“In Frances Ha, Scene 63 is 28 seconds long. We did 42 takes in total, two hours of shooting in a bathroom with no breaks or pauses other than for direction and blocking. In 50 days of shooting, we averaged around 35 takes per scene. Most independent films shoot in 25 days with, at most, 10 takes per scene. A take in this case is the scene — the entirety of the above printed text, acted from beginning to end. Meaning that Mickey Sumner, playing Sophie, and I, playing Frances, said those words and performed those actions 42 times in a row.

Read more

Read more

A thought just hit me about the soundtrack of Alfonso Cuaron‘s Gravity (Warner Bros., 10.4), a floating, zero-gravity disaster drama with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. It should ideally emphasize the same kind of minimal sound design that Stanley Kubrick used for 2001: A Space Odyssey. No crashes, no impact sounds…nothing. It almost certainly won’t as audiences have been trained since Star Wars to expect the opposite. But it would be great if an alternate all-but-silent version could be offered on the Bluray.

At the very least Steven Price‘s soundtrack would do well to show restraint.

“Don’t let go” is an okay copy line. It’s fitting. (I’m saying this having read the script.) It recalls an old Roy Hamilton tune from the ’50s, but without the slightest echo or linkage.

The Saul Bass online tribute movement continues unabated with Google getting into the act. They posted this yesterday to acknowledge Bass’s 93rd birthday.

In one corner, a 5.6 rant by Toronto Standard‘s Alan Jones about Zach Braff‘s Kickstarter campaign. In another, Braff talks to KCRW’s Kim Masters about the how and why of it. Honestly? What Braff says sound sane and reasonable. Definitely worth a listen.

Read more

Maybe after I finally see Ryan Coogler‘s film in Cannes (after being shut out of two screenings at Sundance 2013), I’ll understand why the title was changed by Weinstein Co. marketers from Fruitvale to Fruitvale Station. I’m guessing it’s because Fruitvale sounds rural, like something to do with agriculture and working on a fruit farm, and Fruitvale Station sounds more urban. Pic is based on the true story of Oscar Grant, a young guys who was killed by the bulls at the Fruitvale rapid transit station in the Oakland area on New Year’s Day in 2009.

My disappointed response to the lackluster look of The Great Escape at last month’s TCM Classic Film Festival has been echoed by the reviews of the MGM/Fox Bluray, which came out yesterday. It’s relatively rare when Bluray reviewers will actually say “this blows,” but High-Def Digest’s Michael S. Palmer and Bluray.com’s Michael Reuben have essentially said this in their reviews. DVD Beaver’s Gary W. Tooze was more obliging, but he tends to flatter almost everything he sees.

Read more

How many years have I been belly-aching about the absence of a From Here to Eternity Bluray, despite Sony’s Grover Crisp having remastered this 1953 Best Picture winner sometime in early to mid 2009? My first “where’s the Bluray?” piece ran in November 2009. I’ve run two or three follow-ups since. Anyway, the endless delaying is over. Sony Home Video is finally releasing it on a Region 2 British disc on 10.7.13. Perhaps a Region A U.S. version will follow a few months later.

I finally saw Crisp’s high-def version on Turner Classic Movies last February. It’s clearly a significant enhancement over the DVD version that everyone has been looking at for the last 11 years or so. “Prettier”, less contrasty, smoother skin tones, greater specificity (especially in terms of the fabrics, hair follicles and the glistening look of rain-soaked streets) and so on. I like my Blurays to “pop” above and beyond what i’m used to from DVD versions, and Crisp’s Eternity definitely does that.

I’ll never own a 3D TV and if someone gave me one I probably wouldn’t pop for the forthcoming Wizard of Oz 3D Bluray. But I’d be lying if I said I’m not curious how it’ll look. Partly because I was so taken with the opening black-and-white 3D section of Oz, The Great And Powerful. Keep in mind, also, that a serious quality-level 3D conversion is difficult and expensive.

Maybe they’ll open this on a limited theatrical basis before the disc comes out, which will happen in either September or October.

16 year-old Asa Butterfield was 13 or 14 when he began shooting Martin Scorsese‘s Hugo, when he had a wide-eyed innocent look. Now as the titular, pint-sized hero in Ender’s Game, he looks like a young Elvis Costello. (Offscreen he wears Costello-styled glasses.) Dystopian sci-fi CG pic costars Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin. Obviously cookie-cutterish. A cousin of Oblivion and Elysium with a “precocious Luke Skywalker-ish kid becoming a warrior” storyline.

Read more