Welcome to Sundance

Robert Redford on the History and Future at Sundance

http://nofilmschool.com/2015/01/sundance-2015-robert-redford-history-and-future-film

"Change is inevitable"

For the past week, The Sundance Film Festival is being held in Park City, Utah. The founder and the Sundance Kid himself was there to kick off the event, Robert Redford spoke of the history and future of film. He mentions that "Change is inevitable" and that "the festival is meant to use change to underline the word diversity". With the recent Selma snubs at the Oscars, Robert Redford took time to address the issue. With new films coming out each year from veteran filmmakers, film festivals such as this one give birth to careers and experiences for many young filmmakers. These will design the future and make change happen.

A question pops up that makes a filmmaker's career bleak, "who is going to see your movie?" With many websites offering to screen it, such as Gowatchit.com, some of these don't get distribution deals. Distribution deals is what each filmmaker hopes to achieve. This year we have great news. 85% of the films screened at Sundance has gotten distribution deals. Now, what does this mean?

Last year a number of films got award buzz. Boyhood, Whiplash, Ida, A Most Wanted Man, The Skeleton Twins, and many more. Many directors even started out in this festival. What a distribution deal eventually means is a career path that doesn't become so bleak. While it's hard to see all the films in competition, this year has seen improvement and the change that the Sundance Kid was talking about.

As said by the CEO of the website GoWatchIt.com, David Larkin, "Filmmaking is a fusion of art and fusion and each film is both a business that aspires to be a work of art and work of art that aspire to be a business." New filmmakers are coming and understanding this. Most aren't backing down and hopefully we will see a long awaited change was inevitable to happen.

A story, sun, rain, actors, and yoga: The Trials of the Sideways Music Video

It's a good time to say that this music video has been knocking me sideways. Last monday, we were assigned to create a music video. With a choice of three songs, we had to choose one and we chose Sideways by Citizen Cope. The story was about the thought of an ex girlfriend is distracting the everyday life of a boy. This sensation he gets makes him relive past memories until ultimately moving on at the end. With my group, we got to work. In pre production, we started working on the story and the different scenes throughout. With the different styles and lighting clouding the future of this story, everything became clear after a different take on it. In the words of François Truffaut about Alfred Hitchcock, simple and clear always makes the best movies. This fixed our problem, so we started writing the script. I'll be honest, I was very excited to film it. I had everything planned and the day before I was making the shot list and schedule. I thought it was going to be good and everything will go as planned. I was disillusioned.

Sunday morning started out sunny, but then the clouds came to formation. I was putting everything in the trunk when I first felt the first few drops of despair, or rain in a more literal form. I was saddened by the thought of my day ruined because of rain, which has happened to me a number of times. What makes more pissed of is the fact that it was sunny for the past two weeks and then decides to rain on the day that I choose to film, but I'm already used to that so I had to work with it. Arriving at Markham park, I was waiting for everyone already behind schedule. Then it started raining. Hard. We then changed plans and went to film other scenes. This wasn't the worst part.

On Tuesday afternoon, we went to film at Markham Park at 5:00. Barely having any time to film we filmed fast, but that wasn't gonna cut it. The sun went down and we had to use the lights of our cars to light the scene. After we went to an alleyway. We found the perfect place to film and we set up the lights. Right when we put the camera in the rig, this lady with her towel and sweat came to tell us to move because she was teaching a yoga class. We could't film the other part of our scenes that day so we moved it the next day. Next day was fine and we finished finally, but with the persistant rebellious attitude the actors.

This whole thing taught me one thing I keep being taught. Simple and clear always makes the cut. No matter what you do there's always something. Murphy's law is always imminent and we have to work with it. Filmmaking always is knocking me sideways.

The Usual Suspects: Award season Behavior

20145 Golden Globes Picks 

"For movies, there are no runway favorite," Jordan Zakarin, a writer for Yahoo! Movies, told ABC News. "I think a lot of different movies will be represented." 


In my house, the Golden Globes and The Academy Awards is practically like a holiday. My dad makes a big dinner and my brother gets my dad and me to bet who's going to win. We get very excited and watch from the Red Carpet until the very end. I cheer whenever my favorite nominees win, I'm sad when they don't, and I'm happy for those do win-for the right reason however. 

There have been many great movies this year. A lot to love about this year especially the novel and complexity of content this year has given us. There has been revolutionizing ideas with the mix of inspired and original stories. As award season is coming, there is a behavior that isn't changing. Every year the voters are looking at great movies, but have been nominating the the usual suspects: The Prestige Biopics, The tear jerker drama flicks, 180 minute long epics, and musicals. Granted, there have been different movies being nominated, but just to be there. It's very rare for a science fiction film to win or even an experimental. For Best Picture Drama, 4 out the 5 films being nominated are Biopics. There have also been other acclaimed and interesting pictures such as Unbroken, American Sniper, Wild, and Big Eyes. So why the abundance of the same type of movie being nominated? The Awards want to keep the same type so it distuinguish itself from the mainstream. There have been movies that have won from the mainstream, but why have most of them been shut out. 

