Leave it up to the Korean animators....sort of

From the Clerks animated series, one of my favorite clips ever. Especially love the Transformer.

Why won't he just go away?

In the news once again, cult actor(pun intended) Tom Cruise. Apparently, he's been told by the German defense ministry that he can't shoot his next feature in Germany because he's a Scientologist, considered a cult by their government. Personally, I'd ban him from shooting in any country due to the fact that he's an asshole. But pehaps that's just me. And while i don't think anyone should be prohibited from working due to personal religious beliefs (even though i'm far from "religious" myself), It's a bit of a moot point when the beliefs he so vehemently espouses are that of a pay-per-holiness cult anyway. Furthermore, I think it's only respectful to those actually portrayed in this film, to either shoot elsewhere or find someone else for the role, especially when it's the son of the main character that objects to Cruise not taking the role.

According to German defence ministry spokesman Harald Kammerbauer, the Germany's military "has a special interest in the serious and authentic portrayal of the events of July 20, 1944 and Stauffenberg's person". How much farther from "serious and authentic" can you get than by casting Tom "the Messiah" Cruise in any role not involving inane cliched action nonsense.

Anway, that's all I have to say about that. According to my latest E-meter readings, It's time to plan a Movie Night.

SecretMovieNight.com has arrived

It's now official. just registered www.secretmovienight.com
so all browsers can be directed there for all SMN-related info.
for now, it's the blog. but I'd like to eventually have more video clips, reviews,
perhaps even how-to sections for low-budget filmmaking.

Secret Movie Night episode 14

This is your first hint. unless, of course, something goes horribly wrong or I simply change my mind at the last minute. Or perhaps I'll find something even stranger. It's quite possible. So far, no Craig Baldwin films have been screened.

The Worst Movies Ever

So there's "BAD" (Spiderman 3 for example) and there's "So Bad It's Funny". Like this. Broken down categorically for your viewing pleasure. You can never go wrong with ninjas. But it's that horrible yet incredibly entertaining shark CGI disaster that takes it. Fantastic stuff.

PIXEL NITRATE

Recently discovered the work of Joaquin Baldwin, an animator and designer from Paraguay. really fantastic stuff.
His work displays quite an array of themes and techniques, from traditional cel animation to 3D animation.
View a few films and learn more about him here:Pixel Nitrate

Week 13 recap

despite the evil heat outside (and inside) we managed a great crowd and over 50 short videos. In retrospect, not so much an impressive array of moving images as it was a testament to the overheated state of my brain. I'm sure that by now you've figured out that i'm not the biggest fan of heat and humidity.
anyway, enough about that. See you next movie night.
I'm off to do a little analogue reading.

A few blogs for your spare time

When we're not busy designing, planning movie night or playing kickball, here are a few favorite reads worth your RSS aggregator:

Drunk Cyclist

Wrench In The Gears

Good Magazine

Lost In Light

I think I'm melting

ok, if it's alright with everyone else I'd like to turn the heat off. Summer is fun and all but seriously, when does winter start again? This all day brainfry makes it rather difficult to think, let alone plan a movie night. But i'll plan nonetheless.
meanwhile, if you have any requests, send them my way. I'll see what I can do for you.
Haven't yet decided on a format for tomorrow evening. More hints to be posted soon.

JOIN THE SECRET MOVIE MAILING LIST

Just a quick note. If you want to receive hints about upcoming screenings, please sign up for the not-so-secret Secret Movie Email List. On the right side of this page. yep, that's it over there. Feel free to leave me a message too.
And i assure you, your email will be used for the sole purpose of Secret Movie informing.
See you at movie night.

Lake Placid Film Forum

Just caught SR Wild blogging about the Lake Placid Film Forum. Check his blog for a sneak peek of film fest action. Doubt I'll be able to attend. Although Scott in sock garters does sound quite amusing. We expect a full report after the forum.

The world of experimental cinema

I can't even begin to express how thrilled I am about last night's program. I feel sorry for anyone that missed out. We celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary of Cecile Star and Aram Boyajian in style with an evening of film history.
All presented in vivid 16mm, with the whirring of the projector as constant soundtrack, we were rewarded with an amazing collection of women filmmakers (including Alice Guy-Blache, the very first female filmmaker), with films spanning from 1912 to 1980. Black & white, color, animation, optical printing effects, comedy, drama. the themes and images were as diverse as the filmmakers who created them.

So what now? well, I'll tell you what I did. I just spent the past four hours viewing almost every piece of super8 film I've ever shot. Holy cow! The difference between projected film and video is like night and day. Even with my small-gauge super8 films projected onto a drably painted wall of my house.
I have to admit. It was kind of weird to see films i made ten or fifteen years ago. and fun. So why aren't I still making them? Good question. I've got no shortage of cameras, film stock or ideas. So that's that.

besides shooting new film, I plan to screen my super8 films at upcoming Secret Movie Nights. And i plan to have them all transferred to video for the sake of preservation. More on that in a future post.

For now, i'm off to watch more film. Enjoy!

Let's Do The Numbers

Now I'm no mathemagician, but I just counted out the films screened in the first eleven weeks of Secret Movie Night.
the number is a bit staggering. over 170 different films, including the lone feature thus far, Pavel Klushantsev's Storm Planet.
This thrills me to no end. So what's next? Lots lots more. more features, more shorts, more films about bicycles, zombies, robots, monsters, social programming and anything else i can come up with.

Got a special request? Send it my way.

and stay tuned for a SecretMovieNight All Star show later in the summer.

What is wrong with people?

this baby says...
Originally uploaded by faster panda kill kill

Wish i had video of this. The latest exercise craze: segway baby-strollering.

Women Behind the Camera

As this Photoplay magazine cover from October 1916 points out, the new "style" in cameramen is women. Or so it seemed. These were the days before Hollywood became the all-profit zero-originality billion dollar mens club that it is today. But what do i know? I'm just a blogging film fan stuck in a small town. Nevertheless, it's my personal mission to seek out the unusual, the obscure, those unfamiliar works from the crevices of cinematic history and present them to my small local audience. All because I love the craft of film and it's a hell of alot of fun to do it.
Not sure how to best format this entry, so i'll just start with a filmmaker and go from there.
Alice Guy-Blaché(1873-1968). that's where we'll begin.
Believed to be the first to direct a narrative film, she began as a secretary for Léon Gaumont, borrowed a camera to make a short film and within a year became head of film production for Gaumont. She had, amazingly, produced over 400 short films by the time she emigrated the the US in 1907. a statistic that makes me feel absurdly lazy and unproductive when it comes to film production.
In America, she formed her own film studio, Solax, where she oversaw production of over 300 films. In other words, she was there from the inception of narrative film, produced a ton of work and no one has heard of her. That's why i'm so excited to have Cecile Starr as a special guest film curator on Tuesday. among other short works (all produced by women), we'll feature Guy-Blaché's A HOUSE DIVIDED(1913), a domestic comedy that deals with the mutual suspicions of unfaithfulness.

Other films will span the history of women making short films, the latest of which will be Deanna Morse's CHARLESTOWN HOME MOVIE (1980).

all presented in beautiful 16mm. Don't miss it.

Watch out for the scraper bikes

I'll just let this one speak for itself. Found a rather amusing clip posted at Bikecentric. Enjoy.