CINEMATOGRAPHY PANELS AT SUNDANCE 2015

Indewire and Canon have joined forces to bring a series of Cinematography related panels.  Most panels and discussions are by-invitation only, the panels discussions  and are held at the Canon Creative Studio (427 Main Street) from Saturday, January 24 to Monday 26.

The Female Perspective: Women in Cinematography 

Saturday, 1/24 at 1pm
Rachel Morrison (DP, "Dope," "What Happened, Miss Simone?"), Laela Kilbourn (DP, "How to Dance in Ohio") and Dagmar Weaver-Madsen (DP, "Unexpected") gather for an illuminating conversation about their craft and women in the creative arts.

"The Overnight’s" John Guleserian on the Cinema EOS C500
Saturday, 1/24 at 3pm

The acclaimed DP behind Sundance tour de forces "Like Crazy" and "Song One" discusses why he chose the Canon Cinema EOS C500 for his latest feature, "The Overnight."  Tim Smith, Sr. Film and Television Advisor for Canon USA, will also participate.

Cut the Comedy: The Capture and Edit of Misery Loves Comedy
Sunday1/25 at 1pm

Explore the making of the Sundance doc "Misery Loves Comedy" with DP Adam McDaid and Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor/Consulting Editor Rob Legato, who, along with Tim Smith of Canon and Mike Kanfer, Sr. Strategic Development Manager, Adobe, discuss the workflow of Canon’s Cinema EOS C300 with Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

Behind the Screams: Eli Roth on the Making of "Knock Knock" with EOS-1D C
Sunday, 1/25 at 3pm

Park City At Midnight was made for horror kings like Eli Roth, whose latest spine-tingler "Knock Knock" stars Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas. Roth and his team, including cinematographer Antonio Quercia, discuss shooting with the Cinema EOS-1D C and why this DSLR was a dream for capturing his nightmarish script.

 Get Real: Documentary Filmmaking with Cinema EOS 
Monday 1/26 at 1pm

Non-fiction storytellers Crystal Moselle (Director/DP, "The Wolfpack"), Thaddeus Wadleigh (DP, "The Hunting Ground") and Bradley Stonesifer, (DP, "Call Me Lucky"), along with Canon’s Tim Smith, tell the tales of their real-life films and talk about their tech tools of choice for documentary work.

 Lance Acord, ASC

Design Inspiration, Art of Film Weekend
Friday, 1/30 at 3pm.

Where does the visual design of a film begin, and how does it contribute to the overall art of cinematic storytelling? Through an illuminating conversation that integrates handpicked visual and filmic references, discover the creative processes of three talented individuals (and frequent collaborators of Spike Jonze) known for their stunning artistic sensibilities: cinematographer Lance Acord ("God's Pocket," "Where the Wild Things Are," "Lost in Translation"); production designer K.K. Barrett ("Her," "Human Nature," "Marie Antoinette," "Being John Malkovich"); and costume designer Casey Storm ("Her," "Where the Wild Things Are," "Adaptation").

 Stephen Goldblat, ASC

The Indiewire/ Sundance events will culminate on Monday, January 26 at 3pm with a special Canon-hosted screening of "Bending the Light" a Michael Apted, directed documentary, celebrating the craft of photography, will be followed by a Q&A between Bernstein and featured cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, BSC, who’ll spotlight his creative process and the craft of cinematography, at the New Frontier Microcinema (573 Main Street).

Also, Canon will feature “How I Shot That", a series of interviews with Sundance participating cinematographers. It will run  throughout the festival.

LIVE @ SUNDANCE 2015. OPENING DAY AND MORE!

 John Cooper and Salt Lake Tribune film critic Sean Means

Salt Lake Tribune film critic Sean Means, Sundance Film Festival Director John Cooper, Sundance Institute Executive Director Keri Putnam, and Robert Redford, founder and president of the Sundance Institute gather for the Sundance Film Festival's Day One Press Conference at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2014. 

