sundance

What makes a film trailer good?

I’ve been asking myself this question for weeks, mostly because Lisa and I are in the middle of cutting the trailer for our own movie, SMALL, BEAUTIFULLY MOVING PARTS. It’s really hard! We have an amazing editor named Cindy Yoon to lead this effort, and she created something awesome … to be premiered once we have a festival screening. But in the meantime, it has prompted a lot of thinking about how trailers are structured. What is needed? Plot? Beauty shots? Constructing a feeling … that’s not actually in the film? What is ultimately going to pull people in? How do these little machines work? I gave a closer look to trailers for two movies I’ve seen recently, and one I haven’t seen (but want to).

Giant pink snails set to invade Miami

Want to get a discussion about recycling going in your community? You might organize a Meetup, create a website, or put up flyers. The Cracking Art Group and Italian Galleria Ca d’Oro have a different approach: giant pink snails made from recycled plastic. Forty-five of these “creatures” will take temporary refuge in Miami Beach, Florida tomorrow (Nov. 18).

Introducing artist Brandi Strickland

“Seed Stone,” by Brandi Strickland

When you look at the amount of the work Brandi Strickland has amassed on her website, it’s hard to believe she’s only 25, but it’s true; She’s just a very hard worker. Strickland’s exquisitely detailed collages show a healthy love of 1970s kitsch and rock ‘n’ roll album art as well as a propensity for off-kilter compositions and a great eye for color. Her collages have matured noticeably from her early beginnings only a few years ago, swiftly progressing from simple, small-scale cut-outs on paper to fully immersive landscapes made of painstakingly arranged bits and scraps that work close-up as a series of small ‘moments’ but are transformed into a dizzyingly powerful landscape when you step back.

Caturdays at NYPL

The New York Public Library’s Tumblr posted the first of a weekend segment that jumps on the Caturday meme (a day devoted to LOLcats) by using material from their photo archives, such as the picture above. The file copy affixed to the back of the photo is amusing: Susie, the famous smiling kitten, expresses annoyance [...]

The $160,000 Apple Computer

Christie’s is auctioning on November 23 one of the first Apple computers ever made (number 82 of the 200 that were built), which the auction house is hoping goes for somewhere between $159,800 and $239,700. The Apple-1 computer was built and sold by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founders, in 1976 for $666.66 — [...]

Pee-wee Herman charms the cognoscenti

Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones may be pulling serious theatergoers in to Driving Miss Daisy, but the glory of Broadway is that just a couple of blocks away, you can catch Pee-wee Herman chatting with some flowers, arguing with a chair, and instructing the audience to scream every time they hear the word “fun.”

For a heady top ticket price of $227, The Pee-wee Herman Show basically recreates Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Paul Reubens’ legendary 1980s program for very advanced children, starring a bratty but lovable arrested child in a bowtie and a smirk.

Boulder environmental education program focuses on zero waste

Traditionally, environmental education involves classroom lessons supplemented by field trips and hands-on learning. In 24 elementary schools in Boulder, Colorado, however, learning about waste, recycling, and composting involves going to lunch.

OK, that’s not the complete program, but Boulder’s Green Star Schools go beyond the standard environmental education curriculum in focusing on zero waste… and implementing these ideas in the cafeteria, where kids separate out recyclables and compostables.

Woody Allen’s SLEEPER house in foreclosure

It’s called the Clamshell House, the Star Trek House, the Jetson House and the Flying Saucer house, but you might know it best as the Sleeper House, featured prominently in Woody Allen’s 1973 sci-fi comedy SLEEPER. Taking the form of a huge, oblong flattened sort of sphere, the windowed-side juts out over the wooden pedestal it rests on, making it look weird and different from every angle. Sadly, the house, built in 1963 by architect Charles Deaton, is up for foreclosure auction today as the owner is reportedly delinquent on $2.8 mil of his $3.1 mil mortgage. If no one buys it, it will be boarded up and left unpreserved, a depressing finale for Deaton’s best known work, as well as the home of SLEEPER’s Orgasmatron, where Diane Keaton spent two seconds in heaven. Rent SLEEPER today as the proverbial gavel seals the fate on its former home (trailer below).

