Atlantic Film Festival

The Atlantic Film Festival kicks off in Halifax, Nova Scotia in a few weeks from September 17-25. The schedule has just gone up on their recently improved site and it looks like it's going to be another great festival. This is the biggest year ever with more films being screened than ever before. I'm going to spend a lot of time in darkened rooms in a few weeks!

Christopher Doyle

Reverse Shot is a independent film journal that also has a site that lets you read things online as well. They have an interview with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who shot the recently-released (in North America) Hero as well as In The Mood For Love. They are two of the most visually beautiful films that you'll ever see.

adland

adland has lots of timely information about advertising. If you sign up and pay 2 Euros per month you can watch pretty much any recent commercial via adland.

Raindance

Raindance is an organization in the UK that is "dedicated to fostering and promoting independent film" and they do that with a festival, workshops, a magazine, and a site that is packed with solid advice about every aspect of production from the art, craft and business sides.

Tail Slate

Tail Slate has articles and essays about film and filmmaking. There are reviews of films and books, as well and as a range of essays and information about festivals and writing among other things as well.

Royal Tenenbaum's World of Futura

In Mark Simonson's notebook entry Royal Tenenbaum's World of Futura talks about Wes Anderson's somewhat-obsessive use of the font Futura in The Royal Tenenbaums. There are some great screenshots clearly showing the pattern. Mark Simonson also wrote "Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies" which is essential reading if you're trying to do anything with type on screen.

torontoBLOG

torontoBLOG gives you lots of information about the Toronto International Film Festival which starts on September 9th. indieWIRE has been the best source of information about independent filmmaking for a long time now.

Strictly Film School

Strictly Film School has been around for a while, but I just found it. It's filled with information, insight and analysis by Acquarello about important films from around the world. It's a collection of short essays that are well-organized and well written. A great resource.

Clipland

Clipland is a great resource for short form media. Whether it is a music video, movie trailer, commercial, or short film you can find it on Clipland. Want to find out more about a short film you saw at a festival, look it up on clipland. It's a great place also to look at ads, short films and commercials.

99 Rooms

99 Rooms is an interactive environment created in Flash. With great photography and sound design, it's an experience that rewards careful thinking and exploration. Kind of the opposite of a video game where clicking a button quickly is the way to succeed.

Filmmaker Blog

Filmmaker Blog is a blog published by Filmmaker Magazine which has up-to-date information about the film world that supplements the (excellent) magazine. Some good stuff there.

Born Magazine

Born Magazine combines art, literature and interactivity together. It's a great place to see the combination of great art and great writing. Every three months a new issue is released into the world. Check it out and be moved and inspired.

digitallyOBSESSED

digitallyOBSESSED has just about all the news that could possibly fit onto a site about DVDs. They have thousands of DVD reviews, news, and contests (where I won a DVD once!). They're on Summer vacation now, but you'll be able to spend hours on the site looking through the news and information.

HD For Indies

HD For Indies is a blog by Mike Curtis about low-budget high-def production. It's a good place to separate the hype from the reality and to figure out how you may be able to use HD for a production. Practical, solid, and timely information for the high resolution future.

Elmer Bernstein

I have this thing that if I run the rough cut of the film often enough, over and over again, it will start to talk to me. It will tell me stuff. Eventually, the tone I need will come to me. Then you have something that fits, some sense of integration with the film instead of just slapping some wallpaper at the end.

Elmer Bernstein died last week. If you don't recognize his name, you'll recognize his music. He was a talented film composer who worked from the 1950s up to two years ago. Some of the scores you may recognize were "The Ten Commandments", "The Magnificent Seven", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Animal House", "Airplane!", "Ghostbusters", "My Left Foot", "Cape Fear", "The Age of Innocence", "Bringing Out the Dead" and "Far From Heaven".

Bum Barometer

Bum barometer is an essay by David Mamet on audience research and how it doesn't work. You should listen to the audience based on how they react, not with audience research. It's probably why amazing, challenging films don't seem to make it to the multiplex and what shows up on most screens is average, boring and somewhat grey. David Mamet is a playwright, screenwriter and independent filmmaker who carefully crafts stories with unforgettable dialogue and plots usually involving people who are not being completely honest.

