eh fair enough
― ice cr?m's world of female people (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 18 February 2011 19:34 (thirteen years ago) link
The reason The Social Network, The Fighter, The Town, and True Grit are singled out are they are nearly the ONLY big-studio 'prestige' pics that got made last year, all the projects of heavy hitters (Fincher, Wahlberg, Affleck, Coens). I didn't hate The Town, derivative as it was, but it got talked about like it was some exceptional 'adult drama' instead of a formula crime pic. That just illustrates the dearth of non-presold material aimed at adults.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Friday, 18 February 2011 19:41 (thirteen years ago) link
'the town' is dope but dope like 'the seven-ups' was dope, which is to say i wish there were more like it movies cranked out regularly and were not considered risky and exceptional, you know?
― omar little, Saturday, 19 February 2011 00:42 (thirteen years ago) link
"there were more movies like it cranked out regularly"
I agree for the most part, but then there's the success of The King's Speech (still in the top five, and closing in on $100 million), The Fighter, Black Swan, True Grit, The Social Network. It's been an unusual season, which Harris himself acknowledges:
During one remarkable stretch last fall, the box office was dominated, on successive weekends, by The Town, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and The Social Network
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, February 18, 2011 2:06 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark
well that's kind of the point isnt it - audiences are hungry for adult dramas, hwood just isnt particularly interested in supplying them
― Princess TamTam, Saturday, 19 February 2011 01:12 (thirteen years ago) link
tbh i think many people working in hollywood are too growth-stunted to even deal w/attempting adult dramas, and one piece of advice i received ten years ago when i moved out here ultimately rang true: don't be surprised at how dumb a lot of the decision-makers are, not to mention the weird combination of being ambitious with their own career and therefore terrified of taking a single risk with the creative product. folks are crippled by fear of taking chances or using the extra $1 or $2 million they have lying around for anything edgier than, i dunno, s. darko. the successful people i know here are not successful on a large scale but in niche stuff like indie horror and aren't exactly living large. a friend of mine has had four horror screenplays made into films in 10 years with a fifth on the way and he's scuffling despite being totally frugal.
― omar little, Saturday, 19 February 2011 01:39 (thirteen years ago) link
based on personal experience and from what others have shared, i can say that writers are at almost every single turn discouraged from attempting anything original and the process itself is done so much by committee and in an almost focus group style that lots of stuff just ends up utterly predictable and following a well-trod formula.
― omar little, Saturday, 19 February 2011 01:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Irving Thalberg is not my idea of a hero, but from reading The Genius of the System I'd say when he was running production at MGM around '23-36 he was way more 'creative' than any exec in the biz today. And that was filmmaking by committee! But then moviegoing is not central to people's lives anymore.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 19 February 2011 01:42 (thirteen years ago) link
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The L:ast Tycoon to thread!
The lead character in it is an aging whiz-kid studio head (in his late 30s or early 40s) who, rather incidentally to the main plot, green lights a few "prestige" films, mainly because he thinks the general public pours enough money into the company that they deserve a bit of thanks by trying to make something with a bit more depth, nuance and substance.
― Aimless, Saturday, 19 February 2011 01:50 (thirteen years ago) link
well Fitzgerald wrote (rather unsuccessfully) for MGM and that was clearly Thalberg -- who greenlighted Freaks, btw
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 19 February 2011 01:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Orson Welles to Peter Bogdanovich: "In the hated studio system there was always room for a tiny Orson Welles picture."
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 19 February 2011 02:35 (thirteen years ago) link
Is that why he spent years scrounging up foreign investors for many of his pictures? Not to mention using money from his own acting gigs to help get shit done.
― Princess TamTam, Saturday, 19 February 2011 02:58 (thirteen years ago) link
Welles' fate was sort of his own choosing. if he'd wanted to make films in Hollywood he could've.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 19 February 2011 03:00 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm not apologizing for him -- just pointing out that room existed for even a Touch of Evil or butchered Ambersons in the old system.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 19 February 2011 03:22 (thirteen years ago) link
Cinema is dead. Matt Seitz on the ceasing of the production of motion-picture film cameras:
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/13/r_i_p_the_movie_camera_1888_2011/singleton/
― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Friday, 14 October 2011 11:38 (twelve years ago) link
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3S0adMfn1iM/S7-xk6s2o9I/AAAAAAAAAG8/3FJXjqlR5nQ/s400/laszlo_panaflex.gif
― Race Against Rockism (Myonga Vön Bontee), Friday, 14 October 2011 13:47 (twelve years ago) link
Good thing digital looks good on Blu-ray.
― michael assbender (Eric H.), Friday, 14 October 2011 13:50 (twelve years ago) link
I've been comforted by seeing stuff like Le Havre projected via celluloid at the NYFF. Oh look, a MOVIE!
― incredibly middlebrow (Dr Morbius), Friday, 14 October 2011 13:55 (twelve years ago) link
ending that article w/ a brakhage piece was inspired
― the boy with the gorn at his side (Edward III), Friday, 14 October 2011 14:29 (twelve years ago) link
David Bordwell on how preference for digital (along w/ hardware issues) is hastening the end of 35mm projection at festivals, etc.
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2012/01/05/pandoras-digital-box-at-the-festival/
― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 5 January 2012 17:33 (twelve years ago) link
I was at the Tate Modern (to see the Richter) and while waiting for my friend had a look at Tacita Dean's thing and it had the whole 'cinema is dying bcz digital is killing it theme'. Problem is the film ws a real drag..
