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Archive for January, 2012

Funding & Distribution of Shorts in the 21st Century with Terry Gilliam

Posted in Chapter 5, Directors, tagged , , , , on January 12, 2012| 1 Comment »

Terry Gilliam making The Wholly Family in Italy

Who funds independently produced movies?  What makes them truly “independent?”  Outside of feature films and television shows, how do filmmakers reach audiences besides posting their streaming videos for free online?  For his recent short The Wholly Family, filmmaker Terry Gilliam – renowned for his work with Monty Python, such classics as Time Bandits and The Fisher King, and my two favorites, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen – was entirely funded by Italian pasta maker Garofolo Pasta, and the twenty-minute movie is going to be available streaming by the British newspaper The Guardian.  And here is another good interview with Gilliam about making The Wholly Family; included are comments about shooting digitally and working in short forms.  And these days he is even talking about making The Defective Detective again…

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New Books by Media Theorist Douglas Rushkoff

Posted in Chapter 5, Media Literacy, tagged , , , , , , , on January 5, 2012| 4 Comments »

Program or Be Programmed by Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Rushkoff, primarily known as the media theorist who has written some of the most important books on digital media and the Internet, and who coined phrases such as “viral media,” “digital native,” and “social currency,” has created some of the most interesting and thought-provoking materials for classroom lessons about contemporary media, including the documentaries The Merchants of Cool (which I have used many times in conjunction with my teaching with Moving Images) and Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, and his most recent book Program or Be Programmed (this Laughing Squid blog page features videos and an excellent intro to the book).  Last summer, Rushkoff was a keynote speaker at the 2011 NAMLE conference in Philadelphia at which I presented a workshop on integrating media literacy and digital production in the classroom.  Rushkoff’s speech was engrossing and quite funny; moreover, I was impressed by his participation in the conference – he paid close attention to the people and events over the course of the weekend and was clearly connected to what others had to say and do.

A.D.D.: by Rushkoff and illustrator Goran Sudzuka

At the end of this month, a graphic novel he has written with illustrator Goran Sudzuka, A.D.D.: Adolescent Demo Division, is being released by Vertigo.  What a perfect concept for Rushkoff – a cyber-driven story composed of text and visuals about adolescent gamers who are being manipulated by a future society and must uncover the secret agendas and codes of their world!  Graphic novels continue to be one of the most dynamic media around – one of the nice surprises that as the world goes digital, drawing continues to make a comeback in innovation and inspiration – and the relationship between comics and moving images offers boundless potential for visual storytellers and learning scenarios.  There is an excellent interview with Rushkoff  about the book on his website.

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Saul Bass: Visual Innovator

Posted in Animation, Chapter 1, Chapter 5, Chapter 8, Media Literacy, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2012| 2 Comments »

Poster created from iconic images by artist Saul Bass

Just recently a definitive, in-depth book on the design work of artist Saul Bass has been released: Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design (by Jennifer Bass and Pat Kirkham).  Bass was a true media innovator and through his work one can observe the synergy between text, composition, color, movement, and other visual elements at the core of effective communication.

Bass’s work has provided inspiration for generations of design professionals, advertisers, and filmmakers.  The dynamism of his designs were key as filmmakers invigorated the function and importance of title sequences in movies, and his work helped to usher in the mid-century modern style that has seen a renaissance in recent years, from advertising to graphic novels to animation.

Bass’s storyboard for the infamous and extremely influential shower murder scene from Psycho is highlighted in Chapter 1 of Moving Images (see Figure 1-36).  The half-hour movie Bass on Titles provides a good overview of his work and viewpoints on the craft of movie titles, such as his groundbreaking work for a number of Alfred Hitchcock films (such as Psycho, Vertigo, and North by Northwest), Scorsese movies (including Goodfellas, Cape Fear, and The Age of Innocence), and many others including The Man with the Golden Arm and Cowboy.  His work can provide examples for many aspects of the essential questions in Moving Images, including motion picture forms in Chapter 5 and the full production process in Chapter 8.

As a final point, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design features a superb foreword by Martin Scorsese – to add to the list of his exceptional work in this vein, including the moving piece he wrote for the DVD release of the Beatles’ movie Help, directed by Richard Lester.

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