Naked News: Winter libido blues, confusing contraception, and lesbian moms

• Apparently winter is bad for the libido — the cold weather and increased carb consumption are to blame.
  
  
• More than one third of pregnancies in the U.S. is unplanned, and in most cases it’s because people are using contraception incorrectly. And you thought all those condom-on-cucumber demos were overkill.
  
  

LIFE photos of the real Boardwalk Empire

Prisoner of the Ritz Johnson himself stayed at a suite on the ninth floor of the Ritz. where he hosted parties legendary for their excess. He was nicknamed the Czar of the Ritz or the Prisoner of the Ritz. For fans of Martin Scorsese’s series “Boardwalk Empire” on HBO, LIFE Magazine compiled from their archives [...]

Thanksgiving all-in-one cake

Since the end of Halloween means it’s open season for retailers to shove their Thanksgiving and Winter Holiday sales and promotions down consumers oh-so-eager throats, it’s not too early to share this Thanksgiving-related item. What you’re seeing is not just a cake. No sir. It’s a cake that includes practically all the main fixings of [...]

Doug Aitken at Regen Projects

On a recent trip, Doug Aitken had a vision. It was of his house, a bungalow in Venice Beach that he lived in for over ten years and is tearing down to make room for a new house for himself and his fiancée. In the vision, Aitken’s parents are seated across from each other at a table in the otherwise empty house while the roof caves in, the windows shatter and all the debris of the house rain down around them while they remain silent and unharmed in the middle of the chaos. And Aitken, being a skilled filmmaker, translated this vision in to his latest work, the aptly titled “House,” on view now at Regen Projects in Los Angeles. Viewers stand amongst the house’s rubble while watching it, adding a layer of connection to the piece and, perhaps, to try to clue the audience into Aitken’s experience of seeing the vision itself. Ultimately though, dreams belong the dreamer alone.

Recycling wooden pallets for America Recycles Day

Yep, today is America Recycles Day, so if you spend any time at all in the green blogosphere, you’ll be seeing lots of recycling stories and tips. Much of that will focus on the typical household materials — paper, plastic, and aluminum — along with electronics (since e-waste has become such a huge issue).

My own browsing around this weekend brought me to another item that probably won’t get as much attention: the wooden shipping pallet. If you’ve spent any time at all around any kind of warehouse operation or shipping/receiving docks, you’ve seen these… and know they generally go straight in the dumpster. You may not know, though, that these humble items represent a massive waste of wood.

A Life on Facebook

A LIFE ON FACEBOOK from maxluere on Vimeo. This video is awesome. Clocking in at under 3 minutes, and directed by Maxime Luère, the film shows a guy’s life via Facebook. Everything is there: love, break-ups, old age, and finally death. It’s your future condensed into a fun film. How much of your life unfolds [...]

Braille bracelet wins Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum award

This silver Braille Alphabet Bracelet designed to teach braille won a People’s Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. It was designed by Leslie Ligon, a mother of a blind son. I was astonished at how few people actually know Braille, which makes educational things like this bracelet all the more important. According to [...]

The Body Deli

Out in Palm Desert, California, there’s a body-product shop called the Body Deli that’s set up like a real deli. Refrigerated cases hold many the fresh scrubs, masques, and hair products. The “cosmetic chef” mixes all the products in the store in small batches — using lots of local, organic ingredients like fresh fruits, veggies, [...]

Kinky dolphins and gay guests? New GREEN PORNO episodes to debut November 23!

Libidinous deer, kinky dolphins and gay guests on Noah’s Ark are among the creatures revealing their carnal cravings as we unveil five new episodes of GREEN PORNO: SEDUCE ME Isabella Rossellini’s Webby award-winning and critically acclaimed online short film series about sex and procreation in the animal kingdom. The films debut right here on sundancechannel.com/greenporno on November 23^rd. They will be available via video-on-demand on December 8^th and will air on Sundance Channel on December 8^th at 8pm.

