Film Strategy

October 21, 1984 - François Truffaut dies One of the central figures of the French New Wave, François Truffaut, died October 21, 1984. Born in Paris in 1932, living an itinerant childhood with his single (later remarried) mother and several relatives, Truffaut became a child of the cinema early in life. He would steal away from school and sneak into matinees — childhood experiences that would form the basis for his first feature, The 400 Blows . He won the Cannes Best Director Award in 1959 for the picture, in which the 14-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud played his alter ego, Antoine Doinel, enacted the tale of a neglected child poised between a life of petty crime and something greater. Before The 400 Blows , Truffaut had made several shorts but was mostly known as a tough-minded film critic at Cahiers du cinéma who often savaged conventional French cinema and endorsed instead the journeyman Hollywood directors celebrated by “auteur theory,” the critical school he helped found. Thr

1930 National Science Museum copy of 20 frames from the Roundhay Garden Scene  October 14 The world's oldest surviving film was shot today in 1888 ; the year Jack the Ripper went on a killing spree, Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear, Susan B. Anthony organized a Congress for Women's Rights and director F.W. Murnau, playwright Eugene O'Neill and poet T.S. Eliot were born. And on this day 125 years ago, Louis Le Prince filmed the first motion picture: Roundhay Garden Scene .  It was recorded at 12 frames per second and runs for 2.11 seconds. Was it meant to be a scene for a documentary, a fictional film or reality TV?  What do you think? If you're into movie firsts and vintage film like this then check out this YouTube channel: Change Before Going Productions. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ And now with a little history under our belt, let us proceed with the questions that will make us better filmmakers...  (FYI: There is a heavy New York

Oct. 9, 1964 - Guillermo Del Toro born. Guillermo Del Toro, the Oscar-nominated writer-director of Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy movies, today celebrates his 49th birthday. Del Toro is, in some senses, the ultimate fanboy filmmaker, a lifelong lover of movies and comic books who moved from aficionado to auteur, bringing an uncommon artistry, intelligence and sophistication to the horror and fantasy film genres. A native of Guadalajara, Mexico, del Toro was first drawn to horror movies – from the more cheap and cheesy 50s monster flicks and Hammer Horror movies to James Whale, Mario Bava and George A. Romero films – when he still extremely young. However, as he tells it, horror was all around him anyway. In interviews, he’s talked about seeing monsters in his bedroom as a toddler, and then being haunted by the ghost of his uncle – ironically, the man who had first introduced him to horror movies and novels. He began to draw his own monsters, and the fantastical w

Oct. 7, 1996 FOX News Channel launched today in 1996 to 17 million subscribers.  Rupert Murdoch launched the 24-hour news channel on both cable and satellite as part of a News Corp. "worldwide platform" for Fox programming, reasoning that "The appetite for news – particularly news that explains to people how it affects them – is expanding enormously." [And yet "We report. You decide." is the logline.]  Murdoch's foray into cable television faced two legislative hurdles; first, no company outside of the US was allowed to own broadcast stations there and, secondly, a company could not simultaneously own a newspaper and a television station in the same city.  Using charm, influence, vision and money, the rules were relaxed or revised. In January of 1996, Murdoch hired former NBC executive and Republican political strategist, Roger Ailes , to run the channel.  "Ailes worked individuals through five months of 14-hour workdays and several wee

October 2, 1979 Sony v. Universal Studios may be the most famous of all copyright cases because it was a decision that would determine the future of media. People who know nothing about copyright know that the Sony-Betamax case held that home videotaping of television programs is fair use.   One of the key moments in a case that found its way to the Supreme Court occurred today on October 2 when a district court handed down an opinion that absolved Sony of liability.  The copyright law, Judge Ferguson held, did not give copyright holders “a monopoly over an individual’s off-the-air copying in his home for private non-commercial use.”  Universal appealed to the 9th Circuit and remanded it back to the district court.  The following day, members of Congress introduced legislation in both the House and the Senate to legalize home video recording.  On June 14, 1982, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Sony case, and members of Congress sat back to wait and see what the Court woul

Happy birthday, Pedro Almodóvar ( Sep. 25, 1951)!   "When you glance over the early life of Pedro Almodóvar, who turns [62] today, one can start to understand the formation of his style and preoccupations as a filmmaker. Born Pedro Almodóvar Caballero on September 25, 1949 in the country town of Calzada de Calatrava, the young auteur-to-be lived a life defined by poverty and hard work. He was one of four children being raised by his parents, who were poor peasants; his near-illiterate father’s small income came from hauling wine barrels by mule. Young Pedro, however, was intellectually curious and achieved a vaunted position within the community already as a very young child as he was able to read letters and teach literacy to his fellow visitors. At age 8, he was sent to a religious boarding school in Cáceres, with the ultimate aim of becoming a priest, an experience which informed his 2004 film Bad Education . Looking for an escape from his tough, c

World War Z | Marc Forster | 2013 | USA, Malta | Format: 35mm | 116 min     Within the overall filmmaking strategy that takes a project from development to distribution, producers need mini-strategies (like Matryoshka dolls ) to complete certain complex parts of the film.  One of those mini-strategies involves how best to create effective and convincing special visual effects (VFX).  Digital Arts Staff and Wired had behind-the-scenes access to the making of World War Z which gives us an idea of how the producers and director planned and prioritized their effects (granted their budget was ridiculous but still, resourceful and inventive filmmakers can still take notes and learn how to make amazing VFX even if they don't have the money... like this guy ). For the honors, MPC was tapped to provide the VFX using their in-house crowd simulation software, ALICE.    Led by MPC's VFX supervisor Jessica Norman, the house completed more than 450 shots for World War Z.