Archive for August, 2008

  • 21 Aug

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    Deathrace Technique: Camera Smash

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    Despite the poor (ok, downright shitty) reviews that the updated version of Deathrace 2000 is getting, I’m still a bit intrigued with the idea of the Mad Max style vehicles in a super race with the speed and the “real” mash-ups, devoid of any special effects… and of course the hotties. Throw in Joan Allen, Jason Statham and “Deadwood’s” Ian McShane and yeah, I’ll go see it eventually.

    Then I read an interview today with director Paul W.S. Anderson in which he talks a little about the making of the film and how they managed some of the cool smash-em-up scenes. It’s all real crashes and real guns. No models or crappy CGI. This was the real deal. In the interview, there are references and inspirations to everything from Mad Max to Two Lane Blacktop to Bullitt to Black Hawk Down and more. This intrigues me further.

    Deathrace

    But how they get some of the shots is by actually running over and smashing some of the cameras:

    I wanted to get the cars to drive into the cameras at high speeds, so we built one of my favorite rigs. We built a rig that had a camera and was completely ringed with basketballs. So it was this big giant ball. We stick it in the middle of the road, and the cars would drive at it. There is a shot in the very first race, when the original Frankenstein drives, where the car slides around the corner, and it looks like it hits the camera, and it does. And then the continuation of that is really funny because the camera just rolls away, bounces away, and it hits the wall.

    Cool.

    Read the full article over at io9.com [via Gizmodo]

  • 21 Aug

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    Documentary Short on The World’s Greatest Music Collection

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    Paul MawhinneyI first caught wind of Paul Mawhinney when his extensive record collection went up for sale on eBay earlier this year.

    Mawhinney has been collecting records for the better part of his life and over the decades, he has amassed The World’s Greatest Music Collection. Made up of 3 million records, 300,000 CDs and more than 6 million song titles, the collection has been on sale for months but Mawhinney, who is legally blind and ill, can no longer maintain the collection. Mawhinney is looking for an institution that can maintain the collection in tact since it appears that it is one of the most complete musical collections ever. There is a load of information about the collection, including the ability to browse the extensive archive, at Mawhinney’s website.

    Jay at The Documentary Blog has posted an excellent short documentary (approximately 8 minutes long) titled The Archive on Mawhinney’s collection. Directed by Sean Dunne, the short features Mawhinney sharing some of the history behind the collection, discussion on the difference between records and CD and he really, indirectly, gets at the heart of why it is so important for culture and history, to keep this record collection intact.

    I hope he finds the right person to take on his passion. This looks like the sort of thing Paul Allen should be picking up to add to his already extensive music collection – I could see this as an integral part of the the Experience Music Project.

    The documentary is tucked under the seat!

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 21 Aug

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    VIFF Announces First Round of Films

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    VIFF Banner

    While TIFF has finalized its line-up (check out our coverage), the Vancouver International Film Festival is just getting started with their announcements.

    In the first of many to come press releases, VIFF has already posted a number of films on my “must see” list. It’s going to be a tough year of decision making. Here we go:

    Prize Winners & Audience Favourites

    Three Monkeys (Turkey) – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
    Il Divo (Italy) – Paolo Sorrentino
    A Christmas Tale (France) – Arnaud Desplechinwhich
    Tulpan (Russia/Kazakhstan/Germany/Switzerland/Poland) – Sergey Dvortsevoy
    Cloud 9 (Germany) – Andreas Dresen
    Hunger (UK) – Steve McQueen
    Next Floor (Canada) – Denis Villeneuve
    Captain Abu Raed (Jordan/USA) – Amin Matalqa
    Ballast (USA) – Lance Hammer
    Let the Right One In (Sweden) – Tomas Alfredson
    My Marlon and Brando (Turkey) – Hüseyin Karabey
    Old Man Bebo (Spain) – Carlos Carcas
    The Song of Sparrows (Iran) – Majid Majidi
    Happy-Go-Lucky (UK) – Mike Leigh
    I’ve Loved You So Long (France) – by Philippe Claudel
    Corridor #8 (Bulgaria) – Boris Despodov
    Revanche (Austria) – Götz Spielmann
    Be Like Others (Iran/Canada/UK/USA) – Tanaz Eshaghian
    Sita Sings the Blues (USA) – Nina Paley

    The Ark: Elements and Animals

    Blue Gold: World Water Wars (USA/Canada) – Sam Bozzo
    One Water (USA) – Ali Habashi
    A Sense of Wonder (USA) – Christopher Monger
    The Lie of the Land (UK) – Molly Dineen
    Belonging (Canada) – Audrey Brohy
    Sleep Furiously (Wales) – Gideon Koppel
    The Dancing Forest (UK) – Brice Láine
    Addicted to Plastic! The Rise and Demise of a Modern Miracle (Canada) – Ian Connacher
    The Lost Colony (Netherlands) – Astrid Bussink
    Peace with Seals (Czech Republic/Italy) – Miloslav Novak
    Circus Rosaire (USA) – Robyn Bliley
    Cat Dancers (USA) – Harris Fishman

