Atencioblog

Flairs - Trucker’s Delight directed by Jérémie Perin Wow....

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:13:00 -0800

Flairs - Trucker’s Delight directed by Jérémie Perin

Wow. This video is the most batshit insane thing I’ve seen in a while, and I love it. Not safe for work, not safe for good taste, but extremely entertaining. (thanks, Chris Lohr)

Think Spielberg’s Duel + Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat Kill Kill! and Marc Dorcel’s wildest fantasies. All warped into an 8-bit Sega era style graphic. And this clumsy and somehow pretentious description doesn’t even come close to what you’re about to see.

Photo

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:23:45 -0800

Ratatat - Black Heroes I really love this Jon Brion-esque track...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:50:51 -0800

Ratatat - Black Heroes

I really love this Jon Brion-esque track from Ratatat’s last album, LP3.

Banksy on "The Advertisers."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:03:11 -0800

Banksy on "The Advertisers.":

Damn. This is great (and true) (via boringloser & ambivalence & wreckandsalvage)

Surf Zombies Must Chill by Douglas Haddow Music by Zomby, from...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:35:00 -0800

Surf Zombies Must Chill by Douglas Haddow

Music by Zomby, from the new EP “One Foot Ahead of the Other”. Visuals via Argento, De Palma & Romero.

Currently loving pretty much anything Haddow makes.

Shellac - Prayer To God A classic.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:06 -0800

Shellac - Prayer To God

A classic.

FX Guide has an exhaustive look at the visual fx work on...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:11:21 -0800

FX Guide has an exhaustive look at the visual fx work on District 9, including these great before and after stills from several vfx shots in the film. It also gives insight into director Neill Blomkamp’s style for running a set, which I admire.

“He also didn’t want to have a typical video village on set with the sound guy and script supervisor,” continued Muzyers. “They had to be remotely located so he could shoot 360 degrees without having to ask the crew to get out of the way. For a film of that nature and size, the shooting schedule was actually quite short because of the budget constraints on the movie. So he went fast and hard and the pace was relentless.”

It’s amazing how animators were able to put so much emotion and believability into the shots, with so little information at hand from the reference frames.

On set, actor Jason Cope donned a 50% grey suit with markers and worked as a stand-in for the aliens. “Neill was fairly specific about wanting to have someone on set who the actors could interact with,” noted Kaufman. “It helped the other actors, particularly Sharlto Copley in the emotional scenes with Christopher Johnson, but of course it meant we had to paint it out later and restore pieces of the background.”

“The grey suit also gave us a good lighting reference,” observed Muzyers. “It wasn’t as neat as the grey ball you often see, but it gave a fairly good reference as to where light was coming from and how the shadows played on his body.”

Muzyers supervised the shooting of clean plates where possible, although again this proved difficult with the very active camera movement. “Luckily, Neill’s background in visual effects meant that he knew importance of capturing HDRI data. I can never take enough HDRI, so I kind of keep going until they usher me off the set!”

The article is basically a textbook of how to shoot a heavily improvisational film with visual effects in mind in the modern age of CG animation. Go read it. (via adamngoodshot which has tons more great stuff about District 9 today)

Dad (and yes, I still feel bad about this)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:04:00 -0800

Dad (and yes, I still feel bad about this)

Ayn Rand's Relevance

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:10:27 -0800

Ayn Rand's Relevance:

Yes! I, like Alexis, er, I mean, Tagney Daggart, agree with noraleah on this matter. (via hydeordie)

I just accidentally became the worst son in history.

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:07:18 -0800

I just accidentally became the worst son in history.

This is an amazing VBS.tv piece on the urban oil wells in Los...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:00:18 -0800

This is an amazing VBS.tv piece on the urban oil wells in Los Angeles, including rigs in Signal Hill, Mid-Wilshire, West Hollywood, and Beverly Hills. The parts about the tower at Beverly Hills High and the oil well office building on Pico are especially fascinating, because I’ve driven by them so many times without knowing what they were. (via rubenfm)

Zero Degrees - A Contemporary Dance Performance Wow, this looks...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:32:10 -0800

Zero Degrees - A Contemporary Dance Performance

Wow, this looks cool. Someone buy me this on DVD for Chrismukka (we’re still making O.C. references, right guys? Ok, cool).

zero degrees is a remarkable collaboration between four of today’s most respected artists.

