New frontiers in chicanery!

Jason Anderson of Toronto's Eye Weekly has some very nice things to say about us in an article about the Neistat Brothers:

My favourite DVD purchase of the last few months (besides Bum Fights, of course) was Automatic Vaudeville's Hi-Class DVD Vol. 1, which culled highlights from the micro-movie studio's output since 1998 -- see www.autovaud.com. These Montrealers have created a terrific trove of mockumentaries, parodies and Guy Maddin-like homages to cinema's undeservedly discarded genres. At the group's debut Toronto performance at the Drake Hotel last November, the audience was enraptured by two screenings of Schandfilm (a.k.a. "Shamefilm"), a hammy piece of silent-film surrealism that played like a lost collaboration between Maya Deren and Mack Sennett. Schandfilm was accompanied first by the filmmakers' live a cappella score of whoops, coos and shrieks, then by their penetrating commentary on the work's oh-so-provocative symbolism. In this inspired combination of amateur filmmaking and primo live comedy schtick, Automatic Vaudeville suggested what kind of chicanery is possible now that the means of production have become so readily available. It was a moment worthy of the Golden Shears.

Thanks, Jason Anderson!

The Current Cinema...

Today sees the debut of Movietalk with Idiot Boy Neal Anderson on Screen Test!

Remaking history

Dan Perlmutter's take on the Hollywood remake, "This Is a Remix," has just been posted on Screen Test and is absolutely worth a peek.

Springtime, Shame, and The Future of Cinema...

The Place: The musky, darkened board room of Automatic Vaudeville Studios.
The Time: The wee small hours of the morning.
The What-now: After many long hours of pacing around the room with rolled up sleeves and furrowed brows, decisions are made... Decisions that will affect not just Montreal’s most major micro movie studio but the very heart and soul of cinema itself.

Schandball is no more. There, it has been said. We’re sorry. We’re deeply, deeply ashamed. In providing you, our dear and beloved audience, with the very best in independent motion picture entertainment and spectacle, sacrifices had to be made. Chief among those sacrifices is the cancellation of our upcoming Schand-fest, where Schandfilm Drei was to be unveiled amidst much depraved fanfare. Schandfans will have to wait (not long, o’ Shameful ones!) for the next exciting installment of this increasingly audacious art “sensation,” but as with every dark cloud there is most certainly a silver lining….

Automatic Vaudeville Studios is proud to announce a bold and bustling new calendar of events… Though the dates, times and venues have yet to be announced, this much is known: Summertime will see a grand and glorious launch party for Your Hi-Class DVD Volume 2, with festival favorite The Recommendations, The Prisoner of Zenda, and much much more. The event will also feature the unveiling of brand new prevues (see article below) and some scintillating cinematic surprises.

If that were not excitement enough, there has been a most major confirmation: Your Hi-Class Picture Show of 2005 will have its gala premiere in the month of November in the glorious city of Montreal, with other shows to follow. This will be, studio sources hint, the Best Picture Show Ever. Expect a major announcement about the Picture Show line-up and AVS Production Schedule as early as next week!

Springtime is here, dear friends… Automatic Vaudeville is embracing this glorious season of renewal and rebirth, and we hope you do the same. Watch the skies!

Murmurs of Breathless Anticipation & Inevitable Shame!

After last week’s explosive memo leakage, a shocking festival rejection, and what several “friends” of the studio have termed “internal tensions,” many were expecting Automatic Vaudeville to “roll over and play dead” for the rest of the winter season. New information, however, seems to indicate that just the opposite is in the offing from the world’s favorite micro-movie studio!

The latest (and straightest!) talk about town is that Automatic Vaudeville is just days away from announcing a date and venue for its next Schandcycle event, where the highly anticipated Schandfilm Drei will be unveiled. Enthusiasts speculate the event may feature live music, though it looks like (once again) said music will not be provided by the talented Jamiroquai. Many are wondering if the Schand event will also address several of the concerns brought to light by the leaked memo, namely the quality and quantity of laffs in the studio’s Coming Attractions.

Of course, the announcement of a Schandfilm event in early May may mean that the skeptics have been proven right: a big no-go on a Springtime Hi-Class Picture Show! Several AVS insiders have suggested a return to a Hi-Class Autumn may be in the works, but as for that show’s line-up, it’s tight lips all the way around. …Which means rumours of a Johnny Idaho detective picture and a glimpse of the long awaited Krangor: Legend of the Galaxy are just that: rumours.

Expect more exciting news and several Major Studio Announcements in the days to follow.

LATE BREAKING: Further investigation has revealed, in an embarassing development, that the aforementioned memo was leaked by none other than blog-happy AVS Head of Talent Mark Slutsky, who has also been named as author of the leaked memo. Self-serving promotional stunt or desperate cry for help? And how does this "prevue" controversy relate to what many industry insiders have dubbed a "less than overwhelming" reception for one-time awards season hopeful Gabor's War, the Nick Robinson vehicle helmed by Mr. Slutsky? An independent committee may be assigned to determine the answers to such questions. We will keep you posted.

"Sauce"-y gossip

Autovaud.com has learned of some, shall we say... intriguing rumours emanating from behind Automatic Vaudeville's usually closed doors.

Portions of a memo recently authored by top studio brass--marked "for internal studio use ONLY"--have leaked to autovaud.com in past days, and we can reveal that if what they seem to imply is true, AVS may be considering a return to a franchise not seen since the turn of the millenium: the notorious, controversial, crowd-pleasing Tomato Boys.

If the memo is to be believed, AVS management has been unsatisfied with the studio's most recent trailer output. "While we have honed them technically to the point of near-mastery," the document reads, "some of the larfs have been lost." The solution, according to the memo's mysterious, sexy author? "[To] revive the comic energy of the Tomato Boys..." (The excerpt ends at this point, leading some to comment that perhaps it is just that--the "comic energy"--that the studio seeks to revise, not the characters themselves. As representatives would not respond to autovaud.com's request for comment, the exact nature of this point remains unclear.) What is clear is that the memo's sexy author outlines four points for consideration in the creation of future trailers: "funny accents," "madcap antics," "de-emphasizing plot," and "continuing characters" (emphasis ours).

What this could all mean is anyone's guess. What is clear, however, is that autovaud.com is on the case. Visit us regularly (and Screen Test, where internal memos are posted with some frequency), as we pursue this exciting story.

Technological difficulties

Apologies if anyone was denied entry to the site over the last 24 hours or so. There were a couple of now-resolved problems with the technical things that keep autovaud.com alive & kicking, but all is resolved. You need never fear again!

More shameless self-promotion

For some insane reason we've never posted this before; it's our lovely poster for The Recommendations, designed by our very own Seth W. Owen. If you were hanging around the Mission district of San Francisco in early February you probably have this in postcard form tucked in a pocket somewhere.