This may just be a product of getting older, but it literally seems like yesterday that Spiderman 3 was released. It was actually five years ago, in 2007. But a five-year turnaround on franchise reboots seems ridiculous to me.
Is Hollywood so starved of fresh ideas, or new comic books to raid, that this is the viewing public’s fate?
What do you reckon?
Posted in Interactive
Tagged cinema, film, franchise, movies, poll, reboot, spiderman, the amazing spiderman
I’d just like to take a moment to express my immense appreciation for the collection of music pictured above. Spawned out of hipster darling Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic, Brazilian music legend Seu Jorge translated into Portuguese, then recorded acoustic renditions of David Bowie songs.
Only five of the songs made into the film, and Jorge rerecorded the lot for this collection. Bowie himself said of the collection “Had Seu Jorge not recorded my songs in Portuguese I would never have heard this new level of beauty which he has imbued them with.”
Stripped back and raw, this collection is definitely as beautiful as Bowie implies. Do yourself a favour, if you haven’t already, and watch Anderson’s best film, then listen to this.
If you’re disappointed, hit me up on my beeper. The number is [redacted.]
With the in-development Veronica Mars film making headlines recently during it’s record-smashing round of fundraising on crowdosourcing site Kickstarter, Scrubs actor and Garden State director Zach Braff decided to put his latest project Wish I Was Here up for donations on the site.
Due to his personal wealth and industry connections, Braff’s decision was met with a great deal of criticism. The general complaint appeared to be that because he had other means available to him, he shouldn’t have utilised Kickstarter as it was taking away money from projects that truly needed it.
Braff’s rebuttal was that he had attracted donations from people who were not previously members of the site, which in all honesty seems to be a pretty fair assessment. I don’t see how anyone could honestly assert that Kickstater users looking to finance an independently produced documentary on Sudan, could be magically diverted into financing a feature film by an American millionaire. They are competing for funds from two fundamentally different groups of people.
Conniving bastard?
Before this flare-up of high-profile funding campaigns and generic digital grumbling, Kickstarter released a startling group of statistics about the site and it’s relationship with film. Since the site’s inception in 2009, more than $100 million has been raised for indie film projects. Additionally, Kickstarter-backed projects have netted three academy nominations in the documentary category, and 10% of the major Sundance, South by Southwest and Tribeca film festival line-ups included projects funded by the platform.
The Kickstarter user-base is evidently committed to indie film, and Zach Braff and Veronica Mars aren’t going to be enough to impact that at all. With huge outside fanbases literally frothing for new content, regardless of platform, they were always going to throw fistfuls of money at the project if given the opportunity.
So this all sounds fucking wonderful, right? People are funding interesting ideas and projects, and great work is getting made. But for how long? A system awash with huge amounts of money and virtually no regulation is surely going to be a target of greed in any number of forms.
Musician Amanda Palmer has encountered huge criticism after she raised $1.2 million for a new album and tour, and promptly asked for musicians to volunteer perform for free at each gig. This is on top of the questionable nature of her expenditure, which according to multiple sources reeked of what is at the very least, gross financial mismanagement. The New Yorker has an article here, that discusses the Palmer issue in-depth.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s Schuyler Moore outlines in this article, just how problematic Kickstarter and crowdsourcing in general may become. With a bevy of potential legal issues surrounding a large group of people giving you a large sum of money, corporate and governmental greed and sense of entitlement could (and probably will) mar the potential of the movement just as it’s about to take off.
If crowdsourcing can address its major issues of transparency and accountability, while navigating the quagmire of legal issues surrounding solicitations of money, AND at the end of all that retain some sense of integrity and independence from external interests; then and only then will the platform have a future.
Assuming that this can be done, I honestly believe that the future of all art, all enterprising ideas, will be digital and crowdsourced. Cut out the greedy middle-men and let the people have their say directly, this world’ll be fucking better for it.
