In Memory: Sydney Pollack

I am saddened to hear the wonderful director, producer, actor Sydney Pollack has passed away yesterday at 73. Articles by Roger Ebert, IHT, and Washington Post.

Love this quote from G&M “The way he was” (emphasis added),

Asked why he interrupted his own filmmaking career to act for Stanley Kubrick ( Eyes Wide Shut) and Woody Allen ( Husbands and Wives), Pollack replied, “Because I wanted to see how they work. I was curious.

In this YouTube video, Sydney Pollack discusses his documentary “Sketches of Frank Gehry” with Charlie Rose.

Here in this YouTube video (at the 1:13 and 6:25 marks), you hear Sydney talking about his love of flying jet plane (actually a Citation X, the “fastest non-military jet”) in the documentary One Six Right (named after the most popular runway at the Van Nuys Airport). Yeap, he flew jets.

Helen Hunt directs

Helen Hunt discusses her directing debut — Then She Found Me

Streaming Victims

Here is an excerpt from my friend Trevor Doerksen's insightful blog entry "The Streaming Victims - Canadians" (emphasis added),

Turn Audiences to Customers
Broadcaster and producers refer to their fans as audiences. Unfortunately, these audiences don't want to be told how, when, what, and where to passively view content. I consider these fans as customers. We know their names, their email addresses, and their likes and dislikes. In fact, when speaking to broadcasters and producers in Canada I often ask what they know about their fans. They know very little. This must change. The Internet is a communications medium, it is not just a passive viewing system. Together we must develop relationships that allow everybody: the customer and the producer to benefit from knowing each other better.

Provide content not formats
In music the transformation is almost complete. Customers no longer have to pay for format. Purchasing Queen on vinyl, 8-track, cassette, CD, and digitally rights managed (DRM) digital download is over. Customers don't have to pay for the format, they just buy the content and move it around as they please. TV and movies will need to give customers what they want. They can't keep pretending. I know the customers I deal with are much smarter than that, giving them what they want is a viable business model. Providing seamless, unified, and flexible access to their favourite content is viable.

Links: 2008-04-21

1. Tension Over Sports Blogging - NYT - a note on bloggers from credentialed news organizations
2. What Warren thinks... - Fortune interview
3. Edward Lorenz, father of Chaos Theory, dies
4. Brokeback Mountain director warns Bill C-10 means censorship
5. Filmmaker Ang Lee has no love for 'Canadian values' bill, but plenty for Vancouver
6. New Wii Games Find a Big (but Stingy) Audience - an insightful look at the Wii gaming business
7. Our Top Ten list of Privacy Act fixes - by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner

Canadian Stars fight Bill C-10

From CBC report (with video),

Members of Canada's film and television industry are on Parliament Hill Thursday to voice their concerns over a proposed bill that would give the government the power to deny tax credits to productions it considers offensive.

Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley, actress Wendy Crewson and Brian Anthony, CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada, are among those appearing before the Senate committee on banking, trade and commerce, asking for changes to Bill C-10, an omnibus bill proposing a host of amendments to the Income Tax Act.

"These clauses are an attack on freedom of expression and will destroy film financing in Canada," Crewson said in a news conference ahead of her presentation.

It will cause TV and film producers havoc if the tax credits can be retroactively withdrawn as financing risk will simply to too high for investors to invest and banks to make loans or interim financing available.

Radiant City - Sunday April 6

[via CBC Docs newsletter]

THE PASSIONATE EYE SHOWCASE

(Sunday April 6 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld)

RADIANT CITY (90 minutes)

Genie Award-winning Radiant City offers an entertaining look at life in suburbia.While Evan Moss zones out in commuter traffic, Ann toils away in her dream kitchen and the kids play sinister games amidst the fresh foundations of monster houses. Developers call it big business, but the Moss family call it home. Welcome to the neighbourhood and welcome to Radiant City - an entertaining and startling look at 21st century suburbanites and suburban sprawl.

Discuss this film online.

http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyesunday/feature_060408.html

I first saw Gary Burns' Radiant City at Calgary international film festival. (See a trailer here and more info on filmmakers here.) It is a very interesting movie and I quite liked it. Feel free to leave your comments or thoughts on the film in the comment section. And I will share with you my thoughts about it.