    Nonfiction Features: Arts & Letters

    The Halfmoon Files (Germany) – Philip Scheffner
    Talking Guitars (Netherlands/USA) – Claire Pijman
    Café de Los Maestros (Argentina/USA/Brazil) – Miguel Kohan
    Throw Down Your Heart (USA) – Sascha Paladino
    Youssou N’Dour: Return to Goree (Switzerland/Luxembourg) – Pierre-Yves Borgeaud
    Teak Leaves at the Temples (Indonesia) – Garin Nugroho
    Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (USA) – Matt Wolf
    Celia the Queen (USA) – Joe Cardona and Mario de Varona
    The Wrecking Crew (USA) – Denny Tedesco
    Trip to Asia – The Quest for Harmony (Germany) – Thomas Grube
    Dancing With Me (Germany) – Trevor Peters
    Bird’s Nest: Herzog & De Meuron in China (Switzerland) – Christoph Schaub
    Loos Ornamental (Austria) – Heinz Emigholz

    Nonfiction Features: Nonfiction Highlights

    The Living Goddess (UK) – Ishbel Whitaker
    Donkey In Lahore (Australia) – Faramarz K-Rahber
    A Road to Mecca: The Journey of Mohammed Asad (Austria) – Georg Misch
    The Infinite Border (Mexico) – Juan Manuel Sepúlveda
    My Live Inside (Mexico) – Lucía Gajá
    Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans (USA) – Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Eric Elie
    Chris and Don: A Love Story (USA/Ireland) – Guido Santi and Tina Mascara
    Be Like Others (Iran/Canada/UK/USA) – Tanaz Eshaghian
    Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers (Cambodia/France) – Rithy Panh
    Who Is Afraid of Kathy Acker? (Austria) – Barbara Caspar
    Secret Museum (Belgium) – Peter Woditsch
    Chomsky and Co. (France) – Daniel Mermet and Olivier Azam
    Apology of an Economic Hitman (Greece) – Stelios Koiloglou
    The Fallen: A Silent Collapse (Mexico) – Rudy Joffroy
    The Atom Smashers (USA) – Clayton Brown and Monica Ross
    The Chicken, The Fish and The King Crab (Spain) José Luis López-Linares
    Blind Loves (Slovakia) – Juraj Lehotsky

    Shaping up nicely! Looking forward to round two and namely, the Canadian Images selections!

  • 21 Aug

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    Screen Shot Quiz #101

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    Congrats to Swarez for figuring out 3 of the 10 screen shots from yesterday.

    screenshot 101
  • 20 Aug

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    Trailer Roundup

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    This edition is gargantuan so we’ll get right to the point.

    Full Battle Rattle

    How do you prepare soldiers for war? Training of course. But how do you prepare them for war in unfamiliar territory and climate with hundreds of civilians milling around? Simulation of course! And what better place to simulate Iraq than in California’s Mojave Desert!

    Welcome to “Virtual Iraq”, a simulation built by the US Army to simulate urban warfare, a simulation that all troops live through for three weeks before being deployed to Iraq. The intricate set-up is complete with a fake town and ethnic individuals who play the roles of the civilians. It’s an interesting concept for a training exercise and even more interesting for a documentary. The trailer suggests that the “play fighting” escalates to the point of explosion but we’ll have to wait to see if the unfolding is as interesting as it appears.

    Full Battle Rattle doesn’t have a release date but it is currently making the festival rounds and will play the Sheffield (UK) Documentary Film Festival in November.

    Full Battle Rattle




    Real Time

    Andy is a compulsive gambler who owes some people a lot of money; so much that the lenders have hired Reuben to take him out. Reuben picks up the young Andy and gives him a one hour extension, offering to take him to see and do what he can in his last 60 minutes of life.

    Truthfully, Randall Cole’s second film doesn’t look particularly impressive but there’s something about the casting of Jay Baruchel, who I’ve only seen in Apatow productions, as an uncontrollable gambler that has mild appeal unfortunately, all of that seems to disappear with Randy Quaid who is a fine actor in his own right but his accent here is mind numbing. And yet, I’m curious to see what comes of this.

    Real Time will play TIFF later this year. I’ll make my final decision on this one once we see a few reviews. Maybe it’ll surprise.

    Real Time


    More trailers tucked under the seat.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 20 Aug

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    Screen Shot Quiz #100 – Win a free DVD

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    I can’t believe that I’m still doing these screen shots on almost a daily basis. Today is number 100 and to celebrate I’m running a small contest. I’m posting 10 screen shots from DVDs that I personally own (yes some of them I have not seen) and the person who lists the most correct movies in order wins a free DVD of their choice with a value of less than $30.00 Canadian. I’ll ship it to you and everything.

    Put your guesses in the comments and also try to convince everyone else is wrong in their guesses. The contest will run till I post the next screen shot quiz. I’m not going to give you a precise time and it may even be later today so don’t hold on to you guesses as you might wait too long.

    In case of a tie the winner will be randomly selected by me from the people with the most number of correct guesses.

    I am the only one who selected the screen shots so the contributors to Row Three can also post their guesses but they can not win the prize. If they have the most correct then the 1st best guesser not a contributor will win.

