dianafilms

John Cleese Holds forth on Creativity--

great video, kind of corporate but interesting.

Are you in open mode or closed mode? I've called this the open focus work style, encouraging directors in development to use their intuition, stay slightly fuzzy and let the work evolve.  That is a luxury we often don't give directors, but when we do, they tend to deliver more authentic and original work.

Can you be more playful and relaxed, even when under deadline pressure to deliver copy, boards, scripts, shots, dialogue, proposals, etc...?

the Last Express: through the eyes of an artist

ANALYSIS – VIDEO GAME: The Last Express (1997) – VERONIKA ZÝKOVÁ -

The Last Express (1997) is a video game created by Jordan Mechner and Smoking Car Productions, set on the Orient Express in 1914. This videogame was very innovative in the adventure games genre. The Last Express was the first “real-time adventure game” and until these days it remains an example of combining deep story with high artistic values, 3D environment based on detailed historical research, rotoscoped Art Nouveau stylized characters, international cast with great voice acting in multiple languages and other praised aspects I will mention further. The game has taken 4 years to develop, with budget over 5 million dollars.¹

This article will balance between serious analysis and a long-time love to this video game (or interactive media). Although it has been 15 years since its release, The Last Express is undoubtedly considered a piece of art and very accomplished narrative, which was examined in The End of Books – Or Books Without End? Reading Interactive Narratives by J. Yellowlees Douglas and other studies. Just like in the time of its release, when it received rave reviews, the game still makes it to various charts and polls of the best adventure games of all times.³ Now that The Last Express is available as a digital download on various sites⁴ and recently [on March 16th 2012] its version for iPad and iPhone was announced,⁵ lets have a detailed look at what The Last Express offers to a gamer.

"So far, I have not been talking about visuals and voices of characters. It would be shame not to mention, at least briefly, that characters are rotoscoped in 2D stylized Art Nouveau look. Not only Mucha’s and Toulous-Lautrec’s paintings were inspiration, but also comic books by such authors as Hugo Pratt, François Schuiten or Enki Bilal.²⁵ Comic book style reminds also the way creators dealt with limited 3 CDs space²⁶ and in many cases had to use not full motion, but more slide-show style, capturing significant gestures and mimics. It works surprisingly well, partly because you just accept this style and get used to it. But full motion used for character’s walking, facing you in the corridor, looking to your eyes with emotions, this is just priceless; surely one of the greatest efforts of The Last Express. You can observe characters from different angles, their actions are little animations similar to loops; they repeat certain moves. It is not too impressive, but sufficient enough to create the illusion of action."

"The voice acting is perfect and gamer can enjoy various languages in their beauty. High level of authenticity was accomplished even in this field; Russians are speaking old Russian, you can say when Austrian is speaking German and so forth. For example, character leads conversation in German and in the middle of a sentence he/she starts to speak English with strong German accent. Richness of languages is exceptional.²⁷ When I mentioned that The Last Express was going against some aspects of „interactive movies“, it was because of the difference between FMV used in these games and rotoscoped cartoon-style technique that creators of The Last Express used. It does exactly what they intended: player does not concentrate on acting that much, because he/she sees only key frames of characters talking, he/she rather listens to dialogues and focuses on story. But The Last Express is highly cinematic, as well as very interactive, so if we call it „interactive movie“, „interactive media“, or simply „video game“, it won’t make much difference.^28"

Link to the deep and compelling article here:

http://25fps.cz/2012/the-last-express/

 

The Last Express has been voted #7 of the top 100 Adventure Games of All Time

This Highly Cinematic Game has just been listed on the top 100 adventure games of all time,
#7:

Where do the accolades start for Smoking Car Productions’ The Last Express? Is it the rotoscoped graphics that give the game a uniquely classy sense of style? Is it the painstaking historical recreation of the final voyage of the Orient Express before World War I? Is it the stunningly immersive real-time progression of gameplay? Or is it the thrilling and extraordinarily literate writing? Why choose? There really isn't anything quite like Jordan Mechner’s 1997 adventure. While the story of American doctor Robert Cath and the international intrigue he encounters on a train journey from Paris to Constantinople does head to some pretty fantastical places, it is equally balanced by a genuine sense of realism and authenticity. Mechner's team went to great lengths to portray everything from foreign languages to daily weather patterns with historical accuracy. The characters portray the broad and tumultuous sociopolitical climate of the era, as Cath encounters everyone from German businessmen to Serbian militants. And in a still-unparalleled design decision, live actors were filmed and then hand-traced in a style reminiscent of early 20th century illustration.

Making things feel even more authentic is the game’s real-time progression: The Last Express doesn't wait for you. The train barrels relentlessly toward Constantinople, stopping at several famous locales along the way. Similarly, the other passengers have their own agendas to attend to; they move around the train, have conversations, go to sleep, eat dinner, conduct secret meetings, and so on. As Cath, players have more or less total freedom to explore the train and observe, interact with fellow passengers, or sneak around trying to find information. This gives the game an astounding level of replayability for an adventure game, since you'll never be able to see everything in a given playthrough; while you're off exploring one car, something else (something probably very interesting) is going on in another. And if you don’t like the direction your recent choices have taken, rather than simply restore an old save file, simply rewind time and begin that segment of the journey all over again. It all adds up to a tense, immersive, and innovative adventure that few other games have equaled.

