The title of this article is one of film-maker Werner Herzog’s quotes. He rails against the “worn out” images that are served up by TV, and his advice to budding film-makers is, “You will learn more by walking from Canada to Guatemala than you will ever learn in film school,” and “Work as a taxi […]
Cinema
Publishing your perspective and expertise with Squidoo
Here’s another Web-2.0-style tool for aggregating information and links. It’s the idea of Seth Godin, who has made his name from a series of books on innovative approaches to marketing in the age of the web. He sees this service, called Squidoo as a means for others to make their names in their areas of […]
Event: digital film/cinema
The informal network Cass Creatives is hosting a second event on the future of filmmaking on 30th November at City University (London, less than 200m from where I’m writing!). The last time they covered this topic the presentations and discussion were fascinating — see the official report and mine. The event is free. Here are […]
Recording the Lea Valley: sound and vision
The new film by Saint Etienne and Paul Kelly, What Have You Done Today, Mervyn Day?, is billed as an homage to the Lea Valley. Seeing it led me first to dig out Peter Cusack’s 02000 album The Horse was Alive, The Cow was Dead — which is an audio document of the same area […]
Werner Herzog film season and conference
Coming up in London this September is a season of all Werner Herzog’s feature films, around a third of his documentaries, plus the two Les Blank documentaries about Herzog. The latter form part of a weekend conference on Herzog’s work, which also includes the UK premiere of the director’s most recent film The Wild Blue […]
Of Walking in Ice, in Hertfordshire
“Tourism is sin, and travel on foot virtue,” said Werner Herzog, in one of his famous dictums. So would he see 1st Framework’s Of Walking in Ice day-long event, themed round his book of the same name, as a mixed blessing? Our group of around twenty met at 8.30 at Kings Cross station on a […]
Rise of digital intermediates in D-cinema
Hollywood Reporter has a useful article on the latest trends in the impact of digital technologies in independent film-making, covering shooting, post-production, and exhibition. Some might be surprised to hear that digital mastering is leading to an increase in the use of Super 16mm film for shooting, as well as digital formats. One post-production agency […]
Is digital cinema fixated with wide shots?
In an earlier posting I quoted George Lucas playing down the impact of digital technologies on film-making: “a camera is a camera is a camera so it doesn’t really make any difference… You frame the film the same… the aesthetics are exactly the same.” But critic Mark Cousins suggests in the June issue of Prospect […]
Puttnam on digital impact: my notes
David Puttnam’s lecture this evening focused on skills (he spends a fair bit of his time advising the Department for Education and Skills these days) and on intervention to stimulate digital distribution and exhibition of films in the UK (he’s a Labour peer). He addressed the potential impact of digital technologies on production of films/motion […]
Lord Puttnam lecture on digital technology and film
Following on from their very useful digital film event last November, Cass Business School is hosting a lecture by David Puttnam on The Impact of Digital Technology on the Film Industry: Opportunity or Threat? on 2 June. Here’s the link for more details and registration. It’s free (including the drinks) and less than 200m from […]