Shot-on-video Film
A shot-on-video (SOV) film, also known as a shot-on-VHS film or a camcorder film, is a film shot using camcorders and consumer-grade equipment, as opposed to film stock or high-end digital movie cameras. Examples Shot-on-video films emerged in the wake of the release of Sony's professional-grade Betacam and consumer-grade Betamovie camcorders in 1983. Many shot-on-video films are low-budget and belong to the horror genre, including '' Boardinghouse'' (1982), ''Sledgehammer'' (1983), '' Video Violence'' (1987), ''555'', ''Woodchipper Massacre'' (both 1988), and '' The McPherson Tape'' (1989). Filmmaker siblings the Polonia brothers are known for their shot-on-video horror films, such as '' Splatter Farm'' (1987) and '' Feeders'' (1996). Theatrically released examples The scenes in Bill Gunn's 1980 film ''Personal Problems'' were shot using a videocassette recorder which was a new technology at the time (as most previous films were shot using film stock). The 1994 documentary fil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sony Betamovie BMC-100P (retouched Filtered)
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional electronic products, the largest video game console company and the largest video game publisher. Through Sony Entertainment Inc, it is one of the largest music companies (largest music publisher and second largest record label) and the third largest film studio, making it one of the most comprehensive media companies. It is the largest technology and media conglomerate in Japan. It is also recognized as the most cash-rich Japanese company, with net cash reserves of ¥2 trillion. Sony, with its 55 percent market share in the image sensor market, is the largest manufacturer of image sensors, the second largest camera manufacturer, and is among the semiconductor sales leaders. It is the world's largest player in the premium TV market for ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The McPherson Tape
''UFO Abduction'' (aka ''The McPherson Tape'') is a 1989 American science fiction horror, found-footage film, written, produced, and directed by Dean Alioto. The film centers on a family who are terrorized by extraterrestrials during a birthday celebration. Title misconception Originally conceived as ''UFO Abduction'' by Dean Alioto, the film is now more commonly recognized as ''The McPherson Tape.'' Plot The film begins with a brief introduction that purports the film as legitimate and explains that it is one of the strongest pieces of evidence for extraterrestrial life. On the evening of October 8, 1983, the Van Heese family gathers in the Connecticut mountains to celebrate the birthday of 5-year-old Michelle. The family consists of Ma Van Heese (Shirly McCalla), her three sons Eric (Tommy Giavocchini), Jason (Patrick Kelley), and Michael (Dean Alioto), Eric's wife Jamie (Christine Staples), his daughter Michelle (Laura Tomas), and Jason's girlfriend Renee (Stacey Shulm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rob Nilsson
Rob Nilsson is a filmmaker, poet, and painter, best known for his feature film '' Northern Lights'', co-directed with John Hanson and winner of the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (1979). He also is known for directing and playing the lead role in ''Heat and Sunlight'', produced by Steve and Hildy Burns, also featuring Consuelo Faust, Don Bajema and Ernie Fosseliius. ''Heat and Sunlight'' won the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival in 1988, and his 9 @ Night Film Cycle won the 2008 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Marlon Riggs Award for Courage and Vision in Cinema. Nilsson has also received Lifetime Achievement awards from the Fargo International Film Festival, the St. Louis International Film Festival, the Kansas City Filmmaker's Jubilee, the Master's Award from the Golden Apricot Film Festival, a Filmmaker of the Year Award from the Silver Lake Film Festival, and the Milley Award from the city of Mill Valley for accomplishment in the Arts. The ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tales From The QuadeaD Zone
''Tales from the QuadeaD Zone'' (also stylized ''TALES From The QuadeaD Zone)'' is a 1987 American anthology blaxploitation horror film written, directed, and produced by Chester Novell Turner. The film was originally released straight to VHS. VHS copies of the film have become collector's items due to their difficulty to locate and extremely limited quantities, with one copy selling for $2000 on eBay. Turner has expressed interest in creating a sequel and began writing the film's script in 2013. ''Tales from the QuadeaD Zone'' was the only film produced by Erry Vision Film Co. Since its release ''Tales From the QuadeaD Zone'' has received several public screenings, one of which was a 2016 symposium at the Yale University Library, Terror on Tape. It was given a DVD release in 2013 through Massacre Video. Synopsis The film is composed of two stories, plus a third wraparound story; "Food For ?" and "The Brothers", both of which are narrated by a mother (Shirley L. Jones) readi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blood Cult
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the circulatory system is also known as ''peripheral blood'', and the blood cells it carries, ''peripheral blood cells''. Blood is composed of blood cells suspended in blood plasma. Plasma, which constitutes 55% of blood fluid, is mostly water (92% by volume), and contains proteins, glucose, mineral ions, hormones, carbon dioxide (plasma being the main medium for excretory product transportation), and blood cells themselves. Albumin is the main protein in plasma, and it functions to regulate the colloidal osmotic pressure of blood. The blood cells are mainly red blood cells (also called RBCs or erythrocytes), white blood cells (also called WBCs or leukocytes) and platelets (also called thrombocytes). The most abundant cells in vertebrate blood ar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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16 Mm Film
