Cindy Wang's blog on imeem

Arrested Development

Cindy Wang — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 02:33:19 -0000

I've been killing time at home for the past week and a half. If I were industrious, I would be working on med school applications, but it's hard to get back into the groove of work right after graduation (after all, isn't this the celebration of renouncing work? or just the relinquising of mindless work?)

I've been watching a lot of junk on TV, but today I stumbled upon on my Arrested Development DVDs (very relieved, after my move, I thought these were forever lost). I still can't get over how great and ingenious this series was. The commentary tracks are especially entertaining. You miss out on a lot of inside jokes and subtle humor with only one viewing, but the cast does a great job at pointing these out. I especially love how Will Arnett's real personality is almost an exact doppelganger of his onscreen character.

It's hard to believe that a show this brilliant was cancelled. The incredible writing and superb cast still manages to dazzle me. But I guess you can't blame Fox. They had to figure out some way to fit in Skating with the Stars. You better not mess this up, Dave Coulier.

Stanford Student Film Festival

Cindy Wang — Tue, 16 May 2006 06:13:15 -0000

The 2006 Stanford Student Film Festival will be May 18-20th in Cubberley Auditorium. If you're in the area, come check out my documentary, "Quiz Heads" showing on May 20th.

FIlm Synopsis:

“Quiz Heads” is a documentary about the Stanford Quiz Bowl team. Following the team through its many endeavors and successes, “Quiz Heads” takes a good look at one of Stanford’s lesser known champion teams. Whether it’s buzzing in for a “tossup” at practice, helping host a high school tournament, recruiting at the activities fair, or beating Harvard at Nationals, each of the featured cast members shows an unrivaled dedication to their team. One member, Nico Martinez, takes the Quiz-Bowlian passion for trivia to even greater heights as he wins $150,000 at Jeopardy’s college tournament. Meeting for three hours twice a week, the team is both hilarious and inspiring to watch.

More details available here:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/sfs/ssff/2006ssff/main.htm

Some film links

Cindy Wang — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 19:45:25 -0000

Here are some cool indie film news and hosting links:

News

Indiewire - leading source for latest independent film news. Lots of reviews, interviews, festival news, articles and blogs (www.indiewire.com)

Film Festivals.com - information on film festivals around the world, with links, contact to many film festivals. (www.filmfestivals.com)

GreenCine Daily - daily blog by which features film-related commentary and links to interviews, reviews, news on indepedent film. (daily.greencine.com)

Online Viewing

AtomFilms - offers an large catalog of animation and festival shorts, with user ratings and reviews. Films only displayed after submission is approved. (www.atomfilms.com)

ifilm - lots of short films, trailers, movie clips; features some indepedent work. Filmmakers may submit own work to be included on the site. (www.ifilm.com)

Indie Film Rentals

Facets Multimedia - Ebert calls it "a temple of great cinema" - what better endorsement do you need? lots of rare and out of print films available for rental. (www.facets.org)

Netflix - with more than 40,000 movie titles in over 250 genres, netflix offers films for both mainstream and more discerning film connoiseurs. Besides, you never know when you might get the urge to watch Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. (www.netflix.com)

GreenCine - has rare titles, rental by mail service like netflix. Covers a wide selection of documentary, classic, international. Also pay-per-view streaming and downloads. (www.greencine.com)

Internet: portal to indie film?

Cindy Wang — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 19:16:46 -0000

Recently, I’ve been researching websites dedicated to promoting or showcasing independent films.

While there seems to be some disagreement about what constitutes an independent film, it is generally regarded as a film initially produced without financing or distribution from a major movie studio. In the US, the “Big Six” major movie studios are 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures, NBC/Universal, Warner Bros., and Buena Vista Motion Pictures. Furthermore, each of these consist of multitudes of smaller studios, such Dreamworks under Paramount pictures, Miramax under Buena Vista, etc. Interestingly, many of the major umbrella studios also have smaller studios dedicated to making smaller budget films, including Warner Independent Pictures, Focus features, and Paramount Classics. Still, as you can imagine, there is a quite a range for what qualifies as an indie film, anything from a multimillion full-length, privately funded picture to a backyard film shot with a handheld.

Like for independent music artists, the internet seems to provide an ideal medium for amateur or non-traditional filmmakers to produce films that might never be picked up by major motion picture studios. And with video moving to digital, it seems almost anyone with a good idea, enough drive, and a camcorder can be on his or her way to the big screen. Is Hollywood defunct?

There is a growing sentiment that a limitless and egalitarian internet may be the perfect match for popularizing innovative, edgy, and insightful films that many larger studios pass up for sequels, Bruckheimer action flicks, and, god forbid, Cheaper by the Dozen 3. The notion that the internet will be the equalizer in a constant struggle between David and Goliath, between the fledgling auteur and the powerful movie exec may be more naïve than it initially appears. Mark Holcomb wrote a very interesting article about how the net poses as many problems as the studio system does for beginning filmmakers. In particular, he points out that present internet film sites seem to merely “mimic the values their Hollywood brethren – and, increasingly, rely on industry capital and cachet to survive” (http://www.mediachannel.org/originals/fauxindie.shtml).

I invite you to read his article and consider his points. In future posts, I hope to explore this issue in more depth and understand how the industry model is quickly changing in response to new opportunities. Obviously, the movie industry is not blind to the incredible potential that the internet holds as an apparatus for distribution. More likely than not, they will figure out methods to capitalize on emerging mediums and use them to their benefit. I think the more important question is not whether the movie industry will continue to make money (they will), it is whether the internet will provide a way to watch a greater array of diverse, creative, and thought-provoking films that seem to be in short supply in a currently bloated and risk-averse Hollywood system.