What helped to kick start the careers of Christopher Nolan, Mathew Vaughn, Edgar Wright and Guy Ritchie? They all took the intensive masterclass Lo To No Budget Filmmaking course taught by Toronto-born Elliot Grove. Few people know more filmmakers, or more about filmmaking than the founder of the prestigious Raindance Film Festival.
Read MoreLast year, Michael Paul Stephenson released Best Worst Movie, a documentary about the making of 1990’s Troll 2, and the cult following it’s garnered over the years. If you’re one of the (un?)fortunate souls who rented Troll 2 back in the day, you know it sits in that hallowed realm of movies so bad it’s good, and is probably best experienced with a crowd of like-minded individuals who can handle a good portion of cheese in their cinematic diet. I’ll have to admit that I never made it all the…
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While attending the Toronto International Film Festival, I admit it was mere whimsy that kept me checking my server for another hacked file, perhaps referencing one of the films I’d seen. But I never found one, and I had come to feel quite the grandiose fool for suspecting myself the target of some film-reviewing internet conspiracy, based on a single freak occurrence. That is, until last night, when I found this…
What will you be watching on Halloween? As a ramp up to All Hallows Eve here is the first in a series of suggestions… If classic science fiction deals with the question, “What if?” then the steam-punk or historical revisionist work amuses itself with, “If only…” When H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” was published in Weird Tales in 1926, the technology existed to make a silent movie of it, if only anyone had been so inclined. In 2003, a group of H.P. Lovecraft fanatics; a live action role-playing group…
Read MoreWe first met April Mullen and Tim Doiron at 2009’s Fan Expo, they were promoting the DVD release their hilarious mockumentary Rock, Paper, Scissors: The Way of the Tosser. Between then and now, they’ve gone on to make another feature film, Gravy Train, which premiered this past April, and has now launched on DVD, but you can find out about that, and more, in the video interview.
Read MoreThe long awaited Netflix Canada is now open for business. The service features a wide selection of movies and TV shows, accessible through a variety of devices. Unlike the disc based options available in the US, the Canadian service is unlimited streaming for $7.99 a month, and is available for viewing on a variety of platforms, including the PC, Wii, iPhone/iPad and PS3. Netflix for the Xbox 360, which was the first console to get the service in the US, won’t be available until later this fall. No doubt this…
Read MoreMonsters, directed by Gareth Edwards, was one of my top picks for this year’s TIFF. I had heard some good things about the film – some were calling it this year’s District 9, made at a fraction of its budget. Going in, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It turns out that aside from the fact that Monsters and District 9 both feature their aliens in a ‘real-world’ setting, the two films have almost nothing in common. In actual fact, Monsters totally surprised me — it is unlike any…
Read MoreNewtek has long been one of the most innovative digital content creation companies out there. Originally an Amiga based company, with products such as DigiView, the first colour digitizer for a computer, and the Video Toaster which gave users the power of a live switching studio via an add on card , they’ve continued to innovate through the years. This year at SIGGRAPH is no different, as Rob Powers, VP of 3D development took the stage to demonstrate the virtual cinematography capabilities of Lightwave 3D 10, the latest version of…
Read MoreWhile reading about the new Nikon D7000 and its initially unimpressive sounding HD video modes, I’ve come across a lot of opinions by many people who are disappointed about it’s possible 19.3 Mbps (Megabits per second) data rate. This includes many indie filmmakers thinking that rate may be too low for their purposes, myself included. We’ve all heard much about what are the good bitrates to look out for are, which ones are broadcast ready, which ones are crap and so on. Well, I stopped and asked myself, “Wait-a-minute, just…
Read MoreThe Q & A session with director of Submarine, Richard Ayoade and the cast (Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige & Sally Hawkins). Though I am only attending a handful of films at this years TIFF, Submarine was one of my must sees. Richard Ayoade (many of you might know him as Moss from the IT Crowd) brought his debut feature to Toronto, and this Q & A shows how funny he is in person. Yes I AM the guy who asked the the last question from behind my camera, and was…
Read MoreWe first got a quick peek at Sony’s NEX-5 at a Sony event a couple of months back, and were suitably impressed with the overall design. It’s not as bulky as a full on DSLR, while having more control, than your average point-n-shoot pocket camera. We finally got a review unit from Sony a couple of weeks back and have passed it around the bullpen. Click on past the break for our impressions, and some sample images from the NEX-5.
Read More[ Shortly after seeing Long Pigs while attending Fan Expo with rgbFilter, I found this transcript, JPEG-and-all, on my server’s HD. Hacking a server to randomly express an opinion about a movie seems unlikely, but since I pretty much agree with it, here it is. —PLQ. ] A shadowy figure says, “A painted grid of some kind. Quite large. Big enough to fill this whole pit. And again I see there is a three-jewelled sigil, on the far side. Always on the far side. More runes below the grid seem…
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