'Stoker' Trailer/Music Video

Immediately brought to mind the uber-cool first trailer for David Fincher's remake of 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'. Not as energetic, perhaps, but it's hard to match the forward motion of Trent Reznor and Karen O's cover of Led Zeppelin's 'Immigrant Song'.



To be fair, though, DJ Shadow's 'I Gotta Rokk' is just about as raw as the Zeppelin although with much cleaner minimalistic lines.

The trailers make for an interesting compare/contrast.
























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Rooney Mara shot by David Fincher on the RED Camera

That digital cameras are the instrument of the future can't be argued. For digital work, the RED is currently the camera of choice in Hollywood. It's been used to shoot, at least in part, The Hobbit, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Prometheus, and others.

Systems by Canon are very popular, especially when the budget is low. The Canon 5D Mark II (and a couple other models like the 7D) have been used for Act of Valor, Like Crazy to keep costs down, but the rig is also used when there's very little room and larger cameras won't do. Canons have also used in big budget movies like Captain America and Iron Man. Canon has introduced its first digital camera specifically designed for capturing movies, the C300.

However, new images of Rooney Mara by David Fincher puts the RED system in the spotlight today.

Here's a crop:

Film simply can't do this. The level of resolution and dynamic range can't be captured on emulsion, especially in light like this, even if you work with large format.

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Netflix One-Ups HBO with 'Orange is the New Black'

Usually, these announcements don't get a lot of traction, but the mention at Bloomberg about Netflix planning a comedy series, 'Orange is the New Black', based on Piper Kerman's memoir subtitled 'My Year in a Women's Prison' is different. Netflix is going head-to-head with HBO with the roll out of  'Lilyhammer' with Steven Van Zandt (yes, from HBO's 'The Sopranos'), and the gearing up of the David Fincher produced political thriller 'House of Cards' starring Kevin Spacey.

Neither 'Lilyhammer' nor 'House of Cards' resonated with me -- not sure the reason. But, with this third original series, it's hard to ignore the Netflix surge. While the other shows certainly seem okay, should be fun, there's something about 'The New Black' that sets it apart. Maybe it's because it's an established property, a memoir that's gotten plenty of notice. Maybe it's because it's a true story about spending over a year in a minimum security facility on drug trafficking and money laundering charges. Maybe it's that title -- so cool, so 'I'm fucked, so I might as well take notes'. Whatever it is, you know off the bat this will have good energy, will be able to sustain itself from one episode to the next. I mean, you'd have to really botch this to make it boring.

Series like this, that run over a period of 10-30 episodes, are the new TV. Not only is production value very high -- often better than feature films in both the look and story/screenwriting -- but it's becoming more possible to watch anyplace/anytime on phones or slates, etc., via wi-fi or even 4G, or at home, at your convenience, on that new 80-inch TV. This is good for me as I don't bother with seeing movies at the theater anymore -- increasingly, the trend these days. In the time it takes to get ready, drive to the theater, find parking, stand in line, stand in line again, sit through commercials and trailers, watch a movie (that you paid at least ten bucks for), then drive back home, I can stream a high-quality one-hour episode of 'The New Black' or something like it online at a fraction of the cost, then get a snack and settle in for another episode (I love to watch two or three in a row). 'Click and Watch' is the only way.

I just dig that cover, those orange shoes, that title. There's a very cool story here -- something that's actually worth my time. Looking forward to the Netflix slate. Will be there.

















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Christopher Nolan and David Fincher on Terrence Malick's Filmmaking

Zodiac Review

Steve Huff has won praise for his crime blogging: Wired called it 'A-list', and Rolling Stone says it's one of 'best true-crime sites on the net'. Huff posts a rundown of David Fincher's "Zodiac". Here is an excerpt:

The late 60s and 70s are captured with so much attention to detail that it felt like a form of time-travel to watch events unfold. From Zodiac's second attempt at double-murder on July 4, 1969 (one victim survived), through the early 1990s, every detail of time and place is re-created with immense care. The soundtrack, for instance -- other reviewers have already made note of the clever use of Donovan's "Hurdy-Gurdy Man," and I have to agree. I've always thought the song was pretty creepy-sounding, and the way it weaves into the fabric of this movie is a touch of dramatic genius.

...Zodiac is a very rare kind of movie, in my experience -- a thinking person's crime drama. If only every movie in this genre were so finely wrought.

What sets Huff apart from other reviewers is his level of expertise on the subject of serial killers. He offers great perspective on the movie by giving us background on the books it is based on (excerpt):

Both books, Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked, ended up being devoted to the idea that Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac. Graysmith fell prey to the amateur sleuth's big bugaboo: forming a theory and then trying to make it fit the facts. Real detectives, with access to as much real evidence as they can collect, are able to -- hopefully -- let the facts, the evidence, dictate the theory of the crime.

Evidence that would have made Leigh Allen a slam-dunk in a court of law for the Zodiac murders simply doesn't seem to exist. No one ever conclusively matched any samples of Allen's handwriting to Zodiac's. Even a relatively uninformed look at samples side by side show almost no commonalities. Fingerprints associated with Zodiac did not match Allen's prints. Ultimately, DNA didn't match. All the evidence that points to Allen being the Zodiac Killer is either hearsay or circumstantial, at best.

...I think Zodiac got away. He either died shortly after the last known letter from him or got put away for another crime entirely. It could be that he basically retired, as Dennis Rader did for many years. The kind of person I think he might have been I will save for another blog entry. Perhaps Zodiac found another route to satisfy his jones for power and control, a route that wouldn't put him on a collision course with the police.

Is he still out there? Anything is possible. Seems like this movie would bring some word from him if he was, though.

Huff continues at length to offer reasons why Allen, who was a convicted pedophile, was probably not the Zodiac killer. Huff's argument is blunt and graphic, and well-informed, and tends to cut through a lot of hype.

Huff's site is Truecrimeblog and his review of "Zodiac" is here. Huff also recommends Tom Voigt's site zodiackiller.com as an excellent resource for those interested in the case.

Zodiac

David Fincher's new movie, "Zodiac", is based on the killer who went by the same name who is credited with several murders in the San Francisco area in the late 60s. Fincher did the visually stylish and improbable thriller "Se7en" and the dizzyingly stylish and over-the-top "Fight Club". By all indications, "Zodiac" is shot with less verve but comes across with more impact because of its subject, and I get the feeling this will establish Fincher as a go-to helmer for mainstream pictures.

Adam Kempenaar and Sam Van Hallgren discuss "Zodiac" over at Filmspotting, and you can tell this movie impressed them -- they speak of it in almost hushed tones.

Also, the guys briefly discuss "Black Snake Moan", which opens this weekend -- they're calling it one of the most exciting movies of the year -- from what I've seen I have to agree. And, a look back at the Oscars.