Monday, September 27, 2010

More new docs on the docket

In addition to Waiting for Superman coming to theaters, Ken Burns' returns to baseball on PBS tomorrow and Wed with The Tenth Inning, this time focusing on the steroid abuse scandal. His original PBS documentary series about baseball was the highest rated documentary in PBS' history. You can watch a clip including an interview with Ken Burns on Hulu.

A new HBO documentary, Teenage Paparazzo, begins airing tonight. You can see a clip here.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

'Waiting for Superman' out this Friday

A new documentary from the director of An Inconvenient Truth is opening in limited release this Friday. Waiting for Superman explores another slowly unfolding tragedy...public education. I haven't seen the film, but I hear that it will kick-start the conversation about how our public schools are failing the next generation. After I've had a chance to see the film I'll weigh-in with my thoughts.
See the preview here.

Friday, September 17, 2010

I'm Still Here exposed as a Mockumentary


Frauds and fakes are usually not rewarded when they try to pass themselves off as journalists or documentarians. However, the documentary tradition does have a soft spot for spoofs, often referred to as mockumentaries. This is Spinal Tap is a classic and others include Best in Show and Borat. One of the all-time great hoaxes was Orsen Wells' radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds...a Halloween joke that caused panic and mass hysteria which led to congressional hearings.
When Joaquin Pheonix appeared on The Late Show in 2009 confused fans and viewers wondered if he had lost touch with reality. As it turns out, he was simply acting in character as the subject of the mocumentary film, I'm Still Here. According to the New York Times, the director of I'm Still Here called Phoenix' performance the best of his career.
“It’s a terrific performance, it’s the performance of his career,” Mr. Affleck said. He was speaking of Mr. Phoenix’s two-year portrayal of himself — on screen and off — as a bearded, drug-addled aspiring rap star, who, as Mr. Affleck tells it, put his professional life on the line to star in a bit of “gonzo filmmaking” modeled on the reality-bending journalism of Hunter S. Thompson.
 Time will tell if this really is the "performance of his career." But his appearance on Late Night for next Wednesday (the 22nd) may be telling and it could be interesting hearing his explanation of things.

Review of I'm Still Here.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Producing in HD? Get the FAQ!

If you're planning to shoot and edit in high definition, you want to make sure that you're on the right track from day one. There are pre-production decisions that will affect production and post-production workflows, and by then it is too late to make changes. You can find a useful resource by [ITVS] at their website. It is the HD FAQ and you can find it at http://www.itvs.org/funding/resources/hd-faq