While there is no train advancing towards the screen in Me at the zoo, from user “jawed,” there is something hidden and more meaningful behind the seemingly unimpressive events in this video. The protagonist, if one can call him such, enacts common uses of film/video language: he narrates through direct address and directs our attention through gesture while the camera composes him quite squarely within a mise-en-scene, which also conveys action and depth via the distant elephant and receding wall to the camera’s left, which visually recalls the depiction of depth within the documented arrival of a train at La Ciotat Station. While neither works are the first visual documents of their medium, they both imply greater value at work. Read on…

This week we’re delving back into the world of tech for a nice chat with Andrew Kippen, VP of Marketing for Boxee. For those who are unaware of Boxee, it is a free piece of software that allows you to experience any kind of digital content, be it local or streaming, from the comfort of your couch. It is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and AppleTV, and they will soon be releasing the Boxee Box in conjunction with D-Link. If it is still unclear what Boxee is, first go to boxee.tv and click around, maybe install the app. Then listen to the podcast to hear why this scrappy little company is on the front lines of a major media distribution revolution.

This summer, Boxee plans to roll out a payments system. Imagine, if you will, paying only for the channels you actually watch instead of dishing out around $70 per month for hundreds of channels you don’t watch. Better still, given the openness of the web and Boxee, almost any content maker can get in on the fun. As has become painfully honest to networks and studios over the years, you know longer need to be a major corporation to create content that people want. With the advent of digital workflows, content creation is already democratized. Boxee is working to even the playing field for content distribution.

I’ve said too much already. Click and listen, and tell us your thoughts on Boxee, streaming video, and the media revolution in the comments.

 
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Now that the dust has finally settled on NBC’s “Tonight Show” débâcle, with Jay Leno returning as host of the program, speculators can’t help but predict a landing place for the now jobless Conan O’Brien. It’s assumed that he’ll go to Fox, the only network without a late night talk show currently. However, over at the New York Times’ Bits Blog, writer Nick Bilton has a different, more ethereal outlet for the ginger haired comic: The Internet!

“So here’s my advice to Mr. O’Brien:” Mr. Bilton offers up, “After he leaves NBC and spends a few months healing his wounds and pulling the troops back together, he should come back and make the Internet his time slot.” The rest of the piece doesn’t say all that much about how to achieve such an end, but does revolve around buzzwords like “Leno!” “Conan!” and “Internet!” proving that even the New York Times isn’t above link-baiting. But there is a story to pull from Bilton’s piece: that the logic behind his Internet Time Slot reflects the outdated viewpoint of the web that still runs rampant among popular thought. Read on…

You may not have heard about AnyClip yet, but you should definitely prick up your ears and listen to this interview with their VP of Product, Nate Westheimer. This tenacious tech startup’s plans for video search have been causing a lot of buzz in the tech community ever since they won the Audience Choice Award at TechCrunch50 (think American Idol for tech companies). The short of their idea: cataloguing every clip ever. Their flagship site, anyclip.com, is currently in private beta, but if you land an invite it is definitely a lot of fun to poke around. You can search through moments in their growing collection of films using simple terminology, just like any other search engine. Nate describes it better in our conversation (and on the anyclip blog), so you really ought to download the audio below.

 
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The candler blog is not just a movie review website, though we do plenty of that from time to time. Officially, when people ask me what kind of a website this is, I say “the candler blog is a film theory and criticism website”, which cinema civilians tend to get a bit confused by. “Theory?” they ask. What do we mean by that? Myself and Sunrise Tippeconnie have recorded a Candlercast to help explain that idea. Just like an egg candler holds an egg up to light to determine its health, we hold films and pop culture up to our own form of candle. In picking apart the minutiae of films and filmmaking, we hope to achieve a greater understanding of this art form.

Sunrise Tippeconnie and I are friends and collaborators who have spent hours upon hours deconstructing every part of the process of moviemaking over the years. I would like to share just some of that conversation with you, dear readers, will join in. On the docket for this first dialogue are the state of HD and 4K video acquisition. We talk about the usefulness of certain technologies alongside film, the need for more standardization of cinema terminologies, and the Charlie Chaplin vs. Buster Keaton complex. What does all of that mean? You’ll have to listen to find out.

 
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About a month ago I entered a short film into a contest hosted by culture/event blog Flavorpill and literary magazine GRANTA. The idea was to make a film that encapsulates the idea of life as a rehearsal. The film I submitted, Process, managed to win the contest. They gave me a lovely writeup for the film. Watch it here.

I made the film a few months ago from footage I took a few months before. While hanging out with my friend Nazy, I broke out my Nikon D90 and started filming her. She thought I was going to take a still photo any minute, not realizing at first that I was recording our conversation. From about 15 minutes of footage I snipped together this little piece. (Nazy consented to all this, so don’t be afraid to hang out with me while I have my camera)

The candler blog is specifically a site about film by filmmakers, so I thought you might like to see a bit of what I do when I’m not picking apart blockbusters or dolling out career advice. I would love to hear your thoughts on the piece in the comments, and will happily field any questions about it.

Too often, we as viewers fall into filmic ruts. We convince ourselves that our understanding of a particular topic, character or time period has been perfected; questioning such concepts would be blasphemy, or at the very least uninteresting. Collectively, we must be shocked out of such beliefs. With Public Enemies, director Michael Mann has taken everything we thought we knew about the gangster film, deconstructed it, and put it back together into something wholly different and occasionally successful.

Johnny Depp slips into the bad boy role of bank robber John Dillinger. An opening title card informs us that he was enjoying the golden age of bank robbing, though this is hardly a heist film. There is some talk of a big “score” early on, but instead of any major planning going into the robberies, Dillinger and his partners rob as often as needed to pay the bills. The film plays more like a biopic than  anything else, but that doesn’t mean it is wholly impotent in the shoot ‘em up department. Read on…

With the mountains of Tibet as a setting, a group as elusive as the Buddhist monks who occupy that land as a subject, and a conceivably endless search for a reincarnated master as a mission, director Nati Baratz is given every opportunity to exploit this Eastern culture in his breakout documentary, Unmistaken Child. Thankfully, his sensibility is much more refined than that. Instead, Mr. Baratz and his team have crafted a thought-provoking, emotional journey of the highest regard.

Following the death of Geshe Lama Konchong in 2001, the master’s disciple for twenty-one years, Tenzin Zopa,  is charged with searching for the Lama’s reincarnation. Having lived in the service of Lama Konchong for twenty-one years, he is selected because it is believed that someone so close to the Lama will be able to recognize him even in the body of a child. This is a story of emotional redemption and religious discovery, but it is also a detective story. Tenzin has very few clues to go on, but that does not weaken his resolve as he heads to the Tsum Valley of Tibet to seek out his master in a new form. Read on…