Insight: What's Wrong With the VFX Industry?
Over the past few months it’s been hard to miss the green icons showing up on Twitter and other social media in support of the FX Protest, an event that happened at this year’s Oscar ceremony to protest ongoing problems in the VFX industry. While movies continue to make great use of visual effects, the companies that create these effects are being financially stressed and are going out of business. Filmmaker looks into the issue with Michael Scott, a veteran VFX compositor. “Studios,” he says, “are demanding more and more and more, but giving less and less and less in terms of time and money.” As we noted earlier this week, the VFX crisis will also be discussed at NYC’s Collider Conference in June. Read the full Story >>
In Memoriam: William Miles, Maker of Films About Black History
William Miles, a self-taught filmmaker whose documentaries revealed untold stories of black America, died on May 12 in Queens, New York, reports the New York Times. He was 82. His breakthrough film, Men of Bronze (1977), was about the 369th Infantry Regiment, an all-black combat unit that the Army shipped overseas during World War I. Because of segregationist U.S. policies, the unit fought under the flag of France. His best-known film was I Remember Harlem (1981), a four-hour historical portrait of the neighborhood that he grew up in. Read the full Story >>
How-To: Create "Bullet Time" With 625 Pinhole Cameras
DIY Photography recently explained how one clever filmmaker created a “bullet-time” effect by mounting a GoPro cam to a ceiling fan. Now it’s back with a report on how the effect—made famous in The Matrix—was created for a new music video … with 625 pinhole cameras. The video, for the London Grammar song “Wasting My Young Years,” features several bullet-time sequences that were shot the pinhole way … and on film. A behind-the-scenes video explains the secrets to getting 625 pinhole cams to fire simultaneously. Read the full Story >>
Annals of Advertising: Underwater "Bullet Time"
Seriously, it seems to be bullet time all the time these days: PetaPixel reports that Portugal’s Krypton Films, in collaboration with production company Moonlighting and marine support company Frog Squad, recently succeeded in filming what they claim is “South Africa’s first-ever underwater time slice” for an Aqua Das Pedras mineral water commercial. It was done with an underwater bullet-time rig that consisted of 28 Canon T3i’s and a Phantom Flex cam for slow motion video footage. The elaborate effort went swimmingly. Read the full Story >>
Film History: Hal Hartley On His Re-Released Indie Oeuvre
Director Hal Hartley is one of the true originals of modern cinema—a consummate stylist whose work changed the face of independent American cinema with deadpan dialogue and arch philosophical insights on relationships. Over the next few months, Artificial Eye will release his first film The Unbelievable Truth (1989), along with follow-ups Simple Men (1992) and Amateur (1994) for the first time on Blu-ray. Cine-Vue has an interesting Q & A with Hartley, who notes that when he sees his work now, he recognizes it “as belonging to another era.” Read the full Story >>
Tech News: iStopMotion Update Enables Screen Capture
Boinx Software recently released an upgraded version of its iStopMotion stop-motion animation software, delighting users by including a feature that many have been clamoring for: screen capture. iStopMotion 3.1, notes NoFilmSchool, allows users to create stop-motion and time-lapse videos by capturing frames directly from their computer screens. How’s that for convenience? Early test results indicate the software is “exceptional.” Read the full Story >>
Tell Us About Your Film Projects ...
We’re eager to learn about your film projects—from motion graphics and animation to sci-fi shorts and documentaries—and to feature them hear at Motion Arts Pro. Looking for feedback on a work in progress? Do you have a finished piece you’d like the world to know about, or a Kickstarter project? Please contact me (button at top) to get in touch. Be sure to check out the Motion Arts Pro Facebook page, too. If you “Like” it you’ll be able to share stories and projects with others and get updates on stories that don’t make the daily. Follow me on Twitter @davidschonauer. Read the full Story >>
Trending: Who Is The Filmmaker Behind the Viral Video on Inequality?
