Ryan Hooks with a new website and reel
May 22nd, 2007The Joker Revealed!
May 22nd, 2007
After so many fake Joker images appearing online (who’s bothering to make those?), Heath Ledger’s look in The Dark Knight has finally been revealed. And it comes through a well thought-out marketing strategy.
Last week, a campaign poster for Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who later becomes villain Two-Face, was released on ibelieveinharveydent.com. Then a few days ago, a link was made to ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com, which revealed a vandalised image of the campaign poster, evidently made by the Joker. After inputting their e-mail address, users would then receive an e-mail linking them to another site, which would ask them to remove a pixel. After a sufficient amount of pixels were removed, the image on the left was revealed.
And it’s a pretty scary indication of the gritty Christopher Nolan treatment that the Joker has received. We can’t wait for this film. If it’s half as good as Batman Begins, then that means it’ll be twice as good as X-Men 3. And ten times as good as Superman 4. And twelve times better than Spiderman 3. And so on.
Click the image for a larger view.
Very cool and creepy video for The Horrors
May 22nd, 2007Calling on the hive mind
May 22nd, 2007
One advantage of having a brilliant and devoted readership like mine is that I can occasionally reverse the Q&A process and appeal for your insight. Here’s the situation…
At Sundance, I talked about my plan-slash-pipe-dream of releasing the underlying footage of The Nines simultaneously to its DVD release. Essentially, you could load it into your Avid or Final Cut system and it would show up neatly divided into bins. From there, you could cut your own version — or better yet, mash in other content to create something unique: The Nines vs. The Grifters, or Donnie Darknines: The Koalapocalypse.1
Yes, you could do some of this just by ripping the DVD, but having the original material allows for much more sophisticated re-cutting, just as the a cappella version of Jay-Z’s The Black Album enabled a thousand remixes and reinterpretations.
There are legal and political hurdles to be sure, but all of that’s months away.
Right now, we’re surprisingly close to having an official trailer.2 After seeing vastly different approaches–comedy to thriller to existential drama–it became clear that no matter what the tone, there are approximately 15-20 shots which were in nearly every version of the trailer. Which is a pretty small number. Which raises a natural question…
Why not let people cut their own trailer?
Surprisingly, everyone who could veto the idea hasn’t. So I think we’re going to do it. But that means there’s a lot to figure out, much of which falls well outside my area of expertise. I know this blog has a significant readership beyond aspiring screenwriters, so I’m hoping that editors, web-heads and other folks with useful insight will de-lurk and offer some of their genius.
Format
My hunch is that most of these trailers will end up on YouTube, where the ideal input format is MPEG-4, 320×240. It’s certainly compact. The trouble is, editing systems like Final Cut would rather ingest almost anything other than .mp4. Which leads to my first question:
1. What’s the best video format for sending out the trailer footage?
We’re trying to strike a balance between a few competing goals. First, it needs to look and sound pretty good, both as edited, and ultimately, as re-compressed by YouTube. Second, it needs to be fairly compact, so that it’s feasible download (or torrent) the footage.3 Third, it should be something fairly industry-standard. No doubt there is a clever proprietary format out there, but if it requires special plug-ins, people are much less likely to bother.
2. One clip, or many?
Would it be more efficient to offer one long clip (perhaps with chapter marks) or a folder of the individual clips? The latter seems more convenient — you could just drop it into your system as a bin. But does more clips mean more chances for things to go wrong?
Logistics
Beyond the video format, there are other questions about the smartest way to do this. Such as…
3. Should it be a competition?
I suspect many people would participate just because they thought it was interesting, but my experience with the Scene Challeges is that even a phantom prize gets a lot more people invested. Assuming the trailers end up on YouTube, would a standard tagging scheme be enough to help identify the contenders, or should there be a forum for people to list/hype their entries?
3A. If there’s a competition, how long of a deadline?
Assuming the footage came out on a Thursday, would the following Monday be enough time? I suspect there’s a sweet spot between enough time and too much time.