STREAMED  LIVE COVERAGE FROM SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2015

Enjoy live coverage from Park City and all the inside buzz about film premieres, features and documentaries in competition, outstanding shorts, Q&As,  panels and music events.

 Robert Redford

SCHEDULE OF STREAMED  PANELS AND EVENTS

Thursday, January 22
Day One Press Conference with Robert Redford, Keri Putnam & John Cooper

Friday, January 23
Cinema Cafe: Leslye Headland and Melissa Rauch

Saturday, January 24
1-Cinema Cafe: Tig Notaro and Sarah Silverman
2-Power of Story: Serious Ladies

Sunday, January 25
Saoirse Ronan and Jack Reynor

Monday, January 26
Cinema Café: Bobcat Goldthwait and Johnny Knoxville

Tuesday, January 27
1-Cinema Café: Christopher Abbott and Alia Shawkat
2-2015 Sundance Film Festival Shorts Awards presented by YouTube

Wednesday, January 28
Cinema Café: Doug Aitken and Guy Maddin

Thursday, January 29
1-Cinema Cafe: Morgan Neville and TBD
2-Power of Story: Visions of Independence at 2015 Sundance Film Festival

Friday, January 30
Cinema Cafe: Jared Hess and Edgar Wright

Saturday, January 31
Cinema Cafe: Bryan Buckley and Charles Stone III
Closing Night Awards Ceremony Hosted By Tig Notaro

AT A GLANCE GUIDE TO UNDERSTAND THE BREAKDOWN OF FILMS, PANELS AND MUSIC BY CATEGORY AT SUNDANCE

U.S. Dramatic
Presenting the world premieres of 16 narrative feature films, the Dramatic Competition offers Festival-goers a first look at groundbreaking new voices in American independent film.
   
U.S. Documentaries
Sixteen world-premiere American documentaries that illuminate the ideas, people, and events that shape the present day.
 
World Dramatic
Twelve films from emerging filmmaking talents around the world offer fresh perspectives and inventive styles.

World Documentaries
Twelve documentaries by some of the most courageous and extraordinary international filmmakers working today.
  
NEXT
Pure, bold works distinguished by an innovative approach to storytelling populate this program that will shape a "greater" next wave in American cinema. Presented by Adobe.

Shorts
Driven by innovation and experimentation, the Shorts Programs call out filmmaking's most original voices. Presented by YouTube.

New Frontier
New Frontier showcases films that expand, experiment with, and explode traditional storytelling as well as cutting-edge new media work and panel discussions.
  
Park City at Midnight
 From horror flicks to comedies to works that defy any genre, these unruly films will keep you edge-seated and wide awake.

Spotlight
 Regardless of where these films have played throughout the world, the Spotlight program is a tribute to the cinema we love.

 Premieres
A showcase of world premieres of some of the most highly anticipated narrative films of the coming year.
  
 Documentary Premieres
 Renowned filmmakers and films about far-reaching subjects comprise this section highlighting our ongoing commitment to documentaries. Each is a world premiere.

Sundance Kids
To reach our youngest independent film fans, we have created a new section of the Festival especially for them. Programmed in cooperation with Tumbleweeds, Utah's premiere film festival for children and youth.

New Frontier
 New Frontier showcases films that expand, experiment with, and explode traditional storytelling as well as cutting-edge new media work and panel discussions.

Park City at Midnight
From horror flicks to comedies to works that defy any genre, these unruly films will keep you edge-seated and wide awake.
 
Special Events
One-of-a-kind moments highlighting new independent works that add to the unique Festival experience.
   
Sundance Collection
A selection from The Sundance Collection at UCLA, a film preservation program established in 1997.

PANELS & MUSIC

Power of Story
Sundance Film Festival's "Power of Story" series looks to deepen public engagement with storytelling, explore cinema culture and celebrate artists whose work pushes the form.
 
