Filmmaking

The moment Walter Mirisch appears in the entrance way, the entire White Hall screening room­ — filled to the brim with students, faculty and local residents alike — erupts into a massive round of applause.

As the noise subsides and people begin settling into their seats, Mirisch begins his introduction to the night’s film: “In the Heat of the Night.”

Released in 1967, the detective drama stars Rod Steiger as a racist Southern sheriff and Sidney Poitier as the black, Philadelphia-based police officer who helps him to solve a local homicide.

Made in a time of great racial unrest in the United States, the film won Mirisch the Best Picture prize at the 1968 Academy Awards ceremony.

“This movie played an exceedingly important part in my life and in my career, both because of what it’s about and because it went so much further than anyone anticipated it might,” Mirisch says in his introduction.

Mirisch’s appearance at the screening signaled the beginning of his two-day visit to Emory as the first speaker in the Fall 2010 Luminaries Arts & Humanities Lecture Series.

Sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Luminaries series was established in 2007 in order to bring in leaders and experts whose work complements the teaching and research interests of the Emory faculty.

In a career spanning nearly 60 years, Walter Mirisch and his production company The Mirisch Company have produced some of the most well-regarded and classical films of all time.

With a resume that includes such titles as “Some Like It Hot,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Great Escape,” “West Side Story,” “The Pink Panther” and “The Apartment” (among countless others), Mirisch and Co.’s filmography remains practically unmatched in the annals of film history.

“We live in a popular culture of amnesia,” Chair of the Film Studies Department Matthew Bernstein wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel. People of my generation know the Mirisch name because of the landmark films he produced or helped to produce. We want to refamiliarize students with this outstanding figure in Hollywood’s leadership and history.”

Taking the stage once again at the Carlos Museum Reception Hall on Tuesday night, Mirisch was again offered an equally touching tribute.

After a brief introduction by Matthew Bernstein, the audience was presented with a short film by film professor Eddy Von Mueller that compiled notable scenes from several of Mirisch’s most famous productions.

“I don’t know how the hell that all got done,” Mirisch joked upon taking the podium.

After delivering a speech that touched on the various roles of a producer, Mirisch sat down for a Creative Conversation with Bernstein.
In the course of the conversation, Mirisch reflected upon his initial experiences with the movies.

As a child growing up in Depression-era New York, he consumed a variety of different genres, from historical dramatizations to extravagant musicals like “42nd Street” to the light comedies of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne.

According to Mirisch, it was this appetite for films that ultimately influenced his choices as a producer.

“My interests were very broad, and I liked all kinds of films,” he said. “I think that is born out in my career that I did make all kinds of films — high dramas, comedies, musicals. It varies the diet, and it makes what you do more interesting.”

Mirisch’s love of movies eventually led him to Los Angeles, where he found work at s small studio called Monogram Picture Corporations. Here, he produced his first film “Fall Guy” in 1947.

Quickly rising the ranks, Mirisch was soon made production head at Allied Artists Studio, a new unit of Monogram designed to develop costlier, more prestige films.

Later, along with his brothers Marvin and Harold, Mirisch formed his own production company, aptly titled The Mirisch Company, in 1957.

Despite such a massively successful track record, Mirisch is unable to pinpoint an exact model or strategy for his fortunate choices.

“I never, ever was certain about anything,” he says. “I believe that a great deal of this is in your gut. And some of us have better educated guts than others.”

Along with the fruits of success, Mirisch also had to deal with the rougher aspects of filmmaking, namely supervising the production of highly complex, big-budgeted projects and dealing with an assortment of temperamental stars, including Peter Sellers and Marilyn Monroe.

Perhaps one of the most difficult productions of Mirisch’s career, however, came with 1961’s “West Side Story.” Not only did Mirisch have to deal with an ever-escalating budget and ever-lengthening shooting schedule, but he was also forced to moderate the increasingly combustible relationship between director Robert Wise and co-director/choreographer Jerome Robbins, a mediation that resulted in Robbins being fired.

Nevertheless, Mirisch believes these problems were a small price to pay for the sake of the end result.

“I promise you there were problems every day for 130 odd days,” he said. “However, what it’s all about is the result. And that’s what the creator has to always bear in mind. Not just all the difficulties in the road getting to where he wants to be, but the results of what his labors have been.”

In addition to experiencing the inherent obstacles of making a film, Mirisch has also been witness to something much larger — the rapid decentralization of media through television and the worldwide web. Whereas movies were once only able to be seen in a cinema, they can now be viewed from something as small as a cell phone.

No matter what the medium, however, Mirisch stands firm to a simple truth of movie-making: the importance of telling a good story.

“No matter what screen the people are looking at, people are now and always will be interested in stories. They are interested in the relationships of people to one another, and you have to do that honestly and effectively. And when you do it just right — that’s gangbusters.”

— Contact Mark Rozeman.

A Redlands team from Work and Play Productions took home about everything but the popcorn concession with their film “Snakebit” in this year’s Inland Empire Division of the 48 Hour Film Project.

Their flashy six-and-a-half minute Western topped 36 entries including the VeganCannibals, last year’s winners, who went on to take third in the world and saw their film “Rationed” shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

“Snakebit” producer and team leader Al Stevens said they had 15 minutes to spare before the deadline when they turned in their entry.

Stevens’ team picked up nine awards, including Best Film. Before it was announced, he joked to his team, “If we win, I’ll go get.” He got to make that trip to the stage in Temecula where the winners were announced after a showing of best entries.

Stevens said practically all of his production crew is from Redlands, where he and his wife operate a small video production company the same name: Work and Play Productions.

Other awards they received were:

- Best Director, A.J. Audet, 22, who just graduated from Cal State Long Beach, where he studied film.

- Best Cinematography, Bomani Story, 22, who graduated this year from film school at USC.

- Best Editor went to Trevor Stevens, 18.

- Best Sound went to Scott Simonson.

Best Actor went to a member of the Blood Creek Cowboys from the Phelan area, professional actors and stunt men who made up most of the

cast. They did shootouts and spectacular falls from rooftops at the White Horse Ranch out of Landers, where the owner has erected a movie set. That’s where “Snakebit” was shot.

Best Actress was Trish Fea, a member of the Oceanside Fire Department. Her husband is a member of the Redlands Fire Department.

The film group has strong ties to the Redlands department. Stevens is a retired Redlands firefighter and Rob Sanberg, who was assistant director and co-producer, is an active member of the Redlands department.

The team also won best costume, best use of dialogue and best writing.

Stevens sent his wife Susan to Riverside to learn the genre, the line of dialogue, the prop and the name of a character within the film, while the rest went to Landers.

The Work and Play studio has completed a drowning prevention film and is working on another entitled “Pull to the Right,” which shows motorists the importance of getting out of the way of emergency vehicles.

“Congratulations to all participants in the competition,” said Jeanette Di Pinza, co-producer with Alan Cook of this year’s Inland Division of the film project. “Alan and I hope everyone had a fantastic time and will continue pursuing their filmmaking dreams.”

wes.hughes@inlandnewspapers.com 909-386-3894

Video-game playing has become a mainstream activity, but gamer culture isn’t quite opening up at the same pace.

At the center of that culture is machinima, a fast-growing filmmaking method that’s more than a decade old but still unknown to most non-gamers. A blend of the words “machine” and “animation,” it describes animated work done by recording movements within a video game such as Halo, Grand Theft Auto IV or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

The vast majority of machinima is by and for hard-core gamers, with stories that fit into existing game narratives or inside jokes for experienced players. The most-watched content from market leader Machinima.com, which generated 157 million videos in July on its YouTube channel, includes a comedy series called “Arby ‘n’ the Chief,” in which two Halo action figures play video games together, and montages of outrageous moments and glitches from popular games.

“Most machinima is created inside the gaming community, where you have to be part of it to get it,” said Jordan Mathewson, a prolific machinima director. “Then there’s the type that uses it as a form to convey a story anyone could appreciate.”

L.A.-based Machinima.com, which started as a community for users to share content and has grown into a small media company, has successfully positioned itself at the center of the space. The firm, which has raised more than $14 million in venture capital, is the only major distributor of machinima videos online, boasting the No. 2 most viewed channel on YouTube.

But the vast majority of its audience is still the niche group of young, male hard-core gamers. The challenge it faces now is whether the work it features can ever appeal to a broader audience.

About 30 of Machinima.com’s most promising directors have started giving it a try this year through the site’s “directors program,” which aims to give filmmakers the resources and support they need to reach outside the gamer comfort zone. The company, among other things, pairs talent, promotes their work and answers questions for them in a private Facebook group.

