Authors — Jane Schoenbrun
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We Tell Ourselves Franchises in Order to Live
Last weekend I took a trip to the Regal Union Square Stadium 14 and paid seventeen bucks to see Blair Witch. Based on the reviews, I was pretty certain that I wasn’t going to like it very much (spoiler alert: I was right). But still I felt compelled to hop the Q train and head into Manhattan to meet my friend at the multiplex. What brought me out there? Maybe it was the changing weather and its subliminal indication of Halloween’s approach. Maybe it was the faint hope that director Adam Wingard — whose previous work I’ve really dug — would elevate what […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Sep 26, 2016 -
What Does Netflix’s Algorithm Want?
Back in June, Netflix’s VP of Product Innovation Carlos A. Gomez-Uribe and Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt co-published a paper entitled, “The Netflix Recommender System: Algorithms, Business Value, and Innovation.” It’s a fascinating read, and if you care at all about the future of film as an artform, a fairly troubling one. With their 19-page paper, Gomez-Uribe and Hunt provide a rare peek under the hood of Netflix’s inner-workings and technological developments, and go on to discuss the company’s business priorities and philosophy. The basic takeaway? Netflix has built an insanely complex and powerful recommendation system. This sucker has algorithms […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Sep 12, 2016 -
A History of the Fan Mutation, YouTube’s Strangest Art Movement
There’s something comforting about TV show opening credit sequences. In the era of the binge watch, we don’t necessarily need them every single episode. (I mean, we all know what we’re about to watch, don’t we?) But a great credit sequence can serve as a palette cleanser. The cue that we’re about to see something familiar, something we trust. It’s almost Pavlovian. And few opening credit sequences are as comforting as The Simpsons. Sure, that show, which is about to enter its 28th season, is about two decades past its prime. But when we hear Danny Elfman’s theme music, when […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Aug 29, 2016 -
The Filmmaker’s Guide to Emotional Validation
Last week I released collective:unconscious, a feature film I’ve been working on for the past two years onto the internet. The project is a collaboration with five of my favorite American filmmakers, and it’s a pretty strange and unique thing. We decided early on in the process to give the film away for free because we wanted as many people as possible to see it. Shortly after we let the film loose, the views started to pile up. And with it, the “Social” tab on my Gmail was flooded with alerts that people were “liking” my video. And then that […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Aug 15, 2016 -
An Invitation to Continue Watching
The fine folks at Filmmaker recently invited me to launch a new biweekly column. I’ve been a fan of Filmmaker forever, not to mention a sporadic contributor and employee over the years. Heck, back in my “just barely not an intern” days, I worked in the Filmmaker office mailing out replacement copies of the magazine to people who wrote in complaining that their subscriptions never arrived. At one point I could actually tell you how much each of the last eight issues cost in postage. But I digress… A regular column! I was honored, and the timing couldn’t have been […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Aug 3, 2016 -
Why Louis CK’s Horace and Pete is the Most Important TV Show of the Decade (and Maybe the Best)
The penultimate episode of Louis CK’s independent television series Horace and Pete, self-released via the comedian’s website over the past ten weeks, ends with a quote from the late Garry Shandling: “The world is too noisy and distracted to probably ultimately survive. Everyone needs to shut the fuck up. The answers are in the silence. Monks set themselves on fire to protest and to make this point. Just consider it.” Watching the episode upon its release, this quote gave me chills. And not just because it was a haunting encapsulation of CK’s narrative ambitions with Horace and Pete — a […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Apr 6, 2016 -
At Sundance: In Defense of Daniel Radcliffe’s Farting Corpse
The atmosphere was tense at the Eccles Theater Friday afternoon. The premiere of Swiss Army Man, the debut feature from acclaimed music video directing duo The Daniels (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) was running 25 minutes behind and audience members were still fighting over the venue’s few remaining seats. The buzz leading up to the film’s premiere had been fervent, with many pegging it as the anticipated breakout of the festival’s competition lineup. Were audiences about to see the next Beasts of the Southern Wild or Whiplash? No. In fact, it wasn’t long after the film let out that the […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 25, 2016 -
Why the Zellner Brothers’ Kumiko is The Perfect Allegory for Independent Filmmaking
Warning! This piece contains major spoilers for David and Nathan Zellner’s wonderful new film, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter. If you’ve yet to catch Kumiko (which premiered earlier this week at Sundance), read on at your own risk. Tuesday night at Sundance’s annual short filmmaking awards (held, as all great award ceremonies are, at a bowling alley), David and Nathan Zellner delivered something of an impromptu keynote about the many joys and headaches of independent filmmaking. The brothers, who have had nearly half a dozen films at the festival over the years – as well as three features – talked about […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 24, 2014 -
Five Questions with Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter Directors David & Nathan Zellner
David and Nathan Zellner are longtime stalwarts of the Sundance Film Festival, and the American microbudget film scene in general, carving out a niche for themselves over the last decade-plus as purveyors of a uniquely strange brand of Americana. Their feature work (including 2012’s haunting Kid-Thing) and their idiosyncratic and unforgettable shorts (Sasquatch Birth Journal 2, don’t worry, lives up to its title) have long found the Zellners fascinated with contemporary American folklore and fairy tales, and their newest film, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, is no exception. Based on the true story of a Japanese woman who traveled from Tokyo […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 20, 2014 -
Five Questions with Land Ho! Directors Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens
Co-directed features aren’t too common in the independent film world, and even less so from already established auteurs. But Land Ho! finds two of the American independent scene’s most promising young directors – Aaron Katz (Cold Weather) and Martha Stephens (Pilgrim Song) – joining forces. A buddy, road trip comedy about a pair of aging ex-brother-in-laws (Paul Eenhoorn of This is Martin Bonner, and Earl Lynn Nelson) on holiday in Iceland, the film is already being hyped as one of the most promising discoveries of this year’s festival. Land Ho! premieres today in Sundance’s NEXT section. Filmmaker: A full-on directorial […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 19, 2014
