Back in March, I passed along a rumor that Southpaw would shoot here this summer. As you've probably seen, it's official, Southpaw will be shooting in our area.
If you live near Indiana, PA, you'll have the chance to go to an open casting call this Saturday, May 24. The movie will shoot for a few weeks in Indiana in June and most of July and early August in Pittsburgh.
You can also follow Movie Casting Pittsburgh on Facebppl for ongoing information.
The summit will have a few dozen panels and presentation on many aspects of the media biz, including:
In addition to the conference, Pittsburgh's Opal Awards will be awarded at a reception on Saturday night. The reception opens at 7pm with a dessert reception. Director Catherine Hardwicke, WQED CEO Deborah L. Acklin, Pittsburgh Film Office's Dawn Keezer, and longtime Pittsburgh journalist Eleanor Schano will be honored during Opal ceremony.
You can register or buy Opal Award tickets online through midnight (EDT) on Wednesday, May 14. Conference registrations and Opal Award tickets will be available at the door beginning at noon on Thursday, May 15 in the 2nd floor Rotunda of the Westin Pittsburgh Convention Center.
pghflicks.us is a conference sponsor, and is sponsoring complimentary WIFI in the Westmoreland room on Saturday.
The Bennett Miller flick will be among the films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Here's the report from Deadline. Only eighteen movies are in competition at Cannes
Foxcatcher was filmed in Pittsburgh during late 2012, and stars Channing Tatum, Steve Carrell and Mark Ruffalo. Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller also appear.
Here's the trailer.
Since 2008 or so, movie-making season has tended to hit Pittsburgh in the spring. Last year was an exception when movie-making season (for pay) didn't start until late August.
But, this year anyway, with the start of production of Fathers and Daughters, movie-making has returned to Pittsburgh with the robins. Fathers and Daughters marks Russell Crowe's return to Pittsburgh. He make The Next Three Days here five years ago. In Fathers and Daughters he plays a novelist who has a difficult relationship with his daughter, played by Amanda Seyfried.
Nancy Mosser is handling extra casting and put out a general call for extras for this week:
Extras needed for upcoming scenes on Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried and Aaron Paul film, Fathers and Daughters next week. Pay is minimum wage for the first 8 hours and time and a half after that. MUST HAVE A CAR TO GET TO SET AND LIVE IN OR NEAR THE PITTSBURGH, PA AREA. Calltimes could be early morning or could be overnight. We have no way of knowing yet so please don't submit yourself for a certain day unless your 100% available.
EVERYONE SHOULD BE OVER 18 YEARS OF AGE
WEDS. MARCH 19 -
THURS. MARCH 20 -
SATURDAY MARCH 22 -
If interested in submitting yourself to be considered, please email a recent picture to fathersanddaughterscasting@gmail.com. You should put your name, age, phone number, location and car make, color and year. Also put in the subject line which role you'd like to be considered for.
Fathers and Daughters is due to be shooting through the end of April.
If you've never done extra work and if you love the movies, you may really enjoy these opportunities. You have nothing worse to lose than a day, for which you'll be paid. If you find it wasn't for you, you don't have to go back. But, if you enjoy being on set, meeting other filmworkers and watching the being-the-scenes workings of movie-making, it can be loads of fun.
One of the great things about being on set is hearing about other movie-making opportunities. So it turns out the Fathers and Daughters may not be the only flick being shot in Pittsburgh early this year - Antoine Fuqua's next directorial effort, Southpaw, may be shooting in Pittsburgh in June (though this may be on the level of "unconfirmed rumor"). Fuqua is probably best-known for directing Denzel Washington to a Best Actor Oscar in Training Day. Fuqua is a Pittsburgh native, and Southpaw's reported star, Jake Gyllenhaal, shot the wildly entertaining flick Love and Other Drugs here a few years back. So I hope this moves beyond "fascinating rumor" soon!
The Women in Film & Television International Summit is coming to Pittsburgh this spring. It'll be an interesting confab of industry professionals and professionals-to-be talking about current media trends, creative disruption, new distribution channels and using new media to your best advantage.
Sounds great, you may be thinking. But...Pittsburgh?
Pittsburgh has been a fabulous city for ages. When out of towners who've never been to Pittsburgh come to visit, a common reaction is "Wow, this place is great." And it's only gotten better over the last few years.
