Laura June picked up on Siri’s interesting thoughts on certain movies. She loves those with robots and artificial intelligence…

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Every year the Tate Gallery in London awards the Turner Prize to Britain’s weirdest artist. The award is £25,000 and there are four finalists exhibiting their work:

• Paul Noble – drawings of his invented city “Nobson Newtown” and scatological sculptures (poo statutes).
• Spartacus Chetwynd – medieval morality plays with characters dressed like trees.
• Luke Fowler – a film covering the life and work of maverick Scottish psychiatrist RD Laing (1927-89), and photographs of people in everyday poses.
• Elizabeth Price – a film in three parts, The Woolworths Choir of 1979, about a fire in 1979 that killed 10 people set to the music of girl pop bands.

The winner is selected on December 3, 2012.

Photos of their work and a video of the exhibitions with Adrian Searle.

Intricate drawing of Nobson Newtown by Paul Noble. (source: Jonathan Hordle/Rex Features)

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A beautiful short film by John Lynch set to the music of Sam Bauer – and the combination shines.

From the filmmaker:

I was so involved in my DSLR work, I had the impulse to look at some 16mm footage. To see what I used to shoot on my trusty old vintage 16mm Bolex.

It was refreshing to see moments in footage presented exactly the way they were filmed. No effects were necessary for the texture and feel. A quality that celluloid film will always have over digital.

I met Sam Bauer a few years ago on a project. We became friends and he expressed interest in doing a cut and composing a score to my cinematography. I gave him a series of out-takes from my 2003 South Africa Trip that became a part in “Change the Subject” (released in 2004).

Sam was the editor of Donnie Darko so he possesses natural affinity for sound design and score. This is Sam’s interpretation of the footage.

It was is refreshing to see this after so many years.

J. Lynch

I’m a big fan of the crew at Misfit Pictures and the last movie they made – Manufacturing Stoke. It opened my eyes to the DIY community in surfing and inspired me to get out in the ocean, and I bet it will do the same for you.

There next project is just getting started - called What the Sea Gives Me - and you have the chance to be a part of it. There is a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the movie – and get awesome goodies – but first more about the film:

- It will be a feature-length documentary comprised of intimate and candid interviews with some of the ocean’s most extraordinary ambassadors.

- We will give you an honest and personal look through the eyes of those who thrive under the most extreme water conditions, those ensuring the proper care of the oceans for future generations and those who simply derive a sense of pure joy from the sea.

- The goal is to raise ocean awareness on a global level while reminding the viewer how closely we are all connected to the sea; and, to introduce you to a unique group of people we find absolutely captivating.

It looks to be an amazing movie and I hope you become a part of it.

Donate $5 or $25 or $100 and join the Kickstarter campaign:

• $5 – supported by credit, thank you from the filmmakers
• $25 – DVD, pre-release limited edition – credit, thank you
• $50 – VIP tickets to premiere screening – DVD, credit, thank you
• $100 – Signed original Matt Beard art print – tickets, DVD, credit, thank you

I can’t imagine a better way to introduce the movie, Sneakers:

It’s hard for me to choose a favorite Sneakers character—there so many great ones. Even the movie’s secondary players are rendered in just enough detail to give them dimension: I love the pretentiousness of Janek, the mathematician who builds the decryption device; the unctuousness (want a cappuccino?) of Dick Gordon, the mustachioed Cosmo crony; and the boorishness of Dr. Werner Brandes, played to the hilt by the always excellent Stephen Tobolowsky.

But even that does not go far enough. Robert Redford plays his role superbly, rivaling and surpassing George Clooney in Oceans Eleven. Then there is the blind man who solves puzzles, River Phoenix as the shy computer genius, Sidney Poitier as a former-CIA agent, and who can forget Dan Aykroyd’s conspiracy theories?

If this interests you a little, if you like Oceans Eleven and caper films, or delight in well written, directed, and acted films then I demand you go see this movie . You won’t be disappointed. If you are, come back and yell at me, I’m that confident of success.

Sneakers is a true delight and you will be an admirer within the first quietly suspenseful minutes.

