"Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer"

Okay, so it's been around for a while, but I couldn't resist running it straight after yesterdays' Sundance trailer.

How to make an Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer.


First posted: 31 January 2014

Pregame

I'm so glad we gave up this type of pastime long ago. But, for those still picking their way through that particular wilderness, here it it: Watch as a group of friends collapses under the pressure of New Year's Eve.

The Gunfighter

In the tradition of classic westerns, a narrator sets up the story of a lone gunslinger who walks into a saloon. However, the people in this saloon can hear the narrator and the narrator may just be a little bit bloodthirsty.

"Making a Living as a Screenwriter," John Truby

John Truby is a leading teacher of screenwriting. His book, The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, is a bestseller.

Here he talks about what it takes to break into the ranks of professional screenwriting in Hollywood. It's a sobering and realistic picture of the world of US movie-making since 2008, one every wannabe screenwriter should take a long, hard look at.


 
 First posted:18 November 2012

Coast 2 Coast

This is Pascal Heiduk's declaration of love to basketball.

Doodling Between The Headlines

A short film that captures the highlights of Euro 2016, by doodling between the headlines.

How to make a tennis ball

Benedict Redgrove was commissioned to make a film and shoot a set of images by ESPN, to show the manufacturing process of Wilson tennis balls for the US Open. He flew to the factory, shot the film and stills in one day then flew home.

It's an amazingly complex manufacture, requiring 24 different processes to make the final ball. It was hot, loud and the people who worked there, worked fast.

Magic of Mount Seymour

Mount Seymour looks down over the vibrant and pulsing city of Vancouver to the south, while the Coast Mountains stretch endlessly to the north. For three years, Nathan Starzynski returned on and off to shoot as much timelapse as possible.

This short film is the culmination of years of practice, countless pounds of equipment carried, many sleepless nights, and hundreds of hours of editing. Enjoy!

Nicely

Tribute to all the people of Nice. Because Nice is, and will remain, Nissa la Bella.

We Keep On Dancing

Two distinctly disparate characters come together over a broken down Volkswagen Beetle in this sweet, amusing tale of love, loss and ... car trouble.

Kevin Smith - Advice on filmmaking

Kevin Smith was born and raised in New Jersey. His first movie, Clerks. (1994), was filmed in the convenience store in which Smith worked. He was only allowed to shoot at night after the store closed. This movie won the highest award at the Sundance film festival and was brought to theaters by Miramax. The movie went over so well that Smith was able to make another movie, Mallrats in 1995.

In this interview, Kevin Smith gives new filmmakers some ideas on how to act on set... and has some great advice for making sure the edit of your film is going to be exactly what your audience can tolerate.

First posted: 9 September 2012

'Other Music' to close

After more than twenty years at 15 East 4th Street in New York City, Other Music will be closing their doors on Saturday, June 25th. 

Here's a short interview with owner Josh Madell, who explains how the mecca of underground music survived for as long as it did.

Eleven Tips on Editing Short Films

Jordan Kerfeld is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and artist from Kansas City, Missouri. His films have appeared in film festivals and curated screenings around the globe and on PBS. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he received seven awards for his journalism and short films. He is currently studying for an MFA at the University of Texas. He also works as a video editor and producer. 

Jordan wrote a guide to editing short films for MovieScope magazine last July. Here are some of the main points from that article.
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• Short film editing boils down to a deceptively simple discipline: tell me a good story efficiently.
• While feature films allow one to explore complicated thematic issues and and character, the strong short film is about articulating one clear idea.
• Concentrate on two key questions:
1. What is the idea driving it? If more than one comes to mind, eliminate the weakest ones.
2. Ask whether the film as a whole can function without a scene, a line?
Every minute, second and frame is precious in a short. Make each one count.

• Much dialogue is completely unnecessary for narrative purposes. It's a character-building tool, and it is easy to get carried away.
• Make actors look their best even if the script didn't give them anything to do.
• Editing a short film is NOT about following the script beat-by-beat.
• I can only edit the material in front of me, so I must be ready to make radical and bold decisions that draw out the best in the material and challenge my initial expectations.
• I prefer to edit scenes in a way which conveys important story material but does not resolve cleanly.
• Interest is generated when one can build tension and conflict in a scene and then flee from it to the next, while making it seem somewhat resolved.
• I've discovered that continuity and match action editing are grossly overrated.
• Make them wish the film were longer, not the other way around.

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Here's a short film, called Knuckleball, made by Jordan Kerfeld about a year ago. 

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First posted: 8 August 2012

Indie-gogo Girl

First episode of Livin' The Dream, a new web series serial comedy from sisters Kim Spurlock and Mai Spurlock. The oh-so-personal tale of one woman's struggle to navigate the indie film world. How far will she go to attain Indie Director Goddessness?

Kit returns to film school to relive old glory, but instead discovers new anxieties.

A Conversation with Syd Field

Syd Field is a name that is highly respected in the Film Industry. If you have had anything to do with the film world it is most likely that you have heard of Syd Field. Filmmaking is in his genetics and his books on screenwriting are legendary. Screenplay (1982) has been translated into at least 19 languages and The Screenwriter’s Workbook and The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver are the “bibles” for all screenwriting courses. He is a best selling author, international creative consultant to several governments, a script consultant, a teacher, international lecturer and a really gracious, interesting man to spend time with. Syd is without question the international expert on screenwriting and certainly one of the most inspiring.

Balance

We humans we create, we work, we stay busy from birth to death and never rest. We build, aim higher, work harder, accomplish more, and to what end? "Balance" takes an abstract look at our modern world, the full and the empty spaces and time in which we live and choose to make our lives.

Meet The Peter Principle

We live in times of seemingly unending progress - and yet somehow things still always go wrong: trains are late, broadband speeds suck and the promotion always goes to the wrong person. Well, it turns out there's an explanation for all this - and progress itself is the problem.

This Is Not the End

Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell tried to make a film about something fake and it failed. So she made this instead.

Famous Photographs That Fooled The World

Learn the full stories behind some of the world's most famous images.

Player Two

Stopping in front of the finish line...