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CineSource Collective Narrative
Things are booming all over the Bay Although film/video companies are in retreat across the Bay Area, East Bay Titan Pixar, essentially the new Disney, is number one with “Up” at the box office. Aside from opening Cannes, a first for an animated feature, it is earning record revenues almost triple its closest competitor, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, with 68 million last week. And no wonder: “Winsome, touching and arguably the funniest Pixar effort ever, the gorgeously rendered, high-flying adventure Up is a tidy 90-minute distillation of all the signature touches that came before it,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Indeed, things are booming all over the Bay. This year’s SF International Film Festival enjoyed a banner year: “Tickets sales are up… Audiences have been expanding continually over the last four years… membership has gone from 1,500 in 2005 to 4,000 today” according to Graham Leggat, the festival’s executive director. Content-wise, the festival was also impressive, according to CineSource’s June issue. Reporter Roger Rose covered the glitzy side, including the smoking sendoff party, and Tony Reveaux, looked at the more arty offerings of documentaries and shorts.
Best of all, Oakland indie, Frazer Bradshaw’s Everything Strange and New won the coveted International Film Critics Award at the SFIFF. Considering he made ESAN on a shoe string it’s doubtful he will be deterred in producing his next project – once he shepherds this one through the festival hijinks and to a distributor – by any local fears of funding or film adventurousness. Speaking of festival insanity, Bradshaw may do a column for CS on negotiating the arcane world of where and when to open your film in order to get the best bang for your world-premier buck as well as other festival intricacies.
Heck, things are even booming for CineSource:
• Our Web hits hopped from 4,000 in January to a whopping 20,000 in May (see chart http://www.cinesourcemagazine.com)
• Our Production Survey postponed one month due to sex spam bots which seized our site, is now all set and open to be filled out until June 20 (see home page)
• Our First Annual Flaherty Documentary Award, a proposal contest for the prize of a two day/two person crew, is now due July 15 (see home page)
• Our The Loop column is three times the size it was just last month
Things are starting to move in Northern California media making and all we need to do is wait until everyone gets the news.