25Totally old news, but I recently stumbled upon this and thought it was way cool. What do you do when you’re a live-action director and you agree to direct an animation? Play to your strengths. From what I’ve heard so far, the audio in this movie is awesome. I love the idea of recording sound on a soundstage with full cast and blocking - it not only allows the voice actors (who, let’s be honest, are always typecasted top-bill screen actors these days) to move around and really physically commit to their characters, it allows for proximity and spatial relationships between the actors themselves.
Behind-the-scenes clip of Rango (2011), dir. by Gore Verbinski
A behind-the-scenes featurette on HBO’s new, very interesting looking series, Game Of Thrones, premiering this month.
From HBO’s official press release:
“Based on the bestselling fantasy book series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” by George R.R. Martin, the new series GAME OF THRONES launches its ten-episode season SUNDAY, APRIL 17 (9:00-10:05 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are executive producers and writers of the show, which was shot at the Paint Hall Studio in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as at various locations in Northern Ireland and Malta. The production received funding from Northern Ireland Screen and the Malta Film Commission.
GAME OF THRONES follows kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars and noblemen as they vie for power. As the series opens, King Robert Baratheon, who is married to Cersei Lannister of the wealthy and corrupt Lannisters, asks Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark to come south and help run his kingdom after the questionable death of his right-hand man. Meanwhile, there is a threat to the throne from the east by the exiled teenage Princess Daenerys and her brother Viserys, whose family ruled the Kingdoms for many years before their bloody ouster. And there are rumors of strange things happening at the edge of the Kingdoms, north of the Wall, where Jon Snow, Ned’s bastard son, goes to be part of the brotherhood of the Night’s Watch, which is sworn to protect the Kingdoms.”
Like I did with my Walking Dead nod, I’m going to make this an exception to my films-only format because of this series’ cinematic quality. Also, they’re releasing tons of behind-the-scenes videos which, all film lessons aside, are damn cool and super-relevant to some of the content we’ve been producing for MashPlant.com.
I hope this series is as awesome as it looks.
Sofia Coppola
OH HAY EVERYBUDY IT’S ME SOFIA COPPOLA! U KNOW, THE ONLY FEMALE DIRECTOR WHO HAS EVER LIVED!?!?!
Really, feministfilm?? Snarking on a successful female filmmaker’s career by implying that she is responsible for the narrow-minded popular opinion is the slut-shaming of the directorial world. I don’t follow you to see stuff like this; this isn’t what you stand for, and this definitely isn’t what I stand for.
HEAVEN FUCKING FORBID a female director be popular enough to mindlessly name-drop ad nauseaum like her male counterparts.
Oh, shit, no! I don’t mean to snark on Coppola. It just bums me out that I complained forever about how there were no women on fuckyeahdirectors, and then all of a sudden there were women on fuckyeahdirectors, but then about 100% of those women ended up being Sofia Coppola. This was a terrible attempt on my part at using humor to snark on fuckyeahdirectors without making fuckyeahdirectors hate me even more than it probably already does.
I think she’s a talented director, even if she benefits from a incredible amount of privilege. I largely enjoy her film oeuvre. And I acknowledge that just because I’m having the worst day ever doesn’t really excuse me being grammatically ambiguous in a way that’s potentially hurtful to someone who doesn’t deserve it. I apologize to you and everyone else who was offended by this.
I’m so glad I misunderstood you!
You should do a spam of female directors, y’know, be the change you want to see, etc etc. Make it better than those typical, boring picture posts by including mini-bios and links to view their works. I’d love to contribute to that :D
I’ll start with:
Katrina Del Mar (because I haven’t written about her enough)
This “wild woman”, hailed as “the Lesbian Russ Meyer,” is a New York-based art and commercial photographer, as well as an award winning filmmaker and video artist. Her first film, Gang Girls 2000, shot entirely on super 8mm film, received a 4 ½ star review in Film Threat Magazine, and received glowing reviews from the press, even inviting comparisons to the legendary Kenneth Anger.
The follow up, Surf Gang about a gang of women surfers from Rockaway Beach in New York City, landed Katrina a prestigious Fellowship in Video from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and Best Experimental Film Award from the Planet Out Short Movie Awards announced at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006.
(She has since filmed another gang-girl-centric film, Hell On Wheels: Gang Girls Forever, featuring “Homeless Skateboarders, pacifist rollerskaters, vegan animal-activist bikers, dyslexics and more! EVERYTHING ON WHEELS!”)
In late 2006 Katrina del Mar landed a dream job serving as studio manager for legendary art photographer Nan Goldin, who has described Katrina’s work as “radical” and “ground-breaking.” Her client list also includes Sony Music, Island Records, Polygram, V2 Records, London Records, Time Out New York, People Magazine, Alternative Press, Mademoiselle, and the NYPost
As an artist, Katrina del Mar has shown her work at The Museum for Contemporary Art in Bordeaux, France, Deitch Projects, American Fine Arts Company, Binz 39 in Switzerland, the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, the Miami Light Project, P.S. 122 in New York City, and the University of Cardiff in Wales.
Check out her website here, and peep the trailer for Gang Girls 2000 on her YouTube channel.
What do you guys have?
Here’s a fantastic video from BBC’s groundbreaking documentary series Horizon. This clip focuses on the process of matte painting in films, giving examples from Indiana Jones and Star Wars. The meticulous process of creating these paintings and integrating them into the aesthetic (or AS the aesthetic) of the film is one of the most interesting aspects of pre-CGI studio filmmaking I’ve ever seen.
Vincent Cassel on the set of “La Haine”. In the first three photos they are using a mini camera mounted on a c-stand. They wanted it to look like a door’s peep hole. The last photo is a screen showing a preview of the footage.
Aaahhhhhh!! <3
Love La Haine, love Vincent Cassel
