TRAILER: Jay Cheel's Beauty Day

Joshua Ligairi » 2.22.11 »

Jay Cheel, my co-host over at The Documentary Blog Podcast, has released the first trailer for his documentary film, Beauty Day about a beautiful loser named Cap'n Video. I think the trailer is incredible and the rough-cut scenes I've seen from the film are even better.

The film premieres at MoMA next month as part of their Canadian Film Exhibition and has some pretty awesome screenings coming up including HotDocs! So awesome. What an incredible start to a film's run and a filmmaker's career.

For more info on the film, see Jay's posts at FilmJunk.com or TheDocumentaryBlog.com. You can also follow Jay and the film on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, or check out the official Beauty Day website.

BLOG: Edward Burns' homage trailers

This is a re-post of a piece I wrote for FilmJunk.com, where I am an occasional contributor. While there is no real "writing" here to speak of, I wanted to pass this on because I absolutely love the subject matter.

Joshua Ligairi » 10.13.2010 »

With it’s sappy-sweet first trailer premiering to much online criticism, Edward Burns has taken the marketing of his new film, Nice Guy Johnny, into his own hands and, in my opinion, in a very exciting new direction. Burns, with the help of someone named “Reel Movie Guy“, has recut the Johnny trailer in the style of several classic films. So far, five such trailers have been released.

Want to test your own movie knowledge? You can play along at home. See if you can figure out which classic films’ trailers are being homaged by Burns et al. Nice Guy Johnny "homage trailers" (and the original trailers they are homaging) below. Sadly, something to do with my Blogger settings crops the right side of these videos, but if youclick on the YouTube logo in the bottom right corner, you can just watch the trailers on YouTube.

1. Nice Guy Johnny Homage Trailer 1

2. Nice Guy Johnny Homage Trailer 2

3. Nice Guy Johnny Homage Trailer 3

4. Nice Guy Johnny Homage Trailer 4

5. Nice Guy Johnny Homage Trailer 5

And now, the originals. How did you do? There are some tricky ones in here. Like, number four is obviously a Woody Allen film, but how do you tell it apart from the 100 or so other Woody Allen trailers with the exact same font and very similar jazz music? If we were playing Scene It, I could have guessed Husbands and Wives just as easily. And what about number two? This is essentially the same trailer as Godard's trailer for Breathless. It is just the font at the beginning that gives it away. Frankly, i think they cheated a little bit, using "the pretty girl" and "the bad boy" from Breathless, but once you realize they are going for Contempt rather than Breathless, jokes like "the Cutlass Supreme" play a lot better. I was able to identify most of these trailers on my own, all except for number three (which is a bummer because it is my favorite). Thankfully, Film Junk reader "Alex" helped me out with that one. What a fucking awesome awesome trailer! They just don't make 'em like that anymore.

1. L’Avventura (The Adventure) Trailer

2. Contempt Trailer

3. The Thomas Crown Affair Trailer

4. Hannah and Her Sisters Trailer

5. Love Story Trailer

I love that someone in Burns’ position is not only sticking with indie film in a very tough time for it, but is also willing to put himself and his film on the line with such a unique form of marketing. What a lovely tribute to the work that inspired him an d what an effective example of how marketing can effect our impression of a film.

I’ll be checking the film out based on this campaign alone, hoping that a filmmaker with this level of guts and creativity will deliver a comparable film.

More info on Nice Guy Johnny can be found on the official website.

BLOG: A documentary podcast

Joshua Ligairi » 09.01.10 »

I've just started recording a new documentary-centric podcast for TheDocumentaryBlog.com with DocBlog founder Jay Cheel (himself also a documentary filmmaker). Our goal with the podcast is to create a strong internet community around non-fiction filmmaking, while also creating a resource for film students enthusiasts to get an insight into the craft and process of the greatest non-fiction filmmakers of our day. Jay hopes to approach it from a fan perspective. I hope to meld that with a filmmaker perspective, getting into technique and business.

Although we are just creating the first Documentary Podcast season, Jay is also the co-host of the Film Junk Podcast. One of the world's highest-rated and longest-running podcasts, they have recorded (almost) 300 weekly episodes over the past (almost) six years, so there is a pretty solid track record there.

We plan on bringing filmmakers on for the entire episode to discuss what documentaries we've seen lately, some documentary news, and then transition into a conversational interview about the filmmakers' work which will take up the majority of the podcast.

We will be recording every other week in the beginning and judge future episode frequency based on response. Stay tuned!

Check out The Documentary Blog now here and follow them on Twitter @documentaryblog for updates.

NEWS: More Film Junk

Joshua Ligairi » 08.25.10 »

My latest posts for FilmJunk.com:

07.27.10 Shyamalan Denies That his Career Is Going Downhill

08.04.10 I'm Still Here Poster

08.09.10 John Carter of Mars Wraps Filming In Utah

08.20.10 Drew: The Man Behind the Poster Documentary Trailer
(This article was later re-posted at TheDocumentaryBlog.com)

08.24.10 AMC's The Walking Dead Trailer And Release Date

08.25.10 Eli Roth Confirms Thanksgiving In Development

Check out FilmJunk.com for the latest movie news or follow them on Twitter @FilmJunk!

BLOG: Writing junk

Joshua Ligairi » 07.02.10 »

Check out this podcast.

Some of you may already know this but, I've recently had the opportunity to write for one of my favorite film sites, Film Junk. I came about the site because of the podcast put on by site editor Sean Dwyer, along with co-hosts Jay Cheel and Greg Gaspari (and the occasional madness of Reed Farrington). The dynamic between these guys is amazing and listening becomes like hanging out with old friends. In fact, when I've become homesick traveling, Film Junk is one of a few select shows I could listen to that would transport me back home. Late night on the train in Germany, sleeping on the couch in Barcelona, and stranded in the hotel room in Orlando...I was bummed out and Film Junk was there.

Anyway, it has been an interesting experience writing for the site. As you can probably glean, I listen to a lot of film podcasts and, because I am very opinionated on the topic, I usually feel frustrated about not being able to share my opinions. The only two options I can see are either being the really annoying listener who writes overwrought, scathing emails of no consequence whatsoever (as I unfortunately did not to long ago with the /Filmcast) or I can just join the conversation (and write overwrought scathing articles of no consequence whatsoever). Done.

Buy this t-shirt.

It has been a lot of fun so far. I've written articles about the possibility of Joseph Gordon Levitt (who has been one of my favorite actors since I worked with him at the Sundance Lab) playing The Riddler in the new Batman movie, the possibility of Danny Boyle directing the 2012 Olympics, the unfortunate acquisition of Joaquin Phoenix's self-indulgent mock/doc, the first photos from the set of The Walking Dead (a TV series based on the only comic I read diligently), a remake of (one of my all time favorite films) The Monster Squad, and a remake of (a recent classic) Let the Right One In. These are all things I would normally love to discuss ad nauseum and now I have an outlet that doesn't annoy my loved ones.

That said, writing news stories is not exactly my passion. I'm not sure how long this will sustain my interest or how long they will want me to continue, but I am enjoying it for now. Big up to Sean Dwyer for the opportunity. Next up...Film Junk podcast?! Check out the Film Junk website here, the podcast here, follow @FilmJunk on Twitter, and read some of my articles below:

06.14.10 Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Talks to Play The Riddler?

06.14.10 Danny Boyle to Direct 2012 Olympics?

06.16.10 First Images from The Walking Dead

06.17.10 The Monster Squad Remake Gets Writers

06.22.10 Magnolia to Acquire Joaquin Phoenix Doc(Mock?)umentary

07.01.10 Let Me In International Trailer