AMIA Newsbriefs

$150,000 pledged to save LACMA film program

Responding to public outcry over the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's decision to end its 40-year-old weekend film program, two outside organizations have stepped forward to pledge a total of $150,000 in the fight to save the screening series.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which organizes the annual Golden Globe Awards, and Time Warner Cable, in association with Ovation TV, have each agreed to put up $75,000 toward the LACMA film program, which had been scheduled to close in October.

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Labeling Library Archives Is a Game at Dartmouth College

Professor Mary Flanagan wants students to go online and label library archives – for free. Ms. Flanagan, a digital-humanities professor at Dartmouth College, is creating an Internet-based game in which users create descriptive tags for library images to improve searching through the library's database. Although the program will be tested at the college’s library, Ms. Flanagan says the game will be open source and available for others to download and build upon.

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Online archives to save cultures

Folk stories and myths from hundreds of tribes across the world are being threatened by globalisation and rapid socio-economic change, according to linguists and anthropologists at the university. Since January, they have been working to create a digital archive of vocal expressions from some of the most obscure cultures on the planet. The experts at the World Oral Literature Project hope that with the help of digital technology, communities can document their songs and chants and submit them to be archived.

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Plenty remains in L.A.'s repertory Even without LACMA's weekend film series, specialized cinema will be alive in the city

This fall, those cinéastes may be out of luck, given the recent announcement by LACMA that it will be placing its weekend film programs -- a carefully curated mix of Hollywood classics, foreign language and art-house fare -- on indefinite hiatus. The museum's action has shined a spotlight on so-called specialized exhibition in this city, the epicenter of the country's filmmaking business. On the one hand, if there is to be more to film culture than box-office statistics and celebrity gossip as well as a broader appreciation of filmmaking from around the world, institutions such as LACMA must by definition be a part of that mission of cultural education. If not, the frequently heard joke about watching "Lawrence of Arabia" on a cellphone may soon come true.

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The Story of Video Mailbox

Video Mailbox was a company founded in the mid-1980's that rented videotapes through the mail.  Why should you care about them?  Think back to how you rented movies in the 80's.  Back in the day, people would become members of a local brick-and-mortar video store.  You would rent one or two movies from their very limited selection and pay a fee for each one.

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Technicolor dreams of a bright future in digital cinema

Now, after 94 years of serving Hollywood, Technicolor Inc. has planted itself in the heart of Tinseltown, leaving its nondescript headquarters in an industrial neighborhood near Burbank Airport. Its new digs -- a modern, six-story structure at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street -- are a symbol of the company's latest transformation.

Read the story here:  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-technicolor24-2009aug24,0,7342450.story

Project Tuva

Project Tuva is a Microsoft Research initiative which exhibits scientific concepts through an enhanced video player. Tuva takes scientific films (currently historic lectures on physics given by Professor Richard Feynman) and adds to these linked transcripts, a dynamic note-taking facility (so the notes you make are automatically linked to particular points in the video), expert commentaries, integrated timeline and interactive extras.

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Academy organizes film format series

Over three evenings from Sept. 9-11, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a program about motion picture formats titled "Behind the Motion Picture Canvas: Film Formats through the 21st Century." Filmmakers will discuss how film formats shape creative decisions, the technical constraints and the artistic opportunities that accompany the choice of format. The program also will examine the role that emerging technology has played in the evolution of film formats, and how the technical choices made by Thomas Edison and William Dickson at the dawn of the film era continue to influence movies today.

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Silent Capra - Saturday at The Reel Thing XXII

Restoring Silents - Early Capra
Saturday - 11:00am
Linwood Dunn Theatre

Frank Capra, best known for directing comedies in the mid 30's at Columbia Pictures, started his career directing silent films, many of which are little known.  The obscurity of Capra's early work is due in part to the same fate which rendered so many films from the silent era, "lost."  In preparing for a retrospective of Capra's early work, the challenges of restoration work on these films became abundantly clear, and required the exploration of new workflows. Incorporating current post-production work flows into traditional film restoration techniques, The Way of the Strong (1927) was preserved and digitally restored, creating a new filmed out negative and print. 

 

A brief examination of problems encountered and the decisions and solutions will be followed by a screening of the feature film, with live musical accompaniment.

 

Marilyn Monroe - Tonight at The Reel Thing XXII

How to Marry a Millionaire
The Reel Thing XXII presents the premiere of the digital restoration of Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable in "How to Marry a Millionaire."

They're three beautiful models, looking for the man and the money of their dreams! Almost broke, they pool their funds to rent a posh Manhattan penthouse in which they plan to lure their victims. But the gold digger's plans suddenly go awry when two of them fall for men who appear to be poor! Trying to stop each other from marrying the wrong guy, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall deliver the finest comedic performances of their careers. And they learn that a rich man is actually worthless- unless you're in love with him! Nominated for Best Costume in 1954..