Greetings Hollywood tech nerds!

In this week’s post:

⚪️ Darren Aronofsky’s BIG Screen Debut

👩‍🎤 Theatrical Distribution (Taylor's Version)

🏫 I Love 10 Minute Film School

🍿 Kernels: 3 links worth making popcorn for

Darren Aronofsky’s BIG Screen Debut

Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky’s new film promises to be an eye-popper. Literally!

If you’ve been anywhere on the Internet over the past few months, you’ve seen videos of Las Vegas’s newest addition The Sphere at The Venetian Resort. If not, this tweet provides the gist:

What I didn’t know was that the Sphere isn’t just eye candy, it’s also a venue! Via Deadline: inside is a screen “the size of four football fields… a 160,000 sq. ft. LED media plane,” 167,000 speakers, and seating for around 17,000 attendees.

If you’re like me, your first thought was “DO THEY SHOW MOVIES?!” and you’re in luck. Starting October 6, Darren Aronofsky’s made-for-Sphere film Postcard from Earth will begin its residency there, and the man himself gave everyone a preview on his Instagram.

darrenaronofsky

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Of course as Chief Hollywood Tech Nerd I had to know HOW this movie was shot, and I got an education on Sphere’s proprietary camera system Big Sky courtesy of CineD.

That’s some serious camera power! Check out the full article for the complete tech specs, and I’ll see you in Vegas!

Theatrical Distribution (Taylor’s Version)

Your pal Steve isn’t necessarily a rabid Swiftie, but I can’t help but admire Taylor’s plan to skip the studios for distribution of her concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.

Everybody probably knows the in-person Eras Tour is a financial juggernaut, currently projected to bring in over 2 billion dollars over the course of its run. What you may not know is Ms. Swift is also eyeing Hollywood money; not by trying her hand at acting, but by releasing her film directly to theaters without a distributor.

Via Puck and Collider: “Swift and her team… directly bypassed all the traditional Hollywood studios in order to finance and distribute the film themselves, and negotiated with AMC and Cinemark in order to screen it.” What does this mean financially? “AMC will receive 43% of the box office revenue, leaving the remaining 57% for Swift.”

That’s a huge payday, both for Swift and for strike-impacted theaters, without a dime skimmed by any of the studios. According to Deadline, the film’s opening day sales eclipsed those of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with some sources estimating an opening weekend of over $100 million.

Swift is no scab either, the film was produced via an interim agreement with the striking unions. Ms. Swift may be “the problem” in her song “Anti-Hero” but certainly won’t be for this fall’s box office!

I Love 10 Minute Film School

As a filmmaker myself, I have long been inspired by renegade director Robert Rodriguez. I won’t spend much time describing his wild career, but if you’re an independent filmmaker and you haven’t read it, you owe it to yourself to get your hands on his book Rebel Without a Crew.

What I want to highlight is Rodriguez’s 10 Minute Film School, a regular feature where Rodriguez revisits sequences in his films and describes how he achieved them. I found myself returning to the 10 Minute Film School for his first movie El Mariachi and came away as inspired as ever. Anyone can make a movie, and in 2023 it’s much easier to achieve than it was for Rodriguez in 1992. Check it out!

Kernels (3 links worth making popcorn for)

Here’s a round-up of cool links about Hollywood and technology:

Maybe it’s studio CEOs we should replace with AI! (link)

How do you escape the YouTube algorithm? (link)

An interview with the cinematographer for A Haunting in Venice. (link)