Running Times
May 6, 2013
The Sundance guide book stated that the running time for Ain't Them Bodies Saints was 90 minutes - a running time that went on to be widely reported, in spite of the fact that the actual duration was a hair over 106 minutes.
The version that will play in Cannes, and which, barring a surge of creative inspiration and an influx of cash, will be the same one released in theaters, is a little shy of 96 minutes.
I'm happy to let the 90 minute legend live on, however. It'll catch people that much more off guard when the movie starts to feel like its three hours long.
Posted by David Lowery at 11:57 PM
Production Journal
April 21, 2013
While digging through some boxes, I found the following essay, which I wrote when I was 12 years old. It was an assignment for, if I recall correctly, my 7th grade computer science class, and is an account of one of my early feature film efforts (I never finished it, and the remains currently exist on a VHS tape somewhere at my parents' house).
Even back then, I loved production journals, making-ofs, how-to's and any other insight into film production, and I was eager to create my own. I've been thinking about playing catch-up and making one for ATBS, but until I do, this should suffice - and in fact, it probably reads almost exactly the same as that one would.
Posted by David Lowery at 5:56 PM
Picture Locking Tomorrow
December 13, 2012
Instead of writing about editing, I'm just going to post this video a friend sent this to me the other day, which pretty much says it all:
I love that this is a six minute scene whose hilarity is so exactingly attuned to the highs and lows of cutting a movie. I've sat in both of chairs over the past eight months and said these Exact Same Things.
Posted by David Lowery at 1:47 PM
St. Nick on St. Nick's Day
December 6, 2012
Here's something that's been a long time coming. Starting today, and through the next week, St. Nick is available to watch in its entirety via NoBudge.com, the micro-budget streaming boutique started by Kentucker Audley.
ST. NICK (full film) from NoBudge on Vimeo.
Longtime readers may recall vague mentions of distribution and DVDs - but there was wishy-washyness afoot with our deal, and we withdrew. No need to rush, we figured. The movie had done well, and it wasn't going anywhere. And it still isn't - but we thought it would be nice to give it some fresh air.
So if you haven't seen it (or even if you have), plug that vimeo link into the biggest television you can find and turn out all the lights and turn it up loud...
Posted by David Lowery at 9:59 AM
Movie Holiday
December 2, 2012
Throughout prep and production, I saw but three movies: Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises and The Bourne Legacy. I almost walked out of one of those and fell asleep in another. It wasn't a good summer for watching things.
But now how we are, in the thickest of our post schedule, and all I want to do is go see movies. So go see them I have. I've skewed towards the mainstream lately - if it looks good and big, I'm there, with the exception of Skyfall, because I always somehow manage to miss James Bond movies. Here are brief thoughts on some of what I've seen:
- Flight: whatever one might say about this movie - and I personally enjoyed it - doesn't diminish the commendations Zemeckis & co. deserve for turning this in to the tune of thirty million dollars. If most mainstream movies were this fiscally responsible, words like adult and drama might not be considered so dirty.
- Starlet: I missed SXSW this year because I was editing a movie, and have been waiting to see this ever since. It's wonderfully sweet. The actress who plays Dree Hemingway's roommate is amazing. The relationship between those two was dynamite.
- Silver Linings Playbook: I can't tell you how happy this movie made me. It's a burst of screwball joy. It's like David O. Russell realized the best part of The Fighter were all of the sisters yelling at people and decided to make an entire movie on the same note. It's wonderful.
- Lincoln: And this movie made me even happier. It's thrilling. All that talk! The best movie Spielberg has made since whatever good one came before that Indiana Jones movie. Anyone who says movies aren't better than ever right now is crazy...
- Anna Karenina: ...except that this one didn't really work that well. The stylistic conceit is neat, and probably made for a more engaging movie than a traditional adaptation, but it also exposes the primary problem of adapting the novel in the first place, that being: the reason the story is famous is that it is a novel, and hence subject to all the roughing up that 800 or so pages of delicate prose can so exquisitely administer. Kudos to Joe Wright, however, for making Anna a terrible person, which is about all one can do when you have a two hour running time and still manage to make room for Levin's brother.
- Rust & Bone: This one was a disappointment. I love Audiard (and am one of the only folks I know who prefers The Beat My Heart Skipped to A Prophet) but this film sort of fell apart right when it was really starting to get great. There's a point where the whales and missing limbs and muscles and sex and Katy Perry all start to come together in a rather thrilling fashion - when you realize that the title might actually be referring to our two protagonists, nicknamed and paired up like two viscerally emotional superheroes. And then the thing with the ice happens and I sort of checked out. I feel like there's probably a big messy four hour cut of this that would have fulfilled its promise. If there's not, there should be. I really am sad I didn't love this, which is why I've written more than two sentences about it.
- The Life Of Pi: I hate 3D, but I would go see this a second time just to see the 3D again. This is one of the most stunning visual experiences I've ever had at the movies. The story is good and well told, but it fades in a way that the images haven't.
- Twilight 5: can I just say that I only saw this to see Rami Malek, who was so good in The Master and is also wonderful in our film? Admittedly, I have seen all the others in the series and read all the books, but the guilty pleasure factor faded sometime around November '09.
- The Grey: this is from last winter, but I have to mention it because I just watched it at home and was completely knocked out by how great it is. It's the best primal portrait of masculine mortality James Dickey never wrote. The first two lines of the poem that Neeson cites are so strong that I thought I'd heard them before, that they were from a famous poem - but nope. For those two lines, Joe Carnahan revealed a lovely inner Hemingway.
- Killing Them Softly: To say that this is an allegory or a metaphor is something of an insult to both terms, but I thought this was pretty strong all the same. Dominik's dialogue makes me want to write better dialogue, and it looks great and not at all like it was shot in Louisiana, which is something I think every movie shot in Louisiana needs to aspire towards. Also, every character is so determinedly awful, and sometimes when I go to the movies I really like coming to grips with things like that.
Posted by David Lowery at 1:35 AM
Sundance 2013
November 28, 2012
This and this:
Posted by David Lowery at 4:42 PM