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 5 January 2012 22:00 (twelve years ago) link
i'm bummed to have missed the dean (& richter actually) but might buy the catalogue, the essays sound p good
― quick brown fox triangle (schlump), Friday, 6 January 2012 01:04 (twelve years ago) link
The Dean is around till March, don't know where you're at but there's a longer windown than the Richter, which shuts this w/end.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 6 January 2012 21:05 (twelve years ago) link
oh cool, actually thought the dean ended at new year, will possibly make it still
― quick brown fox triangle (schlump), Friday, 6 January 2012 21:33 (twelve years ago) link
Bordwell's latest, on what the art theaters will have to do to survive:
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2012/01/30/pandoras-digital-box-art-house-smart-house/
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 30 January 2012 17:10 (twelve years ago) link
Bordwell: "It seems likely that digital projection has, in unintended and unexpected ways, put the history of film in jeopardy."
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2012/02/13/pandoras-digital-box-pix-and-pixels/
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 14 February 2012 16:42 (twelve years ago) link
good riddance
― Banaka™ (banaka), Tuesday, 14 February 2012 16:47 (twelve years ago) link
may your glottis be stopped with reels of decaying celluloid.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 14 February 2012 16:54 (twelve years ago) link
defenders of the analog shall have no mercy from us.
― Banaka™ (banaka), Tuesday, 14 February 2012 17:03 (twelve years ago) link
maybe you should read the fucking thing, eh
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 14 February 2012 17:11 (twelve years ago) link
the advantage of digital is its impermanence. mistakes can be corrected and revised with little effort. we wish to apply these principles to human society.
film is finite, "organic" and beautiful. it must be destroyed.
― Banaka™ (banaka), Tuesday, 14 February 2012 17:22 (twelve years ago) link
yeah the only thing standing between us and utopia is your vinyl record collection.
― ryan, Tuesday, 14 February 2012 18:00 (twelve years ago) link
I am starting to wonder if Tacita Dean's preciousness is not really helping the celluloid cause. Still like her films but interviews with her are a little insufferable at times. She used to be kind of my hero =(
― dollar eye twinkling (admrl), Monday, 27 February 2012 17:43 (twelve years ago) link
Wow at that article.
― Averroes's Search Engine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 27 February 2012 18:07 (twelve years ago) link
yeah... I'm hearing unpleasant rumors about the future of 35mm projection at an NYC repertory mainstay, too.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 00:34 (twelve years ago) link
the advantage of digital is its impermanence.
nope.
― Prince Rebus (donna rouge), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 00:36 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah totally. People think their images will last forever as files? Get real
― dollar eye twinkling (admrl), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 00:45 (twelve years ago) link
I do think that. I think you're imagining a hard drive crashing and losing everything, but there's easy methods of backup to guard against that sort of thing.
― the acquisition and practice of music is unfavourable to the health of (abanana), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 00:54 (twelve years ago) link
I'm imagining files that become corrupted and/or file formats that become obsolete.
― dollar eye twinkling (admrl), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 01:07 (twelve years ago) link
More the latter, I guess
maybe there will be a generation of cyberwars in which china & america strive to delete each others' venerable cinematic histories
― john-claude van donne (schlump), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 10:57 (twelve years ago) link
There was some Hollywood Reporter/Variety article recently on how cavalier people are about the potential lifespan of digital formats and how even films shot digitally are printed onto celluloid for archival purposes. I am a bit sick of this argument, but when people speak of HD as being "better quality" than film it drives me fucking bananas.
― dollar eye twinkling (admrl), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:10 (twelve years ago) link
I was shooting with an Arri SR2http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/105097422/Arri_SR2_S_16_Camera.jpgin a touristy part of New Mexico and all of these 5D sunday photographers were asking disparagingly why I would bother shooting "old film" (I told them I bought it straight from the fridge at Fuji the week before) when my images would look so much better with their cameras.
― dollar eye twinkling (admrl), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:15 (twelve years ago) link
any "format" digital or otherwise can become corrupted or obsolete.
― da croupier, Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:19 (twelve years ago) link
Of course, but there is no reason to think that digital files are more or less subject to this, or that their lifespan is anything close to other formats. At the very least, you can see an analog image so long as it isn't utterly degraded.
― dollar eye twinkling (admrl), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:21 (twelve years ago) link
5D sunday photographers
ILP's 'tumblr whites'
― john-claude van donne (schlump), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 17:36 (twelve years ago) link
Adam otm
― Averroes's Search Engine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:13 (twelve years ago) link
File corruption is easy to prevent and doing so can be automated. File format worries are a real issue.
― the acquisition and practice of music is unfavourable to the health of (abanana), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 18:25 (twelve years ago) link
Obv I have a preference for analogue but I do try to be realistic. I actually deal with HD footage most days for work and the abundance of formats and how to and not to convert them is constantly an issue. I will miss 35mm projection but I did also just get HDTV and Blu Ray and it's been fantastic to see some of the digital preservation work that has been done on classic films. I was never much of a DVD-hoarder/criterion dude but Blu Ray is changing my position on all that.
― dollar eye twinkling (admrl), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:33 (twelve years ago) link
Also as per corruption/backup I have had enough awful moments where I have a pretty good regimen in terms of backing up my projects, but then archiving files from old projects, transferring from drive to drive, switching on drives every couple of months to make sure they are still ticking over drives me nuts.
The biggest editing job I ever did (on someone else's films) was totally saved by the hard-drive-in-a-grocery-bag-in-the-freezer-for-a-couple-of-hours trick.
― dollar eye twinkling (admrl), Tuesday, 28 February 2012 19:36 (twelve years ago) link