16 mm film is a historically popular and economical Film gauge, gauge of Photographic film, film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm film, 8 and 35mm movie film, 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educational, televisual) film-making, or for low-budget motion pictures. It also existed as a popular amateur or home movie-making format for several decades, alongside 8 mm film and later Super 8 film. Kodak, Eastman Kodak released the first 16 mm "outfit" in 1923, consisting of a camera, projector, tripod, screen and splicer, for US$335 (). RCA Records, RCA-Victor introduced a 16 mm sound movie projector in 1932, and developed an optical sound-on-film 16 mm camera, released in 1935. History Eastman Kodak introduced 16 mm film in 1923, as a less expensive alternative to 35mm movie film, 35 mm Film formats, film for amateurs. The same year the Victor Anima ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Blair Witch Project
''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard—who hike into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland, in 1994 to film a documentary about a local myth known as the Blair Witch. The three disappear, but their equipment and footage are discovered a year later. The purportedly "found footage" is the movie the viewer sees. Myrick and Sánchez conceived of a fictional legend of the Blair Witch in 1993. They developed a 35-page screenplay with the dialogue to be improvisation, improvised. A casting (performing arts), casting call advertisement in ''Backstage (magazine), Backstage'' magazine was prepared by the directors; Donahue, Williams and Leonard were cast. The film entered production in October 1997, with the principal photography taking place in Maryland for eight day ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Focal Press
Focal Press is a publisher of creative and applied media books and it is an imprint of Routledge/Taylor & Francis. Company history The firm was founded in London in 1938 by Andor Kraszna-Krausz, a Hungarian photographer who migrated to England in 1937 and eventually published over 1,200 books on photography, cinematography and broadcasting. It "published practical guides to photography at affordable prices for the general public". One of the books published by Kraszna-Krausz's Focal Press was ''The All-in-One Camera Book'' by E. Emanuel and W. D. Dash, which was one of the earliest books on photography written for the general public. First published in 1939 it had gone through 81 editions by 1978. Book series published by the firm included Masters of the Camera and Classics of Photography. There was a second firm named Focal Press which was founded by George Bernhard Eisler in London in 1937 and later opened a branch in New York. It is unclear if there was a connection betw ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hoop Dreams
''Hoop Dreams'' is a 1994 American documentary film directed by Steve James, and produced by Frederick Marx, James, and Peter Gilbert, with Kartemquin Films. It follows the story of two African-American high school students, William Gates and Arthur Agee, in Chicago and their dream of becoming professional basketball players. ''Hoop Dreams'' was originally intended to be a 30-minute short film produced for PBS; the filming of the special led to five years of filming and 250 hours of footage. ''Hoop Dreams'' premiered at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. It won numerous other awards in the 1994 season, although it was not nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Despite its length (171 minutes) and unlikely commercial genre, it received high critical and popular acclaim, and grossed over $11 million worldwide. ''Hoop Dreams'' was ranked #1 on the Current TV special '' 50 Documentaries to See Bef ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Videocassette Recorder
A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recording. Use of a VCR to record a television program to play back at a more convenient time is commonly referred to as '' timeshifting''. VCRs can also play back prerecorded tapes. In the 1980s and 1990s, prerecorded videotapes were widely available for purchase and rental, and blank tapes were sold to make recordings. VCRs declined in popularity during the early 2000s and in July 2016, Funai Electric, the last manufacturer of them ceased production. History Early machines and formats The history of the videocassette recorder follows the history of videotape recording in general. Ampex introduced the quadruplex videotape professional broadcast standard format with its Ampex VRX-1000 in 1956. It became the world's first commerciall ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Personal Problems
''Personal Problems'' is a 1980 film described as a "meta soap opera" directed by Bill Gunn and written by Ishmael Reed that depicts the life and personal relationships of an African American nurse (played by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor) living in Harlem. The film was originally intended to be broadcast on television, but the public television network PBS and others did not pick up the soap opera. It was shown across the United States at smaller screenings throughout the 1980s until it found renewed popularity after a screening in the late 2000s at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The film was restored in 2018 by Kino Lorber and re-released at the Metrograph theater in New York City. The original soundtrack by composer Carman Moore was released for the first time in 2020 by Reading Group. Cast * Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor as Johnnie Mae Brown * Walter Cotton as Charles Brown * Sam Waymon as Raymon * Jim Wright as Father Brown Production Some of the characters in ''Personal Pro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bill Gunn (writer)
William Harrison Gunn (July 15, 1934 – April 5, 1989) was an American playwright, novelist, actor and film director. His 1973 cult classic horror film '' Ganja and Hess'' was chosen as one of ten best American films of the decade at the Cannes Film Festival, 1973.Gunn, Bill (May 13, 1973), "To be a Black Artist'." ''The New York Times'', p. 121. In ''The New Yorker'', film critic Richard Brody described him as being "a visionary filmmaker left on the sidelines of the most ostensibly liberated period of American filmmaking."Brody, Richard (August 16, 2016)"The Front Row: Ganja & Hess" ''New Yorker''. Condé Nast. Filmmaker Spike Lee had said that Gunn is "one of the most under-appreciated filmmakers of his time." Gunn's drama ''Johnnas'' won an Emmy Award in 1972. Career A native of Philadelphia, Gunn wrote more than 29 plays during his lifetime. He also authored two novels and wrote several produced screenplays. In 1950, Gunn studied acting with Mira Rostova in New York's East ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |