Andrea James

News

Sundance 2020: “Whirlybird” Probes LA From Above

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Clint Worthington

January 26, 2020

Even through its glimpses into the dark underbelly of LA and the Turs’ marriage, Yoka still manages to craft propulsive moments of lurid news stories, and occasionally takes the time to dig into the quirkiness of their news agency in its heyday (complete with family members doing the books and hiring gimmicky helicopter pilots to grab headlines on their own). But at its center is a time capsule of a very specific and important time in both LA and news media history, and the heartbreak it left in its wake on both sides of the camera lens.

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–https://thespool.net/festivals/2020/01/sundance-2020-whirlybird-review/

By Andrea James | January 30, 2020 | Film and media news, Reviews, Whirlybird |

In WHIRLYBIRD, The Cost Of A Scoop Is Your Soul (Review)

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by Kyle Anderson

Jan 26 2020 • 3:15 PM

The footage we get in Whirlybird is astonishing. We see the raw footage, including outtakes before and after the live segments on the news. With this, we see a picture of Tur’s demanding perfectionism and how that eventually turned abusive. The documentary has interviews with Tur, Gerrard, their children Katy (now an NBC correspondent) and Jamie, and pilot Larry Welk. It’s an insular look at what was going on, but this is in no way sugar coated. The footage alone paints the picture of someone seething with rage, terrified of failure, and fighting the inner battle of who they really are.

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–https://nerdist.com/article/whirlybird-sundance-review-bob-tur-zoey/

By Andrea James | January 30, 2020 | Film and media news, Reviews, Whirlybird |

Whirlybird Doc Soars Over Fires, Riots and Killings to Tell the Origin Story of Breaking News

Tim Molloy

Published on January 26, 2020

But when the rush of breaking news wears off, everyone is left to consider the personal costs — and what is was all for. Whirlybird helps us understand breaking news as a high-flying addiction like any other — one that, for the Tur family, left lots of pain behind.

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–https://www.moviemaker.com/whirlybird-zoey-tur-marika-tur-katy-tur-bob-tur/

By Andrea James | January 30, 2020 | Reviews, Whirlybird |

‘Whirlybird’ Film Review: Journalism Doc Makes More Impact With Family Breakup Than With Breaking News

Sundance 2020: The evolution of L.A.-based news pales in comparison to the personal story in Matt Yoka’s documentary

Elizabeth Weitzman | January 26, 2020 @ 3:15 PM

There’s more, though. And since it’s not presented as a spoiler, it should be shared here: As we learn in the contemporary interviews, Bob is no longer Bob, she’s Zoey. A journalist himself, Yoka skillfully avoids any sense of the exploitation or sensationalism that we see his subjects indulge in occasionally. Zoey’s identity is important, but so, the movie insists, is Marika’s. It’s only once the noise quiets and each gets an equal voice that we can see them clearly, two distinct threads in a compelling portrait of an American family.

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–https://www.thewrap.com/whirlybird-film-review-news-helicopter-documentary/

By Andrea James | January 30, 2020 | Film and media news, Reviews, Whirlybird |

Sundance 2020 Documentaries: How I Shot That

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Chris O’Falt

Jan 29, 2020 1:32 pm

Shooting “Whirlybird”

Dir: Matt Yoka

Format: 2.8k ProRes 4444
Camera: ARRI Alexa Mini
Lens: Panavision PCZ 19-90mm T2.8 zoom

Cinematographer Ed Herrera: Our earliest conversations revolved around the color photographs of Nan Goldin from the 1980’s. There’s something inherently personal about Nan’s aesthetic that we wanted to capture ourselves. We had to earn a psychological sense of intimacy with our subjects. We began that process with the optics and then transitioned to a camera placement arc.

Alexa Lopez at Panavision helped me dig up dozens of wildly different lenses they had in inventory. I shot tests with everything (within the spherical realm) from uncoated modern primes to short antique zooms. we carefully analyzed the way each lens rendered portraiture from different distances.

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–https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/sundance-2020-documentary-cinematography-camera-lens-used-1202206375/2/

By Andrea James | January 30, 2020 | Film and media news, Interviews, Whirlybird |

‘Whirlybird’ Review: An Absorbing Look at a Sky News Pioneer’s Unconventional Life

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Jude Dry

Jan 29, 2020 12:39 pm

The Tur family tale, in which a plucky young couple fall in love and raise children to a soundtrack of manhunts and forest fires, is undeniably compelling and an obvious fit for the screen. But “Whirlybird” is worth singling out for another reason: It’s a fine example of an aspirational future for trans stories, joining a new wave of films about trans people in which trans-ness is merely one part of the story, in this case even the least interesting part.

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–https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/whirlybird-review-zoey-tur-katy-tur-documentary-1202206730/

By Andrea James | January 30, 2020 | Film and media news, Reviews, Whirlybird |

Sundance Film Review: ‘Whirlybird’ Soars Just As High As Its Subject

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BY TONI GONZALES -January 30, 2020

The history of Los Angeles isn’t in a museum that you visit. No, it sits on thousands of videotapes in a U-haul storage unit. Or, it did until director Matt Yoka and his team came along to convert it for the new documentary ““Whirlybird”.”

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–https://www.awardscircuit.com/sundance-review-whirlybird-soars-as-high-as-its-films-subject/

By Andrea James | January 30, 2020 | Events and Appearances, Film and media news, Reviews, Whirlybird |

Sundance 2020: Whirlybird

Matt Yoka beautifully weaves in archival footage with contemporary interviews.  One can look at Whirlybird as a time capsule.  The film captures around 40 years or so in the industry.  When it comes to the news business, it’s about being in the right place at the right time.  But what happens in the moments leading up to it?  This film shows exactly that but nobody said it would be pretty.

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–http://www.solzyatthemovies.com/2020/01/26/sundance-2020-whirlybird/

By Andrea James | January 28, 2020 | Film and media news, Whirlybird |

Legendary LA Helicopter Pilot Zoey Tur on Kobe Bryant’s Final Flight

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– https://www.siriusxm.com/clips/clip/a9914a41-78d6-4402-8150-b8f14a44945b/8d2d5a4d-139b-4628-9ebf-baa173d32c7d

By Andrea James | January 28, 2020 | Uncategorized |