INK Review

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of seeing a rare kind of independent film at Cinema Village in NYC. When I say rare, it's not because of the genre of the film (sci-fi fused with a bit of fantasy/dreamscape) but rather because of the tremendously high quality final product that is "Ink" a new feature film from up and coming director Jamin Winans. Some of you may already be familiar with the filmmaker from his sensational short film "Spin" which I didn't realize was Jamie's until after I stumbled upon his youtube channel, but in retrospect there is a direct homage to the short in "Ink" which makes for one of the more memorable scenes of the film.

So what makes "Ink" so uniquely cool and different? First off, the level of FX in this film are outstanding, in addition to fantastic cinematography, art direction, editing, choreography and sound design. Every element of the film's production, especially the post production values, are top notch. In addition to that, the movie is chock full of cinematic homage that I was spotting left and right, making it truly a film buff's film to enjoy. Everything from "The City of Lost Children" to "The Matrix" to "Sin City" to an obscure Chris Cunningham videos (maybe that's just me seeing things), but I got a certain sense of glee from seeing the influences of some of my favorite directors such as Aronosfky, Fincher, Lynch, Jeunet and Rodriguez present and alive in the film.

For an independent product, "Ink" looks and feels just like a high budget sci-fi adventure and that truly is a marvel and nod to the director's hard work and creativity. My one gripe with the film was that I felt elements of the story were a bit heavy handed, but I think it's Jamin's way of getting across his positive message about the importance of family. Either way, it never distracted from the fresh style of Jamin's filmmaking and the unqiue universe he has crafted. I don't want to spoil any of the plot, so just watch the trailer above and I'm sure you'll be intrigued to seek out the film. "Ink" is playing in limited release right now in only a few select cities, but hopefully it will be distributed as a digital download so all the world can have a chance to see this truly remarkable independent film. Stay up to date with the film on Double Edge films official website, Twitter, and blog.
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Slow week

Blue Crawl, originally uploaded by rasdourian.

But lots of blu content coming soon!

Raising the Not Quite Dead...on Twitter!

So yesterday I posted about Jason Pollock's premiere tweetup and today I'm writing about Anthony Lane, an ambitious filmmaker who I also met on Twitter. He caught my attention via his unique method for raising funds for his next feature film "Invasion of the Not Quite Dead". Using the social network, he is taking pre-orders for DVDs and blu-rays of the yet to be filmed film and using that as the primary budget for his project. Yet another ingenious concept for combining social interaction with progressive film cutlture. Not only is Anthony attracting an audience before the film is even made, but he is directly incorporating them into the film.



Anthony is offering a few different packages on his website, a standard pre-order and then multi-tiered producer package or even a speaking role in the film. Either one will result in the zombification of a photo you send to Anthony, part of the pre-order. I think Anthony's creative concept for finacning his film will succeed and I look forward to adding "Invasion of the Not Quite Dead" to my blu-ray collection.

A New Kind of Film Twestival

I've been on Twitter for quite some time and it never ceases to amaze me how amazingly innovative people can be with the social network, particularly when it comes to integrating it with evolving film culture. In my opinion, one of the most important aspects of social media for filmmakers is building an audience for your film, essentially curating your work directly for your fans. But building an audience is only step 1, interacting with them and keeping them engaged with both the filmmaking process and the distribution process is vital to creating something more lasting than an mere independent film.

I can't think of a more perfect example then what Jason Pollock is doing with the premiere of his new documentary film "The Youngest Candidate" at the LA film festival later tonight. It truly is a first of its kind, to use Twitter not to just to promote the film, but actually directly inviting your audience to attend the premiere and bringing those digital supporters who can't attend the event into the theater via Twitter. Jason is truly interacting with his audience in a new and inspiring way and because of that, I predict his film will be a huge success, more so than the average independent film, that is unaware of the power that can be infused via social media.

Learn more about the film premiere and tweetup and if you are tweeting today, hash tag all your tweets with #TYC so Jason can be a trending topic when the film premieres.

UPDATE: Just for clarification, the term Twestival in the title refers to a play on words for film festival and is not meant as the actual definition for an official fund raising operation for charity water. Thanks Amanda Rose for clarifying!

Lazer Tunnel

I got the new iPhone 3GS and its amazing. It does video! This is my new youtube channel dedicated to just my iPhone vids...enjoy!

100th Post!!!

For my hundredth blog post, check out the new exclusive video that Allan Tsao and myself made for SoulPancake. Enjoy!

Want to be home?

Big Boss, originally uploaded by rasdourian.

Always...