After a busy semester, what's new from Media Services?

We've hit the end of the fiscal year, so we've temporarily stopped ordering new films. We've gotten many, many other interesting titles in the past month, so you can expect another New Acquisitions post shortly.

In the meantime, we wanted to alert you to some of the big new titles trickling into our collections. Patrons frequently ask us what recent movies we've purchased, and although we try to post our newest titles once a month, the last month or two have been particularly busy for big new movies.

Here's a rundown of the big movies we've purchased since the start of the semester. If you're looking for something new and exciting in our collection, it's probably one of these:

Les Misérables – HU DVD 254 (is it available?)
Les Misérables – HU BLU 254 (is it available?)
Skyfall – HU DVD 5001 (is it available?)
Argo – HU DVD 5555 (is it available?)
Argo – HU BLU 5555 (is it available?)
The Dark Knight Rises – HU DVD 10792 (is it available?)
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry – HU DVD 10873 (is it available?)
Killer Joe – HU DVD 10876 (is it available?)
Looper – HU DVD 10899 (is it available?)
Flight – HU DVD 10946 (is it available?)
Flight – HU BLU 10946 (is it available?)
Holy Motors – HU DVD 11008 (is it available?)
The Master – HU DVD 11009 (is it available?)
Snow White and the Huntsman – HU DVD 11015 (is it available?)
Snow White and the Huntsman – HU BLU 11015 (is it available?)
Brave – HU DVD 11021 (is it available?)
Anna Karenina – HU DVD 11022 (is it available?)
The Pirates! Band of Misfits – HU DVD 11024 (is it available?)
ParaNorman – HU DVD 11030 (is it available?)
The Intouchables – HU DVD 11040 (is it available?)
Life of Pi – HU DVD 11046 (is it available?)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – HU DVD 11048 (is it available?)

Yep, Game of Thrones is back on

If you're friends with anyone with HBO, chances are you've heard that the third season of Game of Thrones premieres tonight. The latest installment in George R. R. Martin's fantasy epic is sure to captivate audiences for the next two-or-so-months. And if the books are any indication, this is going to be a particularly violent and shocking season. (We dare not risk even referring to particularly horrific events, but suffice to say, they're the reason that the show's producers wanted to make the series the first place).

If you want to get your Game of Thrones fix in preparation for the third season, Media Services has you covered. We currently have DVDs for the first two seasons available. Act quickly though; the show is immensely popular, and supply will be limited. Either you win or you... have to wait three days for the DVDs to come back.

Check availability with the links below:

Game of Thrones, Season 1 – HU DVD 10021, Discs 1-5
Game of Thrones, Season 2 – HU DVD 10022, Discs 1-5

Hear Oliver Stone on JFK's legacy TONIGHT!

Here's last-minute announcement: Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone will be on campus this evening with friend-of-Media-Services Prof. Peter Kuznick to screen an episode of their Showtime documentary series, The Untold History of the United States.

The event is part of AU's commemoration of John F. Kennedy's landmark commencement address at AU in which he heralded a future of peace. Tonight's episode is, appropriately, about JFK's attempts to find peace during the Cold War and resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis.

It all goes down at 8pm tonight in Ward 2. Take this opportunity to see and speak with a filmmaker whose unconventional, distinctive take on history has cemented him as one of the most important filmmakers of his generation.

(If you're itching for some more Stone, our Pinterest page has a board for all our Oliver Stone movies.)

We love our streaming videos, and you should too

The American Library University has been slowly building up its streaming video collections, as mentioned in previous posts highlighting Silent Film Online, Films on Demand, the Internet Archive, and other collections from Alexander Street Press. We've been slowly accumulating more streaming video resources from across the web and through new databases, and we've finally hit a point where we're ready to promote the vast streaming resources in our collection!

The streaming video resource page on our website offers a search box the only looks for streaming videos in our collection. At last count, that's a whopping 10,000+ streaming videos, including 200 high-use documentaries from Docuseek2 such as King Corn, Goodbye Mubarak!, and In the Ashes of the Forest.

Many of these films are already being used in classes. But now, students also have the option to watch them in their dorms and off-campus. Faculty can embed these videos on Blackboard as well, giving students who miss class an option to watch the videos on their own time without having to come into the library. (But we'd love to see you here anyway.)

We understand the hesitance about relying on streaming videos in class given the inherent unreliability of wireless Internet connections, but these streaming video resources are a terrific way to spice up a class's online presence or spice up a student presentation with clips and video segments.

Artist pushes Photoshop pushed to weird limits, turns rust into planets

The New Media Center is getting busy as we head into the second half of the semester, and a good number of our patrons are using Photoshop. The average user might use it to touch up a photo, add text, or do some graphic design work.

But then there are the extreme outlier users like Adam Kennedy. Adam uses Photoshop to transform photos of rusty fire hydrants into stunning planetary landscapes. It's such an out-of-the-box, unusual idea, but it works, and it looks great. This is a terrific example of photomanipulation being pushed beyond what you'd expect. There's also something to say about the re-appropriation of urban decay to create new worlds, etc., but we'll leave that to the critics.

The artist has published more on his personal website and is currently seeking crowd funding to continue this project. In any event, it should serve as inspiration for people working on end-of-semester Photoshop projects. Yes, you can make something as awesome as this with the right tools.

Today's reminder to read: Even Jedis are illiterate

Media Services primarily deals with films, so even though we're part of the American University Library, we don't often get to talk about literacy and books. But once in a while, we get an opportunity to talk about both.

Ryan Britt, an author at science fiction blog Tor.com, wrote a funny-but-deeply-concerning essay pointing out that no one in the Star Wars universe reads. Almost never do you see a single character pick up a book, read a sign, or get the news. Ancient historical artifacts come in the form of holographic videos. Everyone relies entirely on oral communication, farmers have to buy droids to do math, and the Galactic Senate makes major decisions based on non-empirical anecdotal evidence. It's exhausting and saddening to read.

Britt suggests that the entire overthrow of the Galactic Republic could have been avoided if people learned to read, picked up a newspaper, and disputed what the Emperor claimed with written facts.

None of this was probably intentional on the filmmakers' part, but it's a funny reminder to pick up a book. Please.

