Category: making movies

Jim Whitaker is the director of a documentary in the making of the changes taking place at the World Trade Center site. Project Rebirth, as it’s called, has been taking time lapse imagery from various cameras perched on buildings surrounding the site since the Spring of 2002, after most debris was cleared away from The Bathtub.
Now, in time for the third anniversary of the attacks, they’ve released a trailer, some time lapse segments, and a webcam. Begun with an imperative to capture History and only a bare conception of what it might actually look like, the filmmakers added street-level and firehouse cameras later on.
Which is interesting, because by definition, human presence, the individual, is rendered invisible in a multi-year time lapse. Like Hiroshi Sugimoto’s movie screen photographs, which are exposed for the duration of a film. Technically, the resulting image “contains” all the information in the film, but the screen itself is pure white. Meanwhile, the minutest details of the theaters–architecture, seats, stages, curtains–emerge from the darkness only because of the projected film.

projectrebirth.org
Ground Zero, The Long View [Sarah Boxer, NYT]

Jim Whitaker is the director of a documentary in the making of the changes taking place at the World Trade Center site. Project Rebirth, as it’s called, has been taking time lapse imagery from various cameras perched on buildings surrounding the site since the Spring of 2002, after most debris was cleared away from The Bathtub.
Now, in time for the third anniversary of the attacks, they’ve released a trailer, some time lapse segments, and a webcam. Begun with an imperative to capture History and only a bare conception of what it might actually look like, the filmmakers added street-level and firehouse cameras later on.
Which is interesting, because by definition, human presence, the individual, is rendered invisible in a multi-year time lapse. Like Hiroshi Sugimoto’s movie screen photographs, which are exposed for the duration of a film. Technically, the resulting image “contains” all the information in the film, but the screen itself is pure white. Meanwhile, the minutest details of the theaters–architecture, seats, stages, curtains–emerge from the darkness only because of the projected film.

projectrebirth.org
Ground Zero, The Long View [Sarah Boxer, NYT]

Wallpaper* founding editor Tyler Brule will host and produce The Desk, BBC4’s “long awaited media show,” a media-gazing TV gig even more prestigious than, say, Topic A with Tina Brown.
Brule’s strategy for getting the slot may give a hint of what to come; according to the Guardian, Brule first had to beat off some stiff challengers, and “he also beat off other more experienced media experts including Loaded founder James Wheeler, author Paul Morley and Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark.”
Apparently, so many people wanted to try their hand at the low-paying job because it’s been a stepping stone for careers in television. I was going to try to squeeze a couple more jokes out of this, but I think I’ll stop here.
Wallpaper man wraps up BBC media role [Media Guardian, via mediabistro]
It takes a village planner, Brule’s imaginary neighborhood shop-a-thon for NYT’s T

Wallpaper* founding editor Tyler Brule will host and produce The Desk, BBC4’s “long awaited media show,” a media-gazing TV gig even more prestigious than, say, Topic A with Tina Brown.
Brule’s strategy for getting the slot may give a hint of what to come; according to the Guardian, Brule first had to beat off some stiff challengers, and “he also beat off other more experienced media experts including Loaded founder James Wheeler, author Paul Morley and Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark.”
Apparently, so many people wanted to try their hand at the low-paying job because it’s been a stepping stone for careers in television. I was going to try to squeeze a couple more jokes out of this, but I think I’ll stop here.
Wallpaper man wraps up BBC media role [Media Guardian, via mediabistro]
It takes a village planner, Brule’s imaginary neighborhood shop-a-thon for NYT’s T

Irene Lacher writes in the NYT about the influx of film directors to the operatic stage. Lacher likes her movie directos old and in hollywood; she mentions Garry Marshall, William Friedkin, Robert Altman. Sure, Julie Taymor, who was directing operas long before Disney got her to direct Lion King…on Broadway, which was before she directed an actual film. And Scorsese, who’s repeatedly told the Met the opera can wait as he heeds the camera’s call.
And she likes her opera small and local. Baz Luhrman gets a parenthetical, but then, he only directed La Boheme, TWICE. Zhang Yimou’s mentioned in passing, but, oddly, not for either of his spectacular Turandot stagings.
And film’s biggest opera divas, meanwhile, are left talking to the hand: Lars von Trier’s high profile abandonment of Bayreuth (doesn’t Wagner still count as opera? I mean, come on, Viking chicks? Hello?) gets nothing. And a movie/opera article without even a hint of Peter Greenaway, whose movie-opera-website-installation art synesthesia made him the tiresome eminence grise of the genre? As W. says, we’ve turned a corner.
The Camera Can Wait: Directors Hear Opera’s Call [NYT]
[update: Barry/Bloggy also points out another director who’s operatic dabblings don’t register in Hollywood never heard of in Hollywood: Luchino Visconti. So he revived Donizetti at La Scala with Maria Callas. What’s he done lately?]

Sharon Waxman has a report from the set of Team America: World Police, a $32 million puppet action film being directed by a couple of reluctant, foul-mouthed punks pulled from obscurity by Paramount.
Somehow the pair of college buddies, named Matt Stone and Trey Parker, got their pitch–a 3-minute clip of The Thunderbirds with new dialogue dubbed over it–to producer Scott Rudin, and Paramount to greenlight it immediately, even though the guys have no previous puppeteering experience.
Now enduring weeks of 14-hour days shooting, “with three weeks of production to go, the filmmakers found themselves in a warp-speed work schedule of shooting all day, editing half the night and rewriting on the weekends. ‘Every shot is problem solving,’ Mr. Parker explained.”
When they’re stumped, the pair follows one article of faith aspiring action filmmakers would do well to remember, WWJBD? What Would Jerry Bruckheimer Do?

