Filmmaker Arev Manoukian combined all of the right elements to make his amazing short, Nuit Blanche.  From Wired:

For Arev Manoukian, capturing the live action for his elegant short film Nuit Blanche came easy: He filmed two principal actors in four days on a green-screen soundstage in Toronto.

The hard part happened over the next eight months, as the 28-year-old Canadian filmmaker hammered out densely layered digital effects shots culminating in a crushingly effective slow-motion car crash lavished with beautiful breaking glass.

That attention to detail paid off. Within days of posting the four-minute, 41-second romantic drama on the Spy Films website, Manoukian says he got calls from Hollywood agents and managers. He signed with talent agency William Morris Endeavor last month and went on a two-week spree of meetings with studios and producers. “Needless to say, it’s very exciting,” Manoukian told Wired.com in an e-mail interview.

In March, he brainstormed with Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov and 9 producer Jim Lemley. “I just came back from some very promising meetings,” Manoukian says. “They are interested in producing my first feature!”

Continue reading the article for some of the technical details and a short interview with Manoukian.  Also, just to round everything off, watch the making-of video.

In this tutorial I show you how to create the so-called “The Kid Stays in the Picture” effect (sometimes referred to as the 2.5D effect).  The idea is to separate a still image into distinct layers, move those layers in respect to the Z-axis, then animate movement on those layers to give the impression of 3 dimensions.  The effect is a refreshing (though admittedly similar) alternative to the omnipresent Ken Burns effect.  Like the Ken Burns effect, it lends itself nicely to documentary films which tend to rely heavily on using stills or photos as illustrative B-Roll.

The effect is named after the documentary, The Kid Stays in the Picture, which uses the technique extensively and in many creative ways.  If you have not seen this film, I highly recommend checking it out.

Viewing options: View the full tutorial in HD, above.  View in HD on Vimeo.  View in HD on YouTube (Part 1 and Part 2).

From the BBC, regarding The Virtual Revolution, their collaborative documentary about the web:

It was a radical change for BBC documentary making – an open and collaborative production, which asked the web audience to debate programme themes, suggest and send questions for interviewees, watch and comment on interview and graphics clips, and download clips for personal use and re-editing, all months before broadcast.

The subsequent distribution is just as innovative.  At the project’s web site, you can explore the documentary in 3D.  As you visually browse through clips, you are presented with the option to follow links associated with the current topic.  The project is a great example of innovative use of digital media and maximum interactivity.  Click the pic above to launch the 3D Documentary Explorer.

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