'Hugo' a three dimensional breakthrough because of its team

Neither Martin Scorsese nor the very best people of his creative team tried a three dimensional film before they embarked on "Hugo," however their first effort wound up garnering near-universal praise for how they used the stereo system medium to boost the storytelling. Variety's Inside Production spoken to "Hugo" production designer Dante Ferretti and cinematographer Robert Richardson.Interview with Dante Ferretti Variety:The number of films excuses have you employed with Marty?Dante Ferretti: This is actually the eighth.Variety:And also you had not done 3DFerretti:None people tried three dimensional.Variety:What did you need to do in a different way?Ferretti: With three dimensional I needed to become more careful using the foreground. You need to put more stuff while watching camera. After we began to construct making models, we looked and stated such things as, "Oh, maybe we want some thing within the foreground, yet another column here, a kiosk there." Daily you realize better how you can do three dimensional. Only then do we did some tests and saw we needed to add much more stuff. The detail was extremely important, the time tower, the more compact clocks, the machinery, the gears.Variety: Therefore the job from the set decorator is crucial.Ferretti:Yes. Francesca (Lo Schiavo) did an admirable job. I was encircled by objects within the caf, the kiosk, the toy shop, the Melies studio. Everything was built enjoy it was throughout that period.Variety:Had you been in a position to evaluate the standard from the three dimensional around the set?Ferretti:Yes, whenever we were shooting we're able to see my way through three dimensional. We'd a giant screen and glasses, therefore we often see if something was wrong. Variety:Where have you shoot?Ferretti:We build the whole movie on stages at Shepperton, Pinewood and Longcross (within the London area). We built from scratch - a whole stop, the lobby, platforms, and set a genuine train within it. It had been an enormous job. The film is occur Paris but we shot in Paris only 5 days. We recreated Paris working in london.Selection: How lengthy have you focus on "Hugo"?Ferretti:I began in November, 2009 and handle in The month of january, 2011.Variety: What exactly are you focusing on now?Ferretti:I am doing "The Seventh Boy" with ("Mongol" director) Sergey Bodrov, with Shaun Bridges and Julianne Moore. Next I'll work again with Marty on "Silence."Interview with Robert RichardsonVariety:"Hugo" was the first three dimensional film. . . Robert Richardson: Yes. I had been excited as well as put off. Not just maybe it was my first three dimensional film, it had been my first feature-length digital capture. As much as that time I'd only used digital for advertisements. We used the (Arri) Alexa camera on "Hugo." We'd two Alexas on the Pace rig.Variety:Have you consider shooting on 2D and transforming to three dimensional?Richardson:It had been talked about mainly from the purpose of look at financial aspects. We understood it had been X amount of cash to attain three dimensional on-set, therefore the question was what time is going to be required to perform the conversion. But Marty always aspired to shoot with three dimensional, as well as for the two of us it did not seem sensible to shoot it every other way. Variety: That which was it like shooting digital?Richardson:I embrace digital cinema, I did not attempt to emulate film. My intention was first of all use a digital three dimensional presentation, second, an electronic cinema 2D presentation, and lastly a movie presentation. Variety: Had you been capable of making the choices on-set that you simply required to?Richardson: Yes, we'd three dimensional monitors and glasses, the best of this from the process was having the ability to make choices in line with the intent from the director therefore we might get him what he was searching for, whether or not this would be a increased depth of area, a shorter depth of area, whether or not to embrace the stars, and so forth. The inability to achieve this on-set makes hardly any sense in my experience.Selection: So for you personally, stereo system capture does not compare well against conversion?Richardson: It is a complicated question. Should you request me how Jim Cameron does a conversion, it will likely be excellent and exquisite. His understanding of three dimensional is really fine, and that he has got the some time and the finances to manage it inside a manner to obtain him precisely what he desires. For any filmmaker who does not have his degree of expertise there is no doubt that three dimensional shooting on set is essential. And why can you hands your conversion try to another company? It can make no sense in my experience. Contact Peter Caranicas at peter.caranicas@variety.com