Cinema Café
Cinema Café revives the culture of conversation, offering audiences the opportunity to engage with an array of filmmakers and artists in an informal dialogue over coffee and treats. #CinemaCafe

 Art of Film
 Exploring cinema, body and soul, these events celebrate the art and craft of filmmaking and offer a behind-the-scenes look at the creative, collaborative spirit of the artists who make movie magic.

 At the Lodge
At the Lodge panels take up the compelling themes emerging from festival films and explore broader trends in contemporary independent film.
  
 Panels
New Frontier panels explore diverse topics that celebrate boundary pushing storytellers; featuring innovative technologies, fascinating insights, forward thinking strategies and the possibilities of what the future may bring.
 
Film Music Events
Live performances and lively panels celebrate the art and business of film music.

Music Café
 Hosted Presentations
Hosted presentations bring the latest and greatest from our sponsor community to Festival goers throughout the ten days.

Download your printable PDF Program  Guide 
Live stream courtesy of Weber Shandwick, official provider of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

SPOTLIGHT AWARDS NOMINEES ASC

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) has nominated three cinematographers for the Spotlight Award. This award is designed to recognize outstanding cinematography in features and documentaries that are typically screened at film festivals, internationally or in limited theatrical release. The winner will be announced at the 29th Annual ASC Awards on February 15, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.

The nominees are:
 Peter Flinckenberg, FSC for Concrete Night (Betoniyö)
Darius Khondji, AFC, ASC for The Immigrant
Daniel Landin, BSC for Under the Skin

“These nominees have created some of the more inspiring and imaginative visuals our members have seen recently,” says ASC Awards Chairman Lowell Peterson. “We’re proud to recognize their innovative work, and we hope at the same time to raise the profile of these films, so more audiences have a chance to see their outstanding imagery.”

For the Spotlight Award, ASC members submitted entries for consideration which went before a Blue Ribbon panel that chose the nominees. All active members may vote to select the winner.

Concrete Night has been at festivals since its debut at the 2013 Toronto International Film festival. The Immigrant premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and received a limited international release. Under the Skin was unveiled at Telluride in 2013 and distributed in limited theaters worldwide.

Last year, Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski won the inaugural ASC Spotlight Award for Ida, which has earned accolades around the globe. Ida is also nominated in the Foreign Language Film category of the 87th Academy Awards®.

For information regarding the 29th ASC Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography visit www.theasc.com

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY. THE 87th ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS

 THE 87th ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2015 OSCAR

 ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

  Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Emmanuel Lubezki

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Robert Yeoman

   

 Ida

Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski

  

Mr. Turner

Dick Pope

 

 Unbroken

Roger Deakins

BEST PICTURE

American Sniper
Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper and Peter Morgan

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
 Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher and James W. Skotchdopole
  
 Boyhood
 Richard Linklater and Cathleen Sutherland
   
 The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson
   
The Imitation Game
 Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky and Teddy Schwarzman

Selma
 Christian Colson, Oprah Winfrey, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner
  
 The Theory of Everything
  Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce and Anthony McCarten
 
Whiplash
 Jason Blum, Helen Estabrook and David Lancaster

For a full list visit, oscar.go.com

87TH OSCARS NOMINATION ANNOUNCEMENT LIVE!

87th Oscars® Nominations Announcement Live!

On January 15, 2015 at 5:30 a.m. PT, Alfonso Cuarón and J.J. Abrams will announce the nominees in the following categories: Animated Feature Film, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Film Editing, Original Song, Production Design, Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects.

At 5:38 a.m. PT, Chris Pine and Cheryl Boone Isaacs will take the stage to unveil the nominations for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Foreign Language Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay and Best Picture.

POWER OF STORY: VISIONS OF INDEPENDENCE AT SUNDANCE

Sundance Film Festival Celebrates the Art of Film with Panels with Robert Redford, George  Lucas and More Discussing the Craft of Filmmaking.

