The day Sundance began, Daily Variety’s lead article kicked off with: “In this brave new indie world of VOD, shifting release windows, RED cameras [italics mine] and social media marketing…” I was struck by how little any of this has to do with indie filmmaking alone. As a token of digital revolution, RED cameras are so five years ago. It’s hard to storm the ramparts when last year’s #5 and #7 box office hits were shot with RED Epics (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Amazing Spider-Man). In fact, not only were last year’s #1 and #4 hits filmed with …

When D.P. Sean Meehan went to college he was undecided about what he would study. But in his first semester he took an American Film studies class and it prompted him to call his parents two weeks into school and say, “I’m sorry, I’m going to be a film major.” He then spent all his time turning Boston College’s film department into “my own mini film production major.” He took as many classes as possible and also did side projects to learn about the filmmaking process. Only graduating in 2011, Sean’s already freelancing regularly for a variety of clients. I …

Alex Buono, the cinematographer for the Saturday Night Live film unit, recently spoke at an event in Boston. (See: Alex Buono: Shooting for Saturday Night Live.) In addition to discussing his work on Saturday Night Live, he also talked about gear, technology, and his philosophy of shooting. Part of the reason Alex gave the presentation was to demonstrate and talk about the Canon C300, but he was careful to stress, as Roger Deakins said, “Cinematography is more than a camera,” or as Alex put it: “Filmmaking is not a science project.” Here are some of the topics he touched on: …

Alex Buono is perhaps best known for his work with the Saturday Night Live Film Unit. He shot the current opening for SNL, as well as many of the fake commercials seen on the show, but his passion is documentary and making independent films. “I’m always trying to get the next one off the ground,” says Buono, “and SNL, as much as I like it, it’s a lot of fun and I really like who I’m working with, [but] it’s this great day job I do while I’m trying to get a movie [going].” Most recently, Alex worked on the …

Eric Austin of HeliVideo has been flying RC aircraft and helicopters for about ten years, but it was two years ago that he first put a DSLR camera on a helicopter and started shooting aerial footage. Two years on and his company is shooting material for the Discovery Channel, ABC and others, primarily using the Sony NEX-FS100. I spoke to Eric recently about how he got into the business, and what’s involved in using RC helicopters. The first half of the interview covers his beginning, the cameras he’s been using, and operating considerations. The second half of the interview covers …

Originally published in the Summer 2010 issue. Only a few months after we selected her for last year’s “25 New Faces” list, writer-director Lena Dunham went into production on her second feature Tiny Furniture. Shot by fellow 2009 “25 New Faces” Jody Lee Lipes and produced by Filmmaker contributing editor Alicia Van Couvering and Kyle Martin, the film wound up winning the Grand Prize at 2010’s SXSW Film Festival and was picked up by IFC for distribution this fall. The film was shot on the Canon 7D, and we asked Lipes, focus puller Joe Anderson and Technicolor colorist Sam Daley …

At the Chicago Sun-Times in a column entitled “The do-it-yourself auteurs,” Steven Boone writes about the city symphony film and ties it to Jamie Stuart’s recent Idiot with a Tripod. He puts Stuart in a category of “DDIY” (the extra “d” is for “digital”) filmmakers who are the “garage Kubricks” once prophesized by William Gibson. There’s also a video by Kevin B. Lee with text by Boone. Check it out below.

From the shards of our experience shooting interviews and seeing movies at Sundance 2011 comes Jamie Stuart’s “Masterpiece.” With appearances by: Miguel Arteta, Alrick Brown, David Carr, Paddy Considine, Nekisa Cooper, Phife Dawg, Danfung Dennis, Andrew Donsunmu, Sean Durkin, Liz Garbus, Paul Giamatti, Megan Griffiths, Colin Goddard, Rutger Hauer, John Hawkes, Azazel Jacobs, Miranda July, Tom McCarthy, Peter Mullan, Adepero Oduye, Elizabeth Olsen, Jessica Oreck, Lindsay Pulsipher, Michael Rapaport, Calvin Reeder, Dee Rees, Amy Seimetz, Kim Wayans, Vilmos Zsigmond. Shot on the Canon 7D. Download the Quicktime here. (Contains adult language — NSFW.) Look for the longer edits of these …

With a hat tip to Photo Cine News, here are clips from two Sundance 2011 prizewinners shot on DSLR cameras. The first, the Grand Jury Prize-winning Like Crazy, was shot on the Canon 7D. (Felicity Jones, featured in this clip, also won a Special Jury Prize for her acting.) The second, Hell and Back Again, won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize as well as the World Cinema Cinematography Award. It was shot on the Canon 5D with custom-built rigs. Hell and Back Again clip from Danfung Dennis on Vimeo.

Jamie Stuart has struck a popular chord with this lovely short shot during the December, 2010 East Coast blizzard. It’s got gorgeous visuals, humor, a slyly organic narrative, and, plus, it’s a tribute to Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera. We at Filmmaker have touted Stuart’s talents for some time, but now Roger Ebert has weighed in, arguing that this new short should win the Best Short Film Oscar. It’s also been picked up Gothamist, New York Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal, among many others. It’s shaping up to be Stuart’s viral hit. I blogged it when it …