Rich Boylan, who uses the name “Eddie Smithson” in his machinima work, admits that his first few videos didn’t exactly push any boundaries. His debut series, called “Follow Freedom,” simply retold parts of the game Half-Life 2 from a supporting character’s perspective. “It had every action cliché I could think of,” he said.

This year Machinima.com paired Boylan, a Canada-based film school graduate, with a writer in Los Angeles to help him develop an idea he had started on his own called “Ultrahouse.” A broad comedy that relies on a mix of immature humor, awkward pauses and science-fiction satire that a “Family Guy” fan might appreciate, “Ultrahouse” is about a team of invading aliens who are shocked to discover that they’re no threat to Earthlings — at only 8 inches tall.

“My job was to develop these characters so they could support an arc that lasted an entire 12-episode season,” said Nathan Jordan, the writer brought on to “Ultrahouse.”

Mathewson, who directs with the nom de plume “Kootra,” created his first work under the directors’ program entirely on his own. But his science-fiction drama “Reprisal,” which premiered earlier this summer, hit a major technical snag that Machinima.com is trying to help him solve.

The tale of a mercenary on the run who’s seeking to avenge a dead comrade was produced with technology from the game Mass Effect 2. “Reprisal” features handheld camera effects and sophisticated sound that are far superior to what’s in most machinima, an impressive feat given that Mathewson is only 19.

But unlike some other games, Mass Effect 2 doesn’t come with tools for machinima makers. Mathewson had to hack into the game and teach himself how to animate in it, a time-consuming task that could make future episodes of “Reprisal” next to impossible. Machinima.com is now hoping to get the game’s developer, BioWare, to give him more direct access to its technology.

“I took a lot of influence from the ‘Bourne’ movies and ‘Shooter,’” Mathewson said of his work. “But the way I’m producing it is pretty limiting.”

So far shows like “Reprisal” and “Ultrahouse” have garnered between 67,000 and 109,000 views each on YouTube, decent numbers but far behind the millions of clicks for the most popular machinima clips. Nonetheless, Machinima.com is betting that in the long run, higher quality and more diverse audiences will benefit the art form and the brand.

“So many people today from across the mainstream are playing games,” said Jeremy Azevedo, director of entertainment programming. “We need to have a programming approach that’s a little more mainstream too.”

ben.fritz@latimes.com

When Paris Connections, a new movie based on a Jackie Collins novel, premieres at a cinema in London’s Leicester Square on Sept. 2, the event will likely follow a time-honored script, with the film’s stars — as well as Collins herself — emerging from limos onto the red carpet as scores of cameras flash and adoring fans cheer. Paris Connections’ opening will, however, feature a plot twist. Once the end credits roll and the house lights come up, the film won’t be heading for neighborhood theaters like other new releases. Instead, four days later it will go on sale as a DVD, exclusively at Tesco, the U.K.’s largest supermarket chain.

In a move that could open up a new avenue of DVD distribution and help revive the ailing home entertainment market, Tesco has teamed up with Hollywood production company Amber Entertainment to co-produce and co-finance Paris Connections. In a first-of-its-kind partnership, the supermarket and the moviemakers plan to churn out a string of direct-to-DVD films for Tesco, based on books by top-selling, mostly mass-market authors. “It’s a win-win situation for both,” explains Helen Davis Jayalath, senior analyst at London-based consultants Screen Digest. Tesco gets to offer its customers an exclusive product, while Amber’s low-budget films receive the kind of high-level promotions typically associated with Hollywood fare. (See the top 10 movie bromances.)

The Tesco/Amber team is only adapting works by “brand-name” authors who have sold millions of books and gained legions of fans — many of them the kinds of authors whose output is particularly popular at airport newsstands — and in supermarkets. Coming down the pipeline: Tiger Eyes, based on a book by children’s author Judy Blume, begins filming this fall, and cameras are scheduled to roll next spring on Martin Misunderstood, a crime comedy based on Karin Slaughter’s novel. Tesco/Amber is also talking to other writers, including father-and-son writing team Dick and Felix Francis, His Dark Materials writer Philip Pullman and British crime writer Anne Perry. “These are authors who will appeal to our customers, who need no explaining,” says Rob Salter, Tesco’s head of entertainment.

