Having grown up in the 1990’s I am all too familiar with the do-it-yourself, indie ethic: Without the internet that could support rich media, we were always at the mercy of the established Gatekeepers and had to devise our methods of self-promotion – whether this meant publishing zines with photocopies at the local Kinko’s or touring dive bars in our 3rd-hand van.

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But in 2020’s DIY and independent artists increasingly proliferated, then sort of plateaued. The rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) provided a new way for artists to sell and monetize their work, including the alleged ability to track provenance and track revenue in primary and secondary sales (which to an extent, and for a time it did, until wallets, coins, and marketplaces started failing.) The sustainability and long-term viability of the NFT market crashed and burned as copycat hordes oversaturated the market to the point of meaninglessness.

The explosion of creativity was witnessed when Hic et Nunc, the ecoNFT and Women of Crypto Art scenes converged, exposing a network of artists that encircled the globe ready to self-pilot into their autonomous future. It was a powerful and ultimately effective movement as major marketplaces scrambled to shift to a Proof of Stake framework. Alas, it eventually imploded when HEN’s single dev became disgusted with the dynamics of the incumbent aggregators looking for quick dividends and left the communities scrambling. The pitfalls of everything resting on a single developer. This was seen again when Twitter emigrated en masse to Mastodon, and 3rd party apps developed by single devs weren’t able to keep up. So it isn’t just about being free as in speech, but also distributing the load.

Separately the quiet expansion of ubiquitous online self-publishing platforms and tools, many of which grew out of the gig economy, and then were reinforced through the pandemic, have allowed virtually anyone with a smartphone, computer, or tablet to create and share their work with a global audience and maintain constant contact with their supporters. VR (and Zoom) had a hail mary renaissance as folks had to work remotely so were introduced to embodied virtual workspaces and conferences, and yet soon enough The Metaverse became a quantifiable, ownable, productization of an idea whose true developers wanted primarily to elude ensnarement. It was the indies moving the needle. In WebXR and game development.

But the tools are there for a new generation of artists, musicians, writers, game developers, and makers to bypass traditional gatekeepers and reach a wider audience than ever before. Platforms like bandcamp, etsy, IndieGoGo, itch.io, and Patreon are but some of the powerful tools and frameworks in the hands of the indies. Nonetheless, they are still prone to central control schemes. (bandcamp was recently acquired by EPIC games).

Opportunities and Challenges

In an era where we are mercilessly summoned by dopamine pumps, many people are seeking out authentic and unique voices that reflect their own experiences and values. DIY and independent culture offers an alternative to the homogenized and commercialized content that is often prevalent in mainstream media. That is when DIY isn’t attempting to resemble the mainstream, to please the almighty Algorithm.

But the rise of DIY and independent culture has been accompanied by some challenges and concerns: least of which is that when everyone is talking, no one is listening. Add to this that the Content Creator economy is an appropriation of the movement, dulling the edge of the art, the way Walmart took out a line of Grunge clothing, effectively inoculating the powerful social counterculture by packaging it up and selling it back to them.

But even as a shift towards “the democratization” of the tools becomes more widespread, the public isn’t really primed for this redistribution of responsibility; many are still of the mindset that stuff should just work, free, because. However, with a little awareness and communication, we could turn the tide towards a more holistic, truly decentralized new paradigm where the participants help to maintain, support, and expand the framework for self-expression and enterprise.

The rise of AI-generated art, text, video, materials and 3D meshes and even code is also challenging indie artists and developers, as the ability of AI algorithms to create increasingly sophisticated and realistic content makes it difficult to stand out. One of the main challenges for AI-generated art is the lack of accountability and tools for tracking provenance and paying out royalties, though others argue that media is in a common trust and when resynthesized represents the creative manipulation of the prompt engineer in the way Warhol demonstrated. But that discussion is beyond the scope of this article.

Another issue is the impending collapse of centralized large-scale social media platforms, which have become sometimes essential lifelines for independent creators, and also wholesale appropriators of that content in exchange for free, advertiser-driven access.

Reasons for the potential collapse of these platforms are mismanagement – their handling of user data, privacy concerns, and lack of transparency, failure to connect with the zeitgeist – failure to adapt and keep pace with changing user preferences and expectations, and the right to ownership and control of their content.

Furthermore, the switch to subscription-based business models for most creative commercial software (I’m looking at you Adobe and Digidesign – and Pantone), and the tax for seemingly endless streaming platforms can make it difficult for independent creators to afford the tools they need to thrive and create freely.

From Kinko’s to the Fediverse

The fediverse is a network of interconnected servers that support a range of decentralized online services, that include social networking, blogging, and file sharing. Mastodon is an open-source social networking platform that is part of the fediverse. Unlike algorithm-driven platforms like Facebook and Twitter, Mastodon allows users to choose and follow other users to control the content that appears in their feeds.

Users can also add other users to their “boosts” list, which allows their posts to appear in their timelines. This allows users to curate the content they see and connect with others who share their interests.

Additionally, Mastodon is decentralized and community-run, which means that it is not controlled by a single company or entity. This allows for greater control and autonomy for users and provides an alternative to the centralized and commercialized nature of many mainstream platforms.

Some of the fediverse’s other online services include:

Mastodon: a decentralized and open-source social networking platform that is part of the fediverse
Diaspora: a decentralized social networking platform that allows users to own and control their data:
Pixelfed: an open-source platform for sharing and discovering photography
Peertube: a decentralized video platform that allows users to host their content.

While far from perfect, both technologically and culturally, the rise of these open-sourced public-operated alternatives, lights a path towards a different kind of future, one that is not weaponized to exploit your dopamine daze.

Open-source software solutions, like GIMP for graphics and illustration, Ardour for audio, and Blender for 3D modeling, provide accessible and affordable, extensible, customizable options for DIY and indie artists and meanwhile, their participation in these solutions help to make them a more diverse, robust, public trust.

So with all that said, let’s explore some of today’s open-source resources for DIY and independent creators:

Accessibility

NVDA – An open source screenreader

Graphics, Illustration, and Design:

GIMP: Image editing tool for manipulating color, cropping and resizing, and optimizing file size for the web
Inkscape: Vector graphics editor for creating SVG and PDF files
Krita: Drawing and painting tool for use with a tablet
Bulma: CSS framework for designing interfaces
LazPaint: Lightweight raster and vector graphics editor

Video Editors:

Shotcut: Non-linear video editor with support for hundreds of audio and video formats and codecs thanks to FFmpeg, 360° Video Filters, and 4k/ProRes.
Olive: Upcoming video editor that features flexible node-based compositing

Tooll3: An incredible node-based motion graphics editor

Panorama, 360 and Image Stitching

Hugin –panorama photo stitching and HDR merging program that enables the creation of wide-angle to 360-degree panoramic photographs.

Audio Tools:

Ardour: Music creation software with support for AudioUnit, LV2, LinuxVST and LADSPA formats
Audacity: Audio software for editing, mixing, and recording audio

3D Modeling and Design:

Blender3D: a comprehensive 3D modeling and animation, video production, 2D animation, archviz software suite
FreeCAD: parametric 3D modeling software for 3D print designers
Meshlab: a set of tools for editing, cleaning, healing, inspecting, rendering, texturing and converting meshes
Poly Haven: Public asset library for 3D assets.

Web Development:

WordPress: Content management system and website builder
Bootstrap: Front-end component library for building responsive websites and applications
React: JavaScript library for building user interfaces
Threejs: a JavaScript library that enables developers to create and display animated 3D graphics using WebGL in a web browser.

Software Development:

Eclipse: Integrated development environment (IDE) for Java and other languages
Visual Studio Code: Source code editor and IDE
Git: Version control system for tracking and managing changes to code.

Makers and 3D Printing:

OpenSCAD: Program for creating solid 3D CAD objects
FreeCAD: General-purpose 3D CAD modeling software
Slic3r: 3D printing slicing software
Repetier-Host: 3D printing host software for managing and controlling 3D printers.

Writing and Publishing:

LibreOffice Writer: Word processor with advanced layout and formatting options
Scribus: Desktop publishing software for creating books, brochures, and other printed materials
Calibre: E-book management and conversion tool
Pressbooks: Web-based platform for creating, publishing, and sharing books.
Sumatra PDF: Thank god. A free, working PDF reader. Better than most paid options
Free PDF: Thank god. A free, working PDF editor that also adds signatures. Better than most paid options

Game Development:

Godot: Game engine and development platform
LÖVE: 2D game engine and development framework
OpenRA: Open-source implementation of the classic Command & Conquer real-time strategy games.
ScummVM: Allows you to run classic adventure games on modern hardware and operating systems.

