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Naji al Ali doc premiere on Al Jazeera July 28, 2010

Posted by joost in : producing, screening, work , add a comment

Exactly one year ago I line produced a documentary on the Palestinian cartoonist Naji al Ali (ناجي العلي). This week episodes 1 and 2 are premiering on Al Jazeera in the Middle East, on Friday evenings at prime time 8pm!
The title is “La likatem al sawt” or “No for the silencer”, which is a reference to the last cartoon Naji drew before he was shot.
It also marks a première for me since I had not seen any footage nor the finished version. But even if I had, it would have still been a challenge since the entire program is in Arabic :-)
Very excited and proud to see the doc out in the open! Now let’s hope and pray the ratings and reception will be good.

The first episode focuses on his youth, upbringing, the state of the (and his) world from the forties to the eighties and the run up to his death. This episode can be seen (at least at the moment) on youtube:
parts 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

The second episode focuses on the assassination, people and organisations who might have been involved, and attempts to uncover new evidence. Watch the live stream of Al Jazeera on Friday the 30th of July 20:00 UEA / 19:00 NL / 18:00 UK (Java required).

3d follow-up post July 21, 2010

Posted by joost in : film , 1 comment so far

Last year I wrote about the upcoming 3D-craze in Now in 3D! It’s been a while and with the landscape rapidly changing a follow-up post is definitely in order.

The industry is clearly still in a period of transition. Exhibitors are gradually upgrading and installing digital projectors (which are required for 3d screenings), while the major US studios have fully embraced 3d tent pole blockbuster films purely because of the extra revenue 3d generates, especially with the cash cow of DVD sales rapidly declining at the same time. Katzenberg talks in Variety about the biz being at 3D crossroads

“… the revenue (today) from a successful 3D release net to the studios is greater than the erosion in the DVD market over the last two years.”

This 3d gold rush leads to occasional clashes where there’s either too few 3d screens for major releases (Avatar could have easily launched on more 3d screens) or too many 3d films coming out in a short time span.

All of this has led to a new trend: “post-converting” films to 3d. This means a film is entirely conceived and shot the traditional 2d way, and then converted to 3d in the post production stages. This is far from trivial or cheap for that matter (up to $100.000 per converted minute of the film), but worth the extra potential box office revenue. Some of these 2d-to-3d conversions were rushed and under a lot of time pressure, leading to harsh criticism in the case of Clash of the Titans on the quality of the resulting “3d” film.

Obviously this process will continue to be used in the coming years by productions who do not have the means, knowledge or patience to create the film in 3d from conception to release – and by lazy cash-grabbing Hollywood studios of course…

Slate describes this process in an article called How do you convert a flat movie into 3-D? A more in-depth description can be found here: In-Three on the Workflow Behind 3D Conversions.

Not everyone is sold on 3d though. One of its biggest critics is “old man” Roger Ebert (who has been reviewing films for the past forty-odd years or so). He outlines his thoughts in a Newsweek article Why I hate 3-D (and you should too).

I would recommend that he’d watch Toy Story 3 in 3D. The film is a great example of the principle of “story telling first”, and of constrained use of 3D. The Guardian has a video online that shows how they determine the “3d-ness” within a scene. More word from Pixar’s stereographer on CNET.

Worth a separate post is the rest of the industry jumping on the 3d bandwagon. 3D TV’s were the hottest trend at this year’s CES, broadcasters are experimenting with 3d live events such as football and rugby here in the UK. The 2010 World Cup football in South Africa was shot and broadcast in 3d. Sky TV have announced a dedicated 3d channel, and interestingly, they have released the technical specifications for 3d content.

Haven’t had enough of 3d? Go over to 3dcinecast for in-depth articles and the latest news on 3D.

Nyarlahotep June 15, 2010

Posted by joost in : directing, film, music , add a comment

My housemate Annike has just finished her last year project for the London School of Fashion. She designed a costume inspired by the character Nyarlathotep (also known as the Crawling Chaos) by H.P. Lovecraft. Embedded in this costume is a glove with a series of sensors and electronics, enabling the performer (Tom Whiston / ascetic) to manipulate sound and music. Annike’s work will be exhibited at the Battersea Arts Centre later this month. As a companion piece to her work I shot a video depicting the costume and all-consuming entity that is Nyarlahotep:

BP Summer Big Screens 2010 entry Carmen June 4, 2010

Posted by joost in : commercial, directing, london , 4comments

Every year the Royal Opera House organizes several free open air broadcasts on big screens in London and other cities in the UK, sponsored by BP (…) in an attempt to make opera more accessible and popular. It’s basically a huge picnic while watching opera :-)

Part of all the festivities is a competition to create a really short film inspired by one of the operas. This year it is Bizet’s Carmen. The form can be really free, it’s really up to the maker to be creative, and that’s a brief which gave me the excuse to sink my teeth into something new; I decided to create an animated short that tries to convey the meaning of Carmen by using key text and graphics whizzing by. In order to realize this silly animated promo I taught myself the basics of After Effects, resulting in the following:


(click on the youtube logo to see the promo in glorious 1080p HD!)

The good news is that my short will be shown on the big screen at Trafalgar Square and other locations prior to the start of the opera!

Recommended reading #1 May 16, 2010

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It should be no surprise that I follow plenty of film (making) related news. It is my intention from now on to provide an overview of some of those noteworthy stories under the heading Recommended reading. The frequency of these posts will probably vary, when I’m busy I will read and post less, whereas downtime will presumably lead to more news reading and publishing.

B stands for Big Business
A company called The Asylum specializes in creating and selling B-movies. Forget about “art” or “originality”, their philosophy is follow the market: “The real definition of an Asylum movie is a movie that has already been sold before we ever make it“. Wired has more on them in an article called Now Playing: Cheap-and-Schlocky Blockbuster Ripoffs. Asylum’s latest success: scoring 2.2 million viewers for the premiere of Mega Piranha (trailer) on SyFy channel in the USA.

Doc distro
With the film making and distribution landscape changing rapidly, everyone is searching for answers and success stories. IndieWIRE writes about six case studies of distributing feature length documentaries.

Directing us
An older gem that I recently discovered is an essay by David Bordwell on staging in a long continuous shot. In Hands and faces across the table he says: “One task facing any director is to direct—not only actors but us. The filmmaker must direct our attention to what’s important for responding to the drama at any moment.” Bordwell notices a “lost art” of having the action develop in the scene and within the frame instead of the currently established film grammar of rapid cuts back and forth. Fortunately a film like P.T. Anderson‘s There will be blood shows fine examples of such continuous shots.

Impressions of my imagine: the 26th Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival April 28, 2010

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It’s April, which for me always means one thing: attending the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival! Yes, that festival of those creepy posters ™ on my wall. imagine: the 26th Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival (as it is officially called) took place from the 14th to the 24th of April. My home festival, which returned home quite literally this year by taking over the Kriterion cinema again – ten years after the last time. Two important things were different for me in the way I experienced the festival this year.

First of all I didn’t think I would be able to attend this year’s edition due to work commitments. Only a few days before the festival started I knew for sure that this suddenly would be possible after all. Before that moment I had deliberately chosen not to look at the films in detail – why rub salt in the wounds by exploring what films I would miss? So I found myself at the festival watching a bunch of films which all were kind of an unexpected treat to begin with. I hardly had any expectations because I read through their descriptions once or twice, ordered the tickets (thanks H.!), somehow managed to dodge the travel chaos due to the volcanic ashes and started watching the films.

Secondly I made a conscious choice not to try to watch every single film of the festival “just because I could”. After seeing a record 52 films at last year’s edition, I pondered whether my overall impression of the festival and the films would be better if I would try to identify and avoid the stinkers in advance. As often said before, one of the reasons why I am not a fan of monthly cinema passes (subscriptions) is that I think it leads one to see more mediocre films. Choosing to watch films more selectively hopefully leads to more awareness and attention and a more positive impression. This lead me to select about two thirds of this year’s festival slate, 33 films out of 50 or so.