Sundance Institute announced that the 2015 Sundance Film Festival will take an unprecedented look at the art and craft of filmmaking with its new 'Art of Film Weekend' series of offscreen programming. The 2015 Festival, taking place January 22 to February 1 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah, is the centerpiece public program for the Institute, which provides resources to independent artists on a year-round basis through its 24 annual residency labs and more than $2.5 million in grants. The Institute also holds public workshops through out the year that provide expert advice and critical insights into the craft and process of filmmaking.

Art of Film Weekend  (January 29-31) will highlight the unique roles of writers, directors, producers, actors, cinematographers, editors, production designers, art directors, costume designers, casting directors, sound designers, composers and the countless others who bring stories to life on screen. The series will kick off with Robert Redford and George Lucas discussing their careers and creative process with Leonard Maltin and continue throughout the second half of the Festival with additional panels on topics including artistry in film music, virtual reality, visual design, editing and documentary.

John Cooper, Director of the Sundance Film Festival, said, "Exploring cinema, body and soul, Art of Film Weekend will take aspiring filmmakers and film-loving audiences behind the scenes to see the creative, collaborative spirit of artists at every stage of the independent filmmaking process that is so core to our Festival."

For dates, times, locations and ticket information for these and other panels, including the free daily Cinema Café program, visit sundance.org/festival  Join the conversation on social media with #ArtFilmWeekend.

Power of Story: Visions of Independence — Kicking off Art of Film Weekend, join Robert Redford and George Lucas—two iconic filmmakers who epitomize the spirit of independence in American cinema—in conversation with critic Leonard Maltin. Distinctive as storytellers, their pioneering visions have also yielded innovative enterprises and institutions that cultivate creativity and imagination, advance technology, and push the realm of possibility. This will be live streamed on sundance.org.

Art of the Score: A Performance and Discussion with Harry Gregson-Williams — We explore the artists' approach to film music with renowned composer Harry Gregson-Williams (the Shrek series, The Chronicles of Narnia series, The Town, Man on Fire, Kingdom of Heaven, Spy Game and Blackhat), who shares his creative process from that first spark of a musical conception through the delivery of a final score. With film excerpts and a live performance, including electric violinist Hugh Marsh, we explore the indispensable role music plays in cinema.

A New Language in Filmmaking: Virtual Reality — Over a century has passed since the advent of film, allowing filmmakers to continuously hone, craft, and form the language of cinema, as well as pass those teachings on to a new crop of filmmakers. Virtual reality, on the other hand, has only recently emerged, and with it, a completely new language and approach to storytelling. Learn from the top directors working in this medium as they take you through their journey of failure and success in virtual reality storytelling. Join Chris Milk (director, An Evolution of Verse, Sound and Vision, Wilderness Downtown), Rose Troche (director, Perspective, The L Word), Saschka Unseld (director, The Blue Umbrella, story consultant to Oculus), and Glen Keane (animator, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Duet).

Design Inspiration — Where does the visual design of a film begin, and how does it contribute to the overall art of cinematic storytelling? Through an illuminating conversation that integrates handpicked visual and filmic references, discover the creative processes of three talented individuals (and frequent collaborators of Spike Jonze) known for their stunning artistic sensibilities: cinematographer Lance Acord (God's Pocket, Where the Wild Things Are, Lost in Translation); production designer K.K. Barrett (Her, Human Nature, Marie Antoinette, Being John Malkovich); and costume designer Casey Storm (Her, Where the Wild Things Are, Adaptation).

Cutting Class - An Editor's Guide to Storytelling — Spend an unforgettable afternoon with award-winning editor Sarah Flack (The Limey, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette) as she leads an in-depth session about her editing process, examining everything from the construction and evolution of scenes to the nuances of storytelling from an editor's perspective. Flack will shed light on the unique relationship between director and editor, referencing her collaborations with Sofia Coppola, Sam Mendes, and Steven Soderbergh.

The Doc Art Mix Tape — Perhaps more than any other cinema form, documentary is all too often discussed more in terms of content rather than its craft. But through its artful construction, distinctive storytelling styles, memorable characters, and groundbreaking aesthetics, non-fiction film has given us remarkable and lasting cinematic moments. Join us for a personal journey through documentary guided by Sam Green (The Weather Underground, Utopia in Four Movements) and Ross McElwee (Sherman's March, Time Indefinite, Bright Leaves), who unearth the rare and special moments that illustrate the remarkable range of the form.

For more information visit:  sundance.org/festival

Click here to download the Film Guide : http://www2.sundance.org/pdf/film-guide/SFF15-FilmGuide.pdf

JEFERY LEVY'S THE KEY

To adapt a book to the screen is not an easy task, some screen writers fail miserably while others succeed garnering accolades from their peers and critics translating the written word to the captivating nuances of the cinematic language.

Moreover, to adapt a visceral descriptive erotic novel into a feature film without falling into the distastes of cheap quasi-pornographic movie making is truly not an easy task to accomplish.

Enter, THE KEY (2014) a  feature film adaptation to the screen on the erotic Japanese novel KAGI (1955) by Junichiro Tanizaki, about a middle-aged painter (David Arquette as Jack) who is deeply in love with his younger wife (Bai Ling as Ida) and in spite of that love, they have grown physically and emotionally apart.

As time goes by and to cope with the inadequacies on their ailing marriage, Jack decides to keep a very graphic and erotic journal with daily entries of all kind of sex games he demands from his much younger wife, who complies with her husband's desires without letting him know she is aware of his plans

 In order to maintain creative integrity with Tanizaki’s narrative style of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions, writer/director Jefrey Levy developed the storyline into a juxtaposition of voiceovers and colored moving pictures vignettes, instead of a direct dialogue between characters, alternating between the entries of their private journals.

THE KEY has the flair and flavor of an experimental film by the lengthy use of cinematic techniques like extreme close ups, unusual actors blocking and camera position and lighting schemes. Notably, the post-production displays a “Sergei Eisenstein montage style” editing, recurrent piano chords musical track and many other visual effects like digital compositing, time passage compression, rotoscoping and frame tinting to represent the mood and pace of the story and in particular to this film, the emotional state of the characters.

At times, it seems as a modern version of the tinting and special effects adopted in early classic films, used to describe mood and intention of the narrative. But beyond than that, the film proves to be more experiential than experimental, immersing the audience in the voyeuristic colored world of the protagonists.

The lengthy use of captivating visual effects seems deliberate, but not in any way to showcase CGI/VXF prowess or just to be plainly gimmicky, but to evocate the poetic sensibility underlying the nature of the human condition as described in the context of the storyline.  Obviously, director/writer Jefery Levy conjured this obsessive-self destructive-erotic tale adaptation (about Jack) into a moving redemptive tale of lessons learned (about Ida).

There are two other iterations of The Key produced by earlier filmmakers, namely, Odd Obsession, directed by Kon Ichikawa, a culturally repressed Japanese dramatic adaption of the erotic novel and La Chiave by Tinto Brass, released in 1983, an overly sexual adaptation of the novel in fascist Italy. Kon Ichikawa won the Jury Prize in Cannes in 1960 and La Chiave achieved domestic financial success in Italy but was considered very scandalous by audiences at large.

THE KEY is Jefery Levy cinematic tour de force, a visually stunning and immersive erotic tale with stellar performances by David Arquette and Bai Ling. The film premiered at the Real Experiment Film Festival on November 21 at the Laemmle Music Hall Theater in Beverly Hills.

