Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

The Richard Clarke/Condoleeza Rice battle has been quite fierce this week. MoveOn.Org is aggressively pursuing Bush on his leadership record. They’ve helped another organization get started. TruthUncovered.Com offers a documentary on the push to war. All of this is more compelling because my niece, Andra, is now serving in Iraq. I’ve always been an anti-war liberal. A preemptive war is certainly never anything I would advocate. Now that Andra is there, I find it even more offensive.

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“Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.”
    Amelia Earhart (1897 - 1937)
    American Aviatrix

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Of course I love the Internet Movie Database and even use the pro version. My favorite section in the Indie section. Today, I was researching a bit more on Nancy Schreiber because I watched her absolutely beautiful and amazing Shadow Magic last night. There’s a nice website put up by the distributor, Sony Pictures Classics. I strongly recommend that you spend several hours studying the lighting and camera work in that film. It is stunning.

In the process, I discovered a great page on IMDB that contains all of the Sundance Film Festival Winners since 1985. It’s fully linked and tremendously useful. It lists the judges for each year and competing films. It is faboo!

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“Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.”
    Lily Tomlin (1939 - )
    American Actress and Comedianne

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This blog has always been devoted to independent and digital filmmaking. Given the budgetary constraints that seem to go hand-in-hand with this type of filmmaking, it’s with great pleasure that I get to post today’s link from Mike Luciano. Luciano is an avid DV filmmaker who is always looking for ways to make better films more economically. In class, we’ve been discussing ways to make shots more visually appealing (and, accordingly, the often painful cost of renting dollies, jibs, cranes and such. )

Gooch located a site with tons of plans for economical versions of all of the above. Home Built Stabilizers has an amazing link page. One of the best links on the page is to the site of Ron Dexter. A professional cinematographer, Dexter (pictured above) graciously shares lots of practical information in his site. There’s a lot of reading there.

Dexter recommends DV Moves. The best thing on the site is their video of their camera in action. It definitely elevates the quality of the shot in a heartbeat. Finally, Cody Deegan has a book with plans for another stabilizer and comparison videos on his site. If you’re aching to tell your story with moving pictures instead of a bunch of static, tripod talking heads, check out these sites.

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“Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
    Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)
    British Politician

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I already hate shopping in stores and I’ve now found another way to avoid driving to the mall. The Disney Inkshop has a million different t-shirts with just about every imaginable character. I found a Chip ‘n Dale shirt and then a Mulan shirt that I loved. They’ve got Winnie the Pooh and vintage Mickey. You can choose front or back, color and size quickly and easily.

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“I steal from every movie ever made.”
    Quentin Tarantino (1963 - )
    Film Hack

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Digital video director/producers are often in need of equipment but the economics of renting professional equipment can be daunting. Two great pieces of equipment that won’t break the bank include the Cinekinetic Pocket Dolly. A case of hardware (wheels and latchets) that requires a piece of plywood and broom handle for a handy dolly. Click on the “DOLLY” button for more information. Price on the site: $475.

Even MORE important for the DV producer/director is the DV Light Kit. It’s a powerful key, backlight or background light. You can add an umbrella or diffusion for soft key or fill light, swap to the super-spot reflector for long throws. Minis, umbrellas, cables … kits are their specialty … they’re put together by Lowell with the DV budget in mind.

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“It is easy to forgive someone on his/her deathbed. The challenge is in forgiving when he/she has decades of life remaining.”
    Cyndi Greening (1956 - )
    College Professor inspired by tales of a trip to Calcutta

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While I continue to database catalogs, I also spend time searching Bloglines for exciting tidbits of information. I always find exciting freeware or shareware things at MacOSX Downloads. Today, I found MahJong and a MIDI Percussion Program. I also ordered iLife 4 just to get Garage Band and the updated iDVD.

I am aching to get some digital filmmaking projects going. It is only exacerbated since The Promethean (Kohl Glass’s film) took BEST STUDENT SHORT FILM at Cinequest. It gets the fires of creative desire burning white-hot!

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“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”
    Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi (1893 - 1986)
    U.S. Biochemist

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Well, I finished the 1986 Sundance Catalog. Only 17 to go; 18 if I can find someone to copy the 1985 catalog and send it to me. Geesh. What a lot of work. Fascinating but labor intensive. Now I’ve got to figure out how to make this database accessible, searchable and interactive on the blog. This should be fun.

I had Jury Duty today. Even though we’re on spring break, civic duties still demand attention. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get to play and have a little fun.

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“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.”
    George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
    British Author

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After 15+ years of teaching, I’ve been approached many times about doing a book or book series. So, I’ve been looking at all of the books that have been published in my area. Over 2200 titles for EACH of the major software packages. In my searches, I started looking at BOOK COVER ART. I found Kenn Brown’s ReVision Cover (pictured left) at BOINgBOINg. Since I’ve seen the original Blue Boy at the Huntington, it made the piece even more interesting.

I’ve also been databasing myself sick. As you may recall, I purchased 18 Years of Sundance Catalogs to create a searchable, online database of all films Sundance. There is A LOT of information in those catalogs.

Sundance 1986 premiered academy-award winning The Trip to Bountiful and Hannah and Her Sisters. In the Dramatic Competition were Donna Deitch’s Desert Hearts and a film starring Aussie Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy called F/X. The film was produced by then relatively unknown Dodi Fayed.

Parting Glances was one of Sundance mainstay Steve Buscemi’s earliest films. Likewise, Seven Minutes in Heaven starred a very young Jennifer Connelly. And, one of my favorite directors, Mark Romanek had his horror flick Static in the competition.

The more I type, the more amazing the details. Keep your eyes on the left panel for annual additions!

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