Media Services alum Colin Foster's film project used by Lynda.com!

Media Services recently caught up with another one of our alums, Colin Foster who has written and directed this short film entitled, The Funeral. Not only does this look like a really great film (you can see the trailer and synopsis below), but clips of it were also used in a Lynda.com tutorial created by colorist, Robbie Carman! There are also other crew members involved who are from the New Media Center, Banu Debre and Willow Williamson.

Synopsis:
Isaac and Jenny, a comically contentious married couple, struggle with feelings of anger and loss when confronting the death of a family member. Their childish reactions to the event causes problems with their relationship, and sends them spinning toward divorce.

Colin was kind enough to also share a couple production stills (below), not to mention a bit of background about the project. 


Colin Foster:
The film was officially completed this past November after going through the final phases of post production. All the members of our crew were amazing but I was particularly lucky to have Robbie Carman, a very talented colorist and post production guru, work on the film. His contribution was major, and he liked the film so much that he wound up using several clips from it as examples in a Lynda.com tutorial he was working on (I believe it was on color correction in FCP X).

Since then I've been trying my luck on the festival circuit. Nothing has struck yet but I'm still waiting to hear back from a variety of festivals in the states and abroad, so cross your fingers. The film isn't available online at the moment but sometime in the near future I do hope to schedule a DC screening of not only my film, but also of all the films that have been made by my fellow AU filmmakers as well. Date and location TBD but I'll keep you posted.

The Funeral, a new short film written and directed by Colin Foster

CAST
 Ariana Almajan as Jenny
Sun King Davis as Isaac 
Ricky Brick as Baby the Cat

PRODUCERS 


Banu Debre


Colin Foster

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
 

Nur Debre


Mariana Studart


Susan Foster

PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT 


Jason Fraley - 1st AD


Mary Ratliff - Script Supervisor

CAMERA DEPARTMENT 


Jon Malis - Director of Photography
 

Garrett O'Brien - 1st AC


Katie Neff - 2nd AC

GRIP AND ELECTRIC
 

Drew Louis - Gaffer


Dave Joyce - Key Grip
 

Lara Aqel - Dolly Grip


Jeremiah Horan - Grip

SOUND DEPARTMENT
 

Banu Debre - Sound Recordist


Boom Operator - Christopher Richmond

ART DEPARTMENT 


Robin Pohlman - Production Designer
 

Joshua Cohen - Art Director

SCORE
 

Willow Williamson

POST PRODUCTION 


Banu Debre - Editor 


Mike Estler - Sound Designer
 

Robbie Carman – Colorist

Early interview footage of your favorite directors

Check out this great post from Flavorwire, which highlights early interview footage of the following directors: Quentin Tarantino, George Lucas, David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Sophia Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Orson Welles, Wes Anderson, Jane Campion, Spike Lee, David Cronenberg, Werner Herzog, Jean-Luc Godard.


A keyword search from the Media Services homepage will bring up tons of great titles, many of which are part of our Home Use Collection. Just enter the director's name in quotes (ex. "Jean-Luc Godard") in the search field and check out the list of titles. If the call number says HOME USE COLLECTION then that title is available to AU students, staff, and faculty to take home for up to 3 days. 


Here are a couple more director interviews. To see them all, go to Flavorwire.

Photographer attaches a century-old lens to a digital camera

                                                         

A photographer named Timur Civan attached a brass 35mm lens from 1908 to a digital camera and got what you see above. Read more about it and see a few more of the photos it produced at ArtInfo, Cinema 5D, or the photographer's blog. 

Cannes Film Festival 2012

To read about what went on at this year's Cannes Film Festival, check out the Hollywood Reporter site.

Award results excerpted from Cannes Film Festival site.


IN COMPETITION :
FEATURE FILMS


Palme d'Or
AMOUR (LOVE) directed by Michael HANEKE


Grand Prix
REALITY directed by Matteo GARRONE


Award for Best Director
Carlos REYGADAS for POST TENEBRAS LUX


Award for Best Screenplay
Cristian MUNGIU for DUPÃ DEALURI (BEYOND THE HILLS)


Award for Best Actress
Cristina FLUTUR in DUPÃ DEALURI (BEYOND THE HILLS) 
directed by Cristian MUNGIUCosmina STRATAN 
in DUPÃ DEALURI (BEYOND THE HILLS) 
directed byCristian MUNGIU


Award for Best Actor
Mads MIKKELSEN in JAGTEN (THE HUNT) 
directed by Thomas VINTERBERG


Jury Prize
THE ANGELS' SHARE directed by Ken LOACH


SHORT FILMS


Palme d'Or - Short Film
SESSIZ-BE DENG (SILENT) directed by L.Rezan YESILBAS


UN CERTAIN REGARD :


Un Certain Regard Special Distinction
DJECA (CHILDREN OF SARAJEVO) directed by Aida BEGIC


Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress
À PERDRE LA RAISON played by Emilie DEQUENNE
LAURENCE ANYWAYS played by Suzanne CLÉMENT


Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize
LE GRAND SOIR directed by Gustave KERVERN, Benoît DELÉPINE


Prize of Un Certain Regard
DESPUÉS DE LUCIA directed by Michel FRANCO


CINEFONDATION :


1st Prize Cinéfondation
DOROGA NA (THE ROAD TO) directed by Taisia IGUMENTSEVA


2nd Prize - Cinéfondation
ABIGAIL directed by Matthew James REILLY


3rd Prize Cinéfondation
LOS ANFITRIONES (THE HOSTS) directed by Miguel Angel MOULET


GOLDEN CAMERA :


Caméra d'or
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD directed by Benh ZEITLIN

Media Services Whiteboard: Comic Book Movies!!

Iron Man - HU DVD 2763
Watchmen - HU DVD 6080
Watchmen - BLU-RAY DVD 6080
X-Men 1.5 - HU DVD 1441 
X2: X-Men United - HU DVD 1442
X-Men: The Last Stand - HU DVD 1443
Spiderman - HU DVD 7121 
Spiderman 2 - HU DVD 7122
Spiderman 3 - HU DVD 7123
Batman - HU DVD 4701
Batman Returns - HU DVD 4702
Batman Forever - HU DVD 4703
Batman and Robin - HU DVD 4704
Scott Pilgrim vs the World - HU DVD 5070
Scott Pilgrim vs the World - BLU-RAY DVD 5070
Adventures of Captain Marvel - HU DVD 4287

How Yahoo killed Flickr and lost the internet

Here's an interesting article from Gizmodo about the history of Yahoo and Flickr:

Web startups are made out of two things: people and code. The people make the code, and the code makes the people rich. Code is like a poem; it has to follow certain structural requirements, and yet out of that structure can come art. But code is art that does something. It is the assembly of something brand new from nothing but an idea.

This is the story of a wonderful idea. Something that had never been done before, a moment of change that shaped the Internet we know today. This is the story of Flickr. And how Yahoo bought it and murdered it and screwed itself out of relevance along the way.

Do you remember Flickr's tag line? It reads "almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world." It was an epic humble brag, a momentously tongue in cheek understatement.

Because until three years ago, of courseFlickr was the best photo sharing service in the world. Nothing else could touch it. If you cared about digital photography, or wanted to share photos with friends, you were on Flickr.

Yet today, that tagline simply sounds like delusional posturing. The photo service that was once poised to take on the the world has now become an afterthought. Want to share photos on the Web? That's what Facebook is for. Want to look at the pictures your friends are snapping on the go? Fire up Instagram. Read more

Excerpted from Gizmodo

3D Text Shatter Effect – Tutorial

Here's a useful tutorial on the 3D text shatter effect using Cinema 4D and Photoshop. Check out the whole tutorial at MediaMilitia.


Here's the intro:
I’m going to show you how to make a 3D text shatter effect. This effect is made in two programs, Cinema 4D and Photoshop.If you haven’t heard of Cinema 4D before it is a relatively easy to use 3d application, it is quite similar to 3dsMax or Maya. I will go pretty in depth with the Cinema 4D part, for all the inexperienced users, so bare with me if I go too slow. Now enough chit chat, let’s jump in. Read more

Playing Dead successfully met its funding goal!!

That's right, Playing Dead: A Documentary About the Zombie Subculture met its funding goal! Stay tuned for more info on this great project from Media Services alum, Eileen Keegan. 


In case you haven't seen it:

Rob Reid: Copyright math and the $8 billion iPod

 Comic author Rob Reid unveils Copyright Math (TM), a remarkable new field of study based on actual numbers from entertainment industry lawyers and lobbyists. 

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate

If you have questions or comments about this or other TED videos, please go to http://support.ted.com

Academic Multimedia Services is hiring video editors and videographers!

Got video skills? Apply online today!
http://www.american.edu/studentjobs/index.cfm

Classic stars' quotes on moms and motherhood

Celebrating Mother's Day, the next are 50 quotes from classic actors remembering their mothers and explaining what motherhood and parenting was or is for them. Some of the memories are sad, some are happy, some are full of nostalgia, some are funny, some are resentful. There are vivid descriptions and honest words. They are representative of a complicated world that not always is kind, warm and simple, but sometimes it is; and it helps you to appreciate what you've got. These are the stars, some gone, some alive, opening a bit of their private world for you. 

