Authors — Audrey Ewell
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Show Me the Money! At DOC NYC, Making Your Skills Pay as an Independent Filmmaker
You’re a filmmaker. You’ve made one or two films, maybe even more. Or maybe you’re working on your first one and trying to figure out how to build a sustainable career. For now, you’re struggling: struggling to make ends meet, to find work that utilizes your skills, to keep your head above water while also finding the time, the energy, and the resources to work on your next project. If this sounds like you, welcome to the club. You’re not alone. Producer and director Esther Robinson led a panel discussion at DOC NYC about how to sustain yourself financially, while […]
by Audrey Ewell on Nov 22, 2016 -
Self Protection for Filmmakers: Security Rules to Live by from DOC NYC
Of all the panels I attended at Doc NYC, the one called Protecting Yourself, on November 16, gave me the most hope for the future. The filmmakers were an impressive line-up of first-timers and veteran filmmakers, linked by their willingness to put themselves in dangerous situations in order to shine a light on stories otherwise cloaked in secrecy, denial and misinformation. The panel was moderated by Caty Borum Chattoo, Co-Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University. At several points, the audience was asked not to tweet or do social media on certain statements. Some details […]
by Audrey Ewell on Nov 18, 2016 -
From DOC NYC, Five Takeaways from Veteran Documentary Editors on Successfully Cutting Doc Features
On Sunday I attended two editing-focused events at DOC NYC PRO. The “Morning Manifesto” was delivered by Matthew Hamachek, editor of films including Cartel Land and Amanda Knox. Later that afternoon, veteran editor Geof Bartz, Supervising Editor at HBO and a three-time Oscar winner, gave a masterclass on what to do when the pieces don’t fit. Having recently taken the Edit Center’s six-week Art of Editing Course at the IFP Made in New York Media Center, and currently assisting on the edit of a feature doc with a lot of moving parts, this seemed like a good way to spend […]
by Audrey Ewell on Nov 16, 2016 -
“Just Because It’s Not Online Doesn’t Mean it Doesn’t Exist”: Tips on Finding and Using Archival Footage from DOC NYC Pro
Sitting in the audience at a DOC NYC Pro Masterclass just days after the election, I found it impossible to separate the discussions and stories from the story of our country at this moment. Everything going on in film seems so important and relevant to how we see ourselves and the world, and nowhere do we see this as directly as in documentary. This was brought home by producer, director and archivist Sierra Pettengill (director, Town Hall; archival producer, Kate Plays Christine) in a panel taking place Sunday, November 13 called “Getting Creative With Archives.” Pettengill showed a clip from […]
by Audrey Ewell on Nov 14, 2016 -
“It’s Not So-Bad-It’s-Good”: Elijah Wood, Tim League and the Producing Team on Why They Made Jim Hosking’s Unhinged The Greasy Strangler
There are so many irritating things that go into making and distributing films. One detail that can become a nuisance is securing a website or Facebook URL that matches your film’s title, which sometimes, honestly, can tend toward the formulaic or typical. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that for the producers of The Greasy Strangler, this probably wasn’t an issue. The film’s plot starts out conventionally enough, for about a minute, before there’s a hard left turn during the perfectly timed execution of a stretched-almost-to-breaking-point argument about free water. You’ll probably know then and […]
by Audrey Ewell on Oct 8, 2016 -
The Power of 16mm: Directors and DPs Talk at IFP Film Week
Jake Perlin opened the IFP Film Week panel on shooting 16mm or Super16mm by saying that, as Artistic and Programming Director at Metrograph Cinema, he wants to see films in the way filmmakers want to make them: true to their vision. When it came time to shoot her second feature, director Eliza Hittman went back and forth as to what to what format to shoot on. When she was in grad school, she shot three short films on 16mm and fell in love with the format’s look as well as the shooting process. She learned to shoot in an organized […]
by Audrey Ewell on Sep 21, 2016 -
Reading, Rejection and Relationships: Hot Tips from Three IFP Film Week Panels on Agents, Financing and Festivals
At the “Working with the Right Agent” panel at IFP Film Week, one thing we heard a lot of is that it’s a business of relationships and connections. Peter Trinh (International and Independent Film Agent, ICM) says that for big agencies, it’s impossible to look at everything that gets sent to them, so he pays a lot of attention to what the people he trusts recommend. Since his pile of scripts would be literally impossible to read in its entirety, he’s much more likely to read the ones he’s heard good things about. And to that point, he says it’s […]
by Audrey Ewell on Sep 21, 2016 -
Feeling Empathetic through Virtual Reality at IFP Film Week
One focus of this year’s IFP Film Week is on the future of cinema in the form of Virtual Reality. A little background for those new to it: There are currently two ways of creating immersive worlds. The first wave and most common is spherical video, where you strap a bunch of cameras all together in an outward-facing circle. This approach has the familiarity of using cameras, but the viewer can’t physically move through the space — they’re akin to a locked-off tripod with a 360 swivel head, planted in one spot as characters and the world moves around them. […]
by Audrey Ewell on Sep 19, 2016 -
New Innovators in Distribution: Talking Trends and Hybrid Models at IFP Film Week
Film has been a dying industry for as long as I’ve been making, selling and distributing them. That’s what they say. And there’s certainly evidence that sales agents and distributors are having to re-think how they do business. The recent news that respected arthouse distributor Fortissimo Films had filed for bankruptcy left many saddened, but it seems that news of this nature is increasingly frequent. One of yesterday’s first panels at IFP Film Week, “New Innovators: Distribution,” moderated by Filmmaker Contributing Editor Brandon Harris, brought together industry members who are working innovatively in film, TV, and online distribution to discuss […]
by Audrey Ewell on Sep 18, 2016