 
 Cast
David Arquette Jack
Bai Ling Ida
Nathan Keyes Kim
Nathalie Love Mia

Crew
Written, Directed, and Produced by Jefery Levy
Producer – Susan Traylor
Executive Producer – John Scheide
Executive Producer – Mark Urman
Co-Producer – Tom Sanford
Cinematographer – William MacCollum
Edited – Jefery Levy
Edited – Pablo Espada
Edited – Scott Roon
Casting Director – Johanna Ray
Production Designer – Jessee Clarkson
Costume Designer – Patrick Milani
Co-Costume Designer – Paige Basham
Hair and Make-Up – Gina Nicole Maceri
Visual Effects – Scott Roon
Sound Designer – Jamie Scott

WINNERS 2014 LA JOLLA INTERNATIONAL FASHION FILM FESTIVAL

 For the last five years a new but very influential film festival has climbed to dominate the fashion industry scene as the leading international marketplace for fashion films.

La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival has all the attributes of a high profile film festival, not only because is the world’s largest gathering of fashion filmmakers but also because is held in the venerable San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art/La Jolla, nested in the picturesque coastal village of La Jolla and surrounded by collectible curated art, fine restaurants, designers boutiques, five stars hotels, lush foliage, balmy weather, Spanish and avant-garde architecture and of course, is uniquely framed by the magnificent visual bounty the Pacific Ocean could offer. 

In a nutshell, La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival is "suburban sunny California meets cosmopolitan Paris, London and Milan in a creative rendezvous of cinematic narrative full of style and glamorous fashion".

 BEST PICTURE  Kiss of a Siren  Victorija Pashuta & Miguel Gauthier

 BEST ACTRESS  The Purgatory of Monotony  Somja Kinski

 BEST CREATIVE CONCEPT.  The Purgatory of Monotony  Ace Norton

La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival empowers, support, and recognizes the individual creative professionals who make up the fashion film community worldwide. Known as the Cannes of fashion film, La Jolla IFFF was once again was the market center for distribution deals, director representation, and fashion film production houses showcase.

 BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY  The Old Road  Manuel Portillo

 

BEST FASHION  Honor Spring 2014  Giovanna Randall

 

LIFETIME LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD  Bruno Aveillan

Among the attendees supporting the filmmakers are fashion designers, fashionistas, fashion bloggers, industry executives, socialites and photographers from around the world packing the Museum of Contemporary Art/La Jolla theater of 500 seats enthralled by the top 1% of fashion films produced worldwide.

The Festival offers a varied program to all attendees and filmmakers for networking, making deals, attending  seminars and panels, screening films, attending to press receptions and after parties, and to those who deserve it, to win any category of he prestigious LJIFFF awards.

 BEST MUSIC  Snake  Vinilla Von Bismark

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS  Honor Spring 2014   Tim Regan and Fred Kim

BEST EDITING  Today, Tonight  Billy Mead

Festival Producer Fred Sweet, a veteran of the fashion industry adds “From now on the brilliant work done by makeup artists, hairstylists, art directors, editors, musicians, wardrobe stylists, writers, and others will have the opportunity to win awards. These awards are for the best in the world and cut across national boundaries and cultures. Thanks to the global reach of LJIFFF everyone is included no matter where on earth they live or work stated.”

 BEST ACTOR  206 David Oyelowo

 BEST MESSAGE  Around the World with Stella 

Jean Simone Cipriani

BEST ART DIRECTION   KWoman  Hunterand Gatti

LJFFF boasts a diverse line-up of films in competion and special Awards from the classic to the cutting edge, featuring such luminaries as Karl rgerfeld, Bruce Weber, Luca Finotti, Bruno Aveillan, Jonas Akerlund, Frank Funke, Matthew Frost, Jens Hallmann, Naqia Lee, and Zoe Hitchen, Ellen Von Unwerth, Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, Marcus K. Jones, Karen Bystedt, producers Matthew Tucker, Joe Lombardo, Peter Isacksen, Marius Troy and Indira Cesarine among many others.

 BEST HAIRSTYLING  Crystals and the Postman 

are Girls Best Friends  Tracie Cant

 

BEST MAKEUP Mercado De Lagrimas. 