Other Tools

AutoHotkey: The ultimate automation scripting language for Windows.

The growth of online DIY and independent culture has also been accompanied by some challenges, like the potential collapse of widely used social media platforms and the rise of AI-generated content. To support independent creators, we need to foster the tools and platforms needed to succeed beyond the walled gardens, and exploitative business models that fail to nourish them.

The post How Open Source Tools are Challenging the Status Quo (with a List of Resources) appeared first on TheCulturepin.com.

From Dark Star Pictures and Uncork’d Entertainment comes the story of a church that’s been called “the most aggressively preposterous theology the world has ever known!”

“Bobs are part of the joke that, once you get over the butt-hurt, you start laughing at it.” Focused on a self-proclaimed cult started in 1981, director/writer Sandy K. Boone and co-writer Jason Wehling look at the religion that hoped always to not quite go full Scientology but never shied away from tricking people just as much.

The film opens in a field populated by an eclectic gaggle of aging new wave, hippie, skeptic absurdists: tattooed, tie-dyed, role-playing. I can very much relate to this group. In the early ‘90s, we had the same: a tight cluster of punks, runaways, mavericks, art room recluses, theater kids and weed-smoking, acid-dropping musicians who read books, spliced movies together from two VCRs and played Tetris while scarfing down Froot Loops. We made up our own rules, languages, code names and handshakes. We named our own deities.

Whether we were operating in parallel to or the wake of the Church of the SubGenius, the ‘90s were the most fecund territorial for waging war against normies, being aggressively bizarre and oddly relishing in the possibility of the fall of society. Was it because of century fatigue, pre-millennial tension, nuclear and Cold War anxiety, the collision of the ‘80s excess with the dawn of the Internet? All of the above? None of the above? Penn Jillette points out that many simply didn’t realize that they were “building on tropes originated from the Church of the SubGenius.” Most certainly, the 2005 rise and free-speech/anti-Creationist movement of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster – the Pastafarians – took cues from Dobbs.

Postmodernism, Reaganism, New Wave, punk, MTV, Saturday morning cartoons, fax machines, 2600-baud modems, latchkey kids, underground comics, west coast and east coast pop art, mixtapes, digital sampling, computer-generated art and straight-to-video pulp films were being thrown in a blender and then sawed in half with a chainsaw.

When founder Ivan Stang came up with the notion that they weren’t quite geniuses but sub-geniuses, the whole world clicked and things took off: a sudden combination of robot toys, zines, clip art, and the invention of a cult leader – Bob Dobbs, leader of said cult, represented by a 1950s man’s smiling face, smoking a pipe.

Finding the Freak Frequency

As a film, we have a great collection of nicely shot interviews, a quirky soundtrack, and lots and lots of montages of vintage ‘90s oddities. Arguably we can see the origins of the internet’s belligerent subcultures – the skeptical armchair critic with otaku tastes and “fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke.”

In this film, you will hear from the founders, original members and requisite celebrity cameos from the likes of Nick Offerman, Penn Jillette, Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale, director Richard Linklater…all the expected suspects, raised on Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart. The counterculture that came together to form a countercultural society. “We were trolls before they had that term, but CB radios used that term. We didn’t use (the radio) to help others; we used it to confuse strangers.”

Bob Dobbs

They coined the term “Slack,” a lifestyle choice that could loosely be defined as not giving any fucks. “Arch Doctor Saint Margaret,” “Saint Byron Werner,” “Pope Sternodox” all signed up for a dollar via a pamphlet canvassing new disciples. Other members of the cult included Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Repo Man director Alex Cox, and the more you think about it, most of the people who drove the Generation X revolution: David Byrne, The Residents, Pee-Wee Herman.

25 years later, Generation X is often left out of generational comparison statistics. Truly, a lost generation? Or one that has been inoculated by the white blood cells of Capitalism and the ideology of the nuclear family?

Losing My Religion

The film momentarily turns toward how the group is mainly a boys’ club – “the patriarchy strained through a cheese-cloth’ – but with the qualification that “Heck, I wanted to meet all the boys.” You can hear echoes of outlaw artist Robert Williams everywhere. Their first convention took place in Dallas and was billed as “the fastest-growing cult” on Channel 4 news. It also turned out to be a financial disaster.

Linklater comments on how often the “slacker” is attacked by society for being a drop-out, an outlier, a weirdo – all of which represent threats to the industrial complex. Of course, Linklater’s seminal work Slacker is a virtual manifesto of Bob Dobb’s dogma as well as a film that dismantled edited structures in much the same self-conscious or ironically laissez-faire way as the ‘60s New Wave filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda and François Truffaut and such Italian works as Fellini’s 8 ½ or Michelangelo Antonioni’s trilogy on modernity and its discontents: L’Avventura, La Notte and L’Eclisse.

By act two, the film begins to address the rising fame of the cult, growing egos and a publishing deal. Bookstores didn’t sell it in the comic book section but rather alongside other religious texts. As Offerman points out, it was “older, wiser miscreants telling us that human-made organizational systems are as flawed as you’d suspect, because…they’re made by us.”

We look back at the horrors and manias of cults like Jonestown, Waco, the “pinks,” the megachurches, the snake oil salesmen that pervaded the era. In so many ways, the precursors to the mania that has infected America in the second decade of the 2000s: a bonfire doused in the gasoline of algorithm-driven social media machines, commandeered by political operatives, corporations and lobbyists to incite partisanship with all the lunacy of religious fervor.

In the film’s third act, we explore the effects of playing with fire. You see, to suspend one’s lifestyle in a suspension of disbelief that walks the tightrope between community, satire and allegiance to the tribe is a slippery path.

“If you can’t take the joke,” Offerman explains of the cult’s catchphrase, “then please go fuck yourself.” Yet, mix this idea of giving community to outcasts who are emotionally driven by resentment, anger and disenfranchisement, and you have the potential for aggressive toxicity. Such cultures invariably fracture between those who take the words literally and those who use it as a guideline.

“The internet did so much to kill the old ways of doing things…people exposed to it can longer distinguish between fantasies and tripe.” As the documentary moves into the Columbine era, it becomes frighteningly clear that things can come back to haunt you. There were promotional missteps. There were prompts. Bomb threats to their conventions. Being added to national security watchlists.

“In the end, it is about confronting the dark things, pulling the fangs out of them, and making them a joke.”

“The internet did so much to kill the old ways of doing things,” – “people exposed to it can longer distinguish between fantasies and tripe.” As the documentary moves into the Columbine era, it becomes frighteningly clear that things can come back to haunt you. There were promotional missteps. There were prompts. Bomb threats to their conventions. Being added to national security watchlists.

“In the end, it is about confronting the dark things, pulling the fangs out of them, and making them a joke.”

This Is the End

Then 9/11 comes and marks the end of times. Indeed, it was the end of innocence. I will leave the rest of the film for you to discover. Needless to say, it offers a fascinating story about a time that seems both irretrievably lost and paradoxically now surrounds us to the degree that, as Douglas Rushkoff states, makes the Alternative the normie and the normies the outsiders.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that the ‘90s were just a giant cult of Bob Dobbs. Shit got real weird, and sometimes it was hard to separate from reality. “Bob is great in reasonably sensible doses,” reflects one of the Church’s most staunch long-term members.

I recently listened to the reading of disgraced lawyer Michael Cohen’s book about his life as Donald Trump’s consiglieri. He lays down one damning, scandalous bombshell after another, confirming every suspicion and every accusation that has been leveled at the infamous President. And yet, no one is talking about the book. The revelations, scandals, conspiracy theories and transgressions have all become so commonplace that society’s outrage has been fatigued and these gross indecencies, injustices, and flat-out crimes have been normalized.

“It’s very easy to slice the world up, and pit everyone against each other,” cautions Linklater. As the film turns to the present, one can only wonder at the movement’s prescience, its role as a harbinger, and how that may have sown important roots in forming an intellectual bulwark against contemporary propaganda. In the very way that the group played with its own wobbly margin between reality and satire, it highlights how easy schadenfreude, the desire for inclusion and spectacle, focused through the lens of fear, can transform into a dangerous cocktail of unconditional devotion to demagogues.

The film’s coda addresses the hyper-socialized world we now inhabit. A world in which no moment is lived offline, where every act is captured and posted, every meal, joke, exchange, passing thought, emotional ripple. A world that will not have time to watch this movie or read this article.

But if you somehow do, J.R. Bob Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius can be viewed from the comfort of your pandemic-driven social isolation, while the cult of Donald Trump doubles down across North America. Regardless of his place in office, the new cult of the SubGenius has been birthed.

