Last week Paste declared their 25 Documentaries of the Decade. To be honest it was a bit of a disappointingly obvious list, in terms of safely including most of the biggest docs of the decade. Every film on their list is a great documentary but there were also a great amount of other films that possibly should have seen a mention.
I tried to limit to 25 but it's just impossible. This isn't necessarily in any order, I hate the idea of saying one is better than the other, especially when you're talking 10 years of filmmaking and also the sheer ...
Top 15 Documentaries of 2009
1. Antoine
(Laura Bari, Canada, 2009) - website - trailer
As usual I couldn't stick to convention and pick 10 or 20, but this is the list that just appeared when I began writing down the documentaries I've loved most this year. I know there are some big films missing but there are a few that I haven't had a chance to see (Collapse, Objectified and Best Worst Movie being three in particular that I'm itching to get hold of.)
As with the decade list this isn't in any order, I still can't bring myself to do that. All of these films I ...
Research Process: Clip – Encounters at the End of the World
My friend, and filmmaking partner, Jemma has set me the task of showing her documentaries she hasn't seen so that we can look at visuals and filming techniques for a documentary we are currently in the research stage for. Jemma has largely always focused on current affairs TV docs, as that is her main area of interest, and has little knowledge when it comes to feature documentaries. I don't see this as a bad thing and it means I get a chance to re-watch a lot of films I love, so I've begun trying to think of particular films or ...
Remembering Dennis Stock
Magnum Photographer Dennis Stock sadly died today.
Stock started his career as an apprentice to Life magazine photographer Gjon Mili and joined Magnum in 1951. Although best known for his intimate portraits of James Dean he was also a prolific Jazz photographer taking some of the most iconic Jazz portraits in history for his book Jazz Street. in 1968 he founded the production company Visual Objectives and shot several documentaries but returned to Magnum to serve as president of Magnum's film and new media division in 1969 and 1970. Stock generated a book or an exhibition almost every year since the ...
The video below has been pinging around the interwebz for a few days now and I can’t help but post it as I have more than a soft spot for any form of animated typography. The type during the Jimmy Carter speech in Gonzo elicited an embarrassingly audible whoop when I first saw that film.
Inspired Mag have accumulated a mammoth 15 examples of kinetic typography based on popular films here. They do get a little same-y after you watch a few but the Rocky video is the crowning glory of the bunch.
My favourite use of this is still the Harvey Milk speech which is just down below:
The man in the picture above is Errol Morris. I love him. I cannot explain how much, just know that I do
No documentary filmmaker has inspired me as much.
“The proper route to an understanding of the world is an examination of our errors about it.”
Errol Morris
I bought this month’s Filmmaker magazine and was excited to see that they had an interview with Morris about his new film Standard Operating Procedure and then literally gasped with excitement to learn that Morris had enlisted the other man that has inspired me and led me to follow my dreams (via a tattoo of one of his designs) Kyle Cooper to do graphics for his film.
Needless to say this is now the most anticipated film of the year for me.
If you aren’t aware of him you may be aware of Fog of War
But if you haven’t seen any of his films I urge you to watch Thin Blue Line
and there is more on Kyle Cooper below…. excuse any gushing about his brilliance
Kyle Cooper
Directors don’t call on Cooper for a signature style; they hire him to dig under the celluloid and tap into the symbolism of a film.
Wired, 2004
Kyle Cooper is regarded as one of the most important opening title designers on history (the only other person regarded as highly is Saul Bass, the pioneer of titles)
Cooper revolutionised opening title design with the titles for Se7en (click to see below)
another highlight are the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang titles below: (I would’ve loved to have shown the title for Donnie Brasco as I absolutely adore them but they seem too hard to find, check them out if you can though)
for more of his work please take a look at his website Prologue
Welcome to In One Eye, Out the Other! My name is Charlotte and this is my blog for anything and everything that I love/like and an ongoing portfolio of my work.
I'm 26 and have spent 20 of those years in education, studying a large range of things from Media Technology to Graphic Design, Photography, Motion Graphics, Web Design, New Media and most recently an MA in Documentary.
I'm a filmmaker and photographer and I watch, write about and programme documentaries.
I live in London with a very large old cat, Henry, who is quite partial to ham sandwiches.
My First Film
I've finally had the time to start re-editing the film so a new version will be up again soon. The film is a portrait of Hunstville, Texas which is home to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the state execution chamber. It looks at the love/hate relationship the residents have with their greatest employer and the stigma of the executions.
The production diary here
and stills from the shoot are here
