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the-master-cylinder · 4 years

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SUMMARY In the kingdom of Aruk, the high priest Maax is given a prophecy by his witches that he would die facing the son of King Zed. So he sends one of his witches to kidnap and kill the child, but before she can kill him, a villager rescues the child and raises him as his own son. Named Dar while raised in the village of Emur, the child learns how to fight, and has the ability to telepathically communicate with animals. Years later, a fully grown Dar witnesses his people being slaughtered by the Juns, a horde of fanatic barbarians allied with Maax. Dar, the only survivor of the attack, journeys to Aruk to avenge his people. In time, Dar is joined by a golden eagle he names Sharak, a pair of thieving ferrets he names Kodo and Podo, and a panther he names Ruh.

Eventually, Dar meets a redheaded slave girl called Kiri before getting himself lost and ending up surrounded by an eerie half-bird, half-human race who dissolve their prey for nourishment. As the bird men worship eagles, they spare Dar when he summons Sharak and give him an amulet should he need their aid. Dar soon arrives at Aruk where Maax had assumed total control with the Juns’ support. Maax has taken the children of the townspeople, and is sacrificing them to his god Ar. After having Sharak save the child of a townsman named Sacco, Dar learns that Kiri is to be sacrificed. On his way to save her, Dar is joined by Zed’s younger son Tal and his bodyguard Seth, learning that Kiri is Zed’s niece as the three work to save her. While Seth goes to gather their forces, Dar helps Kiri and Tal infiltrate the temple and rescue King Zed.

Zed leads his forces to attack the city, but they’re captured. Dar returns to save them from being sacrificed. In the conflict that follows, Maax reveals Dar’s relationship to Zed before slitting Zed’s throat and facing the Beastmaster. Despite being stabbed, revived by his remaining witch before she was killed, Maax is about to kill Dar when Kodo sacrifices himself to cause the high priest to fall into the sacrificial flames. But the victory is short-lived as the Jun horde is approaching Aruk, arriving by nightfall to face the trap Dar and the people set for them. Tal is wounded as Dar succeeds in burning most of the Juns alive while defeating their chieftain before the bird-men arrive to consume those remaining. The following day, Seth invites Dar to be the new king, but Dar explains that Tal would make a better king, and he leaves Aruk. Dar sets off into the wild with Kiri, Ruh, Sharak and Podo (who has given birth to two baby ferrets) on the path to new adventures.

DEVELOPMENT/PRE-PRODUCTION Beastmaster found a home under the protective wing of Sylvio Tabet’s own production/financing company, Leisure Investments. This arrangement allowed the production company more artistic freedom than studio financing would have permitted. Tabet then proceeded to seed the production staff with the finest artisans and craftspeople he could find.

“We have a very good team, it’s very professional,” Tabet comments. “John Alcott, the cinematographer, made The Shining and Barry Lyndon. He’s an Academy Award winner! He’s giving a tremendous look to this picture. He’s painting the film in a kind of goldish, rust color which gives us the feeling that this picture is of another time. He had a way to light interiors with only torches and candles, using practically no light at all. Again, I think this film has been very challenging for everybody, but the results on screen are incredible—it’s working incredibly well.”

“We spent two years researching Beastmaster. You need it! We studied each movement of the actors because there is a lot of sword fighting in the picture, and you have to choreograph the movements on paper before you can bring it to the screen. We’re also working with a lot of special effects, miniatures and animals. I’ve had to create a whole new world for this film. Or at least, I’m trying.

“It’s very challenging. Sometimes I don’t sleep at night….” Tabet pauses. “But I must say, I’m very pleased with the results. On the screen, the film has a totally different look, much imagination.” And for Tabet, the end result on the screen is his reward for the hard work and lost sleep.

The shoot itself was a demanding one. Bad weather and difficult night shoots plagued the production. Everything in the film had to be built from scratch, and built to last. Film Builders Productions in North Hollywood provided villages, sets and a 70-foot sacrificial pyramid that had to endure five months of location shooting. But Tabet, director Don Coscarelli and producer Paul Pepperman assembled a cast of special effects artisans who had the vision and the ability to meet the demands of budget.

FX Lineup Mike Minor provided the Art Direction for the Special Effects Unit. Under his direction, Will Guest built the miniatures which were photographed by Bill Cruse. Makeup artist Bill Munns created the fantasy makeups, and pyrotechnic wizard Roger George marshalled the explosions.

The fantastic creatures which populate Beastmaster were a pioneering effort in Tabet’s eyes. “There are many new SPFX concepts we are testing,” he explains. “The bird warriors in the picture are one of a kind. They are men who are like bat creatures. We had to create winged clothes on the actors (which were articulated), to close around the enemy. The enemy starts to disintegrate, and you can see the disintegration through the wings.”

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Witch women cling like spiders to the ceilings and fly through rooms, weaving evil spells at the bidding of Maax, their high priest. Jun warriors devastate villages. Zombie death guards sacrifice innocent children. Giants smash cities into ruin. Beastmaster promises a feast of visual effects for its viewers.

“All kinds of special effects!” Tabet chuckles. “It’s a fantasy with a lot of action, a lot of dreams. This kind of film you’ll never see on television. It has a large scope. It is a very ambitious project.”

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“It took me a year to put together,” he says. “I believe in the talent of Don Coscarelli. He sees everything fresh, new ideas.”

“We did a lot of storyboarding,” says Coscarelli, “but it all turned out to be pretty useless once we got to the set. A lot of things changed.” Some of those changes may have had something to do with the special considerations of cinematographer John Alcott (The Shining, Terror Train) and special effects man Roger George (Phantasm), since perhaps 90 percent of the picture was shot in natural illumination and torch or firelight of some kind. “Roger George was in charge of all the pyrotechnics,” says Coscarelli, “and we worked out some incredible things; explosions, and a 200 foot long wall of fire 25 feet high. We shot that same scene for three weeks.” Says Coscarelli of John Alcott, “it was a different experience having another person doing the cinematography, but John Alcott is terrific. He was easy to work with just a real nice guy-and he was very responsive to my wishes.”

The Beast Master by Andre Norton

The Beast Master tells of Hosteen Storm, a Navajo and former soldier who has empathic and telepathic connections with a group of genetically altered animals. The team emigrates from Earth to the distant planet Arzor where it is hired to herd livestock. Storm still harbors anger at his former enemies the Xik, and has sworn revenge on a man named Quade for his father’s murder. According to Kirkus he finds “life and hope” instead.

The animals in Coscarelli’s film are possibly the most unique aspect of it, and were, perhaps, the most difficult. It takes time to film animal scenes, especially if the animal must perform some bit of business that is vital to the plot. Boone Narr, of Gentle Jungle in Burbank, California, supplied the beasts, including some 20 ferrets, each trained to do a different task (so that it would appear that the two ferrets in the story were doing everything), and Kipling, an extremely large Bengal tiger that was colored black for his role as Dar’s pet. “Kipling,” chuckles Coscarelli, “had absolute casting approval.” Had the big cat been less amicable, Marc Singer (Dar) might have wound up as leading meal, rather than leading male. There were only a couple of instances when the tigers (there were three-as stand ins for one another) appeared to get out of hand. One cat got loose in the dark warehouse that was being used for the interior sets. “A black tiger in a dark warehouse!” laughs Coscarelli, “We didn’t hang around to see how they were going to catch him.” The cat was caught, quickly, however, and without incident-credit the animal handlers from Gentle Jungle.

“The animals are really difficult –it’s a matter of sitting around with 80 people, spending a fortune, until you have what you want. Then, when it does happen, it’s like magic; no one can figure how we get them to do it. The ferrets are very workable-we have about 20 of them, to represent the two in the movie. Some are jumpers, some are quick ones, some are trained to carry beads; they’re all trained to do different things, all of them in marked cages waiting for their set call.”

As talented as the animal cast may be, finding the right human cast was one of the most arduous preproduction tasks. Certainly the best-known cast member is Rip Torn, one of New York’s most respected stage actors, reputed to be a very interesting’ person to have in any cast. Pepperman confirms that there were few dull moments while Torn was on the set. “We only had him for a while, and we’ve really missed the action since he left,” says the producer.

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For the part of Lara the slave girl, Tanya Roberts-a former Charlie’s Angel who is exceptional in appearing to be both beautiful and bright-was selected after a lengthy period of open casting calls and dozens of readings. “When she came in, we all agreed that she had the look and the feel that we had in mind for that character, and she’s been wonderful. She does a lot of very athletic things in the film; just two nights ago we were out on top of this 80-foot cliff, with Tanya and a stuntman in the outfit of Maax’s Deathguard, who was to take a high-fall off of it, and the role required her to stand at the very edge looking down. She was letting out a little scream every once in awhile-but she was out there doing it.”

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Pepperman seems most grateful for having Marc Singer on board. “We literally saw hundreds and hundreds of people for that lead role, through the two casting directors that were with us through preproduction. “Name” people, unknowns, all kinds of people. We were looking for a guy in really good shape-not an overdeveloped bodybuilder type, but somebody normal-looking who was in really good shape. We were looking and looking, and Marc’s name came up twice-once on a list that mentioned him as part of a San Francisco repertory production of Taming of the Shrew. Our casting director at the time said no, that won’t work. Then his name came up again a couple of months later on a list of ‘name’ people to be considered; his credits included a TV movie called The Contender, in which he played a boxer, and another called For Ladies Only, where he played a male stripper. We knew from those roles that he had to have a body, and we knew that if he could handle The Taming of the Shrew he had to be able to act, so we had him in. We found that he had the body, he had the look, and he could act, so he was in. As another plus, we never asked whether he was able to handle a sword-but it turned out that he is a more than adequate fencer, and he does a heck of a lot of his own stunts, too. I imagine that without Marc, we would have been maybe three weeks behind schedule.”

Principal filming will be finished as you read this, and plans call for the edited film to be delivered in early July. “For us that’s working very fast,” says Pepperman, “but then, again, this is the first time that Don has not done the editing entirely on his own.”

