Reviews

Capturing The Friedmans Online

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Almost every film that is released these days has its own website. Filmmak-ers, distributors, and studios have all learned the promotional value of the web when it comes to getting their films out into the world. One can go to a film’s site and view trailers, read the credits, the reviews, and experience the “hype.”… Read more »

The Strange and Wonderful World of “American Splendor”

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From American Splendor’s first shots, you know you are watching something unusual: It’s Halloween, 1950, and the neighborhood runts are trick-or-treating, all done up as their favorite superheroes—except for one rebellious runt, who has stubbornly donned his street clothes. “I’m Harvey Pekar,” he tells a curious neighbor. “I ain’t no superhero, lady. I’m just a… Read more »

What is a DDR, and is it right for you?

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A new breed of tool has recently appeared on the DV filmmaking landscape. Unfortunately, these new devices do not share a common name and are known by various manufacturers as DV Direct to Edit Disk Recorder, Video Disk Unit, or Direct to Disk Recorder (DDR) which is how I will refer to them in this… Read more »

“EGG” Expands

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Even though no new episodes will be produced past the current season, the production unit behind PBS’s "EGG": The Arts Show is going strong. Not only has the show recently picked up a 2002 Peabody Award (the third for the production unit, which also received Peabodies in 1997 for "City Arts" and in 2000 for… Read more »

The Triangle

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Located in the heart of North Carolina, the Triangle is an area defined by the cities at its three points (Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh) and the universities within it (the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and North Carolina State). Each point of the Triangle is about half an hour away from the… Read more »

News: Short List Turns Ten

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The Short List, the Emmy award-winning television series showcasing short films from around the world, celebrated the premiere of its tenth season on November 3. Produced by Jack Ofield, San Diego State University’s filmmaker in residence, and veteran writer/producer Helen-Maria Erawan, this season boasts forty-three shorts—ranging from documentary to fiction to animation—from sixteen countries, all… Read more »

Road Test: New Mini-DV Cameras

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Every year when the new consumer camcorders hit the market, a few of them are designed not only for home movies, but also for the independent filmmaker. This year we tried out two of these cameras by putting them in the hands of three filmmakers, each of whom represents a different type of filmmaker the… Read more »

IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND

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Two new cameras, both due out in the spring of 2000, will undoubtedly raise the bar in the ongoing debate between the merits of film’s superior image quality and video’s cost-effective convenience. A new Super 16 camera, the A-Minima, due for release by French camera manufacturer Aaton, combines the lightweight portability of the camcorder with… Read more »

Point of No Return: On-line Film Festivals, Showcases & Distributors

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The Bit Screen www.thebitscreen.com Launched: July 1998 Plug-ins required: RealPlayer Audience (per month): 100,000 page views, download totals unavailable. Contact: Druid Media, Box 343, Narberth, PA 19072; (610) 664-6945; info@druidmedia .com "It’s really not about distributing films over the Internet," says Bit Screen creator Nora Barry. "To me, it’s a completely new art form." On-line… Read more »

5 for the Future

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For all of CPB’s lofty intentions, the ultimate shape of public television in the digital age will be fashioned by those who actually ply the trade – the artists and producers. Here is a short list of five CPB-funded projects that provides a peek at the kind of work that’s headed our way. Local News… Read more »