And now, for your weekly Butterknife update. Joe Swanberg and friends are off shooting new episodes this week, but Joe sent along some stills to tide us over. Above, you’ll surely recognize the one and only Ronnie Bronstein; after the jump, you’ll find stills featuring guest stars Barlow Jacobs (writer/star of what was probably my favorite film at Sundance 2007, Low and Behold), and Michael Tully (director of Cocaine Angel and Silver Jew). Tomorrow, we’ll continue our interview series with a conversation between Joe and Ronnie. And as always, you can and should check out the Butterknife page on Spout.
The show is a kind of comedy of manners, tracking Bronstein’s private investigator from professional foibles and communication breakdowns on the streets of Brooklyn, to the blissful home life he shares with his adorable wife (played by Ronnie’s real-life wife Mary, who co-starred in Frownland). It’s sort of like Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Early Years, except Larry’s a detective, and Cheryl can actually stand to be around him.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing you interviews with the cast and crew of Butterknife every Friday. We’re doing this as an email chain: I sent Joe some questions, he sent Ronnie some questions, Ronnie sent Mary some questions, and so on. Below the jump, you’ll find my interview with Joe. Check out the Butterknife page on Spout, and check back here next week for some Joe-on-Ronnie action. But not in, like, a dirty way. You know what I mean.
The West Side, a web series by Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo and Zachary Lieberman, defies online video stereotypes in virtually every meaningful way. It’s not a quick-and-shoddy, webcam-in-a-dorm-room production; there are real scripts, costumes, score and locations. It’s presented in wide screen, in crisp, meticulously lit and After Effected black-and-white. Plus, it’s a Western, a period piece, and a gangster fantasy. But it’s also a truly independent production, produced with more ingenuity than cash, taking inspiration from existing genres but twisting them to fit its own unique iconography and mythology.
This is likely one of the reasons for the four month gap between the debut of the first episode (which I wrote about here) and the posting, this week, of the second. In the interim, the filmmakers’ blog has become an essential read, not just for details on their tech struggles and triumphs, but as a source for tips and tricks for DIY filmmakers making work specifically for the web.
This is truly a serialized work, so if you haven’t seen Episode One, watch it here before moving on to Episode 2. They’re not embeddable, but that’s okay, because they look really pretty on the plain white page.
Full disclosure: Ryan and I both used to work for this company, but we’ve never met.
Add to My Profile | More VideosLance Weiler of Head Trauma fame has launched a new web series on MySpace called Hope is Missing. Loosely intended as a companion to Head Trauma, which is being released on VOD on October 23, the series is a true cross-platform event unfolding over MySpace, Twitter, and even real life. Two episodes are live so far; I’ve been having fun sorting through the comments, watching the users go from taking it at face value that these are “real” clips about a real missing girl, to questioning that assumption, to making the connection to Head Trauma. The first episode is above, and the whole series can be found here.