4. What’s the best way to get the footage out there? Torrent? Download?
I’ve barely torrented, and have never set up any seeding situations, so I’m almost fully ignorant on the best ways to make this sizable file available. (In coming up with solutions, you can safely assume we have almost no money to spend on this.)
No doubt there will be other smart questions asked amid the answers in the comments thread. If you’re addressing any of the technical issues, it would be helpful if you mentioned your experience, or provided links. Thanks in advance.
- Just typing that makes me eager to shoot new koala footage. ↩
- Once the official trailer comes, you’ll find a link here, and no doubt a lengthy talkback on a certain site. ↩
- I’m going to guess and say that we’re looking at about six minutes of raw footage, if that helps the back-of-the-envelope calculation. ↩
Screenwriting challenge
May 22nd, 2007A group called Script Frenzy is sponsoring what one of its founders told me was "a month-long screenwriting adventure," in which aspiring scribes would spend June "bashing out" a film script (or a stage play). It sounds like a fun, and, with enough participants, has the potential to produce at least one or two interesting piece of screenwriting. Good luck.
Simon Robson: “Taking Libertiesâ€
May 22nd, 2007This is what I’m talking about. Or rather, what I already talked about at Offf Barcelona. Simon Robson (Nexus Productions) has created four brilliant animated vignettes for the independent feature film “Taking Liberties,” scheduled to hit UK cinemas on June 8th. (More info on the film site.)
Watch The Reichstag Fire | Surveillance | The History of ID | Habeas Corpus
Even if you don’t agree with the arguments put forth in these animations (and the film), they are excellent examples of how the smart confluence of design, animation, sound design and writing—collectively known as motion graphics—can be leveraged to create compelling messages that are hard to ignore. I call these animated nuggets of information and persuasion “visual essays.” Unlike a simple PSA, visual essays intertwine educational messaging with argumentative thrusts. The result is a potent audio-visual cocktail that can, if brewed properly, alter viewers’ states of mind.
Simon has a proven track record of rocking visual essays. His “What Barry Says” still stands as a shining example of the form four years after it was created. (At least I think it was four years ago.) The new animations showcase some of the same clever juxtapositions of type and iconic imagery present in that seminal piece, but there’s a burgeoning level of sophistication and polish present in all of Simon’s work (both commercial and otherwise) that is inspiring to behold.
Simon graciously agreed to answer some questions for us:
How much input did you have on developing the visual ideas? Did Chris Atkins (the director) hand you thoroughly worked out boards or was it just you and the script?
I spent ages developing the boards from scratch. Chris totally trusted me on the back of “What Barry Says” and gave me an absolute carte blanche. It is this that inspired me to take on the project. We actually wrote the VO scripts together, too. Of course, Chris was the prime mover and Becca Elleson fact-checked all that we wrote. But I finally put my degree in politics to use and helped write the VOs for these vignettes!
The storyboard process was long and arduous. I give myself an incredibly hard time over the level of my ideas. They have to be an A++ or they don’t get in. This meant many weeks of head-scratrching and drinking coffee before the right ideas came out. I actually re-wrote some of the boards as the animation was happening. This didn’t make me any friends. But once I saw some ideas in production, they didn’t work and had to be re-written, kind of how they used to write ‘Friends’!!!
Did you have to split your time working on this project while simultaneously working on other (commercial) projects?
No, fortunately and un-fortunately I didn’t get any pitch wins during this period. This left me incredibly dedicated to this project. I got really too deep into it, in a way. And to kind of answer the next question, I gave my directors fee for this project to production to get more animators / illustrators on it. In short, I got paid nothing. I lived unpaid for 4 months. I still owe my girl £3000. Fortunately, I just got a paid gig here at Nexus, which was a huge relief. Now I can go out and by some trendy clothes and stop living on beans on toast!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I imagine you don’t get paid much for these kinds of projects. What drives you to create things like “What Barry Says” and these new animations?
