Canadians are probably the only people on the planet who are constantly bringing up the fact that so-and-so is Canadian. That is to say, the person is not American. (Americans, of course, suffer from no such insecurity.) But who can blame us? When you are a small country, living next to a media powerhouse, it’s [...]
Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category
Top 25 Canadian Films: A List
Posted in Movies, Top 130 Movies: A List, tagged Award Winning Canadian Films, Best Canadian Films, Canada Film, Canadian Movie List, Canadian Movies, Canadian Short Films, Douglas Coupland, Favourite Canadian Movies, Frédéric Back, Jean Giono, Paul Fox, Top Canadian Movies on October 5, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The Band’s Visit (2007, Dir/Scr: Eran Kolirin)
Posted in Movies, tagged blind date, Israel film, Saleh Bakri, Shlomi Avraham, The Band's Visit on August 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is perhaps the best film I’ve seen in the last few years. A small Egyptian police band gets stranded overnight in small town Israel. With no hotel in the town, two of the locals agree to take in the band members for the night.
The story breaks off into three storylines, each one a conversation [...]
The Hitchhiker better than Shyamalan’s latest?
Posted in Filmmaking, Movies, tagged aleks paunovic, gina chiarelli, James Tocher, Jason Goode, Norman Wilner, short film, the hitchhiker, Wildsound Film Festival on June 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Don’t take my word for it. Watch NOW Toronto magazine film critic, Norman Wilner, as he moderates audience responses to The Hitchhiker at the June 2008 Wildsound Film Festival screening where it won the Audience Award for Best Overall Performances and Best Cinematography. (Congrats to the cast, Aleks Paunovic and Gina Chiarelli; and to James [...]
Filmmaking: The Difficulty in Staging Protests
Posted in Filmmaking, Movies, tagged battle in seattle, commerical drive, Filmmaking, protests on June 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The art of filmmaking is the art of creating reality: people, place, purpose. We construct the objects, the characters, the space and even the light within the frame in such way that the viewer believes there is a continuity of this world beyond the frame. And most movies that you see in theatres or [...]
Short Film Update: Pop Switch
Posted in Filmmaking, Movies, tagged Filmmaking, Movies, Pop Switch, short film on June 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I have not be blogging for the last couple of months because I’m putting all of my free time into prep for my next short film, Pop Switch, written by Lucia Frangione. Its a 15 minute film is about a middle-aged man coming to terms with becoming a father in his late 40s.
My producer, Krista [...]
In Bruges – written and directed by Martin McDonagh
Posted in Movies, tagged grotesque, In Bruges, Martin McDonagh, Movies, Six Shooter on March 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Two hitmen are sent to Bruges, Belgium, by their boss after a hit goes wrong. Ken (Brendan Gleeson) is an old soul, worn down by the cumulative effects of his actions. While Ray (Colin Farrell), new to the job, is still young, both in life and at heart, and suffers his job more acutely. To [...]
Urban Rush Interview (Feb. 11/08)
Posted in Movies, tagged aleks paunovic, film festivals, gina chiarelli, Movies, short film, the hitchhiker, urban rush on February 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Aleks Paunovic and I were on Urban Rush recently to promote some local screenings of The Hitchhiker. I directed Aleks Paunovic and Gina Chiarelli in this short film about a beleaguered hitchhiker who discovers that getting a ride from the woman who just pulled over may require more than he bargained for. The [...]
Opening and Closing Images: Magnolia
Posted in Movies, tagged Blake Snyder, Film, John C. Reily, Magnolia, Melora Walters, Movies, P.T. Anderson, Willian H. Macy on February 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
P.T. Anderson’s best film, Magnolia, is harder to pin down in terms of opening and closing images because it’s truly a multi-protagonist story. And even though each character has a particular opening and closing scene which summarizes his or her journey, I found it harder to summarize those scenes with just one screen shot. Nonetheless [...]
Opening and Closing Images: Punch-Drunk Love
Posted in Movies, tagged Adam Sandler, Blake Snyder, cinematography, Emily Watson, Film, Movies, P.T. Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love, Robert Elswit, Save the Cat, screenwriting, There Will Be Blood on February 3, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I’ve become a fan of the new screenwriting guru on the block, Blake Snyder. His book, Save the Cat!, and its follow-up software has proven very helpful for me as I work on my own screenplays. One of Blake’s main points is that it’s important to have a strong opening image and a strong closing [...]
U2 3D
Posted in Movies, tagged 3D, IMAX, movie review, Movies, music, rock music, U2 on January 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The new IMAX concert film U2 3D is a feast for the eyes and heart. While offering only an abridged version of the Vertigo tour, it nonetheless maintains the spirit of the show. And with the 3D technology, not only does it feel like you can see the individual hairs on the band members’ [...]
