Attention for all film lovers, fans, nerds, and aspiring movie stars: here is your chance!

Project Fandom is an independent film project based in Toronto that hopes to bring a new concept of film-making to the film industry: interactive film-making.

Using a membership-based website, they are providing interactive “behind the scenes” content, showing how a feature film is created, produced and distributed. By combining social network tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc, members can actually get involved in a film project by being part of it and having their voices heard by the production casts and crews! It is also a great learning opportunity on all aspects of film-making, such as screenwriting, acting, production, etc.

This is kind of like taking crowdsourcing to the next level, which encourages members’ creativity and contribution to the process, as well as promoting participation in an open casting call and other contests.

The membership is $19.95 USD, which lasts until the end of the production. This is a one-time fee: members get a chance to apply for a leading role, or be a production assistant, by uploading a video about themselves on to YouTube for online auditioning. That means no matter where you are (even if you are living in the North Pole), you get equal opportunity to be part of it. Also, members have the opportunity to edit the actual screen play and have their ideas and thoughts passed on to the production crew!

Don’t feel comfortable about being front of the camera? No problem! If you have talent in song-writing, poster-designing or editing, don’t miss this! There will also be contest for members to create the official theme song for the film, design the official poster or create your own trailer.

Members will also receive a limited edition graphic novel and DVD.

The movie itself is not “crowd funded” — it is being made regardless of the amount of members!

The location of this project will be taken place based on the majority of members located in the city. If the majority of members are from Toronto, then it will be taken place right here in our home city!

The actual draft of the script will be released to members in two weeks, and the production crews will start shooting in early spring, and the planing release date is set to be in December!

For more information, check out their Facebook page and Twitter.

Since it’s Hayao Miyazaki’s birthday on January 5th, I figured it would be nice to have an article published around that date. If you don’t know who Miyazaki is, all I have to say is, “Shame on you!!!!!!!!” Hayao Miyazaki is a renowned Japanese animation director. He’s responsible for a lot of wonderful movies like the 2002 Academy Award Winner Spirited Away and other classics like My Neighbour Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. His latest movie, Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea (watch the trailer here) was out in theatres during the summer.

Now, what is Studio Ghibli? Well, it’s the animation studio he co-founded with director Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki. This studio has seriously produced some really magical films.

Anyways, unlike my article on Japanese literature, I can’t just give “picks” on Studio Ghibli films, you have to watch them all! (If you’ve never seen a Ghibli film, I declare that you have no soul.) As a result, I’ll list the top 5 things that make this animation studio so wonderful. (more…)

You won’t be know how much it takes to make a music video until you get yourself involved! Just before the end of 2009 drew near, I got a chance to help out on a set of shooting a music video for U of T’s upcoming film festival. It was my first time getting involved in events like this and boy what a pleasant experience that was. Being on a set of video shoot can be chaotic sometimes, but you have to be pleased with the effort everybody puts in!

The theme of the music video is social justice and was directed by award-winning Iranian film director Babak Payami, who studied cinema at the University of Toronto decades ago.

Some technical stuff: When shooting a music video, usually the same sequence will be shot around 11 times so that it will provide enough material for the editors to edit during the post-production stage. However, the song will be played over and over again! By end of the day, almost everyone who worked on the set has the song inked in their heads!

Some additional photos:
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The U of T Film Festival celebrates the University of Toronto’s rich contribution to the arts through its student and alumni film and video makers. Now in its ninth year, the festival also welcomes films and videos from all emerging and established filmmakers, through we have not lost our focus on student work. For the 2010 edition our special guest will be Babak Payami.

The types of submissions the festival is looking for are:

• short films and videos of any length, genre and topic
• “Super 8″ films that are silent and played with live music
• 1-minute long “Shitty Films” for the annual Shitty Film Contest
• installation art, including site-specific proposals
• film and videos of any length that address social justice issues, especially social entrepreneurialism, providing innovative solutions to social problems.

The deadline is February 8th, and the festival takes place March 13 but early submissions encouraged. For a submission form and details, go to www.uoftfilmfest.ca or send an e-mail to info@uoftfilmfest.ca.

Before your brush this off as a Twilight-bashing or Twilight fangirl post, please be aware that neither of the reasons stated above are the purpose of this blog. However, I cannot promise neutrality as I read the first two books in a post-exam state of brain-deadness while the last two were read with the purpose of cynically laughing at the characters and plot. (You should ask me and my fellow friend and blogger, Ailsa, for our five minute skit of the entire series. We’ve made complete strangers laugh with it.)

Nonetheless, I’ve been wanting to explore this question for a while since I heard the following comment from one of my friends: “I know that Twilight is a horribly written series but Edward is the kind of guy I’ve always wished for.” Coincidentally enough, I was not surprised by her declaration; in fact, I always had a suspicion that this was the reason why the book had become so popular.

Although he is definitely not my cup of tea, I can somewhat understand how Stephanie Meyer’s readers would be attracted to the sparkling vampire. However, I feel that there are a few implications that are quite alarming in the fact that millions of girls and boys of all ages are obsessed with this handsome vampire. (more…)

Image from Wikipedia

Warning: This contains spoilers after the jump!

We all know how tough it can be growing up and figuring out who are, which is why, I think, we can all somewhat relate to Water Lilies. Made in 2007, it’s a French film (originally titled Naissance des pieuvres) essentially about two young girls reluctant to come to terms with the fact that they are both lesbians. Okay you’re probably thinking, this is the perfect movie for guys to get horny but I assure you it is much more than that. I was so moved and felt just as much sadness, happiness and shame as the characters did. I know that sounds completely fruity but it’s true.
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The 13th annual edition of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is almost here! It will happen November 11-15. Many of the films will take place at Innis College here on campus while the rest will occur at various theatres around downtown Toronto. There is also an industry series program to attend a variety of lectures by qualified guest speakers for those of you who are interested in The Art of Film Making. The industry pass is unbelievably inexpensive and let’s just say you get much more than you bargain for. Check out the full programming at www.reelasian.com

Here are the short descriptions of just a few of the great films that will be showing at the RA Film Fest: (more…)