Archive for the ‘Links’ Category

  • 07 Feb

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    Raiding the Lost Ark: A New Filmumentary by Jaimie Benning

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    A couple of years ago the best Star Wars documentary (probably the best film documentary) I’ve ever seen hit the annals of YouTube and blew away fans with the amount of (relatively) unseen footage, stage sound, archival interviews and unbelievable behind-the-scenes evidence edited together in the most meticulous of researched fashion. Star Wars Begins launched Jaimie practically into super stardom amongst Star Wars fans and many cinephiles alike. Now Jaimie, with a little more knowledge and experience under his belt tackles the second most beloved trilogy on earth, Indiana Jones.

    The “filmumentary” is slowly becoming standard lexicon around the webs and I’m happy to see more of them done… as long as they’re half as well done as these exceptionally well made pieces of nostalgic awesome. I haven’t sat down to watch Raiding the Lost Ark quite yet, but as soon as I hit publish on this post, I’m going to head over to the Vimeo site and check it out. I am absolutely stoked and I can blindly recommend you do the same. Do yourself a favor and go watch it. Now.

    PS – if you haven’t seen Star Wars Begins yet, I don’t know what you’re waiting for. It’s brilliant.

  • 12 Jan

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    Cinemetrics [A Visual Fingerprint for a Film]

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    No other way to say it, this is friggin sweet. Graphic designer Frederic Brodbeck has developed a visual system that breaks down any film into color and motion to give every film its own unique signature. Brodbeck analyzes the editing structure, color, speech and motion of movies, then transforms them into graphic representations that can be compared side by side.

    Each movie is processed frame by frame, then broken down into ten shots “chapters.” Each chapter is then broken down into a color scheme and movement for how much motion is happening on the screen at that given time.

    Most films’ in the examples on Bordbeck’s web site are all dark and look very similar. But then contrast them to Wes Anderson’s film’s “fingerprints;” they are much more vivid… and brown. It’s fascinating but not all that surprising when you see each film’s breakdown. Each one I look at I think, “Well yeah, that makes sense!” (look at Top Gun above). In the video below, look at the difference in motion between Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Cameron’s Aliens. It’s obvious, but fascinating to basically be able to see both films in their entirety, side by side.

    cinemetrics from fb on Vimeo.

    The dude sells posters and other media of any movie you want made up (or some that are already done). I SOOO want The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (pictured above) hanging in my theater.

  • 08 Jun

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    Greatest Compilation of “Behind the Scenes” Photos I’ve Ever Seen

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    Before CGI took over everything and “ruined” special effects (insert grumpy old man comment here) there was something called mechanical set design, models and practical effects that wowed audiences. This is one amazing compilation of images I recommend perusing your way through. Some of these you may have seen before, others maybe not – but honestly even if you’ve seen some of these 100 times, it’s worth another look in my opinion.

    I managed to grab these before the site completely fell apart earlier today, I managed to grab some of these shots for your viewing pleasure. I think my favorite is the one from The Gate and the giant room set only because we’ve posted the Stanley Kubrick self portrait before. It’s a movie I haven’t even seen, but will now. Enjoy…

    most of these are clickable for a larger version

    Ghostbusters.

     
     

    On the set of Faust.

     
     

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 05 Jun

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    Your Pointless but Fun Item for Today

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    This guy takes movie stills with guns in them and replaces them with the zapper guns from the old 16-bit Nintendo system. Like I said, pointless but fun.

     

  • 05 Jun

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    Everybody’s Doing Drugs… Especially in the TV/Movies

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    Ever noticed how many movies have people taking or selling drugs? Yeah, it’s damn near all of them. Most of the time it’s coke or pot but in a lot of cases things are just creatively made up by screenwriters. Sometimes just for fun, sometimes just to have more unrealistic side effects that are needed for a character’s personality or development and sometime just to move along a plot that would otherwise be pretty much impossible (see Luke Skywalker in the Bacta tank in Episode V). And it’s not just movies, but also television shows and video games.

    So I see this all the time but it’s never dawned on me just how prevalent this practice actually is. But the other day I ran across this pretty neat Wiki article that is a pretty comprehensive list of all the made-up drugs in the movie universe. A couple of my favorites…

    Turbolax in Dumb and Dumber, The Geoffrey from Get Him to the Greek: A joint “laced with heroin, LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, and [possibly] PCP.”

    Here’s the complete list.

     

  • 22 May

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    In Other Sunday News… [Almodóvar]

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    No secret that we’re really looking forward to Pedro Almodovar’s newest. Ropes of Silicon have a bunch of new images and three new, very short clips. I’ve embedded one such clip below and you can check out their gallery of images over here. The excitement continues…

     

     

  • 26 Apr

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    The RotCast: Episode 118; Starring… me!

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    FilmRot has been a favorite podcast of mine since way way back; years before RowThree was even a twinkle in anyone’s eye. So it was a delight to get to sit in with the guys (James and Dave) this past weekend for their weekly podcast, The RotCast Epsiode 118.

    We talked a more recent review in the quite brutal I Saw the Devil as well as a little bit older review with the third part of the Millenium Trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s. Both of these titles haven’t ever been thoroughly explored on the Cinecast so it was fun to go back and have a go at it. Some interesting news on local favorite Jeremy Renner as well as a whole lot of trailers to talk about it. We cap it all off with some more movie talk, video game talk and TV talk including The Beastmaster, Siege of the Dead
    Doctor Who, Portal 2, Sam Mendes and yet another opinion on the Wachowski’s Speed Racer – plus a whole lot more.