Moody's: TV Station Groups Face Financial Threat from Networks

Lawyers representing the convicted assassin of Robert F. Kennedy hope to prove their client's innocence... 43 years later. In newly filed court documents obtained by the AP, Sirhan Sirhan's legal team allege that a bullet was switched in evidence at his trial, and that Sirhan was hypnotized to fire shots as a diversion from the actual killer. The lawyers, William F. Pepper and Laurie Dusek, also claim that new audio tests from the 1968 assassination prove that there were 13 shots fired from multiple guns -- five more than Sirhan could have fired from his pistol. In the original trial, eight bullets were counted. Three hit Kennedy, and the rest struck five other victims who were able to recover. PHOTOS: 12 of Hollywood's Most Mysterious Deaths The shooting occurred at L.A.'s Ambassador hotel on June 5, 1968, as the Senator was celebrating his victory in the California and South Dakota primary elections for the Democratic nomination of President. Kennedy was fatally wounded as he walked through the hotel's kitchen on his way to the exit. He survived nearly 26 hours after the incident, dying on June 6 at the Good Samaritan hospital, where he had been treated with surgery. With Kennedy that night was friend and actor/writer George Plimpton (Nixon, Good Will Hunting), who helped wrestle Sirhan to the ground and disarm him. Plimpton was aided by Olympic gold medalist, Rafer Johnson and professional football player, Rosey Grier. Rosemary Clooney, a strong Kennedy supporter, was also on hand that evening. PHOTOS: Actors Who've Played Politicians The fateful night was immortalized in the 2006 film Bobby, written and directed by Emilio Estevez. The 62-page federal court brief is the latest in a number of appeals filed on Sirhan's behalf, all of which were previously turned down. The Palestinian immigrant hopes to be deported to Jordan and "quietly live out the rest of his life with family and friends," the filing states. "But at long last he would, at least, have received long delayed justice." During his trial, Sirhan admitted that he had killed the Senator "with 20 years of malice aforethought." He later rescinded his confession. The lawyers have asked that the judge set an evidentiary hearing to reexamine the case, stating that Sirhan lacked adequate assistance of counsel during his trial. PHOTO GALLERY: View Gallery 12 of Hollywood's Most Mysterious Deaths Related Topics Politics

A Journey in My Mother's Footsteps

A Freya Films production. Produced by Dina Rosenmeier. Executive producer, Rosenmeier. Directed by Dina Rosenmeier. Written by Rosenmeier, Nadia Fugazza.With: Dina Rosenmeier, Jesse Rosenmeier, Joern Rosenmeier, Viji and Shibani Iyengar, Mohinder Singh, Achla Khanna, Nergis Udwadia. (English, Danish, Hindi dialogue)Part personal quest, part testimonial and part fund-raiser, "A Journey in My Mother's Footsteps" fulfills disparate agendas for helmer Dina Rosenmeier, a mildly resentful daughter wondering why her humanitarian mother prioritized orphaned Indian children over her own offspring. Stopping off at orphanages, schools and adoption agencies that her mother helped establish throughout India, Rosenmeier soon voices her own hosannas of praise for her mother's tireless efforts as she tours the facilities, cuddling disabled children along the way. "Journey" opens Dec. 2 at Gotham's Quad Cinema, but its transparent pretext and lack of tension make further play unlikely. Jessie Rosenmeier, the laudable Danish humanitarian whose amazing achievements the docu chronicles, is alive and well, charismatic and extremely articulate. An interview in which she explains that a stillborn son drove her decision to help children worldwide resonates strongly. But why the daughter rather than the crusading mother should dominate the film becomes increasingly unclear, particularly since the abandonment issues that supposedly gave rise to the docu are resolved almost immediately. The film's ultimate agenda may be to redefine Dina Rosenmeier's motherless childhood as a heroic sacrifice to a higher cause.Camera (color, HD, Super 8), Dagmar Weaver-Madsen; editor, Fugazza; music, Vivek Maddala. Reviewed on DVD, NY, Nov. 25, 2011. Running time: 77 MIN. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Media Stocks Up On Strong Holiday Sales And Hope Of European Debt Solution

