After reading about a group of desperate slum dwellers from Sri Lanka who daringly posed as the non-existent national handball team in order to secure their passage out of the country, producer Uberto Pasolini decided to temporarily sit in the director’s chair to bring their true life story to the big screen.

Showlinks
Machan
The Full Monty

• Machan – Uberto Pasolini
• DN LFF08: Quick Gun Murugan – Shashank Ghosh
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening
• Hotel Harabati Competition
• DN Special: Joy Division – Grant Gee

Machan (2008)
Based on a true story, this tragicomical tale tells the story of a sports team with a difference… Living on the margins of society, under impossible pressures, a group of desperate slum dwellers find an invitation to a handball tournament in Bavaria, Germany. This one-way ticket to the West could be the answer to their prayers and a solution to all their problems… 

• DN EP 148: Machan – Uberto Pasolini
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson
• They Turned Our Desert Into Fire – Mark Brecke
• The Upper Hand – Lana Schwarcz

You know the sinking, gut wrenching feeling you get when your favourite TV show up and quits at the height of its success, or that band you love and adore call it a day after just a couple of kick arse albums? Well that’s something I’d always presumed wasn’t a worry I’d ever need to have when it came to film festivals but no, Filmstock, DN’s festival of choice will be no more after this weekend! I sat down with co-founders/directors Neil Fox & Justin Doherty to chat over how Filmstock has developed over the years and why they weren’t joking back in 2003 when they told me Filmstock would be; “…the festival that goes up to 11″.

Showlinks
Filmstock
Zero Balance
Exploits Of A Cultural Saboteur
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
Tony Hendra

• Filmstock: Establishing a Film Festival
• Filmstock 9
• Filmstock 11: This is the End
• Filmstock 11: The Best of the Shorts
• Filmstock 11: Oil City Confidential

In the third installment of our daily Doc/Fest gems, Super 8 legend Norwood Cheek takes us through the Attack of the 50 Foot Reels filmmaking challenge.

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A Buzz Films Production

• Doc/Fest 09 – The International Pitch
• Doc/Fest 09 – Crossover Summit
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 – Daisy Asquith
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod02 – Emily James
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod01 – Lee Kern

Sheffield Doc/Fest day two sees six filmmakers pitch for a £10k DFID funded opportunity to create a 10 minute short for the Community Channel. Greg Sanderson chairs a panel of judges including Executive Producer Jane Stephenson.

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A Buzz Films Production

• Doc/Fest 09 – Crossover Summit
• Doc/Fest 09 – Attack of the 50 Foot Reels
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 – Daisy Asquith
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod02 – Emily James
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod01 – Lee Kern

The time has come once again when the documentary film community converges on the city of Sheffield for Doc/Fest. With director Frank Boyd as their guide, Buzz Films‘ Jan Bednarz & Simon Wan captured the goings on at the inaugural Crossover Summit event.

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A Buzz Films Production

• Doc/Fest 09 – The International Pitch
• Doc/Fest 09 – Attack of the 50 Foot Reels
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 – Daisy Asquith
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod02 – Emily James
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod01 – Lee Kern

Sadly, we’ve reached the last of our London Film Festival ‘09 afternoon tea interviews, but it’s a great one to go out on. I very selfishly took up a nice chunk of time with directors Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas, who were at LFF for the premiere of their much anticipated documentary, American: The Bill Hicks Story – a look at the life of one of the world’s greatest comedians and thinkers, as told by the family and friends who truly knew him.

Showlinks
American: The Bill Hicks Story
Bill Hicks.com
Waltz with Bashir
The Kid Stays in the Picture
La Jetee
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe After Effects

• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy
• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: Starsuckers – Chris Atkins

For his third feature Passenger Side, director Matt Bissonnette decided to go back to basics and the freedom that comes from shooting a film on a low budget, with a skeleton crew. We sat down over LFF tea and cakes to discuss the process of bringing his tale of road tripping, polar opposite brothers to the screen.

Showlinks
Matthew Bissonnette
Passenger Side

• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Road – John Hillcoat
• DN LFF09: The Limits of Control – Jim Jarmusch

As a fan of many years and with a couple near misses in the past, today’s LFF interview is probably the highlight of the festival for me. It was my pleasure to spend some time (however brief) with director Harmony Korine, to discuss his latest offering Trash Humpers, along with the chances of us ever seeing the abandoned Fight Harm project surface.

• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF09: Enter The Void – Gaspar Noe

Today’s LFF afternoon tea interview is a doubleheader with co-directors Damani Baker and Alex Vlack, who after over 11 years of patient persistence, were able to bring their documentary Still Bill to the screen; a look at the life, relationships and of course music of the legend that is Bill Withers.

Showlinks
Still Bill

• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill Ross & Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy

Hailing from Germany’s Black Forest region, the artist simply known as Trimpin is a sonic experimenter, who combines the roles of inventor, engineer and composer, with a body of work that also defies categorization. Director Peter Esmonde joins us at the London Film Festival to discuss the challenges of creating a documentary which elucidates the creative process of such a indefinable artist.

Showlinks
Trimpin: The Sound of Invention
Trimpin

• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill Ross & Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy

Today’s LFF interview comes from Asli Özge whose debut feature Men on the Bridge began as a documentary concept to explore the distinct lives of three men working at the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul. However, after meeting her potential contributors during the research stage, Özge decided she could better serve their stories through fiction, employing two of them to take up roles as themselves in the feature.

Showlinks
Men on the Bridge

• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Road – John Hillcoat
• DN LFF09: The Limits of Control – Jim Jarmusch

Do you believe in true love? If so how do you go about finding that special, once in a lifetime person? These are the questions that send Charleyne Yi and a ‘documentary’ crew on a road trip across America, with a pit stop in Paris to see if the city of love can save her burgeoning romance with Michael Cera. Will they live happily ever after? Only if their Harley can outrun the cops and their bullets.

I got to sit down with Charleyne Yi and director Nicholas Jasenovec at the London Film Festival to discuss their documentary/fiction mashup feature Paper Heart.

Showlinks
Paper Heart
Panasonic Varicam

• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Up in the Air – Jason Reitman
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy
• DN LFF09: The Men who Stare at Goats – Grant Heslov

Kicking off our series of interviews from the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival, I got to chat to Bill and Turner Ross, brothers and co-directors of 45365; a verite feature documentary which explores the daily lives of the inhabitants of the American town (and hometown of the brothers Ross) – Sidney, Ohio.

If you happen to be reading this whilst the London Film Festival is in full swing, you can catch 45365 on the big screen on the 23rd and 26th of October.

Showlinks
45365
Panasonic AG-DVX100
SXSW

• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill and Turner Ross
• 45365 – Bill Ross & Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner

45356 (2009)
45365 explores the congruities of daily life in an American town – Sidney, Ohio. Through a patient and inquisitive look at the lives and landscapes that make up this community of 20,000 people, it captures the complexities and ambiguities of their shared experience. Conclusions are left to the audience as the component characters speak and act for themselves, as themselves. These storylines eventually coalesce into a mosaic of faces, places, and events. It is an inquiring look at everyday life in middle America. From the patrol car to the courtroom, the playground to the nursing home, the parade to the prayer service, it explores their relationships and interactions – with each other and their environment. Father and son, boyfriends and girlfriend, cop and criminal, officials and the electorate, patrons and providers – it is a portrait of the city and its people. – people somehow not unfamiliar in a landscape that becomes increasingly understood. Sidney is the small town experience. It is a community – of schools and sports and factories and neighborhoods and familiarity.

• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill Ross & Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill and Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy

When a person goes missing they leave both a mystery and a tragedy behind. Many filmmakers find themselves drawn to the inherent drama present in the mystery, but in his documentary The Space You Leave, director James Newton focuses on the tragic nature of such disappearances and the life long effects suffered by those who are left behind.

Showlinks
Quark Films
American Movie
Missing People
Wolfgang Tillmans
Sony HVR-V1

• The Space You Leave – James Newton
• Time Piece – Kat Mansoor
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• Keepintime: Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl – B+
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening

The Space You Leave (2009)
Each year, an estimated 200,000 people are reported missing in the UK alone. But when a loved one goes missing, the space left behind in their families can mean a future trapped in a tortured present, one obsessed by the past.

• DN EP 147: The Space You Leave – James Newton
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Trusted Computing – Benjamin Stephan & Lutz Vogel
• Tovarisch I Am Not Dead – Stuart Urban
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson

We’re joined this week by past guest Luca Dipierro who has combined forces with author Michael Kimball to create I WILL SMASH YOU; a documentary which explores the personal thoughts and feelings associated with objects whilst providing catharsis and realization for its participants through conversation and destruction.