Hot Docs: The Boy Game

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

The Boy Game (DVD 8955) views bullying from a gendered perspective. The film – only 16 minutes long – posits that the bullying epidemic is in part caused by social pressure among boys to conform to the resilient, tough gender norms common among males of their age group. Interestingly, The Boy Game is not a documentary, but rather a short film that uses a fictionalized encounter based on real testimony. Its story of three boys struggling with their outward image is used to draw attention to real gender and social pressures.

Official description from the distributor's website:

The Boy Game tackles bullying among boys at its core:the culture of toughness and silence boys live by. Targets need to be protected, absolutely, but rather than vilify bullies, The Boy Game looks to unpack the the complex dynamics that lead some boys to bully and the majority to stand watching in silent conflict.

The truth is all boys suffer under cultural codes that demand toughness and silence. Boys desperately need a way to talk about the painful gender straitjacketing they are subject to, to develop the resilience needed to stand up, be themselves, and redefine masculinity in terms of emotional, tolerant strength.

Based on off-the-record interviews with boys nationwide, then fashioned into a hard hitting scenario, it was shot like a doc to capture the intense pressures boys face every day.

A salute to "breaking the fourth wall"

"Breaking the fourth wall" is one of the riskiest tools in a filmmaker's bag. As recently exemplified in Netflix's version of House of Cards, taking a moment to recognize the audience or the limitations of the visual medium can work like gangbusters for comic or dramatic effect. It can also backfire and distract the audience from an otherwise internally consistent work.

But as history has proven, a solid landing from a fourth wall break can create some of the most memorable moments on film. This supercut of famous winks, nods, and metahumor brings together some of the most disparate works of film into a well-edited 8-minute montage. Everything from Horse Feathers to Michael Haneke's Funny Games gets a shoutout. (Don't worry: the video breaks the fourth wall on its own too.)

There are far, far too many films featured in this video to mention individually. Stick through the credits for a full list.

AU hosts the DC Environmental Film Festival this week!

SOC's environmental film series joins forces this week with the D.C. Environmental Film Festival for a series of weeklong events highlighting the city's best environmental filmmaking – both professional and amateur.

The festivities kick off tomorrow with the premiere of Shooting in the Wild, a film based on Professor Chris Palmer's exposé book about environmental film production. The event, hosted by National Geographic and Alexandra Costeau, is part of "An Evening with Chris Palmer" that includes a Q&A with Prof. Palmer and a screening of the winners from this years Eco-Comedy Video Competition. The event kicks off at 7 PM in Wechsler Theater.

The series continues through Saturday with additional events, including screenings from the Student Environmental Short Film Festival and a panel about how to take action after watching environmental films.

This is an exciting, big Washington event being held right on campus. Take the time to visit the Center for Environmental Filmmaking's website and see if you can fit one of their screenings into your schedule.

Hot Docs: Nuclear Savage

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

Nuclear Savage (DVD 10606) puts a lens on the untold victims of nuclear testing. The effects of nuclear weaponry are well documented, yet few discuss the lives of the people intentionally exposed to radiation during nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. The film uses a combination of historical documents – some recently unearthed – and interviews with those who lived through nuclear testing. It reveals the tragic story of people dealing with the fallout of America's militaristic pursuits.

Official description from the film's website:

Adam Jonas Horowitz shot his first film in the Marshall Islands in 1986, and was shocked by what he found there, in this former American military colony in middle of the Pacific Ocean. Radioactive coconuts, leaking nuclear waste repositories, and densely populated slums were all the direct result of 67 Cold War U.S. nuclear bomb tests that vaporized islands and devastated entire populations.

Twenty years later, Adam returned to these islands to make this award winning shocking political and cultural documentary exposé titled Nuclear Savage; a heartbreaking and intimate ethnographic portrait of Pacific Islanders struggling for dignity and survival after decades of intentional radiation poisoning at the hands of the American government. Relying on recently declassified U.S. government documents,devastating survivor testimony, and incredible unseen archival footage, this untold and true detective story reveals how U.S. scientists turned a Pacific paradise into a radioactive hell. Marshall islanders were used as human guinea pigs for three decades to study the effects of nuclear fallout on human beings with devastating results. Nuclear Savage is a shocking tale that pierces the heart of our democratic principles.

Help us figure out what this is

In the process of cleaning Media Services, we found this unusual... thing in one of our viewing rooms. It appears to be an end-table of sorts, but it goes up or down depending on the weight that's on resting it. You can adjust the tension, but you can't lock it at a particular height.

We're stumped. Does anyone out there have any good guesses about what this is? We assume it has some sort of audio-visual purpose, possibly as a monitor stand, but we've having trouble coming up with a practical application for it.

Please tell us if you can think of a way this would be useful. Help!

SXSW 2013 continues a tradition of fine film

It's spring break here at American University, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the world is on pause. Austin is currently hosting South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual film/music/silly cat festival that attracts big names in media. SXSW festival entrants have launched careers, won top Oscars, and made people look at the world differently. Or at they very least, they've been entertaining.

In the spirit of SXSW's credo of being a "destination of discovery," here is a list of films shown or premiered at SXSW. It's an eclectic mix of niche documentaries and big feature films that's worth exploring.

This Film is Not Yet Rated – DVD 2414
Undefeated – HU DVD 3068
The Horse Boy – HU DVD 3783
Knocked Up – HU DVD 4166
By Hook or By Crook – HU DVD 4353
The Price of Sugar – DVD 6261
The Hurt Locker – HU DVD 6762
Garbage Dreams – DVD 7149
Winnebago Man – HU DVD 7958
Kick-Ass – HU DVD 8005
Blue Valentine – DVD 8296
Marwencol – DVD 8347
Bridesmaids – HU DVD 9104
Tiny Furniture – HU DVD 9713
War Don Don – DVD 10095
Drag Me to Hell – HU DVD 10122
A Mighty Wind – HU DVD 10218
Weekend – DVD 10364
Where Soldiers Come From – DVD 10604
The Cabin in the Woods – HU DVD 10724
Killer Joe – HU DVD 10876
Before the Music Dies – MUSIC LIBRARY DVD 158

New Acquisitions - March 2013

As we head into spring break, we're adding some big titles to our collection. Oscar contenders Argo, Skyfall, and The Master are now available, as is the second season of Game of Thrones. But don't overlook some of our other interesting additions, including The Naked Gun series, experimental film Holy Motors, failed Aaron Sorkin vehicle Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and a documentary about the world's greatest sushi chef.

Read on for a full list...