And if you’re obsession goes a bit deeper, here is Slate’s compulsive coverage of the movie’s 20th anniversary:

• 1 – How the 1992 Cyber Caper Sneakers Predicted the Information Age
• 2 – Why Sneakers Inspires Such Bizarrely Devoted Fans
• 3 – What Characters in Sneakers Have in Common with Steve Jobs
• 4 – Sneakers Paints a Surprisingly Unflattering Portrait of the 60s Counterculture

And, listen them discuss it in the Gabfest (the 2nd topic).

** Selected for the San Diego Surf Film Festival and the Del Mar Cinema Series.

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Peter Jackson’s behind-the-scenes extras are legendary and this new iPhone, iPad app for The Hobbit should be fun:

View animated character portraits, travel through an interactive map of Middle-earth, watch Peter Jackson’s production videos, and explore the stunning narrative imagery of “The Scroll” artwork to immerse yourself in the world of Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, deadly Wargs, giant Spiders and fearsome Dragons.

 
I’m excited to get my geek on! Here is the link to download - http://bit.ly/HobbitMoviesApp

This Wednesday, the last of the movie nights at the California Surf Museum ends with “an inside look at Korduroy.TV”. Doors open at 6:15pm and the show starts at 7pm.

More details via Surfline:

The California Surf Museum is proud to highlight surf film-making in its non-traditional approach.  Our final Big Wednesday film night will feature two 20 minute segments of the latest and greatest Korduroy.TV clips, Q&A with the filmmakers and staff, and interesting props and cameras from the Korduroy crew.  Learn about their recent Kick-starter campaign, their company ethos, and how they are pushing surf content in a new direction.

With the advent of iPhones, cheap HD cameras, and the GoPro, a whole legion of film-makers have entered the scene. Combine their work with the long-established tradition of independent film-making in the surf world and you have a new golden age of the surf film.

Korduroy.TV is at the epicenter of this movement and growing fast. This should be the highlight of the Big Wednesday screening series.

Tickets are still available for $10 and enjoy the beautiful museum too!

An Inside Look at Korduroy.TV
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Doors open, 6:15PM – Show at 7PM
CA Surf Museum – 312 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054

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Keith Malloy’s debut film, Come Hell or High Water, shot primarily on 16mm focuses on the simplicity and beauty of bodysurfing. “It’s about taking a breath, and kicking your feet, in the big blue sea.” – Patagonia

The film explores the history and progression of the sport of bodysurfing and the pureness that comes from riding a wave. Shot primary in 16mm, the film takes a unique look at the culture, beauty and simplicity of the sport, capturing the stories and locations of those who belong to this community.

Winning awards in best cinematography, and best film at both The London Surf Film Fest and The Surfer Poll Awards,

Shot on location at The Wedge, Point Panic, Piha Beach, Las Escolleras, The Pipeline, Waimea Bay, Makapuu, Sandy Beach, Sandspit, Cloudbreak, Yellowstone, Mentawais, Kamakura, Teahupoo and Nantucket.

Features: Mark Cunningham , Mike Stewart, Chris Kalima, Durdam Rocherolle, Patrice Chanzy, Belinda Baggs, Crystal Thornburg-Homcy, and Dan Malloy. – Patagonia Australia

Buy the DVD, $25

Buy the digital version, $15, or rent $5

Read: Behind-the-scenes in New Zealand

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It turns out Jason Bourne didn’t really have amnesia. That would require a hit on the head or something similar. He would then lose all of his past memories and kind up wake up clueless, maybe even unable to make new memories.

No, Jason Bourne had selective amnesia where he was able to forget all the bad things in his life, but remember how to speak several languages, fight 16 bad guys at once, and generally act like a superhero. This is called ‘dissociative amnesia’ which usually occurs after a traumatic event.

So, it is a form of amnesia just not one that requires you to be bonked on the head. It’s sort of the brains way of dealing with something to hard to handle. You forget that incident but remember pretty much everything else and function normally.

It is the perfect writer’s device. Start your character with nothing but an awesome set of skills and bad guys to foil…fill in the personality later.

***

More on this from an engaging post on neuroscience, The Weird History of Amnesia:

The major fascination with amnesia is that it’s so specific. When an amnesiac wakes in a hospital, they may not know who they are or where they are, but they do know that they are in a hospital. They know what hospitals are and what they look like. They retain the ability to talk, to count, to recognize certain aspects of the world they live in, while blanking out personal memories entirely.