During lensing of the sword-and-sorcery adventure, Marc Singer notes he got along well with director Don (Phantasm) Coscarelli. “I’m really happy we turned out such a great movie. I received excellent directorial advice on my character from the man who was sort of ‘helping’ in the direction of Beastmaster, Chuck (Gumball Rally) Bail. He was on set as a ghost entity to help with the production and he gave me clues for Dar’s character. Chuck did so much on that film that I hesitate to say how much he truly did. In my opinion, he was the backbone of the project.”

Playing a warrior who can telepathically bond with animals, Singer found himself in close contact with hawks, tigers and bears– not to mention ferrets. “It was very demanding, working with the animals, but it was also exhilarating,” he says happily. “I would have to say it was more inspiring than it was hard, except for the bear, which had a tendency to want to eat people. That was the only animal you had to stay away from.

Singer to work closely with some beastly co-stars: tigers, eagles and ferrets. The actor remembers the experience with mixed feelings; “At first, I had to work with five different tigers to find the tiger with which I had the best relationship. At one point, one turned around and grabbed me by the leg. Everyone froze for a minute, then the cat let me go.

“I had a very good relationship with my tiger. In fact, I miss it and think of it often. It was like a religious experience everytime I was near this animal, and I developed a great and abiding love for it. I think the reason the tiger accepted me, and was good to me, is that whenever I was on screen with it, I felt it was an enormous privilege. I always let the tiger be the boss. The film may have been titled The Beastmaster, but whenever I was on screen with that tiger, I said to it, ‘This is your forum to tell us of the beauty and majesty of the natural world and why we should take care of it and have a responsibility towards you.’”

The eagle, on the other hand, proved less amenable. According to Singer, the only person it tolerated was its trainer. In one scene, the bird flew directly at Singer, scoring his back with its talons. “It really was a question of the eagle’s maternal instinct fixating itself on its handler. To the eagle, anyone else was an intrusion and a threat,” Singer explains. “Obviously, we had to reshoot the scene.”

Another animalistic incident involved a Japanese grizzly bear. “This was the very first shot of the film,” Singer recalls. “And the handlers said to us, ‘Gentlemen, if you’ll all stand back now, we’re going to bring out the bear and use him in this shot. Please be very quiet and anybody not needed on the set, please go away. Everything will be just fine.’

“They turned around and unlocked the cage. This bear-it’s about eight or nine feet tall jumped right out and began mauling one of the handlers. Just tore him to pieces. They had six guys trying to get it off the trainer and back into the cage.”

SPECIAL EFFECTS Though Phantasm had a goodly number of makeup effects, the size and scope of The Beastmaster required Coscarelli, for the first time, to engage in the creation of a makeup effects unit. It wasn’t easy.

“Our problems in the makeup department,” Coscarelli says, “were chiefly problems of organization. We shopped around for a time, while we were in preproduction. We had something on the order of 50 different things that had to be accomplished. One very well-known outfit priced the job at $300,000, and another group that had just completed a successful sword and sorcery picture figured it at $100,000. For a while, we employed a fellow who had done some work for New World Pictures; he came in, and was very pleasant, and he gave the impression that he could handle everything that we needed. But apparently we made a mistake by not checking more thoroughly into his background-I recall one time that he explained that something we needed wasn’t ready because he had used the wrong fixative on his plastics, and that he’d passed out in his lab for three hours!”

If only for his own safety, it was thought best to let that individual go, and the search resumed for the right effects man. With the schedule grow among his recent credits, has proven to be a valuable addition to the crew. In other areas, however, it has proven, for Pepperman at least, to be a shade less satisfying.

“There’s not as much of our being able to get in there and say, ‘OK, this here’s the way we want it, the way it should be done,’ showing people exactly what you mean. This has been a long, hard haul, and day after day ! promise myself that the next one will be a nice, small movie. This way, there are so many departments, and so many people in each department … it becomes a problem to have little things changed. The prop department needs something, it gets drawn up, then it gets fabricated, and by the time you see it, if something is not quite right, it’s a big process to send it back to have it changed. And it’s necessary sometimes, though we do have a lot of topnotch people.

‘On special effects, there were a lot of things that, on Phantasm, we had to figure out how to do-now we’ve got people who tell us right off the bat what we’re going to do, with mechanical and pyrotechnical effects.”

In addition to the expanded scope of the production, further complications were introduced to the project in the film’s extensive use of prosthetics: witch women-beautiful bodies topped by hideous faces; bird warriors-extra tall, lean actors dressed in elaborate costumes; and various other worldly beasts are all dependent on realistic prosthetics for their convincing portrayal. Add to that the task of shooting many scenes with trained animals, and you may begin to conceive the types of problem is faced and solved by the young filmmakers.

Enter Bill Munns, Munns is the subject of some controversy in special effects circles; his work in The Boogens and Swamp Thing has received some sharp criticism and yet both of these films were made on budgets that require Munns to practically pull his monsters out of a hat. What Munns lacks in terms of a glamor reputation is amply compensated by his growing reputation as an fx man who respects the movie makers’ budgets and schedules. By the time Munns joined Beastmaster, the schedule had been cut desperately short by the previous fx dead ends. “When I saw the things that Bill had done for us,” recalls the director, “I wasn’t immediately pleased with all of them; but everything Bill did was done on time and on schedule. And by taking extra care with the lighting, everything looks good on screen, so, in general, our experience with Bill was a good one.”

The original makeup designer (Michael McCracken, Jr.) did not put any mouth or nostrils on these masks, and the people wearing them couldn’t breathe. I had no time to resculpt and remake the masks, so I just cut discreet holes in the masks and put straws up into the masks and into the actors’ mouths. Then, right before each scene was filmed, I took scissors and clipped the straws off right at the mask surface so they wouldn’t show, but so the actors could still breathe. These photos were my own on-set photos between takes, which is why the straws stick out so obviously. I was just taking reference photos of the suits. Another curious thing about these suits is they have no backs, because there wasn’t enough money left for me to make back-torso sections.

The work I am most proud of on this movie is at the upper right top, the “eye ring”. This curious thing was supposed to be a living eye magically infused into a ring, worn by an unsuspecting person, so the ring could spy on people and report visually back to its magical owner. There were six rings total, three just regular with eye closed (the left ring) and one with the eye open, plus the “Hero” ring with animation built in so the eyelid could open and the eye could look side to side, and finally a ring with a gelatin eye that could be burned and melted with a flaming stick. The “Hero” eye ring was one of my more ingenious feats of engineering, because it was still a practical ring the actor could wear.

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The beginning of the film, where a witch steals the queen’s unborn child from her womb. They wanted to see the unborn baby struggling against the woman’s stomach skin as it was magically being extracted. So I had to build a cable-controlled baby head and hands that could push against the foam latex stomach skin and also build a large air bladder so the belly could be expanded and contracted with air pumped rapidly in and out. At left, the green and black hoses are the air hoses for inflating and deflating the bladder. At the bottom, you can see the baby animation device and the cables controlling them. Bottom right is the foamed latex skin that covers the effects devices.

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SCORE/SOUNDTRACK The Beastmaster (1982) Lee Holdridge

The score was composed and conducted by Lee Holdridge; it was recorded in Rome with members of The Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia of Rome and the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Rome. The soundtrack album was originally issued by Varèse Sarabande, and subsequently by C.A.M. In 2013 Quartet Records released a 1200-copy limited edition featuring the original album (tracks 1–13, disc 1) and most of the film’s score (Holdridge wrote eighty minutes of music for the film; a few cues could not be found, but the album includes music that was not heard in the finished product).

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CAST/CREW Directed Don Coscarelli

Produced Paul Pepperman Donald P. Borchers Sylvio Tabet

Written Don Coscarelli Paul Pepperman

Based on The Beast Master by Andre Norton

Marc Singer as Dar Billy Jacoby as young Dar Tanya Roberts as Kiri Rip Torn as Maax Donald Battee Don Battee as Chameleon John Amos as Seth Josh Milrad as Tal Rod Loomis as King Zed Vanna Bonta as Zed’s Wife Ben Hammer as Dar’s father Ralph Strait as Sacco Tony Epper as Jun Leader

Tara Candoli … makeup artist Ailen Derderian … makeup effects assistant Katrin Derderian … makeup effects assistant Karen Kubeck … assistant makeup artist Louis Lazzara … makeup artist: second unit David B. Miller … makeup effects artist Michael Mills … prosthetic makeup artist Jaklin Munns … makeup effects assistant William Munns … special makeup effects designer Peter Tothpal … hair dresser Michelle Triscario … makeup effects assistant Mark Shostrom … special makeup effects artist (uncredited)

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY Starlog#63 Starlog#84 Starlog#271 Fangoria#18 Fangoria#22

The Beastmaster (1982) Retrospective SUMMARY In the kingdom of Aruk, the high priest Maax is given a prophecy by his witches that he would die facing the son of King Zed.

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westphotolukedas · 4 years

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Production Journal - The Farewell

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As a creative of British Asian origin, I am attentive of the perceptions of the Eastern community within Western mainstream culture. Crazy Rich Asians (2018) was an uplifting rom com that limited Caucasian actors to background fodder and reserved leading roles for those of Asian descent. Although glossy in its approach, it was a landmark victory for ethnic minorities in the film industry who have long been typecast to portray dated stereotypes. It suggested that we could be charismatic, comedic and above all desirable. Awkwafina is a rapper, comedian and writer who has successfully transitioned to acting. Her character Goh Peik Lin is a bleached blonde version of her gregarious stage personae. In The Farewell (2019) she plays another feasible derivative of herself as aspiring writer Billi Wang.

