Milla Film Surfing

"EMPIRE" GOT INTO IDFA DOCLAB! 

This is one of those cases where being nominated is an honor in itself. Some of the other projects in the line up this year include Miranda July’s "Somebody" app, This American Life’s “Serial” podcast and Kutiman’s sick new Youtube album. It’s humbling, and frankly a little scary.

We really, really want to go to Amsterdam in November to represent the project. We’ve asked every cultural institution we can find in the US and the Netherlands, but so far no one has stepped up to help us out.

Which is where you come in. For a limited time, we’re offering our book “Empire: The Unintended Consequences of Dutch Colonialism” at 25% off. If you buy enough of them, we can make it to IDFA.

Everybody wins here: you get a beautifully-designed book, we get the chance to take our place next to some of the best storytellers working today.

Can’t afford to buy a book? You can still help us out by sharing this post and getting the word out there. Every little bit helps right now.

Can afford to buy a book? Then hop on over to our website and scoop one up for the low, low price of $18.75: http://www.jongsmaoneill.com/empire-store/empire-the-unintended-consequences-of-dutch-colonialism-art-book

Thanks, and stay awesome,

From a terrific site called filmslie.com: “The Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein was one of the first to use the term in his theory of montage. He argued that an editing of two shots has the ability to create meaning beyond the sum of the individual shots. In other words, he recognized the potential of editing to transform the cinematic language. In an interview, Francis Ford Coppola said for him editing is the defining characteristic of cinema. His description of editing sounds similar to Eisenstein’s: ‘[Cinema] combines so many other art forms, as do theater and opera, but the essence of cinema is editing. It’s the combination of what can be extraordinary images, images of people during emotional moments, or just images in a general sense, but put together in a kind of alchemy. A number of images put together a certain way become something quite above and beyond what any of them are individually.’

So here is a short clip that attempts to explain the roles of the editor in a very visual way. The idea that probably stands out the most is: ‘The less you notice our work, the more successful we have been.’ It depicts editing as the complex and arduous process, which if done well appears seamless and natural to the audience.” —What Film Editors Do, Coppola about Editing & the Basics of Eisenstein’s Film Montage

Speaking of Eisenstein, here’s a peek inside the thinking of the greatest director in the early history of Russian cinema. Sergei Eisenstein is arguably the most important single figure in the history of movies. He was certainly the most versatile. The director of the masterpieces ‘Battleship Potemkin’ and ‘Alexander Nevsky,’ Eisenstein also wrote ground-breaking essays on film art and taught classes on motion picture production. In this book (‘Notes of a film director’) Eisenstein writes about himself and his films, about film directing and about artists he has worked with. The last chapter is his own drawings and sketches. The book is available for free from the Internet Archive [pdf]. The biography of Sergei Eisenstein is also available at Internet Archive.

Walter Murch have also something to say on this matter, “Several compilations of interviews with American film editors have been published in the last decade, but ‘Fine Cuts: The Art of European Film Editing’ is notably the first collection to focus on European editors with their inspiringly diverse ways of assembling film. It also features illuminating guest appearances by a number of European directors — Godard, Varda, Tarkovsky, Truffaut, Mackinnon, Tarr — offering their insights into the editing process. What gives all of these interviews their complexity and warmth is not only the ten different nationalities, but even more so the richly diverse and ‘uncinematic’ family backgrounds of the editors collected here. Had they followed in their parents’ footsteps they would have instead become teachers, pilots, tailors, doctors, farmers, chemists, vegetable sellers, astronomers, bookkeepers, salesmen, road workers, dry cleaners, dentists or civil servants. Luckily for the readers of this marvellous book, and for world cinema, they took another route and — to use Godard’s evocative description of film editing — transformed chance into destiny, making the varied circumstances of their lives a reflection of montage at its most sublime, when accidental moments are propelled by structure into inevitability.”

For more film related items throughout the day, follow Cinephilia & Beyond on Twitter. Get Cinephilia & Beyond in your inbox by signing in. You can also follow our RSS feed. Please use our Google Custom Search for better results. If you enjoy Cinephilia & Beyond, please consider making a small donation to keep it going:

Chuck Wendig, Andrea Phillips, J.C. Hutchins and Atley Loughridge discuss writing for multiple platforms and immersive experiences. 

Moderated by Lance Weiler

Recorded Feb 17th @ Columbia University 

Projects referenced

Collapsus 

Deja View

The 33 

Stephen King’s Bag of Bones 

A Map of a Floating City

Body Mind Change

Lyka’s Adventure

By Sam Peters

"Everything we do is about storytelling."

“Everyone should walk out of here wanting to tell a story,” said Paul Simkin during a break in Elizabeth Krist’s “Photo Editing A-Z.” Part of FotoWeekEDU, Krist taught 60 eager photography professionals and photo enthusiasts how to craft a visual story in print and digital media.

"You want to give the photographer the freedom to experiement and play … A photographer’s voice is what makes them memorable."

"We’re constantly trying to come up with different mediums, platforms to show these images and stories. Instagram, blogs, video" - E Krist

— Erin Schaff (@erinschaff)

November 2, 2013

She first walked us through David Guttenfelder’s “The Real North Korea,” using his photos as examples of how to best pace a story. After she introduced the basics of how to tell a photographic story, she turned to Matthieu Paley’s “Stranded on the Roof of the World.” Krist broke down his story thematically. She focused on the unpublished photos, or file selects, instead of just the final images. She explained her editorial choices, highlighting what makes an image work, and what it takes for a photo to make it into National Geographic magazine.

Here’s another shot of EKrist’s “Photo Editing A-Z.” That’s @dguttenfelder's photo behind her. #fotoweekedu pic.twitter.com/oLePJdf401

— Sam Peters (@ServedBySam)

November 7, 2013

Priceless: Young Terry Gilliam teaches you how to make his unique cut-out stop-motion animations in this 1974 TV segment. Complement with Hans Ulrich Obrist’s fantastic compendium of famous artists’ instructionals.