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If you’re looking for a quality list among all those top 10s, then this is the one. It occurs only once a decade and queries nearly 900 of the world’s top critics. The numbers are collated into the “Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time”.

The results are in:

And the loser is – Citizen Kane. After 50 years at the top of the Sight & Sound poll, Orson Welles’s debut film has been convincingly ousted by Alfred Hitchcock’s 45th feature Vertigo.

…Hitchcock, who only entered the top ten in 1982 (two years after his death), has risen steadily in esteem over the course of 30 years, with Vertigo climbing from seventh place, to fourth in 1992, second in 2002 and now first, to make him the Old Master.

I heard about this list through the Slate Culture Gabfest where it was remarked, “these movies are part of a great film education”.

How’s your education?

1. Vertigo
2. Citizen Kane
3. Tokyo Story
4. La Règle du jeu
5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. The Searchers
8. Man with a Movie Camera
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc
10. 8 1/2

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From a post by Peter Jackson in Facebook:

It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made. Recently Fran, Phil and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie – and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes.’

We know how much of the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur will remain untold if we do not take this chance. The richness of the story of The Hobbit, as well as some of the related material in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, allows us to tell the full story of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the part he played in the sometimes dangerous, but at all times exciting, history of Middle-earth.

So, without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of “The Hobbit” films, I’d like to announce that two films will become three.

It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, “a tale that grew in the telling.”

Cheers,

Peter J

In the movies the Dark Knight does not always save his lady, but in the Aurora theater the story unfolded differently. The male instinct to rescue and protect kicked in the way it does in less complicated superhero tales. At least three of the 12 victims of the shooting died because they were physically protecting the women they came to the movie with. Alex Teves, 24, used his body as a shield to cover his girlfriend. He was shot, and she survived. Matthew Robert McQuinn threw his body in front of his girlfriend, Samantha Yowler. He too was killed, and she was pulled to safety by her brother, Nick Yowler. Jonathan Blunk, 26, pushed his girlfriend, Jansen Young, under a seat. Again, he was killed, and she got out after the shooting was over. Young crawled out and realized she and her boyfriend were alone in the theater, only he was really wet, and she couln’t believe what had happened, so she tried to convince herself that someone must have thrown a water balloon. (Here is Young in one of the saddest Today show videos ever, her trying to match the steady upbeat tones of the format while talking about gruesome stuff: “I think John just took a bullet for me,” she says. “He provided me the opportunity to survive.”)

 

Source: Slate - In the Aurora Theater the Men Protected the Women. What Does that Mean?

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If you’re looking for a surf movie that you can’t find at Blockbuster or Netflix then you will love The Surf Network. This website serves as the web home for all of your favorite surf films.

You can rent, buy, download, and watch pretty much any surf movie movie right on your computer. More from the website:

“TheSurfNetwork.com, is a simple easy to use video-on-demand service that provides access to the largest collection of premium surf video content.”

“When you purchase a video, your viewing rights do not expire. You can watch a purchased video as many times as you would like on your computer or compatible device.” (which includes computer, iPhone, iPad, Boxee, Roku, etc.)

The site is also home to snow and moto movies. Check it out.

The Surf Network

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I feel like this is one of those big moments that sputters into life – the end of ownership. At least, when it comes to DVDs.

This happened to music a few years back…I mean, who still thinks of owning music with CDs?

With Blu-ray sales slotted to decline in the next few years, the future is owning digital copies of movies not DVDs.

It will be interesting to see how this affects the ownership economy. So many people love their DVD collections, just as people loved their VHS collection and CD collections.

But, storing 20-30 digital movies can take up all your hard drive space, especially for high definition flicks. Whereas, keeping a few thousand songs on your computer didn’t hurt that much.

I bet there will be a race to super-size hard drives (especially on laptops) and build a business around movies in the cloud.

