This documentary is a must see in my books. Keanu Reeves is going directly to the source with this no holds barred approach to understand what is happening in today's filmmaking community.
Of course 3D, high frame rates, digital vs. film are all going to be huge topics - but to see these titans discuss their bread and butter makes for extremely interesting viewing.
Keanu Reeves of course has his 3D samurai epic 47 RONIN opening in February, 2013.
The videos I have below include outtakes from Reeves' discussions with James Cameron, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Steven Soderbergh, Wally Pfister, Robert Rodriguez, The Wachowskis and John Malkovich.
And these are just the outtakes! The content in the edited documentary must be totally enthralling.
Oh and I have Soderbergh leading into Wally Pfister's clip by design. I think you will see why.
If you have managed to see it, let me know your thoughts! You can view now on iTunes.
It is time for Warner Bros. to show off some of their upcoming 3D goods!And what a nice lineup!!
Warner has announced that Steven Soderbergh's CONTAGION will be released in 3D. CONTAGION stars Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Marion Cotillard and is set to be released October 21, 2011. The story is an action-thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak. CONTAGION's screenplay? Written by THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM's Scott Z. Burns.
If you'll remember, Soderbergh is a huge fan of 3D and an especially huge fan of what AVATAR accomplished. I am 100% positive that you can expect a magnificent native 3D effort from him for both CONTAGION and his other 3D upcoming release CLEO (slated for a 2011 release). Soderbergh also loves shooting with RED digital cameras of which I am a rabid fan.
New Line has said that FINAL DESTINATION 5 will be screened August 26, 2011 - still no notables to mention, but I am fairly sure we will be seeing "Death" work in 3D again.
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 2 will be hitting our 3D screens on September 23, 2011! Rumors have Brendan Frasier (a good bet) and Josh Hutcherson returning, although the director's chair is still unoccupied at the moment.
I am loving these announcements, especially CONTAGION. Remember these projects will ALL be shot in native 3D. We can fully expect to see wonderful results as far as 3D is concerned and hopefully the story delivers!
Hi, Michael here with a roundup of three small but cool Avatar-related items from the past week.
1.Zoe Saldanatalked with MTV about her experiences on Avatar and Star Trek. A few tidbits from the article:
On seeing an early cut of Avatar:When asked if Saldana had seen the film, she admitted to glimpsing an early cut. “I have, yes,” she revealed, struggling to find words to describe it.
“I can’t curse so I’ll just say it looks nice,” she laughed. “What I really want to say is going to get bleeped out.”
On her dedication to the role: "‘Avatar’ by far is the most physically strenuous film I’ve ever done,” Saldana, no newbie to the biz, admitted. “A role had never challenged me to the point where it freaked me out and scared me. And ‘Avatar’ definitely did that.” “I really have high hopes for it,” Saldana explained. “Because for two years I gave every bit of me in that part.”
2. Is Avatar in 3D Like Doing Drugs? Josh Quittner, the Time reporter who got to see footage from Avatar, talked to the New York Times about his experience: “It was like doing some kind of drug,” he said, describing a scene in which the movie’s hero, played by Sam Worthington, ran around “with this kind of hot alien chick,” was attacked by jaguarlike creatures and was sprinkled with sprites that floated down, like snowflakes.
Cameron has spoken about his theory that viewing 3D content utilizes more neurons, and now the Times gives us this: Dr. Mario Mendez, a behavioral neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, said it is entirely possible that Mr. Cameron’s work could tap brain systems that are undisturbed by conventional 2-D movies. One, he said, is a kind of inner global-positioning system that orients a person to the surrounding world.
“Three-D demonstrably creates a space that triggers this GPS; it’s really very stimulating,” Dr. Mendez said. He added that he had used virtual-reality therapy in working with soldiers at the Veterans Administration hospital in Los Angeles — and found himself jarred by his experience with a “virtual Iraq” simulation.
“It was with me for days and days,” Dr. Mendez said.
3.Steven Soderbergh, who had previously told Total Film that there would be "Before that movie and After,"spoke to Comingsoon.net, saying the following: "I've seen some stuff and holy sh*t. It's the craziest sh*t ever. That could negate everything I just said."
Even more exciting than this quote, however, is that Soderbergh believes that Avatar will be a benchmark in cinema, like The Godfather. From Comingsoon.net: We were asking why he thought recent films didn't have quite the impact or longevity as the classics, and he gave us a great response about how the volume of movies being made and seen made it hard for anything to have the cultural impact of a movie like The Godfather or be remembered. He was disappointed there weren't those sorts of benchmarks in the movies being made today, but he surprised us by adding that he thought James Cameron's Avatar would be one of those benchmarks.
**SAME DAY UPDATE: According to THR, the movie will be set in 1920's Chicago and roughly follows the romance of the classic Egyptian / Roman tale. This is interesting as the mob in Chicago certainly had Italian ties...
Very interesting! Jim here. Steven Soderbergh fresh off of shooting CHE, is not wasting any time in casting Hugh Jackman and Catherine Zeta-Jones in a live action, musical of CLEOPATRA in 3D.
Variety reports that: The $30 million "Cleo" will be shopped for financing and distribution within the next two weeks. Casey Silver is producing.The music has been written by the indie rock band Guided by Voices, and the script is by James Greer, a former bass player for the band and an author."