Just discovered: Clawed does the Harlem Shake

Greg Smith SFX Collection updated

SOC Professor Greg Smith has previously provided the AU Library with an expansive sound effect library free for anyone free for anyone to use – AU community member or otherwise. It's a very useful resource, especially for people working off-campus who are looking for sounds for one of their projects.

Today we added over 400 new sounds produced by Greg Smith's students to the collection. There's a load of variety in the pack, including motorcycle engine noise, city ambience, and a collection of useful foley effects. As with the rest of these collections, these sounds are free to use in your personal or commercial products.

We're right in the middle of midterms season, so if you have a video project that needs an extra punch, consider using a few sounds produced by people from your own university.

Argo screening on campus TONIGHT!

We can't keep Argo on the shelves. There've been a lot of people trying to get their hands on it (HU DVD 5555), but it's a hot item. You could catch the movie in a number of ways – some theaters are even still playing it in the wake of its Best Picture win – but you usually have to pay for those.

Luckily, the AU United Methodist-Protestant Community is at it again. They will be screening Argo for free tonight at 9 PM in Mary Graydon Center Room 200 as part of their monthly movie night program. Pizza and other snacks are provided as usual. Tonight's your chance to catch the movie everyone has been talking about. And honestly, given the weather about to hit DC, what better excuse do you need to stay indoors?

Hot Docs: How to Start a Revolution

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

How to Start a Revolution (DVD 10642) travels the globe to demonstrate the influence of Gene Sharp, a noted political scientist whose writings on nonviolent revolution and protest have been used worldwide. From Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War to Egypt during the height of the Arab Spring, Sharp's writings have influenced generations of political upheaval. The film attempts to bring more credit to Sharp's writings and the ways that they have shaped freedom.

Official description from the film's website:

Half a world away from Cairo’s Tahrir Square, an ageing American intellectual shuffles around his cluttered terrace house in a working-class Boston neighbourhood. His name is Gene Sharp. White-haired and now in his mid-eighties, he grows orchids, he has yet to master the internet and he hardly seems like a dangerous man. But for the world’s dictators his ideas can be the catalyst for the end of their regime.

Few people outside the world of academia have ever heard his name, but his writings on nonviolent revolution (most notably ‘From Dictatorship to Democracy’, a 93-page, 198-step guide to toppling dictators, available free for download in 40 languages) have inspired a new generation of protesters living under authoritarian regimes who yearn for democratic freedom.

This new film HOW TO START A REVOLUTION reveals how Gene’s ideas work in action. The film uses extended interviews with Gene himself, his assistant, his followers and leaders of revolutionary movements worldwide, as well as user-generated content from around the globe, to reveal the power of nonviolent revolution on the streets.

The Oscar giveaway is over

Thanks to everyone on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and at the desk who entered our movie giveaway. The turnout was very strong! We've notified the winners.

Look for another movie giveaway in the future!

Hot Docs: A Wild Idea

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

A Wild Idea (DVD 10631) covers one of the most intriguing economic and environmental deals in recent memory: international interests will pay Ecuador not to tap the massive oil reserves near the Amazon River. It's a radical idea that could save a region, have enormous environmental impact, and set a precedent for the future of international environmental collaboration – should Ecuador accept the deal.

Official description from the film's website:

The film takes the viewer to the Yasuní National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, capturing the rain forest’s stunning biodiversity. It also focuses in the millions of barrels of oil lying beneath the part of the park known as the ITT Block.

Exploiting the ITT seemed to be the logical step Ecuador had to take, but political changes have transformed the way the country views oil development. Through testimony representing different perspectives and rich archival video, A Wild Idea shows how the seemingly utopian ideal of keeping valuable oil underground turned into an official proposal.

As the film progresses, the complex initiative becomes easy to understand. The audience sees what’s at stake if the proposal is not accepted. And the political twists and turns that made it possible and that could also threaten the success of this revolutionary idea.

Small-run theater raises questions: can film stick around?

Over the summer, we put most of our 16mm film collection into storage. Some might argue that film is a richer and more expressive medium than video, but you don't have to be plugged into the industry to realize that digital video is quickly replacing film. Movie theaters remain one of the last bastions of projected film reels. But given the expenses of producing a degradable film reel versus streaming a digital copy, major studios are soon to cease production of film too.

It might be cost-saving in the long run, but some projectionists aren't too happy. The News-Sentinel from Fort Wayne, Indiana tells the story of Cinema Center, a small arthouse theater that has not yet updated to digital projectors and is struggling with the transition both financially and sentimentally. There's a lot in the article about the shocking price of a 35mm film (upwards of $1,500), but the most interesting anecdotes come from the theater-runners lamenting the switch. Film projectors, they argue, don't need constant expensive upgrading and can still show the same films that came out decades ago. The push to switch is universal: even the director of another niche local theater – the type that plays live music along to silent films – admits that the switch to digital video is inevitable.

It will be worth seeing if film-projecting theaters still have an audience in coming years as fewer and fewer stick around. The medium is changing, so is there still room for a niche business that does it the old-fashioned way?

Oscar Cleanup Giveaway

We've been excited about the Oscars for a while, and now that they're over, there's sort of a big void left. What better way to fill that void than to give away some Oscar-nominated movies?

We're giving away six Oscar-nominated movies:

• The Artist
• Argo
• Flight
• The Iron Lady
• Pulp Fiction
• Sting

For a chance to win, leave us a comment telling us your favorite movie from 2012. We'll pick 2 or 3 winners from our blog, Facebook, Twitter, and in-person entries to take home their choice of one of these great movies.

Good luck!

It's the Oscars!

The Oscars are tonight! After weeks of buildup, speculation, and the most use of the word "Argo" on record, the Academy will reveal the results of the most prestigious and contentious film awards ceremony at 8pm in the Dolby Theatre. We're very excited in Media Services, if you couldn't tell from our weeks of Academy Award-related posts.

Naturally, many of the films nominated for awards are still in theaters, so we can't really advertise them in our collection. But now is as good of a time as any to look back at big winners from previous years. Our Pinterest page has a list of all the Best Picture winners in our collection, with only a few missing (some of the older winners have not been released on DVD). Everyone's immediately familiar with The Artist and Slumdog Millionaire given their recent wins, but have you seen The Sting or Midnight Cowboy lately?

We'll be around all evening. If you don't feel like watching the ceremony or need to detox from the awards season, come grab one of the 82 winners in our collection. (Or 83 if Argo wins!)

The New York Times breaks down Oscar trailer timelines

The art of the crafting a movie trailer has recently become a science. Every smash cut, cliffhanger, fade to black, and fancy shot of an actor's name has been reduced to a formula that seemingly every studio follows.

The New York Times adds a new wrinkle to that analysis by splitting apart trailers for this year's Best Picture-nominated films based on when its scenes appear in the movie. A basic formula seems to exist: follow the movie chronologically to introduce the characters and plot, then end with a series of quick cuts through the middle and end to show the major action. With some variance, Silver Linings Playbook and Beasts of the Southern Wild follow this outline fairly closely.

Then there's ones like Lincoln and Amour that skip around wildly with seemingly no attention to the film's timeline. Stephen Garrett, a trailer producer that the Times interviewed, suggests that these trailers focus less on the plot than the tone of the movie. They don't need to follow the plot order if they're just suggesting a mood.

It's interesting to see how filmmakers choose to portray their works. Argo is about a story. Amour is about a feeling.

Celebrating Petro Vlahos, father of modern visual effects

Petro Vlahos, an unheralded genius of modern filmmaking, died yesterday at age 96. Though not a household name in special effects like James Cameron, Peter Jackson, or Michael Bay, Vlahos laid the foundation for all future filmmakers. Vlahos invented bluescreen ("chroma key") technology, first used in 1940 for The Thief of Bagdad and still used today in nearly every film with a visual effects shot.

Vlahos's initial uses of the bluescreen were fairly tame, allowing Charlton Heston to race chariots in Ben-Hur or letting Dick Van Dyke dance with animated penguins in Mary Poppins. Nowadays, entire sets are constructed from chroma key backdrops, and most video editing software supports some form of greenscreen technology. Vlahos's work has been improved over the years but remains conceptually unchanged from his original idea 73 years ago.

It would be ridiculous to list every movie that uses some form of Vlahos's chroma key technology, as it would probably include every major film of the last half-century. Instead, here are a few movies to which Petro Vlahos directly lent his visual effects wizardry. Each one of these won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Ben-Hur – HU DVD 3857
Mary Poppins – HU DVD 7850
The Thief of Bagdad: An Arabian Fantasy – HU DVD 8101

Non-news of the day: Palestinian director Emad Burnat detained 90 minutes at LAX on his way to the Academy Awards

Burnat's film Five Broken Cameras has been nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category. While in detention Burnat texted Michael Moore for help. Moore tweeted about it and all was good. The immigration folks hadn't been briefed on what an official Academy Award nomination looks like.


BTW we recently added Five Broken Cameras to the Media Services collection so come on by and check it out.  DVD 10914

Palestinian co-director of ‘5 Broken Cameras’ detained at LAX: Moore

Hot Docs: Kansas vs Darwin

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

Kansas vs Darwin (DVD 10562) addresses the ongoing argument between the theory of evolution and intelligent design by focusing on a specific, famous battle with the Kansas State Board of Education. In 2005, the school board considered requiring teaching intelligent design to be taught in schools alongside the theory of evolution. The measure eventually failed, but not before unleashing a political and cultural battle on the scale and madness of the Scopes monkey trial. Kansas vs Darwin examines this heady, frenetic clash from both sides, painting a full picture of a fight at the epicenter of debate over science in education.

Official description from the film's website:

Kansas vs. Darwin takes you inside the hearings to meet the characters who captured the world's attention: school board members who believe their literal interpretation of the Bible trumps modern scientific evidence, and members of the Intelligent Design Network who believe mainstream science is conspiring to suppress evidence that would overturn evolution. You'll also get face to face with an organization of Kansas scientists, educators, and citizens that organizes a worldwide response to put an end to what they see as a religiously-motivated kangaroo court.

Kansas vs. Darwin is a heady, absorbing swirl of politics, science, religion, education and emotion in which the filmmakers unflinchingly race from one, compelling point of view to its polar opposite in order to challenge the viewer's own opinions. Audiences may experience discomfort as they plunge to the heart of one of mankind's most central questions of existence - and to the epicenter of the American culture war.

Burning question: Does Best Picture matter?

With all the Oscar hullabaloo (of which we're guilty as well), it's easy to accept that the Oscars matter, that the acting winners represent the fines that Hollywood offers, and that an institution as venerated as the Academy is the official tastemaker.

Take a step back and read this interesting and controversial opinion from Rob Lowman of the L.A. Daily News. Lowman rightfully argues that past Best Picture winners have not stood the test of time and greatness compared to other nominees. Everyone has an example they can point to. 2001: A Space Odyssey, for example, was not even nominated for Best Picture and lost to a largely forgotten Oliver Twist musical. Lowman calls out Rocky – a fine film – for beating legendary directors Sidney Lumet and Ingmar Bergman for Best Director.

Awards voting is always subjective, and Lowman seems to have a particular axe to grind with Oscar frontrunner Argo, but his point is valid. Flavors of the moment and popular consensus do tend to cloud judgment, and the Academy's track record is spotty. But the Academy gets it right more often than not: there's good reason Patton won over Love Story.

Even more short films screening in DC

Continuing yesterday's theme, there are more and more opportunities to see what's new in the burgeoning short film scene.

This weekend, DC Shorts will present a series of award-winning short films, including previous Oscar contenders (and some of this year's nominees). The hour-and-a-half showcase costs $12 and runs twice daily throughout the weekend.

Take advantage of this exciting film opportunity in DC! Each showing includes a different set of rotating films, so you might even want to go to more than one.

Watch Academy Award-winning short films right now

The 85th Academy Awards kick off one week from tonight. We'll have plenty of lists of past winners and nominees in the coming weeks, but for now, let's direct attention to the lesser-heralded short film catagories.

Since 1932, the Academy has honored short films in a number of categories, including documentaries and animation. Though they have never received the same critical acclaim as Best Picture hopefuls, Short Film and Short Subject nominees are as creative and worthwhile as they are comparatively brief.

Pop culture aggregator Flavorwire recently compiled a short list of Oscar-winning short films that are available for free to watch online. If you have half an hour to spare, sit down and watch a few of them to get an idea of what some of the less-heralded Oscar categories hold in store.

Today's film oddity: The Kidnappers Foil

Here's a piece of film history so unusual that it must be shared.

For forty years, con artist and filmmaker Melton Barker traveled across the United States, roping in small towns to produce a short film titled The Kidnappers Foil that would star local children and premiere in a local theater. As you could imagine, Barker would leave town with the profits as soon as the film finished production, a scheme that's distractingly similar to the one from The Music Man. But unlike Harold Hill, Barker left behind a finished product: each town would have a finished 20-minute film, produced on-location.

It took a while for people to put the pieces together nationwide, but it is now apparent that Barker produced The Kidnappers Foil at least 178 times, each version largely unchanged from the original in the 1930s. The Texas Archive of the Moving Image sees value in this strange piece of film arcana and has opened an archive for all remaining existing copies as part of a larger collection on "itinerant films" made by traveling producers. The organization has thus far released 11 versions to watch online, dating back from 1938. The Library of Congress is doing its part too, having added at least one version of The Kidnappers Foil to the National Film Registry last year.

The Kidnappers Foil isn't a particularly good movie, so it's not worth going out of your way to watch. Yet it's undeniably part of America's rich, weird film history.

Hot Docs: It's a Girl

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

It's a Girl (DVD 10633) exposes the expanding issue of "gendercide" in India and China. Because of cultural traditions and one-child policies in these countries, female children are often mistreated, killed, abused, or abandoned. It's a Girl reveals these injustices and who is committing them, documents the lives of girls whose lives have been destroyed by gendered culture, and asks how this can be stopped in the future.

Official description from the film's website:

In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide”. Girls who survive infancy are often subject to neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands of their own husbands or other family members. The war against girls is rooted in centuries-old tradition and sustained by deeply ingrained cultural dynamics which, in combination with government policies, accelerate the elimination of girls.

Shot on location in India and China, It’s a Girl reveals the issue. It asks why this is happening, and why so little is being done to save girls and women. The film tells the stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of brave mothers fighting to save their daughters’ lives, and of other mothers who would kill for a son. Global experts and grassroots activists put the stories in context and advocate different paths towards change, while collectively lamenting the lack of any truly effective action against this injustice.

Is the special effects business in trouble?

Common sense dictates that special effects sell movie tickets. If you look at a list of the most successful movies in the world, 18 of the 20 highest-grossing live-action films are notable for their high-quality CGI. Big, splashy effects drive people to seats, get them to buy DVDs, and frequently win critical acclaim. One recent example of Life of Pi, a Best Picture nominee that uses extensive 3D effects.

But outsourcing and competition from other studios are driving major special effects companies into financial ruin. This week, Rhythm & Hues, the company responsible for Life of Pi's effects, filed for bankruptcy, even while it has three other major projects on its docket.

The Chicago Tribune reports a number of reasons why this could be happening. Visual effects are expensive, and even though big-budget spectacle ropes in audiences, studios will always opt for the least expensive work. Tax credits and lower international wages are forcing American VFX companies to stretch themselves thin, leading to even the most profitable studios facing financial strain. It affects the creative process too; Yahoo! News quoted an R&H employee saying that "People can't be creative if they're constantly worried about their jobs."

Labor issues are a recurring problem in the film industry, but until now, visual effects studios have seemed to escape unscathed. But soon the industry might need to rethink a key component of its business model.

Cozy up with some romantic films

Love it or hate it, Valentine's Day is around the corner, and there's no avoiding it if you're in any center of commerce. If you're one of those people who likes this annual, culturally mandated celebration of love and greeting cards, we're got you covered.

Our Pinterest page has a section for romantic films and romantic comedies. Right now we have 160 in our collection, ranging from Nicholas Sparks movies (The Notebook, HU DVD 4924) to Hollywood classics (Breakfast at Tiffany's, HU DVD 501).

Come grab them before they're gone. You don't want to end up a Blue Valentine (HU DVD 8296).

New Acquisitions - February 2013

The Oscar season onslaught has begun! The big movies from fall 2012 are starting to hit DVD, and we're picking them up. The first big name in our batch is Flight, the Robert Zemeckis film that has Denzel Washington in contention for Best Actor. Other notables include documentary nominee Detropia and Frankenweenie, Tim Burton's return to animation. But don't forget other new notable titles, including Ken Burns's The Dust Bowl, Best Picture winner The Sting, a collection of Shakespeare performances, and the third season of Downton Abbey (watch it before it finishes airing on PBS!).

Read on for a full list of what we've added this month.

Free Preview Passes Available NOW in Media Services: "21 and Over"

Be the first on your block to see "21 and Over" a new comedy from the writers of The Hangover. The movie will screen Monday, Feb 11, 2013 at 7:30pm at AMC Loews Georgetown 14, 3111 K st., Washington, DC 2007
The film opens in theaters Friday, March 1, 2013.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Get to the theater early. Seating is first-come, first served. The pass doesn't guarantee a seat.

Passes are available at the Media Services Desk located on the lower level of Bender Library.

Editor's note: The availability of movie passes doesn't indicate that any given movie will eventually find it's way into the AU Library collection.

Hot Docs: A Burning Question

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

A Burning Question (DVD 10638) is not simply about global warming. Though this documentary is, at its core, an updated look at the effects of climate change on the world and particularly in Ireland, the film also examines why such a large climate denialism movement exists. Despite overwhelming evidence and consensus, politicians and the media repeatedly rail against the science. This film incorporates evidence of our planet's continuing battle against climate change with the debate over its validity.

Official description from the publisher's website:

This fascinating and clarifying look at the debate surrounding global warming explores the striking disconnect between the relatively clear-cut concerns of the world's most prominent scientists and the maze of speculation, rhetorical posturing, and outright misinformation that attaches to this issue whenever it's taken up by politicians, PR specialists, and political pundits. Mixing a localized focus on Ireland with insights from scientists and leaders from around the world, the film serves as both a primer on climate science and a penetrating analysis of media framing and the science of perception management. An excellent resource for courses in science, environmental studies, global politics, and media.

Soderbergh calls it a day

Steven Soderbergh's next film, Side Effects hits theaters tomorrow. But if the director can be believed, it will also be his last film. In recent interviews, Soderbergh has made clear his distaste for the Hollywood system and its treatment of directors. Although Soderbergh still has a film in the can waiting to be released (an HBO movie about Liberace), he plans to retire from filmmaking after Side Effect's release and focus on painting instead.