Moroccan-Flemish SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI is well known for his work with Les Ballets C. de la B. while AKRAM KHAN is world renowned for developing his own ‘contemporary Kathak’ style, winning numerous awards. For zero degrees they bring their unique styles together in this spellbinding piece of dance.

Mercury Award winning composer/producer NITIN SAWHNEY adds his own East-meets-West sound with a specially commissioned score played live by four musicians, and Turner Prize winner ANTONY GORMLEY has contributed the staging - two life-size casts of the dancers.

zero degrees explores borders - between countries, cultures and, most importantly, between life and death. It challenges, prompts and inspires, in a seamless fusion of dance styles, music and contemporary art.

Watch ABC's "Modern Family"

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:03:00 -0800

Stacey Hinnen, friend, star of The Rig, winner of the 2009th annual Father of the Year award, and all around nicest guy on the fucking planet, will be making an appearance.

Edit: Whoops, looks like his episode is actually next week. But tune in tonight for Ed Norton and Elizabeth Banks. Also, the episode was cut by my friend Ryan Case!

My mom was the stylist for a photo shoot & article in The...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:15:18 -0800

My mom was the stylist for a photo shoot & article in The Denver Post. Support Sylvia and go check it out!

And Finally...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:49:00 -0800

I feel like I was overly negative or mean-spirited in my post on short films earlier today, and I’m sorry for that. What I wrote, despite how it came out, was born out of a love both of watching other people’s creative output, and of being creative myself. I’ve received some very thoughtful emails today, some from people who agree with me, and some from people who don’t, and I plan to respond to them all shortly. More than anything, I’m glad people are talking about what’s good and what’s important in filmmaking, and it’s nice to know there isn’t and will never be a consensus on what those things are. Debate is healthy.

All of the Batman Symbols Interesting how each one is a perfect...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:24:00 -0800

All of the Batman Symbols

Interesting how each one is a perfect reflection of popular design aesthetics from the time period during which it was created. You can see echoes of the most popular car models of the time in each of these. (via My Confined Space & David Cho)

Brett Farve for Wrangler Really Tiny Jean Shorts Holy shit. The...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:51:11 -0800

Brett Farve for Wrangler Really Tiny Jean Shorts

Holy shit. The Midnight Show just made a classic sketch. Everyone involved with this did an amazing job. Nice work guys. Written by Eric Moneypenny and James Adomian and directed by Tyler Gillett.

Addendum

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:29:00 -0800

I wanted to add a few points, after a long, long conversation with my best friend about my Short Film “Manifesto” (btw, calling it a manifesto was something of an in-joke. I almost called it Dogme ‘09 as well). He says that my list makes me look like a holier-than-thou condescending asshole. Probably true, and I’m okay with that assumption. He also says that he got the feeling from it that I want people to make less shorts, or that I’m trying to browbeat people who don’t know any better. That’s not true. Just to be clear, I love that people make short films. I don’t profess to be some God of filmmaking, and in fact I’m very rarely satisfied with anything I make. I don’t think I’ve made a “great” short film yet, because I aknowledge great short films are incredibly difficult to make. I want more people to make short films, because only by the baptism of of fire that is the creative process will skills improve and quality films be produced. More films being made means more good films in existence, which in turn will inspire more people to pick up a camera and create, and that’s only a good thing.

However, there has to be acknowledgment that there is a technical aspect to all of this. It’s true that a great story will always be accessible and entertaining, no matter how poorly made the film. But a great story could be even better with just a tiny bit of care or attention to the technical side. Many film schools don’t acknowledge that fact, and that’s frustrating to me (indeed, it’s why I left film school after a year). And while my rant may sound overly angry or mean-spirited, I want my intention and basic point to be less so. Make films. Make shitty films, make great films. If you want to share them with the world, do that. Put them online, enter them into festivals. But know that there’s no such thing as perfect, and your skills will never stop growing. My list is a purely personal, highly-opinionated guide to what I think you should know before you hit record. Some people may think I’m dead wrong. Others may agree with me 100%. The truth is that there is no truth, there is no right way, and so long as you are expressing yourself, you’re doing it right. If my manifesto means just one more person thinks about whether the shot is in focus, or the sound is audible, or the joke is funny, then I’m okay with having written it.

Edit: Matthew Michaux also wrote a very good rebuttal which you should read here.

I actually agree with most of his points. As I said to him, After reflecting, I know I was too harsh or overblown in many of the areas I did intend to be genuine and helpful. I don’t want people to not make serious films, but I do want them to stop and think about subject matter before they do, and how to tell a personal story in a new or interesting way.

If anyone wants to talk to me personally about any of this, I invite you to email me at peter@peteratencio.com

The Short Film Manifesto

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:40:00 -0800

I’m going to be honest, I kept trying to write an introductory paragraph that segues into what follows here in a soothing, pleasant, and friendly way. I can’t do it. I can’t stifle the way I feel about this situation, and there’s no way around it; short film-making as a hobby, profession, and artistic pursuit is plagued by thousands of awful short films. These terrible shorts are everywhere, on the internet, on demo reels, and especially in the “pay-for-play” film festivals around the globe that make a business out of accepting any awful film that pays the entry fee. These shorts are boring, ugly, and ultimately negative, both for the viewer and the short form field as a whole. It’s a black eye on all of us who make shorts, and the existence of these films damages the reputation and image of the community, a community that is full of vibrant, creative work. Work that unfortunately must fight through a muck of shit in order to be seen or noticed by the public at large. Does this sound harsh? Good. That’s exactly what this situation calls for, because it’s the coddling of filmmakers by teachers, film festival organizers, and yes, other filmmakers that has led us to this point. In a do-no-wrong culture, no one is told the truth. This is my truth. This is my short film manifesto.

On Sunday night I attended a shorts program at the ACME Comedy Theater as part of the Los Angeles Comedy Festival (remember how I said certain festivals are obviously pay-for-play, meaning if you pay the submission fee your film is basically guaranteed to get in so the organizers can generate a profit? This festival is clearly one of those). It was good to get out and see some comedy shorts in a venue like this, because it reminded me how lucky I am to be exposed to the quality short films I see being made by people I both know personally or whose work I respect. A lot of the films I see on a daily basis are funny and interesting and highly original. None of those were on display at the festival that night. The screening reminded me just how many bad short films are still being made, using the same tired subject matter and themes, and with the same lack of care for even the most basic attention to quality or craftsmanship. With that in mind, I now present a list I’ve created to help aspiring young filmmakers (and older filmmakers who should know better) of what to avoid when making a short film. Does this come off as combative and slightly holier-than-thou? I no longer care. I’m tired of watching crappy short films.

