Tribeca Film Festival’s recently announced filmmaker competition, Tribeca Interactive Interlude: A Music Film Challenge, is a call for entries that are something of a cross between music videos, videogames, and cinematic choose-your-own-adventure stories. Seeking to not only simply keep up with evolving technology, but to place itself in the midst of a growing movement that emphasizes collaborative storytelling on a populous scale (a movement that can claim actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with his hitRECord series, and Zach Braff, with his Kickstarter-funded film Wish I Was Here, as famous proponents), Tribeca has partnered with digital platform Genero.tv for this, its latest contest.
Using a program called Treehouse hosted on the website Interlude.fm, participants are tasked with creating “an interactive music film” to one of three songs by either Ellie Goulding (“Dead in the Water”), Aloe Blacc (“Ticking Bomb”) or Damon Albarn (“Heavy Seas of Love”). What is an interactive film? A video that allows the viewer to choose which turn the story will take next. For example, one video on the Interlude website takes place at a crowded party. Our initial guide walks in wearing a pair of headphones, mingles a bit, and then encounters two partygoers. Whom will he pass the headphones to? You choose. The video then continues from the point of view of whichever character you have selected – until he or she encounters two more people, and you have to choose again. And so on.
There are a number of videos on the Interlude website from mega companies such as Disney and Madewell, and you can see the marketing appeal. The Madewell video’s narrative “choices” appear in the form of outfit options, and allow you to spend several minutes styling and dressing a pretty model in Madewell raiment while bouncy music plays in the background. Disney’s short film isn’t an interactive take on a commercial but rather a music video, in which viewers direct the goings on of a ‘50’s style beach party attended by a singing tween star.
Sponsored by the Lincoln Motor Company, Tribeca’s music film challenge begins today and closes on March 27, a little less than a month before the film festival opens. The finalists’ projects will be showcased throughout the event and the winners – three in total, one for each song – will individually receive $10,000.
Many pop-culture or at least music enthusiasts will likely already be well-aware of the interactive video phenomenon. The very first music video for Bob Dylan’s classic song “Like A Rolling Stone” was released this past fall in the form of, yes, an interactive film. Dylan’s very cool concept turns your browser into a TV screen, replete with channel buttons. The song is the only sound and constant, and as you flip through the different channels at will – a cooking network, a history channel, a fashion news segment, a (most ingeniously, if you time it just right) reality show, etc. – the actors all lip-sync Dylan’s words in character. It’s a lot of fun, and has us thinking the organizers over at Tribeca have picked a very cool, and not just trendy, concept to run with.
Here’s a link to the Bob Dylan video and, for all you would-be interactive filmmakers, here’s where you can learn more about Tribeca Interactive Interlude: A Music Film Challenge.
The 2014 Tribeca Film Festival will run Wednesday, April 16th through Sunday, April 27th.
The 2014 Sundance Film Festival kicks off tomorrow in Park City, Utah, with another round of indie offerings from both the established set and those eager to break through its ranks. There’s a host of movies already generating the de rigueur advanced buzz, with Richard Linklater‘s latest (Boyhood), Zach Braff’s follow-up to 2004 Sundance favorite Garden State (Wish I Was Here), SNL alums Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader’s foray into drama (The Skeleton Twins), Amy Poehler’s spoof of the romantic comedy (They Came Together), and another John le Carré adaptation (A Most Wanted Man) among them.
Will any of the above ascend to the heights of classic Sundance premieres Clerks, Spanking the Monkey, Primer, or Little Miss Sunshine? The festival has been around in its current incarnation for nearly 30 years (prior to 1984 it was known as the Utah/US Film Festival). Within that time, it’s acted as a critical and popular launching pad for directors like Quentin Tarantino, David O. Russell and Steven Soderbergh. The golden girl who can do no wrong – or rather, when she does, we like her even more for it – Jennifer Lawrence got her first star turn in a Sundance hit, 2010’sWinter’s Bone. Last year, USC film grad Ryan Coogler stole the show with his assured feature debut and current awards contender, Fruitvale Station.
To get you in the mood for all the coverage about to burst forth from the Utah hills alive with the sound of applause, we’ve tailored today’s list to reflect the Sundance legacy. Here are 10 of the most important and beloved films to have emerged from the American movie showcase:
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) Streaming on Netflix? No Widely regarded as the film that started the modern indie movement, Steven Soderbergh’s writer-director debut, about four people navigating their complicated relationships, sex lives, and, yes, lying about the two, is considered a contemporary classic. Unfortunately, Videotape isn’t available on either Netflix or Amazon, though if you were to buy the DVD sight unseen, you can rest assured your investment would be a worthwhile one. You can never have too much of James Spader in his prime.