It'll be a shame. Soderbergh leaves behind a prolific body of work with a startlingly wide range. The director has helmed films from the star-studded blockbuster caper Ocean's Eleven and male stripper opus Magic Mike to taut political satire series K Street. You might recognize several of his movies without knowing that he directed them.

Given Soderbergh's abundant and quality filmography, we have quite a few of his films in our collection. Come watch a few to send out a film career for the ages.

Erin Brockovich – HU DVD 306
Sex, Lies, and Videotape – HU DVD 383
Traffic – HU DVD 432
Eros – HU DVD 2627
K Street, The Complete Series – HU DVD 4700
The Good German – HU DVD 4705
Out of Sight – HU DVD 4817
Full Frontal – HU DVD 5382
Schizopolis – HU DVD 5389
Solaris – HU DVD 5398
Underneath – HU DVD 5400
Bubble – HU DVD 5447
The Girlfriend Experience – HU DVD 6770
The Informant! – HU DVD 7054
Che (Parts 1, 2, and supplementals) – HU DVD 7061 - 7063
The Limey – HU DVD 9077
Contagion – HU DVD 9596
And Everything is Going Fine – HU DVD 10006
Ocean's Eleven – HU DVD 10484
Ocean's Twelve – HU DVD 10485
Ocean's Thirteen – HU DVD 10486
Magic Mike – HU DVD 10653

Looper screening on campus TONIGHT!

Sci-fi action-thriller Looper is one of our most popular new acquisitions (HU DVD 10899). Naturally, as of this writing, it's checked out. Looper was not a huge box office success when it hit theaters last September, but its smart blend of time travel with old-fashioned action thrills gained it a cult following and glowing review from critics. Now's the time to see what the fuss is all about.

If you don't want to wait for our copy to be available, the AU United Methodist-Protestant Community will be screening Looper on campus tonight at 9 PM in the Mary Graydon Center, Room 200 as part of their monthly movie series. Snacks will be provided (as if the promise of a Joseph Gordon-Levitt / Bruce Willis team-up wasn't enough).

Hot Docs: Schooling the World

Hot Docs highlights interesting new documentaries we've recently added to our collection.

Schooling the World (DVD 10940) questions whether Western-style educational systems are appropriate for the rest of the world. For all the philanthropic efforts to increase the quality of education in impoverished countries, our idea of a good education may not fit with the rest of the world's needs. This controversial film uses the microcosm of a Buddhist society to examine how modernized education interacts with local cultures.

Official description from the film container:

If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it? You would change the way it educates its children. The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it forced Native American children into government boarding schools. Today, volunteers build schools in traditional societies around the world, convinced that school is the only way to a 'better' life for indigenous children. But is this true? What really happens when we replace a traditional culture's way of learning and understanding the world with our own? Beautifully shot on location in the Buddhist culture of Ladakh in the northern Indian Himalayas, Schooling the World takes a challenging, sometimes funny, ultimately deeply disturbing look at the effects of modern education on the world's last sustainable indigenous cultures.

Screenings galore at AU and Katzen

Two exciting documentary screening series are starting on campus this week. It's probably best just to list them.

• Tonight at 7pm in Wechsler Theater, the Center for Environmental Filmmaking kicks off its spring film series with National Geographic's War Elephants, a new documentary about the perilous state of elephant populations in conflict-torn Africa. The film is free and open to the public. You can see a full list of their upcoming screenings here.
• Starting this Wednesday at 7pm, the American University Museum at Katzen will begin the Katzen Cinema Series of films related to their current exhibits. The first entry, The Face of Russia: Part 3, examines the history of Russian politics and culture through the lens of art. The series continues on March 6th with Women Art Revolution, on April 17th with Double Take, and on May 8th with Guest of Cindy Sherman. The screenings are free and come with popcorn.

Both these are great opportunities to watch notable films — some old and some new — on the cheap. Take advantage of these while they're on campus!

Alternative programming: Are you ready for some football?

Super Bowl XLVII, the biggest American sporting event of the year, kicks off tonight. No matter where you go, the big game will probably be playing on the nearest display device, and there will be pizza. (There's even pizza here for the Media Services staff!)

Since the Super Bowl draws such massive ratings, any television program run opposite the Super Bowl is doomed to fail. This hasn't stopped shows like the Puppy Bowl from getting a large audience. There's a certain slice of the country that doesn't want to watch football.

If you're the type of person that would rather not watch the Super Bowl, there are still some alternatives in the same vein. Consider watching these movies in our collection about football and football history:

Fictional:

Any Given Sunday – HU DVD 101
Horse Feathers – HU DVD 1128
The Simpsons, Season 3: "Lisa the Greek" – HU DVD 6590
The Blind Side – HU DVD 8312
Friends, Disc 10: "The One With the Football" – HU DVD 8510
Remember the Titans - HU DVD 9133
Community, Season 1: "Feminism, Football and You" – HU DVD 10001, Disc 1
Roll Tide/War Eagle – HU DVD 10055

Documentaries:

Go, Tigers! – HU DVD 815
The Band That Wouldn't Die – HU DVD 7901
Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? – HU DVD 7901
The Best That Never Was – HU DVD 7912

For Those Who Call It "American Football:

The Damned United – HU DVD 7058

Aw, nerds! Catch up on 30 Rock as it comes to an end

There's some bad news on our mind-grapes today. After seven years of "claps-giving yay ha-rade," NBC sitcom 30 Rock is airing its final episode tonight. Though 30 Rock struggled to break out from the shadow of bigger NBC hits like The Office and MILF Island, it was an enormous critical success, winning a whopping 14 Emmys, scoring a Peabody Award, and pushing the boundaries of the single-camera sitcom format. We love 30 Rock so much, we want to take it behind the middle school and... well, you know the rest.

In preparation for tonight's series finale, grab a bag of Sabor de Soledad and rewatch the first four seasons from our collection:

30 Rock, Season 1 – HU DVD 8921 - 8923
30 Rock, Season 2 – HU DVD 8924 - 8925
30 Rock, Season 3 – HU DVD 8926 - 8928
30 Rock, Season 4 – HU DVD 8929 - 8931

Very Short post for a Very Short film contest

In the spirit of yesterday's post, here's another off-kilter student film competition that's too entertaining not to share. British newspaper The Guardian recently teamed up with Oxford University Press to host the Very Short Film competition for movies less than 60 seconds long. The Guardian recently narrowed down their finalists, all of which are available to watch online. The final ballot is open to the public, so go watch a few and vote for your favorite. Luckily, even if they're not great films, it'll only take a few minutes.