Shoppers spent a record $52.4B over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, up 16% from last year, the National Retail Federation says. Add that to reports that European leaders are getting serious about resolving their debt crisis, and it’s easy to see why investors are in such a good mood today. The Dow Jones U.S. Media Index is up 2.8% at mid-day, about the same as the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Among Big Media stocks, Time Warner (+4%) leads followed by Sony (+4%), Viacom (+3.7%), Comcast (+3.7%), CBS (+3.4%), News Corp (+3.2%),and Disney (+2%). In the rest of the media universe several companies that have been pummeled in 2011 are taking a breather including Crown Media (+17.7%), Real D (+11.8%), and Netflix (+10.5%). Sinclair Broadcast Group is up 9% after it announced today that it wants to raise its borrowing capacity by $530M, possibly to buy TV stations. Madison Square Garden — which owns the NY Knicks — is up 8.7% after the NBA announced that it will salvage at least part of this year’s basketball season. The short list of companies that are down at midday includes New Frontier Media (-2.8%), Cinedigm (-2.7%) and Westwood One (-1.1%).

'The Walking Dead' Dissection: Robert Kirkman on Rick, Lori, Shane and Andrea's 'Secrets'

This story first appeared in the Dec. 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.our editor recommendsFrom 'The Artist' to 'War Horse,' 23 Awards Contenders That Prominently Feature Animals (Photos)The Making of 'The Artist''The Artist' Star Berenice Bejo to Wear Her 1920s Costumes on Red CarpetsHow Rin Tin Tin Ruined Any Oscar Shot for 'The Artist's' Jack RussellMichel Hazanavicius, the Artist Behind 'The Artist,' On the Great Crowd-Pleaser (Video) Somehow, Michel Hazanavicius managed to come up with something that even the French thought was loopy. For years, the Parisian writer-director -- an analytical guy who sees filmmaking as what he calls "playing with codes" -- had been captivated by an idea. But financiers got cold feet just hearing about it; the boutique television stations that typically fund sophisticated European films walked away. Even in a nation of cineastes and revival houses -- a country in which a major film movement was once launched by a band of movie critics -- his dream looked to be dead on arrival. PHOTOS: The Making of 'The Artist' "I wanted to make one for a long time," the director says about his fascination with doing a black-and-white silent set in the 1920s. His long limbs folded over a table at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills, he talks about his heroes like F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. "But it's even difficult to convince myself, or to convince anyone else, it is even possible. I found that some producers -- really all of them -- were a little bit cold." It didn't help that the 44-year-old Hazanavicius was known in France for the box-office-friendly, period-conscious OSS 117 spy parodies, in which a kind of Gallic Bond scampers through the 1950s and '60s. "What I needed was a crazy guy," he says. Enter Thomas Langmann, 40, whom Hazanavicius calls "the craziest producer in France." Langmann, the son of Oscar winner Claude Berri (who directed Manon of the Spring and produced Roman Polanski's Tess), worked a bit with Soderbergh and Coppola as a young man and produced some French smashes in his 30s. Langmann sees producing as a species of gambling. "It was always about betting on directors," he says of the philosophy his father passed down. "I knew if we made a film in black and white and we succeeded, it would be original." It took director and producer awhile to sync up -- early ideas such as a feature with an invisible protagonist didn't make the cut. "I really wanted to make an entertaining movie," Hazanavicius says, noting that many European silents were tragic romances. "I thought it was unfair to ask people to come to a black-and-white silent movie that was also dark -- it would be too much." But finally the two came up with an idea that worked: a film about a '20s matinee idol who struggles with the advent of talkies. PHOTOS: Behind the Scenes of our Directors Roundtable Photo Shoot With Michel Hazanavicius The movie that resulted is being talked about as the first silent film with real best-picture Oscar chances since Wings, the 1927 Clara Bow film that arrived soon before the talkies changed the game (it won). The Artist