Steven Soderbergh: Financial State of Cinema

In congress with our kickstart series, I encourage you to watch this speech by director Steven Soderbergh. He discusses the politics of producers, defines cinema vs films, and films made by business rather than artists. If you are interested in similar opinions, please review the links below in our ongoing series of film business and out-of-box approaches to filmmaking -
http://ainycvpstudents.blogspot.com/2011/01/red-state-and-kevin-smith-warrior-poet.html
http://ainycvpstudents.blogspot.com/2013/04/crowd-funding.html
http://ainycvpstudents.blogspot.com/2013/05/future-of-art-finance-amanda-palmer.html
http://ainycvpstudents.blogspot.com/2013/05/we-need-adult-films-no-not-porn.html


State of Cinema: Steven Soderbergh from San Francisco Film Society on Vimeo.

THR Discussion - Film Directors 2011

Director's Reel: Darren Bousman

Did I tell you guys that I love the internet? Well, sometimes. The internet and I have a love/hate relationship.
The reason I love the internet today is because I came across a gem of a page: the blog of horror film director, Darren Bousman.
Click on this link for Darren's blog http://www.darrenlynnbousman.com/ Darren is most noted for directing three Saw films and Repo: The Genetic Opera. This blog serves as the director's personal soap box for the outside world, posting both personal and professional information. For those of you interested in directing, I would encourage you to seek out pages like this to get a sense of how other people practice their craft, deal with professional road blocks, and view the world. You may have a variety of opinions about this type of work, but I think it's good to explore and get a sense of what other people are doing. - Eve.

Animator Turned Filmmaker

I wanted to bring your attention to someone who probably isn't on your radar, Ruairi Robinson. Ruairi was nominated for a Oscar in 2002 for his short, Fifty Percent Grey - posted below. Check it out to get ideas for your own shorts. . .

FIFTY PERCENT GREY
Uploaded by sabotage. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.
Now Ruairi has just finished his first Live Action Feature film, Blinky. It's always encouraging to see short filmmakers make the transition to features! To see more of Ruairi's work, http://www.ruairirobinson.com/main.htm

Patrick Hughes - Director Site

Director Patrick Hughes was featured over the weekend on a blog that I frequent, Firstshowing.net. He has just released his first feature film, Red Hill. Check out the blog post HERE for a brief description and trailer. Patrick is a successful commercial director who has also toured a few shorts on the film festival circuit. Below is his most famous short "Signs" which he did in conjunction with Radical Media.
I am featuring his work on the blog today because I believe he is a great example of how we are preparing you to work as a director in film and broadcast. He is starting off creating short films and commercials, then worked his way to feature films.
Here is the link to his professional work http://patrickhughes.com.au/shorts/
I would encourage you to check out his site. This is an ideal format for your graduate web portfolio. Enjoy!


Signs
Uploaded by mg02. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

Video Collage : Behind the Scenes of Power

Today's video is brought to you by a member of our new admissions staff! Thank you!
I posted this video because the director Marco Brambilla has approached the medium of music videos in a new an refreshing way. Like the Jay-Z video posted before, this video has it's roots in the classical fine art world to create something new to the eyes of the MTV generation. Watch and enjoy! When Power is released to the internet, I will post it for your viewing pleasure.

82 Academy Awards Nominations Announced!

Industry blogs blew up this morning with news of the 82nd Academy Award Nominations. Click HERE for a complete list from IMDB. This is the first year since 1943 that ten best picture nominations have been announced. However, does this year deserve ten nominations? Sure, it's been a ground-breaking year with films like Avatar (which perfected motion capture work flow) and District 9 (fantastic CG/Live Action composting and character; on a budget!) But, does that qualify for a "best picture" nomination?
Our mission at AiNYC is to give you a solid foundation in narrative filmmaking. There are several challenges in studying this foundation because the filmmaker is a unique artist. This artist must deal with elements of design, direction and (most important) time. Time is the crucial element to master. In order to keep your audience interested, the filmmaker must discover and experiment with a variety of ways to engage people. The best method is through storytelling. What is the point in making a film if you are not telling a story? Right? Even the most obscure, abstract, experimental films are telling a story. For the experimental film, the character could be a place (the planet, a country, a house) and the plot could be states of being (the planet viewed through rural and urban settings, a country at a various scenes in history, a house lived in and abandoned). Successful documentaries are "stories" occurring in reality (Spellbound: children competing to win the spelling bee. Ryan: following the rise and fall of one of Canada's greatest animators). Following this logic, my belief is that the "best picture"of the year should be the film that has an equal mastery of craft (acting, directing, cinematography, etc.) and storytelling.
My challenge to you is to come up with your own opinion. Look at the top ten films this year. Are there films that should be on this list that were excluded? Are any of these films an example of master storytelling? An animated film made the list this year (the second time in the Oscar's history). Should a documentary or an experimental film make this list? Questions to ponder? Keep Thinking!!! - Director Eve.

This is not the video you are looking for . . .

. . . or maybe it is.
Originally, I wasn't going to post this video because not one element photographed is actually shot in reality as we know it. "The Third and The Seventh" is a short animated film created by architectural visualization artist Alex Roman. The concept was to take architecture that existed around the world and recreate it in 3D CG (computer generated) space. This way the artist could photograph a space the way he wanted without the constraints of budget, weather, lighting, crew, or technology. I am posting two videos here for your viewing pleasure: the film and the breakdowns. The invitation is for all video students to review both films. It is important for you, as a filmmaker, to understand how all components of production work. Understanding post production will make your life easier when you are shooting.
If you have any questions about the compositing reel, please ask me. I'll be happy to answer them! Cheers, Eve. - Thanks to Jen Hahn for bringing this to my attention.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Compositing Breakdown (T&S) from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Think Outside the Quadrilateral Parallelogram

Seems like a majority of Video Production majors in this school want to be music video directors. After visiting VP classes and portfolio review, I noticed a taste for music videos has popped into the agendas of almost every aspiring filmmaker at AI. And why not? Play music you like, go and film a bunch of random nonsense, then edit to a pre-determined beat. It's a fast and easy way to work.
Unfortunately, we live in a society where every music video we can think of is at our fingertips. Therefore, audiences are bombarded with alot of the same. As an experiment, try finding a genre of music you enjoy (rap, r&b, jazz, pop, classical, etc). Find the artists that perform within that genre. Compare/Contrast their music videos. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that the videos tend to blend together. Rap videos are characterized by women in bikinis, men with 40's and baseball caps, expensive cars, someone running down some neighborhood street, etc. Pop videos have overused the model shots of the lead singer mouthing, longingly into the camera about heart ache over a lost lover, leaving a lover, or getting back to a lost lover only to have them leave. (Oh, irony!)
The point is that music video genres are like film genres. They tend towards following some formula to lure a familiar audience. Example: An audience of horror movie fans expect to see someone get killed in the first ten minutes of any horror film. Fans are likely to be disappointed when they are not getting their formula fix. However, the exception to these formula rules are passed around and showcased between fans when they introduce something different that surprises and excites. An example of this is the Japanese horror film "Audition", which has been hailed as a cult classic. There is no violence in the film until the last half hour of the movie.
This Jay-Z video did just that to me. In the video posted below "On to the next one", he is introducing the world of "high-art" to an audience that would normally never go to an art gallery or have knowledge in art history. The director, Sam Brown, is using imagery that mimics the photography of Man Ray and art sculpture from Damion Hurst. I appreciate Jay-Z's choice to bring something new to the tastebuds of hungry fans. While the imagery is not original, at least it stood out among the sea overused themes.



Something to think about while you are brainstorming for short projects or thesis projects: Introduce something that surprises you, as an artist and person, into your work. I encourage all of you to look at your GenEd classes in this way. Ex: When your teacher is lecturing about the Modernist period in Art History, take a serious look at the paintings. How can you mimic those compositions in your film frame? Do the colors evoke some kind of emotion? Can you mimic a similar color scheme to create an emotional pallet in your film? Start asking yourself these questions. Constantly do research in areas that are unfamiliar. Explore!

So, what do you think? Agree, disagree? Let me know by commenting on this post. Get a conversation started.
Cheers, Director Eve.

Demo Reel Examples: Director

I hear this too often . . .
So, you want to be an actor/cinematographer/editor/screenwriter/director? Did you know that's like saying, "I want to be a driver/machinist/mechanic/designer/CEO"? Common misconception is that the director can do several things at once. As filmmakers, you need to understand that each position has it's own unique set of attributes that is difficult enough for one person to master. Without master cinematographers, actors, production designers, costumers, etc., the director is nothing. Being a director does not mean that you micro-manage everything on set. The director has their own unique job; to control the artistic direction of the film/video/commercial. This means the director needs to communicate with an actor to get a performance; with a production designer to execute a landscape, with a DP to create a mood, etc. A competent director surrounds themselves with a talented crew that they trust. Communication is the key. Delegation is the secret. The director is the conductor of the symphony, not the pianist/trumpeter/violist/conductor.
Begin your research by checking out a few site links. Here are some examples of directors who have done both film and commercial work:
John Hillcoat Samples
Michel Gondry Samples
David Fincher Sample
To get an idea of their film work, do a search on IMDB.com