Here's an article at Variety.com that gives a pretty positive revew of "Things To Do", that movie my brother and his friends made last year. The film is currently competing at the Slamdance Film Festival in Utah, which I mentioned a few days ago.
I noticed the Variety website might have some formatting issues (the article doesn't start until halfway down the page in Firefox 1.5).
My brother, Eric, was Director of Photography on the film "Things To Do", directed by Ted Bezaire and starring Mike Stasko. The film was shot in Windsor over last year and I know my brother and his colleagues have been working their collective butts off on it. The film will be competing at the Slamdance Film Festival which starts today. The Slamdance Festival takes place at the same time and locale as the Sundance Film Festival but is reserved for "first time filmmakers" only.
He flew out to Utah from Windsor very early this morning, where he'll be staying at a rented condo with Ted, Mike and others for the week. I'm sure they'll be networking scripts and whatnot while down there too. What an exciting time for them!
You can see some photos and a trailer of the movie at their official website, though I had to download and install the latest version of Quicktime to get the video to play. I'm really impressed with the trailer, it seems to have that wistful quality of a a good Wes Anderson film
I'm really excited for them, I hope they win. Send your good mojo his way. Too bad they're not blogging the experience...
High Fidelity
But the soundtrack
I've written a little bit about the impact of The Long Tail before I even knew what The Long Tail was. If you have some time, read the excellent 1-year old essay here by Chris Anderson. It illuminates the way things are going to work in the new market and the rules that companies must follow:
I started thinking about this again while watching some Our Gang (Little Rascals) VHS tapes I borrowed from the library. I would gladly pay to have restored, remastered and uncut/uncensored versions of these great films on DVD (especially if they had the same level of care present in the
Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs
My general rule is: Plunk down my hard-earned cash for the stuff that is available and quite simply bootleg the rest... If you lock up national treasures, don't expect people to take it sitting down. The bottom line is this: I want my kids to experience some of the great things that I did as a kid. I am not going to let the fact that certain films are entangled in ownership or censorship battles or that some marketing executives feel that there isn't a market for such and such a film stand in the way of enriching my children's life experience (and yes, I know there is more to a children's life experience than watching some funny shows - but that was a big part of mine). My kids will soon grow up - and I don't have the luxury of waiting until you sort out your legal battles or clear things with the politically correct crowd. I need to act now.
I will apply the same rationale to Disney's Song Of The South (may be released by Disney November 2006) and those great black and white Fleischer Popeye films that are being held for ransom by King Features Syndicate. Release these films and we'll buy them! In today's Long Tail world there is profit to be made.
Sam and I finally got a babysitter and went out for a movie on Sunday night. We saw "The 40-Year Old Virgin" and we both really enjoyed it. Steve Carell plays Andy, the title character, who is lead through a series of misadventures by his new-found friends in attempt to deflower him, all the while he falls in love with Trish, a "hot grandma" played by Catherine Keener. The movie is hilarious. There were literally 8 people in the theatre (late night Sunday showing and the theatre's air conditioning was broken) but we were all laughing out loud and clapping at various points, which is weird because an empty theatre can sometimes kill the experience for me. When strangers are able to sit in a room and allow their laughter to be heard without being self-conscious about it, that's usually a good sign that either the movie's very good or everyone's half-drunk. Read the rest of this entry ...