DESCRIBING AND REMEMBERING THEIR MOTHERS

My mother was marvellous, far more alive and vivacious than I'll ever be. She always tried to keep my feet on the ground - Julie Andrews

My mother died when I was nine years old...What does she expect me to do? Do it all by myself - James Dean

I have met a lot of people knocking around the world since, but I have never met a more thoroughly refined woman than my mother. If I have amounted to anything, it will be due to her - Charles Chaplin

I was a mistake. My mother didn't want to have me. I guess she never wanted me. I probably got in her way. I know I must have disgraced her. A divorced woman has enough problems getting a man, I guess, but one with an illegitimate baby.... I wish, I still wish, she had wanted me - Marilyn Monroe

My mother was a delicate black-haired beauty, with olive skin, frail and feminine to look upon. What isn't apparent in the photograph is the extent of her strength, and her will to control -- a deep need to receive unreservedly the very affection she sought to control - Cary Grant

A long time later I learned that she [his mother] had experienced a nervous breakdown and been taken to an institution in a nearby quiet country town to recuperate. I was not to see my mother again for more than twenty years, by which time my name was changed and I was a full-grown man living in America, thousands of miles away in California. I was known to most people of the world by sight and by name, yet not to my mother - Cary Grant

My mother campaigned for women's suffrage and birth control. [laughs] Very unpopular topics in the early 1900s - Katharine Hepburn

Mother beat the hell out of us. She'd have wild outbursts - Burt Lancaster 

 

For more quotes go to Via Margutta 51. To see a great gallery of stars with their moms and children check out this post.

Excerpted from Via Margutta 51

Classic Hollywood Guide to how to react when you screw up a scene

Watch behind the scenes takes by Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Errol Flynn, Claude Rains, Kay Francis, Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, George Brent, Merle Oberon, Patricia Neal, Mickey Rooney, and more.

Support this great project! Playing Dead

Playing Dead: A Documentary About the Zombie Subculture

Check out and support this fun and exciting project by former Media Services staff member, Eileen. All the details are on the project's Kickstarter page, and can also be found below.
Playing Dead on IMDB
Playing Dead on Facebook - "Like" it!

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

What is this film?

PLAYING DEAD explores the role of the living dead within our culture today. From the Thriller dance to the apocalypse, zombies have infiltrated all aspects of our society.  We follow the filmmaker as she discovers the world of the living dead. 

Why are you fundraising?

We are knee-deep in zombie guts.  The filming and editing are complete, and we're now ready to take on audio mixing, color correction, and some other post production detail.  The money raised through Kickstarter will not only go toward the completion of PLAYING DEAD, it will also help fund entries into various film festivals and possibly even mass-distribution.

This project has been several years in the making, has already had a substantial production budget and is a truly independent film.  We haven't had any government funding or grants to put toward the budget--it has been driven by passion for filmmaking and a fascination with the undead.

Why should I put money towards the project?

PLAYING DEAD is about zombies, and zombies are fun.  You are supporting a film that explores a social phenomenon, and it will make you laugh (I promise).  

Here is a clip from the film "A Short History of Zombies"

The rewards are incredible too!  How many people do you know own autographed photos of zombie pinup girls? 

Also, The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z author, Max Brooks, is in it, and that's just awesome in itself!  His interview took place last year, and I'm still excited about it. 

Please consider helping in any way you can.  If you can't contribute financially, spread the word to your friends!  Visit our page on Facebook, help us hand out promotional material, tell your favorite bartender or even a stranger in line at the theater, and we will be eternally grateful.  Chiller is right around the corner after all!

Love,

Eileen & the "Playing Dead" Family

**PS--As a special bonus for our Kickstarter backers, we'll be releasing EXCLUSIVE video clips over the next several weeks.  These clips will feature footage from different zombie events we've covered (like the world record breaking NJ Zombie Walk and the "zombie reenactment" in Washington, DC), as well as lengthier interviews with our zombie experts.

**PPS--International backers welcome--additional shipping fees will be required. 

Media Services new acquisition whiteboard montage

Access the Naxos Music Library streaming database through your iPhone or Android device!

 Check out this cool little introduction to mobile access to the Naxos Music Library streaming database. Apps are available for Android and iOS devices.

The sound effects used to make this video came from from the Greg Smith Sound Effects Collection. Click this link if you're curious about what kind of sound a 1,500-sound-effects collection makes.

Mobile access to the Naxos Music Library streaming database