Well this is awesome news and it should be a visual stunner. I can well imagine the sets that he had envisioned for this project! Stay tuned!
As I suspected in an earlier post, RED has trademarked the name "Scarlet 2K Pocket Pro" which obviously means that the new pocket sized digital high definition camera from RED will be capable of 2K resolution! In your POCKET!? Can you imagine that? Speculation is that you will be able to add a 16mm lens too.
And knowing RED the price will be so affordable (I am musing $3k to $4k) that many will be able to buy it for day to day use. We will all know soon enough, it is being formally announced at NAB 2008. The only reason why we know early is that Jim Jannard, RED's CEO let the cat out of the bag in their forums as there were some leaks taking place.
For those catching up, the Scarlet is coming from the creator of the RED One, an affordable ($18k) 4K professional digital camera used by such directors as Peter Jackson and Steven Soderbergh. The RED One has been tested and used in 3D configuration as well. For more info check out there website: www.red.com
Holy stereoscopic developments Batman! Bob Johnston, Executive Producer with Paradise FX contacted me today with details of their announcement September 5th of 3D test involving the awesome and VERY affordable RED 4K cameras. Note that this test was taking two RED cameras out of the box (never tested), shooting in 3D and then screening the digital 4K HD movie THE SAME DAY. I am amazed at how fast the teams have put together a 3D solution using the highly touted RED system - a system that Steven Soderbergh recently announced he would be using for feature film shooting soon (2D as far as I know).
I love the spirit of the RED team and the repercussions that are sweeping the industry. Heck I feel tempted to get involved directly!
Here is their press release:
Press Release September 5, 2007 Source: Studio Daily
A quantum leap in 3D content production and stereographic post-production from a tapeless workflow, resulted in a successful 3D test shoot and screening on Saturday, September 1st . Producers Steve Gibby and Kenneth Corben of GibCor, teamed up with their 3D production partners Max Penner and Tim Thomas at Paradise FX to produce one of the first stereo 3D shoots originating with RED 4K cameras. (PHOTO: Max Penner seen adjusting the Red 4K 3D Paracam. Photo Copyright Steve Gibby)
GibCor provided RED camera #8 and their associate, Billy Summers, provided RED camera #13. Both were literally “out of the box” from the first 25 RED cameras released on August 31st. The team shot a 4K 3D dual camera test, and captured REDCODE RAW to two RED 8 GB compact flash cards.
The production alliance between GibCor and Paradise FX has been in development on their RED 4K 3D projects since February in anticipation of the cameras’ release this year. “The results of this first RED 4K 3D shoot will enable us to bring great stories, shot in stereo 3D, to audiences like never before,” said producer Steve Gibby. The RED 4K cameras were fitted with a pair of RED compact zooms (18-50mm) and mounted to the Paracam. The Paracam is a 3D camera system that employs a beam splitter and has digital control of the inter-axial and convergent positioning of each of the RED ONE cameras. By Noon the team was viewing 3D content, originating from a tapeless 4K workflow.
The 4K 3D post workflow was seamless thanks to ASSIMILATE’s SCRATCH® Digital Intermediate Process Solution and technical support from Lucas Wilson of ASSIMILATE™. The 4K REDCODE RAW (.r3d) files were imported from CF cards into a beta version of REDCINE running on an Intel based Mac system. The left and right eye files were de-bayered from 4K RAW to 2K files then imported to SCRATCH as .dpx files. SCRATCH allowed for “plug and play” into Paradise’s dual projection system for quick stereo 3D playback. After the screening, veteran 3D stereographer Max Penner said, “To take 2 cameras that have never been tested out of the box, then shoot and project 3D all in one day, is almost unheard of. All done with no umbilical cables, tape decks or digitizing. This changes everything!”
In anticipation of the continued global rollout of stereoscopic 3D enabled theaters and growing content demand, Paradise FX and GibCor are in negotiations with several major studios regarding this technology and it’s implementation in the motion picture industry. This is the first of a succession of stereo 3D tests with the RED ONE camera. Ongoing tests will help to define a workflow to apply to future 3D productions in both Large Format Film and Digital Theatrical Releases. The RED ONE camera has a small 3D form factor with a high resolution at a decent price, making it highly promising for future 3D films.
Well I have been waiting for a major player to announce their intention to use the Red One 4K Digital Camera for a feature film and it has finally happened. Steven Soderbergh will utilize the groundbreaking 4K digital camera to shoot "The Argentine" and "Guerrilla".
It is groundbreaking because there just isn't anything else that comes close to it either by technology or cost. A Red One camera can shoot movies in 4000p (remember that current HD High Definition TV is 1080p!) AND the cost is only $17,500 for the basic unit. They claim 12M pixels at up to 60fps and record 12 bit native RAW. WOW. Thats 12 Megapixels at 60 frames per second! Unfreakin' believable! And very affordable compared to whats out there.
The Benicio Del Toro vehicle films, are a biography on Che Guevara and is set in two parts - hence two films.
I can see the resemblance!
For more information on this truly definitive moment for not only HD purists, but also young and under-funded directors, check out the Red One website here.
Now if we could just get two Red One Cameras in a 3D configuration... ;-)
