The Spirit of Independence: Oscar-nominated Indie Films

A very cool event going down this Wednesday night. Directors from the Oscar-nominated The Kids Are All Right, Winter's Bone, and Rabbit Hole will speak candidly about their crafts.

Here's a glimpse of the talk 2 weeks ago given by the Oscar-winning director of The Exorcist and The French Connection.

Awards Watch: Directors Roundtable

(courtesy of THR)

This is any film lover's dream come true! Bigelow, Cameron, Daniels, Jackson, Reitman, and Tarantino sit in the same room and talk about their profession. 

Awards Watch: Directors Roundtable

Workshop with the Director of Zombieland

Ruben Fleischer, the director of Zombieland, spoke to me and other Project:Involve fellows in depth about his career, experience as a first-time studio director, his extensive prep work on projects. For Zombieland, he gathered hundreds of reference photos and video clips from 200 of his favorite movies!!

He is down-to-earth and open to share. I learned a lot from his talk -- both in terms of the nuts-and-bolts and the right attitude to have. For a young writer-director like me, they are invaluable.

I feel even more MOTIVATED than before!

Big shout-out to FIND, Francisco, and Jane for making this happen. Also to Nori Takei for taking this photo.

Twilight series - New Moon Trailer

No~! The trailer looks too good and glorious. Damn you Chris Weitz. I want the old Twilight back.

Best Movie of 2009 (so far) - WATCHMEN

"Best of -" lists normally come out at the end of the year, but why wait? (I'll explain this choice later.)

Purpose of Filmmaking

A couple of days ago, someone challenged me to figure out why I make movies. She said there are two types of filmmakers. One makes movies in order to entertain. Their movies can be highly artistic, but attracting and satisfying audience is at the central core. Another type of filmmakers make movies in order to express and educate. They have a strong need to communicate their ideas as a way to change intellectual discourses. Filmmaking, perceived primarily as a form of entertainment, might not support the latter type's goals and aspirations. They may be better off utilizing other means to publicize their ideas.

Director-Editor Chemistry

Yahoo! Movies has a good article on the relationships between directors and editors. It focuses specifically on three noteworthy movies in 2007--Michael Clayton, The Kite Runner, and The Eastern Promises.

I've never worked with an editor on any of my projects. For my feature, an editor will provide me the critical distance and fresh perspective needed for the long post-production process, but being that the first cut sets the direction for the rest of the process, I don't know if I am able to let another person do that.

R.I.P. The Great Japanes Director, Kon Ichikawa

He doesn't receive nearly as much attention in the U.S. as Kurosawa or Ozu, but I had the great fortune to discover him when I watched his Tokyo Olympiad. No ordinary documentary, it combines experimental techniques with human portrayals of the athletes.

Please check out the following article, in honor of the man.
http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20080213/120292644000.html