For many of these authors, having a book turned into a Tesco/Amber production means their work reaches a much wider audience than your average made-for-TV movie. Another selling point for authors: They will be “heavily involved with story input and the creative process,” says Lawrence Elman, an Amber cofounder. The movies won’t be line-for-line reiterations of the books, he says, “but we aim to remain loyal to the creative vision that the author had.” In return, Tesco/Amber expects the novelists to be on-hand to heavily promote the films. (See the 100 best novels of all time.)

After a film’s one-off cinema screening, Tesco will sell the DVDs exclusively for three months, probably priced around $19, the same as other new releases. Given that Tesco alone accounts for 15% of DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales in Britain, the potential for huge sales is strong. Paris Connections — which stars Charles Dance and Trudie Styler — will be available only in the supermarket’s U.K. and Irish outlets. But upcoming titles will be sold across its global chain of stores, which stretches through Eastern Europe and into Asia. After three months, the movies will be marketed in other countries, either as DVDs, theatrical releases or TV films, depending on the market.

Ileen Maisel, another Amber cofounder, says the arrangement with Tesco offers a “shrinking” film industry a new revenue stream, particularly for DVDs. Which would be a welcome boost, says Jayalath of Screen Digest. Worldwide sales of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs fell by 5.6% last year, and Screen Digest forecasts a similar slide for 2010. (Get the latest gadget news and reviews at Techland.com.)

Tesco, which also happens to be one of Britain’s biggest booksellers, is banking on the DVD promotions pushing up book sales, too. It recently ran a special on Jackie Collins books as a lead-in to the premiere and DVD launch — and sold an extra 25,000 copies. “[The films] are also a fantastic opportunity for cross-merchandizing,” says Natalie Berg, an analyst at Planet Retail consultancy. Indeed, Tesco plans to suggest that shoppers hold their own Paris Connections “home premieres,” complete with the French wines, cheeses and breads it will be promoting in tandem. (Comment on this story.)

If Tesco’s foray into filmmaking succeeds, look for other retailers to head for Hollywood, too. “I’m sure that others will try to emulate this,” Salter says. “The challenge would be having the scale and footprint of Tesco.” That wouldn’t be a problem for the even larger Walmart, which has recently dabbled with moviemaking, too. Walmart and Procter and Gamble have already cosponsored two family-friendly made-for-TV movies which broadcast on NBC earlier this year, and more are in the works. For now, it seems Walmart is content to just have its named attached to a series of TV movies, but it will likely be watching Tesco’s DVD project closely. (See the top 10 tasteless commercials.)

Tesco and Amber won’t say how much they’re investing in the project or spending on each film. They admit the films are low-budget affairs. Still, adds Amber cofounder Maisel, “they will look like, smell like and taste like a big-screen feature.” Perhaps. But even if customers shun the films, at least Tesco has an option not available to other producers: it can put them on sale in the poultry section — next to the other turkeys.

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See the Cartoons of the Week.

YouTube’s “Life in a Day” project is an ambitious filmmaking exercise in which thousands of people around the world document their lives, and some film industry veterans cut, chop, and paste all that footage into a coherent documentary. It’s a monumental challenge, but the names attached–most importantly Ridley Scott, serving as executive producer, and Kevin MacDonald (director of The Last King of Scotland, not the similarly named member of Kids in the Hall)–provide some reassurance that maybe, just maybe, the film won’t suck.

The footage, all of which was shot on Saturday, July 24th, comes from 197 countries and is in 45 languages, and totals over 80,000 separate videos. And today, you can get a feel for the huge task in front of Scott and MacDonald, because Google just put all the videos online.

LG is also aboard as a partner, curating a separate section called “Smile” that highlights “positive and inspiring” videos. It’s cheesy, as is LG’s official statement (which is little more than the repetition of the company’s slogan, with a few filler words for syntax), but it’s not a bad idea. In fact, Google allows the filtering of videos by mood, including “thoughtful,” “depressed,” “excited,” and “lonely,” so you can exclusively watch videos of lonely people, if that’s your weird thing.

The film itself is being constructed now, and will premiere simultaneously at Sundance and on YouTube in January 2011.

Dan Nosowitz, the author of this post, can be followed on Twitter, corresponded with via email, and stalked in Brooklyn (no link for that one–you’ll have to do the legwork yourself).

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Topics: Innovation, Technology, Magazine, Film, Life in a Day, youtube, google, Ridley Scott, video gallery, Sundance Film Festival, Kevin Macdonald, Kevin Macdonald, Ridley Scott, The Last King of Scotland, The Kids in the Hall, Google Inc.

