Recommended reading #3

Ever wanted to know what pro filmmakers watch? Here’s Steven Soderbergh’s haveseen/haveread list (PDF).

A new entertaining Norwegian film is Troll Hunter. CG Society has an overview and breakdown of the Visual Effects.
Also on this website: a breakdown of the VFX for Captain America, most of which are done by Double Negative.

Now that shooting films digitally is pretty common, one of the next “battles” will be about frame rates. Peter Jackson is one of the first who is making the jump to 48 fps. Background info on what this means and why this is relevant over at NoFilmSchool.

Screengrabs of the final frames of films. Spoilers ahoy.

Screenwriter John August on the “genius fallacy“.

The L.A. Times reports on US and China co-productions and releases – Reel China: U.S. film producers are engaging the Chinese

The Great Camera Shootout 2011:

Dneg in action

So what is happening over at Dneg?

First some old news, there’s a detailed article in last year’s Computer Graphics World on the work Double Negative did for Inception. It gives a nice insight into how very little is left to chance, how everything is painstakingly tried and tested, and how all the tech really is there to support the story and the director’s vision.

Recently finished & delivered:

One of the big upcoming projects now in full swing is called John Carter of Mars. It’s a film based on a series of comic books from 1912. Pixar director Andrew Stanton talks extensively about developing and creating John Carter of Mars, and says some kind things about Double Negative too.

Somewhat related to that is this cool video of a day in the life of Pixar/Disney’s John Lasseter. It gives a nice idea of the types of things a director on a computer animated production has to deal with on a day to day basis.

Finally there’s two big films that have recently started principal photography, with dneg responsible for the VFX: the remake of Total Recall, and the third Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. Hot stuff :-)

Recommended reading #2

Here’s a handful of film related articles that I’ve read recently and are worth checking out:

Guillermo Del Toro has los his second dream project. After two years of development he backed out on the troubled The Hobbit production, and now his adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness is dead in the water. Hitfix does a good write-up on the state of Hollywood and how studios choose to either back or pull out on a project.

Another example of how much the industry relies on facts, figures, test audiences, marketing, success rates and… brain analysis? Enter Neurocinematics.

In-depth interview from 2008 with Stephen Susco, a screenwriter who is also a producer, known for productions like The Grudge. The article clearly shows what a juggling act it is to try and get films off the ground and made. 99% transpiration, 1% inspiration – check.

Even if films do get made, people always seem to find reasons to sue each during the process or afterwards. Take for example Rainmaker Entertainment and The Weinstein Company, the latter being sued for $50+ million for “ruining the (not yet released) film Hoodwinked”. Read the overview at Cartoon Brew, and then sift through the 60 page PDF of the indictment that gives a unique insight into Hollywood contracts, credits and internal arguments and fights. The amount of crazy anecdotes about people allegedly having no clue is incredible!

There’s hope though. Yet another attempt on bringing (indie) films and the internet together, in the form of Fandor. Ars Technica does a good write-up.

new job

Somewhere in 2010 I started to actively pursue jobs in the post-production and visual effects branch of the film industry. Rationale behind this was that I thought I would be able to put my past skills in business and IT to good use, that I would be able to skip some of the dull entry level positions, and that it would be interesting to find that overlap between the techie and creative side of film making. Easier said than done, because apart from my job applications being plainly ignored, the feedback in general was either “you don’t have enough VFX background” or “you’re too experienced for this type of role”. Fab.

This exploration of post and vfx stuff also had to do with the fact that I was not very happy with my progression in other fields (be it monetary or in scope and ambition), which lead me to question a lot of core ideas behind my switch to film making. Not a fun place to be in.

Suddenly, late January, I got approached for a position at Double Negative, one of the big visual effects companies in the world who are based the heart of London. They were looking for someone who could help them maintain and develop tools and reports that are in use to support their daily operation, specifically focussed on project and resource planning. Quite a hands-on techie role that has to do with Microsoft Project, FileMaker, databases, Visual Basic and other kinds of duct tape. After my initial skepsis I got intrigued, excited, and before I knew it I landed the job!