Tired, Worn-Out Satire Sources - I’m putting this first because it’s probably as close as I’ll come to pointing out a rule that I routinely break. I think satire & parody are perfectly acceptable subjects for short film and still plenty ripe, but come on people. At the festival I had to sit through a 37 minute (okay, it was probably more like 4 minutes, but it FELT like 37 minutes) parody of Reservoir Dogs. Really? We’re still doing Tarantino film parodies? A Tarantino film that is rapidly approaching a 20 year anniversary? Slow motion shots of guys walking down an alley wearing suits and sunglasses hasn’t been cool or relevant since the mid-90s. This one even had the hubris to be set to a 15 year old Crystal Method song. I don’t care what spin you put on it, or what direction you take it. Once a film over-saturates the pop culture the way RD did in the mid-90s, you officially can’t parody it anymore. High-school kids still making Matrix parodies, I’m looking at you here. I even checked to make sure the film I saw wasn’t made in 1998 (as the and VHS-quality made it appear). It wasn’t. Sunday night was the world premiere.
You Aren’t Clint Eastwood - There is only one living American who is allowed to write, direct, and star in his own movies. That man is Clint Eastwood. If you are Clint Eastwood, you may skip this section. For the rest of you, look, I get it, you feel a personal connection to the story you’ve written and O.Y.C.P.T.C. (only you can play this character). Or you are a control freak and want to be involved in every aspect of making your short film (I fit into this one). Or you’re just a narcissist. Whatever the justification, there is a good reason you’re making a short film. You’re an amateur. Writing a film is hard. Directing a film is hard. Acting in a film is mostly hard. Doing all of these things at the same time? DAMN NEAR IMPOSSIBLE. Surely you have friends? Use them. Have them act. Have them direct. Don’t worry, you’re not compromising your vision, you’re actually insuring there are more people to blame when things go wrong (they will). Instead, just be a writer / producer. You can still tell people what to do, but they’ll also have artistic input that will help the end product. And you won’t look like such an asshole when I have to sit through your shitty short film and have to see your name eighty times on the end credits. Of course, that brings us to:
Don’t Have An Enormous Crew - I was shocked by how many terrible films I watched at the festival with credits scrolls that included 30+ names. Just how many people does it take to make a bad short film? The answer is one: you. Big movies have big crews because it takes an army to spend the amount of money that big movies cost. If you’re making a student film or a short that costs under $3000, you need a sound mixer, boom op (one person can do both jobs at once if they’re good), a camera operator, a camera assistant (if you have complicated focus pulls), a gaffer, and maybe one or two PAs. That’s a big crew as it is (I generally have one or two crew members on everything I do), but if you have really complicated shoots, you may need a few more. On the production side, you need a producer and possibly a line producer. THAT’S IT. You don’t need to fill the same roles as a big budget feature (UPM, location manager, transpo coordinator, etc.), because let’s be honest, you’re going to be calling in favors and shooting in your Aunt Sandy’s garage. When I see a bad short with a crew of 30 names, I wonder how you were able to find 30 people who collectively didn’t know how to do their jobs. It makes them look bad, and it makes you look worse. Of course, that takes me to:
Care About Your Visuals - Film is a visual medium first and foremost. You aren’t making a play, you are making a movie. Thus, you should look like you give a damn about what ends up on screen. I am tired of seeing short films with out of focus shots, overexposed shots, poor lighting, and shaky, uncaring camera operating. There is simply no excuse for these mistakes. I’m not expecting every short look like a David Fincher film or have expensive looking, polished visuals, but if you expect me to watch your film, I don’t think it’s too much for me to ask that you know how to use your equipment. Learning to properly operate a camera takes a minimum of time and financial investment, yet I can’t tell you how many films last night ignored even the basics of film production and camera operation. The worst of these offenders is focus. Literally every camera on the market lets you manually adjust focus (seriously, check the settings menu on your cheap handycam, it’ll be in there). It takes all of 1 second to make sure your subject is clearly visible and in proper focus, and yet time after time this goes ignored. Enough is enough. The same applies to lighting. You don’t have to buy expensive lights, lighting is more about optimal placement of your subject in the existing light than anything else. Use the sun to your advantage. Take the time to turn lights off or on when shooting indoors to see what looks best in your frame. And again, when you have a crew of 30 and yet literally none of the shots in your film are properly exposed or lit, I have to wonder what all of those people are doing. Before you tell a story, learn how to use the tools you need to tell it.
Care About Sound - Someone much smarter than me once said that sound is 50% of the movie-going experience. Guess what, they were right. Your visuals can draw people into the story, but the sound completes the experience. When you don’t care about sound, it shows that you don’t really care about your film. First and foremost, you might as well pretend the microphone on your camera doesn’t even exist, because camera mics are a bad joke played on you by the manufacturer, plain and simple. They are worthless for any serious filmmaker. Invest in a decent external boom mic. Can’t afford it? Borrow one. Don’t know anyone who has one? Re-record your dialogue in post, or re-write your short to facilitate a dialogue-free production. Beyond that, check out your environment to create optimal sound. Unplug the fridge. Turn off the AC. Close the window that overlooks the freeway. Tell your dad to turn off the tv downstairs. Sound doesn’t end on set, either. Once you have your movie shot, care about sound again in editing. Check your levels. Add sound effects and music (and not the same music I hear over and over again in short films. Be original!). Once again, just care. It will show.