Showlinks
Little Burn Films
Michael Kimball
Luca Dipierro
Black Biscotti

• I WILL SMASH YOU – Michael Kimball & Luca Dipierro
• Time Piece – Kat Mansoor
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• Keepintime: Talking Drums and Whispering Vinyl – B+
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening

`I WILL SMASH YOU (2009)
I WILL SMASH YOU is a documentary film in which dozens of people each tell a story about an object that has some personal meaning for them and then destroy that object in whatever manner they wish. Michael Kimball interviews each person about their chosen object and the story behind it, which leads to amazing realizations, for both the subject and the viewer.

• DN EP 146: I WILL SMASH YOU – Michael Kimball & Luca Dipierro
• 24 Weeks, 3 Days – Luca Dipierro
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Trusted Computing – Benjamin Stephan & Lutz Vogel
• Tovarisch I Am Not Dead – Stuart Urban

It’s always daunting confessing undying love for the first time. Even more so when the girl concerned thinks of you as her ‘little brother’. Throw in the confusion of arriving in a country where you don’t speak the language or even have the correct phone number for the object of your desire and you’re firmly in the shoes of director Alex Winckler’s protagonist Ralph in his short of the same name. Alex takes us through the hurdles of shooting abroad, with plans perhaps not as fully laid out as they could have been.

Ralph Materials
Script

Showlinks
Parkville Pictures
Alex’s BBC Film Network Page
Fulbright Scholarship
Shooting People
Cowards
Coming Up
UK Film Council
Future Shorts
Shorts International
Berlin International Film Festival

• Ralph – Alex Winckler
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski

Ralph (2008)
A teenage boy travels alone to Marseille to tell his best friend that he is in love with her but he hasn’t told her that he’s coming.

• DN EP 145: Ralph – Alex Winckler
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

Animation can be a long, arduous process that requires God like patients, however after taking part in a real-time arts project, director David Wilson discovered that combining praxinoscopes with custom record labels created a much faster form of animation that could be completed fully in-camera; without the need for any post or 3D manipulation. David joins us to discuss the process and why a hands on approach to working can lead to new creative discoveries.

We Got Time Materials
Making of Video

Showlinks
David Wilson Creative
David’s YouTube Channel
Metronomy – How Say
Praxinoscope
Blink Ink
Red Digital Camera Company
The Mill
BUG – The Evolution of Music Video
Colonel Blimp

• Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson
• DN EP 042: Auto Pilot, Distortion, Ping Pong & Biker Mike – Mike Chan
• Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 141: Body – Zhivko Dimitrov

Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson (2009)
Using both praxinoscopes and the technique of matching up the frame rate of the spinning record to that of the camera, no computer super-imposing was used; what you see is what rolled off the camera. The transitions between each section of animation was created by simply cutting or wiping between the bits of footage.

• DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson
• Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• Auto Pilot, Distortion, Ping Pong & Biker Mike – Mike Chan
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Weightless – Erika Janunger

This week’s DN guest Beeple is a director who works across many areas of film, including live action, music promos and animation. For his latest piece Beeple decided to widen his skill set by adding 3D animation to his arsenal and a mere 5 months later completed the frankly impressive continuously rotating, isometric perspective piece Subprime.

Subprime Materials
Stills
Renders

Showlinks
beeple.com
Nobot
Kyle Vande Slunt’s Vimeo Page
Donebestdone
The Crisis of Credit
ISO
Cinema 4D
Cartoon Smart: Perfect Isometric 3D Animation!

• Subprime – Beeple
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson
• DN EP 141: Body – Zhivko Dimitrov
• DN EP 138: Sebastian’s Voodoo – Joaquin Baldwin

Subprime (2009)
Watch as the American housing market spirals out of control. An urgent cry for simplicity, Subprime uses a constantly rotating isometric perspective to illustrate the current subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Every successive house that is built folds into itself and sprouts the growth of a bigger one, only to repeat the ultimately futile process again.

