Creating the soundtrack of your film is often a complex task for any filmmaker, and finding music that you can legally use without being subject to copyright claims is not that obvious. With the boom in online video creation, and more creators adding music to videos, music licensing platforms emerged to bridge the gap between the high price of licensing popular songs and the low quality of free music. This development also coincided with the increase in independent musicians looking to make money from their work. Although royalty-free music platforms presented a way to simplify the process of acquiring music for […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 4, 2021
In Pascual Sisto’s John and the Hole, John (Charlie Shotwell), seemingly unprovoked, drugs his family and tosses them into a bunker where he holds them captive. Written by Birdman co-writer Nicolás Giacobone, John and the Hole is a zoomed in look at the psychology of boyhood. DP Paul Ozgur shares his frustrations with the changing of the seasons complicating shooting and the team’s move away from romantic imagery. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Ozgur: When you get a script […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 1, 2021
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen and screenwriter, producer and director Ryan Murphy will receive, respectively, the Director Tribute and Industry Tribute at the 2020 IFP Gotham Awards. “Steve McQueen is a force within the industry, directing one of most impactful and influential films of the year. His bold, masterful storytelling has riveted audiences for the past decade making him one of the most iconic filmmakers today,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of IFP in a press release. “Ryan Murphy has created some of the most cherished and acclaimed television series and films in recent years. Ryan across his many successful […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Dec 9, 2020
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP, and Filmmaker‘s publisher) announced today that Chadwick Boseman will receive a posthumous Actor Tribute and Viola Davis an Actress Tribute at the upcoming 30th Anniversary Edition of the Gotham Awards. “Chadwick Boseman was an incredibly talented actor whose significance and impact onscreen and kindness offscreen will never be forgotten. We at IFP are forever indebted to him for all of his contributions to our organization, his legacy in providing mentorship and we are proud to honor him and all of his historical and groundbreaking contributions with this tribute,” said Jeffrey Sharp, Executive Director of IFP […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Dec 3, 2020
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) announced today the nominees for its 30th annual IFP Gotham Awards. Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow received the most nominations — Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Breakthrough Actor. Other multiple nominees include Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, Radha Blank’s The 40-Year-Old Version, Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Natalie Erika James’s Relic and Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan’s Saint Frances. And, for the first time, all five of the Best Feature Nominees — The Assistant, First Cow, Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Relic — are directed by women. “We congratulate […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 12, 2020
Filmmaker is now out with its annual 25 New Faces, our picks of directors, writers, producers, editors and cinematographers who are exciting us right now. Click here to read this year’s list.
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 19, 2020
Netflix has just dropped the first teaser for Mank, David Fincher’s first film since 2014’s Gone Girl. Working from a script by his late father, Jack, Mank re-examines the writing of Citizen Kane. Its title hints at the presumed agenda, which is to re-litigate the issue of whether screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz was the true force behind Orson Welles’s debut. It’s worth noting that Jack Fincher never had a screenplay credited to him in his life, although his IMDb page claims that “He once wrote a Howard Hughes biopic before it was decided to go with John Logan [sic] script for The Aviator (2004) instead.” Mank is […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 8, 2020
We’re pleased to share the exclusive trailer premiere for Tyler Taormina’s Ham on Rye, which will be released virtually on October 23rd in 20+ theaters nationwide. An unorthodox teen coming-of-age movie with an increasingly sinister twist whose details are best left unspoiled, Taormina’s debut feature premiered at last year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival before making its international premiere at Locarno. DP and co-producer Carson Lund wrote an essay for us last year about the film’s microbudget production, and specifically four lessons learned from the process of making Ham on Rye, which deployed over 100 cast members on a number of outdoor locations with […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Sep 23, 2020
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker’s parent organization, announced today the virtual public programming for the 42nd IFP Week, taking place virtually Sunday, September 20th to Friday, September 25th. The first four days of the week will be film and TV related programming with the final two days dedicated to audio programming to support creators working in the audio space through the introduction of the first-ever IFP Week Audio Hub. Additional details on audio programming will be shared in the coming weeks. Kicking off Sunday, September 20th, IFP Week will feature a series of panel conversations exploring the future of the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Aug 24, 2020
Canadian filmmaker Sophy Romvari (who’s previously written for Filmmaker) has announced the launch of a new online short festival. Exquisite Shorts is designed to create a new model for shorts filmmakers, paying them for their work while enabling the public to watch for free. The newly launched crowdfunding campaign explains how online screenings will work: Filmmaker 1 → Picks a short film from a pool of submissions that they love, that inspired them, or that they feel could use a platform. The filmmaker making the selection will record a video introduction that will play prior to their selected film, which will […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jul 29, 2020