How does an aspiring artist bridge the gap between distribution and commerce?
We have to be very clever about those things. You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.

This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?

In the old days, 200 years ago, if you were a composer, the only way you could make money was to travel with the orchestra and be the conductor, because then you’d be paid as a musician. There was no recording. There were no record royalties. So I would say, “Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money.” Because there are ways around it.

—The 99% | Read the Full Article

Fincher: I look back on stuff that I was… I can flip through channels and see on HBO a movie that I did years ago and I look at it and I go, “aww I coulda made that better. I could tell that story faster now.” It’s a hard thing. I don’t know that final cut… it doesn’t protect you from people saying to you, “You should look at this. You should really…” It’s not always that polite. I don’t think final cut protects you or insulates you from people’s opinions. You’ve taken tens of millions of dollars to make a movie. It’s somebody else’s money. So you’re going into it and you’re hoping that if you can align this actor, and this actor, and this actor and get this chemistry between this, and make this work, and get to Sweden on time before it’s suddenly 30 degrees below zero every day and the sun is only out for three hours – you have all those things that are going on. I don’t know that final cut makes the movie better. Because when it gets right down to it, I didn’t have final cut of Fight Club. And that’s a movie that you would expect a movie studio to step in and go, “No, no, no, Mr. Fincher. Please.”

And yet, you know, because [producer] Laura Ziskin, may she rest in peace, and Bill Mechanic were people of their word, and because all discussions were had upfront about, “Here’s what we’re trying to accomplish, and here’s why it’s seditious, and here’s why it should be done at this kind of scale rather than at this lesser scale, and here are the…” You know, there’s a great place in the pantheon of risk takers if you go with this. There were many, many things that people… there were concessions that were made. This idea that a director is only really a director if he’s stomping his feet, crossing his arms, and holding his breath, it’s bullshit.

— First Showing | Read The Full Article

Meryl Streep: “I never dreamed of being an actress”
Before she chose her career, Meryl Streep had a surprising affliction: stage fright.

Meryl Streep, director?
Meryl Streep tells Morley Safer that she’s “thought about” directing, but likes her life the way it is.

Meryl’s men: How does she feel about her co-stars
What do Steve Martin, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood, and Alec Baldwin have in common? All these actors have been lucky enough to work on memorable movies with Meryl Streep. Meryl tells Morley what she thinks about working with each of these leading men.

You can watch the full hour long interview here.

(Scroll Below for the Complete Unedited Version)

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Full Unedited Interview:

Top 7 Articles of the Week

7. Top 7 Country Songs That Should Be Movies
Now some of you that know way too much about Country Music to be on this site may say, a couple of these where already made into movies. If you are one of these people, please get off your sister, get that mullet cut and get a job!

6.How to make Work Lights slightly less crappy
LoweRuno Productions shares some modifications he made to his construction work lights to re-purpose the for video use. The results aren’t spectacular but if you absolutely have to use these abominations (as opposed to bare bulbs which are readily available), these modifications can come in handy.

5. Jodi Foster on Travis Bickle as the Anti-Hero in TAXI DRIVER
Jodi Foster discusses the character Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, in Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER. Foster discusses Travis Bickle as an “anti-hero,” and the reasons she thinks audiences can identify with him.

4.An Easy Way to Color Grade for Film-Look

Using Red Giant Colorista Free, NewWaveG demonstrates how the “film look” gamma curve we’ve all been trying to emulate may actually be backwards.

3. Behind the scene of a First Person Shooter turn Mountain Dew Ad

In a joint campaign with Modern Warfare 3, McG and master cinematographer Shane Hurlbut put the Canon 5d to the task of capturing the look of a first person shooter for a Mountain Dew Ad.

2. If Saul Bass Designed the Title Sequence…
Between Mad Men and Pan Am, the demand for iconic 60s title sequences has never been stronger. We scoured the internets to find how many legendary films might have looked if their title sequences designed by the legendary Saul Bass:

1.True 3D Projection Tech Makes Images Hove in Mid-Air Without a Screen

This True 3D display technology, developed by Burton, uses a laser to creates luminous points of light at desired locations in air or underwater. It works by focusing laser light, to produce plasma excitation from the oxygen and nitrogen in the air.

WTF Post of the Week

Black Friday Shopping at it’s best:

An honorable mention for my the Jazz ensemble I play in and our performance of “Blues in Frankie’s Flat”