At the risk of flogging a dead horse, I do like the flair shown here by Laz Marquez in his reimagining of Hitchcock film artwork, particularly The Birds. (via Alex Seder)
Trailer for Wellington actor/director Taika Waititi’s new feature Boy, inspired by the characters from his Oscar-nominated short Two Cars, One Night. His Q+A appearance (in three parts) following the film’s Sundance screening is delightful.
Old, but good. David Lynch on the iPhone film experience. (And from the related videos, why he turned down Return of the Jedi.)
Another great hand-drawn magazine cover by John Paul Thurlow. (via Peter Nidzgorski)
Cartoonist Guy Body’s take on Sir Peter Jackson’s knighthood for the New Zealand Herald.
It’s hard to imagine even the most jaded and cynical having any issues with the last forty minutes, in which Cameron uncorks the action and shows all the young pretenders — the Bays and the Emmerichs and the Von Triers — how it’s done.
— From Chris Hewitt’s five-star review of Avatar for Empire.
The car ambush scene from Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopian 2006 film Children Of Men was recently picked by Michael Harvkey as one of the ten best long tracking shots ever filmed (violence, language and spoiler warning).
It’s a riveting piece of cinema (although not without its detractors) that takes place almost entirely within the confines of a compact Fiat Multipla, custom rigged to within an inch of its life with an Oscar-worthy combination of tracks, swivel head and camera:
The car ended up being a special purpose car, built with a rig developed by Gary Thieltges of Doggicam Systems. It was piloted by a stunt driver lying near flat in front with space for another at the other end when driving in reverse. The car ‘shell’ was mounted to appear normal but with a complete rig overhead allowing the director and DOP to travel along above the actors.
What’s perhaps most interesting in light of Harvkey’s list is that despite appearances, the shot is actually an elaborate special effect, stitched together by the boffins at Double Negative from six takes filmed at four locations.
The rest of the list is worth a look too, with the work of Scorsese, Tarantino, Godard, Altman and Welles among the other picks.
Long-time Tim Burton collaborators Mackinnon and Saunders created this 30-second promo for his MOMA exhibition, running November 22 through April 26. (via Matt Downey)
The Art of Tim Burton, a 434-page tome packed with more than 1,000 drawings, doodles, paintings and evocative concept art dating back to Burton’s teen years. Packaged in both limited-edition lithograph ($300) and standard hardcover ($70) versions.
This might make up for just missing the exhibition at MOMA. But I’ll wait till the book arrives on Amazon, as shipping from Steeles Publishing to New Zealand is more than twice the price of the standard edition, at US$145. Ouch.
Blue Girl with Wine (1997) by Tim Burton, from his new retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As if that’s not reason enough to schedule a visit, there’s also the upcoming typography exhibition and recently opened Bauhaus exhibition, all of which are making me very envious of those who can go.
Ditto. Missed Burton by a week, damn.