• DN EP 143: Subprime – Beeple
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Zoo – Robin Bushell
• ZOMBIE ZOMBIE: Driving Clip – Simon Gesrel & Xavier Ehretsmann
• What We’ve Found Out About Stem Cells – Richard Fenwick

After the passing of his mother, director Stewart Copeland embarked on the creation of the documentary Jennifer to address the issues of loss and how a person’s absence can alter the atmosphere of the places they used to occupy for those left behind. Stewart joins us to discuss the difficulties of creating such a personal film whilst ensuring it remains accessibility to a wider audience.

Showlinks
gohomefatboy
Prelinger Archives
POV – Documentaries with a Point of View

• Jennifer – Stewart Copeland
• Filmstock #8
• DN LFF08: The Betrayal – Ellen Kuras
• DN LFF08: Largo – Andrew van Baal
• DN EP 125: Globe Street Video Challenge – Sébastien Abes

Jennifer (2008)
In the short film Jennifer, filmmaker Stewart Copeland explores his relationship with his mother through a recorded conversation between eighth-grade students and astronauts aboard the international space station. Utilizing home movies, found footage, ambient music and voice over, combined with Copeland’s own imagery, the film explores the distant spaces between memory and history; hope and fear; longing and loss, creating something both personal and universal.

• DN EP 142: Jennifer – Stewart Copeland
• Talk To Me – Mark Craig
• Happy Monday – Andrew Filippone Jr
• Globe Street Video Challenge – Sébastien Abes
• Four Eyed Monsters – Arin Crumley & Susan Buice

This week I’m taking a break from the regular Directors Notes episodes to talk to journalist, blogger and author Scott Kirsner about his book Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age. The book discusses the tools and techniques used by media producers across a variety of fields, to build dedicated audiences around their work and convert that engagement into revenue streams which can overtime support a creative career.

In addition to the 35-page preview edition of Fans, Friends & Followers available on the site, Scott has generously provided an extra filmmaker interview for the DN audience to check out below.

Showlinks
Fans, Friends & Followers
CinemaTech
Powertools
Free – Chris Anderson
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Steal this Film

Timo Vuorensola
Science Fiction Director & Collaboration Pioneer

Throughout the 1990s, a group of friends in Finland turned out a series of animated and live action Star Trek parodies under the banner Star Wreck. The sixth installment, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, was the first to be a full-length feature, and the first to come up with a new approach to collaboration that invited people across the Internet to contribute 3-D models, digital environments, acting performances, and even the film’s score. Much of the production took place in a converted two-room apartment, the kitchen of which had been converted into a render farm. The total budget, not including sponsored and in-kind goods and services, was about $20,000.

Timo Vuorensola was the director, shepherding the project along over seven years. He’s now directing another collaboratively-produced project, Iron Sky, about a group of Nazis who escaped to the moon during World War II and are about to return to earth. Vuorensola also helped launch the site Wreck A Movie, which offers a platform for other filmmakers to invite their audiences to get involved.

The Internet is a collection of communities. You need to create a community around your film. That will not happen if you keep things to yourself. You need to open yourself up, show your face, show your production, let people get inside. People do a lot of things when they get enthusiastic about something. They help the production, give money, or run into the streets and scream about your production. You need to allow people to do that. It’s an enormous viral force.

I don’t know if it was luck or if we did something right, but we were able to create a pretty big community around Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning, and another one is building up around our current project, Iron Sky.

People want to see who is behind the product. They want to identify with you.

We started to work on Star Wreck in 1998. We went around to different forums and posted about it, so people knew what we were doing. Some of that was on a Star Trek board. We’d say, “We’re gonna go out and make this film. Does anybody want to help me?” At first, no one does. But they do want to see where it goes.

Over time, if you do some things on your own that really show quality, and show who you are, people want to feel helpful. They sense that there is one guy behind this, and he needs our help.

When a big film enters a community, no one believes they’re actually going to need help.

We had made five Star Wreck movies by ourselves. With the sixth, we had a script, and we said, “OK, we’re going to need ten or twenty people on the Internet to read it and comment on it, and send ideas.”

After we had the script right, we realized we’d need a big fleet of spacecraft. None of us were able to do modeling; we could do animation, but not modeling. We started to go around the Internet looking for Web sites that had to do with 3-D modeling, and we said, “We’re working on this cool film. Would you like to help us?”

A lot of people already had models of spacecraft that they wanted to make better.

We found actors on the Internet, too. But we said, “We need you to come to Finland for the shoot.” People came from Japan, from Canada, from the States, from Norway. We found the musician who did the whole score on the Internet. He was from Finland, but we never met in person while we were working. He just dropped us his new music, and we went back and forth on instant messenger with changes.

