I walked past the Stark White gallery in Auckland city, stopped in my tracks and took this picture.
Beware 2012, which works the dubious miracle of almost matching Transformers 2 for sheer, cynical, mind-numbing, time-wasting, money-draining, soul-sucking stupidity.
Peter Travers with a few acidic words on 2012.
Pomplamoose covers Beat It by Michael Jackson.
#ANIMFX09 Attracts a Mix of World Renowned Digital Media Artists to Wellington
#ANIMFX09 is a conference for the Film, Animation, Visual Effects, and Game Industries. It’s hosted by one of the world’s leading cities for Digital Media creation - Wellington, New Zealand.
#ANIMFX09 brings together a mix of filmmakers, animators, vfx supervisors, game developers, and digital artists to discover new talent, network with leading industry executives and learn about the exciting trends in the rapidly changing landscape of the digital media industry.
Back by popular demand, #ANIMFX09 features a formidable lineup of speakers including Weta Workshop Founder and vfx supervisor Richard Taylor, Capcom Vice-President and game developer Christian Svensson, District 9 vfx supervisor Matt Aitken, Black Sheep writer-director Jonathan King and Kung Fu Panda co-director John Stevenson.
If you’re unable to attend the conference,
- Starting at 9:00AM GMT on Thursday the 5th of November, @SiobhanBulfin and @LewisBostock will live-tweet the #ANIMFX09 conference.
- Using CoverItLive’s software, our live-tweets from the conference will live-stream into this web page, so you can hear from us immediately without refreshing the web page.
- If you search #ANIMFX09 and click the Save a Search feature, Twitter puts a link into your right hand sidebar, so you can execute that search anytime.
- If you subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed, our blog posts, interviews, photos and videos from the conference will appear in your RSS reader.
If you’re able to attend the conference,
- When you follow @SiobhanBulfin and @LewisBostock on Twitter, you can get our tweets sent directly to your mobile phone or instant messenger. We will notify you of keynote speeches, workshops, masterclasses and networking opportunities.
The highlight of #ANIMFX09 is the Creating Digital Connections keynote stream on Friday the 6th of November. This is complemented with a series of Master Classes on Thursday the 5th of November. A two-day pass to both days represents the best value for money.
I’m particularly fond of the poster for Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. It’s deliciously evil.
Pomplamoose covers Mister Sandman by The Chordettes.
OpenIndie.com Raises $12,000+ on Kickstater.com
Filmmakers Arin Crumley and Kieran Masterton have raised $12,000+ on Kickstarter.com, which enables them to launch OpenIndie.com on the 1st of March 2010. The website promises to deliver the following features -
- Members can organize screenings of each film complete with RSVP functionality.
- Filmmakers can import an email database and message their fans about upcoming screenings.
- A dedicated URL for each film will allow members to ‘request’ a screening of each film and spread the word.
- A donation feature will allow members to collect donations at the screening and tranfer the money to the filmmaker.
- The ability to measure the demand of any film in any area by the amount of ‘requests’.
Arin Crumley and Kieran Masterton continue to raise money to build more features on the website. They are still asking filmmakers to donate $100 in exchange for site membership and 1 hour free consulting.
Kickstarter.com is a crowd funding tool that helps you raise the capital required for a new project or enterprise by appealing to large networks of ordinary people for small donations.
A delicious photo of Coco Rocha, a fashion model for Vogue magazine. I should’ve wore this costume to the Halloween party last night. (via bohemea)
OpenIndie.com Will Transform the Film Industry
OpenIndie is a film screening website. Filmmakers Arin Crumley and Kieran Masterton encourage independent filmmakers to add their film to OpenIndie and promote their film with Social Media like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Audiences can discover films they want to see, request a screening in their area, put on a screening of any film on the website and share revenue with the filmmaker. Both independent filmmaker and audience now have the ability to measure the demand of any film in any area.
We’ve seen the model work for Four Eyed Monsters in 2005. We’ve seen the model work wonderfully for Paranormal Activity in 2009. OpenIndie will make the model accessible to all filmmakers in 2010. Development of the website will take place over time; depending on the success of the filmmakers’ Kickstarter campaign. Arin Crumley and Kieran Masteron are asking filmmakers to donate $100 in exchange for site membership and 1 hour free consulting. There’s an opportunity here for independent filmmakers to take advantage of Crumley’s experience with alternative media and self-distribution.
Open Indie has the potential to change the way independent filmmakers distribute the films and make independent film production a sustainable enterprise. It’s an attempt to reinvent traditional distribution with alternative media that pays filmmakers first.
We shouldn’t forget that John & Edward’s transcendent performance of Oops … I Did It Again on Saturday was an all-time X Factor high point. It was utterly majestic. If you want to look at it from a technical level there might have been one or two timing and pitch issues - but it wasn’t a performance that should be picked apart on a technical level. It should be spiritually absorbed in one go. And, taken like that, it was life-changing. It was the sort of performance that, if it was projected on to the side of the moon, would stop all global conflict and unite mankind in an instant. Honestly, by the time John and Edward decided to include the song’s romantic spoken-word interlude in their performance, you could almost hear the nation’s Sky+ boxes simultaneously burst into flames from overuse.
It was perfect. John and Edward are perfect. They’re head and shoulders above everyone else on this year’s show. The campaign to make John and Edward win X Factor starts here. Who’s with me?
Anyone? No?
Stuart Heritage with a few acidic words in The Guardian. It’s wonderful that John and Edward inspire ‘think pieces’ in a major British newspaper.
Hysterical clip of British Reality TV series X Factor.
I saw Iva Lamkum perform with Sola Rosa at the New Zealand Music Awards ‘09. She reminds me of Billie Holiday.
I went with Jayson Kingsbeer to the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards ‘09. He should’ve been the official photographer.