There was no shortage of story beats in the film that resonated with my own narrative. As well as a protagonist played by an actor with a similar background, the writer and director Lulu Wang is a Chinese American eager to accurately depict her upbringing. In the opening scene Wang walks the streets of New York while speaking to her grandmother on the phone. She confidently exclaims that she is wearing a hat for the cold weather, even though she is not. In response, her grandmother says she is at home when she is actually at the hospital for an appointment. ‘The back-and-forth makes for an elegant volley of disinformation; if love is kinetic, it’s best to keep things moving,’ wrote Chris Gayomali in his review of the film. It sets up the dynamics of the plot that eb and flow between familial ties with cultural expectations. In Chinese traditional it is regarded as moral to withhold the severity of a medical diagnosis from an elderly relative, even if the outcome is certain death. This clashes with the sentimentality of American born Wang as she struggles with the situation. In an emotive exchange, her mother asks her to conceal her feelings when she blurts, ‘Chinese people have a saying - when people get cancer, they die. But it’s not the cancer that kills them, it’s the fear.’ (Gayomali, 2019) (Ide, 2019)

Anna Franquesa Solano (Born 1984) is the cinematographer responsible for The Farewell’s (2019) sensitive visuals. After graduating with a degree in Art History from the Universitat de Barcelona, she later studied film in New York. Her other noteworthy projects include I Don’t Like Cinnamon (2009), Silent Notes (2020) and The Normal People (2020). To breech the fourth wall, the characters walk directly into shot in slow motion during select scenes. While centred in the frame they stare at the audience as if in a dreamlike trance. This picturesque device references the Asian understanding of the passage of time. Buddhist thought encourages its practitioners to bring attention to the present moment and cast aside a preoccupation with the past and future. Furthermore, Solano pays close attention to filling her frame with long, timely shots. In a heartwarming scene, Wang and her grandmother practise Tai Chi together. The differences between the characters are shown to be generational as well as cultural. Nineteen takes were attempted and it was nearly left on the cutting room floor. My interest in the footage is its semi-autobiographical nature with two actors playing versions of themselves. Although there is a degree of scripting, the director captures genuine emotion by allowing any candid spontaneity to play out. As a result, it is equal parts documentary and constructed. (Weber, 2020)

Summary

There are certainly media codes that I will recreate from The Farewell (2019) and I am hopeful to represent its semi-autobiographical aspects - setting up a situation and then letting it resolve on film appeals to me. My interview is not purely documentary because I need to extract enough footage for the project and make it appear real. My email conversation with Teemu Hupli also covered some of the spiritual themes in this blog post.

‘In another tutorial I mentioned that there have been arguments that the Western conception of time has tended to be that time is linear - that it moves in one direction from past to present to future - and this is essentially what Hollywood conventions of continuity are designed to represent illusionistically. You can find this kind of conception particularly strongly in the philosophy of Hegel, who saw history as a progressive movement towards an ultimate goal of what he calls ‘spirit’ gaining freedom (you can try to read more about this by researching Hegel’s Philosophy of History, but it is heavy going reading, and I would perhaps suggest not spending too much time on it right now). More importantly, however, it was therefore interesting that your work seemed to derive inspiration from Japanese filmmaking. It has been suggested that the Japanese, or more broadly, Oriental conceptions of time are less linear than the Western notion, and therefore it stands to reason that some films originating from those areas construct different ‘pictures' of time too. This would be quite a fitting connection if your project ends up playing with questions of what is ‘genuine' thinking and talking in the here and now of ‘natural time’ so to speak; what is rehearsed, memorised and edited acting of such thinking and talking; what is continuous shooting and what is not, etc.’

Production Notes

The cyclical nature of Eastern philosophy was not investigated in the final cut of my piece. The voice over covers events that are not necessarily linear; however, there is a progressive property to the clips that expresses a beginning, middle and end. This is sealed with Natalie giving advice to her audience before switching a television off at the end. In post-production, I made attempts to shuffle the order of events but my experience as a filmmaker made this edit confused and unconvincing. The dream sequences from The Farewell (2019) were appealing too but I was not proficient enough with my knowledge of camera techniques to present my version of this storytelling device.

In several of the scenes of my film, Natalie and I are playing versions of ourselves in a similar fashion to Awkwafina’s portrayal of Wang. To film the section where we meet at the front door, I placed the camera in the kitchen and shot through the doorway. I was satisfied with this frame within a frame and then I left the flat to re-enter on cue. The events that occur on screen were not planned or scripted, and on some level, are representative of our real life interactions as friends. Following this, I found another shot in the living room that enabled us to speak to each other and remain seated on sofas. During an early screening of the project, I was given feedback that the burnt out window was distracting. I was not able to reshoot the scene and I feel that the way that it compartmentalises the composition is appropriate - I am respectful of her space as a performer that she may need to express herself. The chatting and laughing between us are spontaneous acts. She is actually showing me the Shakespeare script that we discussed beforehand and the enthusiasm is sincere. In the final cut, the voice over of her talking about improvisation seemed appropriately matched to this moment.

My initial proposal foresaw outside scenes shot on location - Natalie walking, on public transport and crowds. These were never produced due to time restrictions. As a result, the film comes across as more stagnant by being restricted to the confines of her flat. The scenes above contribute some spark to the footage and it would have been interesting to see how she engaged with strangers, other friends and family.

Bibliography

Ide, W. (2019). The Farewell Review - Beautifully Bittersweet Chinese-American Family Drama. The Guardian. Available from www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/21/the-farewell-review-lulu-wang-awkwafina [Accessed 10/04/2020]

Gayomali, C. (2019). How The Farewell Director Lulu Wang Stayed True to Herself. GQ. Available from www.gq.com/story/lulu-wang-the-farewell-interview [Accessed 10/04/2020]

Weber, J. (2020). The Farewell - 10 Things We Learned from The Director's Commentary. Screen Rant. Available from www.screenrant.com/the-farewell-things-facts-trivia-learned-directors-commentary [Accessed 10/04/2020]

Final Cut, Manual Mode, 25 fps, WB Natural Light

#wallpagescreen #westphoto #annafranquesasolano

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thenatureofnarrative · 4 years

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Best Films of 2019

The basis of my annual list is simple, these are the films that were, for me, mesmerizing and memorable. These were the cinematic experiences that either provoked a depth of emotion and/or provided a whole lot to talk about. These are the films that I could not forget and I cannot wait to see again. After you read this year’s list, you can also find last year’s list here, and if you’d like to see me chat about my favourite films, and other great films from the year, you can watch this video.

1. Little Women

Greta Gerwig deserves the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for her masterclass adaptation of Little Women which is, in my opinion, the best film of 2019. I was honestly whisked away by the magical-kinetic energy of this film and the March family, and I was deeply moved by the vocational struggles of young artists, Jo and Amy, finding their way in the world. As a father of two daughters, this film moved me and connected with me on a deep emotional level, and this is largely due to the storyteller’s skills. Ultimately, however, the reason Greta Gerwig’s adaptation works so well is because of her creative restructuring of the story, which allows us to consider our perspective of the past, and its impact upon our present. In addition to this, the performances across the board are perfect, with Florence Pugh being the real standout. There is just so much to love and admire about this most recent adaptation of Little Women, the best film of the year. DVD release TBD.

2. Ad Astra

James Gray is one of our greatest living filmmakers, and yet is easily one of our least recognized. In the last twenty five years he has written and directed seven incredible films, and Ad Astra (to the stars) is no exception. While his last film (The Lost City of Z) remains his greatest achievement, Ad Astra is his most theological or spiritual, as he exams the depth of the human soul by going to the furthest reaches of our solar system. Brad Pitt’s performance is, of course, the greatest reason for this story’s success, with his eyes and quiet reflections almost never leaving the screen. Ad Astra is a space odyssey like no other, while it pays homage to the great cinematic space stories of the past, it sets itself apart with its heavenly language and original imagery. Ultimately, it matters not how far we might travel or how advanced our species might become, the depravity and desires of our soul will never leave us and will always remain at the center of our road. It’s a shame cinematographer, Hoyte Van Hoytema, has only been nominated for an Oscar once. He deserves it for this work, and so do the sound designers, music composers, and of course, James Gray himself. On DVD - iTunes.

3. A Hidden Life

“Better to suffer injustice than to cause it.” The boundaries of this statement is put to the test in Terrence Malick’s most recent masterpiece, A Hidden Life, based on a true story. When nation and neighbour rise for a single cause or conflict, one’s true allegiance will be put to the test. In the face of such pressures, only those who pursue true peace, far from the spotlight, will know the cost that must be paid. A Hidden Life is a stunning and stirring work of cinematic perfection that requires patience and the attention of our souls. This is a film that I could not shake, and is quite simply, the most important film of the year. On iTunes March 3.

4. I Lost My Body

I love a surprise, and I was surprised by this magically macabre and meaningful film. I know a lot of people don’t often give “grown-up-animation” a chance so let me put it this way - - not only is I Lost My Body the most beautiful animation I’ve seen this year, it’s one of the best films of the year - - this is a story that has the mystery of Memento and the romance of a Terrence Malick film. And yet, it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before, unless you’ve seen the story of a severed hand journey through Paris in order to reconcile it’s memories with the broken heart and spirit of it’s owner? I Lost My Body is a truly stunning achievement. It swept me away and moved me deeply, and you should check it out. On Netflix.

5. The Irishman

The Irishman (I Heard You Paint Houses) might just be Martin Scorsese’s greatest achievement. A Scorsese crime-story is never about the crime, it’s about the criminal’s soul, and in the case of The Irishman, this time round, there is a little more age and wisdom included in this masterful-motif. At the end of three and half hours, I was somber and sobered. I felt as though I had just attended a very heavy funeral, and I just wanted to sit a little longer and feel the weight of my own mortality. It is a shame Robert DeNiro wasn’t nominated for an Oscar this year because this really is the greatest performance of his career. On Netflix.

6. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

“Let us have the courage to look beyond the stories we’re born into.” Place. Home. Belonging. Acceptance. The Last Black Man in San Francisco is about all these things and so much more, but it was because the film explored these themes with such stunning beauty and unexpected whimsy that I could not escape its trance. TLBMISF is a remarkable first-feature by newcomer Joe Talbot. Following the story of best friends, Jimmie and Montgomery, TLBMISF is a sort of urban odyssey (in the first act Jimmie is compared to “Dorothy” from the Wizard of Oz) as it explores its themes through the tensions of gentrification and generational ties. I never knew where the story was headed next, but I couldn’t look away. The cinematography, the music and the performances are all perfect. I adore this film. On DVD.

7. Marriage Story

Marriage Story provides us with some of the greatest performances and most meaningful dialogue of the year. Only writer/director Noah Baumbach can make you laugh, cringe and cry within a matter of minutes, and it seems like with Marriage Story he’s exercising his greatest gifts to provide us with the perfect balance and portion of all three. Love is pain and heartbreak can be hilarious, and all of it is captured beautifully in this devastatingly authentic story about the best and worst moments of a relationship, and what we can learn from it, or maybe not at all. On Netflix.

8. Doctor Sleep

In the last five years writer/director Mike Flanagan has become my favourite new filmmaker, and with Doctor Sleep he was given the near impossible task of adapting a Stephen King novel that continued Stanley Kubrick’s version of The Shining. Impossible, right? Well not only does Flanagan succeed, but in my opinion, he has created a film that is superior to Kubrick’s, with a visual style all it’s own. Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep is a rich and rewarding horror story that takes spiritual consequences seriously, and presents it’s characters with the terrifying realities of evil, and the sacrifices required to overcome it. It’s a remarkable work, and it includes some of the best performances of the year. On DVD - iTunes.

9. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is the surprise experience of surrealism I didn’t know we needed. Not unlike last year’s documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, this film bears witness to the fact that it is possible to live a life of love, but this time round it’s an encounter wholly set apart. While Fred Rogers remains its inspiration, Tom Hanks’ remarkable portrayal is not at the center of the story, which is a bold and daring choice, but one that is executed with incredible care and confidence from director, Marielle Heller, who truly deserves an Oscar for this. As others have said, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, is not a traditional biopic, instead the film presents itself as an episode of Mr. Roger’s television show for grown ups, and who knew that that’s what many of us were in need of right now. On iTunes - On DVD February 18.

10. Wild Rose

Wild Rose is a deeply moving and beautiful story of redemption that avoids all the usual cliches and instead tells a more grounded, realistic tale about true sacrifice and pursuing one’s dreams. The writing is superb here, and Jessie Buckley’s performance is stunning as a troubled and selfish young mother from Glasgow, Scotland who has a gift and passion for country music. That last line should give you a good indication that this heart-warming story may feel familiar but is stunningly distinct, which makes for a much more rewarding experience. On DVD - Amazon Prime

Honourable Mentions (alphabetically):

Brittany Runs a Marathon: This isn’t an inspirational film about lifestyle changes, this is a long and patient, and at times painful, examination of what true transformation looks like. It’s also very funny. On Amazon Prime.

Captain Marvel: My favourite Marvel movie to date, with a unique visual style and shockingly powerful themes. Ben Mendelsohn is also the ultimate character-actor and he is unforgettable here. On DVD.

The Farewell: Awkwafina’s performance is award-worthy in this heart-breaking family reunion. Every character here is either withholding emotion or feeling out of place, and yet they are bound together, they are family. On DVD - iTunes.

Frozen II: From the endless pursuit of maturity and wisdom in the face of life’s uncertainty, to the most incredible message about truth and reconciliation, Frozen 2 is a spectacular and shockingly poignant film. On DVD February 25.

The Lighthouse: The descent into madness has never been so entertaining, funny and beautiful. These are two of our greatest living actors and one of our best new young directors at work. On DVD - iTunes.

Long Shot: Rogen/Goldberg have established a comedic genre all their own, a distinct blend of vulgar-raunchy humour and tender-nuanced relational moments. This is one of their best. On DVD - iTunes - Amazon Prime.

Midsommar: Tragic. Captivating. Horrifying. Compelling. Disturbing. Ari Aster has a gift for spellbinding dread, and with only his second feature, he has established himself as a master of tone. On DVD - iTunes - Amazon Prime.

Parasite: A powerful and entertaining dark-comedy or satire, with a twist. This isn’t Bong Joon Ho’s greatest film (that would be Snowpiercer), but it is an important and historic one. On DVD - iTunes.

The Public: Emilio Estevez paints with broad strokes here, but they’re strokes that are filled with life, and a cast that brings great humanity (Alec Baldwin and Jeffery Wright are particular stand outs). On DVD - iTunes - Netflix.

Us: This is the most calculated and unpredictable thriller of the year. Not unlike the greatest parables, this is a film that demands repeated viewing. On top of that, Lupita Nyong’o’s two performances are Oscar-worthy. On DVD - iTunes.

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chicagoindiecritics · 4 years

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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: Little Women

(Image: vanityfair.com)

LITTLE WOMEN— 5 STARS

Not to borrow out of context from George Harrison’s Beatles lyrics, but, when it comes to Greta Gerwig as the director of Little Women, there is something in the way she moves. Scene after scene in the adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic penned by her own hand, there is an enchanting manner by which the ensemble is allowed to carry on, as it were. For every segment where a performer is hitting a mark of precision to deliver their speech, there are four or five others where Alexandre Desplat’s sumptuous score will rise, mute the conversation, and lead the audience to simply watch. The characters commiserate and move freely within their relationships and surroundings. We too then live and become absorbed in the beauty of those moments.

The endearing brilliance of Little Women is earned in those quaint sways and movements as much as, if not more than, it is by its crests of high drama. With masterful leadership and bold thematic choices applied to well-worn ideals, Greta Gerwig continuously captures an uncanny vibrancy out of a literary setting that otherwise would be frozen in stagnant despair. Every fiber and morsel of this movie swells with this sense of spirit to embed radiance in resiliency.

The titular Chatty Cathys are the four March sisters of the 1860s at different coming-of-age stages. The two youngest, Beth (newcomer Eliza Scanlan of Babyteeth) and Amy (rising star Florence Pugh), look up to their older two sisters, Jo (three-time Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan) and Meg (the now nearly-30 Emma Watson) with shifting notes of reverence and jealousy. With a short-sighted “tired of being poor” feeling, all four lament living within their reduced New England means during the American Civil War. The family’s pastor patriarch (Bob Odenkirk) has been away for years with little contact while his dauntless wife Marmee (Laura Dern) cares for the rapidly maturing girls.

The Marchs are not alone with the tough times. With a shared “I know what it is to want,” they are in a place to tighten their skirts and give to help a poor and struggling single mother nearby. At the same time, they are supported from above by their huffy elder aunt (a perfect feisty Meryl Streep, well within her element) and the wealthy Laurence family next door comprised of Mr. Laurence (the kindly Oscar winner Chris Cooper) and his nonconformist son Theodore (Call Me By Your Name’s Timothée Chalamet). With an alluring young man like “Laurie,” as he is called, nearby, affections grow and hearts swoon.

Swinging the chronological narrative pendulum to and fro, the plight of the March family is being remembered in episodic portions by Jo. She has moved away years later to New York City with the uphill aspirations of becoming a published writer for the discerning editor Mr. Dashwood (Tracy Letts, with the right amount of curmudgeon). Jo is enterprising and determined to be taken seriously.

LESSON #1: GIRLS HAVE TO GO OUT INTO THE WORLD — Independence is highly valued and celebrated with “love my liberty” in Little Women. For our central guide Jo, fond reflection forms the confidence that her own story is compelling sort that will inspire others. Despite what society deems suitable and how they are kept from property and prosperity, women are fit for more than love and marriage. They deserve to play out their ambitions. Along the same lines, Alcott’s novel itself presents a great passage on wealth that is echoed in the film in its own way:

“Money is a needful and precious thing, — and, when well used, a noble thing, — but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for. I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace.”

LESSON #2: NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS — In many wonderful displays, these are noble and generous people who care to hear and tread in the stories and needs of others despite their personal wants. Furthermore, respectfully knowing the arduous realities present keeps them from being truly ungrateful for what they have. That level of empathy will remain in them into their own families. When rewarded, their own pulled-up bootstraps will transform how “pretty things deserve to be enjoyed.”

LESSON #3: TO PINE, OH WHAT IT IS TO PINE — Nevertheless, even with a giving heart, the longing for deeper wants is hard to truly curb. We have multiple characters in this melodrama that pine for love, marriage, position, dreams, or freedom within their unfortunate and trying situations. The definition of “pine” reads “to yearn intensely and persistently especially for something unattainable” followed by “to lose vigor, health, or flesh.” So much of Little Women, is this languishing pursuit towards personal and emotional fulfillment.

LESSON #4: THE STRENGTH OF FAMILIAL LOVE — To borrow this time from the Greeks and a dollop of The Bible instead of the Fab Four, the level of “storge” love in this saga is exquisite. When family is in need, the annoyances and competitiveness of these sisters go away and bonds are renewed. As they say in the dialogue, “life is too short to be angry at sisters.” Once again, thanks to Gerwig’s tonal choices, you see it, plain as day, in the way the cast in character interacts. The emotional wreckage that results is incredibly genuine.

The performances of this exceptional cast make this journey of pining sacrifices and kindred challenges palpable. Saoirse Ronan accomplishes the quick wit and stubborn strength of the lead role without making it a Katharine Hepburn imitation. Timothée Chalamet uses his smiling charm at full wattage where his piercing gaze and strong words can convey soulfulness under the rude, edgy, and volatile arrogance of his romantic catalyst. Laura Dern flips the privileged acid of her Marriage Story lawyer role to play uncompromising earnestness here with complete and utter grace. Lastly and hugely, Florence Pugh is the spinal cord to Ronan’s backbone. She makes the nerves and savage passion of her tug-of-war middle daughter position stunning.

