In February 2012, I visited the the Portland based animation studio Laika to watch production of their latest stop motion animated feature film ParaNorman. The 2009 adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s Coraline earned the group critical and public acclaim, and many have been waiting to see what the hand-crafted independently owned production would create next.
This is the first time I’ve ever had the chance to visit a stop-motion animated production, and what I learned about the process both amazed and shocked me. I was surprised to find out how much artistry and patience goes into a film like this, more than you could ever imagine. Also, Laika is brining innovation to their artform, introducing 3D color printers to the mix. Find out how they used 3D color printers to create the characters you’ll watch on screen, along with 50 other fun factoids I learned on set. I’ve also included a ton of behind the scenes photos, showing the artists at Laika creating their own brand of magic, and a video blog I recorded with Steve from Collider. All this and more, after the jump.
Read More »
.
Please Recommend /Film on Facebook
With Tim Burton in press mode promoting Dark Shadows, Disney took the opportunity to show a bunch of journalists scenes from his other 2012 release: Frankenweenie. Burton’s 3D black and white return to stop motion animation (after producing The Nightmare Before Christmas and co-directing Corpse Bride) is a re-telling of one of his earliest films, the story of a young boy who brings his dog back to life a la Frankenstein.
Burton specially edited together 26 minutes of footage from the movie to give an idea of the tone, humor and scope of what audiences will see come October 5. Not surprisingly, Frankenweenie is decidedly dark, but with a quirky, fun tone that escalates into something much bigger than the early trailers have suggested. After the jump, check out a video blog I recorded about the footage as well as some new photos from the movie. Read More »
Its that time of year again — our friends at the Totally Rad Show have thrown down the gauntlet, and once again challenged /Film to compete with them in their annual Summer Movie Wager. I’m once again in the hot seat giving my predictions next to TRS hosts Dan Trachtenberg, Alex Albrecht, and Jeff Cannata, while /Film’s Germain Lussier has filled out his own write-in predictions included after the jump. It will be a free for all, the person with the best score wins.
The game is to decide what will be the highest grossing films of the Summer. But it isn’t just that easy — not only do the participants need to predict what 10 films will be the highest grossing films domestically, but we need to place them in order. After the jump you can watch the full episode of the show with our predictions
Read More »
Thursday morning at CinemaCon, 20th Century Fox presented footage, clips and trailers from their upcoming 2012 line-up. Included in the reel was 10-15 minutes of Ang Lee‘s adaptation Life of Pi, an extended trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, new footage from Prometheus, clips from Neighborhood Watch, and our first look at Taken 2. Per usual, I recorded a video blog after the presentation with Alex from FirstShowing and Frosty from Collider. We give our reactions to the footage without spoilers or in depth descriptions. Watch the video blog now embedded after the jump.
Read More »
Wednesday night at CinemaCon, Sony Pictures presented footage, clips and trailers from their upcoming 2012 line-up. Included in the reel was the first teaser trailer for Skyfall, a new sizzle reel for The Amazing Spider-Man, clips from Men In Black 3, An extended trailer for Looper, and some extended sequences from Total Recall. Per usual, I recorded a video blog after the presentation with Alex from FirstShowing and Frosty from Collider. We give our reactions to the footage without spoilers or in depth descriptions. Watch the video blog now embedded after the jump.
Read More »
Tuesday morning at CinemaCon, Warner Bros held their big presentation outlining their film releases for the rest of 2012. Filmmakers and stars presented exclusive unseen footage, trailers and sizzle reels.
We screened a five minute tonal sizzle reel for Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises, 10 minutes of selected cuts from Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit‘ in 48 frames per second 3D, Baz Luhrmann‘s 3D adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and Jay Roach‘s political comedy The Campaign starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis.
After the jump you can find a video blog I recorded with Frosty from Collider and Alex from FirstShowing discussing our reactions to all the footage, including the higher frame rates of The Hobbit.
Read More »
Monday at CinemaCon, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation presented footage from their upcoming 2012 slate to a room full of theater exhibitors (and a few press). After the jump you will find a video blog I recorded with Frosty from Collider reacting to 25 minutes of Madagascar 3, 15 minutes of Rise of the Guardians, three scenes from Christopher McQuarrie‘s One Shot starring Tom Cruise and a sequence from Sacha Baron Cohen‘s The Dictator. You may be surprised at what we liked and we we didn’t care for. We previously covered the GI Joe: Retaliation sizzle reel in a previous video blog elsewhere on the site, so we won’t repeat our reactions here.
Read More »
I’m writing today from Las Vegas, where I’m currently attending CinemaCon (not to be confused with Comic Con) — a gathering of movie theatre exhibitors which was formerly known as ShoWest. On Sunday I got the chance to preview five minutes of footage from Jon Chu‘s G.I. Joe: Retaliation, in addition to the new trailer which has just been launched online (see separate post). After the jump you can watch a video blog I recorded with Alex from FirstShowing and Frosty from Collider reacting to the footage that screened in Vegas.
Read More »
Cool Posts From Around the Web:
