short Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Live from Tribeca: A Kid, a Camera, and a Father Who Needs Help
Filed under: Documentary », Tribeca », Festival Reports », Shorts », DIY/Filmmaking »
When I sat down to watch the excellent documentary Head Wind (review coming soon), I didn't realize that I'd be subjected to the mental torture that was the short called Beginning Filmmaking. I don't think the rest of the sparse crowd expected to see the short, either, because we all kept asking each other in very loud voices, "Why aren't we seeing Head Wind?" and "Why the hell doesn't this guy leave his kid alone?"In this short, filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt chronicles a year of trying to teach his four-year-old daughter Ella how to become a filmmaker herself, based on something she babbled when she was eighteen months old. He even goes so far as getting Ella a brand new camcorder for her fourth birthday.
Did I say she was four? Well, I can't say that enough, because throughout the 23 mind-numbing minutes of this film, Rosenblatt tries to teach Ella how to be an auteur, giving her lessons in composition, focus, light, and story. He's talking to her like she's an NYU film student, and all she wants to do is play with her toys and flick boogers (well, she doesn't do that last thing on camera, but don't most kids that age do that?).
2007 iPod Film Festival Wants You
Filed under: Distribution », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Other Festivals »
You're a budding short film maker, that is to say a maker of film shorts, and not a height-challenged director, but you have a problem ... where do you submit your films for consideration? Besides the Sundance Film Festival and a slew of other places to put your films (YouTube, iFilm, your own blog, etc), none of them really takes much advantage of the short film format and puts it somewhere that allows you take the film with you.Enter The Flux and their 2007 iPod Film Festival. They're looking for a few good films under ten minutes in length, and you can win prizes that include iPods (of course) and a Mac Mini. Plus, there will be the glitz and glamor that comes along with your newfound celebrity status to deal with. It's free to enter, they have several different categories and they want you.
With so many cameras available on the cheap, (your cell phone might even have a built in video feature, check it out Spielberg) it's high time you unleashed your creativity and made 2007 the year that you finally start making your own movies. After all, Time Magazine named You the person of the year, so you have a lot to live up to. Get rolling and make some magic.
Backdraft II: Backdraftier
Filed under: Fandom », FanFilms »
Hey, do you guys remember the movie
Backdraft? It was about firemen, and I think they were sexy, and Donald Sutherland was pretty good in it, but
not as good as he usually is, and Robert DeNiro was in it too, and there was a lot of coughing and crying, I
think?
Right, so obviously that movie didn't really stick in my synapses too well. That's okay, because Eugene Mirman, one of my favorite comedians, made a sequel to Backdraft with his comedy pals Jon Benjamin and Sam Seder called Backdraft II: Backdraftier. It's completely unnecessary, and Mirman, like myself, recalls very little from the original movie. I don't think I've laughed this hard since I won that Laughing Contest at the 1987 Ohio State Fair. Take that, three-time Giggle Champion Maynerd Ferbenberger of Akron!
Anyway, you can watch the short film by clicking here.
[via The Onion AV Club blog]
Oscar shorts will screen around the U.S.
Filed under: Animation », Shorts », Oscar Watch »
While most of us have had the opportunity to
see this year's Oscar nominees for Best Picture, I bet very few of us have been able to catch any of the short films
nominated for Academy Awards. I bet most of us can't even name any of the nominated shorts ... well, I can't, sadly.
I'm not proud of this. Fortunately, if you live in a larger city, your luck may change. A collection of the Oscar-nominated animated and live-action shorts will screen in weeklong runs starting Feb. 24. The locations selected to show the films include the usual suspects, like Los Angeles and New York, but also some smaller film-loving cities like Austin (yay!) and Portland, Oregon. I'm looking forward to the animated shorts, such as 9 (shown above), directed by Shane Acker. The live-action nominees look interesting too. The great thing about short films is that even if you don't particularly like one, it's over in 20 minutes or even less. Plus, seeing these films provides an excellent chance to get ahead in the office Oscar pool, by having seen something others might have missed.
Ninjas vs Pirates: oh, it's on, bitches!
Filed under: Comedy », Shorts », Fandom », FanFilms »
I have no idea how we here at Cinematical managed to overlook the early installments of the now-completed
Ninjas vs Pirates short, but I'm here to tell you that it's a work of rare genius. Had it been released in
2005, this sucker would have come in well behind The
Squid and the Whale but just a bit ahead of Brokeback
Mountain on my personal end-of-the-year list. Yes, it's just that good.What is it? Well, apart from the obvious part about pirates and ninjas not getting along, it goes something like this: start with a healthy chunk of Romeo and Juliet, throw in dashes of The Matrix, Star Wars, Top Gun, and Rocky, and combine them with a healthy sense of humor and a non-existent effects budget., and you're on the right track. Basically, a pirate chick falls in love with a ninja, despite the fact that the two groups are eternally at war. Needless to say, all hell breaks loose, leaving the ninja (aided by Mattbeard, the pirate lass' nanny) little choice but to kill every single pirate that walks the earth. Just trust me and go watch it - it's not like you don't have 10 minutes to spare. Come on, it's Saturday!
[via Twitch]
Jeremy Renner Wants To Be An Avenger
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Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
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Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
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