Film Strategy

Mad Max: Fury Road |  George Miller | 2015 | Australia, USA | Format: 35 mm (anamorphic) (Kodak Vision 2383), D-Cinema (also 3-D version)  | 120 min Mad Max is essentially one long chase scene. But what a complicated and thrilling chase scene it is. It surprises me none to find out that George Miller, the director, created a storyboard comic book to map out the shooting of the film from logistics to aesthetics. Storyboards and concept art are important tools for filmmakers but even moreso for filmmakers making action movies. Below is a compendium of links to articles on the making of Mad Max: Fury Road. Read, watch, enjoy but don't forget to take notes. The making of Mad Max: Fury Road (according to Wikipedia ) Development Plans for a fourth film in the  Mad Max  series hit financial difficulties and the project spent several years in " development hell ". [17]  The idea for a fourth installment occurred to Miller in August 1998 when he was walking in an

There are many films that caught people's attention in TIFF this year and became the subjects of top 10 lists  but I decided to focus on an interesting experimental short I read about by way of  Daniel Kasman 's mubi notebook TIFF 2014 entries . It was the avant garde short, brouillard passage #14, directed by Alexandre Larose and the sublime little film caught my eye as well (I only got to see the trailer which I have embedded below).  Kasman: Like many avant-garde films, I don't have any idea how Alexandre Larose made  brouillard passage #14 ,  the film which opened the first program, curated around body and camera performances. I think he filmed multiple times a walk along a foliage-lined pathway until reaching a lake and superimposed those images of the corridor upon themselves—but I'm not sure. How often are you not sure of what you're watching during the festival's dramatic features? It's this kind of destabilization and lack of, to put it blu

My apologies for the temporary disappearance of the Monday and Midweek Mixers, I have been busy working with clients and developing projects for 2014 that rendered me unable to blog.  Although I love searching for informative and fun stuff to add to the mixers, it's time-consuming so I can only squeeze them in whenever I can.  Still, as busy as I get, I will do my best to continue to do so. And now without further adieu... Today in film history let's remember... 1919  –  Charlie Chaplin ,  Mary Pickford ,  Douglas Fairbanks , and  D.W. Griffith  launch  United Artists . 1933  – the birth of  Jörn Donner , Finnish director and screenwriter 1943 – the birth of  Michael Mann , American director, screenwriter, and producer 1948 – the birth of  Christopher Guest , American actor and director 1948 – the birth of  Errol Morris , American director Taking a cue from the formation of United Artists is a good reminder of the good work that can result when talented filmmak

Sometimes it's easy to forget how far we've come because we still have so far to go. Although public outcries forced SNL to hire a black female as a featured player on the show after so many years, opportunities are plentiful for actors of color compared to what it was like in the past.  And the roles are waaaaaaay more dignified.  So as a reminder of how hard it was for black actors who had to accept roles that were beneath them, let's offer a special HBD tip of the hat to... Butterfly McQueen . "She was born on January 8, 1911 in Tampa, Florida, to a stevedore and domestic maid, Thelma McQueen would go on to make cinematic history as one of the few African-American character actors in classic Hollywood. In 1916, her father abandoned the family, leaving her mother and her to travel the East Coast in search of work. She eventually landed in Long Island where she completed her education and learned to dance. She made her stage debut as a part of the Butterfly