Film – Page 9 – rgbFilter

The People vs. George Lucas: the verdict?

May 3, 2010May 4, 2010 Doug Groves Alexandre O. Phillipe, Film, Hot Docs, review, SXSW, The People vs. George Lucas, Toronto7 Comments

Ever since the release of The Phantom Menace, Star Wars fans old and new have debated the merits of the new trilogy, and Lucas’ decision to drastically alter the original trilogy to make it more ‘modern’, not just in the effects department, but taking some rough edges off main characters. The new documentary The People vs. George Lucas, from director Alexandre O. Phillipe, is a good distillation of that debate. It offers up, in a compressed timeline, an overview of the history of George Lucas and the almost religious following…

Alan Wake preview “Bright Falls”

April 30, 2010 Doug Groves Alan Wake, Bright Falls, prequel, Sam Lake, Xbox 3606 Comments

It’s just under 3 weeks until the new Xbox 360 action thriller game Alan Wake hits shelves (May 18th in North America, May 14th in the EU), making light itself your most powerful weapon against the forces of darkness. What makes this most interesting is that the game is written by Sam Lake, writer of the Max Payne game, who had a knack of capturing the right tone for that game. To follow a trend that seems to be more and more prevalent every year, there’s a prequel short film…

Ridley Scott on Alien Prequel

April 29, 2010April 29, 2010 Doug Groves 3D, Alien, Alien prequel, Ridley Scott, space jockey0 comment

It’s no secret that Ridley Scott has been working on making a new Alien prequel. Originally slated to be a film directed by Scott protege Carl Erik Rinsch, Ridley decided to pick up the reins himself, so that Rinsch can spend the time making Small. Since taking on the director’s role for the movie, rumour has it that the prequel will actually be a trilogy. There’s also new details on where the focus is going to be in the prequel… It’s set in 2085, about 30 years before Sigourney [Weaver’s character…

Kick Ass movie review

April 25, 2010April 25, 2010 Doug Groves Kick Ass, Mark Millar, movie, review0 comment

Alex and Dave discuss whether Kick Ass does or not. To correct Alex’s name mix-up, Hit Girl is played by Chloë Grace Moretz, Red Mist by Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

GravyTrain world premiere tonight

April 23, 2010April 26, 2010 Doug Groves April Mullen, GravyTrain, premiere, red carpet, Tim Doiran, Way Of The Tosser2 Comments

One of the most fun moments at Fan Expo last year was when we chatted with filmmakers April Mullen and Tim Doiron, and their great indie mockumentary “Rock Paper Scissors: The Way Of The Tosser”. The duo are back with the new comedy GravyTrain, and the trailer suggests that even with a bigger budget the film is infused with the same sense of humour as Way Of The Tosser. As an interesting side note, GravyTrain is the 3rd Canadian feature to be shot on the Red One digital cinema camera….

Zacuto’s HD-DSLR vs Film Shootout!

April 21, 2010May 31, 2010 kingpinlei Canon, Digital Single Reflex Camera, DSLR, Film, HD, High Definition, Nikon, Panasonic, shootout, Still, Zacuto4 Comments

**UPDATE: Zacuto has finally released Part 3 of their incredible HD-DSLR vs 35mm Film Shootout! This EP focuses on resolution tests with all these cameras plus the new Canon T2i and green-screen compositing tests. The green-screen tests are VERY interesting indeed. Hit up the link at the end of this article to watch all the camera goodness. HD-DSLRs have arrived! While indie filmmakers –including yours truly– have applauded its arrival, many professionals in the Film and Television industry still think of them as a fad, not to be taken seriously. …

New Raindance Canada Workshops and Events!

April 20, 2010April 20, 2010 kingpinlei Film, filmmaking, movie, moviemaking, pitch, Raindance Canada, screenwriting, scripting, workshop2 Comments

Want to start making a film but don’t know where to start? You’re in luck! Raindance Canada –the Canadian arm of Raindance U.K.– is offering a new round of workshops for the budding screenwriters and filmmakers. I’ve attended practically all of their workshops and can tell you, the information they offer in their seminars are invaluable to anyone wanting to write, direct, or produce their own films. The cool thing is that their workshops are taught by industry professionals from the U.K. and abroad. And to top it off, they…

Enter the ViewPoint Film Challenge #3

April 19, 2010April 19, 2010 drsquid Challenge, festival, Film, Filmmaker, indie, short time, Toronto, VFC, ViewPoint1 Comment

The Toronto based ViewPoint Film Challenge gives filmmakers the challenge of creating a short film based on the same script. After the success of the first and second challenges, in 2008 and 2009, the third edition of this unique film event returns – after the script is released on May 1st the directors only have 1 month to complete their film! The ViewPoint Film Challenge is all about sharing the same pages of dialogue that we provide, allowing you to focus on your own unique point of view and compare…

Short film “The Gift” becoming a feature?

April 10, 2010April 10, 2010 Doug Groves 21:9, Carl Erik Rinsch, Cinema TV, Philips, Ridley Scott, Small, The Gift4 Comments

Remember the crazy days of January 2009, when Philips announced its Cinema TV with the odd ball 21:9 aspect ratio? If you don’t recall it, you may remember the way cool short they commissioned to promote it, Carousel. Well, Philips has continued to use short films to promote the Cinema TV. This time, in an experiment with Ridley Scott Associates, Philips presents 5 short films, each using the same short bit of dialogue with very different results, from Dreamworks-esque animation to gritty dystopian action thriller. The project, though certainly very…

Cineform closes, at least for now

April 8, 2010April 8, 2010 Doug Groves Cineforum, Reg Hartt, Toronto0 comment

If you’ve spent any time looking at the myriad posters put up in downtown Toronto, you’ve surely seen the black and white letter-sized flyers for some of Reg Hartt’s film festivals and presentations, such as The Sex & Violence Cartoon Festival, Triumph Of The Will and Kid Dracula (which uses Radiohead’s Kid A as a soundtrack for F.W. Murno’s Nosferatu). Some of these Reg Hartt presentations have been around for decades. Now, Reg Hartt has had to shut down his unique film location Cineforum, after receiving a notice of violation…

New Canadian Video Game Awards coming this spring

March 10, 2010March 10, 2010 Doug Groves CVAwards, CVGA, video game awards1 Comment

The 1st Annual Canadian Videogame and Digital Arts Awards is set to take place May 5th at the Vancouver Convention Centre and will in essense kick off GDC Canada. This is definitely a good thing, as with the ELANs moving from Canada to the US, there’s definitely room for an awards show that highlights Canadian talent, be it big names in the gaming industry such as Bioware or Ubisoft Montreal, or the wealth of talent behind the scenes of film and television. A number of sponsor such as Microsoft and…

New TRON Legacy trailer awakens ancient geek slumber

March 9, 2010 Doug Groves trailer, Tron Legacy2 Comments

This is the new TRON: Legacy trailer. It’s very cool. There’s little else to say. … Actually, there is. It IS very cool looking, other than the Mouse House logo at the beginning. The stream above is courtesy of Joystiq, because although Disney put an HD version on YouTube, they disabled embedding. Way to grok the 21st century. Apparently this trailer also played before the 3D Disney release of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland this weekend. From anecdotal evidence, the trailer was the best part of the experience.