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Tagged: Hollywood

Digital Film

6:41 am

Fri June 8, 2012

Small Town Movie Houses Struggle To Switch From Film To Bits Of Data

Credit Photo by Jessica Robinson / Northwest News Network

Chris Wagner watches the 35 mm print for “Pirates! Band of Misfits” cycle through the original 1955 projector at his drive-in theater in Grangeville, Idaho.

By Jessica Robinson

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This summer’s blockbuster line-up is teeming with highly anticipated names -- like Batman, Spiderman, and the Avengers. That’s good news for the people who run cinemas. But for many small theaters across the Northwest, opening weekend is becoming a struggle.

More movies are starting to come on hard drives instead of reels. So theaters must make a costly conversion to digital if they want to stay in the game. And, as Jessica Robinson reports, time is running out.

9:21 am

Wed May 23, 2012

For Location Scouts, It's All About Making The Scene

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Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR/Courtesy Doug Dresser (except as noted)

Location scout Doug Dresser needs creepy places for a teen fantasy-adventure film. One possibility: the old Linda Vista Community Hospital, built in 1904. Supposedly it's haunted.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR/Courtesy Doug Dresser (except as noted)

Outside L.A.'s Chinatown, Dresser scouts a recently closed dairy.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR/Courtesy Doug Dresser (except as noted)

"What we're looking for is the things you might pass up walking by every day," says Dresser, who scouted six sites on this day – including an abandoned library and an outdoor location under the Sixth Street Bridge.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

For the upcoming Justin Timberlake film Now, it was location manager John Panzarella who made the arrangements to close the Sixth Street Bridge in Los Angeles. (The Fourth Street bridge, too, for another scene). Don't be too hard on him, though: It's just part of the job.

Credit Cindy Carpien / NPR

Movie folk — including actor Matt Damon and director Cameron Crowe, who were filming inside — swarmed a corner restaurant in the L.A. neighborhood of Los Feliz in late January. They were working on the movie We Bought a Zoo, based on a true story by Benjamin Mee.

By Susan Stamberg

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In the old days, movies — even the big epics — were shot on studio back lots. Tara, that iconic Gone With the Wind plantation, was made of plywood and papier maché.

These days, movie locations are mostly real, though. And they're found by location scouts, who are often the first people hired for a film.

Should be easy work, right? You drive around town, spot a house you think could work for a film, drive back home? Not quite.

6:53 am

Thu January 26, 2012

Groups Boycott 'The Grey' For Portrayal Of Wolves

By Jessica Robinson

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A new Liam Neeson action thriller opening Friday is receiving howls of protest from wolf advocates. They say “The Grey” wrongly portrays wolves as massive, bloodthirsty beasts. And as Jessica Robinson reports, some wildlife groups are organizing a boycott.

When a plane crash strands a scruffy bunch of guys in the wilds of Alaska, they find themselves going mano a mano against some very mean looking wolves.

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