Check out the trailer below

J.R. “Bob” Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius is available in virtual theaters October 16 and available on Demand October 20, 2020.

The post Review: J.R. Bob Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius – A Documentary appeared first on TheCulturepin.com.

Amazon has always been about innovation, and a bottom-up approach; building from the consumer’s perspective -> inward.

And now, as music, movies, books and businesses all go virtual, Amazon must continue innovate, or die. But with 33% of online sale marketshare, that isn’t bloody likely, at least not anytime soon. The best news is, everyone (except Bezos’ competitors, end even likely they) will benefit.

Did you know that Amazon is the digital host for such cloud-based companies as foursquare, Reddit.com and Netflix? Which is only a little disconcerting when Amazon’s cloud servers go down as they did in late April 2011. We’ll chalk it up to growing pains, a mere glitch in the Matrix, you know – just Neo and Agent Smith going at it again…

Check out the amazing free Slideshow below, furnished by consultants faberNovel via another very cool little company called Slideshare – “the world’s largest community for sharing presentations,” that demonstrates, in no shallow way, just how, against all odds, Amazon makes it happen, over and over again.

The post A Deeper Look At Why Amazon Keeps Winning (SlideShow) appeared first on TheCulturepin.com.

It was another great year for film. Anyone who think some years are stronger than others, just isn’t getting exposed to enough of the good stuff. Dozens if not hundreds of great new works were released and viewed at festivals around the world. Oscar time just aggregates the buzziest among them.

So here is the list of noms, along with my comments from the cheap seats:

Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”
James Franco in “127 Hours”

Ryan Gosling (snubbed for Blue Valentine).

Too tough to call this one.  Have to see how the night goes.  Bridges got his last year.  Eisenberg did well, but Hollywood won’t go for it.  James Franco is a wild card.  Bardem did his work in a foreign film (again).  It will likely sweep and go to Firth.

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech”

Go John Hawkes!  Nice one buddy 🙂 He is great as “Teardrop” in Winter’s Bone.

Christian Bale was so good in The Fighter.  

Geoffrey Rush will get this one though. No hard feelings there.

Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

All amazing women, giving amazing performances.  Damn Jennifer Lawrence is so amazingly understated in Winter’s Bone. MIchelle Williams stellar (as always) in Blue Valentine. Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman – there is a reason they have been in this position so often before. Natalie’s ballet was amazing, her performance was amazing and we need to push her through to a deserved Oscar, even just to acknowledge the span and scope of her work which has nearly always been dead on (Amidala wasn’t really her fault). But if Jennifer Lawrence (the big underdog here) takes it, I will not feel let down.

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Adams again?  Leo Again?  Love them both (they are both a degree of separation and they both did amazing work in the Fighter, Amy especially) but are there only five supporting actresses working in Hollywood?

Animated Feature Film

“How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
“The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

“How to Train” for story…

But “The Illusionist” because it’s Tati, it’s magic, it’s beautiful beyond repair, and because it’s the kind of thing that doesn’t happen twice.

Art Direction

• “Alice in Wonderland” – Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” – Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
• “Inception” – Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
• “The King’s Speech” – Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr
• “True Grit” – Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

Cinematography

• “Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
• “Inception” Wally Pfister
• “The King’s Speech” Danny Cohen
• “The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
• “True Grit” Roger Deakins

The good old boys comprise this list (Conrad Hall R.I.P.)  – will be happy when any one of these luminaries wins.  They are all Senseis.  If I had to choose, I’d give it to Cronenweth Jr. for the crazy low light style he pulled off in Social Network.  It made Gordon Willis seem like a softie.  But God bless, Roger Deakins.  He is Obi Wan.

Costume Design

• “Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
• “I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
• “The King’s Speech” Jenny Beavan
• “The Tempest” Sandy Powell
• “True Grit” Mary Zophres

Directing

• “Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
• “The Fighter” David O. Russell
• “The King’s Speech” Tom Hooper
• “The Social Network” David Fincher
• “True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Nolan is conspicuously absent from this list. Oscars don’t take Science Fiction or Fantasy seriously (LOTR being the exception).  Remember Avatar?  District 9? What about Blade Runner? 2001: A Space Odyssey? Only Science Fiction films nominated for best pic in these genres in the history of Oscar before this were A Clockwork Orange (1971), Star Wars (1977) and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

That aside (as I do have a personal bias towards those genres):

Man this is a tough one to call.  Really really tough.  I am not touching this one.  They are all deserving.  For once. (Except 1999: Director:
SAM MENDES for “American Beauty”, Spike Jonze for “Being John Malkovich”, Lasse Hallstrom for “The Cider House Rules”, Michael Mann for “The Insider”, M. Night Shyamalan for “The Sixth Sense”)

Documentary (Feature)

• “Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
• “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
• “Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
• “Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
• “Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Don’t get me wrong – I really liked Exit through the Gift Shop.  I idolize Banksy.  Mr. Brainwash is a tool.  But this film isn’t one of the best docs of the year.