Larry Jordan's Final Cut Pro Newsletter

Larry Jordan's FCP Newsletter is filled with useful and practical information about Final Cut Pro. He has great tips for how to get the most out of Final Cut. I subscribe and always look forward to new articles. Larry Jordan is a producer, director, editor, consultant and trainer who is an Apple-Certified Trainer.

Celluloid Skyline

Celluloid Skyline is a book and Web site by James Sanders that explores the city of New York through movies and the real, actual city. New York is a city that will always be remarkable and it has been represented in many films over many years. There is a tangible energy that you can feel when you are in New York and the cinematic versions of the city blend with what you actually see and experience. The Celluloid Skyline site features links to a wide range of stills and films that allow you to explore New York in day and night in fact and fiction. James Sanders is an architect, author and filmmaker who cowrote New York: A Documentary Film with Ric Burns.

The Naked Face

The Naked Face is an article by Malcom Gladwell about how you can tell if someone is telling the truth simply by looking at their face. It's an important skill to have if you're a filmmaker making a documentary and interviewing people or if you're trying to convey someone telling the truth or a lie. Some of the best skills for a filmmaker are people skills. The article is fascinating and it is the basis of Gladwell's upcoming book, Blink.

Canadian Screenwriter Magazine

Canadian Screenwriter Magazine is a quarterly publication of the Writers Guild of Canada, which represents screenwriters in Canada. The online version has articles and news that is relevant for people who are interested in writing and screenwriting in Canada.

Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson recently died and he left behind some of the most unforgettable images every created with a camera. He wrote about "the decisive moment" when you capture something that is real. He founded the Magnum photo agency which has an extensive collection of his photographs online. He never cropped his photographs and had an incredible gift for finding the right moment to preserve humanity and find meaning in a fraction of a second.

The American Society of Cinematographers

The American Society of Cinematographers is 85 years old. It's an organization that cinematographers are invited to join based on their body of work. You'll see the initials ASC after the name of cinematographers in the credits of films. The most visible work of the ASC is American Cinematographer, which is filled with information and inspiration for anyone who creates images for film.

POST VIDEO ART

POST VIDEO ART | Video Art & Experimental Films Video Streaming is a place where you can go to view short film and video. You can also upload your work for exhibition. There is some neat stuff there!

Imaginary Forces

Imaginary Forces design experiences, visuals and titles for film and television programs. They made a huge impact on the world of film titles with the unforgettable sequence that they created for "Seven". They also have made memorable sequences such as "Mission: Impossible" and "Hellboy". For television they did the title sequence for "Homicide" and they created the analytical and prevision visuals for "Minority Report". They're reshaping the way we see titles and visuals for film.

Peter Weir and Jane Campion's Advice

The audience is hungry for something. They don't know what it is. It's probably art. How do you get to them? I see myself fail, I see myself succeed. But you need failure to drive you on. It's a little miracle when a movie works and it's meant to be like that. A good film is like a truffle. You can't grow it. It just occurs where it will. - Peter Weir

Peter Weir / Jane Campion: Directors cut to the chase is an article in the Indedependent that collects some of the wisdom of directors Peter Weir and Jane Campion. It has some great bits in it on filmmaking, working with actors and the magic that happens when we get it right.

Listening Visually: Making Films Sound Real

Listening Visually is the latest Post Scripts column in Digidesign's Digizine. Dane A. Davis has some great, practical advice for designing sound for films. Davis is the sound designer behind many great films such as The Matrix trilogy and Northfork.

Movie City News

Movie City News is a great place to find out about what's happening in Hollywood. There are great reviews, interviews, and, yes, news and not the breathless, recycled press-releases that pass for journalism these days.

True Films

True Films is a list compiled by Kevin Kelly with Bruce Kadrey of some of the best non fiction films around. It's a great place to start when you want to find out what you've been missing in terms of great documentaries. Kelly also compiles the excellent Cool Tools list for all of your geeky tool needs.

screenonline

screenonline is the British Film Institute's "definitive guide to Britain's film and TV history." It's a great place to find out almost anything about British cinema and television. There are also valuable resources such as "Short films - a writer's guide" which can help get you focused on making your own short films.

gapingvoid: how to be creative

How to be Creative is a set of tips that have worked for Hugh MacLeod who blogs at gapingvoid. He's a creative, talented guy involved with advertising who also draws cartoons on the back of business cards. Funny, biting and edgy.