Closing of Cocomaru?

What a pity…

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Hiroshi: I think Cocomaru is struggling. I went by today and only two films were showing.

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Hiroko: I went by a couple of days ago and the shutters were rolled down. Not even open. Notice flapping in the wind.

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Hiroshi: It was open today. Sort of. But definitely in trouble. No one in the box office. I asked the shop next door if the theater was still in business and he said he thought they were clearing out.

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Hiroko: Business model always did seem to be the elephant in the room.

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Hiroshi: Despite the most enthusiastic managing, many small businesses call it quits for reasons like inexperience or insufficient capital.

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Hiroko: Crowdfunding all burned up so no payouts for the contributors I guess.

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Voice-over

Cocomaru was a unique art theatre. Oasis among the sometimes kitschy commerce of Kichijoji. Can be hard to make a sustainable profit out of alternative culture though.

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PowerPoint to Movie

Inconvenient Truth did a great job…

Beyond PowerPoint

Marigold: Do I need special editing software to make a simple film?

Teacher: You can use PowerPoint. It’ll do a lot. The slides act as a storyboard. You add text. You add pictures. Set the slide background color. You can add voice-over narration. Music. And movie clips.

Marigold: How do I play it as a movie though?

Teacher: Set transitions from the Slideshow menu. Choose Set up Show, choose “Kiosk”, then add slide duration like 2 or 3 seconds in the top right corner. Save as Movie.

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Voice-over

Those are the basic steps. Start with a suspenseful story, interesting characters and appropriate pacing. Then edit, edit, edit.

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Interviewing a film celebrity

James Lipton and George Clooney on Inside the Actors Studio

Radio interview techniques in film…

James Lipton: You have acted in many films.

George Clooney: Over 60, yes.

James Lipton: And as producer or director.

George Clooney: 30 times.

James Lipton: Do you work for money?

George Clooney: I work because I want to enjoy what I do. The money and fame doesn’t matter. I choose films I want to make and will make a statement; ones that will leave a legacy.

James Lipton: Have you ever felt rejected?

George Clooney: Actors feel badly rejected when they don’t get a role. They’re selling a product - themselves. If they get rejected, that’s personal.

James Lipton: What do you consider your best film?

George Clooney: One that I feel was worthwhile doing was Good Night and Good Luck. My father was a news anchorman and I majored in journalism at college so I had a special interest in doing the story of TV journalist Ed Murrow and his battle to discredit Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist hysteria in 1953.

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Voice-over

James Lipton is famous for reading his questions off index cards and then staring at the interviewee. Although his Inside the Actors Studio celebrity interviews are filmed, this technique would also work well as a radio interview. Or as a podcast.

Some of his interview question techniques:

Get the background out of the way with a statement: “You are… You have…”

Use research to praise: “Do you work for money?” Obviously not.

Use something surprising to probe for an uncomfortable insight: “Have you ever felt rejected?”

End on a high note: “…your best film?”

And then turn the show over to the student questions.

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Linnaeus, Garbo and the 100 kroner banknote

Brains vs Beauty…

Albert: Why are they changing the face on the 100 kroner note from Linnaeus to Greta Garbo?

Marilyn: Give a modern face to Swedish culture. Bergman is on the new 200 kroner note.

Albert: But these were film people, entertainers. Not scientists.

Marilyn: They are more popular. Internationally better known. Not everyone knows Linnaeus.

Albert: I still think Linnaeus contributed more to the world than Garbo. He proposed a taxonomy still used 200 years later. She may have had screen presence but what was her legacy?

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Voice-over

Both scientists and artists can assuredly have reputations that last as long as a generation or more, and both scientists and artists can have reputations as ephemeral as a paper banknote. But the legacy of thought or method perhaps should be the measure of the face choice on a bank note.

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The Swimmer as a Geographical Temporal Narrative

On writing a film review…

Student: I’d like to review The Swimmer. Good movie. It got a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Tutor: How many reviewers?

Student: Twenty.

Tutor: Can’t use Rotten Tomatoes as a reference. Everybody does, it’s ubiquitous, but a global ballpark percentage isn’t de rigueur, academically.

Student: So how do you justify a movie as good?

Tutor: Cite the view of respected critic: Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, Joe Morgenstern.

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Voice-over

The Swimmer (1968) traces Ned Merrill's swim home through the pools of a suburb in Connecticut. It is a backward journey through space and time, through neighborhoods he knew, and his past. Although it is a structured succession of satirical scenes, it is as much a geographical and temporal narrative as a picaresque portrayal.

Other movies to score 100% on Rotten Tomatoes include The Godfather (1972), Citizen Kane (1941), Taxi to the Dark Side (2007), Toy Story (1995), Rear Window (1954)… There are quite a few listed here.

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