Thanks to technology, the screenwriter no longer has to worry about writing scenes that would be prohibitively expensive to film. Well, they do still have to worry about the cost, but locations themselves can be created out of thin air thanks to amazing advances in computer composite-imaging technology. Here is an example of such scenes that were built almost entirely digitally. The video is from Stargate Studios (LA, Vancouver).
I found a new website today called movieclips.com. This could be good.
As I read in this quotd article, a website was able to acquire the licenses for 12,000 movie clips to be streamed and shared in high-quality over the internet. These are all sorts of movies from all sorts of studios in one spot.
Now… I know this isn’t the newest idea around. Plenty of sites like YouTube, Vimeo and others have these movie clips on them. Movieclips.com offers them legally.
There are lots of other good clips on the site too. Check it out! Even though there are “only” 12,000 right now, they are all free to watch and share. This is only a ‘beta’ site. So expect more clips soon if this project takes off.
Quentin Tarantino recently shared his favorite flicks of 2009. His list has more than a few surprises, but by now I think we all know to expect a bit of weirdness from the guy.
Right off the top he admits he hasn’t yet seen Avatar, Invictus, or The Lovely Bones, films he is “expecting things from.” He is also gracious enough to exclude his own film, Inglorious Basterds, from contention.
That said, his top eight breaks down like this:
1. JJ Abrams’ Star Trek
2. Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell
3. Judd Apatow’s Funny People
4. Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air
5. Prachya Pinkaew’s Chocolate
6. Jody Hill’s Observe and Report
7. Lee Daniels’ Precious
8. Lone Scherfig’s An Education
He then makes a point of stating that he needs to see both Bright Star and District 9 again before he’s totally comfortable excluding them from his top picks.
Overall I like his list. There are a couple of the obvious top contenders in there, but the majority of his choices are decidedly “outside the box.” I’m very excited to see that he included Observe and Report, a film that ranks high on my own ‘best of 2009′ list.
AFI announced today their top 10 films and top 10 television series of 2009.
After reviewing the lists, two things jumped out at me right away. First, that two of their top 10 films are animated features (Coralineand Up.) This speaks to something that our mentor Jana Williams talks about frequently: that animation is home to some of the best storytelling out there. In animation, the sky is the limit with regard to set-pieces and premise, but there are no famous faces (famous voices, I suppose, but how much does that really mean…) or superstar directors to coax people into shilling out twelve bucks for a ticket. These films rely so heavily on great scripts — big stories brimming with unique characters and situations. These are indeed two of the best in recent memory.
The other thing that jumped out at me was that The Hangover made the list! To me this is another testament to how vital a great screenplay is. This was an anomaly as far as studio comedies go in that there were no huge stars attached. The cast was instead packed with emerging talents, and their performances (along with the incredible script) made stars of them all and turned The Hangover into one of the year’s biggest films.
The TV list didn’t bear too many surprises. Comprised of the most critically praised shows of the year, the only thing that caught me off-guard was the inclusion of Glee. I understand it’s a huge hit… I just can’t figure out why.
Well, well, well. Finally some good news from one of the big studios.
Thanks to the amazing $100 Million domestic box-office success of Paranormal Activity, which was originally made for $15,000 US, Paramount has unleashed a plan to produce between 10-20 sub-$100,000 films a year with possibility of theatrical release for some of them.
This opens up an outlet for new-comers to the industry to break-in and actually get their film made. In a world where a $1 Million production is considered low-budget, it is often impoissible for an aspiring writer to convince a studio that there is financial benefit in producing their script. With this new relevation from Paramount, aimed at producing films from both established and newbie writers, I think we might see a new era of cinema coming where STORY actually matters more than ‘mass-marketability.’