In 2005, when the film came out, people started to do their own fan-subtitled versions. It was a Finnish language film with English subtitles when we released it. But it got translated into about thirty different languages.

Star Wreck was made by a core group of five people, but over 300 people are credited in the end credits, and there was a larger community of 3000 who were involved in some way. They evangelized Star Wreck in whatever channels they could. They contacted local press. They took the film under their wings

We decided not to create a media kit. We should have done one. We would’ve gotten better media coverage.

The total amount of money we spent was around 15,000 Euros. And we made that money back, ten or twenty times over.

We had a DVD version we were selling, and we sold distribution rights to television. It was shown on TV in Finland, Japan, Italy, and Belgium, along with some other places. It had a big merchandising element, with t-shirts and caps. We printed them ourselves. It cost about two Euros per shirt, and we sold them for twenty Euros.

The bulk of the money came from us selling the DVD ourselves. We also did a distribution deal with Universal Pictures for retail sales of the DVD in Scandinavia, which came out a year-and-a-half after the original release. But we made more money selling it ourselves.

I should mention that it was initially released for free on the Internet, in October 2005, as a Torrent file and as a direct download. Later, we released it on YouTube and Google Video. Selling DVDs despite the free version is a funny thing, but people do it anyway. I think you can double your income if you give something away for free. I don’t believe in piracy. It’s just people using the available technology.

You need to offer different monetization options for different customers. Some people watch it on the Web for twenty minutes and then want to buy the DVD. Some people watch the whole film on BitTorrent, but then want to support us by buying merchandise. We want to let you give us money in any possible way.

With Iron Sky, we’re selling 2000 of what we call “war bonds,” which cost 50 Euros. You get a DVD of the teaser trailer, and a little booklet about the film, and a certificate that says you participated in the fight against space Nazis. They’re selling OK, but it’s not a way to finance the whole film. Just a way for people to support us.

This new film is even more collaborative than Star Wreck. We have a couple thousand active people, and the film will be out in 2010. We’re trying to get the story and the facts behind it straight, and get the graphical look working. We’re relying on the community for a lot of that.

This is my day job now, every day since early in 2006. I used to work in telemarketing before that.

Those who will survive all of these big changes in the filmmaking industry are those who know how to activate the community, in production, in distribution, in PR, in everything. It’s a force that not everyone knows how to gather.

• DN Special: Wholphin
• DN Special: Storm – Kurtis Hough
• DN Special: Joy Division – Grant Gee

It’s often hard to pin down the original intentions behind an experimental piece of work, which can sometimes leave the viewer feeling perplexed and unengaged in the piece. Zhivko Dimitrov’s Body manages to explore the theories of Phenomenology whilst not relying on them to enable the film to be appreciated as a piece of work in its own right, independent of explanation. He joins us to discuss his debut in the realm of animation.

FILM TITLE Materials
Stills

Showlinks
Zhivko. hm.
Phenomenology
Alias Maya
Adobe After Effects
Nocturne Records

• Body – Zhivko Dimitrov
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson
• DN EP 136: Khoda – Reza Dolatabadi
• DN EP 132: The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis

Body (2009)
A little lonely guy on a journey to himself.

• DN EP 141: Body – Zhivko Dimitrov
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Virtuosi – Marcelo Garcia
• To Shoot a Rurf – Shane & Paula Sheils
• The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis

Sometimes you find a piece that has you sharing it across the web before it’s even finished playing and the video for band Sour’s Hibi no Neiro definitely falls into that category. This week I have the pleasure of talking to the promo’s four directors; Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura & Masayoshi Nakamura about how planning, web cams and a loyal fan base can combine to create an infectious music video.

Showlinks
Masayoshi Nakamura
Magico Nakamura
Masashi Kawamura
Hal Kirkland
Adobe After Effects
Apple Final Cut Pro

• Sour: Hibi no Neiro – Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura & Masayoshi Nakamura
• DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson
• DN EP 116: Stay in My Memory – Katy Davis
• DN EP 111: A Pickled Sunday – Rupert James
• DN EP 107: Thunderheist: Jerk It – That Go

Sour: Hibi no Neiro (2009)
This music video was shot for Sour’s Hibi no Neiro (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album Water Flavor EP. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam.

