film

Do you have a great idea for an interactive storytelling project that focuses on vital social issues, but can't figure out how to fund it? You may very well be in luck.

The Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) is launching a New Media Fund aimed at supporting projects that go beyond normal filmmaking and which tackle crucial social issues. For 2011, the fund will award $750,000 in grants, and $1 million a year for five years afterward. The fund is a partnership between TFI and the Ford Foundation's JustFilms initiative.

According to TFI executive director Beth Janson, the … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Duncan Jones has only made two films, but he's already developing a reputation as quite the science fiction auteur.

With 2009's "Moon," starring Sam Rockwell, and now "Source Code," starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jones is becoming the kind of director that actors say they seek out because they want to share in his vision.

In "Source Code," which seems to be one part "Groundhog Day" and one part "Speed" with a heavy degree of sci-fi and technology thrown in, Jones created a world in which Gyllenhaal "wakes … Read more

It's now becoming increasingly clear that the global supply chain for electronics is going to be far more affected by the earthquake-tsunami-nuclear crisis still unfolding in Japan than previously thought.

Take for example the attention today on lithium ion batteries used in notebook PCs. Demand right now is not terribly high--it's a time of the year when consumers are buying fewer PCs--but consider what happens if the crisis persists. As Taiwan's Digitimes observes, a good bit of the world's production ecosystem for lithium ion batteries used in notebooks are not only located in Japan, but many … Read more

editor's notebook This week, New Yorkers are enjoying even more than their usual outsized share of art, with something in the neighborhood of 10 different fine-art marketplaces happening simultaneously in the city. And artsy YouTube rival Vimeo is taking advantage of the situation to burnish its brand, promote some of the artists who use its site, and spice up people's elevator rides.

In concert with the art- and tech-minded PR firm Culture Shock Marketing, Vimeo is serving up "Projection," a program of short films--including some dazzling digital animations--as part of Volta N.Y. The international art … Read more

Its fortunes didn't fare quite so well as the company it was based on: "The Social Network," a controversial recounting of the origins of Facebook, did not win the Oscar for Best Picture at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards tonight. As many had been expecting, the award went instead to historical drama "The King's Speech."

"The Social Network" also failed to win Best Director (that also went to "The King's Speech"), Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Actor, where Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg … Read more

The Academy Awards aren't really the place for high technology; the subset of awards commemorating film-industry engineering are relegated to a separate ceremony and only briefly acknowledged, after all. Consider last year, for instance, when James Cameron's 3D adventure "Avatar" lost out to "The Hurt Locker" for Best Picture and for Directing. Digital innovation can only really claim one category as its own: Achievement in Visual Effects.

Christopher Nolan's film "Inception," a film that managed the dual feat of being both technologically impressive and thematically brainy, took home the Visual Effects … Read more

Solyndra has found a second use for its solar collector as a shade for greenhouses.

The company on Monday said that that its solar collectors, which are an array of solar cell-covered glass tubes, are being tested at agriculture research centers in Italy and the University of California, Davis.

A conventional flat solar panel would block essentially all light, but Solyndra's collectors allow for light to pass through the glass tubes, which are coated with thin-film solar cells. That provides a diffused light conducive to greenhouse plant growth and allows growers to use their available space for power production, … Read more

SoloPower said yesterday that it has conditional commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy for a $197 million loan guarantee to build a factory in Oregon.

The company plans to start construction of a plant in Wilsonville, Ore., in the second quarter of this year. Once operating, it will be able to turn out 400 megawatts worth of solar panels per year.

The move gives San Jose, Calif.-based SoloPower the financial wherewithal to expand beyond a smaller demonstration plant in San Jose. The company has also gotten a loan and tax credits from the state of Oregon.

The … Read more

Intel's venture investing arm has led a $25 million investment in Berlin-based Sulfurcell, one of many companies staking a claim in the solar business with CIGS thin-film technology.

Sulfurcell makes CIGS/CIGSe thin-film solar cells that incorporate a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium or sulfur. Last year, it started manufacturing in a facility able to turn out 35 megawatts' worth of panels a year.

The capital will allow Sulfurcell to scale up its production and improve the efficiency of its modules, the company said in a statement. Since 2008, the company has raised 85 million euros from … Read more