn’t the best Aardman film, but it isn’t the worst, either (that honor goes to the middling Flushed Away). It is short on plot layers, but this has the effect of making the time spent in front of the screen zip by, meaning Early Man feels like a sweet little snatch of escapist fun if nothing more. In spite of its flaws, it reminds movie lovers that we should retain a place in our hearts for less technologically snazzy animation. Dug’s satisfaction with the simple life of shiny newness might just be an analogy for Aardman’s continual embrace of its humble Claymation roots amidst an increasingly CGI-heavy animation landscape.
Early Man opens in theaters on the 16th of February.
The article ‘Early Man’ Review: A Fun, If Flawed, Reminder of Aardman’s Simple Charms appeared first on Film School Rejects.
Zachary Quinto, Jon Hamm, Jenny Slate in Official Trailer for 'Aardvark'
"Josh is a pretty disturbed individual…" Great Point Media has debuted a trailer for an awkward indie film titled Aardvark, from writer/director Brian Shoaf. This premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year and like most Tribeca films, no one will ever see it. Jenny Slate stars as a therapist, Emily, who falls for the brother of a patient who may or may not be suffering from schizophrenia. Zachary Quinto co-stars as her patient, Josh, and his brother is played by the alluring Jon Hamm, which is such on-the-nose casting it actually seems weird. The full cast includes Sheila Vand, Tonya Pinkins, Dale Soules, Peter Grosz, and Marin Ireland. This really does not look very good, but you can check it out if you're curious anyway.
Here's the first official trailer for Brian Shoaf's Aardvark, direct from YouTube:
Emily Milburton’s (Jenny Slate) newest therapy patient is Josh Norman (Zachary Quinto), an emotionally challenged introvert who suffers from increasingly volatile hallucinations. Most pressing though, is his estranged relationship with his brother, Craig (Jon Hamm), a famous TV actor who just so happens to be in town for a visit. So what’s the worst that could happen when Craig shows up on Emily’s doorstep? Aardvark is directed by American actor-filmmaker Brian Shoaf, making his feature directorial debut with this film after a few shorts previously. This first premiered at last year's Tribeca Film Festival. Great Point Media will open Shoaf's Aardvark in select theaters starting on April 13th this spring. Anyone interested?
This month, we’re bringing two essential Criterion editions to the United Kingdom: Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1962 debut feature, Ivan’s Childhood, a haunting depiction of World War II through the eyes of a young boy; and Delmer Daves’s 1957 western . . .
Official Trailer for Abbas Kiarostami's Mesmerizing Film '24 Frames'
"Kiarostami represents the highest level of artistry in the cinema." Janus Films has unveiled the trailer for an experimental film titled 24 Frames, the last full-length feature project from the late Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, who passed away in 2016. This first premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival, and played at numerous other film festivals including London, Vienna, Busan, and Vancouver. 24 Frames is an experimental project made by filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami in the last three years of his life. It is a collection of 24 short four-and-a-half minutes films inspired by still images, including paintings and photographs. He shares a photo, then animates it in various ways, with birds or waves or animals or rustling trees. It's a very poetic, mesmerizing film and may connect more to those who are patient enough to appreciate the elegance.
Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Abbas Kiarostami's 24 Frames, direct from YouTube:
The final film from Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami is a wordless series of sketches elaborating on his lifelong fascination with photography. Consisting of 24 four-and-a-half minute sketches—each a digitally manipulated, fixed-frame view of a scene from nature—24 Frames allows the late Kiarostami to evoke the moments before and after a still image has been captured, and to explore the thin line between natural and artificial beauty. Largely absent of humans, and alternating between color and black-and-white, these poetic miniatures gradually come to life with subtlety, giving rise to the poignant and mysterious possibilities of the moving image. 24 Frames is directed by the late Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, of the films The Report, Where Is the Friend's Home, Close-Up, Through the Olive Trees, Taste of Cherry, The Wind Will Carry Us, and Certified Copy previously. This premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival. Janus Films opens 24 Frames in select theaters starting February 2nd beginning at NYC's Lincoln Center.
This year’s 6 Filmmaking Tips from Jordan Peele
The writer/director of ‘Get Out’ shares his advice for achieving success when directing your first film.
As a writer, actor, comedian, and now director, Jordan Peele has pretty much done it all. He has written for shows such as MadTV and the film Keanu, and has done voice acting for animated programs such as Bob’s Burgers and more recently, Big Mouth. Since 2012, he is probably best known for his work on Key and Peele, a show in which he starred alongside Keegan Michael Key. His directorial debut horror film Get Out premiered at Sundance and quickly gained critical acclaim and recognition, ultimately earning Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture.
Now, being only one of three people in the history of the Oscars to receive nominations in all three major categories for his feature directorial debut, Peele plans to continue his directing career, possibly doing more within the horror genre. First, he’s passing forward some lessons learned during his first time. On the occasion of the Academy favor and Get Out being back in theaters, we’ve gathered some of these tips for success, which can be followed whether you’re a first-time director or aspiring horror-filmmaker.
Write for Yourself
When embarking on your first film, being primarily concerned with making something people will want to produce seems important. However, Peele advises keeping that as an afterthought. When asked for advice during a Reddit AMA in 2017, he told fans:
“First off, write your favorite movie that you haven’t seen. Don’t worry about whether it is going to get made. Write something for yourself. After you have that draft, then worry about what you need to do to sell it. I also say, as a director, enjoy yourself, and if you take the time to take a breath and have quiet moments for yourself and just say ‘how the fuck did I get here, this is awesome.’ That will seep into the work and people will feel the joy.”