opened in the U.S. on Nov. 25 -- just two screens each in NY and Los Angeles -- but already has banked an impressive $12 million since its release in France in October. More important, the film took the best actor award at Cannes, where it played to rapturous audiences, and it has gone on to seduce judges at festivals around the world and sweep the season's audience awards from Chicago to the Hamptons to San Sebastien. "It is as wonderful a film as it is modern," says silent-film collector and producer Serge Bromberg, who has seen the movie six times at festivals, "with jaw-dropping cinematography, good acting, wonderful knowledge of classic cinema. And it has the flavor of the old. But it is not a film of the '20s; the pace is not the same, and its constant humor gives it some distance from what a film of the '20s would be." Hazanavicius was already an admirer of the silent era, but as he wrote, he immersed himself deeply for several months, reading actors' biographies, going to screenings of Murnau and Frank Borzage and early John Ford at Paris' Cinematheque, studying photographs and playing music of the '20s and early '30s. STORY: 'The Artist' Star Berenice Bejo to Wear Her 1920s Costumes on Red Carpets He wanted Jean Dujardin -- a bankable French star known mostly for comic roles -- to play the lead, Valentin. "Of course, I said: 'You're crazy. It's impossible,' " says Dujardin. Hazanavicius also asked his girlfriend, Berenice Bejo, the Argentina-born French actress who appeared in A Knight's Tale and in his OSS films, to play a studio extra named Peppy, shot into fame by a chance encounter. "I said, 'No way -- no way,' " recalls Bejo, who has two children with the director. "Not with me." The two eventually were persuaded, and their presence caused a change in the movie itself. The original vision for the film focused on Valentin's isolation. But as Hazanavicius got deeper into the film, Peppy began to seem major, and the movie became a romance. Dujardin had only ever scratched the era's surface. "I knew only the masterpieces of Keaton and Chaplin," he says. "It was a real discovery for me to find King Vidor's The Crowd," a film about a man lost in the big city of the 1920s that the actor calls "very modern, very touching; it helped me to assemble all the different references." PHOTOS: It's a Zoo This Season: 23 Awards Contenders Featuring Animals As a model for his character, he found Douglas Fairbanks -- the actor who started making films in 1915 and whose career faded as talkies ascended. "In all his films," Dujardin says, "he doesn't ask himself any questions," never straining against the limits of the swashbuckling style required by such films as Robin Hood and The Mark of Zorro. "It's pathetic when you know the talkies are coming, but he's also very generous. He's like my character George Valentin: He can be arrogant, but he has integrity. He believes in his art. He fights for it." (Valentin needs that integrity -- as he spirals downward, it's all he has, besides liquor and an attentive, scene-stealing dog to keep him warm.) Bejo's research found inspiration in Gloria Swanson -- who, unlike Fairbanks, excelled after the silent era. She fell for Swanson's autobiography, which describes a life very different from the desiccated former star she played in Sunset Boulevard. "She started in the silent period and then went to the talkies and then to TV," Bejo says. "I got a sense of the atmosphere of the period." To make a film about Hollywood, Langmann reasoned, you had to shoot there. By now he'd drawn some funding from French station Canal+ and invested considerably from his own company, La Petite Reine. But the costs of coming to America -- and surrendering French government subsidies -- raised the stakes substantially. (The film's eventual budget came close to $20 million.) STORY: 'The Artist': The Not-So-Silent Entry Shooting at the Paramount and Warner Bros. lots -- as well as locations like the beautifully lit center court of downtown L.A.'s 1893 Bradbury Building, known to film buffs for its role in Blade Runner -- inspired the crew over the 35-day shoot. (Dujardin was put up in an old house in the Hollywood Hills -- he thinks to amplify his isolation for his slide in the movie's second act.) "Hollywood, in my opinion, is the big star of the movie," says Hazanavicius. Also crucial to re-creating the era onscreen was the work of costume designer Mark Bridges, who worked on