I have not updated this blog for close to 9 months now. I was caught up in the whirlwind of promoting and screening my documentary about the Beijing Olympics.
Now it is time to get back to some blogging. BTW you can watch the film online. You are more than welcome to steal this movie.
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of directing the biography of Taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming.
He is best known for his quirky Living World Series and the monumental Tai Chi Series.
In the process of filming the documentary, I fell in love with the wonderful space that is the Ju Ming museum, an open air sculpture park dedicated to the exhibition of Ju’s works.
Hence, I am a little ticked but nonetheless very delighted to see that the museum has launched a new product.
I call it Taichi series 2.0 — cookies cast in the shape of the famous sculptures.
It is thus with great satisfaction that I can finally lay claim to having an entry on “Chinese food” on my blog, right along my musings about ‘Chinese documentary film’, ‘China’s urban life’, ‘Chinese internet.’
A mockumentary about the “History of Evil”– what a wicked idea! I can hardly believe this is a student project.
Link via Boing Boing
The online demand for short films has been growing and growing.
While indie features continue to struggle to find distribution, short film makers have a better chance of making some cash by putting their films on sale via iTunes, Xbox, and Netflix.
A recent entry at the Circuit Blog at Variety.com notes the irony of the situation — short filmmakers at Sundance 2008 may do better financially than their feature film counterparts.
The Circuit – Blog on Variety.com – 1390000339
The key reason for this: bandwidth. Greater bandwidth and faster internet access has turned the Web into a viable distribution system for short films.
Films in the “under 10 minute” category also play well to the internet audience, notorious for having the attention span of a flea.
In response, a slew of online film festivals have sprung up, trying to capitalize on the opportunity of Internet distribution:
Selected works will also be aired on a internet TV channel called the Babelgum Channel
Do you have a short film that stands for social change? Pangea Day Festival is the place for you.
It is backed by Participant Productions, the same people behind the films, An Inconvenient Truth and
Syriana
Closer to home, specialized short film distributors such as, Objectifs Films, have carved a niche by bringing Asian short films to a global audience.
In the age of viral video and online short film festivals, film makers have to be ever more succinct.
If you have a film that will change the world, make sure it is under 5 minutes.
Technorati Tags: movie marketing, online distribution, video distribution, Sundance Film Festival, online film festival, Babelgum Online Film Festival, Pangea day Festival, Participant Productions
The best films often don’t win the biggest awards.
This is the conclusion that I have come to after observing film competitions and award ceremonies on the sidelines.
I have seen very average films make it to the top film festivals in the world. On the other hand, highly nuanced and well produced pieces have been left out on the cold, hard pavement of rejection.
The key to this puzzle lies in that intangible and elusive variable we sometimes call “resonance”
Oscar-nominated documentaries send message of hope – Yahoo! News
News about this year’s Oscar nominations seem to confirm this educated guess. 4 out of 15 films that made it to the shortlist for documentary features deal with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of these, 3 out of the 4 war films, No End in Sight, Taxi to the Dark Side,Operation Homecoming, scored Oscar nominations.
We all know that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are millstones tied to the neck of the American conscience. So documentary film making,too,becomes a means of exorcising the ghosts of blood, violence and the tears of innocent victims. The war theme resonates with the American zeitgeist.
In other words, if you are making a personal film about a little known cause in an obscure place with a polysyllabic name that defies pronunciation, your chances of clinching an Oscar nomination and winning a big award are close to zero. No matter how well-made your film may be.
This is because your film will not find resonance with your intended audience. The jury panel and the film festival goers may be frustrated because they search, could not find, those reflections of their greatest sorrows and deepest anxieties in your work of art.
In that sense, the ability to read the times and have your finger on the pulse of your audience is just as important as the technical skills involved in crafting a good film.
Having said that, it is perhaps wise to go ahead and make that obscure little film anyway.
The making of the film that is after your heart is reward in itself, even without the coveted laurels of nominations and awards.
Technorati Tags: Oscar nominations, Oscar-nominated documentaries, documentary film making, movie marketing, film festivals
One strange thing about attending one of the top film festivals in the world: I hardly saw any films.
Over the course of 1 week, I saw a grand total of 3 films. I quickly learned that I was not alone in being an anti-film buff at the Berlinale.
The modern film festival is no longer simply an event for movie lovers. The Berlinale film screenings are but one component of a whole array of parallel events, including the European Film Market, the Berlinale Talent Campus and Berlinale Co-production Market. Each event is a mini ecosystem in itself with its entourage of attendees, patrons and micro-celebrities.
Lost in the labyrinth of events, parties and dinners, I saw many great movie posters at the Berlinale but very few films.
One of the films I missed is the Italian movie, Caos Calmo, directed by Antonello Grimaldi. I saw the Caos Calmo poster everywhere I went but did not catch the film.
Ironically, I came home to Singapore and discovered on the Internet how Caos Calmo has found resonance with the Italian zeitgeist with its quiet desperation and existential angst.
What on earth would we do without the World Wide Web?
Technorati Tags: Berlin Film Festival, film making, movie marketing, Caos Calmo, Antonello Grimaldi, movie posters, European Film Market, Berlinale Talent Campus
Being at the Berlin Film Festival helps me appreciate the difference that a film-literate audience can make to the film making experience
Here is a city where people have attended the festival year after year and over time they have developed the ability to articulate their analyses and insights about film.
Even films from little known places have sold out screenings. The premiere of Invisible City, a Singapore documentary about history and memories, for instance, was packed to the overflowing, with some people sitting along the aisle. From what I hear, other Asian films at the festival are doing equally well.