Make Sure Your Comedic Short Contains Actual Comedy - I can’t tell you how many shorts I saw at the comedy festival that weren’t funny. Okay, actually I can. 8. Which was almost all of them, by the way. I’m a pretty easy target when it comes to comedy, and for most of the shorts, I barely cracked a smile. This is unacceptable. I know you think you’re funny, but do yourself a favor, before you shoot your film, show the script to the funniest person you know. Hell, have them show it to the funniest person they know. And so on. Because it’s best that comedy shorts contain actual, y’know, jokes. And for most of the movies you think are funny, even if there’s only one credited writer, there’s probably a half dozen who did polishes, or joke punch-ups, or even just recommended that the lame, hackneyed joke that the entire movie is based upon be updated to something more relevant (those recommendations are usually ignored). Hey, if you don’t agree with a suggestion, don’t use it. But don’t think it has to be gold just because it came from your brilliant head, because most people who think they’re funny, aren’t.
It’s Hard To Make A Serious Short Film So You Should Probably Avoid It - The five shorts you see nominated for the short film Oscar each year? Guess what, those were probably the only five semi-decent serious short films to be made that year. That’s how they get nominated. Even then, one or two of them is probably a comedy. So that leaves three or four good dramatic short films that have a coherent storyline each year. Out of thousands, if not millions. So really, your chances of making one of those three or four films is not good. I know you think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. I used to go to a lot of film festivals, where I’d see a lot of really awful “serious” short films. There are good reasons why. It’s hard to tell a compelling story in under ten or twenty minutes. It’s hard to find really good actors willing to do really good acting in a short film made by an unknown filmmaker. It’s hard to get a quality crew to work for cheap or free. None of those things are impossible, but they’re really fucking hard, and again, having them all happen at once is almost impossible. And just to get this out of the way, here’s a brief list of topics which are officially done to death, and that you should not even remotely consider making a short film about: girls don’t like me (seriously guys, enough with the fucking shoe-gazing. Stop making theme lame, vaguely misogynistic films and try actually talking to a girl for once), guys don’t like me (yeah girls, you’re not off the hook on this either), anything related to the Iraq war, anything related to Vietnam, anything related to the holocaust, how hard it is to be an immigrant of your particular ethnicity, how hard it is to be gay, how hard it is to have an alcoholic father, how hard it is that your parents don’t ‘get’ you, how hard it is to be a hitman (no more hitman shorts!), how hard it is to be in an Asian street gang, and finally, anorexia. Seriously, women filmmakers, I want you guys to be respected in this male-dominated field, but to do that you’re going to have to stop dwelling on anorexia all the time. Think outside the box!
Don’t Make A Film About the Plight of the Actor - This last one is kind of a personal issue of mine, so it’s not nearly as important as the rest of this list, but I still think it worthy of inclusion here because mostly I’d just like to rant about the subject for a moment. Look, actors, I know it’s hard for you out here. I know you work in a field rife with constant rejection and heartbreak. I know you are mistreated, looked down upon, and disrespected on a near daily basis. I feel for you, I really do, and I always make a point of being as kind and humane to actors as possible, whether it be in auditions or handling extras on set or dealing with an insane actress who can’t remember her lines and complains that her bottled water isn’t cold enough (true story). However, this is the life you have chosen. You should have known what was in store when you decided to make a grab for the brass ring, and if you can’t take it, it’s time to quit. What is not acceptable however, is to make a completely inaccessible and unsympathetic short film about how rough you’ve got it. First of all, no one outside the film industry has any idea what you’re complaining about. To most people, even the piteous existence of a background extra is a romantic and alluring notion. “You get paid to sit around and drink free coffee while you wait to be in a movie? Where do I sign up?” Plus, people in the industry, the people I assume you’re aiming to entertain with your story of strife, they already think you’re narcissistic self-obsessed morons. Making a bad short film about how rough you’ve got it isn’t making this image go away any faster. I know you enjoy playing writer and director and producer and making these touching little stories of heartbreak, and getting into your bio-fuel powered egg-shaped cars with all of your actor friends and attending the screenings and hooting and hollering and laughing whenever the mean SAG-card wielding villain gets their just desserts on the big screen, but trust me, the rest of us are secretly hoping a hole opens up in the earth’s crust to swallow you down into the depths of hell where you’ll be forced to watch CGI animators render you increasingly obsolete for the rest of eternity. Don’t waste your time (or mine). Your money is better spent attending yet another workshop.

I don’t feel great ending this on such a negative tone, because I really do intend this to be helpful to people thinking about making a short film, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Let me say this, however: I love that people make films, and I love nothing more than watching someone make something really great, a self-contained piece of entertainment in the short form, whether it thrills me, makes me laugh, or makes me think. I love seeing new talent develop and grow their talent over time. Believe me, most of my first shorts violated most if not all of these rules (and sometimes still do), but I, like most directors, learned over time by realizing the error of my ways. I fully expect and hope that some day a young punk like me will throw this manifesto in my face and point out how I’ve become a hack in my old ago. I hope this advice can provide a shortcut to quality filmmaking for some people. More than anything, I hope the next time I find myself at a short film festival, I won’t leave feeling so depressed about the state of short filmmaking.

-Peter Atencio

If you’re finding this via a link, please also read this addendum, to better explain my intention with this whole thing.

"In Europe, movies are made like a commodity, and then sold as art. [In Hollywood], they are made as..."

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:47:24 -0800

“In Europe, movies are made like a commodity, and then sold as art. [In Hollywood], they are made as art, and sold as a commodity.”

- Christoph Waltz, from his new interview in Vulture