Reservoir Dogs (1992) Streaming on Netflix? Yes Before Tarantino became Tarantino, the kind of guy whose name doubles as an adjective (Tarantino style, Tarantino violence, Tarantino-esque) he was a first-time director and writer pushing a film that vigorously nodded to the pulpy classics he grew up idolizing. It was the precursor to what is still his best feature, Pulp Fiction, and the film demonstrates many of the director’s hallmarks. The music, those names, that ear-cutting dance… you can’t consider yourself a connoisseur of cult classics until you’ve seen Dogs.
Hoop Dreams (1994) Streaming on Netflix? Yes Like Sex, Lies, and Videotape before it, Hoop Dreams pushed genre boundaries, this time as they applied to documentary film. In an interview with writer Jason Guerrasio, director Steve James recalls one executive meeting in particular. Dreams wasn’t serious enough, James remembers this executive telling him in no uncertain terms, as documentaries at the time focused on “sobering” issues (because adult pressures placed upon the backs of children, and the difficulties of lifting oneself out of urban poverty, are light-hearted themes). Instead, should the film’s subjects suddenly become drug addicts, or get killed, or something, then James would have a picture. Thankfully, those things didn’t happen, and the director’s sprawling portrait of two aspiring basketball stars got made and acclaimed, anyway. Which just goes to show: Guns are not the answer.
Clerks (1994) Streaming on Netflix? Yes In the Darwinian or at least cinematic development of foundering twentysomethings, today’s hipsters evolved from yesterday’s Clerks. Kevin Smith’s day-in-the-life look at a 22-year-old slacker who comes in on his day off from work only to repeatedly close shop for various reasons, semi-legitimate and asinine alike, was a breakout comedic hit back in 1994. We were treated to deep thoughts on The Return of the Jedi as well as introduced to recurring Smith characters Jay and Silent Bob. The fact that the film was shot on a budget that would barely have covered shoe-strings for everyone involved, and took place in the store where Smith actually worked, only added to the avant garde indie aura surrounding Clerks.
Spanking the Monkey (1994) Streaming on Netflix? No One of the hottest directors in town first made waves with this darkly comedic take on a mother-son relationship. Raymond loses his prestigious medical internship and, increasingly, his grip on his life and longings when he is forced to stay home and care for his unhappy mother one steamy summer. David O. Russell’s memorable debut.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) Streaming on Netflix? No Available on Amazon Hedwig’s story is difficult to compress into one easy log line, but here’s a go: A transsexual punk rocker moves from East Berlin to the United States, where she falls in love with a shy musician who eventually makes off with her heart and songs. Great soundtrack, wonderful performances, and some seriously surreal pathos quickly turned Hedwig into that which Sundance does best: a cult classic.
Primer (2004) Streaming on Netflix? No Available on Amazon Former engineer Shane Carruth, who also holds a degree in math, refused to dumb down his film’s technical language and was subsequently applauded for the respect (or disregard, depending on your perspective) he afforded his audience. As you would expect, Primer is a tough film, which turns on questions of time, space, science, philosophy… and other minutiae. The movie was shot for an incredible $7,000 and still managed to achieve its lofty aims. It remains a testament to innovative filmmaking.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Streaming on Netflix? No Available on Amazon With one of the best crowd-pleasing endings in years, Little Miss Sunshine first entertained Sundance attendees before it went on to charm the rest of the country. Throw a bunch of quirky family members into a van, shake well, and add a nicely timed pinch of Rick James. A recipe for comedic success.
Winter’s Bone (2010) Streaming on Netflix? DVD only Available on Amazon Or, the film in which Katniss Everdeen skins a rabbit. Winter’s Bone, of course, came out long before both Katniss and the actress who plays her, Jennifer Lawrence, became cultural reference points. Set among an impoverished clan living in the Ozarks, Bone follows 17-year-old Ree as she tries to track down her missing meth-addicted father before the authorities seize her family’s house. You can see the beginnings of an action star in Lawrence, whose character must hunt, fish, chop wood, care for her siblings, and otherwise weather harsh economic, to say nothing of emotional, conditions in order to survive.
Fruitvale Station (2013) Streaming on Netflix? No Available on Amazon Ryan Coogler was working towards a graduate degree in film at USC when 22-year-old Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a policeman at the titular BART subway station in San Francisco. The tragedy inspired Coogler to write a movie about Oscar, imagining the victim’s last hours before the shooting. The resulting film, Coogler’s first feature, is a moving character study that plays with audience expectation: If you’re watching the movie, odds are you already know how the story ends, but that doesn’t stop you from improbably wishing things might turn out a little differently, this time. The ability to make people wish and hope on behalf of your character is a mighty fine talent. Coogler may one day join the ranks of acclaimed writer-directors about whom the organizers of Sundance can say: “I knew him when.”
Added bonus: Check out Vulture’s cache of classic Sundance photos here.
