This may be old news to some, but I’ve just discovered Apple’s wonderful Set to Screen series of podcasts. As part of their Education website, Apple has teamed up with director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet) to explore all aspects of creating a feature film.
The film in question is Luhrmann’s Australia, a period piece about an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) who inherits a ranch in rural Australia just before World War II. Hugh Jackman also stars. I’d actually heard little about the film as well (what sort of film blogger can I claim to be?), so it’s a good promotional move for Luhrmann to build interest in the film, which will not be released until November.
The educational aspect involves presenting a creative challenge at the end of each podcast, which students have to complete. Winners are chosen and prizes awarded.
I’ve yet to watch these, but am looking forward to checking them out in more detail.
Before (or instead) of publishing a list of films I want to see, I thought I’d take the brave step of posting a list of names of people I want to meet from the world of film blogging. Since I have press accreditation again, I was able to see the full list of accredited media, so I know the following people will be in Toronto. If you see your name, drop me an email or comment and let’s try to meet up. Your first Hot Docs drink is on me.
And here’s a separate list of Toronto-based bloggers and film industry folks (a few of whom I’ve met already) who I’d like to spend some time with:
If I’ve left you out, and you’re in town and want to meet up, let me know. This is partially a reaction to my utter failure to connect with anyone from the film community at this year’s SXSW. Here’s hoping I’m a little more socially adventurous on my home turf. Even if I do have that day job to wake up early for.
Some brilliant folks over at the National Film Board of Canada have come up with a unique and fun campaign for Oscar-nominated animated short Madame Tutli-Putli. Each visitor to the site can “unlock” a frame of the film each day. If all 23,287 frames are unlocked, then the entire film will be available for streaming on the site.
Not only is this a clever social media outreach, but it provides a way for people outside Canada to actually see the film, alleviating a common problem that many short films face. In my opinion, the film is a lock for the Oscar, and I’d heartily encourage you to participate in this innovative marketing campaign. They’re even giving away 200 copies of the DVD to random frame unlockers.
By the way, this is the NFB’s 70th Oscar nomination (they’ve won 12 times), and the fourth in the past four years.
Well-done, NFB!
My wife and I are heading to New York City in a few weeks to enjoy a weekend of ballet, sightseeing, food, and, I hope, cinema. I haven’t been to the city since I was a small child and so I’ve been doing some online research to find out interesting places for a cinephile to go. While browsing the site of the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, I found the Pinewood Dialogues, an archive of podcasts featuring interviews with actors and directors that stretches all the way back to 1989.
Even if we don’t hike it out to Queens, this online treasure trove makes the online research worthwhile.
By the way, apart from Film Forum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where else should I consider spending some time on our all-too-brief weekend in the city?
New York Times technology columnist David Pogue writes about the frustrating experience of seeing a movie that seems completely different from the trailer that made you want to see it in the first place.
This is becoming more and more common as films are edited right up to the date of release, while marketing plans (including the trailer) must be prepared months in advance. I experienced this “trailer tease” most memorably with the Will Ferrell comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Almost nothing we laughed at in the trailer was in the finished film. According to the IMDB site, there were so many discarded subplots and unused scenes that the filmmakers made an entire second film, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie and included it on the second disc of Anchorman’s DVD release.
Can you think of any other examples of trailer teases that failed to deliver?
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