The return to the Kriterion cinema turned out to be a successful one. Compared to the last edition one decade ago there were three screens now instead of the two, and the bar area has been enlarged considerably too. All the action (except the Night of Terror) took place in this one location that was all about the festival, with posters adorning all the walls, DVD’s and T-shirts on sale, and Mr. Horror spinning tunes in the evening. The crowds were sparse and low-key in the early afternoon hours, gearing up in the late afternoon, leading to a packed entrance, hallway and staircase in the evening, but never turning into revolting crowds and chaos. My compliments go out to the festival organisation and volunteers who were always on the ball, and who for instance swapped screening rooms and redirected the audience when there was a bigger demand than initially expected.

My favorite films of imagine: the 26th Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival

Which of the films stood out and which are the ones that I will remember and talk about long after the festival is over?

(more…)

What’s up, doc? April 9, 2010

Posted by joost in : producing, work , 1 comment so far

The downside of working on documentaries is that their timeline usually is not set in stone. The availability of guests can (and will) change, the scope of the project might be altered due to better insights or growing concerns, and last but not least the usual logistical variables such as visa applications, permits, you name it.

This spectrum of factors has led to postponing two of the projects that were supposed to kick off in March and April. Annoying because I was excited about the prospect of getting them up and running, and because it took a while before it became clear that the timelines would be significantly different than initially planned.

I’ve been trying to make good use of the time spent in limbo, by trying to revive and finish I/O recontextualized, by conceiving a new short sci-fi film and by some studying. But to be honest I would have preferred to be on the prowl instead of debating what season it is….

Busy february February 19, 2010

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February is turning out to be a productive month!

I’ve worked as a camera and sound assistant on a (non)corporate video for the NHS, shooting a series of testimonials and short videos based on actual case studies that have to do with the intersection of HIV/AIDS and high risk groups / ethnic minorities.
It is one of the best projects I’ve had the pleasure to work on in the last few months, because it deals with a topic that matters, working with two film mates that I trust and whose company I enjoy, with lovely and committed NHS staff to support us, and with fascinating lunch and dinner conversations to top it all off.

I also helped out on a short film by other LFA graduates. They were selected in the first round of a short film competition and received some money and a small amount of time to create a new short for the next round.

Next week I am working as 1st AD on another short film, about superheroes with useless superpowers :-) The director will pitch this idea as a tv series to the BBC, and the short film will be shown as an example of the characters and their universe. Everyone involved of course hopes that both the film and the pitch will turn out well and will lead to new opportunities. That aside, it is a well-oiled production, making me look forward to what will hopefully be a smooth shoot.

At the same time I am about to produce a handful of tv documentary episodes to be shot in the second half of March. This mainly involves organizing and accompanying the shoot so that the (foreign) tv anchor and director can fly into London and do several interviews with “famous guests”. Target audience are viewers in the Middle East.

As if that is not enough, I am exploring the offer to produce another documentary, about a recent controversial topic (can’t be more specific for the moment) targeted towards the English and American market. It looks like a big chunk of potential work for me. In the coming days we will have to figure out what the production aspects will entail, and if that promises to be something that I believe I can and want to do.

Oh and then there is still this other documentary that I hope to be involved in on a creative level… Exciting times!

Focus, plans, ambitions for 2010 January 13, 2010

Posted by joost in : directing, festivals, film, london, producing, reflection, screenwriting, work , add a comment

The start of a new year is always a good moment to write down plans and ideas. My ambition is to…

Specific goals and focus for the start of this year:

Haveseenlist 2010 January 1, 2010

Posted by joost in : film , add a comment

This post will be updated throughout the year with all the films that I have seen (hence the name). This is the unabridged version. See the tab Best films 2010 for a summary.

Last updated: Thu July 29th, 2010