Posted in Blog Posts
Tagged accountability, arts, blog, crowd sourcing, crowdsourcing, film, greed, kickstarter, money, music, opinion, rant, regulation, the hollywood reporter, the new yorker, transparency, veronica mars, wish i was here, zach braff
With the (fairly) recent acquisition of the Star Wars franchise by Disney, a couple of game developers came up with the idea you see pictured above.
If you’re into film (and if you’re reading this you’re either a friend or into film or horribly lost), then you should click this MAGICAL HYPERLINK and prepare to waste a decent chunk of your time.
These are a couple of my escapades:
The Abrams/Cameron team effort didn’t do much woo audiences, it seems.
If Disney don’t involve Whedon at some point while driving Star Wars into the ground, I will be forced to send them a strongly-worded fax.
In summation: GO FORTH, WASTE TIME and CHORTLE HEARTILY.
Posted in Interactive, Time Waster
Tagged debacle, disney, game, interactive, j. j. abrams, james cameron, jeff goldblum, joss whedon, michael arndt, sequel, star wars, will smith
Two young writers, with an eye towards film, discuss the challenges and difficulties facing rookie creatives trying to break into the Australian arts scene.
Posted in Interview, Video Post
Tagged art, arts, Australia, creative, discussion, interview, up and coming, video, writer, writing, young
BY: Christopher Elena, reviewer at http://www.anonlineuniverse.com/director/screenwriter. @Christoph_Elena
To even answer that question, “What does it take?” is a tired question that almost instantly falls into the deep, dark realm of the cliché and tiresome. This incredibly critical and douchey response is what a large majority perceive to be the role of the “critic” and I can confirm it’s not. A film reviewer is one who cannot see such a title as simply spotting the cliché in every film, then condemning said film. As a reviewer, you’re given the privilege of seeing a film early (before the general public), and for free, organized by the distributor of the film so word of mouth can spread before the film’s release.
Anyone who starts up a WordPress blog immediately opens themselves to free movies, as long as they write up something about it. Pretty easy, yeah? But it has to be known, a) unless you’re David Stratton or his elfish looking partner in crime who sculls passion pop live on air every Tuesday night, you won’t be paid for saying how much you love or hate a film. Screenings are on at incredibly inconvenient times, so unless you’re unemployed, you won’t see everything AND, if your approach was to be that reviewer who likes to play that game of “spot the cliché,” you’ll tend to hate every film you see thus every review you write will be unfavourable and in the end, no one reads your reviews anymore.
You begin to develop a knack for writing. It can prove therapeutic, as well as challenging, when you take into consideration the intended audience for a film and if it works on that level despite your dislike of the film itself. Consideration, when writing a review of your reader, a member of the general public who pays hard-earned money to see a film when you do not is imperative. It’s easy to say a film is shit, it’s difficult to say why without the person reading your blog scoffing at your opinion, regardless of if they have seen the film or not. Respect must be earned when becoming a film reviewer, after all, you’re considered that person who condemns a piece of work that takes years off a large group of people’s life: the filmmakers.
The biggest benefit of being a film reviewer, is interacting with filmmakers. When you write about a director or writer’s film, there are a large number of cases where they will respond to your ramblings, and if there’s any sophistication and honesty to your writing, avoiding petty insults and cheap shots, they will respond, and it could be the start of a great friendship. Filmmakers read reviews, they love reviews, what they don’t like, much like the average joe who works hard for their rent, is a blog written by someone who wants to make jokes at a film’s expense. If you hate it, say why, say what didn’t work. If this sounds instructional, I apologize, I merely speak from experience. When you see Scary Movie 5 and are asked to review it, you can’t help but call the movie one big dick joke, but of course, you have to set the right example, even if the movie has not.
Film reviewing forms connections, breaks friendships and strengthens one’s writing and appreciation for films. Be honest, be respectful and be fair. And remember, when you’re sitting in that dark room watching Deuce Bigalow III: Penitentiary Gigolo, and you’ve been assigned to review it, think to be fair before clawing your eyes out and damning humanity.
Posted in Blog Posts, Guest Posts
Tagged anonlineuniverse, blog, chris elena, christopher elena, cinema, film, film reviewing, review, reviewing
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