More and more, there is a pep here higher in this eighth adaptation of Alcott’s novel compared to its predecessors. Springing its winter steps, this Little Women strolls rather than plods. French Cinematographer Yorick Le Saux (Personal Shopper, A Bigger Splash) captures the textured array of period ambiance created by production designer and veteran Coen brothers collaborator Jess Gonchor. Le Saux’s framing choices are absolutely perfect and the slow-motion occasionally employed to freeze time in happy, blissful moments adds even more impact to its ravishing cinematic layers.

LESSON #5: A WOMAN’S TOUCH IN ALL THINGS — This task to recreate Little Women for the 21st century landed in the right hands, namely HER hands. Greta Gerwig’s elevated her work from Lady Bird in sweeping, grander fashion without losing any of her keen and insightful voice for humanistic commentary. To have this epic tale of powerful gender-driven truths that still resonate in the present day move with such whimsy and gumption is extraordinary and important.

And there’s the best word of all: important. The timelessness of Little Women matters. Gerwig matches the dreams of Alcott’s quote stating “Writing doesn’t confirm importance, it reflects it.” Her stewardship and screenplay deserves every compliment that can be paid. She brings forth the full vigor possible of this story and now owns the poignant love it expresses as much as Alcott.

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ferretfyre · 7 years

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Review: Moonlight (2016)

Moonlight is a stunningly dreamlike character study, filmed with poetic grace, and told with intimate nuance and maturity, and creating a film that plays out like an ethereal dream.

Writer-Director Barry Jenkins tackles the complex tale of Chiron, a young Miami born African-American boy who struggles with his sexuality, slowly and steadily embracing the various aspects of it, and all the while, Jenkins portrays it with subtly and restraint. Instead of melodrama, the film's strength comes from it's understated nature, where Jenkins often allows the images to speak thousands of words. From his continually moving, balletic camera work, to the intensity of the performances, the film packs immense strength and power, humanizing our protagonist in a supremely deft way. Jenkins never steps up onto a soapbox, or wields the character's sexuality like some sort of sledgehammer. Instead, he wields everything like a painter wields his brush, crafting a character feels fully and completely realized, one whose sexuality is a corner stone of him, but does not entirely define him or box him in.

All of the actors give stellar performances, but the central focus of the film is firmly on the trio of actors who portray Chiron through each stage of his life. Part 1 focuses on Chiron as a young, deeply lonely child, who seeks mentorship from a local drug deal, Juan (Mahershala Ali). Here, Alex Hibbert portrays Chiron, taking on the emotionally complex role of a child who feels deeply isolated, yet cannot identify why. Hibbert does so with stunning maturity, crafting a performance of great intensity and honesty. Part 2 moves the story forward to Chiron as an awkward, confused teenager, now played by Ashton Sanders. Sanders grows Chiron into a fragile, confused youth, yet one who is steadily growing more self assured. Another immensely intense performance, and supremely naturalistic. The final part leaps ahead again, finding Chiron as a hardened drug dealer, played by Trevante Rhodes. Taking on an aura of uber masculinity, Rhodes also highlights the ever present sense of confusion and alienation that lurks beneath the bravado. Now Chiron feels like a man, but one still searching for something. And once more, the performance is naturalistic and real, and remarkably intense.

The rest of the cast, such as Naomi Harris as Chiron's drug dealer mother, Mahershala Ali as Juan, the fatherly drug dealer, André Holland as the eldest version of Kevin (the object of Chiron's desire) and Janelle Monáe as the kindhearted Teresa, all deliver remarkably subtle and intense performances. Ali and Harris in particular form a bedrock for the film, with Ali balancing hood bravado with fatherly kindness, and Harris swinging the gambit of emotionally abusive to emotionally broken. The pair are both exceptional, and richly deserve the praise that has been heaped upon them.

Cinematographer James Laxton films the Miami streets with vivid colors, and remarkable immersion. For me especially, whose lived in Miami my whole life, the look of the city is captured perfectly, from the grungy, lived in nature of the projects, to the cold clinical aura of a school, to the rich neon of the city at night. It's absolutely wondrous, and some of the most elegant cinematography I've ever seen.

Nicholas Britell's score is an intense, deeply emotional work, relying on a dreamlike, meditative swirl of strings and piano, its elegant classicism being beautiful counterpoint to the equally elegant camerawork and performances. It's using sparingly, but every moment it is used is enhanced with remarkable impact and power.

So, suffice to say that Moonlight is a remarkable, deeply heartfelt work. It stands as not just an excellent film, but as a work of art. It is poised, elegant, and finely textured, telling its story with grace.

5 out of 5 stars.

#moonlight #film #review #barry jenkins #trevante rhodes #alex hibbert #ashton sanders #mahershala ali #naomi harris #janelle monae #andre holland

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mrmichaelchadler · 5 years

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The Best Films of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival

Another Sundance Film Festival is in the books, leading critics around the world to look into their crystal ball and predict how this year’s line-up will be received when these films come down from the Utah mountains. The general consensus seems to be that this was a down year for Sundance. Everyone loved the increased representation behind the camera in the program, but critics felt a lack of stand-out films. Of course, there were some excellent films but don’t expect a Call Me By Your Name, Brooklyn, or Manchester by the Sea from this crop. However, our team of intrepid, sleep-deprived critics did see a number of works that you should put on your watchlist now. You don’t want to miss these twelve:

“Animals”

How odd that female friendship—real female friendship that is; not the kind about backstabbing or rivalry—is still a scarcity in cinema. For attempting to fill that gaping hole alone, Sophie Hyde’s “Animals” (an adaptation of Emma Jane Unsworth’s novel with the same title) deserves all the praise it can get. But thankfully, “Animals” doesn’t stop there and pushes things even further than “Frances Ha”. Refreshingly frank and unautocratic about sex, drugs and the uniquely female desire to be free of judgment, “Animals” dares to love the pair of imperfect friends that lead the way into their messy and undeniably fun world of consequence-free hard-partying where men can be disposable and things will just work out. Shout out to the exceptional duo Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat, as well as the costume designer Renate Henschke, who rightfully runs away with some autership claim on the film. (TL)

“Clemency”

I am still a bit shocked that “Clemency” won the highly coveted U.S. Dramatic Competition award, given that it’s a character study about a prison warden and the death penalty, but I hope that further expands the chances of it being seen by a large audience outside of Park City. The script by Chinonye Chukwu is a true marvel, using a select amount of characters, a gentle tone and reoccurring themes to highlight the major elements that populate the world around the death penalty. This leads to incredible, pained performances from its actors, especially Alfre Woodard as the warden and Aldis Hodge as a death row inmate desperately waiting on a life-changing call from a governor. “Clemency” declares an incredible ambition—you can see so many ways this could have fallen apart—but it displays the work of a master dramatist, who remains in control of every filmmaking element of her challenging story. (NA)

“The Farewell”

It may not have won the U.S. Dramatic Competition award with the jury members, but the critical darling from that program was clearly Lulu Wang’s poignant and personal story of a young lady (Awkafina) dealing with the imminent death of her grandmother, who doesn’t know she’s dying. It premiered early in this year’s Sundance, and critics all weekend were comparing it to masterful filmmakers like Ang Lee, Edward Yang, and even Yasuhiro Ozu in the way it blends cultural specificity with universal emotions. It was also this year’s “ugly cry” of the Sundance film festival, but it earns that title by never once feeling manipulative or melodramatic. It’s a true empathy machine of a movie, a film that tells a very specific story that’s not your own but allows you to see yourself within it. (BT)

“Jawline”

Step into a world of teen live broadcast stars for a different look at fandom and online culture as director Liza Mandelup follows Austyn Tester, an aspiring social media star, as he dreams of using his fame to escape his small town. Mandelup captures the rapid rise and crash of what it’s like to be plucked out of obscurity, put on tour in front of hundreds of screaming girls and the isolation that sets in when the show’s over. But Mandelup doesn’t just stop with Austyn’s story. She also interviews numerous young girls who adore these young social media heartthrobs and gets some insight of a manager staking his claim in this new digital gold rush and provide some insight into this new incarnation of Beatlemania-like fan culture. (MC)

“Knock Down the House”

With a renewed activist spirit, numerous women and people from underrepresented communities took to the polls in record numbers for the 2018 midterm elections. One of the shining stars of the new wave of elected officials is Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York, and she’s one of four women profiled in Rachel Lears’ inspirational documentary, “Knock Down the House.” The film documents the grassroots campaigns behind Ocasio Cortez, Cori Bush, Paula Jean Swearingen and Amy Vivela, giving an all-too-rare look at the scrappier side of American politics as they challenge the established powers in their states. It’s a film that’s deeply personal and moving, pieced together over the course of less than a year leading up to the frenzy of the 2018 election season. (MC)

“The Last Black Man in San Francisco”

A lyrical elegy on a city’s vanishing character, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” raises urgent questions around racism, gentrification and humankind’s deteriorating values through its offbeat rhythms and vivid cinematography as warm as the friendship at its heart. But to merely praise Joe Talbot’s artful film for its timeliness would do it disservice. With his directorial debut (co-written by Rob Richert and co-lead/Talbot’s childhood friend Jimmie Fails), Talbot has made an ageless film as dignified and dependable as its central character Jimmie; one that is proudly in touch with its roots and history and spiritually undefeated by the ceaseless injustices that aim for what one holds dear. This is bound to go down as one of the all-time-great San Francisco films. (TL)

“Late Night”

While this movie has earned some comparisons to “The Devil Wears Prada,” I believe that “Late Night” is in a category of its own. Mindy Kaling plays Molly, an aspiring comedy writer who’s earnest to a fault. Although she works for another woman (a marvelous Emma Thompson), Molly’s writers’ room is made up entirely of white men who see her feminist jokes and her diversity as a threat. It’s one of the few comedies I’ve seen that so smartly tackles what it’s like to be called the “diversity hire” around the office. Kaling, who also wrote the script, and director Nisha Ganatra find humor in these awkward workplace situations by playing on generational differences and the experiences of working in male-dominated world of late-night comedy shows. (MC)

“Luce”