The filmmaker known as “Politzane” scored a hit this spring with a YouTube short about a subject that doesn’t really shout “viral video”: Inequality in America uses simple digital graphics, coupled with facts about wealth distribution, to tell its story. And people are watching—the video, notes Anthony Kaufman at Indiewire’s Reel Politik blog, has had more than six million hits so far. According to Mother Jones, "Politizane," or "Z," as he signs his messages, is a freelance filmmaker "living and working in a red state (Texas).” He says he is keeping his identity anonymous in order avoid losing work due to "a vague political affiliation." Read the full Story >>
Agenda: More On the Collider Conference in NYC
We have mentioned the upcoming Collider Conference on digital production previously—here is an update: The conference (June 9 to 11), which will feature panels and master classes on animation, VFX, and motion design, will also be hosting a VFX Town Hall meeting (6:00 pm, Monday, June 10) where industry insiders and attendees will be discussing the current state of the troubled VFX business. The meeting will also be live-streamed. Go here for more info. Read the full Story >>
Animation Spotlight: Two Different Twists on Oreos
Speaking of animation: Two new animated ad spots for Oreo cookies have been burning up the Interweb, notes Motionographer, which praises the work as nothing less than a “tour de force.” The 90-second “Oreo Wonderfilled Anthem,” directed by Martin Allais with animation by his own animation shop, Studio Animal, features 2D character work. The other spot—a 30-second version of the “Wonderfilled” theme from the design studio Royale—uses a 3D/2D technique. Both are double-stuffed with color and charm. Read the full Story >>
In Focus: BTS at the World's Most Advanced High-Speed Studio
Even if you've never heard of The Marmalade studio in Hamburg, Germany, there is a good chance you’re familiar with its work, notes DIY Photography. The studio is responsible for much of the high-speed/slow-mo footage in commercials, including spots for Lipton Ice tea, Pepsi, Daimler, and Dove. The secret of Marmalade’s success is its use of a robot called Spike to control the motion and focus of any standard camera. That enables the Marmalade team to precisely repeat moves that would not otherwise be possible. Read the full Story >>
Tech News: "Relentless" Is Another New Stabilizer for the Masses
For filmmakers, this seems to be the year of stabilization: The big news at the NAB show was Freefly’s MoVi, a gimbal-stabilized handheld camera rig. Cinema 5D has already noted, however, that the MoVi, priced at $15K, may not fit in every budget. You could opt for this less expensive, mechanically-stabilized rig, but perhaps a better alternative, says C5D, is the new $1,800 Relentless rig. It works like the MoVi … but is made only for very small cameras like the $995 Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. Read the full Story >>
Breakthroughs: Making the First Film Shot Entirely in Saudi Arabia
The film Wadjda is not only the first movie shot entirely in Saudi Arabia. It’s also the first to be shot in that country by a woman. She is Haifaa al-Mansour, and, yes, Wadjda is her first feature. The film tells the story of a Saudi girl who decides to enter a Koran-memorization contest at her school, planning to use the prize money to buy herself a bicycle, though until very recently bicycling was banned to women in the desert kingdom. Time recently talked with al-Mansour, who tells of her five-year quest to make Wadjda. Read the full Story >>
Tell Us About Your Film Projects ...
We’re eager to learn about your film projects—from motion graphics and animation to sci-fi shorts and documentaries—and to feature them hear at Motion Arts Pro. Looking for feedback on a work in progress? Do you have a finished piece you’d like the world to know about, or a Kickstarter project? Please contact me (button at top) to get in touch. Be sure to check out the Motion Arts Pro Facebook page, too. If you “Like” it you’ll be able to share stories and projects with others and get updates on stories that don’t make the daily. Follow me on Twitter @davidschonauer. Read the full Story >>
Insight: 16 "Best Practices" to Find a Sustainable Success
The great challenge for filmmakers today is no longer how to get their films made or funded, but how to get people to watch them, writes blogger (and SF Film Society director) Ted Hope, who lists 16 “best practices” for filmmakers who want to achieve a sustainable creative life. “Don’t worry if it looks like there is more than you can currently achieve. It is a process and you are not alone,” he notes. Among his recommendations: Aggregate your audience—so build those email lists! (See also: “19 Things Regarding Our Current Culture That Should Completely Alter Your Creative & Entrepreneurial Practice.”) Read the full Story >>
Follow-Up: Magic Lantern RAW Video Workflow Tutorial
No doubt you’ve been reading about the Magic Lantern hack allowing the Canon 5D Mark III to capture full 1080p 14Bit Raw video. If you want to trick up your Mark III, you can learn how to do it with a new tutorial video released by Magic Lantern. BTW: Cinema 5D explains why the hack is pretty safe—it makes use of what’s in the camera already. Read the full Story >>
Annals of Advertising: A Love Story in 85 Seconds ... From Stock
The new ad for Getty Images from the AlmapBBDO agency may be made up entirely of content from the company’s video bank, but Business Insider calls the result “the most beautiful love story we’ve ever seen.” The 85-second video strings together the clips into a tender narrative that follows a couple from birth through childhood, college, and beyond. It’s a fairly brilliant way to show off stock footage. Creative Directors: André Kassu, Marcos Medeiros, Renato Simões, and Bruno Prosperi. Directors: João Simi and Marcos Kotlhar. Editors: Beto Araújo and Sacha Bastos. Read the full Story >>
Agenda: The reRun Secret Film Club, Through Thursday
Secret film screenings—you go, but you don’t know what you’ll be seeing—are getting to be popular on the festival circuit, notes Indiewire. IFP and Filmmaker magazine, who are now doing the programming for Brooklyn’s reRun Theater, are also getting in on the craze with what is being called the reRun Secret Film Club. The first week of the screening series runs through Thursday. Expect a mix of festival favorites, theatrical releases, and “underappreciated recent independent titles.” And it’s free. Read the full Story >>
MAP Spotlight: Teresa Flowers's "Echoes"
Salt Lake City-based artist (and MAP reader) Teresa Flowers is Kickstarting a project called “Echoes,” a three-dimensional installation that makes use of her photographs, drawings … and also her first stop-motion video, which you can see at YouTube. “‘Echoes’ explores the soul’s path through different dimensions of time,” notes Flowers. “I’m taking transparent color photographs and interweaving them with illustrative patterns to transmit a mystical illumination. It’s my desire to ignite and expand the viewers concept of our spiritual journey.” Read the full Story >>
Insight: The Secrets of Creative Success, From Mel Brooks
What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin’ on here? Mel Brooks, mad genius behind The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and other iconic films, will tell you tonight on Mel Brooks: Make a Noise, the latest from PBS's American Masters series (9:00 pm ET/PT.) Brooks, now an octogenarian, has advice on maintaining a long creative career—eating citrus, for instance. "It has a lot of fiber, and it knows what to do,” he says. USA Today has his other secrets, like not forgetting to explain things to your audience. Read the full Story >>