The Confluence – Page 244 – The Oregon film community's official blog.

“Calamity Song” Premieres – Directed by Michael Schur in Oregon

The Decemberists’ most recent music video to the track “Calamity Song” off The King Is Dead album made its worldwide debut this morning and is already getting plenty of acclaim from music fans and the press alike. Directed by “Parks & Recreation” co-creator Michael Schur, the video portrays a group of kids playing what to the non-literary mind looks like tennis but is in fact Eschaton – the athletic game leading to global nuclear crisis from David Foster Wallace’s dystopic opus “Infinite Jest.”

“Portlandia” Gives Back to the City it Satirizes

The point of “Portlandia” may be to lampoon the more eccentric facets of its namesake city, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t an intense amount of love behind the jokes. Indeed, stars and co-creators Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen took part in a benefit August 20th for In Other Words – a non-profit bookstore on Northeast Killingsworth Street you might recognize from the Portlandia-verse as the Women & Women First bookstore of Season 1. The sold-out fundraiser was to support the bookstore’s transition and expansion into becoming the In Other Words Feminist Community Center.

Bill Plympton: Independently Animated on Salon.com

Portland native and independent animator extraordinaire Bill Plympton’s book Independently Animated: Bill Plympton: The Life and Art of the King of Indie Animation was released earlier this year. A combination of autobiography and guide to the independent animation industry, the book has been receiving rave reviews and features a forward by former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam.

Salon.com describes Plympton as: “…that rare artist who has spent decades on the fringes, yet also seen his drawings in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Vogue, Rolling Stone and the Village Voice.

Bill Plympton: Independently Animated on Salon.com

Portland native, two-time Oscar nominee and independent animator extraordinaire Bill Plympton’s book Independently Animated: Bill Plympton: The Life and Art of the King of Indie Animation was released earlier this year. A combination of autobiography and guide to the independent animation industry, the book has been receiving rave reviews and features a forward by former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam.

Salon.com describes Plympton as: “…that rare artist who has spent decades on the fringes, yet also seen his drawings in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Vogue, Rolling Stone and the Village Voice.

IFC Releases First Look at Season 2 of “Portlandia”

Attention local-organic-fair trade-tree hugging-bird loving Portlandians! The second season of IFC’s hit show “Portlandia” is currently in production in the City of Roses and promises just as much ridiculous hilarity as the first season. If you don’t think you can survive till the January 2012 premiere, the folks at IFC have released this sneak peek to help tide you over.

Oregon Stills Exhibition – Aaron Katz, Matt McCormick & Kelly Reichardt

OREGON STILLS

On View September 1st – September 30th, 2011

Opening reception Tuesday September 6th, 6pm – 8pm

STUMPTOWN COFFEE ROASTERS
128 SW 3RD Avenue | Portland, OR

Carefully selected by filmmakers Aaron Katz, Matt McCormick, and Kelly Reichardt and curators May Barruel and Justen Harn, this exhibition features stills from three films shot in Oregon: Cold Weather, Some Days Are Better Than Others,and Meek’s Cutoff. Crew photographers include Scott Green, Neil Kopp, and Greg Schmitt. Shawn Levy, a film critic for The Oregonian, will be providing a curatorial statement that will be sent out to press at the end of August.

Gus Van Sant and James Franco present “Memories of Idaho” at TIFF

Gus Van Sant will be making the trek up to Toronto next month for the Toronto International Film Festival, where he’ll be contributing an installation commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the cult classic “My Own Private Idaho.” Released in 1991, “My Own Private Idaho” stars River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as young hustlers on the streets of Portland.

The installation, entitled “Memories of Idaho” and created in conjunction with James Franco, will screen as part of the festival’s Future Projections, described as, “A new film frontier outside the cinema space where moving images become art throughout the City of Toronto.”

An Italian Perspective on American Cinema

by Francesca Serra
Oregon Film Intern from Napoli, Italy

In Italy, the idea of American cinema is tightly connected with Hollywood and sensationalist movies where the hero is always handsome and honest and the audience knows that. By the end of the movie, he will defeat all his enemies who, of course, are ugly and bad.

Why do Italians have this vision of American movies? Because, most of the American movies that arrive in Italy always have the same features: a big international secret, a woman in distress, and a hero that saves her.

Case Study: Fashionbuddha Shares the Monterey Bay Love

Oregon-based companies pride themselves on being amongst the first to leap beyond the established creative norms. And Fashionbuddha, an animation studio in Old Town Portland, thrives off this innate quest for innovation. “We’re a unique studio from the standpoint that we have animation and interactive under the same roof,” explains founder and Executive Director Robert Lewis.

Fashionbuddha got its start ten years ago creating high-end flash websites but has since expanded into mobile apps, interactive installations and broadcast animation. “We were all under the same roof at the beginning because it made sense with those projects but now we’ve splintered to some degree and it’s just as exciting,” says Lewis.

New Case Study on Oregon Animation Blog

This dual focus helped Fashionbuddha when they were hired by San Francisco agency Engine Company 1 to create promotional spots for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

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