The UK Observer does a trend story on guerilla media, that starts with grafitti and small-house publishing, but is mostly a mashup on underground bands–kids playing gigs on the tube, for example–and indie filmmakers–like Outfoxed‘s Roger Greenwald, and Chris Jones and Genevieve Joliffe, authors of The Guerrilla Film Makers Handbook.
According to the Observer, J&J “managed to cast Harrison Ford’s little-known brother Terence as the male lead in The Runner,” their 1992 sci-fi? thriller? horror? flick. Considering how hard he is to reach these days, I’m sure the Observer means “then-little-known.”
Art Attack [Observer-UK]

You’ve gotta see Errol Morris’s commercials for MoveOn PAC, the unaccountable special interest division of MoveOn.org. Morris took the “Switch” concept he used for Apple, and shot ads of Republicans who discuss switching their vote to Kerry. Morris’s straight-on interviewing style and deft editing manage to convey real peoples’ nuanced, complex, and sincere perspectives. The word that sticks with me most: Betrayed.
Of course, MoveOn’s populist, anti-war-energized donors voted to run the ad about WMD lies, which strikes me as the ad they most want to show Republicans rather than the ad that’s most likely to sway Republicans to switch.
Each ad may elicit its own rebuttal–or, at least there are automatic administration retorts of varying degrees of accuracy/effectiveness; I see the William Harrop ad as vulnerable to criticism of “sour grapes,” and the economic thesis of the Brady Van Matre ad doesn’t make sense. But the cumulative effect of so many Republican voices of discontent is quite powerful.
As a registered Republican (Yow, where’d that come from??) my top picks are Rhonda Nix, Kenneth Berg, and Sid Hasan.
Related:
Philip Gourevitch reports from the set: context, insightful comments from Morris, spin from MoveOn’s Wes Boyd, and a bit of “we’re politicians above all” from the Kerry campaign.
“Confessions of A Republican,” Johnson’s powerful 1964 ad, which was entirely scripted. [from AMMI’s The Living Room Candidate]
My interview with Errol Morris

Despite the unmitigated embarassment of his last three directorial forays, the actor Kevin Costner still felt qualified, nay, compelled to let fly with the advice on the set of his current film, Untitled Ted Griffin Project. After wrapping for the day rather than engage in a duel-to-the-death on jet skis, writer/first-time director, Ted Griffin, got the axe. A Fly on The Wall has a gory report from the set [via Defamer]
Now tell me first-time directors, what hurts more:
1) Getting fired from your first film, which you wrote the script for, and which is still named after you?
2) Getting fired by the Patron Saint of First Filmmakers, the man you wrote Ocean’s Eleven for, Steven Soderbergh?
3) Getting replaced by Rob Reiner? I mean, come on, what’s he ever done?? [Okay, you’re not helping here…]

With the sole exception of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, no movie has provided as dead-on accurate a depiction of war as David O. Russell’s Three Kings. Now, in an example of cautious “I told you so” prophecy-checking, Russell is co-directing a documentary that revisits aspects of his 1999 film about the first Gulf War.
Sharon Waxman reports that the $180,000 film is being rushed out for both a new DVD and an unusual theatrical re-release of the original film.
In collaboration with with Juan Carlos Zaldivar and Tricia Regan, Russell interviews Iraqi refugee extras from Three Kings (which was shot in California and Mexico, not the mideast, btw) and veterans of both GWI and II. In at least one life-imitates-art moment, a soldier who got the nickname “Clooney” for his involvement last year in attempted looting from Saddam’s hoards of cash.
I probably shouldn’t even link to the old DVD at this point, but in case they replace the good commentary tracks…
Related: Bloghdad.com/Three_Kings
Partying with David O. Russell

While looking at film directors who are more than dabbling in television, the Village Voice’s Joy Press puts the current trend into context. Turns out indie-types like Miguel Arteta (Six Feet Under) and Neil Labute (The L Word)(What’s that? Sorry, don’t have Showtime.) aren’t the first, just the latest.
It seems film auteurs have been happily trading “total creative control” for “a job that actually pays” at least since Robert Altman’s days on Bonanza. No news there. And with the networks turning to blockbuster hacks, the only creativity seems to be on HBO. And Showtime. Again, no surprise.
What IS interesting, though, could be called Six Degrees of Barry Levinson. Turns out a whole crop of indie vets, including Arteta, Lisa Cholodenko, Mary Harron, and Whit Stillman (speaking of whom, where is that guy?) all got to work on Levinson’s series Homicide in the early 90’s.
So how’s about letting a crop of indie punks loose on the set of Law & Order, then?

OK, do I shoot down that comparison in the first sentence, or later on? Starting with his sculpture and environmental pieces, and later with his video and photography, I’ve been a fan of Jonah Freeman’s work for more than six years. But with The Franklin Abraham, his current exhibition at Andrew Kreps Gallery, I think he has reached a synthesis, a new mode that has implications beyond just his own work.
I put Gabriel Orozco and Matthew Barney on a rather arbitrary spectrum (Orozco because I just wrote about his documentary and videos a few posts ago, Barney because he’s the apotheosis of something, at least). Actually, the comparison’s not that far-fetched; all three artists, including Freeman, move easily between mediums, although at least Barney and Orozco consider themselves sculptors first. The two old mens’ videos have something else in common; they can be controversially tedious to watch, especially if you’re not in the mood.

Continue reading “Plotting Jonah Freeman on the Matthew Barney — Gabriel Orozco Axis”