13 posts tagged “film”
We had our awards screening for The 2007 48 Hour Film Project a few weeks ago at The Pioneer Theater and the films were really quite impressive - I wanted to share a few of the MANY AWESOME FILMS, here. Remember these were written, filmed and edited within 48 Hours. Before, Friday at 7pm the filmmaker did not even know what genre film they were going to be making!
I'll post more of them later this week..
The movie is well put together and sweet and not any longer than it needs to be.
BUT the very special thing about this movie is the fantastic story of it's distribution because it is probably one of the first feature films really suited for web distribution.
What happened (as far as I can tell ) is that they started making a video podcast about the making of the movie to get generate some interest outside of the indy filmfest scene. Great timing, because a lot of people were talking about videos on the internet and looking for something interesting, unusual, worth watching repeatedly, more than 'viral'..etc. These people loved the Four Eyed Monsters podcast. And so this film truly found it's audience by going online. The The storyline couldn't be more perfect for the videbloggers (and bloggers,YouTubers, myspacers, et al.) because it's about being young and getting frustrated by trying to communicate with eachother and the world (such classic youthful angst) with the unique addition of the uber-mediated day-to-day existence many of us now have.
People on the internets not only watched the podcast but they rallied and helped the film get some nice theatrical distribution by, well... using the internet to say they wanted to see the movie that this podcast was about. AND now, the filmmakers have made a deal with YouTube to host the entire film for a week to drive people to an online film community who will then pay them for every new member they bring in. Talk about flipping the system upside down.
Last summer I met the nice hipsters who made it and they recognized me from a video of me on the internets, and I them! That was funny because I am a very very minor internet celebrity, like D-list internet celebrity which is like Z-list for over all celebritatstic-ness. And that is what this whole online video thing is about, right? !
A few questions remain..
What is YouTube's long term strategy for feature length videos?
Will the filmmakers ever pay off their credit debt?
Will this promotion make Sprout.com the next cool online hangout?
Would it pay off for Sprout to do similar promotions for other filmmakers? and if so how many times before they start devouring their own tail?
How could other websites or content makers create similar deals?
Is being on the Z list awesome? That's an easy one - YES, it F'n Rocks!
I am in the midst of recruiting teams for the NYC 48 Hour Film Project, so if you are in the NYC area and you need something REALLY FUN and creative and exciting to do this summer...
The 48 Hour Film Project is a wild and reckless weekend of film making mania, where teams of renegade filmmakers create short films at break-neck speed, compete for prizes and a chance to participate in a national film making showdown!
This is the 7th year and with 50 participating cities in the US and 11 abroad there will probably be over a thousand teams participating! Winners from each city will compete in an international 48 Hour Film making Showdown and also get invited to participate in some thematic events around the country for additional fame, fortune and fun!
Now, you may be asking yourself, what kind of films get made in 48 hours? Well all you have to do is type in '48 Hour Film' to YouTube and you will find some gems like:
All the films will eventually be archived on www.48.tv
I made it into this week's Nerd of The Week video on the Nerdcore Rising website!
Click here to watch the video!
I am honored, to be even loosely connected to this interesting group of Second Life 'nerds'.
Went to one of my favorite contemporary art museums PS1, today to see the art of Vic Muniz (which, of course, is great), but there are a number of other really worth while shows there right now.
I really liked the idea of the Emergency Room (I am not going to explain this well so you can look at the daily blog for more information). Essentially, it is a group of artists creating new works each day of the exhibition based on the news of the day. Sort of turned out like a live action blog.
There was a performance today for the 'birthday' of Iraq's independence with cake and readings of the names of Iraqi citizens who have died durring out occupation and prayers for them, while a trumpet played happy birthday, sounds cheezy but it was actually effecting in the space. The room where the daily exhibitions/performances take place is round. I wish this was a permanent installation. I wish there was an Emergency Room franchise, where each neighborhood or town had a round room and everyday people could come in and make something together to respond to the world and it's events as they were experiencing it that particular day.