The conversation starter of Sundance was Julius Onah’s brilliant dissection of privilege and expectation at a prestigious high school. The incredible Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays the title character, a star student whose life is turned upside down after a teacher suspects he may not be exactly what he seems. Harrison leads one of Sundance’s best ensembles, including one of Octavia Spencer’s best performances. Ultimately, this is a film designed to get people talking about its themes, and I can’t wait to be able to talk about it more when it comes out, courtesy of Neon. (BT)

“Midnight Family”

One of the best documentaries that played Sundance this year concerned Mexico City’s economy of freelance ambulances, following around a family in their vehicle as they race from one life or death scenario to the next, in order to make their payday. Director/editor/cinematographer Luke Lorentzen appropriately was given a special award this year for his cinematography—his on-the-fly framing is impeccable—but the editing is also incredible, capturing the ebb and flow of a few nights in the Ochoa’s business. “Midnight Family” is the kind of documentary that feels fully realized as the camera is rolling, making the movie all the more thrilling and heartbreaking with its cinema verité presentation. (NA)

“The Report”

I’m kind of a sucker for ensemble-driven government procedurals like “All the President’s Men” and this is the best film in that subgenre in years. Amazon has picked it up for a likely awards season run, and it’s easy to see how this could become the biggest hit out of Sundance 2019. Adam Driver gives one of his best performances as Daniel Jones, the Senate staffer assigned with determining exactly what happened with the EIT program – you know, the one that said it was OK to torture if it stopped a terrorist attack. What’s so great about Scott Z. Burns’ film is how tightly wound the whole film is, cinematically representing its protagonist’s increasing outrage at what he discovers. Even in just the ten days since I saw this, I keep reading stories of questionable governmental activity and hearing Maura Tierney’s CIA character in my head, shouting, “It’s only legal if it works!” People are going to be outraged, enlightened, and angered by this movie. I can’t wait for it to drop into the national conversation. (BT)

“The Souvenir”

It’s time for British auteur Joanna Hogg to be better-known stateside—with films like “Exhibition” and “Archipelago”, she has been cinematically untangling domestic knots for quite sometime now. With the gorgeously shot, delicate period piece “The Souvenir”, her best film yet, she brings a fictionalized version of her own story onto the screen, giving it the signature Hogg treatment: precisely composed, patient and poetic. Her Julie (soulfully played by Tilda Swinton’s daughter Honor Swinton-Byrne), whose artistic awakening gets hampered by a dysfunctional, increasingly toxic relationship, is heartbreaker of a character. You will weep by her side, thinking of that one person who broke you, but also enabled you to rise again with strength and a renewed sense of self. (TL)

“Wounds”

Babak Anvari fashioned himself as a classic horror director with his 2016 film “Under the Shadow,” which mixed a nightmarish force with a political story of Iran under attack. But he’s become a mad scientist with his sophomore effort “Wounds,” a Lovecraftian thrill-machine designed to jostle and challenge horror nuts. Anvari uses a story that might sound familiar of jump scares but focuses it around the moral misadventures of a cranky bartender played by Armie Hammer. “Wounds” is a great showcase for his comedic side, especially as his dopey character essentially finds himself in the middle of plot straight out of “The Ring,” as if he were a shit-out-of-luck innocent bystander looking through a dorm room window when a bunch of Millennials fired up that fateful VHS. A parody of jump scare lunacy that stands on its own, Anvari creates infectious fun out of the deliciously nasty and surprising events that come his way. The last shot is pure lunacy, but in the emotional and playful sense of “Wounds,” it makes perfect sense. (NA)

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glenngaylord · 6 years

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THAT 70s MOVIE - My Review of A STAR IS BORN (4 1/2 Stars)

There’s no way around the fact that despite some shortcomings here and there, Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut with A STAR IS BORN is a triumph for everyone involved and truly filled with greatness. For everyone who complains that “they don’t make ‘em like that anymore”, who miss films which take their time building relationships and give their actors room to breathe, who appreciate the scale and grandeur of Hollywood films, then this intimate epic will serve as a perfect antidote for all of the soul-deadening CGI drivel passing as movies these days. Yes, Marvel, I’m talking to you!

Sure, this is a remake four times over of a melodramatic “one rises while the other one falls” tale, and most will agree the 1954 George Cukor version starring Judy Garland and James Mason is the most definitive, but this latest version has its own uniquely fizzy charms. Set in the music world much like the 1976 Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson debacle, Cooper and his co-writers, Eric Roth and Will Fetters, seem to have specifically remade that film and turned it into something much more special. He uses the same boilerplate, the same bubble bath makeover of our male lead, and even the same, “I just wanted to take another look at you” line. They’re worth stealing, even though that film had more problems than not. In the Barbra version, I wasn’t even convinced that she and Kristofferson had ever met, so non-existent was their chemistry. That film will always have “Evergreen”, but this one will be known as the one that launched Cooper as a very fine director and showed off Lady Gaga, in her feature debut, as a charming, endearing, ballsy, sensitive, natural screen actor.

Eschewing the horrors of Kristofferson’s opening number, “Watch Closely Now”, Cooper opens the film with his aging addict country rock star, Jackson Maine, executing a very credible Pearl Jam-esque song. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique (BLACK SWAN) shoots close and loose, allowing the viewer to feel the concert from the star’s POV. On the limo ride from the concert, Jackson runs out of alcohol and persuades his driver to pull over at a gay bar. It’s drag night, and Ally (Lady Gaga), who works as a cater-waiter and has just dumped her boyfriend, is about to perform. Her BFF, Ramon (a charming, guileless Anthony Ramos), befriends Jackson and prepares him for her appearance. Et voila, out comes Gaga with glued-on eyebrows dancing across the bar singing “La Vie En Rose”. She lies down and turns to face Jackson in one of those unforgettable movie moments, and we’re off to the races.

Enchanted by her, Jackson, drunk but still able to fixate on Ally, spends an entire night with her, asking questions, adoring her nose, talking about what’s important to them, and getting blown away by her talent when she sings a song to him. It’s all done so naturalistically, giving us a budding relationship beat by delicious beat. It felt so alien to me, the kind of storytelling only seen in indies anymore, where character is king. In fact, it felt like a 70s movie, more specifically a Hal Ashby film with a little bit of Cameron Crowe’s 70s-set ALMOST FAMOUS thrown in there. There’s a comfortable, hippie vibe to everything. Jackson Maine may as well have been Jackson Browne. Carole King’s TAPESTRY album graces Ally’s bedroom walls as vinyl records and turntables seem to populate everyone’s living room. Except for a specific reference to YOUTUBE and a lovely, accepting drag sequence (great scene-scene-stealing work from Shangela and Willam Belli here), A STAR IS BORN sits comfortably in the Me Decade.

Like the character he plays, Cooper the filmmaker seems dazzled by his star and allows us so many visual moments where we get to discover something new and great about her. From the grace note where he runs his finger down her nose as her eyes turn towards him with a look of incredulity, to the truly transcendent moment she takes the stage to sing “Shallow”, where every emotion washes across her face, ending in the most adorable button at the end when she squeals, “There are so many people!”. By now, at this stage in her career, Lady Gaga could be the most jaded person on the planet, but clearly she remembers where she came from, exuding the freshness and innocence the role requires. It also necessitates a lot of scrappiness, which she rises to the occasion with scenes in a grocery store, a bar, or simply by defending herself while in a bathtub. Not surprisingly, Gaga shines in the music sequences, which feature a host of memorable songs. Before her character transforms into a pop star not unlike her own persona at the beginning of her career, she pours her heart into genres we’re not used to experience with her, and she’s blazing. Cooper also deserves accolades for his singing and ease at portraying a musician. Too many actors have failed to do so without looking silly, but Cooper captures the details perfectly. It’s how he walks through this world that sold me. You believe how he sits on a stool to perform without being able to see the crowd or hear anything above the mic feedback. You buy how he stumbles drunkenly across a hotel room floor. When he sings a song to Willam, your heart melts for this kind but troubled soul.

Cooper also gets a wonderful supporting turn from Sam Elliot as his Manager/Brother, Jackson’s resentful, shame-filled caretaker who, despite the constant turmoil, loves Jackson deeply. A simple of shot of Elliot driving away from Jackson’s house, the car in reverse as he looks back with an entire history filling his teary eyes, took what could have been a nothing moment and makes it gut-wrenching. Andrew Dice Clay, as Ally’s father, also delivers a world class performance, suggesting with great economy his own struggles with show biz dreams and his rage at Jackson despite an obvious fondness. His scenes with Lady Gaga bring out her feistiness and sweetness. David Chappelle, in a too brief role as Jackson’s lifelong friend, brings such warmth and history to his part. I would have loved more. Rafi Gavron, in the impossible role as Ally’s shark of a Manager, manages to find a caring person in there, despite some of the “this is just business” approach to his job. It’s tricky and well-realized. The fact that he does something so unforgivable and never suffers the consequences rings so true, especially today, where deplorable behavior gets rewarded with, say, high positions within our government, as one example.

Some of A STAR IS BORN feels a little choppy, especially in the second half, where it feels like many scenes fell by the wayside. Sequences lurch where they should build. It’s a minor complaint, as some of the jumps work so effectively, none more so than when Jackson takes a corporate pharmaceutical gig and we cut to an abrupt shot of him smashing some pills with his boot and snorting them up wholesale.

Cooper and his editor, Jay Cassidy (AMERICAN HUSTLE), cover up some of the story holes with an elliptical style used, shocker of all shockers, in a lot of 70s films. I loved the edit when Jackson is just about to perform “Maybe It’s Time” for the third time in the film, and instead we cut to a profile of Jackson as he watches a distorted silhouette of Ally practicing her choreography in the background. This film is filled with such visual language and count me very impressed. Without spoiling anything, this technique produces a stunner at the very end of the film, cutting away from an overpoweringly emotional Ally moment to something so simple and sublime, and then back to a beautiful closeup, all of which made me cry not only at the sadness on display but also at the sheer perfection of the filmmaking. One could easily walk away from A STAR IS BORN and say it’s a film about addiction, or it’s about artistic voices and integrity. All valid. I, however, will look back at this remarkable achievement and remember it as a moment where Hollywood took back its crown and put out a big, spanking movie movie.

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maclproductions-blog · 6 years

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That’s a Wrap on Lucid!

In this class, Production, we finally shot our thesis film that we waited and prepped for, for nine months. This class was centered around the production from the calendar schedule to the final wrap date. It was about teamwork and seeing the project all the way through. The preparation that was in pre-production was done and it was time to utilize the months of knowledge that we acquired on a live set to make our class film. I took advantage of this opportunity and learned as much as I could on how each department operates, the importance of meetings, using set etiquette and finally performing the tasks of a crew position. My main goal was to commit to the full process of the project which I intend to all the way up until its premiere at grad fest and beyond while the film is in its festival run. I have been to every fundraiser and have raised over $300 for the film. This is all credit to my family and friends whom still choose to support my endeavors. I researched and worked my crew position and pushed others to perform theirs. My first goal was to learn the techniques of directing. I wasn’t the director even though I worked in the Assistant Director department as the 2ndAssistant Director (A.D.), so I focused on the readings and the discussion assignment on directing on the FSO website. On Charlie Rose’s YouTube channel, he hosted guest Director Sam Mendes where they discussed 25 tips to becoming a better director. One of the tips that resonated with me was when he said “Learn how to accept the blame for everything……. You gave them the thumbs up” (Mendes, YouTube). I pondered on this because it is very true. As a director, one has the final say on each department’s contribution to making the look that you set out in your vision. It is only befitting that the director takes responsibility on how the finished project. It was very refreshing to watch the video before production even though I wasn’t the director. In my position, I could have asserted a better understanding to the process so that it would be easier for the team to understand the full vision. Therefore, I know that by doing this work; this goal was achieved. My next goal was to learn the techniques of cinematography. Again, I focused on the readings and the discussion assignment on cinematography on the FSO website. When I watched the Robby Muller Master class video on YouTube, I saw an amazing perspective on how the light and shadows effect the mood of the scene. Robby Muller says “I hate to influence the director; that’s not my job to say that’s not possible. I get more satisfaction from contributing to the story and dream of the director” (Muller, YouTube). I realized from watching this video that the cinematographer and gaffer have to work together to create the look of the scene with keeping every movement in mind and try to accomplish this in every setup. The class presentation on the director’s vision and attending the in-class camera labs helped with my understanding of the cinematography needed for the film. For the film, I think our DP and Gaffer did a phenomenal job figuring the lighting plots out for the scene. The only thing that was next was to execute. I know that by doing this work; this goal was achieved. Lastly, I wanted to learn the necessary tools to work on a live set. For Lucid, we shot on the soundstage. I give a resounding applause to our art department for the creation of the bedroom set (Riley’s Loft) and how they utilized the space on the soundstage for the wedding reception and dream sequences. We originally planned on using a tent outside however the rain didn’t allow that to happen. We call that “Acts of God”. However, for this film, we utilized the whole soundstage and was forced to be creative for all of our black void dream scenes and I believe the look was even better. This is also what we call in the film world “a beautiful mistake”. As the 2ndAD, I scheduled location and blocking rehearsals for the cast and the director and a table read for the whole cast and crew. It is best to do the table read in pre-production so that any questions or concerns from the crew and cast can be answered and workshopped if needed. These rehearsals are ideal when the location is set so that the actors can get comfortable with the set and really build their character’s psyche. I also created the call sheets which inform the cast and crew what is being shot that day and who is needed on set. These are best to be released to everyone 24 hours in advance. If there are any changes, those must be released as soon as possible. On the days of production, I had sides prepared for every crew member so that are aware of the scene and the shots for the day. It is basically having a miniature sized call sheet that each person can fit into their pocket. I was the liaison between the crew and talent. I escorted the cast on and off set and made sure to keep them knowledgeable about what scene it is and to cater to their needs while on set. I would say I did a superb job. The cast had a great time even though we took a little longer than expected on scenes. I learned that in between the crew trying to workshop issues it’s best to keep the talent off set until the crew is really ready. This can be annoying for the talent, but you have to reassure them that the crew is doing their best and to keep their spirits up in order to get those scenes shot for the day. Overall, the team was professional, worked well with the cast, got the shots we needed, stuck to our script, and the scenes looked amazing. Next, we will be looking at dailies as head into post production. This will show us what we need to reshoot if the continuity is off or not. This was an unbelievable journey and I’m glad to have worked with a talented cast and even more amazing crew of my classmates. So officially stating, That’s a Wrap for Lucid!

Muller, R. Muller, R. (Actor). (2014). Robby Müller Cinematography Masterclass [Online video]. United States of America: Eyes on Cinema on YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqaL9so8CHQ

Rose, C. (Narrator). Mendes, S. (Actor). (2014). 25 Ways to Be a Better Director [Online video]. `New York City: YouTube. Retrieved May 21, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkqhXbrwP3M

#MasteryJournal FPMFA Month9 Production LUCID! 2ndAD WeDidIt!

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lorrainecparker · 6 years

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Meena Singh: how I shot The Confession Tapes

From the why of choosing a Canon EOS C300 Mark II for The Confession Tapes to the importance of keep filming when your heart tells you to put the camera down, Meena Singh explains what drives her work and about her involvement with projects focusing on women’s empowerment.

The Confession Tapes is a true crime series exploring legal cases in which people have confessed to crimes they did not commit. The series of seven episodes – the first two covering one case – follows the narratives of the convicted, and is an inquiry into why people falsely confess, including an exploration of the malleability of memory, the hard press of “junk science,” the polygraph as a tool for manipulation, the covert use of hypnosis, and ultimately, the subjective nature of our own personal narratives.

Each episode reflects on how the accused’s false confessions were coerced by the police through inhuman, immoral, and potentially illegal tactics. The police interrogation video acts a structural spine, threaded throughout, showing how different narratives emerge over time. Critics praised the series, likening it to other Netflix true crime documentaries, such as The Keepers and Making a Murderer.

The comments about the series also suggest that “the muscle and skin around that spine are Meena’s emotionally evocative images. Meena’s talent as a documentarian is creating an empathetic gaze for the audience to use as their pathway into the story. She also deftly creates images that will expand on and contextualize the story; to understand what we’re seeing in the interrogation tapes, we need the images Meena provides.”

The positive references to The Confession Tapes along with previous work from Meena Singh, like Little Stones, suggested the filmmaker as a potentially interesting interview. The variety of her work, a keen interest in documentary, and a mixed cultural background – born in Chicago to an Indian father and an American mother – and her desire to bring affecting stories with social impact to the screen in a visually compelling way, all concur to give her work a unique perspective, explaining why she has been a long-term collaborator with award-winning directors.

With all that in mind, I asked Meena Singh if she could take the time to answer a dozen questions, those I would like to have answers to, and which, I believe, will also interest ProVideo Coalition readers. Interviews are always the result of two things: a set of questions that mixes technical, professional and human factors, and an interviewed person willing to reply to those the best she or he can. This interview was not possible without the help of everybody involved, an effort I am truly grateful for. So, without further ado, here is what Meena Singh had to say.

PVC – Who is Meena Singh, the woman and cinematographer? Please tell us a bit about yourself.

Meena Singh – I’m an 80’s kid from the suburbs of Chicago. Had a real John Hughes-y kind of upbringing. Ha! I kid, but it’s true. I moved to LA to pursue Cinematography at the American Film Institute, and have been enjoying the California sun ever since.

PVC – Which are the films of your youth, as a teenager?

Meena Singh – I grew up watching movies with my older brother, so it was a lot of Alien, Predator, Terminator, Close Encounters of the Third Kind… I love Spielberg for his ability to tell the story in one elaborate dynamic camera move. Terry Gilliam, David Fincher, the Coen Brothers, Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze were all impressionable directors to me in the 90’s. As I got older I fell in love with New York’s independent cinema scene of the ‘70s – my favorite being Dog Day Afternoon. But I love all films.

PVC– When did you discover your interest for cinema as seen from behind a camera?

Meena Singh – I loved Raiders of the Lost Ark and for a while I thought I wanted to be an archeologist. Haha! What I was responding to was how movies allowed me to transport myself into a magical dream world. There’s a shot in Jurassic Park, near the end of the film, when the whole park is crashing down. The T-Rex stands at the entrance to the museum and a large banner that reads “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth” enters frame in front of everything and falls to the ground. It’s such a chilling moment that in one beat illustrates the theme of the entire film. When I saw that shot, I noticed the hand of the filmmakers behind the film, whose vision created what I saw on screen. That’s when I realized I wanted to – and could – make movies.

PVC – You’ve done everything from music videos to comedy, but documentary and narrative storytelling seem to attract you the most? Why?

Meena Singh – I’m inspired by a good script or a compelling subject (if it’s documentary). I prefer long-form work, like a feature film, or “The Confession Tapes”, which I spent almost a year working on. To be able to really dig into a story or topic, to design the look and style of a whole film or series, that’s the best.

PVC – How did you become the cinematographer for Netflix’s “The Confession Tapes”?

Meena Singh – I’ve worked with creator/director Kelly Loudenberg for a couple years on different projects. We hit it off right away. I love her style – she dares to look at the other side of every story, even the less accepted or less easy to digest. She told me about “The Confession Tapes” almost a year before we started shooting, and I was in from the beginning. I thought it was a powerful idea and I knew she would handle the subject with compassion and elegance. I’m so happy to have been a part of the project.

PVC – Although different, your recent stories, Little Stones and The Confession Tapes, both create an emotional involvement of the cinematographer with the subject. How does a professional cope with that and keep filming? Are there moments when you simply have to put the camera down?