Like Apple is currently doing:

Apple adds 20th Century Fox movies to iTunes in the Cloud, all major studios now on board

Apple and Twentieth Century Fox have reportedly come to an agreement that will finally make the studio’s films available via iTunes in the Cloud. When Apple made movies a cornerstone of the cloud-based initiative (which lets customers redownload previous purchases) earlier this year, the company only had deals in place with four of the “big six” studios — Universal and Fox were the holdouts. It didn’t take long for Universal to sign on and add its films to iTunes in the Cloud, but apparently Apple needed more time to hammer out a viable solution with Fox.

Now we’re able to confirm that Twentieth Century Fox titles no longer carry a warning that they won’t be available from iTunes in the Cloud following purchase. You’re free to delete them from your PC/Mac or iOS device and redownload at will, and the same movies can also be streamed from an Apple TV.

 

Source: The Verge

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It wasn’t enough for M. Night Shyamalan and Will Smith to create a sci-fi film. For After Earth, they patterned an entirely new world history (or at least paid some really geeky people to do it for them).

The film is set 1,000 years in the future, and most of mankind has moved on to another planet light-years away. “Nova Prime has been colonized by humans for about 200 years,” said After Earth screenwriter Gary Whitta during a Comic-Con panel for the film, which is scheduled for release next year. “Earth is just kind of a memory that is taught in history classes.”

Nova Prime looks a lot like Utah (because it’s filmed in Utah), and that’s where the story starts. Smith plays Cypher Rage, a general in a military unit called the Rangers, while his real-life son Jaden plays his fictional son Kitai. The younger Rage aspires to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the Rangers. When an errant asteroid damages their ship, it causes them to crash-land on the most inhospitable planet in the universe — Earth.

Separated during the crash, Kitai must battle his way across an aggressive and deadly planet to reach his injured father, who is in bad shape. The journey will take Kitai through jungle, desert, forest and probably a few Shyamalanesque plot twists.

 

Learn more details: Wired – Universe-Building With Your After Earth Hosts, Will Smith and M. Night Shyamalan

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What kind of armor will Tony Stark wear in Iron Man 3? That question has been answered at Comic-Con International, where the new costume is on display at the Marvel booth.

Here’s Wired senior editor Peter Rubin with an exclusive look at the new armor, as well as a chronological spin through the various power suits donned by Robert Downey Jr. in the hit superhero movies.

The Mark VIII armor:

 

Source: Wired – Exclusive Video: First Look at New Armor From Iron Man 3

The Chachapoyan Fertility Idol

Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology, presented by the National Geographic Society, immerses you in the science and history of field archaeology. Walk in the footsteps of beloved film hero Indiana Jones as you embark on this interactive museum adventure.

This unique exhibition features :

• A vast and exclusive collection of Indiana Jones film props, models, concept art, and set designs from the Lucasfilm Archives
• An interactive tour of legendary sites that sheds light on historical myths such as the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail
• A rare chance to see some of the world’s most impressive material remains and real-world artefacts from ancient societies from the collections of the world-renowned Penn Museum and the National Geographic Society archives
• A handheld multimedia guide that lets you personalize your exhibit experience
• An interactive quest game that let’s children of all ages test their skills and explore the exhibit content in a fun, innovative way

 

Currently, in Spain but coming to Southern California in October 2012.

 

Learn more  - Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology – The Exhibit

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I’m sitting here at Comic-con and I keep hearing about these Mondo posters. They are beautiful and the web is buzzing about them, but I can’t find out where they come from. The Mondo website is empty and the Twitter account gives only a few details away. Yet here they are and they are beautiful.

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Knowing and loving Nora meant her world — or her neighborhood — became yours. She gave you books to read and took you to cafés you’d never heard of that became legends. You discovered Krispy Kremes from a box she held out, and you learned that there is such a thing as the perfect tuna sandwich. She would give your kids small, goofy parts in movies with the caveat that they might not make the final cut but you’d get a tape of the scene. For a wrap gift, she would send you a note saying something like, “A man is going to come to your house to plant an orange tree — or apple or pomegranate or whatever — and you will eat its fruit for the rest of your days.” Rita and I chose orange, and the fruit has been lovely, sweet and abundant, just as Nora promised — a constant and perfect reminder of the woman we loved so much.

 

Nora Ephron: A Life of Voice and Detail by Tom Hanks

A great scene from You’ve Got Mail, especially with Harry Nilsson’s rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow: