7/20/15 O&A Hollywood Monday: Home Sweet Home

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Home Sweet Home is a beautifully animated 3D short film about a house which escapes from its suburban foundations and sets off on an epic journey. Created by the talented Pierre Clenet, Alejandro Diaz, Romain Mazevet and Stéphane Paccolat, made in Supinfocom Arles during their last year in 2013. It took one year to create the film, and they used 3ds Max and Vray for rendering and Maya for animation. Compositing was done in after effects. Continue reading

6/8/15 O&A Hollywood Monday Celebrates LGBT Month: Silent T

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Silent T is a short film exploring the social injustice that transgender individuals face, their daily struggles and turmoil they suffer with. ‘Silent T’ aims to promote equality for trans* people by exposing the topic to educate people about transgender issues within society. Continue reading

Hollywood Monday: Vin Diesel- Multi-Facial (1995)

Hollywood Mondays

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Multi-Facial is a 1995 short film directed, written, produced, scored by and starring the 22 year old Vin Diesel. The story depicts the professional and emotional issues faced by Mike (Diesel), a multiracial (Italian and African American) actor. The twenty-minute film is semi-autobiographical, drawing on Vin Diesel’s own frustration trying to find work as an actor of mixed ethnicity. The film was noticed by director Steven Spielberg, who would cast Diesel in Saving Private Ryan (1998). 

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In the early 1990s, Diesel returned from Los Angeles to New York, frustrated with his failures in Hollywood. Diesel’s mother gave him a copy of Feature Films at Used Car Prices, a book about producing low-budget movies. Diesel said that he found the book “truly empowering,” and it motivated him to make his own movies and wrote the script for Multi-Facial in five days. He produced and directed the film, shooting it over the course of three days for three thousand dollars.

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Vin Diesel also wrote and performed music for the film. However, Diesel became disillusioned by the response to the film and stopped work on it. With encouragement from his stepfather, Diesel finished the final edit and screened the film at the Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan. He received a strong response, and the film was accepted for the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. The film was screened to standing-room only crowds.

The closing audition scene in the film is unexpectedly emotional, and effortlessly, it organically concludes the themes built up throughout the film. A great showcase for Diesel, the film works amazingly well cinematically, making it one of the great short films on acting ever made. 

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NEVER GIVE UP YOUR DREAM !

4/6/15 O&A Hollywood Monday: Jesus of Erskineville

Hollywood Mondays

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Jesus recounts a hard day as he waits in line to renew his driver’s license. Short Black Films makes short films with young people from urban Aboriginal communities in and around Sydney. This film written and directed by Alex Romano and features John De Satge as Jesus and Grant Halabe as the labourer. Continue reading

3/9/15 O&A Hollywood Monday: The Dig: You and I and You

Hollywood Mondays

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The Dig: You and I and You is Terence Nance magical realist film for the NYC group. The film subsequently won a prime spot at Sundance and a co-producer in Jay Z, but the self-deprecating Nance refuses to get wrapped up in hype or categorization. After The Dig contributed to the soundtrack of Oversimplification, the director repaid the favor with an impulsive, balletic film for the band’s 2013 EP You & I. Continue reading

3/4/15 Wildin Out Wednesday: The Little Rascals (Readin and Writin)

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Our Gang (also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach’s Rascals) is a series of comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way.  In addition, Our Gang notably put boys, girls, whites and blacks together as equals. That had never been done before in cinema, and the series broke new ground.  Continue reading