July/August 1999

The Aperture Film Grant

khards — Sun, 01 Aug 1999 00:00:00 -0500

When and why did the Aperture Film Grant come into being?
I [Lewis] was raising money to shoot my own short film, and I thought that doing so under a nonprofit umbrella would make the process easier. This did not turn out to be the case, but a friend, Eric Taras, suggested that a nonprofit would be a good vehicle for raising money for other people and creating a permanent corporation.

The Cinema Guild

khards — Sun, 01 Aug 1999 00:00:00 -0500

What is The Cinema Guild?
We are a well-established (in business over 25 years) “full-service” distributor of motion pictures in all markets—theatrical, nontheatrical, television, and home video—and are thereby able to oversee the release of a film and maximize its commercial potential throughout its entire distribution career.

Who is The Cinema Guild?

V Tape

khards — Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00:00 -0500

What is V tape?

Avid Leaves Mac on the Cutting Room Floor

marla — Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00:00 -0500

NAB is always a forum for major announcements and surprising releases, but few announcements have created as big a stir in the broadcast and film communities as this year's statements by Avid, Incorporated. Though the company's claims are open to interpretation, one message came through loud and clear: Avid's future on the Mac platform is limited, and further releases will be for the Windows NT operating system only.

Off the Beaten Track: the Blair Witch Project

marla — Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00:00 -0500

We're kind of a garage band of filmmaking," says Dan Myrick of his collaborators, an Orlando, Florida-based film collective called Haxan Films. Low-fi and revved up with basement tape ingenuity, Haxan cranked it to eleven in their debut film as a group, a thoroughly spooky mock-documentary-cum-horror film called The Blair Witch Project. The film premiered in a midnight screening at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and its visceral effect may have come as a surprise to the parka-clad crowd.

Experimental Television Center

khards — Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00:00 -0500

When and why did the Experimental Television Center (ETC) come into being?

Fit and Trim A Foolproof Method for Storing Film Trims

marla — Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00:00 -0500

i>This article is dedicated to the memory of Rafik, who died on March 1. With the screening series he used to run, the help he gave people behind the scenes, and the equipment and dubbing services he ran for many years, he was a well-loved and invaluable member of the film community and will be sorely missed. I'd want to honor him in any case, but this is also a relevant context for doing so, since he gets the credit for my discovery of the following system.

Mind Over Body?

marla — Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00:00 -0500

Fewer people will be hearing about the plight of the rural farmer on Minnesota public broadcasting, now that there's a new Body in town. Reform Party Governor and former pro-wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura (who's recently renamed himself Jesse "The Mind" Ventura) is phasing out the $4 million that public broadcasting receives from the state of Minnesota. Under the governor's plan, state appropriations for public radio will be reduced by 25 percent in the next fiscal year (beginning July 1), 50 percent the second year, and be eliminated altogether in the third.