Movies A-Z

I looked up a “randomish” list of movies from A-Z, in no particular order, that I have watched and enjoyed over the years. There are drama, comedy, action, and even documentaries that you may have never heard of (I have interviewed some of the doc filmmakers).

I think part of the fun of watching films is to explore films that you may not normally check out. You can click on the links to find more info about them. [HT Mad Dog]

American Beauty (1999), Avatar (2009)

Bridges of Madison County (1995), Blue (1993), Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), Being Caribou (2004)

Cinema Paradiso (1989), Comrades: Almost a Love Story (甜蜜蜜) (1996), The Corporation(2003), Casablanca(1942), Crash (1996), Crash (2004), Campaign (選舉) (2007)

The Decline of the American Empire (1986), District 9 (2009), Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)

English Patient (1996), The End of the Affair (1999), Eastern Promises (2007)

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)

Groundhog Day (1993), Grizzly Man (2005), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts (2007)

Hoop Dreams (1994), Heat (1995), A History of Violence (2005)

In the Mood For Love (2000), Iron Man (2008)

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006), Jumper (2008)

Kill Bill Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 (2003 & 2004), Kings of Pastry (2009)

Lost in Translation (2003), Les Invasions Barbares (2003), Leave Them Laughing (2010), Last Train Home (2009)

Manufactured Landscapes (2006), Match Point (2005), Moon (2009), The Matrix (1999)

Nikita (1990)

Ocean’s Eleven (2001), One Big Hapa Family (2010), Orgasm Inc. (2009), Objectified (2009)

Pride & Prejudice (2005), Patton (1970), Paper Moon (1973)

The Queen (2006)

Red (1994), Roger & Me (1989)

Strictly Ballroom (1992), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Spanglish (2004), Super Size Me (2004), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Standard Operating Procedure (2008)

The Truman Show (1998), Thank You for Smoking (2005), Tiger Spirit (2008)

United 93 (2006), Unforgiven (1992)

V for Vendetta (2006)

White (1993), When Harry Met Sally (1989), WALL-E (2008), The Way We Are (天水圍的日與夜) (2008), War Hospital (2005)

X-Men (2000)

You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)

2010 Calgary International Film Festival (Film Listing & Schedule announced)

The Full Film Listing & Schedule for 2010 Calgary International Film Festival has been announced! Yeah! will be announced today (Aug 27). I will be posting my 2010 CIFF Picks as I find interesting films.

Here is my list of 2010 CIFF Picks.

(See article at examiner.com)

35mm – Name the films you recognize

Can you name the films you recognize? Check it out, the 2 minutes short is a lot of fun. Quoting the vimeo intro for 35mm,

»35mm« is a shortfilm about cinema itself. We picked 35 of our favorite movies and tried to simplifly them as far as possible. The outcome is a 2 minute journey through the history of film.
Take a close look and tell us if you’ve recognized them all!

Interesting articles: Cameron, Samuelson, Edelman, JTF2, Einstein

Saw a few interesting articles in the last few days,

• James Cameron: The ‘Avatar’ sequel will dive into the oceans of Pandora
• Paul Samuelson Memorial by Paul Krugman
• Words from Richard Edelman, CEO of PR firm Edelman
• JTF2 – Canada’s elite commandos and the invasion of Afghanistan
• What Einstein Left Behind – from Life Magazine 55 years ago, on April 18, 1955

Congrats MT Carney, President of Marketing, Disney Studios

Congrats to MT Carney for being appointed President of Marketing, Disney Studios. Here are some of the news reports and commentaries.

1. Carney to Run Disney Marketing (The Wrap)
2. Disney Studios to Name Naked’s M.T. Carney as CMO (AdAge)
3. Disney Studios hires outsider M.T. Carney to head marketing (LA Times)
4. Disney Names a New Marketing Chief (New York Times Blog)
5. MT Carney named head of Disney marketing (The Hollywood Reporter)

Here is an excerpt from AdAge,

“In one of the more surprising moves of an agency executive moving to the client side, M.T. Carney, partner at Naked Communications’ U.S. operations, has been hired to lead marketing for Walt Disney Studios.