So now I find myself in a steady job again, five days a week at a desk in soho, working for a company that has a very cool atmosphere which consists of a good mix of the hacker spirit and creative film ethos. The scale of the films that Double Negative (or as the insiders say: “dneg”) works on is HUGE, and given the position I am in it will enable me to learn a lot about how post-production processes on this level take place.

I can’t help but smirk every now and then. On the one hand I am going back to my roots, and on the other hand I am making a massive step forwards into developing myself as a film professional.

A lot of the dneg projects are kept under tight wraps and even leaking a photograph or something similar will be the death of you. This means I will probably not post a lot about the specifics of projects that I am working on. I do hope to be able to give some insight into the world of visual effects and the production side of that, how things are organised and what it takes to deliver a film that has a strong visual effects component.

Haveseenlist 2011

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 2011 for a summary.

Last updated: 8 Jan 2012

Best films 2010

In 2010 I have seen 167 feature length presentations (mainly feature films, some documentaries), and 43 short films. Roughly the same amount of features as in 2009, but less than half the amount of shorts. It could be that my interest is slowly shifting from shorts to features, or that I just did not put enough effort into seeing shorts.

2010 was an “okay” year when it comes to the films that I have seen. Here is what stands out in the crowd for me. This list is based on the films that have been released in the UK in the year 2010, plus films that I have seen for the first time this year.

1. Un Prophète (2009)
A gritty coming of age film about a young man who is sent to prison and needs to finds his place inside (and outside) that world. Instead of just a crime drama, this film shows bigger ambitions as surreal elements gradually come into play. Great couleur locale, superb acting, captivating til the end.

2. Enter The Void (2009)
Most people will never come closer to a trippy out-of-body experience than undergoing this “film”. More accurately what is portrayed is a meditation on life, death, birth, sex, violence and family. A meditation that every now and then kicks into overdrive and overloads your senses. Gaspar Noe does not shy away and the same applies to the camera, the film has been rated 18 in the UK for a reason.
Even though the film feels half an hour too long and is by no means a masterpiece, it is the most original piece of film making that I have experienced in 2010 and well worth exploring.

3. Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010)
Is it a doc? Is it a prank? Does it mock? Is it a film? Who’s to blame? Banksy, for sure! This multi-layered documentary shows the history of street art and key proponents of this movement. It also shows their ambivalent attitude towards the (art) world at large, which celebrates and embraces Banksy as its superstar. Banksy himself creates his own Frankenstein in the form of wanna-be artist Mr. Brainwash. This act (and its consequences) becomes performance art in itself and along the way raises this whole documentary to unexpected meta levels.

4. Toy Story 3 (2010)
Not a huge fan of parts 1 and 2, I went in not expecting a lot, and instead got pleasantly surprised by a very funny and action packed film that has a massive heart. A testament to proper story telling and character building if you find yourself rooting for toy characters halfway through the film, and then even watch in horror near the end when everything seems to come to a horrible film – completely forgetting that you are in fact watching an animated “children’s” film.

5. Shutter Island (2010)
Atmospheric film making at the highest level. Perhaps not completely surprising how the story unfolds and what course the film takes, but what a magnificent exposé. Scorcese pulls out all the stops and unfolds the visual splendour that so perfectly fits a subjective narrator with a flawed memory and perception.

6. Nine (2009)
Tipped to be a shoe-in at the 2010 Oscars, the film tanked critically and at the box office. I was in the lucky circumstance to work as a runner on this shoot, giving me an inside look into the making of this film. This experience obviously heavily influenced how I watched the film at the start of the year. Furthermore for me it is quite clear that rather than “just a musical” this is actually a film makers film; it gives a very good impression of what it is like to make a film and to go through a creative cycle. In that sense it pays true homage to the film that formed the basis for the musical – Fellini’s 8 ½. Superb cinematography, decent performances, cool production design, and a fractured narrative  – it’s all there.

7. Angels in America (mini-series, 2003)
A little bit embarrassing to admit but in the past seven years I occasionally bumped into this mini-series, and somehow never got round to sitting down and watching it. I curse myself now because of the sheer brilliance of this six hour screen adaptation of the play about the HIV epidemic in New York in the 80s. Difficult and touching subject matter that is carefully directed by Mike Nichols, ranging from nuanced to joyfully over-theatrical, with a stunning cast of whom some could built upon roles they performed previously in the theatre.

