Archives For independent

What will become of America in five, 25, or even 50 years from today? FUTURESTATES is a series of 11 fictional mini-features exploring possible future scenarios through the lens of today’s global realities. Immerse yourself in the visions of these independent prognosticators as they project a future of their own imagining.

That sounded like a pretty cool idea, so I’m currently on episode 2, though I couldn’t really made myself watch all of episode 1. Episode 2 titled Mister Green is pretty good though.

And it looks oh so pretty.

In the disturbingly near future, Venice is submerged, Canal Street in New York City has become a real canal again, and it’s 87 degrees in December in Boston. Catastrophic global warming has moved from theory to fact. At the Biosphere Climate Change Expo, undersecretary for the Department of Global Warming Mason Park (Tim Kang) informs the crowd of scientists and activists that the tipping point has passed, and that they are all at fault.

You can watch it for free over at the Mister Green Futurestates website.

Show is about to start, so I will be blogging as winners are announced.

Check back and refresh often~

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I’m not sure i-sat will be broadcasting the Indie Spirits Live this year, as the schedule says it will air at 11pm, so I literally have no idea. Actually, I think they might be live and they just begin really REALLY late as the email they just sent me says that:

8pm Pacific Time/ 11pm Eastern Time
Hosted by Eddie Izzard

So there you go…

Anyway, I dunno where you can watch the show, but you can check the Live Arrival over at the Spirit Awards Ustream TV Channel. You can even check out the music they will be using~

Here comes the predictions~

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Opens March 4th-7th

What is Disposable Film?

In recent years a new kind of film has emerged: The Disposable Film. It has been made possible by new media (webcams, point and shoot digital cameras, cell phones, screen capture software, and one time use digital video cameras) and the rise of online distribution (YouTube, Google, MySpace, etc.). These films are often made quickly, casually, and sometimes even unintentionally.

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Two days ago I received my last batch of Spirit Awards screeners… which I’m almost done watching because my internet connection has been failing, so I took that time to watch some of those films, and catch up on my reading~

Anyway, I’m used to receiving screeners on white paper disc cases. They’re economic, and just easier to get and use… they don’t take extra space, and they’re easy to mail.

Obviously, a big company like Lionsgate can take it to the next level, and send their own (simple, but kinda pretty) screener for Precious. It’s all white, with the company’s name, film’s name and a “Consider This” title glossy embossed finish. Plus, they list all the categories they would like to be considered for.

The only problem I found with the Precious screener is that it doesn’t play on my bedroom’s DVD player. It does play in my computer, and in my older DVD player. I have no idea why. Over the nearly 300 DVDs I own, only 4 or 5 don’t play on my player.

The other 5 DVD screeners are for Amreeka, Anvil: The Story of Anvil, The Messenger, The Vicious Kind, and Easier with Practice — all which came on paper cases. The latter two are the only ones that list their Spirit Awards nominations, so we can actually keep an eye for them when we watch them.

In the end, how important are screeners packaging for a film? After all, isn’t it supposed to be all about the film? Yes, it should be about the film, its characters, and its story. However, it would be nice to know what we should be looking out for… be it with some small text on the DVD, or an extra paper insert, or an extra DVD screen menu with the info. It doesn’t have to be as fancy as the Lionsgate.

Indie Spirit Screeners Short Takes

10 J-Films Writing a Decade

January 18, 2010 — 2 Comments

TheAuteurs has a nice post talking about some films that changed films in Japan in some way or the other…

Two major consequences of this have been: the diminishing status of the director in the creative process, who comes in as a hired gun, and: the banality and triteness of encountering performers on a daily basis, from movie to TV drama to variety show to advertising. The last decade launched the careers of countless “talentos”, young and cute boy-girl products, yet revealed but a handful of actors & actresses one might be eager to follow over the next ten years.

Wow, that statement sounds pretty negative xD almost making “auteur” films non-existent in Japan, and focusing on idol-pushing films that are more commercial than anything.

Like Acerk pointed out, a shout out to Shunji Iwai’s Lily Chou Chou film;

The film featured two outstanding young actresses, Ayumi Ito, discovered by Iwai for his 1996 Swallowtail Butterfly, and another Iwai revelation, Yu Aoi, who has since become one of Japan’s more original and refreshing performers. It should be noted that Iwai was among the first directors to hire TV drama stars as main actors in his films, to secure additional financing; he proved that when a director worked hard enough, he could get inspired work from talentos. This method has since been used by virtually every auteur in Japan.

Hello, and thank-you.

And more shout outs to Memories of Matsuko, and Tekkonkinkreet.

Independent Film has a new post by Heidi Van Lier talking about her hopes for Indies this year, which I found interesting… considering last night’s People’s Choice gave Favorite Indie Film to Inglourious Basterds. If you do a quick google, it turns out that Inglourious Basterds cost about $70M USD to make. That’s indie in America for you.

Small studios to actually give out, en masse, small amounts of funding to indie filmmakers to make films under $500,000, and not just talk about doing it. Hell, even $250,000. (Do you know the fab film I could make with $250,000?)

I’m all for more distribution of indie films and foreign.

I’m still trying to find someone to pick up my idea.

Best Albums of 2000-2009

December 23, 2009 — 7 Comments

Well, I’ve found it easier to narrow down the number of albums for this Top100 Albums of the Decade, than to narrow my list of songs to 100. LOL I have around 350 songs at the moment. This is gonna be difficult… and also in every possible language xD

Anyway, I’m sure that I had to take out some albums to include other albums. It was all a very difficult process to figure out what to include… going from “do I really have to take this song out?” to “OMG, I really love all these songs from this artist!!! Which one should I choose!- So please, bear with me, and comment what to add.

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I noticed some of my music/imeem posts had gone orange on me, and *le gasp* IMEEM is gone?

Apparently, IMEEM had some debts, and MySpace just bought it for only $1M. The transaction has been so quick, that imeem accounts haven’t been moved, and indie artists were left floating… and might not get paid at all.

This is what MySpace said:

We did not acquire imeem’s contracts or relationships as we have our own in place. MySpace Music has its own distribution platform, which includes relationships with prominent aggregators and indie labels, that provides indie artists ways to monetize their music on our site.

Sucks for indie music.

I wonder if I will get back those playlists though. I’m sure MySpace is planning to let people embed stuff, otherwise why “buy technology” from imeem, right? Those orange boxes suck.

via Wired.com

Indie artists, use CDBaby. Besides letting you sell the albums you want, they will digitize it and will sell it and distribute on mp3 form. Or if you really trust your fans, just self-host your album and use paypal. That way is easier to count hits on your own files.

I think Julz is going to be VERY happy.

The National Board of Review named Up in the Air as the best film of the year. And like the Examiner mentions on its article… is this backlash against Mo’Nique’s refusal to promote the film and piss on her Oscar chances? Woah, that’s like a mafia. LOL

Clint Eastwood was named Best Director for Invictus, but like The Envelope says… Eastwood is a NBR fave. It really IS like a mafia~~~

Top10 Films of 2009
– An Education
– (500) Days of Summer
– The Hurt Locker
– Inglourious Basterds
– Invictus
– The Messenger
– A Serious Man
– Star Trek
– Up
– Where the Wild Things Are

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