A long-time media artist, Michael’s filmmaking stretches back to 1978. Michael graduated from York University film school with Special Honours, winning the Famous Players Scholarship in his final year. The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video called Michael's first feature 'Recorded: Live!' "the first film about rock video". Michael served on the board of L.I.F.T. when he lived in Toronto during the eighties and managed the Bloor Cinema for Tom and Jerry. He has been prolific over his past eight years in Victoria, having made over thirty-five shorts, won numerous awards, produced two works for BravoFACT! and received development funding for 'Begbie’s Ghost' through the CIFVF and BC Film.
“That animal brain is not aware of anything, I am very confident of that. Hypothetically, somebody takes this technology, makes it better, and restores someone’s activity. That is restoring a human being. If that person has memory, I would be freaking out completely.”
My take: this subject gets murky very quickly. Witness the ethical issues the scientists raise in Nature. Another questions whether a brain without stimuli would be torture. Heady stuff.
My take: basically, lack of a suitable camera is no longer an excuse for not filming. But everything else stays the same, starting with a great script and a smart plan.
“Very quickly you could tell this was not a kid’s film. Parents were yelling at the projectionist to stop, covering their kids’ eyes and ears. It was dreadful. A few went out to get a staff member but she was overwhelmed and didn’t really know what to do. Some parents fled the cinema with their kids in tow. Eventually a senior staff member came in with a walkie talkie and he shut the screen off. To his credit he apologized and offered us complimentary movie passes to make up for it.”
Watch the trailer:
My take: back in the day, when I was a repertory cinema manager I used to order trailers for upcoming films and play them sight unseen before the nightly films. However, I think all the trailers were made for general audiences. Of course, who can forget The Tale of Peter Rabbit has Mr. McGregor who chases the rabbits with murderous intent, so maybe the horror film trailer is not so far off the mark after all.
Posting your film on CanadaScreens.ca will now trigger tax credits, providing eligible productions with fully refundable tax credits on their qualified labour spend.
First Weekend Club’s executive director, Anita Adams, says:
“This is exciting news for the organization as it puts us in a position to be of much greater service to the Canadian film community, providing them not only with a platform for their Canadian content, but a platform that will enable them to recoup costs through the tax credit program.”
In an email to me she goes on:
“We work directly with whoever holds the digital rights to the content — so we work both with filmmakers and distributors equally. More filmmakers are now choosing to go down the self-distribution route and are reaching out to us directly. In some cases, we may help release these films theatrically by offering promotional services, and then launch their films on our VOD platform. This is a model we quite like actually.”
Please read the CAVCO regulations carefully; I’m not clear if they require a Canadian distributor deal, or if self-distribution qualifies. See Section 30 above.
Two interesting developments in the realm of auteur filmmaking to report today.
Firstly, Adam Epstein writes on Quartzy that Guillermo del Toro is “getting his own film label at Fox Searchlight, the studio where he directed this year’s best picture winner, The Shape of Water.”
“For the longest time, I’ve hoped to find an environment in which I can distribute, nurture and produce new voices in smart, inventive genre films and channel my own. In Fox Searchlight, I’ve found a real home for live action production — a partnership based on hard work, understanding of each other and, above all, faith.”
“According to French media outlet Capital.fr , EuropaCorp is in advanced talks to be purchased by none other than Netflix. There’s no terms to the agreement, and honestly, the report is very heavily leaning on unnamed sources, but the structure of the deal is clear. EuropaCorp, founded in 2000 by filmmaker Luc Besson and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, would be purchased by Netflix, with Besson to stay on to oversee the creative side of the company. The goal is to have the deal worked out by the summer.”
My take: once upon a time, this might be considered selling out. Now it’s monetizing your celebrity in exchange for a promise to keep moving in the same direction. It shows just how much money mini-majors and Netflix have to invest in building up their artistic credibility and aligning with like-minded creatives. That’s the short play — the long play is betting on which streaming service will rule them all.
“The new Pocket Cinema Camera 4K has a ton of features that’ll appeal to that market — like a mini XLR connector, LUT support, and 4K recording at 60 fps — but it still has limitations that’ll keep the camera confined to a niche audience (which, to be fair, is kind of true of every camera). Basically, unless you’re a filmmaker who’s typically in control of lighting and the overall environment they’ll be filming in, this camera probably isn’t for you. It doesn’t have in-body stabilization, and the small sensor will struggle in low light and require adaptors to get the depth of field you’d get from full frame or even Super 35 cameras. That might not matter to some filmmakers, but it could be an issue for people on fast shoots or traveling to unfamiliar locations.”
“Veteran entertainment industry marketer Amorette Jones joined with technologist Matej Boda to build a blockchain-based platform for the film industry. Their new venture, Treeti, would seek to harness the disruptive power of blockchain to create a new way for filmmakers to distribute and monetize their creative projects.”
Treeti.com is short on details right now. Their promise to creators is:
“Our platform is designed to make it easier to distribute, market, and monetize your content with an engaged global audience. Sophisticated data connects you to fans who are most eager to discover and promote your content.”
My take: I so want this to take off. There is tons of potential in the blockchain. Unfortunately crypto-currencies are giving it a bad name right now.
“The 65-inch display sits flat and sturdy on your wall, like a normal television, until you’re done with it. With one push of a button, the display descends down into its stand, rolling around a coil like wrapping paper. The screen can roll up completely for safe storage and easy transportation, or you can leave a small section of it sticking up, at which point the screen automatically shifts into a widgetized, information-providing display with weather and sports scores. LG’s device has almost nothing in common with most TVs, other than its size. Functionally, it’s more like a really big tablet.”
Fully unrolled, the aspect ration is 16:9.
But wait, there’s more! It can roll down to 21:9, eliminating the black bars above and below widescreen movies.
My take: I want one! I would hang it upside down from the ceiling, so it would mimic a cinema screen of yore.
Get ready for an onslaught of new immersive video cameras.
Youtube launched the VR180 format last year and parent company Google has just partnered with Lenovo to make the world’s simplest point and shoot camera, the Mirage.
180 is the shorthand for VR180, which is the moniker for 3D VR180. The two front-facing lenses approximate your eyes, creating depth.
Lenovo has published the camera’s specs but the biggest drawback I see is the lack of a view screen. It truly is a point and shoot camera, although you could use the onboard WIFI to send the picture to your smartphone for viewing.
“VR180, like most things in VR right now, is the simple-but-usable version of what will someday be much cooler. It exists for a few reasons: because 360-degree video is actually really complicated to do well, because there aren’t many great ways to watch 360 video, and because even when they do watch super-immersive footage, viewers don’t tend to look around much. With VR180, your camera can look and operate more like a regular point-and-shoot, and viewers get a similarly immersive feel without having to constantly spin around.”
There’s also the YI Horizon VR180 coming soon and it includes a view screen, higher resolution and HDMI out, I believe. See Think Media‘s review:
My take: I’m a big fan of 180 and can’t wait to play around with both of these cameras. (Also, I wish the ‘VR’ label would just go away since this technology is not “virtual reality” but basically “reality”. Virtual Reality to me means computer-generated environments; video games are a prime example. 180 is as close as we’re going to come to reality other than actually being there.)
My take: When you do the math, it appears that Netflix spends the least, per viewer, on original content, and that Hulu spends the most. However, it also appears that all of them are spending more than they earn from those viewers. I wonder how long that’s sustainable.