This year, out of all the movies I will mention Interstellar. Say what you will, if it is the most overrated movies of the year, if it is long and confusing but it is the most ambitious, original piece of this year. The movie turned around and became a movie of humanity. Why has this movie been shut out? If the awards don't change their ways, "a lot of different movies" won't be represented. Movies are suppose to surprise and make people imagine, that is why the awards should have the same behavior.

I will say this. Interstellar was made and has been captivated audiences with it's core: Humanity. The best thing is, Christopher Nolan didn't do this for award. Jennifer Aniston in a serious role and many of those prestige pics have purposes, but possibly the best purpose is to win an award. Alfred Hitchcock said, "Create a movie not for the purpose to win an award, but to do it because it's a great story."   

2015... Do you mean we're in the future?

2015... Do you mean we're in the future? 

"Attendance hits 20 year low" 

"We caught a lot of great movies in 2014, but it seems many other people did not. Preliminary estimates indicate that just 1.26 billion cinema tickets were purchased in 2014 - which sounds like a lot until you realize it's the lowest number since 1995."

2014 had some great movies. Interstellar, Guardians of the Galaxy, Birman, Gone Girl, and The Theory of Everything to say the least. It did have blockbusters like Transformers and Mockingjay. What is surprising is though, that movie attendance is the lowest it has ever been since 1995. There are many reasons behind that. With the abundance of digital distribution and a known audience, 2014 barely hit the mark compared to recent years. With sequels being released, what is most interesting is that it failed to rejuvenate the same revenue from its predecessors. So what made this a failure in the box office this year? 

For starters, ticket prices are just to damn high. Many people want to go to the movie theaters, but want to see a movie not a highly renewed opera. Movies are supposed to be an escape, a pastime. This is crumbling the film industry. Prices went from $8.13 to $8.15 per ticket. With the addition of snacks, this is a whole lot of money.  So how about what they're paying there money for? 

Many movies this year, as always were either remakes, adaptions, or sequels. But what made this year different. Has the audience loose interest in these movies or is the time changing? Movies coming out this year have failed to bring in many audiences perhaps that want to see something new. 

There is still hope. 2015 is a big year however. With sequels from a legendary franchises are being released and new films underway, 2015 may possibly be the best year for movies we have seen in awhile. Now, where are the hover boards?! 

Are you "honeypotting" me?

Are you Honeypotting me?

With Crisis comes Opportunity: Why Sony should use The Interview to skyrocket Digital Distribution

"Estimates are that Sony will lose roughly $100 Million on pulling The Interview due to a cyberattack evidently organized by North Korea. But Sony, the rest of Hollywood, and the independent film industry stand to gain a lot more if they treat this crisis as an opportunity. "

A movie about two American journalist's journey to kill the Supreme Leader of North Korea at a prolific interview set in Pyongyang. What could go wrong? A lot apparently. In late November, Sony suffered a hack in its servers. Divulging personal information from many employees, including Sony Pictures Chairwoman, Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin. When they thought it couldn't get any worse, the hacker group, named The Guardians of Peace(GOP) threatened to make a "9/11 style attack" on certain theaters that were showing The Interview.  Immediately after the statement, movie theaters around the country refused to stop showing the movie and made sony ultimately pulling it from a theatrical release. Controversies arose, but then a Christmas miracle happened. Sony distributed the film in certain movie theaters and various websites including YouTube, Google Play, and iTunes. Boo-ya, Freedom of Speech!!! But what does that mean for censorship and distribution. 

In the late 1940, Chaplin came with The Great Dictator. A satirical take on Hitler's Nazi regime. At this time, it wasn't the best time to release such a movie. With the world at war and Hitler's Third Reich on its way, The Great Dictator was a slap on the face to The Fuhrer. Reports say that Hitler didn't make any comment, but he did watch it twice. Fast forward to 2014, Kim Jung Un and North Korea have made an uproar about it with hackers igniting it the match. Why are these two events with similar type of movies and similar situations have different results? We live in a time where the media is the most powerful weapon that can destroy a man. Take Lance Armstrong for example. A cancer survivor that struggled to race the Tour the France and win. Now has admitted to doping. His reputation destroyed by the media. Hitler didn't make United Artist pull The Great Dictator from theaters, but Kim Jung Un did. However, there is always a silver lining. 

This event caused a major outrage in Hollywood. Can a foreign dictator make decisions on a country's behalf? Can it censor anything they seem inappropriate? On Christmas, Sony decided to move on and release The Interview through On Demand. This has taught us that no matter where we are and what we see, freedom of speech isn't always there. The distribution on On Demand has taught us that there is always a way and digital distribution is the next best thing. Although I prefer a movie theater, digital distribution is the savior of the film industry. 

Now on behalf of the movie itself. It is stupid. It is funny. It is smart. It is good! I strongly recommend it because it doesn't take itself too serious and it doesn't need to be. It's one of those movies that you want to see because of the ride. It provides a strong message about the media and how it is stronger than death itself. The acting is superb especially from Randall Park, Kim Jung Un in the film. Go see it and drink a margarita!