Authors — Filmmaker Staff
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Watch: “The Art of David Lynch”
The title is literal: this video essay looks at some of David Lynch’s key visual inspirations, including Rene Margritte, Edward Hopper, Arnold Böcklin and Francis Bacon.
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 29, 2017 -
Revolutionary Memories and Defiant Promises
Late Fame In 1895, Arthur Schnitzler wrote Late Fame, a satirical novella about an obscure civil servant who arrives home one day to find an earnest young visitor informing him that Wanderings, a slim volume he published 30 years ago, is now a cult hit among the youth. In an ironic twist, the book itself disappeared for 100 years, only to be now rediscovered. Late Fame was written for the literary magazine Die Zeit, which wanted the manuscript cut down; after being laid aside for over a century, it was first published in Germany in 2014. The NYRB Classics original […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 16, 2017 -
Currents and Currencies
Ophélia Claude Chabrol was the first member of the Cahiers du Cinema crowd to direct a feature film with Le Beau Serge in 1958, and he scored the first box-office hit of the French New Wave with his second movie, Les Cousins (1959). Yet it took almost another 10 years for him to hit his commercial and critical stride with a series of thrillers (most notably La Femme Infidele, La Rupture and Le Boucher) that would firmly establish Chabrol as the most reliable genre stylist of his generation. In between were a series of flops and for-hire assignments, all of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 16, 2017 -
Dispatches from San Francisco, Visions du Réel and Big Ears
San Francisco International Film Festival Celebrating its 60th edition, the San Francisco International Film Festival — now rebranded as the hashtag-friendly SFFILM Festival — impressed this first-timer not as a hoary institution, recumbent upon its laureled legacy, but as a festival keen to stake out vibrant new tangents, mindful of its city’s history (cinematic and otherwise) and full of surprises. Both those qualities were abundant in the closing night spectacle: The Green Fog, which celebrated San Francisco’s indelible place in a century of movies in an appropriately twisted manner. The festival commission brought filmmakers Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 16, 2017 -
Watch: David Lynch’s Use of Noise and Interference
Andreas Halskov — whose useful overview of David Lynch’s visual references we posted a while ago — has also gone deep on the director’s much-discussed use of noise and interference, examining it as a stylistic device, recurring motif and general theme.
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 13, 2017 -
Watch: “Behind The Lens: Fujinon MK 18-55mm Zoom”
As part of a series of lens tests, Matt Porwoll delves into the Fujinon MK 18-55mm Zoom. As he writes as part of a thorough technical breakdown: The Fuji MK 18-55 is an extremely lightweight lens, but solidly built. Weighing in at just over 2 lbs, it balances well with lighter-weight cameras like the Sony FS7 and FS5. It will also be a nice addition to the Sony a7SII, giving cinema style operation to a camera that otherwise would have difficulty supporting such a lens style.
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 12, 2017 -
Watch: “David Fincher — Invisible Details”
David Fincher is famously a technical wizard, but most of his special effects use is designed not to be perceived. Kristian Williams dives into some of his most inconspicuous applications of VFX.
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 6, 2017 -
Watch: “Behind the Lens: Zeiss LWZ.3 21-100mm Zoom”
A few weeks ago, AbelCine launched a video series hosted by DP Matt Porwoll that’ll examine 11 common lenses used in documentary filmmaking. First up: the Zeiss LWZ.3 21-100mm Zoom, whose sharpness, chromatic aberration and other properties are exhaustively broken down. To read through the tech info, click here.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 31, 2017 -
Watch: “Film Meets Art III”
The latest in a trilogy of video essays from Vugar Efendi, this one speaks for itself: painting on the left, clip from a movie modeled on it on the right.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 31, 2017 -
IFP Announces Documentary Projects For its Annual IFP Labs
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), announced yesterday the ten documentaries selected for the 2017 IFP Filmmaker Labs, IFP’s annual yearlong fellowship for first-time feature directors. The creative teams of the selected films are currently attending the first week’s sessions – The Time Warner Foundation Completion Labs – taking place through May 26 at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP in DUMBO, Brooklyn. “The wide and continuing success of documentaries on multiple platforms demonstrate they are no longer for niche audiences nor uniform in style or format,” says Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media […]
by Filmmaker Staff on May 24, 2017