What drives me? What do I want on my gravestone? “Directed some great ads that sold stuff to people”. Not really. Don’t get me wrong. I really want to do ads, because there is a creative process to be explored (sometimes) and they pay me. But essentially ads are selling things and we’re all a bit too obsessed with buying things, so I’d rather do stuff which I think is important for people to see and take in.
Obviously I’m a bit of a lefty and this comes across in the work I take on, but I’d like my kids (when I have them) to be proud of what I did. Besides, we all learn these crazy skills, don’t we? 3D, 2D, stop-motion, etc. And it would be one MASSIVE shame if we only used them to help sell something as opposed to saying something important. Actually, as a mograph community, with what we know, if we got together in some cohesive movement we could create some amazing marketing for our cause…just a thought.
NOTE: I’m working on getting a full credit list, but I wanted to hurry up and share this stuff with you all as soon as possible.
Tapas (2005)
May 22nd, 2007
Lolo’s Tapas restaurant stands in a suburb of Barcelona. In it and around it the lives of several local residents (of the human and animal variety) mix, mingle, converge and separate. With their debut film, directors José Corbacho and Juan Cruz won nine awards at several Spanish and international festivals. (more…)
- Technorati tags:
- chokingonpopcorn
- movie
- Reviews
- Tapas
Chia Mercury
May 22nd, 2007 
The Brothers Strause of Tight directed this very well thought out and executed spot for the Mercury Mariner Hybrid. The spot entitled Tree is heavy cg, but the choice to have the vines, the woman and the camera all jitter and jump as if it were stop motion keep it more interesting than just a glossy vfx spot. The sound design is also very effective in selling the spot.
Lindsay Lohan Talks About Bad Behavior on ‘Georgia Rule’
May 22nd, 2007Filed under: Drama, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy
Here we go again. In the never-ending ping-pong match of rumors between Lindsay Lohan and the media, the actress is opening up about her "bad behaviour" on the set of Georgia Rule. This all started back during production of the "chick-friendly" family drama starring Lohan, Jane Fonda, and Felicity Huffman. Talk of an uneasy set and public scolding of Lohan by producer James G. Robinson, who stated in a letter that Lohan had "acted like a spoiled child and in doing so have alienated many of your co-workers and endangered the quality" of "Georgia Rule.' Lohan recently spoke with Allure saying, "It upset me because I was a bit irresponsible. I didn't think about the consequences, but I was also going through something in my life." But at the time, like most of Lohan's unflattering PR, the actress kept relatively quiet about the whole thing and had returned to work quietly to finish the film. And the results? Reactions to the film weren't great, and while it was not a break-out success, I think everyone managed to walk away with their dignity intact. Lohan might have a chance of getting the gossip headlines out of her reviews, she seems to have redeemed herself with her upcoming thriller I Know Who Killed Me with Chris Sivertson . Already the director has been praising her work -- which was never really the problem, and more importantly her work ethic. So far, there has only been a few glimpses of a poster and some photos. Set for release in July, hopefully Lohan can keep herself out of the headlines until then.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Pierrepoint: the Last Hangman – Trailer
May 22nd, 2007 | Pierrepoint: the Last Hangman - Trailer Following in the footsteps of his father and uncle before him, Albert Pierrepoint joins the ‘family business’ in 1934. He rises through the ranks to become the most feared and respected executioner in the country, hanging over 450 people in his lifetime. Living a double life as a master hangman, and a grocery deliveryman and loyal husband,Pierrepoint’s obsession to become the ‘Number One’ executioner in the country results in his selection as executioner for some of Britain’s most infamous murderers and Nazi war criminals. But this brings notoriety, shattering Pierrepoint’s guarded anonymity and turning him into a minor celebrity. When public opinion turns against capital punishment, Pierrepoint becomes a scorned man and is ready to give it all up, but fate has other plans in store for him. A devastating, true-life story of Albert Pierrepoint, Britain’s most notorious hangman. Directed by: Adrian Shergold Starring: Bob Mills, Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson, Cavan Clerkin, Eddie Marsan |