As first reported by The Wrap, the hire is expected to be announced by Disney Studio Chairman Rich Ross later today.
Ms. Carney and Disney couldn’t be immediately reached, but Naked confirmed the move to Advertising Age.

“We are very proud of M.T.,” said Paul Woolmington, founding partner at Naked. “Now we have a Naked inside Disney, and we anticipate working in a new capacity,” he said, calling the move a “win-win.” Mr. Woolmington stressed that the move wouldn’t cause disruption at the agency as it’s “bench strength is amazing.”

In 2006, when Ad Age positioned Ms. Carney as a media executive to watch in its “Media Maven” report, John Harlow, co-founder of the U.K. based communications planning shop, described the Scottish-born, former Ogilvy & Mather account planner as having a “fierce intellect, and clients are just taking to her.”

It now seems one of those clients she won over was Richard Ross, who for many months is said to have been hunting outside of Hollywood for a new marketing leader who could shake things up at the entertainment company and better position it in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Other candidates for the position reportedly came from packaged-goods companies and beverage brands such as Pepsi.”

By the way, this bit of info from the LA Times and Disney’s unspoken rationale seem quite odd to me for the new President of Marketing,

“Disney declined to make Carney available for an interview.”

Footnote: For the last few years, I felt a small connection to MT because her personal site “mtcarney.com” used to have one sentence & a link to this 2006 AdAge article page on my site. Since MT’s page and her LinkedIn profile are both wiped clean now, I suspect thats the price for being marketing boss at the big mouse studio! :) Here is what I remember seeing at mtcarney.com and still cached by Google cache.

Good luck and all the best MT!

Online NFB films (launched 1 year ago) are LOVED by many!

I am so proud to be a Canadian and a long time lover of National Film Board (NFB) films. Quoting “One year after putting NFB films online – Here are the stats…”

Total Film Views on NFB.ca (Jan 2009-Jan 2010)
* 3.7 million total online film views since we launched a year ago
* 2.2 million online film views in Canada (59% of views)
* 1.5 million views International (not including Canada) on the web
* Total international views: 1.45 million views
* Total views: 3 768 628

Film Views on iPhone App (Since October 21 2009)
* 396, 190 views on iPhone in Canada
* 131, 332 views on iPhone outside Canada
* 527, 522 Total film views on iPhone
* Total number of apps downloaded: 171 271

NFB is seriously cool, keep up the great work NFB.

The most popular film in 2009 is “A Sunday at 105, (13:20) with 155,183 views“. After watching the film, I don’t think anyone can resist the charming 105 years old leading lady! Here is the synopsis of “A Sunday at 105“,

“A 105 year old Acadian agrees to be filmed one Sunday as she goes about her daily routine and ruminates on life. Filmed by her great-grandson, Aldéa Pellerin-Cormier comments wisely on politics, sex and religion. From getting ready in the morning to drinking her nightcap before bed, every moment is punctuated with a witticism or existential thought. Respectful of the old woman’s privacy, Daniel Léger’s first documentary looks at wisdom, serenity and enjoyment of life. In French with English subtitles.”

Enjoy.

[HT Michael]

The Most Amazing – Voice Over

I have four more episodes to record and then I’ll have finished the voice over (and VO translation) work of the Cantonese edition of “The Most Amazing“, a “top 10 countdown” entertainment show.

You can watch the show across OMNI TV in Canada and also on OMNI TV (Alberta) . It airs each episode like a total of four times a week!

Here is a sample of the first aired Cantonese episode. (note: I think my voicing actually get better in later episodes.)

P.S. After recording the last four episodes, I will have done 52 episodes and thats a wonderful learning experience to have. It was a ton of fun working with the many audio-engineers and the people at the TV production company are great to work with.

For someone new to vocing, I am voicing like a “pro” now. :)