July 2001

The Search for Truth

"Well I’m not interested in accuracy. Or am I? I don’t know.

There is no simple solution to the Cartesian riddle of what’s out there: that somehow you can just look at a person and just tell whether they’re lying or truth-telling. And anybody who says that there is, I believe, is self-deceived or lying themselves.

Lacking the built-in touristic draw of a Nantucket or Newport, modest Waterville, Maine -- a college town in the state’s interior -- relies instead on a cadre of indie-minded aficionados to mount the Maine International Film Festival. Initiated in 1998 by local cinema lovers Ken Eisen and Alan Sanborn, who run the Railroad Square Cinema year-round, "MIFF," as it’s known, drew 4,000 viewers last year, not just from Maine, but from 26 states and nine foreign countries. "People often wonder, 'Why read more...

Film Festivals

The Woods Hole Film Festival will run July 28 - August 4, 2001 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The festival places special emphasis on regional filmmakers and spotlights cinematography. For more information about the festival, please call 617-347-0316, e-mail woho32aol.com, or visit http://www.woodsholefilmfestival.com. 

A Mini Dreamworks…

On May 1, 2001, Cobweb Films burst upon the Rhode Island scene, further reducing our dependence on Hollywood. According to Tony Lockwood -- Cobweb’s founder, President and CEO -- the need will continue to diminish now that the Northeast has a "mini-Dreamworks" in its backyard.

Picture yourself sitting in a movie theater with the lights dimmed low. The scene filling the movie screen is that of a crowded New England beach. Children are playing, people are swimming, and the lifeguards on duty are carefully scanning the horizon for signs of trouble. The camera cuts back and forth through the water hinting that something is lurking just below the surface, ready to strike. Suddenly, a mammoth-sized shark rises from the ocean and grasps an unsuspecting swimmer between its razor-sharp jaws, pulling the swimmer down to the ocean floor.

The new fruit on Apple’s tree is DVD Studio Pro, the first harvest from Apple’s acquisition of Astarte more than a year ago. DVD Studio Pro (or DVDSP for lovers of abbreviations) is a full-featured DVD authoring and encoding application. Previously only available in expensive hardware and software products, Apple has made professional DVD authoring affordable and practical.

Apple’s Final Cut Pro 2.0 offers moviemakers and video producers the ability to edit their work in a powerful and versatile environment, then manage the final output to tape, digital file, and now directly to DVD when combined with the new DVD Studio Pro (see related article). Apple now offers an unbeatable suite of applications and hardware for filmmakers, post-production facilities, corporate media producers, DVD authors, and web designers.

Now in its sixth year, the Nantucket Film Festival, which was held June 20-24, has become a staple to any serious member of the film community. This year’s festival included the screening of 21 features and 23 shorts, along with numerous other activities including: staged readings, panel discussions, "Morning Coffee," and numerous parties. It is a film festival that prides itself on honoring the screenwriter claiming that here is where "screenwriters inherit the Earth."

Sonic Desktop Software, maker of SmartSound for Multimedia, has made its nearly perfect software even better with the introduction of SmartSound Sonicfire Pro. Most noticeable in this new product is the ability to import QuickTime movies to view the video as users build their audio effects and music. This gives editors real-time previewing of the video and music.

Families have often proven ripe for artistic plunder. To paraphrase Tolstoy, happy families are all alike (in other words, equally boring), but unhappy families are all unhappy in their own way (and thus make great story material). With "Dischord," writer/director Mark Wilkinson mines the familial landscape and unearths a rough-hewn gem.