Take getting in from the airport. Want to save a few bucks? You can jump on a 28X bus, pay $3.75 and be dropped off about 4 blocks from the Westin. There are also Super Shuttles, taxis or limo service that will take you straight to the hotel.
As you approach downtown Pittsburgh, you go through the Ft. Pitt tunnel and onto the Ft. Pitt Bridge and...voila...the money shot, an amazing view of downtown (and if you saw Perks of Being a Wallflower or Boys on the Side, you know exactly what I mean). On your left, the Ohio River and Point State Park with its fountain and walking trails. Across the river, Heinz Field where the Steelers play and PNC Park where the Pirates play. Straight ahead, downtown Pittsburgh, often called the Golden Triangle. On your right, the Monongehela River with Station Square across the river from downtown. And, behind you, Mt. Washington with a breathtaking view of downtown and two inclines to take you to the top. Check Google for "photos of Pittsburgh" if you need more convincing that Pittsburgh has become picturesque over the last 60 years.
Within a mile of the summit's convention hotel, the Westin, are over a hundred great restaurants and trendy bars, many galleries, and museums like the Andy Warhol. Sadly, the Pittsburgh Pirates are not in town during the Summit, but you can still visit PNC Park, a baseball park commonly called the best baseball park in the country. Besides the Summit, there are loads of cultural events going on in downtown in mid-May, including a Tony Bennett concert on Friday, May 17. And, if you want, you can take a tour of Pittsburgh, take a classic Ducky tour and Pittsburgh Pedal Power Tours, which will feature of movie tour of Pittsburgh on Thursday, May 15 (write to wifsummit@gmail.com and put "Tours" in your Subject line if you're interested in Pedal Power Tours' downtown movie locations tour).
A short cab ride away from downtown Pittsburgh is Oakland with the Carnegie Museums of Natural History and Art, a must-stop spot for any museum-fan (and a great place to take your kids if they're visiting Pittsburgh with you).
The Women in Film and Television International Summit will open its Registration/Information table on the second floor of the Westin by noon on Thursday and will be ready to help you with suggestions of where to go and what to do. Meet back in the Westin's bar and between 6 and 7 to meet other summit attendees and get ideas about where to go to dinner.
Bon Appetit has listed Pittsburgh as the city where you need to eat now and everyone who's been here agrees!
Recommended restaurants within five blocks of the hotel include:
And even more recommended restaurants with about a mile of the hotel. Many of these are in the Strip District, a shopping area full of fresh produce and trendy art/antique spots.
Check out some other local restaurants on the Pittsburgh Magazine site.
So while you're meeting women from across the country and learning the latest about the film industry, you can indulge a little!
Stop by the Women in Film and Media Website for more information about the Summit and about Pittsburgh.
The Hollywood Theater in Dormont is running their great Oscar party again this year. If you were on the fence about going out tonight, the weather (at least west of Pittsburgh) is pretty good and the Hollywood still has tickets for tonight. Dress up, don't dress up, but show up in Dormont tonight.
Even though the roads are pretty clear, do yourself a favor and don't take Potomac between Banksville and Belrose or Espy Streets. Take Hillsdale instead as it's much less steep. Free street parking tonight!
I had a winning night at the party. I won one round of Oscar trivia and won candy. I later won the Oscar ballot pool for the evening, guessing 18 of the 24 Oscar winners (75%). Won two books & movie tickets.
As I've said before, I thought 2013 was an exceptional year for flicks. Most years, I'm really pissed off by some of the Oscar nominees, but, this year, I liked almost all of them. The performances were particularly strong.
Everyone in this category deserved their nominations, but Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips and Idris Elba for Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom did as well. For a great example of range, see Out of the Furnace and compare/contrast Christian Bale's performance there and in American Hustle. While I have not seen 12 Years a Slave, I think probably Ejiofor most deserves the Oscar, but I would not be upset to see McConaughey win for Dallas Buyers Club, as his performance was awonderful.
Barkhad Abdi was impressive in his first movie role in Captain Phillips, and Bradley Cooper continues to deliver well-nuanced roles. But Jared Leto came from out of left field in Dallas Buyers Club and he was great.
