Tagshort

Vancouver International Film Festival

VancouverFilmFest2010_sm

The last two weeks have been pretty crazy. Back to work in a studio cubical and also attended the Vancouver International Film Festival.

I started everything off with Monsters, and ended if off with the beautiful, French, somewhat depressing The Illusionist. In total I saw 28 films.

  1. Monsters
  2. Waste Land (trash is art!)
  3. Cold Fish (violently disturbing)
  4. R U There? (yes, I am… I’m just sleeping)
  5. An Ecology of Mind (documentary on the amazing system theories of Gregory Bateson)
  6. Crossing the Mountain (…zzzZZZ)
  7. David Wants to Fly (documentary on David Lynch and his association w/ Transcendental Meditation)
  8. Tree (needed a dose of good drama)
  9. Philosophies of Life (short film collection that I didn’t have the patience to finish)
  10. Turn It Loose (breakdancing!)
  11. 13 Assassins (live action version Ninja Scroll?)
  12. Secrets of the Tribe (anthropologists decimating each other’s reputations)
  13. Drummer’s Dream (luckily they were selling copies on DVD at the door)
  14. The Man from Nowhere (South Korean action flick w/ a Korean version of Keanu Reeves)
  15. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (still trying to “get it”, but the ghost monkeys were sweet)
  16. Nénette (I ♥ orangutans)
  17. Guido Superstar (love them poop gags)
  18. Into Eternity (now one of my fav documentaries)
  19. Cell 211 (violently beautiful)
  20. Rubber (the killer tire could be a cult classic)
  21. Schooling the World: The White Man’s Last Burden (spreading the gospel without thinking of the consequences)
  22. Aftershock (wicked earthquake scene followed by Hollywood inspired drama)
  23. Cities on Speed (documentaries where the titles say it all, “Bogotá Change” & “Mumbai Disconnected”)
  24. When the Devil Knocks (documentary on a woman with multiple personalities)
  25. Armadillo (Danish film on the Afgan war)
  26. The Repeaters (Groundhog day with 3 addicts)
  27. Plug & Pray (I ♥ Joseph Weizenbaum)
  28. The Illusionist (French animation from creators of Triplets of Bellville

 

How to Survive?

1) Bring a water bottle & snacks. You will be downtown all day long, surrounded by Starbucks, McDonalds and $2 pizza slices. Considering you’ll be sitting on your butt all day long, just how much torture do you want your body to endure?

2) Sharpie for the marking up of your schedule.

3) Learn to live without your phone for a few hours. I was amazed at how insistent the staff were in having the audience turn off their phones. I was even more amazed at how difficult it was for us to follow this suggestion. I must say, I only pulled out my phone a couple times to quickly check the time. I swear!

4) Networking. In line I met tons of people that made me regret not having a business card, though we all had smartphones so the problem was easily solved. meeting people in line was also a great way to get suggestions on films. If it wasn’t for the texts from my new friend Michael, I would have missed 13 Assassins, and that would have been tragic.

Speaking of “meeting people”, I finally met my doppelganger. According to Michael Hayward, there may be potential for me playing a younger version of Wallace Shawn (Princess Bride) in his autobiographical documentary.

2010-10-06_16-59-24_734_Vancouver

The Monk and The Fish

A classically animated short created by Michael Dudok De Wit. Simple yet beautiful. Powerful use of the music to tell the story. If you like this short and can handle seeing something a little more simple, Father & Daughter is also worth checking out.

Thanks to Des Duggan for getting me to check this out.

The Monk and The Fish

A classically animated short created by Michael Dudok De Wit. Simple yet beautiful. Powerful use of the music to tell the story. If you like this short and can handle seeing something a little more simple, Father & Daughter is also worth checking out.

Thanks to Des Duggan for getting me to check this out.

This one time…

“This One Time…”
By Nelson Boles

This one time… from nelson boles on Vimeo.

Thanks to S. Clee for this one.

I Met the Walrus

I Met the Walrus is a wonderfully animated interview with John Lennon. When Jerry Livitan was 14 years old, he tracked down Lennon and interviewed him in his Toronto hotel room, almost 40 years ago.

Youtube also has a high quality version.

Big Buck Bunny

Big Buck Bunny, Blender’s open source movie has been released! Yes, I know I’m a little late on this announcement, but better late than never. I received my DVD in the mail a few weeks back and was stunned at the quality of the short. The story is a little odd and violent, but entertaining! The deformation of the character rigs is wonderful and the animation was surprisingly flushed out. They certainly put more time and focus in this area than they did with their first open source film. Not too shabby for a 3D application that’s less than a 10MB download.

The DVD contains the full short film, plus all the assets used in production. Including the 3D characters, sets, storyboards and animatics. If you are curious about what is used in a 3D production pipeline, this is a priceless resource.

Did I mention that this was created entirely with open source software? The primary pieces of software used were Ubuntu, Gimp for textures & Blender for 3D and compositing.

I’d recommend downloading the HD version of the Big Buck website, but for those that are lazy and willing to sacrifice the quality, it’s also viewable on YouTube:

TRON in Stop Motion on Dailymotion!

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