Peliplat | Your Movie Community

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How do you know if your idea for a movie is actually worth pursuing? When budgets are limited, resources are scarce, and industry gatekeepers get in your way, it can be tempting to chase the safest idea. A lot of emerging filmmakers get caught up in the notion that their concept should be easy to explain, easy to fund, and easy to find an audience for. But in an oversaturated and competitive lands

A Case Study in Making the Weird Film | A Conversation with the 'Headcase' Team

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Thirty years in, the festival that started as a showcase for Asian genre cinema has become one of the best genre fests in the world. From July 16 through August 2, the Fantasia International Film Festival will, as usual, make its audience sit through body horror and heartbreak in the same afternoon, while also looking back through three decades of selections in a retrospective. Even with the 30-ye

Films Hot off the Major Fest Circuit Are Coming to Montreal This Summer

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The video store used to be a ubiquitous part of North American life. These outposts of popular culture were an important gathering place. Not like a movie theatre, which is a destination in and of itself, video stores were outposts along the way to entertainment. A nexus of choice staffed with passionate movie fans. If the excitement of going to the movie theatre is the watching experience itself,

I Visited the Last Blockbuster Video Store

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"No, Hannah, you can't do that, that's cheating," complains Derek, throwing his ten-year-old hands up in the air. He had a full-bodied mannerism, especially when it came to frustration or annoyance. Which, he always was when it came to his younger sister. Who was only six, so she really didn't know anything at all. Not like Derek who now knew the times table all the way up to twelve. "I'm not chea

Jester Jack

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I used to watch Titanic multiple times a year. My family would travel and my brother and I would share a hotel room. Of course, we argued over everything including what to watch on TV. Eventually, we’d settle on a movie playing and for whatever reason in the early 00’s Titanic was on TV a lot. So, my brother would stop flipping through channels, watch a bit of Titanic, and fall asleep. I would sta

Titanic, 29 Years Later It’s Still Unbeatable.

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I don't want kids, but if I'm ever unfortunate enough to have one, I'm gonna name them White Power Ranger. I know there's an inherent risk that people will call them White Power for short, but the sins of the father are to be laid upon his children. My childhood wasn't perfect, but it was pretty sweet. And more than a loving family, or the lack of diseases, it was because of the hit 1995 film, Mig

I'm Sorry, Power Rangers, I Failed You

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Hey Peliplaters! I'm sure you've noticed how much Short Stories have taken over Peliplat lately. We have original story writing challenges, and now a dedicated home for all your fiction in the Stories tab. We truly believe the best stories end up making the best movies, so this was the natural addition to the Peliplat-universe. As the next part of my How to Peliplat series, here are some tips and

How To Write a Short Story on Peliplat

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Most horror movies end by killing the monster. Obsession ends by finally giving the monster exactly what she wants. And somehow, that makes everything worse. Curry Barker’s Obsession has one of those endings that works as a gruesome horror climax, a cruel punchline and a complete summary of the movie’s themes—all at the exact same time. It doesn’t simply surprise us. It takes everything the movie

OBSESSION: A MASTERCLASS IN SET-UP & PAY-OFF

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This was a narrow released film (is that the opposite of a wide release? I'm simply too lazy to look it up); it was playing in exactly two theaters near me, both in Chicago. So, Page and I took the train out, walked twelve minutes in the sweltering Chicago heat to the red line (subway/L train) where we traded the hot sun bearing down on us for a cooler, piss-scented tunnel. The ride was unremarkab

John Early Stuns in Maddie's Secret

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There is a scene in the Stephen King novella Apt Pupil where a schoolteacher lectures her class on the concept of a sliding doors moment- an incident that changes someone’s life, usually related to discovering a passion or YOUR GREAT INTEREST (King capitalizes those three words). It’s dark, in the context of the novella, but I had my own sliding doors moment when I was in middle school. My version

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Romeo + Juliet

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Few festivals have gotten into my heart the way Fantasia has. Covering the 30th edition as a guest makes it sweeter. What keeps me coming back is not the genre label; it is the narrative risk the programming vouches for. Here are the five titles I have on my radar this year. Godhead (dir. Mark H. Rapaport) Three years ago Rapaport showed up at Fantasia with Hippo, a black and white oddity about a

Five Films I Can´t Wait To See at Fantasia´s 30th Edition

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“Ill-weaved ambition, How much art thou shrunk!” – Henry IV, Part I (Act 5, Scene 4) * Who is Hal Hartley, and why do you need to watch his films? I know that there are many of you who saw this particular Challenge as a way to praise the early years of Quentin Tarantino, look back at the Matrix films (maybe even the Star Wars prequels?), and tell us all about the movies and cinematic memories that

Amateur: Prince Hal's Masterpiece

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It was rare to see my father. As I grew older, he would only come by on the holiday an hour before all of Kaupunki reset itself for the New Year. He would stumble in. Dressed in flashy business robes, but dishevelled and occasionally utterly incoherent. Every time I saw him, I felt as if I knew him less and less. My mother had refused to elaborate about him when I occasionally worked up the courag

(Sci-Fi Short Story) 05 A New Year is A Gift