The filmmaking team behind “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work”—Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg and the eponymous comedienne herself—will attend the opening night showing of the film at Sheffield Doc/Fest on Nov. 3 in Sheffield, England. The 17th edition of Doc/Fest, which runs through Nov. 7, serves as a festival, marketplace and workshop for documentary and digital filmmakers.
“As soon as I got word from Sundance about ‘Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,’ I knew this could make the perfect opening event for Doc/Fest,” said Heather Croall, director of the festival. “With almost 2,000 industry delegates and thousands of general public, Doc/Fest is the best possible launch pad for the film in the UK and Europe.”

“Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” has won acclaim in the States for its collagen-and-all portrait of Rivers, who has been performing stand-up comedy for nearly 50 years. Sheffield Doc/Fest will host a second screening and masterclass on the film, also with the filmmakers and Rivers, on Nov. 5.

For more on Sheffield Doc/Fest, see the festival’s website.

Lake Elsinore resident and filmmaker Chris Warren likens his annual involvement in a local timed-filmmaking competition to getting assigned a 10-page research paper by your professor, then being told it’s due in two days.

“You have to do everything, you haven’t even started, and you have to do it in two days,” said Warren, 25.

Unlike being blindsided with a research paper, he said it’s a lot of fun participating in the annual 48 Hour Film Project-Inland Empire, in which filmmakers and their crews are randomly assigned a genre, some required plot elements, then given two days to throw a four- to seven-minute movie together.

“It’s an intense time,” he said. “For me and my friends, we like that intensity. We like that excitement. We feel it does push the creativity and it gives us a challenge. We are always up for that.”

The end result for Warren and his crew this year, “The Man Inside,” is one of about 35 short films from the competition set to be shown Monday or Tuesday at the Old Town Temecula Community Theater. Half the films will be shown Monday, and the rest Tuesday.

The screenings each night run from 7 to about 10 p.m., and will include a red-carpet opening ceremony, a few intermissions and a question-and-answer session with filmmakers. Tickets are $10 per night. On Wednesday, the best films from the two nights will be screened, and awards will be handed out.

Warren’s film will be screened Monday.

Corona resident Robert Halterman, 29, the main actor in “The Man Within,” said the competition not only allows young members of the film industry a chance to create a great short movie while competing against peers, but winning awards may parlay the effort into obtaining larger projects.

“For people who are artistic, it’s fun, but it allows the artistic person to bring out the competitive side of them,” Halterman said. “It’s friendly competition, but it’s competition nonetheless.”

Warren, who got hooked on filmmaking after taking an elective in high school in Minnesota, graduated from Cal State Fullerton in May 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in television and film, with an emphasis on film production.

Although he works as a security guard in Canyon Lake, he said he hopes to be directing or being the cinematographer for major motion pictures within the next 15 years.

In addition to creating a few short films on his own time each year, he also enters into film festival competitions a couple of times a year, he said. This year marks the third time he’s been involved in the Inland Empire’s 48 Hour Film Project.

As “team leader,” Warren used a list of contacts he’s made over the years to pull together a group for the competition.

“It’s a lot to do to make a film in two days,” he said. “You are not really allowed to do anything beforehand except get your crew together and equipment.”

Jeanette Di Pinza, co-producer of the local competition, said the process is “quite hard.”

“A lot of the teams end up staying up the whole 48 hours to complete the film, so there is drama that occurs, differing opinions,” she said.

This year’s competition took place Aug. 6 through Aug. 8. Teams first pulled genres out of a hat, everything from westerns to dramas to comedies. Warren pulled “fantasy.”

Next, they were given their required elements: a character, a line of dialogue and a prop. This year, the character was a photographer. The line was “No, that’s not right,” and the prop was a toothbrush.

“From there, you just start thinking of ideas,” Warren said. “You have to come up with a story, find the means to make that story, and when you are all done with production you have to go into post-production, and that is always the toughest part —- the rendering process.”

Warren described “The Man Inside” as a drama-fantasy that delves into the expressiveness of painting and photography, and on a more esoteric level the connection humans have with the arts.

The challenge was producing a great product while facing so many constraints, he said. But the effort was worth it, he added.

“The point is just to see if it’s possible, to see what you can come up with, to push the limits of creativity,” Warren said. “The time crunch really can create some awesome movies.”