By the way, Gary is a Calgarian and it has been my pleasure to run into him a few times in Calgary at movies or industry events. Gary is a really nice guy.

Warning, there may be spoilers in the comments. So please considered yourself warned. (smile)

My Sassy Girl Trailer

The original Korean film My Sassy Girl is one of my favourite romantic comedy with a different twist. Hollywood is remaking it starring Elisha Cuthbert. Quoting Moriarty at AIC, “If Elisha Cuthbert can pull this off, she’ll change her career, and if she doesn’t, the film won’t work. Tall order, if you ask me.” I think the film is also difficult to “translate” culturally too. Will see.

Here is a trailer of the original Korean My Sassy Girl. A film that I highly recommend.

Here is a trailer of the Hollywood remake.

P.S. Writing this entry lead me to think of “The Lake House” which is the Hollywood remake of the Korean “Siworae” (a better film if you ask me).

P.P.S. The Korean filmmakers are probably feeling proud, just as Hong Kong filmmakers (when Scorsese remade HK's "Infernal Affairs" into his Oscars winning "The Departed").

Genie Awards & Canada’s tax credit censorship

Sarah Polley is one of Canada's finest filmmaker, so I am happy that her film Away from Her has won a few Genie Awards listed below,

Best Motion Picture

Away From Her (Daniel Iron, Simone Urdl, Jennifer Weiss)

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Gordon Pinsent, Away From Her

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Julie Christie, Away From Her

Achievement in Direction

Sarah Polley, Away From Her

Adapted Screenplay

Sarah Polley, Away From Her

Quoting the TorStar report (emphasis added),

Bill C-10 – the federal government's controversial proposal to cancel tax credits for films with material considered offensive – took a bashing last night at the Genie Awards.

Telecast host Sandra Oh stopped following the script to say: "I can't continue without making a personal statement. Censorship has had work done and is trying to make a comeback. I don't know about you, but to me this doesn't sound like Canada."

Producer Robert Lantos, accepting an award on behalf of Eastern Promises` absent screenwriter, added: "If the barbarians have their way, the kind of work that won this award will no longer be permissible in Canadian cinema." [K: Eastern Promises is a great film and will surely be unjustly censored if C-10 is in effect.] [...]

And Romeo Dallaire, the senator whose fight against Rwanda's genocide is told in Shake Hands With the Devil, delivered an upbeat message: "C-10 hasn't made it through the Senate yet."

But backstage, Dallaire criticized the bill. "I think it's more significant right now that we have policies to help and support the film industry financially then starting to move on policies that in my opinion are not necessarily in the Canadian perspective," he said.

Now before the Senate, Bill C-10 would allow Heritage Ministry officials to rule movies and TV shows deemed offensive or contrary to the public interest ineligible for federal tax credits. [K: And worst, the bill has retroactive power to take back approval from a film after the fact thus making film financing very uncertain, more costly and difficult.]

Consider joining the Facebook protest group against Bill C-10. And here are some other news reports,

1. Canadian official defends tax curb - Hollywood Reporter
2. No censorship threat in Bill C-10: Verner - Really?
3. An open letter to Prime Minister Harper and Minister Verner
4. The Battle over C-10
5. From the Desk of Stephen Harper - nice work Rick :)
   

2008 Newsweek pre-Oscar Round Table

Here is a series of priceless chats between the stars (Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ellen Page, James McAvoy, and Marion Cotillard) and it was wonderful when they just chatted and were having so much fun doing it - Part 1, Part 2, …, part 7, …, part 14.

Here is Part 2 as you can probably skip part 1 which is the intro,

P.S. George Clooney is such a senior statesman. You can see him as such an insightful man in this chat. And he is funny (as expected).

Recreating D-Day by 3 men in 4 days

Wonderfully cool and creative work by 3 graphics designers with some props to do what Saving Private Ryan did with 1000 extras. Enjoy.

[hat tip: Richard]

Hong Kong’s Electric Shadows

My friend Daisann has an interesting blog entry about The 32nd Annual Hong Kong International Film Festival.