Tony Heredia,  Madgalena Sandoval and Alejandro Catalina

 BEST DIRECTOR We are all Mad Here Bruno Miotto

 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN  Kiss of a Siren  

Tiffany Chinel, Eric Ducharme Caley,

A re-post from La Jolla Fashion Film Festival FB page: We decided we liked this picture better than the previous one, so here it is! From left, cinematographer George Leon, Inna Zobova, Fred Sweet, and Bruno Aveillan. This year's LJIFFF will long be remembered for the enchanting imagery from one of the world's top film directors - Paris based Bruno Aveillan. Bruno and his lovely graceful wife, Russian actress Inna Zobova were one of the highlights of our Festival. From Bruno's film retrospective to Inna's stunning Red Carpet outfits, their presence added a special dimension to our worldwide gathering. Thank you Bruno and Inna!...

   

THE MAKING OF A LEGENDARY TV SPOT: SHALIMAR BY GUERLAIN

The Making of a Legendary Film Spot: "The Legend of Shalimar" directed by Bruno Aveillan.

Once  upon a time in India and like in a romance novel, a true love story unraveled  between a Mughal emperor and his beloved wife.  In the 17th century, the Mughal  Emperor Shah Jahan, was heart-broken when his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, a Persian princess, died during the birth of their 14th child. The grief-stricken emperor immediately commissioned the construction of  a tomb for his beloved wife.and the resulting effort was the construction  of a marvel of architecture , the majestic  Taj Mahal.

The  towering Taj Mahal mausoleum  with its domed marble tomb is part of an integrated complex consisting of gardens and two red-sandstone buildings surrounded by a crenelated wall on three sides.The principal mausoleum was completed in 1648 and the surrounding buildings and garden were finished about five years later.

Before Shalimar was a perfume, it was a garden of love," says the  advertisement. Guerlain's most famous perfume created by Jack Guerlain in the 1920s is named after the splendid Shalimar Gardens near Lahore, present-day Pakistan. He took inspiration from the love story of the Indian emperor and his beloved wife to create this refined oriental fragrance.

It is a true story that has become a legend. Now, Shalimar it is also the signature perfume created by Jack Guerlain in the 1920s.  He took inspiration  from the love story of the Indian emperor and his beloved wife to create this refined oriental fragrance. 

To promote its iconic fragrance, Guerlain released a new epic television spot, featuring the Russian top model Natalia Vodianova who has been representing the brand since 2009. The long-form television advertisement  is called appropriately, The Legend of Shalimar

Guerlain tapped director Bruno Aveillan and Quad to bring this timeless romance to life. The epic  project required a crew of over 100 creative technical  people and the film was shot on locations all over India, from Jaipur for the Jaigarh Fort and Mawtaw Lake, to Upaipur for Badi Lake and its mountains with white marble dust that conjure the illusion of snow, to the Himalayas, and of  course, to the Taj Mahal in Agra.

The stunning visuals were captured by cinematographer Patrick Duroux, AFC using the Phantom camera for special effects plates and the live beauty sequences film were shot in 35 mm negative using anamorphic lenses to capture the sweeping vistas and exotic locations These techniques allowed Bruno to retain his keen aesthetic sensibility and blend seamlessly with the visual effects by Digital District. 

This mix of techniques is seen on full display in the breathtaking final scene of the Taj Mahal
rising from the water,  which was filmed in Agra and then integrated with images from a lake in Rajasthan. The evocative score "Chevaliers de Sangreal" was composed by legendary Hans Zimmer.  The Beijing-born costume designer Yiqing Yin who designed Audrey Tautou’s 2013 Cannes Film Festival dress, also took part in the film’s production. The long form TV spot premiered in Paris and was shown throughout internationally on TV and in cinemas garnering many awards and accolades.

La Jolla Fashion Film Festival, the global marketplace of fashion film production and distribution, will present a Bruno Aveillan retrospective on July 25, 2014. La Jolla Film Festival will be hosting the premiere film retrospective of one of the most sought after luxury commercial film directors in the world – Paris based Bruno Aveillan. From his ground breaking work with his Louis Vuitton “Journey” series to his globally acclaimed films for Cartier and Guerlain, Bruno Aveillan is truly at the pinnacle of fashion film production.