all of Paul Thomas Anderson's films, including Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood. Some of his vision for The Artist came from the MGM documentary 1925 Studio Tour. "You could see what the carpenters, what the plasterers wore," he says. "Even those guys in their bib overalls had a necktie. And a lot of hats, either for warmth or bad hair days." Surprisingly, director of photography Guillaume Schiffman shot the film in color because today's black and white is too sharp, not grainy enough. He used unusual filters to diffuse the whites and mute the blacks slightly -- and as the film went on, with its main character losing some of his sheen, the light got grayer. Although Hazanavicius deliberately had chosen very expressive actors -- Americans John Goodman, James Cromwell and Penelope Ann Miller round out the cast -- they found the limitations were difficult at first. For Bejo, working without lines threw her off. (The actors improvised in English while onscreen, to give their mouths something to do, mixed with a few of the "lines" shown to the audience on intertitles.) But she eventually found a way to inhabit the role. "If it was a talking movie, she would have been the same -- would have moved the same way, winked the same way, danced the same way," she says. "The challenge was to try to focus on the body language, but the rest of it was finding a way of being an American actress. I think of American actors -- they take up a lot of space, they talk really loud, they talk with their hands. So I had to find that, since being a French actor, everything is more petite." STORY: How 'The Artist's' Fashions Are Impacting the Red Carpet To keep communing with the past, the director kept the music of the era -- George Gershwin, Cole Porter -- in constant rotation while they shot, and he brought cast and crew to see films at the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax, and to the Nuart for its revival of Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (a morality tale about the corrupting influence of the city Murnau made for Fox in 1927) . The director applied some of what he learned: Murnau, for instance, had instructed his protagonist from Sunrise to wear heavy, weighted shoes on set after he fell on hard times; Hazanavicius did something similar when he dressed his fallen star in suits slightly too big for him. "He's not as perfect as he was in the first act," he says. Hazanavicius credits the world's fascination with Hollywood for the film's international appeal, but the enormous enthusiasm of Harvey Weinstein is the reason it has exploded out of the gates during the festival season into the awards race. Weinstein, who had enjoyed the OSS films, had heard about the movie from Langmann and in March flew to Paris, where he saw the film alone in a screening room. Weinstein was not ambiguous in his praise. The Artist, he says now, "treasures the American cinema I love. It's an inspiration, everything about the movie -- where they shot the movie, the way they used American cast and crew. It's just a love letter to American cinema." Langmann was impressed with Weinstein's urge to pull the trigger without any associates along to vet the decision. It was still months before Cannes -- it was not even assured at this point that the film would be released in France -- but by the time of the festival, the deal to distribute in the U.S., the U.K. and other regions was done. The film ends with a tap dance that required more work than anything else in the film. "I think 95 percent of the preparation was for the tap dancing," Hazanavicius says. Bejo recalls her practice with both pleasure and exasperation: "Five months, every day." The film was shot in as close to real sequence as possible -- in part to give the actors time to learn to tap dance, and partly so they would travel the same journey as George and Peppy before arriving at the climactic scene. "The dance is all about their characters," Hazanavicius says. "If it's just a performance, it's not interesting." Bejo's attitude toward the conclusion captures some of the quality that makes her character -- and the film -- so winning. "I kept telling myself: 'Just smile, look at each other, enjoy the moment. The happier you are, the less people will look at your feet. Just act, don't try to be good -- your feet will follow.' " PHOTO GALLERY: View Gallery The Making of 'The Artist' Related Topics The Artist 1 2 next last