P.S. Movies is “dihn ying” in Cantonese, which can be translated as “Electric Shadows”.

Oscars Picks vs Results

The Oscars winners were announced last night. I got most right and three wrong in my picks for the 2008 Oscars. I am most disappointed that Madame Tutli-Putli didn’t win. :(

See also this CBC report with video.

*******

**** Best Short Film, Animated (Got this wrong but I still love my pick)

Madame Tutli-Putli (2007): Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski (see my blogs here and here)

**** Best Motion Picture of the Year (Got this right, no surprise here)

No Country for Old Men (2007): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin

**** Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Got this right, no surprise here)

Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007)

**** Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Got this wrong, big surprise here)

The official winner:

Marion Cotillard for La Mome (2007)

My pick:

Julie Christie for Away from Her (2006) (Note: In doing so, the Academy is also indirectly honouring Sarah Polley’s great job in making Away from Her.)

**** Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Got this right, no surprise here)

Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men (2007)

**** Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Got this right)

Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton (2007)

**** Best Achievement in Directing (Got this right)

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)

**** Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Got this right)

Diablo Cody for Juno (2007)

**** Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published (Got this right)

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)

While I secretly hope Sarah Polley will win for Away from Her (2006) but I know the chance is bad.

**** Best Documentary, Features (Got this wrong)

Official winner:

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007): Alex Gibney, Eva Orner

Alex Gibney gave a wonderful speech (emphasis added),

“This is dedicated to two people who are no longer with us, Dilawar, the young Afghan taxi driver, and my father, a navy interrogator who urged me to make this film because of his fury about what was being done to the rule of law. Let’s hope we can turn this country around, move away from the dark side and back to the light.“

My pick:

No End in Sight (2007): Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs (World class research. I haven’t seend this film but I am betting my $1 it will win. Will see.)

Oscars Picks

Instead of live blogging, I will be watching the 80th Annual Academy Awards tonight with some friends. To make things fun, I will continue to try to pick the winners like last year. Here are my partial picks for some of the winners from the list of nominations.

*******

**** Best Short Film, Animated

Madame Tutli-Putli (2007): Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski (see my blogs here and here)

**** Best Motion Picture of the Year

No Country for Old Men (2007): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin

**** Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007)

**** Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Julie Christie for Away from Her (2006) (Note: In doing so, the Academy is also indirectly honouring Sarah Polley's great job in making Away from Her.)

**** Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men (2007)

**** Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton (2007)

**** Best Achievement in Directing

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)

**** Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Diablo Cody for Juno (2007)

**** Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)

While I secretly hope Sarah Polley will win for Away from Her (2006) but I know the chance is bad.

**** Best Documentary, Features

No End in Sight (2007): Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs (World class research. I haven't seend this film but I am betting my $1 it will win. Will see.)

The Argo Project - deploying 3000 profiling ALACE floats scattered around the world

Saw this wonderful piece about The Argo Project on CBC National (with video) tonight. Here is from the site's "What is Project Argo?" (emphasis mine),

Argo is an international venture that aims to deploy 3000 profiling ALACE floats scattered around the world. Details are still being discussed, but the target depth for these floats might be 2000 metres and they will likely rise to the sea surface every 10 days. Thus, every 10 days we should acquire:

• An observation of ocean currents globally at a depth of 2000 metres.
• If they spend long enough at the surface, a surface drift velocity.
• A profile of temperature and salinity between the two depths.

Here are some Argo Float Movies to check out.

Groundhog Day 2008

Me and my better half have been watching Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell's Groundhog Day (the film) on Groundhog Day (Feb 2nd) every year for longer than I can remember. As always, I also discover something new this year. I found this wonderful 2005 Roger Ebert re-review of the film. I tried to find a YouTube clip of a few scenes in the movie that I love, unfortunately I couldn't find any nice ones to include.

P.S. Here are the 2008 Groundhog Day "predictions" so far according to National Post,

The results so far:

Shubnedacadie Sam (Nova Scotia): Spring

Punxsutawney Phil (Pennsylvania): Winter

Wiarton Willie (Ontario): Spring

General Beauregard Lee (Georgia): Spring

Balzac Billy (Alberta): Spring

Buckeye Chuck (Ohio): Spring

Staten Island Chuck (New York state): Spring

Malverne Mel (New York state): Spring

2008 Oscar Canadian Moments

Allow me to share with you a few Canadians that got nominated for Oscars (here is the full nomination list).

