This is a quick summary of how the film Klaus was lit and colored based on research and a few clips demonstrating the technology used.
Please keep in mind this is based on a handful of interviews and demonstration clips I’ve found online and may not be 100% exactly how the process was done, but I’ve tried my best to summarize the process as clearly as I can. The whole process is still being kept rather secretive and the information is limited.
I freely admit I might be wrong about some of the finer details.
MeFite malevolent trawled some lists of public domain movies (lots of great film noir) and put together a new, improved, or at least free version of Netflix. Behold: Voleflix! Includes films featuring Ed Wood, Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn, Vincent Price, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant, Stanley Kubrick, Boris Karloff, Frank Sinatra and more… It also has daft Voleflix Originals and rates your taste in movies from your watchlist. [via mefi projects]
Watch this classic from the very beginning of film. — Douglas
Released on September 15th, 1914. Sometimes called the world’s oldest cartoon (erroneously), it is still the first to be created using keyframe animation. This movie required Winsor McCay and his assistant John A. Fitzsimmons (who traced the backgrounds) to create 10,000 drawings, which they inked on rice paper and mounted on cardboard.
Gertie is a dinosaur based on the Brontosaurus (nowadays known as Apatosaurus) skeleton in the American Museum of Natural History. McCay’s employer, William Randolph Hearst, was displeased with McCay’s success outside of the newspapers, and used his contractual power to reduce McCay’s stage activities.
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As part of the discussion of very early films, a historian shows a “paper print” for The Great Train Robbery. Outwardly, it looks like a reel of film, except that it is a similarly sized roll of photographic paper onto which the individual frames were photographed. This was created as a method of registering films for copyright purposes. Many films were preserved solely because these paper prints long outlasted their nitrate film prints.
I had never heard about these paper prints before despite living with a film historian and delving rather deeply into film history my self. It is always amazing what you can learn each day — oftentimes just by accident.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Books available at the LA Public Library
All movies take place in a world of their own design and Cinemaps helps to map out those spaces for 35 of our favorite movies from Star Wars to Pulp Fiction to Back to the Future. Each map details the passage of the main charactear, showing how and where they encounter one another, diverge, and meet again throughout the passage the film. This is a new way of understanding films, providing a visual summary of the movies and a piece of art in its own right. A.D Jameson’s essays on each film provide more illumination to the “illuminated” maps showing how one informs the other.
A great gift for movie and map buffs!
** My version of this book was available from the Los Angeles Public Library in print and ebook versions.
From Amazon.com…
This beautifully illustrated atlas of beloved movies is an essential reference for cinephiles, fans of great films, and anyone who loves the art of mapmaking.
Acclaimed artist Andrew DeGraff has created beautiful hand-painted maps of all your favorite films, from King Kong and North by Northwest to The Princess Bride, Fargo, Pulp Fiction, even The Breakfast Club—with the routes of major characters charted in meticulous cartographic detail. Follow Marty McFly through the Hill Valley of 1985, 1955, and 1985 once again as he races Back to the Future. Trail Jack Torrance as he navigates the corridors of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining. And join Indiana Jones on a globe-spanning journey from Nepal to Cairo to London on his quest for the famed Lost Ark. Each map is presented in an 11-by-14-inch format, with key details enlarged for closer inspection, and is accompanied by illuminating essays from film critic A. D. Jameson, who speaks to the unique geographies of each film.
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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Books available at the LA Public Library
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Books available at the LA Public Library
An amazingly interesting piece of history. Linotype machines changed every part of the modern publishing world, but they were eventually supplanted by photographic and computerized typesetting methods. There is something visceral about the physical nature of these machines — turning keyboard input into hot metal type with real molten lead.
Yes, this is perhaps a bit geeky for the average viewer, but I love stories about technology and history and Linotype is certainly one of the most important pieces of technology ever to appear.
I watched Linotype using the free Kanopy service via my local library. You may be able to do that, too. Their website and apps are well produced and function well, including Chromecast and Airplay support for viewing on your TV.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out! † Available from the LA Public Library
After visiting the Weta Workshop in New Zealand last August, and inspecting all their artifacts, props and tools used to make the epic movies, I realized that it was time — now 21 years after the first movie — to re-read the novels once again. My well-worn paperbacks still sit on my shelf. Some were first purchased as a textbook for a high school English class. After reading The Fellowship of the Ring, I immediately purchased the other two volumes and devoured them. After that, I usually re-read them once a year or so, until the films brought the stories to life on-screen. Here is a lovely hardbound, one volume editions that you can curl up with on long Winter nights and revel in the joy of reading and the wonders of an amazing story. — Douglas
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