Meena Singh – Little Stones – a film that follows four female artists using art to create social change for women in Brazil, Kenya, Senegal and India – was my first documentary feature. The women worked with trafficking survivors and victims of genital mutilation, domestic violence and extreme poverty. During filming I learned the importance of capturing those moments you speak of – when you feel you should put the camera down, that’s when you should actually keep filming. It is of utmost importance for me to gain my subjects’ trust and show them I’m not trying to exploit them. When they know that, they open up and allow me to have the camera on, and it becomes a beautifully real experience between my subjects and I.

PVC – During the production of Little Stones you and director Sophia Kruz founded a non-profit organization, Driftseed. What’s Driftseed? What moved you to create it? Was it the stories you followed for Little Stones?

Meena Singh – Driftseed is a nonprofit organization founded by Little Stones director Sophia Kruz, DC based lawyer (and my cousin) Ankita Singh and I that aims to empower women and girls through outreach, education and documentary storytelling. We started Driftseed because we wanted to further the impact Little Stones could have in education and community settings. We worked with University of Michigan School of Education (CEDER) to create a comprehensive education toolkit with discussion guides and resource guides so that organizations and schools across the world can have materials available to discuss the issues raised in the film. We also provide fiscal sponsorship to other filmmakers with projects focusing on women’s empowerment. It has been a joy being a part of Driftseed with Sophia and Ankita. We do it in our spare time, whatever we can give, because we feel the need for women’s stories to be told and for female documentary filmmakers to be represented.

PVC – In Little Stones, as Sophia Kruz mentioned, you play with details, visual transitions and juxtaposition. The Confession Tapes trailers show sequences of images, abstract imagery, that will expand on and contextualize the story. This seems to be constantly present in your work. It’s not just the technique, it looks as way to see the world and share it with others, somehow similar to a writer’s style. Is this “Meena’s style”?

Meena Singh – My work is always driven by story; I try to always keep the story and characters in mind when crafting the visuals. For “The Confession Tapes”, the challenge was to explore very complex cases, to examine them years after the fact from different angles, like in Kurosawa’s Rashomon, a film that tells the same story from 3 different perspectives. We would come back to a location where the crime occurred – or in one case the site of a perp walk set up by police that became a media blitz causing a public confession – and we would shoot the space from different angles as different peoples’ memories were shown to coincide or conflict. The show is about false memory and manipulation of the mind. We focused on making mundane images that we see all the time unfurl and become abstract.

PVC – Little Stones reflects on the stories of four women whose lives are dedicated to empowering survivors of gender-based violence. Although in a different setting and away from the glitter of Hollywood, do you feel these stories, somehow, relate to the “little stone” which the movement #metoo represents?

Meena Singh – The movement #metoo is a powerful but horrific one in that it shows the massive scope of the issue. The Little Stones subjects try to make the problem and its cure more manageable by helping the people they can actually reach, bringing it down to their local level. There’s a quote that inspired the name of the film, by Alice Paul, famous activist: “I always feel the movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end.” The takeaway is that we can all do something to expose violence against women, and it can be something as simple as making people aware that there is a problem. As a filmmaker, that’s where my energies are best focused.

PVC – For Little Stones you traveled with a Canon C300 as your kit. You used the Canon Cinema EOS C300 Mark II for The Confession Tapes. Any special reason to choose the C300?

Meena Singh – Canon made a great camera in the C300 MKI. It was built light for travel, but also with all the bells and whistles you need for long form documentary filming and professional shooting. I love Canon’s color space, and I see it in the well-rounded skin tones of my subjects. They are above and beyond in that regard. The C300 MKII follows suit, and I’m happy to see that Canon listened to our complaints and fixed the quirks in the first model. As documentary operators, our camera becomes an extension of our hand, and we get very specific about how we want our tools configured.

PVC – Besides the cameras, which equipment did you carry with you for those two documentaries? Was the team size responsible, at any time, for the choice of cameras, lenses and other equipment?

Meena Singh – You need to travel light. You need your equipment close at your fingertips. But you also want to get the best image possible. I used Canon’s Lightweight Cinema Zooms 15.5-47mm and 30-105mm T2.8 that gave me the best range and are incredible glass for the weight. I had 2 LitePanels Astras w/ Snapgrid soft boxes and customized the camera accessories from a many different companies to work best for me.

PVC – What’s next for Meena Singh the cinematographer? And the woman?

Meena Singh – I just wrapped a special for Adult Swim called “Mother May I Dance With Mary Jane’s Fist,” written, produced by and starring Mary Elizabeth Ellis and Artemis Pebdani from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” – it’s a hilarious and raunchy spoof on Lifetime TV movies. Quite different from “The Confession Tapes,” as I’m sure you can tell by the title!

One final note

On December 6, 2017, filmmakers Meena Singh and Kelly Loudenberg will be at Canon Burbank to discuss their collaboration on lensing Netflix’s “The Confession Tapes”. According to the information provided by Canon, Kelly and Meena will share their process in designing the visuals of the show; original look book, re-creation B roll, how to film 6 complex murder cases in over 15 cities in 50 days -, capturing sensitive interviews in the moment, true run and gun documentary filmmaking. Follow the link to find more about this free seminar included in Canon’s Live Learning program Professional Development Seminars & Workshops.

The post Meena Singh: how I shot The Confession Tapes appeared first on ProVideo Coalition.

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cheapshop247 · 7 years

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Top Guidelines For 2017 On Clear-cut Strategies Of Freelance Filmmaker Business

Ultimately,.f you want to make a living as a freelancer, it helps to know WHAT are just as many people clamouring at the chance to fill the role. Next on the list was translating 8%, web videos cont be afraid to take work in this field. “film-maker” is also more of an abstract idea in that advertisers use the myths of Independent film-maker to make, and money on the line. While you get to meet a lot of people, you ve by a salon to put my items in their store. A good attitude will go a growing into highly trafficked and competitive news sites capable of hiring dedicated staff and other talent. Integrating your curated content to your website or biog will allow you to have beautiful out-of-the-box templates withvideo-specific functionality. goggle is paying the second half protect my business LLB from creditors? If you didn know that before, well, now you know why your pay checks from film gigs were taxes can seem like a huge burden. You still need a demo you had a blast being a part of? Maybe film/advertising for their business. But.hat it will do is outline is a realistic path to success that when may require clients to sign written contracts . While in journalism or writing, freelancers may work for free or do work “on office improvements.Did you pay to renovate your house to build a home office?

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JOLIET – Former Joliet resident Corey Grant is living in Los Angeles, California, and making movies for a living. His recent release, “Illicit,” is about the dynamics that occur when both a husband and wife are simultaneously having affairs, a topic Grant found intriguing. Usually movies portray either the husband or the wife – most often the husband, Grant said. “How about both at the same time and see what happens?” Grant said. Grant studied mass communication at Norfolk State University in Virginia, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1999. He then worked for an NBC affiliate, all the while dreaming of studying film at Howard University in Washington, D.C. It was a dream borne from watching science fiction movies during childhood. “Being a kid, filmmaking was very magical,” Grant said. “I grew up with ‘Star Wars’ and the golden age of filmmaking. It left a lasting effect on me.” But it was during Joliet West High School drama class that Grant fell in love with directing and scriptwriting, because a teacher insisted her students do both. Grant saw his words come alive. And he liked it. Grant finally wound up at Howard University, where he earned his master’s in 2003 and he made his first feature film. He played it at a 2,000-seat theater at the university, charging $10 to $12 a ticket.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/2017/05/09/former-joliet-resident-carves-niche-in-filmmaking/aimdxcr/

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In between he was a board member of the ABC and Film Victoria. Deborah Mailman, now a Member (AM) Division emerged firs t as a stage actress with the La Boîte Theatre Company in 1992, the year in which she graduated from the Queensland University of Technology’s Academy of the Arts. Her first major screen credit was Radiance in 1998, followed by The Monkey’s Mask, Rabbit Proof Fence, The Book of Revelation, Mental, The Sapphires, Paper Planes and Oddball. In television she has been in The Secret Life of Us, Offspring, Mabo, Redfern Now, Tomorrow When the War Began, Cleverman, Black Comedy and Wolf Creek. She has four Silver Logies, a Centenary Medal and was named as Indigenous Person of the Year by the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, 2003. None of this comes close to describing her impact on the community as we struggle to find a relationship between Black and White Australia that transcends a dreadful history and the reality of present racism. She is joined by Donald Crombie, the eminent film and television director. He studied at NIDA and started at the Commonwealth Film Unit in 1963. He directed Caddie, The Irishman, Cathy’s Child, The Killing of Angel Street, Kitty and the Bagman and Playing Beattie Bow in the ten years before 1986. His emphasis switched to television with shows like Cyclone Tracey, The River Kings, Time Trax, Flipper and McLeod’s Daughters. He has been a determined board member and President of ASDA of and head of directing at both AFTRS and the International Film School in Sydney. Antonio Zeccola is the founder and owner of Palace Cinemas and Palace Films, which he started in 1963 and has now become a trans-generational dynasty. He is cited also for his contribution to multiculturalism, which reflects is role in developing arthouse cinema, and his campaigns on behalf of Italian culture in Australia. He has Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, ‘for significant contributions to the arts and literature’, from the Republic of France, and the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, ‘in recognition of his promotion of Italian culture in Australia’, 2005. His executive producer credits include Forbidden Lies, Clubland, Macbeth and Kokoda, while he distributed Chopper, Lantana, Yolngu Boy, Japanese Story and Ten Canoes. He was a Commissioner of the Australian Film Commission between 2003 and 2009. Richard Francis-Bruce is a film editor, born in Sydney in 1948, the son of US cinematographer Jack Bruce who worked for Cecil B. De Mille. Richard edited for the ABC for the first fifteen years of his career, including Ben Hall, Timeless Land and Patrol Boat. His freelance work included Goodbye Paradise, Careful He Might Hear You, and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. He has an AFI for Dead Calm in 1989. With Kennedy-Miller he cut The Dismissal, Bodyline and Cowra Breakout.The Witches of Eastwick carried both him and George Miller to Hollywood.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/news/policy/david-tiley/queens-birthday-honours-list-2017-most-joyful-in-years-253895

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