    Here is the first shot and the rest are below the cut.

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    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 19 Aug

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    TIFF Coverage is Officially Open

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    Row Three's TIFF Coverage

    I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that the TIFF section of the site is now officially open. I’m constantly (okay well not constantly but close too it) the list of movies that are being shown at this years festival.

    Each movie is receiving its own post and I will post as much information as I am able to track down. If you have information about any of the movies feel free to jump in and comment on the posts and I’ll add the information in. I also want to just say thanks to Twitch for providing a great resource for the trailers. Its been a big help so far.

    Please also feel free to say if you are planning on attending any of the movies in the comments section for the movie. Hopefully we can all arrange to meet up a few times through the 10 day of movie heaven.

    Click here for the TIFF section.

    I’ve posted a list of all the movies that I have started posts for below the seat.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 19 Aug

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    Cinecast Episode 95 – Fcuking Amazing!

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    cinecast_promo.jpg Matt Gamble

    Episode 95:
    In which Mr. Matt Gamble of Wherethelongtailends.com joins the fray to help discuss Tropic Thunder, some more Woody Allen, a new top ten list and other goodies and tangents.

    Click the little Audio Icon until we get our Widget back in order:

    Cinecast Episode 95 [ 0:01 | 92.05 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

    To download the show directly, paste the following URL into your favorite downloader:
    http://www.rowthree.com/audio/episode95.mp3

    Unwrap the complete Show Notes…
    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 19 Aug

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    Coen’s cast A Serious Man

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    Richard KindEarlier this year, Jonathan brought up some news that the Coen Brothers would be returning to the world of adaptations once they completed their upcoming project A Serious Man. I remember vaguely hearing something about the project being the follow up to Burn After Reading which opens later this year, but there had been little news on the film or its cast.

    However, there have been a few revelations since the original announcement of the film, namely that the Coens have cast Michael Stuhlbarg and funny man Richard Kind to star in the black comedy. Set in 1967, the film will have Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik, “a Midwestern professor whose life begins to unravel when his wife sets out to leave him and his socially inept brother (Kind) won’t move out of the house.”

    Aside from the fact that people are saying this is a throw back to Fargo, the film will have another connection to that Coen classic: it too will be shot in Minneapolis. I have a feeling Andrew may have to start scouring the streets of the city for filming locations.

    **Tune into this weeks CINECAST to hear a long tangent involving A SERIOUS MAN***

    To be completely honest, at this point I just want to get through the year and catch up with Burn After Reading before I start to get excited about the upcoming project. That said, it’s always nice to have something to look forward to.

  • 19 Aug

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    Brotherhood of the Wolf Gets Director’s Cut

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    Brotherhood of the Wolf DVD CoverI clearly remember renting Brotherhood of the Wolf a few years back but for the life of me, I remember nothing of the film other than a lot of rain. Not sure why but at the time of viewing, it simply didn’t appeal to me though over the years, it has repeatedly come up in conversation and I’ve been meaning to catch up with it to see what I had blotted out of my mind. It looks like the time for the revisit may be coming sooner rather than later.

    The folks at Horror Movies have news that a new version of the film is on the horizon and will be released on August 26th. Included in the two disc edition will be:

    • DELETED SCENES: Watch over 40 minutes of additional footage from the film.
    • MAKING OF BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF: THE GUTS OF THE BEAST: Explore the creation of the movie from its unlikely genesis to the breathtaking fight scenes and daring digital effects.
    • DOCUMENTARY: Go on-location with the cast and crew as they deal with everything from fight choreography to costume decisions and weather challenges.
    • THE LEGEND: Uncover the chilling historical facts behind the legend of the vicious Gévaudan Beast.
    • STORYBOARDS: See extensive storyboard galleries from some of the film’s most memorable scenes.
    • THEATRICAL TRAILER: Watch the theatrical trailer from the film.

    To sweeten the pot, Amazon has the DVD listed at the low price of $19.98 or $16.99 for pre-orders.

    Just for fun, I’ve tucked the trailer under the seat!

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 19 Aug

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    First Outlander Clip Hits Web

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    I‘m not sure what more needs to be said about the, hopefully, upcoming Viking/Alien awesomeness that will be Outlander but for one reason or another, the folks at Weinstein have yet to announce anything even remotely connected to a release date. What on earth are they waiting for? Another viking/alien flick to come along and pave the way? The bloody film is already in the can so there is little more for them to do other than roll it out. Heck, if you have such little faith, start small and expand!

    But I’m already digressing. The real reason for the post is that the folks at Quiet Earth have uncovered the first clip for the film which also happens to be an official clip for the press from the recently wrapped Locarno Festival. If you’re still scratching your head wondering what this viking and alien talk is about, be sure to check out our previous coverage.

    We’ll be keeping you posted on the release date if and when it is available.

  • 19 Aug

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    Screen Shot Quiz #99

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    One last quiz before tomorrow’s bigger quiz. I’ll be offering up a DVD of your choice (below $30 CDN) to the person who gets the most correct.

    screenshot 99
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