NBC Apologizes to Bachmann Wanted for Fallon Intro Music

Michelle Bachmann, Late Evening With Jimmy Fallon Request and you also shall receive. Bachmann Wanted demands apology over "Lyin'" intro music on Jimmy Fallon NBC has apologized to Bachmann Wanted, who chastised the network on Wednesday due to not speaking up sooner about her appearance on Late Evening With Jimmy Fallon, throughout the GOP presidential candidate was welcomed on stage while using 1985 Fishbone song "Lyin' A-- B----," carried out by house band The Roots. Late Wednesday, Bachmann received instructions from Doug Vaughan, NBC's v . p . for late evening programming, who referred to as incident "not only unfortunate but furthermore unacceptable." Furthermore to apologizing, Vaughan also noted this guitar rock band happen to be punished. Jimmy Fallon immediately needed to Twitter to apologize for your stunt, which follows other past snarky musical intros. "I'm honored that @michelebachmann was on our show yesterday and i'm so sorry in regards to the intro mess," he tweeted Tuesday. "I'm wishing she returns." See the relaxation of current day news Bachmann came out on Fox News' America's Newsroom on Wednesday, accepting Fallon's apology, but imploring NBC to apologize too. "In the event that were Michelle Obama, who'd emerge round the stage, so when that song happen to be carried out for Michelle Obama, I have undoubtedly that NBC may have apologized to her and likely they'd have fired the drummer, or otherwise suspended him," Bachmann mentioned. Responding to his choice of music, Roots drummer ?uestlove mentioned in the statement: "The performance will be a tongue-in-mouth area and occasionally decision. The show was not aware from it which personally i think below componen if her feelings were hurt. That was not my intention."

Around The Edge: Online Cleaning soap Opera Network May Fold, Spelling The Finish Of OLTL, AMC

EXCLUSIVE: This really is potential very not so good news for cleaning soap fans who feel grateful this Thanksgiving that canceled ABC series One Existence To Reside and all sorts of The Kids may continue online. That now might not be happening. It had been considered a bold and dangerous move when Wealthy Frank &Shaun Kwatinetzs Prospect Park in This summer designed a certification cope with ABC to help keep OLTL and AMC alive for online distribution. The transfer from broadcast TV towards the Web demonstrated much more difficult than anybody anticipated. I hear that Prospect Park self-funded extensive research and it is principals held 100s of conferences with potential traders for his or her Online Network, that was initially slated to produce within the first quarter of 2012. (The most recent plan continues to be at least Existence To Reside to take first, with all of The Kids placed on hold.) In an indication of potential hurdles, Prospect Park at the end of This summer released an argument it was “in the entire process of exercising the fundamental relation to our suggested collective negotiating contracts using the appropriate guilds and unions, which we should do just before firming up handles above- and below-the-line talent.” I hear that individuals discussions demonstrated difficult, mostly because there's no existing template for any broadcast program shifting online. Word would be that the guilds happen to be searching to keep OLTL and AMC to broadcast terms, that is somewhat understandable because the Prospect Park-ABC deal requires the 2 series to continue being shipped with similar quality andin exactly the same format and length. But shows created on broadcast terms are impossible to aid with internet versus. TV advertising. (ABC, making extra cash on its soaps from off-network sales to SoapNet and foreign areas, stated it had been still taking a loss on OLTL and AMC, resulting in their cancellation.) To create the prospective launch date, the cleaning soap authors hired by Prospect Park were designed to start work earlier this year however they haven’t as there's no cope with the WGA. And all sorts of pacts with stars from OLTL and AMC that Prospect Park made in the last couple of several weeks were contingent on clearances through the unions. Furthermore, I’ve discovered potential difficulties with the internet network’s tech partners. I hear that Prospect Park principals continue to be looking for a last-minute means to fix keep your cleaning soap online venture going but feel pressed right into a corner after tiring every possible avenue and might wish to close the lid on the moment today.