Amy Adams gave a wonderfully ferocious performance in American Hustle and does deserve the Oscar the most. Cate Blanchett gave a very good performance in Blue Jasmine, but it was just too clearly based on Vivien Leigh in Streetcar Named Desire. While people tend to ignore Sandra Bullock in Gravity, I found her performance in Gravity was as engaging the second time as it was the first.
I loved June Squibb's raucous performance in Nebraska. While I liked Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle, she just won last year and June Squibb is going to be 85 this year and has been in the business for decades.
Frozen as better than I expected, and, like Brave had really amazing design. However, I'd rather see The Wind Rises as Miyazaki never got the kind of acknowledgement from Hollywood that he deserves.
I think Directing/Picture will be a split this year between Cuaron and 12 Years a Slave. It's possible that it might split the other way, but that's less likely.
The Gravity score is quite different...except from The World's End, another science fictional movie score, also by Steven Price.
Yes, "Let It Go" is very singable and it's been everywhere during the last few months. But I'd rather see "Ordinary Love," a somewhat more meaningful song than a teen pep anthem take the statue.
I haven't seen 12 Years a Slave, but I believe the people who keep saying it's great and I will watch it once it hits cable for a reasonable price. I'm actually glad I didn't see Dallas Buyers Club in the theater because that, too was more intense than I imagined. I think 12 Years a Slave will get the Oscar, and in a year with so many high quality movies, that's saying quite a lot.
I found the production design for The Great Gatsby to be too over-the-top and operatic. I certainly liked the design of Gravity, and American Hustle captured the look and feel of the '70s. But Her was a subtle look into the future, with the constant images of a large city making the characters look ever more isolated.
At first I predicted one of the other films, and then remembered the "Get a Horse" was the extremely clever short that played before Frozen. It was truly a unique, meta cartoon.
These three awards are as close to a lock as any awards could be, particularly this one. The Visual Effects for gravity were truly amazing.
This may be the hardest category of them all. All of these movies had intelligent scripts. I really walked out of American Hustle wishing I could write the next script for David O. Russell. But while American Hustle was a great, in your face script (as was Dallas Buyers Club), Her (and Nebraska) were both extremely quiet.
Comments on the show.
I've seen yet another of the best movies of 2013, and it was stunning - Dallas Buyers Club. I've now seen seven of the nine Best Picture nominees, and will probably see 12 Years a Slave this week. The only one I really don't want to see is Wolf of Wall Street, so I might catch that on cable some day.
Increasingly, I think 2013 was the best year for movies since 1977, and may even rival 1939 for memorable, classic movies. Even a "lesser" movie like Her, the inclusion of which as a "Best Picture" nominee made some people puzzled, had intriguing performances and an intelligent look at how technology can take over some people's lives.
For many years, I've posted a lengthy article predicting the Oscars. In some ways, it may be harder than ever to predict this year, there have been so many excellent movies. Yes, it's likely 12 Years a Slave will take Best Picture and Gravity will take Best Director. But it could go off in so many directions.
I think movies like 12 Years a Slave, Gravity, American Hustle, Nebraska and Philomena will be talked about and rewatched in the way The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Stagecoach and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. These are the movies we'll remember.
Haven't seen Kill Your Darlings yet and hope to (but probably not before the Oscars).
I'd put Philomena, The Book Thief, Frozen, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Butler, Blue Jasmine, The Way Way Back, Much Ado About Nothing, Warm Bodies & Catching Fire in the next 10. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon didn't completely work but was a respectable first movie.
This was the year I gave up on big junk movies. No more Star Trek, no more comic book movies (except for maybe Iron Man). I saw maybe 6 of the top 10 grossing movies of 2013. I caught Pacific Rim on DVD and just found it silly.
In terms of movies made in Pittsburgh, there wasn't much released in 2013. I would like to have liked Out of the Furnace, and while it had excellent photography and acting (especially Christian Bale who then went on to play a radically different character in American Hustle) the script was, frankly, lame and overly violent.
And, sometimes, I can't watch movies that I know are good movies because they are too violent. So I haven't seen 12 Years a Slave as I know it is a very violent movie (as was, at times, Mandela). I will Netflix 12 Years when I can so I can put it on pause or skip ahead. I thought Steve McQueen's Shame was a great movie, but it was so hard to watch (and it was "only" about sex, not about violence and human ownership). I expect the Oscars will be a director/movie split between Gravity and 12 Years, but I'm still not 100% sure how it will split.