• DN EP 140: Sour: Hibi no Neiro – Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura & Masayoshi Nakamura
• Weightless – Erika Janunger
• Thunderheist: Jerk It – That Go
• The Beangrowers: Not in a Million Lovers – Duncan Bone
• Stay in My Memory – Katy Davis

Founding members of Omni Productions and directing duo Richard Penfold and Sam Hearn have for years employed their filmmaking skills as a tool for social change. They join me to discuss their new short Leaving, a portrait of one women’s struggle to escape domestic abuse and the third film to be released under the Social Film Drama project.

Showlinks
Omni Productions
Leaving
Social Film Drama
The House of Omni
Social Film Drama’s YouTube Channel
Shorts International

• Leaving – Richard Penfold & Sam Hearn
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF08: Tricks – Andrzej Jakimowski

Leaving (2008)
A powerful short film drama that tells the story of Helen and her attempt to break free from her violent husband Jim.

• DN EP 139: Leaving – Richard Penfold & Sam Hearn
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

Director Joaquin Baldwin joins us to discuss his award winning dark tale of self-sacrifice, Sebastian’s Voodoo.

Sebastian’s Voodoo Materials
Stoyboard Video
Animatic

Showlinks
Pixel Nitrate
Joaquin’s Twitter
UCLA
Alias Maya
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe After Effects

• Sebastian’s Voodoo – Joaquin Baldwin
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson
• DN EP 143: Subprime – Beeple
• DN EP 141: Body – Zhivko Dimitrov

Sebastian’s Voodoo (2008)
A voodoo doll must find the courage to save his friends from being pinned to death.

• DN EP 138: Sebastian’s Voodoo – Joaquin Baldwin
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Zoo – Robin Bushell
• ZOMBIE ZOMBIE: Driving Clip – Simon Gesrel & Xavier Ehretsmann
• What We’ve Found Out About Stem Cells – Richard Fenwick

Inspired by the creation of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas’ American Zoetrope filmmaking collective back in 1969, some of Atlanta’s most talented, upcoming filmmakers have banded together under the moniker Poet Zero with the express aim of, pushing the limits of no budget filmmaking through the use of the tools of the digital revolution. The first of these to emerge is the impressive short Cerrado Al Publico co-directed by Takashi Doscher and Alex Shofner who join me on the show this week.

Showlinks
Poet Zero
A Fighting Chance
American Zoetrope
Canon XH-A1
Adobe After Effects
Sony Vegas
Vimeo

• Cerrado Al Publico – Poet Zero
• SotW: Cerrado Al Publico (Closed to the Public)
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge

Cerrado Al Publico (2009)
A short film about a police officer and barriers of understanding – physical and otherwise.

• DN EP 137: Cerrado Al Publico – Poet Zero
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

The field of animation is probably the most labour intensive means of filmmaking, but even by those standards most projects look like a breeze when weighed against the 6000+ digital paintings created by my guest Reza Dolatabadi for his sumptuous graduation film Khoda.

Khoda Materials
Image Sequences & Film Stills

Showlinks
Reza Art
Reza’s Flickr
Reza’s Blog
The Old Man and the Sea
In the Court of the Crimson King
Alias Maya
Adobe Photoshop
Vincent van Gogh
Edward Hopper
Ken Currie
Claude Monet
Stash

• Khoda – Reza Dolatabadi
• Filmstock #8
• DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson
• DN EP 141: Body – Zhivko Dimitrov
• DN EP 132: The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis

Khoda (2008)
What if you watch a film and whenever you pause it, you face a painting? This idea inspired Reza Dolatabadi to make Khoda. Over 6000 paintings were painstakingly produced during two years to create a five minutes film that would meet his high personal standards. Khoda is a psychological thriller; a student project which was seen as a ‘mission impossible’ by many people but eventually proved possible!

Because Reza is such a decent guy, you also get to have an extra bonus film this week:

Octo-Dancing (2008)
Octo-Dancing is an experimental film, based on one of Hamed Mafakheri’s tracks and made in Reza’s downtime whilst at Ink Digital. Stop motion assistance provided by Rob Birchall.

• DN EP 136: Khoda – Reza Dolatabadi
• Moros Eros: On My Side – Jesse Ewles
• Ionisation – Flat-e
• Carlin – Brent Green
• Aanaatt – Max Hattler