8. 35 Shots of Rum (2008)
Every year I bump into gems, which I call “big little films”. 35 rhums is one of them. We see a handful of ordinary people live their lives, interact, struggle and hopefully by the end they have a new-found insight or belief into themselves and the world they inhabit. Watch this film, allow yourself to get into the slow but steady pace, and experience how you start to care for the father, daughter and a small number of others. By the time they get to the café you will realise it was well worth your patience.

9. Cell 211 (2009)
This Spanish film makes a nice double bill with Un prophète. In setup and theme similar, but lacking the sheer brilliance of the latter. Nonetheless a very well executed crime thriller that blurs the boundaries between good and bad, with a distinct Spanish feel to it.

10. TRON: Legacy (2010)
High on my toseelist for months, mainly based on the infamous Comi Con teaser from 2009.
The original might have a cult following, but objectively speaking the story is quite weak and the film revolves more around the computer world than the characters in it. The same applies to this sequel, which is even worse because of all the expositional “dialogue” explaining how everything has come to be. Someone probably mislabelled pages  “backstory” and incorporated them into the main screenplay…
On the plus side, this is a prime example where the marketing slogan “welcome to the IMAX 3D experience” really delivers – what a ride! A smashing visual spectacle with possibly the best score of the year by Daft Punk, littered with exhilarating action sequences.

“Notable omissions”

# The Social Network
Universally embraced, but to me a film that was not extraordinary at all. Fincher’s rapid cutting in the opening scene for instance felt completely unnecessary, as was the music video with the uber-trendy tilt shift during the English boat race. Bah! An insult as well that the writer Aaron Sorkin did not even look at facebook, and instead just chose to do what he is good at – writing about legal proceedings. Skillfully done, but I don’t feel that this film captures a generation or a zeitgeist.

# Inception
Perhaps my expectations were too high after seeing the trailer and reading the cryptic logline “a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind“. I enjoyed watching the film, and I enjoyed talking about what it all meant, but my biggest problems with the film are the weak character motivations (I had trouble empathising), side-stepping some crucial premises (what about the morality of committing an inception? Why of all people does Cobb participate, knowing that it cost him his wife? etc), and the observation that every action piece just drives the plot forward but not the characters and their journey. Compare this to the first Matrix, where Neo learns something new about himself, the others or the nature of the world and the matrix throughout every single action sequence.

# Carlos
I did not manage to see this mega-film/mini-series (5.5 hours in total) in 2010, but did see it early 2011, and it currently ranks high on my best of the year list!

So now then

Over the course of the summer this blog has been on hiatus. Partly a conscious choice and partly because I was in the process of gathering my thoughts and adjusting my game plan. I tend to internalize this kind of process and then “present” the results. But what if one has no findings to show…?

I should get one of those signs that says “One of these days I’m gonna get organezized”

My thinking was: I still can’t live off freelancing so I need to create a more stable financial foundation. More-over I find myself working on one production and then another, week after week, month after month, without any particular progression. Yes, I gain more experience with every job, but ideally every following production should be bigger in scope, more ambitious, with a more talented and experienced cast and crew involved. This won’t happen overnight but over the course of two years I would expect to see a steady improvement – what I saw was marginal at best. It did not help that in the run-up to the summer I found myself on a couple of awful productions that lacked proper preparation and had inexperienced directors.

All major theme parks have had delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked!
- But, John. If the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.

This triggered looking for work in a different direction. For the first time I conscientiously tried to find jobs that would make good use of my software design and project management experience, but that would still take place within the film industry.
The Foundry
is a company that fits that profile perfectly, they make software that is being used by all the major Visual Effects companies here in London and the rest of the world. Good job interview, cool building in soho, great people, but no luck there.

This process repeated itself numerous times at all the big and medium sized VFX companies, each time applying for positions in the sweet spot such as production coordinator or line producer. I also applied for more techie jobs such as data wrangler and the likes, but ironically for those jobs I was labelled “overqualified”, whereas for the coordinator-type roles I lacked the hands-on VFX experience…

1st Interviewer: Mr. Murphy, do you mean that you lied on your application?
Spud
: No! Uh. Yes. Only to get my foot in the door. Showing initiative and that like.
1st Interviewer
: But you were referred here by the department of employment, there was no need for you to get your “foot in the door,” as you put it.
Spud
: Ehhh… cool. Whatever you say, I’m sorry. You’re the man. The dude in the chair.