Watch a video of the AMA here for more:
Watch the Classics
While you want your work to be original, drawing from the classics can be a great source of inspiration. Especially for horror filmmakers. Peele’s personal favorites, as he told No Film School in 2017, include The Stepford Wives, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and Rosemary’s Baby:
“It’s a great way to learn how to reinvent modern ideas. Stylistically, ‘Get Out’ is a throwback to the ’60s, one of my favorite times for film. They really knew how to wind tension tighter and tighter.”
Tell Your Truth
Putting part of yourself into your film is necessary if you want your work to resonate with others. When asked about the more autobiographical aspects of Get Out in an interview with Film Independent in 2017, Peele emphasized the importance of putting his own emotions and experiences into his work :
“I think the only way to, the only way I will ever attempt to create anything again is to be vulnerable with my own emotions. In some way it has to be autobiographical. If you’re telling a story and you’re not bearing part of your soul or telling your truth, I think that you’re not doing that right, as well. Certainly, that’s the case for me. And I think when I invented that party sequence, that was a huge moment for me of saying, ‘You know what, these fears, justified or not justified, however they come, these fears of mine, I’ve never seen them portrayed in film.’ You know the whole process of figuring out what this movie was about was about digging deep and exploring my fears first, and trusting that if I got that across, that we’re all human. We’re all made up of the same emotions, and that, this is what you sort of find in comedy too, is if you put your truth out there, however specific it feels, however much you feel like ‘this is just me. No one else is going to relate to this. No one is going to care.’ That’s not the case. People are drawn to truth like magnets in art, I think. It’s really easy to see in comedy because when something feels true, and when something rings true, you get a laugh. And if it doesn’t, you don’t. And it’s just that simple.”
Watch the rest of the interview here:
Create a Universal Fear
The difficulty with making a horror film specifically is that different things will frighten different people. Peele struggled with this concept when writing Get Out but found that allowing audiences to experience the character’s own personal horror can make a fear feel universal. In an interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross in 2017, he said:
“Every great horror movie comes from a true fear, and ideally it’s a universal fear. The tricky nature of this project is that the fear I’m pulling from is very human, but it’s not necessarily a universal experience, so that’s why the first third of the movie is showing, and not in an over-the-top way, in a sort of real, grounded way, just getting everybody to be able to see the world through my protagonist’s eyes and his fears.”
Give Room for Thought
With Get Out, Peele was able to create a socially relevant story that stuck with audiences and kept them talking long after they left the theater. However, while it can be important for your work to help get the conversation going, Peele never set out to force a message onto his audience. He told The Verge in 2017:
“One hundred percent. I had a front-row seat, obviously, in ‘Key & Peele,’ realizing the power of sketch to help start and inform conversation. I’m a true believer in story. I think when you just tell people to think, people tend to get resistant and defensive, and feel like you’re accusing them of not thinking. But when you tell a story, and you draw them in through allowing them to see through the eyes of a different person, and when you can affect their feelings and emotions — whether it’s making them laugh, or making them scared, or making them scream, or making them cheer — then you have them on a starting point, already, to think about why they had those visceral reactions. The way I look at it is, when you allow people to submerge themselves into a story, they will react by thinking through what it’s about. That’s just so much more fun and effective, I think than a lecture.”
Subvert Audience Expectations
An important part of the comedy and horror genres especially is being able to keep your audiences on their feet. That being said, there is an art to creating effective twists and subverting expectations in a fun and clever way, which Peele explained in an interview with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Cinema Society in 2017:
“Comedy is where I’m from and the process of doing sketch comedy, you know, week after week on ‘Key and Peele,’ very much became about this idea of jujitsu, of judo. If you can predict what and where an audience is going to go, or what they think you’re going to do, you can use that momentum against them. So all over this movie, I knew I wanted to have reveals. I knew I wanted to have twists. But most importantly, you know I figured if an audience thinks they know what’s going on and whether they like it or they don’t if you can show them that they’ve been watching something completely different the entire time, I think they have a respect. And there’s a real intellectual catharsis that comes with that and it’s fulfilling for an audience. You know, in this, there’s a few big ones. There’s the Rose reveal, which was a very difficult thing to hide that Rose was evil because it’s like you looking on paper she’s bringing him there. To expect an audience not to think that is almost impossible. So I had to kind of direct her and write that as if it was a different movie. As if it was this love story and to try to convince the audience to root for the two of them to escape together. Or to think at its worst that something was going to happen to one of them and that was the was one of the most fun reveals to protect. But I think the big one was to subvert the expectation that the type of racism we were watching was going to be what we usually associate as racism.”
Watch the rest of the interview here:
What We Learned
Although horror and comedy may seem like two completely different genres, they actually have a lot in common. The art of subversion is something important to master for both and when done right can improve the quality of your story overall and heighten the viewers’ level of engagement. At the heart of every great film, no matter the genre, is a message, something that you draw deep from within yourself. But give your audiences the opportunity to interpret that message and continue the conversation you started.
If there isn’t room for thought or discussion, the film may not have as strong of an impact on viewers or have a long life after its theatrical release. While focusing solely on impressing potential producers with your work is tempting, be sure to write what you love and what you would like to see represented on screen, and the rest will eventually fall into place if you have enough passion and motivation for your project.
The article 6 Filmmaking Tips from Jordan Peele appeared first on Film School Rejects.
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