Maira Kalman's Principles of Uncertainty

Artist/designer/children's book author and illustrator/New Yorker contributor/etc Maira Kalman has been writing a column for the New York Times entitled "The Principles of Uncertainty."

Basically, it consists of various colorful sketches of often mundane, urban situations coupled with poetic and witty philosophizing.

Last year, a compilation of many of these pieces hit bookstores. You can find it here: "The Principals of Uncertainty"

The New York Times filmed Ms. Kalman discussing the project at an event: Maira Kalman Interview

Definitely check it out. I grew up reading her zany children's books. She's brilliant and probably motivated me to pursue art/writing at a very young age.

Os

Hello! I was just on the craziest shoot ever- It was for an experimental short, "Os" directed by Jivko Darakchiev. This period piece is about what happens when a young boy visits a widow living alone in a small cabin in Southern France. I was Assistant Camera to DP JR Skola and it was one of the most intense jobs I've been on. Here's a list of elements that made the shoot memorable:

bonfire, bones one fire, stop motion animation, location owner with 5 dogs and 2 cats and a squirrel, plates shattering, wine glasses shattering, nudity, a live chicken, and 2160 eggs in a bathtub...



I'm sure there's more that I can't remember. I was there for 5 out of the 7 shooting days, the shoot finally wrapped on Saturday and we are now anxiously waiting to see the dailies. It's going to be amazing :)

Porky Pig's Got a Foul Mouth

Few people realize just how much the old Warner Bros. cartoons pushed the envelope during the Pre-Hayes Code era. Dig this clip of Porky Pig (it's real!):

"Son of a B****"

Where The Wild Things Are(n't?)

If you haven't been following the drama around the new Spike Jonze (Director's Label!) film, Where The Wild Things Are, you probably saved yourself some serious anxiety. And by serious I mean some of people are getting pretty worked up about this movie about a bunch of muppets.

The film, which features vocal performances by Forest Whitaker, Paul Dano, James Gandolfini and Catherine Keener, and a soundtrack by The Yeah Yeah Yeah's Karen O. + friends (ie Bradford Cox), has already been pushed back to 2009.

According to Slashfilm "Word in the hills is that Warner Bros is extremely unhappy with the finished product. Test screening audiences have complained that the film is too adult and even too scary for children."

Slashfilm also reports that the $75 Million feature may have to be completely reshot.

That's bad news for us, like anyone my age, I loved the book (and anything else Sendak related) and was excited to see what Dave Eggers and Jonze would come up with.

In any event, here's a bigger version of the still (courtesy of MTV) that Jonze alleges was a vfx test, and a shot (courtesy of ego-rapper Kanye West) of one of the little muppets in Jim Henson's workshop.

Also, here are a couple of shots and a clip (presumably another fx test wink wink).

US

I recently produced a short film, the second of director JR Skola, called US: a love story. We went through some scheduling difficulties and caused a blackout on the entire block of the apartment we were shooting in (my apologies to our neighbors in Hoboken) but we had an amazing time and got some awesome footage! We had a hard working crew and really devoted actors. Our DP Ben Nicholas made movie magic with that HVX camera and lighting of his- check out some of the productions stills:

I'll be updating more on short film shoots... the next will be from a log cabin built in 1810!!!

News: Summer Palace gets reviewed...

If you like indie films and haven't checked out our most recent release Summer Palace, you should do so.

But don't take our word for it, check our most recent review in the SF Chronicle, where they call the film "“the most important Chinese film this decade”.

Or check the New York Times review (Critics' Pick!), or the New Yorker.

Jazz Ain't Dead

Quick shout out to those skateboard kids in bushwick that know how to throw a party, check out the house band The Stumblebum Brass Band, coming soon to subway platform near you.

Wild Combination

Just a quick post to tell you to check out this trailer for a forthcoming doc about Arthur Russell, one of the forefathers of dance music and one of the unsung greats. You've danced to Loose Joints at least once in your life...the film looks great.



For more info, check the website

The doc is by Matt Wolf- read an interview by our friends at Dusted Magazine here

They have a Myspace and a blog