I have had the pleasure of chatting with quite a few people who have travelled to the festival every year. I have also met individuals who have volunteered tirelessly at the festival for decades.
One of these chance encounters led to an interview about my Beijing Olympics documentary, Boomtown Beijing, on German radio. “35 mm” is regular film magazine show on Radio Dreyeckland in Freiburg, in the southwestern part of Germany.
Alexander Sancho-Rauschel, the radio journalist who interviewed me, also volunteers at the student cinema at the University of Freiburg. The Aka Film Club, or Academic Film Club, has been around for 50 years. It was started in an effort to enable students in post war Germany to watch more international films. Although the name of the club sounds very stern and seems almost archaic in this day and age, it has been retained out of reverence for tradition.
I wonder what the listeners of Radio Dreyeckland will think of the interview of my little documentary about the Beijing Olympics?
One thing, for sure, the passion for film seems to transcend cultural and linguistic boundaries here. So I cherish the hope being a little known film director making a small film in the Far East might actually be an advantage, fuelling curiosity about the project.
I am attending the Berlin Film Festival 2008 as script consultant for the Singapore documentary, Invisible City. The Berlinale deserves its reputation as one of the top festivals in the world. Every section at the festival is a film universe unto its own and has developed a distinct identity and developed a loyal audience base over the years. The choices can be overwhelming, from the wonderful films you can catch to the parties and events. Our senses are continuously bombarded by people, events and happenings. On top of all this, there is the Berlinale Talent Campus, a week-long film academy that runs parallel to the main festival. Award-winning directors and top-notch industry professionals are giving seminars and workshops on a broad cross-section of topics, for instance
And the list goes on. I look forward to busy week of watching films and listening to others talk about films.
I have never been on Second Life so I have no idea what it means to inhabit larger than life personae in the virtual world.
Nonetheless, I am fascinated by this space in which everyone gets to place at being a comic book superhero.
What a fascinating topic for a documentary film and I am so glad someone has just made one!
Trailer for documentary about virtual worlds – Boing Boing
Check out the trailer for “Second Skin” , a documentary about the virtual world and the gamers who ‘live’ in them. You can also go to the official film website here.
There are so many ways to look at the virtual lives that people have created for themselves online.
It is the stuff of Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Technology and Literature.
Perhaps the virtual world is like a mirror that reflect and refract our true selves.
We all grew up on Hollywood fare. Most of us would have heard of Bollywood, India’s home-grown film industry.
Now we need to add the term “Nollywood” to our list. “Nollywood” refers to Nigeria’s fledging film industry that gives “guerrilla film making a whole new meaning.”
Making action flicks on a 9 day turn around, on a shoe-string budget of just a few thousand dollars and equipped with the bare minimum of digital camera equipment.
Nigeria’s fledging film industry has become the subject of a documentary film, “This is Nollywood”
I cannot wait to see this film because I think it will compel me to think about Africa in a new way.
Words like “fun”, “entertainment” and “movie-making” seldom come to mind when we think of Africa. Instead stereotypes of the Continent of Darkness persist. Our perception of Africa is often shaped by media stories of Aids, corruption and despair.
Any film that broadens that narrow view of Africa is a welcome addition to our world.
Technorati Tags: digital filmmaking, Nigeria, movie industry, documentary, Nollywood, African film, Africa entertainment industry, Nollywood
Today, I received an email request from my friend, Singaporean film maker Tan Pin Pin:
"Hi Siok, if its convenient, can you let Web 2.0 know to watch or look out for Invisible City in Berlin?" Those were her exact words.:) So hear ye, Web 2.0 folks out there, look out for this Singapore documentary film at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world Invisible City is a documentary about documenteurs. The film conveys the fragility of histories stitched together by a patchwork of memories and artefacts. You can watch the trailer of the film here: The following are the dates and times for the screening of Invisible City at the Berlinale. 08.02.08 17:45 CinemaxX5 (press screening) 09.02.08 20:00 Arsenal 10.02.08 15:00 Cubix 7 11.02.08 15:00 CineStar 8 I will be traveling to the festival with director, Pin Pin, as a member of the Invisible City production team.
I stumbled upon a stunningly executed skate video intro directed by Spike Jonze, (Adaptation).
In this video, the soundtrack is everything.
Beautiful, beautiful slow-motion skate video intro by Spike Jonze. The… (kottke.org)
Check it out.
Technorati Tags: skateboarding, video, spikejonze, filmmaking
If I could start a TV channel from scratch, I would format it like TED . Originally a conference of technology and entertainment trends, TED has broadened its content to cover many contemporary themes. It has also started putting its video archives online.
Here is why I love TED as anexperience:
And now you really can’t get her out of your head… Kylie Minogue has an entire social network dedicated to her.
http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/11/an-entire-socia.html
It is clear that the social network is going the way of the blog. Soon, everyone can get his or her own and host it anywhere they’d like.
The question is: will your fans and/or friends follow you?
Be short and sharp. Post frequently. You are writing for the Web 2.0
audience with the attention span of a flea. That is the standard
advice handed out to the newbie blogger.
Well, not if you are Academy award winning documentary filmmaker, Errol Morris. The man who crafted films such as Fog of War:Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, Thin Blue Line and Fast,Cheap and Out of Control simply would not be bound by the same rules.
His blog posts read like the interviews in the best of his documentary films, long, rambling and fascinating.
Errol Morris – Zoom – New York Times Blog
Enjoy!
The BBC’s online film network has produced a new film making guide.
I like the way the guide reflects new dynamics in production and distribution as short form content and online video-sharing becomes increasingly important.
BBC – Film Network – filmmaking guide: index
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