*******

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Julie Christie in “Away from Her” (see high quality trailer) (This is one wonderful film, great jobs by Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, and direction by Sarah Polley)

Ellen Page in “Juno” (see high quality trailer) (This film seems like a lot of fun, I plan to watch this)

Adapted screenplay

“Away from Her“ (Lionsgate), Written by Sarah Polley

Best animated short film

“I Met the Walrus” (content rich site with lots of info) A Kids & Explosions Production: Josh Raskin

“Madame Tutli-Putli“(content rich site with lots of info) (National Film Board of Canada) A National Film Board of Canada Production Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

*******

Away from Her - YouTube Trailer

Juno - YouTube Trailer

I Met The Walrus - YouTube Trailer

Madame Tutli-Putli - YouTube Trailer

*******

Bonus section

Ellen Page on The Late Show w/ David Letterman 2008/01/03

Ellen Page at the World Premiere of “Juno” at Toronto International Film Festival

Sarah Polley - TNT’s Hollywood One on One Interview

Sarah Polley - Away From Her - Behind the Movies Part 1

Sarah Polley - Away From Her - Behind the Movies Part 2

Sarah Polley - Away From Her - Behind the Movies Part 3

Wonderful interviews and behind the scenes of Madame Tutli Putli

More YouTube clips search result from Madame Tutli Putli

Tales of two Vancouverites impacted by Writers Guild of America strike

I recently interviewed two Vancouverites Dave Jacox (photo on the left) and Shane Meier (photo on the right) that were impacted by Writers Guild of America strike.

Dave Jacox started working in the film industry in 1982 after high school and then Dave started working as a stunt man and coordinator and had been doing stunt work since 1984 for over 23 years. Dave’s stunt coordinating features include TV series like Eureka and films like Get Carter.

With the ongoing strike, Dave and his business partner and fellow stunt man (also a Dave) are working away at their online t-shirt company www.davewear.com to help pay some bills. It is a neat concept and cool looking t-shirts, make sure you check the site out.

Here is an insightful chat with Dave (mp3) (or download/streaming) about his background and how the Writers Guild of America strike has impacted him personally.

Shane Meier is only a little over 30 years old but Shane started his career 20 yrs ago with leading roles opposite Clint Eastwood, Ed Harris, and Chuck Norris. Shane has a recurring role in CBC’s critically acclaimed series Intelligence.

Because of the strike, Shane now has to work behind a counter in a clothing store.

Here is an insightful chat with Shane (mp3) (or download/streaming) about his background and how the Writers Guild of America strike has impacted him personally.

After you listen to my chats with Dave and Shane, I hope you will get a sense of how the strike has impacted people working in TV and film industry in Vancouver. If you are in the position of hiring talented people, I am sure Dave Jacox and Shane Meier (or their agents) will be interested to talk.

I wish Dave, Shane and all other affected people in the TV and film industry the best of luck. I hope the strike will come to a conclusion with terms agreeable to all sides soon. And talented and creative people can get back to create great stuff for us to watch.

Little Lost in Translation

A friend of mine has asked me to play a small role in his personal project as a paid actor. I won’t say much as I don’t want to spoil the fun. (smile)

I am truly thrilled as I am going to be an actor (did I tell you I will be paid? (big smile)) and looks like there will be lots of fun to have. (smile) Just so my friend is getting value for his money (smile) and so that I can do an interesting and good job, I have watched the following clip on my DVD player many times now, and I am looking forward to see what I can do with the material.

P.S. I have warned my friend that I am no actor but he assured me that I can be very creative in this role and there are no lines to remember and I am free to make up my lines and change them. (big relieve and smile)

P.P.S. When I wrote, directed, and produced the short film The Puzzle, I unwisely took on one role with only like three (?) lines to memorize. I wrote those lines but I still manage to suck so badly that I had to cut myself out of *my* film! (big smile)