A couple missing from this list:
“Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow” – Sophie Fiennes
“Cave of Forgotten Dreams” – Werner Herzog
“Darkness of the Edge of Town” – Thom Zimny
“Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie” – Sturla Gunnarsson

Documentary (Short Subject)

• “Killing in the Name” Nominees to be determined
• “Poster Girl” Nominees to be determined
• “Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
• “Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
• “The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

Film Editing

• “Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
• “The Fighter” Pamela Martin
• “The King’s Speech” Tariq Anwar
• “127 Hours” Jon Harris
• “The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Foreign Language Film

• “Biutiful” Mexico
• “Dogtooth” Greece
• “In a Better World” Denmark
• “Incendies” Canada
• “Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria

Where is Gaspar Noé’s “Enter The Void” – a work of staggering ambition and cinematic brilliance and audacity. Likely, because it premiered at Cannes over a year ago, it has fallen in between the cracks, considered a 2009 release, thus losing any opportunity for award consideration. Which is a shame, because this is truly a masterpiece.

Makeup

• “Barney’s Version” Adrien Morot
• “The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
• “The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

The Wolfman.

Music (Original Score)

• “How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
• “Inception” Hans Zimmer
• “The King’s Speech” Alexandre Desplat
• “127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
• “The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

They totally missed Daft Punk for TRON. But go Trent!

Music (Original Song)

• “Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
• “I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
• “If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
• “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3″ Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

I’m over Randy Newman being nominated for Toy Story songs.  Please stop.

Best Picture

• “Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
• “The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
• “Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
• “The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
• “The King’s Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
• “127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
• “The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
• “Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
• “True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
• “Winter’s Bone” Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers

What is with these huge lists of best picture noms recently?  Just commit.  This is just politics and diplomacy.  Why the fuck is Toy Story on this list? I’d be fine with any of the others, but I really loved Black Swan. Not decided yet though.

Short Film (Animated)

• “Day & Night” Teddy Newton
• “The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
• “Let’s Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
• “The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
• “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois

Short Film (Live Action)

• “The Confession” Tanel Toom
• “The Crush” Michael Creagh
• “God of Love” Luke Matheny
• “Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
• “Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Sound Editing

• “Inception” Richard King
• “Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
• “Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
• “Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger

Unstoppable or Inception.  I am going with Inception.  Sympathy trophy.

Sound Mixing

• “Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
• “The King’s Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
• “Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
• “The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
• “True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

See above.

(“Salt”…?)

Visual Effects

• “Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
• “Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky and Joe Farrell
• “Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
• “Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

First of all, Social Network got wickedly snubbed for its perfectly executed face transplant wherein using actors Armie Hammer & Josh Pence, Josh’s face was transferred over Armie’s throughout the film without ever once feeling like that weird crawly plastic looking business they did with Jeff Bridges in TRON. That said, from the list of delegates, Inception deserves this one, (see above).

PS. TRON > Iron Man 2.
PPS. – Enter the Void?

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• “127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
• “The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
• “Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
• “True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• “Winter’s Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Love me some Cormac, but, creative liberties aside (or perhaps because of them) I’d give this one to Sorkin.  I remember walking out of this yawn-fest and thinking, at least Sorkin did his job right.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• “Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
• “The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
• “Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
• “The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
• “The King’s Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

Would be nice if Mike Leigh got it for his amazing work.  I’m going with The King’s Speech if I had to put money down.

Also, not sure where something like Michael Winterbottom’s “The Trip” could be nominated. Even though it’s a UK picture, it is technically not “Foreign Language,” and Oscar NEVER acknowledges comedy. At least not the kind that doesn’t feature Jack Nicholson or directed by James L. Brooks. But The Trip should have been squeezed into this list somehow.

What did YOU think of this year’s nominations? What were your favorite films in 2010? Please post a comment and let me know!

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