    All in all it was a lot of fun and both James and Dave were gracious hosts. I hope to go back for another visit with these guys real soon. You can check out the latest episode over at FilmRot.com or find their iTunes profile and Twitter accounts and follow them there. Hope you enjoy.

    note: comments have been turned off for this post, if you’d like to leave your thoughts on the show, by all means please do so over at the FilmRot site. Cheers!

  • 16 Feb

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    ‘Like’ us on Facebook!

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    If you are yet to do so, make sure you ‘like’ our official Facebook page, where you can get updates right to your News Feed, get a chance to enter exclusive contests, and show off to all of your internet friends with when ‘[Your Name] liked Row Three’ shows up on your page!

    Everybody’s doing it. Don’t get left behind by missing out on this once in a lifetime opportunity. ‘Like’ our Facebook page today!

  • 17 Jan

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    Guest Hosting: Dark of the Matinee

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    Last weekend I was privileged enough to sit in on the MatineeCast with our buddy Hatter over at Dark of the Matinee. It was a lot of fun to just sit and talk movies and not have to worry about the technical side of a podcast. I simply wallowed in the goodness of early morning movie chat. And as the guest, being interviewed in the “get to know you” segment was a good time (always fun to talk about yourself :) ).

    After the opening chat, we talk about some of our most anticipated in 2011, another look at David O. Russell’s The Fighter and always a favorite, a new top 5 list. This is a well edited and well crafted show and my kudos goes out to Hatter for keeping it so sharp and tight (unlike some of our more rambling, expansive Cinecasts) and thanks for bringing me aboard as it was a whole lot of fun.

    Check out the show and if you haven’t already, go check out some of the back episode with various guests from around the net. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite movie podcasts to listen to.

    The show notes and the download link can be found over at The Dark of the Matinee. You can stream it there as well. If you’re an iTunes person, you can subscribe at the iTunes profile page.

     

  • 10 Nov

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    MatineeCast: Walter Murch

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    We probably do enough plugging for other sites and podcasts around here, but it’s only comparable to how much we plead and insinuate ourselves into other places around the web looking for plugs of our own. But one podcast I’ve recently started to become more and more of a fan is The MatineeCast over at The Dark of the Matinee hosted by “The Mad Hatter.” Each weekly episode is co-hosted by a different someone in the movie critic/industry/blog world and each starts with the same set of “ice-breaker” questions that give the audience a feel for the guest that week. Full disclosure: I am slated as a guest on the show at some point in the next 60 days or so.

    This week’s episode was a little more special as Hatter was able to track down Oscar Winner Walter Murch. Being an Academy Award winner for both sound design and film editing it’s easy to get into pretty interesting territory with a guy like this. The guy really is a legend. Jumping into the discussion at one point is another (much less prolific) film editor and the conversation dives head first into various editing tactics and examples of some favorite moments in film editing history. The whole podcast wraps up with an audience Q&A after a screening of Apocalypse Now (Redux) (for which Murch won an Oscar in sound and was nominated for editing). It’s a quick and interesting listen and recommended whole heartedly as a guy who is fascinated by the art of editing. An art which many believe is actually the true director of a film.

    You can stream the show directly from the web site as well as glancing over the show notes. If iTunes is more your speed, you can subscribe here. Enjoy the listen and leave your thoughts, questions or complaints in the comments section over at Dark of the Matinee. Besides the podcast it’s a pretty good daily blog read as well.

     

  • 01 Nov

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    50% Off Criterion Titles at Barnes and Noble

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    A few months back Barnes and Noble was clearing its shelves of their Criterion titles (both SD and Blu-ray). The sale seemed to be quite the success for film fans and I heard it talked about quite a bit on several movie podcasts. I ended up spending more money than I should but it was a helluva lot less than I would have spent at regular price (for titles I was going to buy eventually anyway). In short, it was bloody awesome.

    So heads up(!), looks like the sale is back on once again and Barnes and Noble is giving cinephiles something to drool over at half the cost.

    The sale is happening online right now and will transfer over to the stores sometime this week (probably today). I can’t find any information as to when this sale will be over but last time the sale went for almost a month. With the next round of title from Criterion being released on November 23rd, speculation is that this sale will end sometime in the week prior to that date.

    So get some scratch together and head over to Barnes and Noble to take advantage of this pretty amazing offer.

     

  • 02 Sep

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    Flyway Film Festival Podcast [LIVE TONIGHT]

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    Heads up podcast lovers; with everyone talking endlessly about TIFF and VIFF around here, let’s not forget the smaller guys!

    Our regular Cinecast co-host Matt Gamble is hosting a live podcast tonight featuring some great indie filmmakers including Bill Elverman (The Wintress), Gregory Kallenberg (Haynesville) and one of our “local” favorites, Gary King (What’s Up Lovely).

    They’ll talk about some of the action that will be happening at this year’s 2nd annual Flyway Film Festival including some schedule announcements, film highlights and activities/gatherings taking place. Beyond that, there will definitely be some talk on the indie filmmaking scene straight from the horse’s mouths so to speak. Looks like there will be some good ol’ fashioned movie banter happening as well.

    As mentioned, the show will be live, so feel free to call in when prompted and ask questions or make comments. The call in number is (347) 857-3783 and the whole thing gets underway at 7pm (I am guessing that is 8pm EST?).

    Head over to the main podcast page for all of the details:
    http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flyway-film-festival

     

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