This short Die Hardly Working was created for the FOX reality show On The Lot by Zach Lipovsky who ended up as one of the finalist. Being a visual effects specialist most of his films on the show contained some sort of visual effects, this film was relatively effects free. It uses a similar idea to one used in Spaced where the actors prentend to fight with imaginary weapons. In this one two coworkers have an imaginary fight with guns, bows and arrows, swords in a fight to the death. I love the premise and execution of this idea by Zach and although his other films on the show were great this is probably my favourite.
Crazy Late This entry for the Crazy8s film competition sees Jimmy Smith wake up to find himself Crazy Late for his own wedding. Zach used this film to gain entry to the On the Lot competition. Time Out The first film Zach made for On the Lot, a fight over a hat has mysterious consequences.
Danger Zone Zachs second film for On the Lot. A science lab gets its daily safety checkup.
Time Upon a Once Zach third entry for On the Lot. The new neighbours move in.
Sunshine Girl Zachs fourth entry for On the Lot. A small girl captures the sun.
Jib Jab was founded by Brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis in 1999 with a few thousand dollars worth of computer equipment, a dial-up Internet connection and a dream of building a global entertainment brand. In 2004, their election parody "This Land" sparked an international sensation and was viewed more than 80 million times online. NASA even contacted the brothers to send a copy to the International Space Station! Since then, JibJab has premiered ten original productions on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and received coverage on every major news outlet. In 2004, Peter Jennings named the brothers "People of the Year." (Jib Jab YouTube Page)
I recently came across this jib jab video on youtube and saw an ad for there sendables. Basically with just a few clicks of the mouse you can insert photos of someone into pre made video clips. So if you fancy being in high school musical or want to embarrass your friends its a real fun website and easy to use with very little effort. These two videos below probably took about 3-5 minutes each.
Description: Rebel Without a Crew (subtitle: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker with $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player) is a 1995 non-fiction book by Robert Rodriguez. Presented in a diary format, Rebel details Rodriguez' beginnings as a young filmmaker; his stint at a medical testing facility to raise money for a feature film; the making of that film (El Mariachi) for $7,000, and his subsequent experiences in Hollywood selling the film and going to film festivals promoting it.
Martin Scorsese tried something never done before: the restoration of a movie by Alfred Hitchcock, a movie that has never been made... Or maybe not.
Martin Scorsese is interviewed about a 3-minute script by Alfred Hitchcock that he found and is planning to shoot. The action turns to a classical music concert that is taking place in a theater. A young man around 40, a spy or a detective, opens the door to a theater box. He is looking for something that he finally finds inside a light bulb. A young woman from the audience looks up. A violist stops playing when he sees him. Our detective is trying to open the light bulb when the violist arrives. They fight. The musician falls on the audience. The music stops. Our man opens a box containing a bottle of "cava" and two cups. The story returns to Martin Scorsese talking about a missing page. Then, we move to the end. The protagonist and the young lady from the audience are toasting with cava in a romantic position.
In fact, it is a short film promoting the catalan cava Freixenet, directed by Martin Scorsese in the style of Alfred Hitchcock. The only condition stipulated by the brand was the bottle and the name of Reserva had to appear on the screen.
In my book Scorcese and Hitchcock are geniuses, so put them together and you have pure cinematic magic and one incredible commercial. A must see for any Martin Scorcese or Alfred Hitchcock fans, I'm off to watch North by Northwest again.
DOWNLOAD: The Key to Reserva. [Format: MPEG-4 - Size: 44 MB - Running Time: 9 min.]
WATCH: The Key to Reserva [Format: Quicktime - Size: 44 MB - Running Time: 9 min.]
Credits Director: Martin Scorsese Executive creative director: Alex MartÃnez Creative directors: Rory Lambert and Carles Puig Director of photography: Harris Savides Additional photography: Ellen Kuras Editor: Thelma Schoonmaker Visual effects supervisor: Rob Legato
The close-up of the violinist that becomes a long shot reverses a similar shot of a twitching drummer in Young and Innocent (1937).
The key and the wine bottle recall Notorious (1946).
The shot of the falling man looks like James Stewart's fall from the window in Rear Window (1954) and especially Norman Lloyd's fall from the Statue of Liberty in Saboteur (1942); but Reggie Nalder was the one who fell from a balcony in an orchestra hall in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956).
The setting of the hall is lifted from the latter film. The shadow on the music sheet is a quotation from it.
The camera that nearly blinds the hero and turns the screen red recalls what happens to the villain in Rear Window.
The main reference point for this film is North by Northwest (1959). The titles of the film-within-the-film are made to look like Saul Bass's credits. The music score is not a re-creation of Bernard Herrmann's music, but the music itself, artfully edited to follow the action. The characters' names, appearances and roles (hero, villains, heroine, etc.) mirror those of the Hitchcock film. The business card with the initials R.O.T is the same one used by Roger O. Thornhill, the film's protagonist.
The final shot is the reverse of the opening shot in Psycho (1960).The flocking birds of course recall The Birds (1963)
The Big Shave 1967 (IMDB Link) Six-minute short from the now legendary director features a lot of his trademark even though this is basically just a student film.
It's Not Just You, Murray! 1964 (IMDB Link) Now middle-aged, mobster Murray looks back at his humble beginnings as a bootlegger and his rise to becoming wealthy and highly influential. Through it he talks about how much of his success and happiness is due to the support of his "friend" Joe. Unfortunately the only one who blindly believes Joe is anything close to a friend is Murray, because it's obvious to everyone that Joe back-stabs him at every chance and is sleeping with his wife.
The Neigbourhood 2001 (IMDB Link) A short segment Scorsese directed for the 2001 Concert For New York City. It was introduced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
Hi, I'm Tristan, I'm a Film Enthusiast, Filmmaker.
I've created this blog as a place where I can post any videos I make and add a few of my favourite short films, videos that have inspired me, tutorials and online video competitions that I've found on my web travels.
For my films I mostly use a Panasonic NV-GS70 camera plus Adobe Premiere, After Effect and Photoshop.
If you like the blog and would like updates feel free to subscribe via email or through a reader. If you have any questions or would like any film work done feel free to contact me. Hope you enjoy and thanks for visiting.