Enter the Eco-Comedy Video Competition

Attention aspiring filmmakers: Interested in plying your craft for a good cause, getting some publicity in local film circles, and winning some money?

AU's Center for Environmental Filmmaking and the Sierra Club have teamed up for the 2013 Eco-Comedy Film Competition. Entrants are asked to make a short, funny YouTube video that draws attention to climate change. The winner will receive $1,000 and will have their short screened at the DC Environmental Film Festival. The usual rules apply (no copyrighted music, for instance).

Entries are due by March 1, 2013. For full information, check the Center for Environmental Filmmaking's website.

Here's last year's winner, a typography video titled "Clean Coal by the Bituminous Marketing Agency." It proves that you don't need a big budget or actors to make an award-winning short.

Is J. J. Abrams the right man for the job? See for yourself

The entertainment world went nuts this weekend over news that filmmaker J. J. Abrams will be helming the next installment in the Star Wars franchise. Apart from the sci-fi conflict of interest with his work on Star Trek, the biggest question is whether Abrams's work gives him the chops and wherewithal to take on, arguably, the biggest brand name in entertainment.

Abrams has a longer history as a producer than as a director, but his distinct, complex style has influenced every production he's touched. If you want to get a better idea of what "far, far away" will look like in a few years, dig into our collections and watch some of the works that Abrams has influenced.

The Office, Season 3: "Cocktails" – HU DVD 4018
Lost, The Complete Series – HU DVD 4501 - 4537
Star Trek – HU DVD 7084
Fringe, Season 1 – HU DVD 7981 - 7987
Super 8 – HU DVD 9288
Mission: Impossible III – HU DVD 10699
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – HU DVD 10699

New Acquisitions - January 2013

We're off to a strong start in 2013. Among our new titles, we've acquired a beloved Disney classic, Academy Award-nominated documentaries, action-thriller hits from last fall, unsettling indie success stories, a long-unavailable classic from the 1920s, and a few comedies you might remember from the 90s.

Read on for a full list of what we've acquired this time...

New Films on Demand titles - January 2013

Films on Demand, a streaming video platform used by Media Services, has once again added hundreds of new titles available to watch instantly. Their collection is far-reaching, including everything from newsreel footage to informational health videos. Here are a few highlights from the newest batch.

The Difference Between a Cold and the Flu (2011, 2 min.)
So what’s the difference between cold and flu? Most people have a general idea that they are different, but when pressed have a hard time really saying what the difference is.

There Once Was an Island: The Devastating Effects of Climate Change (2010, 80 min.)
The people on a remote Pacific island face the devastating effects of climate change. As an enormous flood threatens to engulf their paradise, who will decide to flee and leave their culture behind forever? And who will stay, hoping that God will save them?
   
Sex and the Wailing Wall: The Battle of the Sexes at the Holiest of Sites (2011, 45 min.)
A band of brave Jewish women is fighting back for the right to raise their voices at the Wailing Wall. The holy site is the most potent symbol for Jews. But it is dominated by the ultra-Orthodox, who seek to maintain segregation of the sexes and limit the rights of women who want to pray there. This documentary tells how a group of women is challenging the iron grip of the reactionaries and demanding reform.

USA: Soldiers of Conscience (2008, 54 min.)
A U.S. Army study conducted after World War II revealed that a surprisingly large number of combat troops failed to fire on the enemy when given the chance to do so. It became clear that whether a soldier pulled the trigger or not, most wrestled with their conscience either during the event or afterward. In this program a group of American soldiers, some who were able to kill with few qualms and some who have become conscientious objectors, discuss their positions on warfare.

Clouds Are Not Spheres: The Introduction of Fractal Geometry (2009, 51 min.)
Until recently geometry was incapable of describing the irregular shape of a cloud, the slope of a mountain, or the beauty of the human body. With fractal geometry, however, Benoit Mandelbrot introduced a language able to describe our natural world. In this captivating documentary, he explains this groundbreaking discovery

Relive last year's Sundance with 2012 notables

The Sundance Film Festival is underway! It'll be some time before we know what films will come out with good deals or publicity, but suffice to say, the spotlight has never been brighter on Park City. 2012 festival favorite Beasts of the Southern Wild recently received multiple Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Director, leaving many to wonder if they'll find the next big thing at Sundance this year.

Last year certainly turned out a few notable movies, many of which are in our collection. Several have been nominated for major awards as well.

The Ambassador – HU DVD 10722
Arbitrage – HU DVD 10864
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry – HU DVD 10873
Beasts of the Southern Wild – HU DVD 10813
The Invisible War – HU DVD 10567
Putin's Kiss – HU DVD 10885
The Queen of Versailles – HU DVD 4553
Safety Not Guaranteed – HU DVD 10874
Compliance – HU DVD 10905
Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap – MUSIC LIBRARY DVD 349

Remembering — and maybe introducing — Nagisa Oshima

Japanese director Nagisa Oshima died yesterday following long-term stroke complications. Oshima may not be the most well-known director outside of Japan, but he leaves behind an award-winning legacy. Oshima's films dealt with a wide range of subjects, typically set during wartime Japan and (controversially) involving explicit sexuality. This style and thematic content earned him a distinction as one of the most notable Japanese New Wave filmmakers.

Oshima is not especially well-known in the United States. If you have never heard of the director, now is a good time to start watching. We have several of Oshima's films in our collection, including a lengthy interview he conducted with acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.

• Seven Samurai (specal features) – DVD 13
• Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence – HU DVD 10689
• Pleasures of the Flesh – HU DVD 9873
• Violence at Noon – HU DVD 9874
• Sing a Song of Sex – HU DVD 9875
• Japanese Summer: Double Suicide – HU DVD 9876
• Three Resurrected Drunkards – HU DVD 9877
• Empire of Passion – HU DVD 10660

Win The Dark Knight Trilogy!

To celebrate the start of the semester, we're giving away a digital copy of The Dark Knight Trilogy, which includes all three of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises).

For a chance to win, leave a comment naming all three of the actors who have portrayed Harvey Dent/Two-Face in the Batman movies. (If you need a hint, they come from the movies in our collection with call numbers DVD 4701, DVD 4703, and DVD 10791.)

We'll pick a random winner from our blog, Facebook, or Twitter. Good luck!

EDIT: The giveaway has ended. Congratulations to Jonathan Waldroup for winning!

Lynda.com branches out with new tutorials

American University has a subscription to Lynda.com, a video tutorial website that can teach you skills ranging from high-end multimedia software like Photoshop to office programs like Excel. Any active member of the AU community (current students, faculty, staff, etc.) can access these tutorials through american.edu/lynda.

But Lynda.com isn't just for production software. The site has been expanding its selection of tutorials to include business skills, creativity, and services that you might not think would need video tutorials. A few highlights from their most recent batch include:

• Conflict Resolution Fundamentals
• The Creative Spark: Title Case, Typographic Artisans
• User Experience Fundamentals for Web Design
• Foundations of Photography: Specialty Lenses
• On Camera: Video Makeup Techniques

Lynda.com is a seriously useful resource, and it's exciting to see them expand into new skillsets. Give them a watch at american.edu/lynda.

Website reveals widespread movie screener piracy

Movie piracy is a major issue, but it can be easy to attribute it to overzealous hackers or teenagers who sneak cameras into theaters. Turns out this isn't the case: even members of the film community are prone to leak new movies onto the Internet.

An amazing new spreadsheet compiled by the author of Waxy.org tracks the history of Academy Award screener leaks. Essentially, distributors will give free movies to voting members of the film community for consideration during awards season. These copies are usually branded with some sort of watermark indicating that they should not be released or distributed. Still, it happens. Bigger movies with widespread appeal, such as The Hobbit and Lincoln, have already had screener copies leak, but niche movies (including Argo and Beasts of the Southern Wild) have yet to see preview copies hit the Internet.

This spreadsheet is another interesting piece in the ongoing puzzle of piracy. Nobody, it seems, is immune.

Oscar nominations: What can you watch right now?

The Academy Award nominations are out! There are a few surprises this time around, most significantly the inclusion of Beasts of the Southern Wild and Michael Haneke's Amour. You can view the full list on the official Oscars website.

As much as we would love for you to watch these movies, most of them aren't on DVD yet. That said, we do have a few movies that were nominated, as well as Beasts of the Southern Wild, which is quickly becoming the dark horse in the Best Picture race.

• Beasts of the Southern Wild (Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay) — HU DVD 10813
• Inocente (Best Documentary Short) — DVD 10637
• The Invisible War (Best Documentary Feature) — HU DVD 10567
• Marvel's The Avengers (Best Visual Effects) — HU DVD 10567
• Prometheus (Best Visual Effects) — HU DVD 10496

Get ready for Oscar nominations with Wings

Tomorrow, the Academy will announce its nominations for the 85th Academy Awards. We can probably expect the likely nominees (Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, etc.), but given the widespread critical acclaim for these films, it will probably be a contentious and exciting contest.

Last year, many were taken aback by the success of The Artist, the first silent film to win the Academy's highest honor since the 1920s. Here's the thing: very few people have seen that movie. Wings, the first winner of the Outstanding Picture award (as it was known at the time), was only ever released on VHS. The original negatives are long lost, preventing a proper redux for decades.

That finally changed in 2012 when Paramount released a retouched version of Wings on DVD and Blu-ray. I can't imagine how time and work went into the restoration process, but the fruits of their labor are finally available for public consumption.

Brush up on your Academy Award history by checking out Wings from Media Services (HU DVD 10854).

Blu-rays are growing, but is it enough for physical media?

It's no secret that many movie studios rely on DVD sales to make films profitable. Some smaller companies with a direct-to-video model rely exclusively on them. Despite Hollywood seeing record box office returns this year, Bloomberg reports that DVD sales are noticeably declining. High-definition Blu-rays are becoming more popular, but the total amount spent on physical home media has still dropped over 5% in the last year.

Is the future of home media uncertain? Only a little. Studios will continue to make money, but the medium is shifting. DVD subscription services like Blockbuster and Netflix have seen steep drops, but spending on their corresponding streaming video services has increased by 28%. Even if this is a new trend, it's really more of a format change. People will always want to watch movies from home.

That said, the DVD market is nothing to sniff at. The world still spends over $5 billion a year on physical copies of movies. (And we're probably contributing a fare share to that.)

Archivist finds a lost film from... 1980?

In the last few years, film historians and collectors have found prints of famous lost films, including the earliest surviving Hitchcock and an extra-length version of Metropolis. These early silent films almost carry an expectation that they'll be missing or damaged in some form. You would never expect to lost a film made in, say, the 1980s.

As it turns out, that's precisely what happened. The short fantasy film Black Angel was released in 1980 as a pre-movie featurette for some versions of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. For whatever reason, nobody saved a print of it (not even the director), and the movie vanished.

A few weeks ago, director Roger Christian announced that he had located a copy of the film courtesy of an archivist at Universal Studios. This was not the first time that the film surfaced, but this newest version appears to be in the best quality.

Christian plans to release the film again, possibly digitally. Look for Black Angel to come up again in the next few years, especially as Disney prepares to re-release The Empire Strikes Back.

Cracked.com exposes Hollywood's favorite reused sets

The AU library is back and running, but since most students and faculty are still on break, there's still time for some lighter fare.

The comedy writers at Cracked.com have compiled a fun list of famous location shots that are constantly reused in film and television. It incorporates famous sets — real mansions that worked in a pinch for Tim Burton and the Coen Brothers — as well as distinctive natural landmarks that just never seem to go away. There are plenty of examples not included on the list (many films share sets to save costs), but it'll be impossible to escape déjà vu once you read what they've dug up.

Many of the films and television shows mentioned in this article are part of our collection. Search our catalog for them if you want to see more of these shots in action.

New Acquisitions - December 2012

As the university gets ready for another month of hibernation, we're working through the last of our new acquisitions for 2012. We're ending the year on a high note with big new blockbusters (Cabin in the Woods, The Dark Knight Rises), some old favorites (Risky Business), new seasons for popular television shows, and a slew of high-quality documentaries that you might've read about recently. Consider it our present to you in this Capitalist Wintertime Gift-Giving Season.

The university is closed starting on Saturday, December 22 until Wednesday, January 2. The blog will go dark until then. Enjoy the break! Read on for a full list of our newest titles.