ShaColby & I were at Videoscope the other day and met a guy, Vijay, who runs a local production company,
Net Effect Media, Inc..
He was there to buy some DVDs (Videoscope has an incredible selection of foreign and cult DVDs for rental and sale)
and had dropped off a DVD of his new movie, Green Card Fever.
The owner of Videoscope, Nona, was very excited, and introduced us, since she knew that I am making short films… she pointed out a DVD they had for rent, “Pink Floyd: The Wall Redux,” which was a short student movie made by one of her friends. Nona supports local filmmakers, and I think that is pretty cool. She has at least ten different local indie directors who rent from her and give her copies of their new movies. Come to think of it, I should make a list of them and post it here.
“Pink Floyd: The Wall Redux” was entirely self-produced and seemingly done mostly on computer… Vijay eyed it with disgust and started dogging on the bad inkjet / color copy that the DVD cover art was printed on, and then mentioned that his was a “real” movie, “on 35 mm and everything,” and not a “home movie” like this one was. I can only imagine what he would think of ours, which was shot on miniDV.
So Shac and I asked Vijay if it was possible to rent his movie, and he got all flustered… he said that the copy he brought was for watching, not renting, and that if Nona wanted to rent it out he would “cut her a deal.” He seemed interested in our 48 Hour Film Project experience, but apparently only to name-drop some deal he had in the works with Sony to do a similar project. Maybe I misinterpreted somthing, but damn, what an asshole.His (nonexistent) site is Net Effect Media, Inc., and here’s the movie site:
Green Card Fever. Note the insane usage of Flash… The trailers are a little on the painful side, but maybe it’s just because I’m not into the “corny romance-comedy” genre of Hindi movies.
| Reviewer | Text from their review | |
|---|---|---|
| NYTimes | “an amiable but highly didactic romantic drama” | “Anita Gates pronounces … ‘Romantic’.” |
| Village Voice | “Though it’s high time for a probing drama that illuminates the labyrinth of America’s immigration system, those responsible for Green Card Fever should have their artistic licenses revoked … The film’s problems are too numerous to list, but look for the boom mic at approximately 45m. Racial sensitivity corner: Why make the villainous lawyer a Chinese American (Robert Lin), his corruption supported by like-raced minions?” | “Ed Park calls it a ‘Probing Drama’.” |
| NY Post | “Earnest but not terribly original.” | “V.A. Musetto says ‘Cast & Crew work hard … the result is earnest’.” |
Just stumbled onto your post…I was the director/editor of “Pink Floyd The Wall Redux”, Nona at Videoscope has been kind enough to put that film and my other feature film “mainly ETC.” into her collection. “Redux” was created to project behind a live band playing The Wall live in San Francisco. The story was updated and all new visuals were incorporated. Sorry for the “ink-jet” scan, but I hadn’t yet sprung for the “laser gloss” copies of the cover. As far a a “real” film behing shot on 35mm, that statement is no longer valid in the world of cinema. 24f HD video is taking off, and Super-8 and 16mm are still great for feature films. Is “Thirteen” any less of a film because it was shot on 16mm? I have also seen Green Card Fever (Glossy cover sure, but poor font and cover art) , and being a filmmaker, I have to give a nod to any director who just “gets it made”. It’s already a success in my book, regardless if i like it or not. BTW, Vieoscope is still the best Video Library in the area.