I also saw, the photos of Tom Sandberg, really really beautiful and there was a group show which included a number of big names but what was special about it is not the works of art in themselves but the explanations by the artists of why this particular work of art is not for sale.
But what really got me was a manifesto typewritten and posted on a wall in the Jonas Mekas exhibition.
Click to read the entire Anti-100 years of cinema manifesto by Jonas MekasIn the times of bigness, spectaculars, one hundred million movie productions, I want to speak for the small, invisible acts of human spirit, so subtle, so small, that they die when brought out under the clean lights. I want to celebrate the small forms of cinema, the lyrical form, the poem, the watercolor, etude, sketch, portrait, arabesque, and bagatelle, and little 8mm songs. In the times when everybody wants to succeed and sell, I want to celebrate those who embrace social and daily tailor to pursue the invisible, the personal things that bring no money and no bread and make no contemporary history, art history or any other history. I am for art which we do for each other, as friends.
I am standing in the middle of the information highway and laughing, because a butterfly on a little flower somewhere in China just fluttered its wings, and I know that the entire history, culture will drastically change because of that fluttering. A super-8 millimeter camera just made a little soft buzz somewhere, somewhere on the lower east side of New York, and the world will never be the same.
The real history of cinema is invisible history. History of friends getting together, doing the thing they love.
I felt a little choked up when I read it in the gallery but was quickly distracted by watching the actual videos.
When I found it online this evening, I read it to my friend over the phone and wept, there is more context to it then that but I don't think i need to put any further explanation here as the writing speaks for itself.
Now go look at his films...
Jonas Mekas recently launched his own online video gallery with many of his films dating from the 60's to literally today, available for download (link).
Earlier last year I co-curated an exhibition of one minute films by artists for Cwow gallery. We have since had the opportunity the take the videos from the gallery space in NJ to the Scope art fair (thanks to Lee Wells - the other curator) and last week we took it to the big screen.
The Pioneer theater is a great supporter of independent video/filmmaker/artist. Thanks to their programmer, Ray Privett, a lot of my favorite online videos have made their theatrical premiere, here.
See, it's on Avenue A, in the heart of the East Village, just minutes from my apartment!
Lot's of people bought tickets, just like these, to watch the one minute videos, in fact, we had pretty nice crowd!
Afterwards, as is customary, we headed over to DBA for beers and more talk of art, film, tv, videoblogs, internets, creative commons, cats, books. It was great to meet some of the incredible artists in the show, whom I only knew by their work, like Michael Amter, Santiago Cohen and Arzu Ozkal Telhan and to catch up with Betsy Biggs, G.H. Hovagimyan, Charlene Rule and Memo Salazar.
Mim documented with these great photos but sadly, we forgot to take pictures of ourselves?!
Looking forward to the next screening!
Video: Show us some great dancing.
I love dancing so much that I post a lot of videos about dancing I am interested in dance as both public performance and personal expression
here is one I made of my friend Mary:
Mary is not a great bowler but she is an awesome DANCER! - Watch as Mary Dances at Lesure Time Bowling Alley
It's no secret how much I LOVE tap dancing so I am always thrilled to find it pop-up in unexpected places. Example, here is a kick-ass tap dance number from the Japanese samurai film Zatochi.
I am sitting down to watch Kurosawa's classic film Rashomon.
I downloaded the entire movie from Google video!
This is one that everyone tries to copy or reference. It even spurned the term 'the Rashomon-effect' - to describe a situation where multiple conflicting, yet plausible, perspectives exist.
Rashomon is about a murder and the subsequent trial.
In the film, you hear the same story told by a different player or observer and see parts of the story from each perspective. Not so crazy to see something like this now but this is the one that introduced this kind of narrative to modern cinema. Seen it?
Here is the Google Video (link).
