blog

Shorts are Sweet

[Your Name Here] — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 18:36:19 +0000

Today we'd like to shine a spotlight on the excellent collection of shorts (5-8 minutes) we've discovered on the website, California is a Place: Stories from the Golden State. Not your usual travelogues, these little gems are what producers Drea Cooper and Zachary Canepari call a web-series: an emerging genre of online filmmaking, unrelated characters and stories that, when viewed together, tell the story of a place.

If you're one of those short filmmakers who submit their work to Sundance - along with 3000 others each year - you know how hard it is to get your short seen. Cooper and Canepari are figuring out a way. In their off-the-beaten-track road stories you'll meet a scraper bike team, locals disheartened by drug smugglers, a sex doll maker, a romantic mariachi player and an Alameda car salesman. Beautifully shot and edited, these are quirky and compelling vignettes, but not quite so nostalgic as the "On the Road" pieces produced by legendary journalist Charles Kurault in the 1970s. According to Cooper, "the films are really meant to be moments and slices of a person's life." An alternative to reality television programming, anyone?

Re-working Re-Creations

[Your Name Here] — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 20:08:42 +0000

Remember those nonfiction cable shows you used to watch featuring re-created scenes of badly-costumed pirates, peasants and yeomen? You know, those filler shots produced to cover long minutes of interviews or narration talk, talk, talk.

Girls at a Crossroads

[Your Name Here] — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:09:08 +0000

Many of you might have seen this video released earlier in the year, but we thought at the close of 2010, we'd like to take another look at it and, in our small way, contribute to spreading the word. A masterful piece, the charming animation serves as a sharp contrast to the compilation of shocking facts and statistics.

Dorothy Height Tribute

[Your Name Here] — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 18:25:31 +0000

Watch this wonderful tribute to civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height, produced by LA-based Wednesdays in Mississippi, a documentary film-in-progress, and our friends Marlene McCurtis and Cathee Weiss.

Video Wall Alive with Motion

[Your Name Here] — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:53:51 +0000

For a look at an innovative blend of new media and techology, make a visit to our own Torrance Art Museum here in SoCal. Yorgo Alexopoulos has mounted "No Feeling is Final," a computer animated high definition video wall that explores transcendental sensibilities through a commanding array of imagery and motion.

Bill T. Jones, multimedia innovator

[Your Name Here] — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:47:00 +0000

We'd like to congratulate choreographer Bill T. Jones, honored as one of this year's five Kennedy Center awardees who will be feted in December by President and Mrs. Obama. The Tony award-winning Jones's work is inventive, thrilling and for those of us who embrace multimedia, yes, he's intensely collaborative.

Giving Made Easy

[Your Name Here] — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:34:39 +0000

We're hearing a lot about crowdsourcing lately, so we did a quick perusal of websites dedicated to this concept. One we liked is Crowdrise, merging volunteerism and social networking into a community "answering the call to service, raising money for charity and having the most fun in the world." It's also a nicely designed website with both style and purpose in mind.

Civil Rights Docs are Hot

[Your Name Here] — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 16:02:45 +0000

Showing up in theaters this week, two impressive documentary films on powerful chapters of the Civil Rights Movement. Are we seeing a resurgence of interest here? We hope so, since our own feature doc on Congressman John Lewis, goes into production this fall.

Shows That Got Away

[Your Name Here] — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:25:52 +0000

It's summer and time for some good, hearty laughs. That's why we're honoring Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) - a gem that almost got away. Released in 2009, this six-hour IFC docuseries reunites the legendary British comedy troupe and reminds us of how long it's been since we've enjoyed wickedly biting satire. Apparently a few other viewers agree, since it's up for for an Outstanding Nonfiction Series Emmy this year.

Alabama Homeboys

[Your Name Here] — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:01:08 +0000

Among the Emmy nominees in one of this year's new multimedia categories - New Approaches to News and Documentary Programming: Documentaries - is the LA Times interactive project, Alabama Homeboys.