August. One of those months of which I am sure I was awake. I had done things, I just… can’t recall. A blur of trying to find work, trying to write, trying to enjoy the summer, trying… Until everything stopped making sense. World, meet my two middle fingers. Middle fingers, I’d like to show you the world. We agreed it would be better to start seeing other people. Literally.

So I left London for Dublin, bought a throwaway tent, and joined my mates at Electric Picnic. Escapism in its truest form, and boy, did I need it and enjoy it! To this day even just describing Massive Attack performing “Angel” in the torrential rain gives me goosebumps :-)

It gets even better because after a quick and flu-infested stopover in London we hopped on a plane to Genoa, nearly crashed, travelled on to Bari to celebrate Claudio‘s 30th birthday in style, with Rome as our final stop. This basically was my first proper holiday in four years, since I usually just go back home and chill out.

For every shadow, no matter how deep is threatened by morning light.

Nothing better for a film maker than to walk around in an ancient city, 31 degrees sunshine, with a super8 camera! Thanks to my dad, who after 20+ years upgraded to an HD video camera, I am now the proud owner of my very own super8 camera! It has all the pluses of shooting on film: the look & feel, the magic sound that makes the camera operator very aware that he is filming, the fact that it is a lightweight and compact camera that almost forces one to be flexible and to come up with exciting ways of filming – super8 has it all! I shot some test footage on Tri-X black & white film in the summer, and went for the Ektachrome colour film in Rome.

Love, death, travel, revolt, chaos.

The first two weeks after coming back I experienced a natural high and being on the manic side of life. An incredible buzz of feeling alive, energetic, inspired. The way I perceived the world was literally different from the period before. This lead to all kinds of experiments, ranging from fueled debates with random strangers to taking random photographs, cutting up DVD’s as cover letters 2.0, haircuts… the works.

I guess that’s the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuatin’ itself.

Two weeks after that I am back at square one. Inevitable, but somewhat sad nonetheless. I embraced going away and the following high for what it was, but somehow I was not able to convert that energy and conviction into something longer lasting. Sure, I do the occasional corporate video, we submit funding proposals because it feels like this finally will be our turn, we come up with plans for new films, so in terms of how I deal with the world: there will always be more post-its. But perhaps post-its are not the way forward.

There are stories of coincidence and chance, of intersections and strange things told, and which is which and who only knows? And we generally say, “Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn’t believe it.”

So the big questions remain. And I look at the skies and wait for a sign, wait for the frogs to rain down and give me direction.

How to make the jump from shorts to features? What role do I want to fulfil in the long-term?

Producing? I know it suits me given my structured way of working and organisational skills, but I find it not that creative and it gives me headaches.

1st AD-ing? One of the roles on set that I enjoy the most, although obviously I still have much to learn. It is a tough and challenging job since you have to keep pushing people to hurry or simplify their work. And when things go wrong, when you’re behind schedule, when everything falls apart, you want nothing more than to curl up and die in a corner – but instead you have to sit out the torturous hours that are to follow, making feeble attempts to “reorganezize”.

Writing? I write on the side. It is something you need to do every single day, and I do not. I scribble notes, I collect news article clippings for inspiration, I write outlines, but frankly I am underwhelmed by my productivity. A relevant benchmark for instance is that I still have not written a feature length screenplay. It is also tricky to “Keep It Simple, Stupid”.

Directing? I shoot stuff, but I do not direct on a regular basis, and I see people around me making bigger steps than I do. Plus there is no escaping the chicken and the egg conundrum; in order to direct (more) you need to direct (more), which is difficult if you do not have the means to fully focus on directing.

Apart from all that I seem to be proficient when it comes to cameras and all the techie stuff involved in the digital realm, opening yet another potential avenue to pursue.

So there we are. Jack of all trades, master of none.

Naji al Ali doc premiere on Al Jazeera

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 12345

The second episode focuses on the assassination, the 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). Check out this episode on Youtube:
parts 12345

3d follow-up post

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

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: