After an introduction from current DGA president Taylor Hackford,Ā Michael Apted hosts a discussion which sees Abrams and Cameron ask Spielberg questions about his films and career.
It isn’t availabe as an embed but if you click on the image below, it will take you to the DGA page where – if you scroll down a bit – Ā the full video can be found, along with highlights and photos:
Lasting over 90 minutes, it is a fascinating talk and covers:
The early visual effects Spielberg employed on Close Encounters and why heĀ re-shotĀ the ending
The classic fight scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and the fact that Spielberg didn’t get ill whilst filming in Tunisia because he had Sainsbury’s canned food shipped in from the UK.
Tips on directing children and how a fantastic preview screening of E.T. (1982)Ā upset actor Henry Thomas
How he had to adapt his directorial style for Schindler’s List (1993)
The visual effects breakthroughs on Jurassic Park (1993)
It is 20 years since Terminator 2: Judgment Day opened in US cinemas, so to celebrate here are 20 facts about the film you may not know.
1. It is technically an independent film
The first Terminator was made outside the studio system, as it was funded by Hemdale Pictures and distributed by Orion. Although the original film was a box office hit in 1984, the sequel was held up by various legal issues which were only resolved when Carolco stepped in to purchase the rights. Run by Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, the company had become very successful in the 1980s on the back of the Rambo franchise – First Blood (1982) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1984) ā the latter of which Cameron co-wrote. So, although a big budget spectacular, it was independently financed outside the studio system.
2. James Cameron had previously sold his rights to the franchise for $1
Although he created the iconic character and story, Cameron sold his stake in any future sequels for the nominal sum of $1 before the first film was even made. His reasoning was that this was the only way he would be allowed to direct his first feature film. As it established his career, he later said that was the price of a āHollywood educationā. In 2009 he told the Toronto Sun :
“I wish I hadn’t sold the rights for one dollar. If I had a little time machine and I could only send back something the length of a tweet, it’d be – ‘Don’t sell.’
Although he was paid a reported $6m to write and direct T2, he has never seen any money from any of the subsequent films, TV shows or merchandising.
3. The film has a strange connection with the Rodney King incident
The biker bar scene where the T800 arrives was filmed just across the road from where LAPD officers assaulted Rodney King in March 1991. The famous amateur video, shot by George Holliday, is reputed to have two bits of footage on it. One is the T2 crew filming shots of Schwarzenegger and Furlong on a motorbike in the San Fernando Valley and the other ā shot later ā is of several police officers beating the crap out of King.
The resulting trial of the officers and their controversial acquittal triggered the LA riots of April 1992.
The irony is that the villain of T2 is a cop. When writing the script several months before filming, Cameron wrestled with what form the T-1000 would settle on and in Rebecca Keeganās biography āThe Futuristā explained why he chose a police officer:
“The Terminator films are not really about the human race getting killed off by future machines. They’re about us losing touch with our own humanity and becoming machines, which allows us to kill and brutalise each other. Cops think of all non-cops as less than they are, stupid, weak and evil. They dehumanise the people they are sworn to protect and desensitise themselves in order to do that job.”
4. The groundbreaking visuals involved the first version of Photoshop Dennis Muren of ILM was in charge of the 35 CGI artists who achieved the ground breaking visual effects of T2. Using techniques that had been pioneered in The Abyss (1987) and Willow (1988), the breakthrough came with a new piece of software that was the first version of Photoshop.
John Knoll of ILM and his brother Thomas Knoll (a PhD student at theĀ University of Michigan) had developed the program, and like the chip in the movie which takes Cyberdyne in new directions, it allowed them to create the remarkable liquid effects in the pseudopod sequence in The Abyss (the first film ever to use Photoshop) and the morphing transitions in Ron Howardās Willow (where humans turn in to animals).
For Terminator 2 Cameron decided to go much further and have a major character which was heavily reliant on the emerging digital tools. ILM created a version of what would become the scene where a silvery T-1000 walks out of the fiery wreckage of a burning truck.
Cameron was impressed and the visual effects budget ended up being $6m (a huge sum at the time), but it raised the bar for the entire industry. Muren and ILM would build on their work by creating the dinosaurs for Jurassic Park (1993) – if you look closely at the scene where Cyberdyne Systems is introduced you can spot an inflatable dinosaur hanging from the ceiling.
5. Billy Idol was the original choice for the T-1000
Hemdale had wanted O.J. Simpson to play the Terminator in the original film and T2 had its own strange moment of casting when Billy Idol was considered for the role of the T-1000. Cameron even featured the rocker in early concept drawings for the character but after he got injured in a motorcycle accident Idol was replaced by Robert Patrick.
6. English censors had major problems with two scenes
The BBFC objected to the scene in the psychiatric hospital where Sarah Connor picks a lock with a paper-clip, as they felt it was too realistic and might encourage people to copy it. They also had issues with the shoot out at Cyberdyne Systems where the T-800 shoots several SWAT team members in the leg as it resembled the old IRA practice where paramilitaries shot victims through their kneecaps.
7. Two sets of twins were used in the film
Two scenes utilised a pair of identical twins to create the illusion of the T-1000 in disguise as another character. Don and Dan Stanton (who had previously been in Good Morning Vietnam) played the hospital security guard who gets caught out at the coffee machine. Linda Hamilton’s twin sister was used as a double in the climactic fight and another (deleted) scene involving a mirror.
8. It was the most expensive film ever made
At a budget of $102m it was, at the time, the most expensive film ever made. But, like the Rambo movies, it was funded by pre-sales to foreign distributors. With Schwarzenegger and Cameron now much more bankable figures at the box office, Carolco not only raised the budget easily but had even made a profit before the film was released. Cameronās future films Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009) would also become the most expensive made up to that point, as well as the most successful.
9. Cameron also produced Point Break whilst preparing T2
During the preparation for T2, Cameron also served as producer on Kathryn Bigelowās Point Break. Cameron had married Bigelow in 1989 and had also directed her in a music video (‘Reach’ by Martini Ranch), where she played the leader of a cowgirl gang.
Point Break was originally known as Johnny Utah and Bigelow was determined to cast Keanu Reeves in the lead role, which puzzled Cameron as the actor was best known for the Bill and Ted movies. The film would open the week after T2 in July 1991 and was a box office success which established Reeves as an action star.
10. Arnold Schwarzenegger was initially disappointed with his āgoodā character
Cameron completed the script in a marathon 36 hour writing session in May 1990, just before flying to the Cannes film festival where Carolco officially announced it.Ā When Cameron first told him of the idea that the T-800 would kill anyone, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a little concerned that the Terminator would not actually terminate anyone.
11. Part of Robert Patrickās anatomy had to be digitally removed from one scene
For the scene where the naked T-1000 arrives and steals the cops clothes, the effects team had to digitally remove a sensitive part of Robert Patrick’s anatomy. But on video versions of the film it partially showed up, prompting Cameron to later joke that he wanted his money back for the “digital willy removal”.
12. Linda Hamilton became deaf in one ear during filming
In the elevator sequence where Sarah Connor escapes from the hospital with John and the T-800, Hamilton went for a bathroom break and forgot to put her ear plugs back in. When Schwarzenegger fired his shotgun at the T-1000 above right by her, it resulted in serious hearing loss in one ear.
13. Practical make-up was blended with the CGI
The visual effects by ILM were skilfully blended with practical special effects and make-up from Stan Winston’s studio which involved the deteriorating face and body of the T-800 and the changes in the T-1000 as it got shot and physically distorted.
14. The sounds of the film were a lot cheaper than the visuals
The sound of the T1000 morphing was achieved in a number of cost-effective ways. When it moves through the bars at the psychiatric hospital, we are hearing the sound of a can of dog food being emptied. Another foley effect was achieved by dipping a condom-covered microphone into a mixture of flour and water and then shooting compressed air into it.
15. The freeway chase involved some highly dangerous stunt work
Cameron shot the helicopter chase on the freeway himself as his Steadicam operator felt it was too risky. If you look closely you’ll see an actual chopper fly under the freeway overpass and in a later shot just clear a bridge. Cameron implicitly trusted his helicopter pilot, but also admitted that a stunt involving the T800 jumping on to a moving truck was “really dangerous” and that he wouldn’t have done it in later films.
16. The ending was changed late on
The original ending saw an older Sarah Connor look at her son John playing with his daughter in a peaceful future scenario but was cut after a test screening at Skywalker Ranch. Carolco felt it would ruin any future sequels and Cameron relented with a rewrite just one month before the film’s release, using road footage from the scene just before the attack on Cyberdyne Systems. The first ending can be seen in later special editions of the film.
17. It was the highest grossing film of 1991 and won 4 Oscars
When it eventually did open on July 4th weekend in 1991, it opened in 2,274 cinemas and half of all tickets sold in America were for T2. It earned $54 million during that weekend and would eventually gross $204 million in the United States and $519 million worldwide.Ā
At the 64th Academy Awards it won Oscars for Best Sound, Best Make Up, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing. It was nominated for Best Cinematography and Film Editing.
18. Despite the huge success of T2 Carolco later went bankrupt
Although Carolco made had major hits such as T2 and Basic Instinct (1992), the company played a risky game in the early 1990s. As their budgets grew, they needed to have hit after hit to sustain their growing costs. Whilst major studios had the protection of a larger corporate owner, Carolco eventually came to grief with the disastrous releases of Cutthroat Island and Showgirls in 1995. Both were costly flops and the company filed for bankruptcy, with most of their assets being purchased for $50 million. Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna later created C2 Pictures which produced Terminator 3 in 2003.
19. It got a timely DVD release in August 1997
T2 has been released by several different companies on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray. In 1993, the Special Edition cut of the film was released to Laserdisc and VHS, containing 17 minutes of never-before-seen footage including a dream sequence featuring Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn, a scene where John Connor prevents Sarah from destroying the Terminator and the original epilogue of an elderly Sarah in the future.
The subsequent “Ultimate Edition” and “Extreme Edition” releases also contain this version of the film.Ā When it was first released on DVD as a single disc in August 1997 – the same month as the original ājudgement dayā in the film.
20. Skynet went live around the same time as Google
In the film we learn that Skynet goes live on August 29th 1997, whilst in real life the domain name for Google was registered on September 15th 1997. Coincidence? š
Recently, Ray Pride published a 2001 memo David Lynch wrote to cinema ‘projection departments’ in order to remind them of the aspect ratio, sound (‘3db hotter than normal’) and slight tweaks to the ‘headroom’ for screenings of Mulholland Drive.
Project the film in its proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
The correct fader setting on Dolby and DTS systems is 7. Malick asks that faders be kept at 7.5 or even 7.7, system permitting.
The film has no opening credits, and the booth operator is asked to make sure the “lights down cue is well before the opening frame of reel 1.”
With all the recent talk of “darkier, lousier” images, operators are asked that lamps are at “proper standard (5400 Kelvin)” and that the “foot Lambert level is at Standard 14.”
After some high profile disappointments (3D versions of Pirates of the Carribbean 4 and Green Lantern grossed less than expected) this tentpole release will be keenly watched by Hollywood.
The letters are also timely as projection in multiplexes is often poor, with multiplex chains skimping on bulbs and often showing a movie with the incorrect aspect ratio.
With the advent of digital projection systems these problems were supposed to be addressed, but it seems that some cinemas are still cutting corners and shortchanging audiences and filmmakers.
This video demonstrates how modern cinema projectors work:
Back in 1998, Paul Thomas Anderson spoke to Mike Figgis about the old saying that the ‘projectionist has final cut’ and how he witnessed a bad Fuji print of Boogie Nights at an LA cinema (relevant part starts at 6.24):
To some this may seem like technical trivia but if cinema is to survive in an era of digital downloads and shortening windows, then projection standards must remain high.
One can only guess what Stanley Kubrick would have made of the more developed online world we now live in.
Like many celebrities, over the last couple of years various actors, directors and producers have embraced Twitter as a self-promotional tool which use to engage fans and post updates.
But what about those filmmakers whose online activities go a little deeper?
I can’t remember when I first heard that David Lynch had a website, but it was a few years ago and when it turned out he was selling ringtones and doing weather reports, I had to check it out. Designed and maintained by the indexsy seo agency, it is now mostly dedicated to his music and you can also see the live Duran Duran concert he recently directed, as well as various music tracks from his films and TV shows. He also occasionally does cooking videos.
Ever since securing the ingenious URL www.romzom.com (sadly no longer active) for his breakout film Shaun of the Dead (2004), Edgar Wright has been fairly active online with behind-the-scenes video podcasts for Hot Fuzz (2007)Ā and his own website which seemed to start in 2009.Ā HeĀ regularlyĀ posts articles, videos and a lot of photos (at one point he even did a daily photo thing), but he also engages with people in the comments section, puts up videos he’s directed (be they music promos or early experiments in editing) and generally has a bit of a laugh whilst doing so. He’s also pretty active on Twitter.
What does one of the world’s greatest cinematographers do when he’s not shooting films like True Grit (2010), No Country for Old Men (2007) or The Shawshank Redemption (1994)? It turns out he runs a pretty active forum on his own website, where he answers questions from readers all around the world.Ā Whether you have a query about cameras, lighting, digital intermediates, whether 4K really matters or the merits of anamorphic over super 35mm, Roger is there. It is more for the technically minded film fan, but given his amazing back catalogue of films, there are some illuminating stories on how scenes were shot and put together. An incredible resource, it’s a bit like having Paul McCartney give out song writingĀ tips at your local music venue.
The screenwriter of Go (1999), Big Fish (2003) andĀ Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) runs a site he describes as ‘a ton of useful information about screenwriting’ and he’s not wrong with that description. When you think of screenwriting gurus who charge hefty amounts for books and seminars, it’s worth noting that a successful, working screenwriter is giving away lots of useful advice for free on a regular basis.Ā More than that, he takes time to answer reader comments and also blogs with a lot of insight about storytelling and the wider industry. It is particularly useful for those little practical details which confront the working screenwriter, be it formatting, genres or pitching. He has also created an iPad app for reading screenplays (FDX Reader) and a web browser extension (Less IMDb) that makes the movie reference site easier to navigate.
The producer of Natural Born Killers (1994), Apt Pupil (1998), From Hell (2001) and the Transformers franchise runs what appears to be a fairly old school site. But look deeper and you find some hidden treasures, such as a message board, genuinely interesting links, and some fantastic Hollywood stories.Ā There are sections titled good guys (Michael De Luca), bad guys (Peter Biskind), fun with lawsuits (eye opening to say the least) and an archive of related stuff going back to 1997. You can also make him happy by sending him the front page of the LA Times from June 18th 1952.
The successful US indie producer (American Splendor, In The Bedroom) has been an active blogger and Twitter user at a time of great turmoil and change for the independent sector. Part of that is down to the challenges facing filmmakers and distributors in a world where old economic models have been disrupted by new technologies and the financial crisis.Ā His previous blog has now moved over to IndieWire and is a good place to visit to find out what the future of the industry might look like, as the ideas and debates he encourages may filter through to the mainstream.
If you have any other examples of filmmakers using the web in interesting ways, then leave them below.
It is a smart way of marketing The Tree of Life to audiences concerned by the unusual nature of the film and perhaps says to geekier audiences that there is more to cinema than just comic book adaptations and Hollywood conventions.
The Tree of Life is in limited release in the US and opens wide on July 8th, the same day as the UK release.
A wonderfully prescient shot in Following even features a Batman logo – who could have predicted that Nolan would asked to reboot the franchise a few years later?
Earlier this month the third film in the Batman series The Dark Knight Rises (2012) began filming at the Farmiloe building in Clerkenwell.
The location was used as the Gotham City Police Station in the last two films and for sequences in Inception.
The building is adjacent to a public street, so some people were able to take photos and videos of cars, trucks, cranes and lights, although it seemed the filming took place behind closed doors.
But Craig Grobler of The Establishing Shot took an interesting set of photos at the location (no real spoilers) and caught glimpses of Nolan, Wally Pfister and a bunch of extras dressed as the Gotham SWAT team.
Check out the full gallery here:
There is also some video here:
In addition, filming has also taken place in Croydon and other locations around the UK before heading to the United States.
The Dark Knight Rises is scheduled to open in July 2012
A NASA video of Space Shuttle Endeavor‘s last launch has been re-cut so we can see all four camera angles simultaneously.
The original video was shot on multiple cameras fixed to the solid rocket boosters, but a Vimeo user (Northern Lights)Ā has re-arranged the footage so we can see it side-by-side.
Set to the music ofĀ Ulf Lohmann from the Because Before album, the end result is pretty spectacular.
(For the full effect, be sure expand the video to full screen)
First, they discuss a sequence from Frank Darabont’s drama, where Andy Dusfresne (Tim Robbins) gets in to a row with prison guard Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) on the roof of Shawshank Prison.
They discuss the use of a crane shot, how safety cables were removed digitally and the segue to his favourite shot of the film, where Morgan Freeman’s voiceover ‘syncs’ with the movement of the camera. (Click here to see the video)
Then they talk about the scene from the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men where Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) examines a hotel room where Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is hiding in the dark.
A tense sequence, in which light and angles play a key role, they discuss specific shots and how certain decisions were made on the set.
For anyone interested in the cinematic image or how DPs visually construct a scene, it is essential viewing.
One of the most interesting films of the late 1980s was John Carpenter’s They Live.
After his amazing run of genre films in the late 70s and early 80s (from Assault On Precinct 13 until Escape From New York), his efforts at major studios seemd to lack the intensity of his early career.
But in 1988 he returned with a sci-fi horror film that was a chilling and darkly comic response to the dark side of Regan’s America.
The story of a wandering man (Roddy Piper) who discovers sinister forces secretly shaping society through advertising, it has a new relevance in these recessionary times.
Part of what makes the film so effective is that it wraps a subversive message within the form of an entertaining sci-fi thriller.
In fact, I would suggest that it is one of the most quietly subversive films ever released by a major studio and was possibly a big influence on The Matrix (1999).
Carpenter recently recorded this video introduction for the film for an upcoming screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas.
Filmed at the home of Stan Laurel’s daughter, Lois in Reseda, California, it features Stan Laurel and his wife Ida, Oliver Hardy and his wife Virginia, Andy Wade (who shot the film), Stan’s daughter Lois, her husband Rand Brooks and their children Randy and Laurie.
Presented by Steve Rider, the 50 minute programme features plenty of archive footage from Senna’s life and interviews with Frank Williams, Alain Prost, Gerhard Berger, Martin Brundle, Damon Hill, and Nigel Mansell.
During the making of Full Metal Jacket (1987), Modine was allowed to keep a detailed diary and director Stanley Kubrick even granted him rare permission to take photos on set.
The end result was a limited edition book of about 20,000 copies but producer Adam Rackoff and Modine came up with the idea of an iPad app based on the existing materials.
It will use rescanned images, along with audio of Modine reading his own diary entries and feature previously unseen content.
Colour footage from the London Screen Archive shows the victory celebrations of 1945.
Shot on 16mm shot by Lieutenant Sidney Sasson of the US Army Signal Corps (Army Pictorial Service), it shows the victory celebrations in London on VE Day (May 8th 1945) and VJ Day (August 15th 1945).
Among the locations featured are 33 Davies Street, Piccadilly Circus, Charing Cross, and Trafalgar Square.
Look out for the billboard for the James Cagney film Blood on the Sun (1945), which I would guess was showing at the Empire Leicester Square.
Famous Russian studio Mosfilm have posted some of its most notable films on their own YouTube channel.
Their output includes pioneering works byĀ Andrei Tarkovsky andĀ Sergei Eisenstein and they aim to post five films a week (many have EnglishĀ subtitles).
I Am I is one of many independent film projects that have used the website Kickstarter to raise funds.
Launched in April 2009, the New York based site allows people to fund creative projects from a wide range of areas, including independent films, music and technology.
Some key quotes cover the changes in the film business:
“Iāve seen independent film die and be re-born at least three or four times. When it does, it reminds me how terrified we are of change – how terrified the film business is of change.”
On VOD and the theatrical experience:
“The state of cinema is not necessarily taking place in cinema’
The rise of quality TV (e.g. HBO, AMC) and how younger filmmakers want to work there:
“[Now] TV is so much less risk averse than cinema”
On the quality of shows involving women in the pay TV realm:
“There are more female-centric stories now than ever before on cable television –“Weeds”, “The United States Of Tara”, “Nurse Jackie”, “Mildred Pierce”, “The C Word”. That’s unheard of.”
The dangers of a head-in-the-sand attitude:
“I think nostalgia is the most dangerous emotion in the world.”
Her Twitter stream provided an interesting snapshot of reactions:
Some of the reactions surprised me in their negativity, but it seems to me this was a working producer just being honest about the realities of her world in 2011.
“anyway — not sure I’ll be invited back to San Francisco!”
Negative comments can always appear louder online (a majority at the event may have agreed with her, but chose not to tweet) but it seemed some of her audience just don’t get what is happening to the wider film business and the kind of pressures that are affecting the mainstream and indie worlds.
It is fine (and laudable) to be a champion of the art of cinema, but it seems like there is a subset of people who secretly despise new technology like digital cameras and projection, social networks and Netflix under the banner of defending ‘film culture’.
At one point an audience member seemed bewildered why a famous San Francisco cinema like the Castro is dark on certain nights in the week.Ā It is presumably because people aren’t actually going.
Why? Maybe the choice and cost of entertainment in the home makes people think twice about a trip to an arthouse cinema that can only show a limited selection of films at one time.
(An independent cinema like the Prince Charles in London can survive by being smart and connected with its audience. Mixing quality commercial fare withĀ arthouseĀ films, they are even showing Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah (1982) in its entirety (over 9 hours) on June 18th.)
Whilst I’m a big believer in the theatrical experience and a keen advocate for quality film, what are some people proposing here?
Can we really lobby government or public bodies to keepĀ art houseĀ cinemas alive?Ā With a financial crisis and recession, I would guess it isn’t exactly top of a politician’s to-do list.
Vachon hits the nail on the head when she says that keeping arthouses alive isn’t the discussion she wants to be having and instead thinks the vital question is:
“How do we engage an independent filmmaking community with its audience?”
There is no easy answer to this question, whichĀ presumablyĀ involves a mixture of different platforms, quality films and pioneering release strategies.
With the recent release window controversy, it is something that also applies to the multiplexes, but it still remains the right question to be asking.
After losing his lower jaw (and nearly his life) to cancer in 2006, he also lost the ability to speak but has since managed to communicate with readers online and even had a Scottish company digitally reconstruct his voice from hours of his television shows.
With the help of the voice program on his Mac, his wife Chaz and friends Dean Ornish and John Hunter, Ebert presents a powerful story, but also makes some profound points about the impact of technology and the Internet.
Shot by his son-in-law John Boettiger, who worked for the Motion Picture Association of America, it features some revealing images of the 32nd President of the United States, including a boating trip and his Third Inauguration in 1941.
The quality is strikingly good and gives a vivid glimpse of one the key political figures of the 20th century.
Hosted by Ira Flatow, the discussion is themed on the connection between art and science and also includes physicist Lawrence Krauss.
Aside from being a great meeting of minds, is it a genuinely fascinating hour long talk that also takes in Herzog’s latest documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams, his 3D exploration of the ancient Chauvet cave in France.
There are some classic Herzog moments during the discussion in which he says the end of humanity will happen ‘quite soon’ (well, a thousand years) and that even if the human race could escape to the nearest star, there would be ‘madness and murder’ en route.
We also get a classic bit where the German auteur reads a passage from McCarthy’s novel All The Pretty Horses.
But it became hugely popular with movie poster designers, as this video by Kirby Ferguson demonstrates.
But check out this slideshow to get some idea of how ubiquitous it has become:
The easy answer as to its success is that it has been used in popular movies, but I think there is a deeper reason as to why it became so popular.