Read about the other great games here

http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,1401/p,20

Rethink Breast cancer, ad that really works!

 

This is a great reminder, very sexy PSA and totally works as a viral on so many levels.  Great work and so good to see things like this.  Know your audience and give them what they need in ways they would not expect. 

Film Incentives and Production Activity Map (US based)

this is a pretty handy tool brought to you by Credit Scouts

crowdsourced film, Life In A Day

 

Just in case you haven't see this yet, wow, Life in A Day is a crowdsourced documentary that covers 192 countries, used almost 4500 hours of footage, and was whittled down to 90 essential minutes.  As a concept it works incredibly well.  I would love to see more projects like this, this is a genre that has much more to offer than meets the eye.

why photographers need producers who know how to shoot video

Here's the deal, editorials and ads on tablets are going to start moving because they have to. Video, even without sound, is far more compelling than a still image on a screen.  Ok, I'm a little biased, I work as a producer, my job is making pictures dance. That being said, I did start out as a photographer before moving to film, video and digital media. As much as I LOVE stills and evocative art, and I really do love them, the tablet is a screen and screens are far more interesting when the pictures are moving.  They just are.  I would love to see that proven wrong, I really would.  But things are progressing towards movement, motion.  For fearless established photographers who wish to adapt, its vital that you pick up video skills and a trursworthy sidekick who can produce with you so that all you do is shoot and ramp up to edit.  Let the producer handle the rest.  Your clients will love the ability to call on you to do both and your accountant will love the fact that you're working more.

From cynopsis: "The latest Mobile Mix report from Millennial Media took a look at the iOS over the third quarter of 2011 and found that mobile impressions grew 60% year-over-year across all iOS devices.

In fact, iPad impressions alone grew 456% on Millennial's platform. Other findings from the report include:

The iPhone accounted for 54% of iOS impressions on Millennial's platform.

Android was the leading operating system across smartphones and connected devices as it grabbed 56% of impressions.

In terms of ad spend on applications, Android apps had a 49% share, which is a growth of 20% quarter-over-quarter."

Do you really need a business plan?

I always thought so, at least it gave the project a structure to work from and a game plan for other colaborators to follow and contribute to. Apparently, unless you're looking for independent financing, you don't really need one.  Still, I'm kind of fond of having a document that we can shape together as we build a world around the script/story, it gives us a place to plan, build and structure.

 

When You Don't Need a Film Business Plan - Baseline Intelligence.

Advice to the budding documentarian

I just answered a question posted by a colleague who is working on her first documentary and I thought this would be useful to some of the folks who visit here as well.  The text is below.

Hey Sabrina,

Great question and open to many answers.  I'll stick to some process oriented bits of guidance:

1) Write a master proposal that you can tailor for different grants and project phases.

i.e. some grantmakers only fund development, others prefer to fund projects at the finishing phase.

 

2) Build a community around your project, find people who want to support you and who would benefit from seeing the film.

         a) Reaching out to this amazing group is a good start, also check out Doculink and folks from IDFA, The Flaherty Seminar

         b) When I think of people who benefit from the film, I think of people who are very familiar with the subject, issues you're dealing with, groups are good for feedback as well as support.

 

3) Find a few mentors who can coach you through your various growth phases: 

         a) One type of great advisor is someone who has made many docs before,  

         b) Another key advisor group you'll need are the people who are subject matter experts.  

 

4) Once you have a clear roadmap for the film, you've identified your target audience; it’s a good idea to make a realistic assessment of who would fund your project.  A great place to start is the Foundation Library, while you're doing that you can also explore indiegogo and kickstarter and build an online campaign for your development phase.  That is the hardest phase to fund since there's not much more than an idea to demonstrate. If you've made a trailer that closely matches your vision and intentions you can create a compelling case and make that idea more tangible as well as showing your ability to craft a good story.

 

Hope this advice is helpful to you.

Patience, perseverance and persistence,

Every day, just move the project forward a little. 

Make a phone call, send an email, do a little research, write up a pitch document when you're good and fired up.  Take risks, make foolish choices and give yourself permission to make mistakes.

You'll get there.

Warmly,

Francesca

LOVE

Keep the focus on the story, enjoy the work, respect the audience and most of all, find joy in the doing. Kvell because of the community y/our project created, think of all the careers you're supporting and the jobs you're creating.  You're very fortunate!

If you can, allow yourself to fall in love with it (the process), just a little.  That bounce in your step and that joy is contagious, that top down happy thing has its own momentum and inteligence.  It makes good projects great and difficulties bearable.

 

excerpt from: Notes to New Producers
© Francesca Prada All Rights Reserved 2010