Spirit of Baraka

The 9th Annual Tiburon International Film Festival (TIFF) will be held March 18-26, 2010 in Tiburon, California, a showcase for the independent feature and short films from around the world.Read more >>>

Sky Train is a 6 minute non-narrative film about Thailand, by Ryan Moser.

Sky Train beautifully uses panning, time-lapse and dreamy cloud sequences that fans of the films in the genre will be familiar with.  But, Ryan has captured the essence of each of his locations in Thailand.  From Bangkok's blurring night lights, scorching midday sunshine, and non-stop traffic, the film progresses nicely to the blue waters  and palm trees of the south.

There are great timelapse, Ron Fricke esque moments when the camera is racing around in a shopping trolley.

Sky Train is a great mixture of the gritty and glitzy side of Thailand.  With the fast paced streets, and claustrophobic soi, whilst avoiding the bland, dreamy tourist-board style panning shots.

The timelapse sequences recorded on foot are a little shaky, but considering the budget, it's still great work.

Well done Ryan.

From Ryan:

"My name is Ryan Moser and I'm a 24 year old filmmaker. I'm an alumni of the Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking and I graduated in 2004. Since then I've gone on to direct numerous short films in numerous genres.

Sky Train was my first non-narrative film and I was inspired to make it after viewing Baraka last summer. I have two feature length screenplays in the works and the concept for a full length non-narrative feature as well. I have a song currently composed and ready to go for the non-narrative project.
 
I'm using the film currently as a demo reel to show my talents as a cinematographer, composer, director and editor. My main source of inspiration was I had not shot a personal and creative project in about a year and I wanted to do something for myself. I also had not spent some real time recording any of my own music so this project made me motivated enough to do that as well.
 
I was in Thailand visiting my friend who is also a film school grad. I borrowed his JVC-GYHD100 camera to shoot it and I edited the film using Final Cut Pro while I was at his house. There was no set budget so it was pretty much me and a camera. All the work in the film is 100% mine from every instrument played in the song to the final color timing that you see on the screen."
 
email: ryanjmoser [at] yahoo.com
 

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Winged Migration has been released on Blu Ray.

Actors: Jacques Perrin, Philippe Labro
Directors: Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats
Writers: Jacques Perrin, Francis Roux, Guy Jarry, Jean Dorst, Stéphane Durand
Producers: Jacques Perrin, Andrea Occhipinti, Christophe Barratier, Danièle Delorme, Jean Labadie
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English
Subtitles: Chinese, Danish, English, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)Read more >>>

This is a short documentary capturing a group photo-blog shoot with a concept of Urban Decay. The location is an abandoned warehouse in Gary, Indiana. We drove down from Chicago very early on a Sunday morning to be safe since the area is shady.

I used a Canon HV20 with Crystal Vision wide lens, Calico Cam stabilizer, and a Manfrotto fluid head on a tripod. None of this video was directed, just capturing the day of events. At the end you might notice all the "junk", it's piles and piles of clothes.

The audio track is Snowflake by TrentMoller.

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Amazon are having a big sale on many BBC series, including the Blue Planet, and Planet Earth series.

Most are half price, or less! 

This is a great chance to get box sets at a fraction of their original price.  I'm particularly liking The Life Collection.  24 disc box set.  Fanastic!

See the offers on:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk

The 8th Annual Tiburon International Film Festival (TIFF) will be held March 19-27, 2009 in Tiburon, California, a showcase for the independent films and filmmakers from around the world.

Submissions are open to all genres of film: Fiction, documentary, short, animation, experimental, student, children, sports, music video.....from any nation in the world. Read more >>>

Grant Wakefield has released a preview to this latest work, Empire of Stone, which is part of his Remnants project. It's a great timelapse film, 15 minutes in length. We look forward to seeing more of the project.

EMPIRE OF STONE - 'ANCIENT SKIES' + 'REMNANTS' COMPANION REEL from PMW Creative on Vimeo.

You can more of Grant's work using the link below.



http://www.vimeo.com/1521048

Watch a trailer of Highway World, Martin Hans Schmitt film currently doing very well on the film festival circuit. It's also available to buy from Amazon (links below).

Watch Highway World on YouTube (sorry, can't show the video on this page)

Buy From Amazon.com (NTSC)

Buy From Amazon.com (PAL)

Baraka Blu-Ray review and quotes from Roger Ebert

“the finest video disc I have ever viewed or ever imagined”

“’Baraka’ by itself is sufficient reason to acquire a Blu-ray player.”Read more >>>

A PAL region 2 DVD of Lucky People Center International will be released in Jan/Feb next year in Scandinavia. It is the first time LPCi will be released on DVD with english subtitles (it will also have swedish, danish, norwegian and finnish subtitles).

It also contains a new 5.1 sound mix as well as the orginal 2.0 mix.

Hopefully it will be available worldwide eventually.

Some information about Samsara on the in70mm.com website.

Baraka is expected to be released on Blu-ray on 28-Oct-2008.

You can pre-order the Blu-Ray with a link at the top of the Baraka page

"FULLY RESTORED - THE FIRST MOVIE EVER TRANSFERRED IN 8K ULTRADIGITAL HD!"

Special Features: Includes over 80 minutes of all new bonus features: Baraka: A Closer Look
Baraka: Restoration

It's expected to sell for US$34.98. Read more >>>

Highway World, by Martin Hans Schmitt, is being showing at the Globians Film Festival, Potsdam, Germany on 12th August 2008, and the Globians Film Festival, Berlin, Germany on 3rd September 2008.

• Images from Highway World
• Globians web site

What energy do you worship? is a thought provoking short film, comparing various types of religious worship, to the worship of nature and the energy of its oceans from the perspective of surfers.

It's a good short film.

Mark Magidson has kindly sent a photograph from Sossosvlai, Namibia, where he is currently filming Samsara. He expects to be in Africa for 6 weeks. I hope to have more photographs from Mark soon

Click the image for a closer look.

Photograph © Copyright 2008 Mark Magidson.

Martin has sent me a copy of his film Highway World. It is a great film which fits nicely into the genre of this website. I am about to leave England to spend the winter traveling in India and Southeast Asia, and unfortunately to do not have time to add a page for the film. Check out Martin's website though, and I will add more details upon my return in June.

Ata Whenua is a new film from New Zealand. The film shows stunning images of landscapes of the Fiordland national park of south west New Zealand.

Paul Ramsbottom is seeking a musician to help score a independent non-verbal film.

Paul's email address is: pramsbottom @ mac.com (remove the spaces)

Pauls message below...

I am seeking a creative collaborator (or a small group of people) to create an original score for a short film project. Ideally I am looking for local people in the San Francisco / Bay Area.Read more >>>

I have added a new page to highlight the short films and trailers of independant filmmakers. Kyle Hopkin's '360' is the first film listed.
Read more

Many thanks to Mark Magidson (producer of Baraka, Samsara and Chronos) for the following Samsara press releases.Read more >>>