Maybe the old-style classiness projects an image of authority, which might also explain why politicians love it.
This is actually important for upscale mainstream films such as Titanic which are looking for that veneer of class to distinguish themselves from rival fare at the multiplex.
In a sense the font has come to represent a hybrid of commercial success and cultural importance, even if the films using it have neither.
Maybe after the phenomenon of Titanic, it spread like a virus amongst movie marketing departments because they wanted to emulate that elusive holy grail of box office dollars and worthy prestige.
Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin‘s pioneering mission into space and First Orbit is a new documentary that gives audiences a view of what the cosmonaut would have seen.
Directed by Chris Riley, it uses footage shot aboard the International Space Station the film mixes some extraordinary images with Gagarin’s historic voice recordings aboard the Vostok 1 along with an original score by composer Philip Sheppard.
It begins in 499 BC, when people in Europe started to record events, then goes to Asia and after 1492 the Americas light up as the image of the modern world begins to form.
Gareth Lloyd and Tom Martin used geotagged articles from Wikipedia with references to 14,238 historical events and this is the video:
Many wikipedia articles have coordinates. Many have references to historic events. Me (@godawful) and Tom Martin (@heychinaski) cross referenced the two to create a dynamic visualization of Wikipedia’s view of world history. Watch as empires fall, wars break out and continents are discovered.
This won “Best Visualization” at Matt Patterson’s History Hackday in January, 2011. To make it, we parsed an xml dump of all wikipedia articles (30Gb) and pulled out 424,000 articles with coordinates and 35,000 references to events. Cross referencing these produced 15,500 events with locations. Then we mapped them over time.
He had already worked with director Steven Spielberg on films such as The Sugarland Express (1974) and Jaws (1975), but Close Encounters involved more elaborate sets and visual effects.
When Garrett Brown invented the Steadicam in the 1970s it had an immediate impact on how films were shot.
Before his invention if filmmakers wanted tracking shots (i.e. ones where the camera moves), they were limited to using a dolly track or hand-held work.
After shooting a demo reel with a prototype rig, he caught the attention of Hollywood and it led to work on such films as Bound for Glory (1976), Rocky (1976) and The Shining (1980) as well as an Academy Award of Merit.
Last year at the EG conference Brown gave a talk where he described how he came up with the idea for his revolutionary camera rig and its subsequent applicationĀ in movies, sports broadcasting and industry.
Among the things worth noting are:
His father Rodney G Brown invented the ‘hot melt’ glue used in paperback books
He was once a folk singer
Kubrick’s desire for multiple takes on The Shining helped him become a better operator
He teaches Steadicam operators to have a calm demeanor
Working on Return of the Jedi (1983) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) helped inspire the SkyCam
The original demo for the Steadicam prototype was filmed on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which directly inspired the famous scene in Rocky
Vanity Fair’s recent in-depth piece on the making of All The President’s Men (1976) has some fascinating pieces of information about the classic political drama.
Written by Michael Feeney Callan, the author of a forthcomingĀ Robert Redfordbiography, it reveals the following:
When Robert Redford first met Bob Woodward in Washington, D.C., he also bumped into Bobby Kennedy‘s widow Ethel Kennedy (“She had seen The Candidate and, responding to the Bill McKay roleāa fictional Senate candidate from Californiaātold Redford she was no fan of it”)
Bob Woodward admitted Redford’s involvement in a film project influenced his book with Carl Bernstein (ā…weād been influenced by Redford in the way we compiled it. It was he who suggested we make it about the investigation, and not about the dirty-tricks campaign”)
Screenwriter William Goldman only got involved in the project by accident after a social meeting with Redford and a mix up at publisher Simon and Schuster (“I didnāt mean to involve him in the project, and I wasnāt commissioning him as the screenwriter.ā)
Redford reveals that Goldman’s script – for which he won an Oscar – was heavily rewritten by himself and Pakula as they only ended up using one-tenth of his work (āAlan hated the script, and we immediately made arrangements to re-write it ourselves, since we learned Bill was tied up already, writing Marathon Man for John Schlesinger. I was furious, but to what purpose?”)
Redford turned down roles in Barry Lyndon (1975) and Superman (1978) so he could make the film.
Warner Bros chairman Ted Ashley had to dissuade Redford from his initial plan not to star in the film and shoot it in black and white (āTed didnāt beat around the bush,ā Redford recalls. āHe told us he needed to sell my name on the marquee, so the movie he was funding must have me in it.ā)
Al Pacino was Redford’s first choice for the Bernstein role (“But then I chewed it over,ā Redford adds, āand for some reason Dustin Hoffman seemed more like Carl in my mindās eye, so I called Dustin and asked him if he was interested. That was a very short phone call.ā)
Jason Robards was offered the role of Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee, even though he had recently suffered terrible facial injuries in a car crash.
Director Pakula and DP Gordon Willis were careful in creating the visual design of the film (āGordon had a very novel approach to his lenses based on the notion that a good cinematographer always surprises the eye, and we were all of one mind that, since the information to be related was often complex, even tedious, we needed a very stylized look and, of course, dynamic performances.ā)
Redford felt there was a harder side to Woodward than he let on (“Carl was the fuzzy, warm guy who tap-danced with his ego, while Bob was the hard man who went for the throat. …He has this thing about fires. Heās always poking at fires, always burning stuff”)
Redford felt Hoffman and Bernstein were very similar (“Carl and Dustin had a lot in common. Both were radicals, uptight and loose at the same time. And, like Carl, Dustin had a very, very healthy ego”)
Pakula was influenced by Elia Kazan and Alfred Hitchcock (“I grew up on [Elia] Kazan, really loved him. On the Waterfront was the most impressive movie from a performance point of view that Iād ever seen. Later I learned visual style from Hitchcock. For All the Presidentās Men I wanted to blend both”)
Redford reveals that The Washington Post set was recreated on a Hollywood sound stage because filming in the actual newsroom was chaotic (“the journalists and secretaries went crazy when Hollywood came in their midst. It was all giggling women and people doing their makeup and a general feeling of disorder. It was as bad for them as for us, and we knew we had to get out of there.ā)
A scene was tentatively scheduled to be shot at the White House but was vetoed by President Ford (“There was no way Ford would allow Redford to come to the White House to diss the previous president”)
Redford had to help out Pakula in post-production because of the director’s chronic indecision and reluctance to work beyond 6pm.
Warner Bros believed didn’t think it would make any money because people were sick of Watergate, but it eventually grossed a highly respectable $51 million.
Redford and Pakula argued about the finale but settled on a compromise of the image of the Teletype announcing Nixonās resignation.
The huge success of Jaws (1975) and its pioneering release strategy influenced the opening, as it was rolled out to major cities in quick succession.
For his last film A Passage to India (1984) he combined his directing and editing roles, as this clip from an episode of The Southbank Show in 1985 demonstrates:
His colleague and fellow director Ronald Neame once said:
David Lean was a great director, but he was an even better editor. He was one of the greatest editors of all time.
Last November Hollywood super-agent Ari Emanuel sat down for a chat with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin at the Web 2.0 summit.
As the CEOĀ ofĀ William Morris Endeavor Entertainment he is one of the key players in the industry and theĀ 45 minute discussion focuses on the economics ofĀ the entertainment businessĀ and the challenges of the digital age.
Some key points from the discussion are:
Why “There’s no one answer anymore”
How talent is monetised in the digital world
WME’s deal with LinkedIn
The ‘painful’ negotiations with Fox over Seth MacFarlane’s deal
Tensions between Silicon Valley and Hollywood
Google TV and the established TV networks
The importance of cost and worth
Should stars use social networks to broadcast themselves?
A possible deal with Facebook to fund a movie
Why he isn’t sure yet about signing YouTube stars
Why the music labels probably regret making the pricing deals with Apple a few years ago
His concerns about piracy
How Ari have advised a young Mark Zuckerberg
What he thinks of Ari Gold, the fictional agent in Entourage that was based on him
There is also a flash of his famous temper around the 30 minute mark in a question about piracy.