Celebrating the unsung brilliance of John Cazale

If you’ve never heard of John Cazale, let me ask you if you’ve ever heard of THE DEER HUNTER, THE CONVERSATION, DOG DAY AFTERNOON or THE GODFATHER I and II? Each film was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award and starred actors like Al Pacino, Gene Hackman and Robert DeNiro, all of whom realize the thanks they owe Cazale for playing his smaller roles so well that he boosted the performance of every actor he worked with, not to mention the films themselves. No matter the size of his role, Cazale was a perfectionist. He was called Mr. 20 Questions on set because he wanted to know every last detail about the characters he portrayed. Seldom playing off the cuff, Cazale thought deeply about all the possible ways to act out a scene, and then chose the best approach. It’s this commitment to the craft that makes his characters ring true and elicit our sympathy, even when we know he’s a shifty, shady rat of a guy.

The Map of Non-Monogamy

According to Franklin Veaux’s personal website, he is an atheist/transhumanist/computer hacker/BDSM switch who owns a small graphic design and training firm and is into Apple computers, World of Warcraft, tattoos, piercing, photography and polyamory. He’s the guy who did that awesome Map of Human Sexuality a while back. And now he’s done the official Map [...]

Richard Barnes photographs Unabomber’s cabin

Photographer Richard Barnes transforms the forensic space of the infamous homegrown domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, into something resembling an intentional art installation, attempting to “bridge the gap between the banal and the extraordinary, the cult of celebrity and the seductiveness of the infamous.” After his capture, the FBI removed Kaczynski’s entire cabin [...]

Jackson Pollock asks “Is this a painting?”

I enjoyed this anecdote recounted by Ann Temkin, Chief Curator of MoMA’s Department of Painting and Sculpture about Jackson Pollock who asked his wife the same question that many of us ask when looking at art, especially abstract, modern, or contemporary pieces. When he was at his studio in the Springs in Long Island, he [...]

Green tech finds (11/11/10)

Weird green tech (not!), vertical farming for real, and a new entry into the electric vehicles race… your green tech finds for the week.

• Rural electrification = solar in the Philippines: The country’s Department of Energy is taking bids to provide solar systems to four regions of the country not connected to the electrical grid.
  
  
• Weird tech?: Newsweek has a slide show up titled “Eco Oddities“… but are wave power, algae-based biofuels, and “poop to power” (among others) really that unusual anymore?
  
  

Lisa Kudrow and THE COMEBACK come to Sundance Channel!

We wanted to keep you in the loop on some exciting news!

THE COMEBACK, the critically acclaimed HBO original series starring Lisa Kudrow, will air along with our newest original series, GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS later this month. Created by Kudrow and SEX AND THE CITY creator Michael Patrick King, THE COMEBACK will make its basic cable premiere on Sundance Channel, Tuesday November 23rd at 10PM (ET) and will air regularly on Tuesday nights.

Michel Gondry’s “My New New York Diary”

A page from Doucet’s 1999 ‘My New York Diary’

In 1999, graphic artist extraordinaire (with quite possibly the coolest website intro page ever), Julie Doucet, published My New York Diary, the illustrated story of her spontaneous move from Canada to New York City. Like all of her work, it’s candid, funny and completely engrossing, and it earned her a devoted fan base that includes director Michel Gondry. But just being a fan wasn’t enough for Gondry, who recently collaborated with Doucet on My New New York Story: A Film Book. What was originally supposed to be a short film directed by Gondry and starring Doucet and her drawings – which would be animated later by Gondry to make the setting – turned into a book/DVD companion piece about the process of making the film itself.

And the Mom of the Year Award goes to…

If every mom in the U.S. was as awesome as this blogger, Nerdy Apple Bottom, we think you could successfully eradicate bullying, homophobia, sexism, and mean-ism in one fell swoop. Or at least make a huge dent in them. Here’s why: Her five-year-old son — who may or may not be gay and she’s totally okay with that either way — begged to dress up as Daphne from Scooby Doo. At the last minute he started panicking that people would make fun of him. Turns out he shouldn’t have worried about his peers… it was the other moms who acted like overgrown Mean Girls. Under the guise of “concern” they questioned the blogger’s decision as a mother to let him do this, and expressed shock (and even disgust) that she hadn’t put her foot down and said no. Nerdy Apple Bottom writes:

Just as it was heartbreaking to those parents that have lost their children recently due to bullying. IT IS NOT OK TO BULLY. Even if you wrap it up in a bow and call it ‘concern.’ Those women were trying to bully me. And my son. MY son.