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High Definition Video for Independent Filmmakers
A How To Guide for Digital Filmmakers
Welcome all! This is my blog to share my latest research,
thoughts, etc. on utilizing HD for independent filmmaking.
YES, I am available for consulting
Contact me at mike@hdforindies.com
All content copyright 2004-2007 Mike Curtis.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
SXSW 2007: Movies, Grindhouse 101 panel
yesterday I saw a couple of movies - When A Man Falls in The Forrest was depressing with not enough payoff, so that's all I want to say about that. Dylan Baker did a good job playing a nebbishy guy though, and Sharon Stone allowed herself to be shown with forehead wrinkles. OK, I'm done & moving on.
I went to some parties, caught up with some folks - saw Joe Swanberg who is here with his film Hannah Takes The Stairs that I plan on seeing later tonight. Went to the frog party and saw the last few people I know that are still there (I started working there nearly 10 years ago, sheesh), went to the Mobile Film School party (I'm on the advisory board), and hooked up with my editor friend Rita Sanders (she cut last year's slam poetry doc Slam Planet that ran at SXSW) to see American Zombie, a fun faux-doc about high level functioning zombies in LA. Are they flesh eating crazies or just a new population to contend with? Silly fun.
Today I went to the Grindhouse 101 panel with Robert Rodriguez and Harry Knowles of AintItCoolNews.com. They started off by reminiscencing about their childhood movie expeirences - yeah yeah move along move along - and finally got to the good stuff - talking about where grindhouse movies came from - they showed some old trailers that were excellent and bizarre. Rodriguez talked about how they intentionally trashed out parts of the movie - intentional bad splice cuts to jump over parts of the movie they don't care about (like how everyone decides Loser is now Leader), or they'll splice cut around MPAA edits.
He talked about how the exploitation films had no quality acting or production value, so it was all built around the concept - which wasn't all that great to start with.
They showed three trailers from the online competition, and Hobo With a Shotgun won, deservedly so. Maiden of Death was pretty good, and I forget the title of the third but it was fun too.
Rodriguez showed a scene from his section of Grindhouse - a group of people in vehicles escaping zombies, shooting them, running over them with a giant truck, etc. Campy silly R rated fun. They've intentionally introduced some "errors" into the film for effect - a red wash that looks like a dye seepage or light leak during printing, dust/scratches/blemishes throughout, accidentally on purpose dropping out the audio, etc.
He also talked about the history of the movie - that he'd come up with the idea of Girl With Gun For Leg a long time ago.
The real gem was one of the fake trailers that will run between Quentin Tarantino's and Rodriguez's movies - Eli Roth did a trailer for an 80s slasher flick. Every major holiday has been done as a horror movie (maybe not Easter) - so he chose Thanksgiving. Deliciously silly and wonderfully violent. You have to have some sex & nudity in a grindhouse flick, so he has the couple having oral sex and the guy gets decapitated. Or the cheerleader stripping on the trampoline, and when she lands (naked) in a split, the killer has a knife stuck up through the trampoline...dead center - that got a huge "OHHHHH!" and full body shudder/grimace out of the entire audience. Then he closes with something classy - a dinner scene with a human body done up as the cooked turkey, and a turkey with a human head stuck in it. Then the killer has sex with the turkey/human head combo in front of the tied up family. Klassy.
But silly fun.
Afterwards, Rodriguez said he'd forgotten to ask if there were any children in the theater, and now he saw a few and was embarassed.....Spy Kids this ain't! And devil bless him because of it - this movie will be FUN.
Scott Kirsner was apparently there too, and he took better notes - CinemaTech: At SXSW: Robert Rodriguez, Harry Knowles, and 'Grindhouse 101'
OK, off for more stuff. It is a rainy afternoon, so I don't want to go stand in line outside.
-mike
I went to some parties, caught up with some folks - saw Joe Swanberg who is here with his film Hannah Takes The Stairs that I plan on seeing later tonight. Went to the frog party and saw the last few people I know that are still there (I started working there nearly 10 years ago, sheesh), went to the Mobile Film School party (I'm on the advisory board), and hooked up with my editor friend Rita Sanders (she cut last year's slam poetry doc Slam Planet that ran at SXSW) to see American Zombie, a fun faux-doc about high level functioning zombies in LA. Are they flesh eating crazies or just a new population to contend with? Silly fun.
Today I went to the Grindhouse 101 panel with Robert Rodriguez and Harry Knowles of AintItCoolNews.com. They started off by reminiscencing about their childhood movie expeirences - yeah yeah move along move along - and finally got to the good stuff - talking about where grindhouse movies came from - they showed some old trailers that were excellent and bizarre. Rodriguez talked about how they intentionally trashed out parts of the movie - intentional bad splice cuts to jump over parts of the movie they don't care about (like how everyone decides Loser is now Leader), or they'll splice cut around MPAA edits.
He talked about how the exploitation films had no quality acting or production value, so it was all built around the concept - which wasn't all that great to start with.
They showed three trailers from the online competition, and Hobo With a Shotgun won, deservedly so. Maiden of Death was pretty good, and I forget the title of the third but it was fun too.
Rodriguez showed a scene from his section of Grindhouse - a group of people in vehicles escaping zombies, shooting them, running over them with a giant truck, etc. Campy silly R rated fun. They've intentionally introduced some "errors" into the film for effect - a red wash that looks like a dye seepage or light leak during printing, dust/scratches/blemishes throughout, accidentally on purpose dropping out the audio, etc.
He also talked about the history of the movie - that he'd come up with the idea of Girl With Gun For Leg a long time ago.
The real gem was one of the fake trailers that will run between Quentin Tarantino's and Rodriguez's movies - Eli Roth did a trailer for an 80s slasher flick. Every major holiday has been done as a horror movie (maybe not Easter) - so he chose Thanksgiving. Deliciously silly and wonderfully violent. You have to have some sex & nudity in a grindhouse flick, so he has the couple having oral sex and the guy gets decapitated. Or the cheerleader stripping on the trampoline, and when she lands (naked) in a split, the killer has a knife stuck up through the trampoline...dead center - that got a huge "OHHHHH!" and full body shudder/grimace out of the entire audience. Then he closes with something classy - a dinner scene with a human body done up as the cooked turkey, and a turkey with a human head stuck in it. Then the killer has sex with the turkey/human head combo in front of the tied up family. Klassy.
But silly fun.
Afterwards, Rodriguez said he'd forgotten to ask if there were any children in the theater, and now he saw a few and was embarassed.....Spy Kids this ain't! And devil bless him because of it - this movie will be FUN.
Scott Kirsner was apparently there too, and he took better notes - CinemaTech: At SXSW: Robert Rodriguez, Harry Knowles, and 'Grindhouse 101'
OK, off for more stuff. It is a rainy afternoon, so I don't want to go stand in line outside.
-mike
Labels: Grindhouse, Rodriguez, SXSW
Comments:
I can't wait for Grindhouse. I'd had a similar idea for a movie but they beat me to it. No hard feelings though, it looks like it will be a great movie.
Mike, just got back from The Signal, and the first 1/3 of the movie was the best thing I've seen at SXSW so far. Shouldn't be missed. Someone in the Q&A confirmed that an XLH1 was used. I think that this movie makes an interesting contrast with He Was A Quiet Man which was also shot on HDV. While Quiet Man was sharper, probably due in part to the crazy film lenses that were used and bigger budget, the look for The Signal was MUCH better and WAY more creative. It was just a better film overall and made for a tiny fraction of what Quiet Man cost. I'm absolutely astounded at the quality of HDV on the big screen.
# posted by 
: Mon Mar 12, 03:40:00 AM CST
: Mon Mar 12, 03:40:00 AM CST
Brian,out of curiosity how much do you think "He Was a Quiet Man" was made for? I'm the Line Producer for the film and you'd be very surprised what we made it for. Especially after looking up the budget for the "The Signal" which is on IMDB pro as being $5.21M which is way more than our budget.
Yes, the line producer is right. We were way way under the Signal's budget. It's very strange how our film has been treated at this festival. No interviews of the director or producer or stars who were there. No reviews by any of the major reviewers. Is it because everyone 'assumes' this was some big budget film just because it had a few names? And thus should be treated as a corporate affair? This film was homegrown, made by a handful of people who knew what they were doing. To say the Signal was far more creative in its look is totally subjective. Every film's look is chosen for the story that is being told, not to be impressive on some DP's demo real. Believe me, Quiet Man's look was designed to look the way it looks - and it doesn't look like any other film at the festival. As it shouldn't. It is not a horror film or a thriller and isn't shot like one. It's why this art form is so exciting, because everyone has their own voice and festivals should embrace that voice, no matter what they percieve the budget to be. I would bet that Quiet Man was actually produced for 25% of the Signal's budget. Why no one at this festival found that worthy of any coverage is still beyond me.
# posted by : Sun Mar 18, 09:21:00 PM CST
: Sun Mar 18, 09:21:00 PM CST
Quiet Man looked entirely reasonable for a movie (production value was there, what I saw didn't look budget constrained), and I'd love to hear more about how it got put together.
Walking in late and watching the last part of the movie, I just wasn't into it as a movie.
-mike
Walking in late and watching the last part of the movie, I just wasn't into it as a movie.
-mike
Well Mike, to not see the setup and oinly comne in at the end is not giving this film its due justice. I can't tell you how many people claimed this was their fav of the festival, even over The Lookout and Rein on Me and the Signa. But lier Momento - how the the hell could anyone judge the film noit seeing it from the first frame?? We will have the last laugh. Foreign dist. want this to be a Cannes festival director's fortnight. We'll see...
# posted by : Mon Mar 19, 01:48:00 AM CST
: Mon Mar 19, 01:48:00 AM CST
Would you have been walking into Momento late or Usual Suspects? No.
# posted by : Mon Mar 19, 01:50:00 AM CST
: Mon Mar 19, 01:50:00 AM CST
no offense to the film, but I'm only giving an opinion based on what I saw. SHOULD a viewer walk in late to Usual Suspects or Memento? No. Did I walk in late on this one? Yes, and that's all there is to it. Due justice? Nope, it didn't get that.
No scheme, just that's how it worked out - it's a film festival, that's how it goes. It was pretty obvious what happened, and with all the reference and flashbacks I didn't feel like I'd missed anything critical...or that I couldn't guess from all the foreshadowing before the ending.
Anonymous posters - feel free to stick your name at the end of those or log in, helps with the credibility by the way. Not a dig, just a suggestion.
-mike
No scheme, just that's how it worked out - it's a film festival, that's how it goes. It was pretty obvious what happened, and with all the reference and flashbacks I didn't feel like I'd missed anything critical...or that I couldn't guess from all the foreshadowing before the ending.
Anonymous posters - feel free to stick your name at the end of those or log in, helps with the credibility by the way. Not a dig, just a suggestion.
-mike
Mike, you say walking in to the movie and seeing some flashbacks lets you believe you missed nothing. In this case you are very very wrong. The film is a five act structure and each piece is necessary to know what happened in the next. Go to IMDB.com and check out the reviews there of people that saw the entire movie. Or http://www.timeout.com/film/news/1773.html . Quiet Man was made by people all working for the same tiny salary. 130 fx shots were done by three people. It was a labor of love for all involved and it pains me to see it get jerked around. That's all.. Sorry for the rant.
# posted by : Mon Mar 19, 10:40:00 AM CST
: Mon Mar 19, 10:40:00 AM CST
Jim - no, I didn't mean to imply that. But I felt I knew enough, in conjunction with the ending I didn't like, that I didn't care to see the rest of the film.
No offense, but as a consumer of entertainment, I just wasn't that into it.
Every year, LOTS of films get made that people worked very hard on that just aren't all that entertaining. I'm sorry it works out that way. I've put lots of work into projects that didn't turn out well also - you can't control the whole thing.
Perhaps the whole thing could have left me with a different impression, but I didn't expect it to.
This is as much as I care to discuss the subject.
-mike
No offense, but as a consumer of entertainment, I just wasn't that into it.
Every year, LOTS of films get made that people worked very hard on that just aren't all that entertaining. I'm sorry it works out that way. I've put lots of work into projects that didn't turn out well also - you can't control the whole thing.
Perhaps the whole thing could have left me with a different impression, but I didn't expect it to.
This is as much as I care to discuss the subject.
-mike
Well that's just it, Mike - it DID turn out well. Extrememly well. It's now been invited to open the Gen Arts festival in New York in April. Maybe you can catch the whole thing there. :-)
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# posted by : Mon Mar 19, 02:40:00 PM CST
: Mon Mar 19, 02:40:00 PM CSTLinks to this post:
