Animation takes longer but there is more control. The idea we went in with was usually more closely represented onscreen when we were done. But live action has more variables. The weather on location. Live actors who get sick or break their leg. But when I was done, I thought, “That was a lot of fun.”
And he told her how his background in animation helped him create an appealing “monster truck.”
I thought, “Truck, kid, monster.” I want the truck to be a character and move like a character. We built an animatronic truck that was remote-controlled so it could lean over and pick its wheels up. We used that a bunch. There is also straight-ahead animated truck. I wanted it look like it had attitude and honored the physics of the world.
Remember “CHiPS?” The Erik Estrada television series about the California Highway Patrol officers on motorcycles? Well, guess what! Now it’s a movie!
But I have some hope this will be more than another overdone remake of a 1970’s television series because like “Baywatch,” that other reboot of silly law enforcement shows starring pretty people in very revealing outfits, it is a comedy written and directed by Dax Shepard, who also stars with Michael Peña and Kristen Bell. And the trailer looks pretty funny, though very much NSFW.
Glassbreaker Films: Support for Women Documentarians
Posted on January 13, 2017 at 3:38 pm
The Center for Investigative Reporting announced today the launch of Glassbreaker Films, an ambitious initiative intended to support women in documentary filmmaking. The program is made possible by a generous grant from the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation.
In its first year, Glassbreaker Films is launching three initiatives to create and support a network of women, each at distinct stages in their development as documentary filmmakers:
Featured filmmakers – Glassbreaker Films is bringing together five accomplished filmmakers to produce a documentary series about women taking control, taking power and taking chances.
Filmmakers-in-residence – A new, full-time digital video team – led by a senior digital video producer and staffed by three early-career filmmakers, each completing a 10-month residency with Glassbreaker Films – is creating short films for web and mobile audiences.
BridgeUp: Film – This educational project will provide training and mentorship in journalism and visual storytelling to a small and diverse cohort of high school girls in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Black-Ish: An Episode of Great Humanity and Understanding
Posted on January 13, 2017 at 3:08 pm
I have never missed an episode of “Black-ish.” It’s one of my favorite television shows, smart, sophisticated, and very funny. I am a huge fan. But this week’s episode took things to another level as the Johnson family and Dre Johnson’s co-workers react to the election of Donald Trump.
no scripted mainstream sitcom has captured the very real mix of post-election grief, frustration, confusion, and sadness with as much spot-on accuracy — and, miraculously, also humor and openness to multiple viewpoints — as Black-ish did in this week’s episode. The fact that it was broadcast the day after President Obama’s farewell remarks and just a few days before the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., whose “I Have a Dream” speech played a key role, gave it an extra shot of timeliness.
Dre launches into a monologue about how he loves this country, even though as a black man this country doesn’t love him back.
“You think I’m not sad that Hillary didn’t win?” he says. “That I’m not terrified about what Trump’s about to do? I’m used to things not going my way. I’m sorry that you’re not and it’s blowing your mind, so excuse me if I get a little offended because I didn’t see all of this outrage when everything was happening to all of my people since we were stuffed on boats in chains. I love this country. As much if not more than you do. And don’t you ever forget that.”
It’s an emotionally complicated monologue, and Anderson delivers it with stunning conviction.
The room is silent. If you watched it, I’ll bet you were silent, too. The monologue is rousing and demoralizing at the same time. It makes being black sound Sisyphean. It contextualizes our current predicament as one that’s been going on since America began and may not ever be solved.
This 22-minute episode of television had more insight, more humanity, and more healing than all the chattering heads and yelling partisans on all the news shows. I recommend recording it to have on hand to replay as needed over the next few months.
“As You Are,” directed by 23-year old Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, follows three teens — Charlie Heaton (Netflix’s “Stranger Things”), Owen Campbell (HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire”) and Amandla Stenberg (“Hunger Games”), who form a bond that is tested and maybe untethered while living in a small town.
The film is being released in theaters on February 24, 2017 in New York at the Village East Cinema with more cities to follow.