CINEC 2014 FOCUSES IN FINE TUNING 4K TECHNOLOGY

"4k-technology is becoming established although some important issues remain". These are some of the topics at the core of discussions in the Cine Congress seminars at the tenth anniversary of CINEC (The International Trade Fair for Cine Equipment and Technology) that will take place from 21st to 23rd of September in Munich, Germany.

 The novelty of 4k has slowly abated as almost every camera manufacturer now offers such equipment. This recent innovation is becoming commonplace even though the full advantage to the users remains somewhat unclear. In addition to the question of Resolution, other issues such as Contrast, Dynamics, Colour rendering and Frame Rates also remain. These issues will play a significant role at this year’s trade show cinec and its accompanying cineCongress.

 At this year’s NAB 2014 in Las Vegas, the exhibitors presented more 4k-equipment. This equipment is standardized in accordance with the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) Consortium at a resolution of 4096 pixels per line x 2160 lines, thus doubling the specifications of its predecessor, DCI 2k.

 DCI 4k has 8 847 360 pixels (each one consisting of a red, a green and a blue fraction) but this differs from the ultra HD TV format, which has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 and displays only 8 294 400 pixels. To further add to the confusion other systems of high-resolution equipment for cinema and TV technology exist but they all share a characteristic with DCI 4k, namely that you can only benefit from a better resolution if you are the right distance from the screen or display. The human eye can hardly differentiate between Ultra HD and current HDTV (resolution: 1920 x 1080) on a 40 inch display if further than one metre away. "If we enlarge this example, this probably means that only the front rows of a cinema audience will benefit from the sharper image of a 4k movie”, asserts cinec manager Angelika Albrecht. Hollywood feels however that a cinema fills up from the back and therefore rejects 4k technology although for new 3D movies, 4k would seem to be a must.

Higher resolution is also raising financial issues; it is estimated that the costs to print 4k to film are 10% to 20% higher than for a 2k resolution. The substantial additional Memory requirements also has an impact on the distribution; a 90 minute movie in HD resolution occupies about 70 GB and fits a Blu-Ray disk but for a similar 4k movie, the disk’s capacity is not sufficient. The industry is already working on the development of a new disk with a 300 GB memory capacity which should be available at the end of 2015.

4k technology also needs a better network system as there is more data to be transferred. Gordon Smith, NAB President and CEO, referred to the connection between transmitter and wire in his opening speech in Las Vegas: "Throughout the marketplace, we are beginning to see the incredible power of the convergence between broadcasting and broadband.” For Smith broadband is nothing less than a “Game-changer”. It is in the nick of time that the German government has attached importance to this topic and wants to provide Broadband access nationwide or in at least 75 % of the households.

But the fundamental and compelling question is when are there going to be enough original content in adequate quality to make appropriate investments profitable?

The German industry leader ARRI has already been involved in this issue for some time and is focusing efforts on the digital distribution of movies. In 2012 ARRI entered a cooperative arrangement with DELUXE Digital Cinema covering the commercialization of digital cinema movies on hard disks. This has resulted in a marketing concept developed by Deluxe and Hewlett-Packard called „Deluxe Connect”  (Deluxe Connect plans 8,000 cinema roll-out) involving a point-to-point connection likely to be offered by ARRI as part of a package to German cinemas.

 The world of cinema is changing and we need to set the course for the way ahead. The specialized trade fair “cinec”, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary provides the framework for this. In addition to the cineCongress which will include exciting seminars and discussions for professionals of the industry, the glamorous ceremony of the cinecAward will form the social highlight of this Septembers’ event. The association Cine Technik Bayern e.V. (CTB) will once again award the prize for pioneering and innovative achievements in the different areas of film and television technology.

The exhibition brochure and additional information as well as a short presentation about the development of the fair can be found at www.cinec.de/en.