Authors — Filmmaker Staff
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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 -
Trailer Watch: Twin Peaks, Now With Actual Shots from the Show
Whereas previous Twin Peaks trailers have featured pretty much nothing in the way of images from the cult show’s return, this teaser actually drops us into the look of the new season. It’s creepily tantalizing.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 12, 2017 -
Watch: “Mulholland Dr., The Essential Lynch”
What makes Mulholland Drive the quintessential David Lynch film? In the run up to the return of Twin Peaks, Leigh Singer digs into Lynch’s 2001 masterwork, split-screen comparing and contrasting it with the entirety of his career to demonstrate how it enfolds his many preoccupations and characteristic images.
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 25, 2017 -
Fest Circuit: Sundance, Berlin, Borscht and True/False
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL By Ashley Clark At this year’s ceaselessly snow-pummelled Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 19-29), I hardly expected to experience my first slice of knockout formal invention while languishing at my laptop in my hotel room. But these are strange times and, having landed in Park City on Jan. 20, hours after the surreal presidential inauguration of a bit player from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, I found immediate succor in scrolling through my Twitter feed. It had been colonized by a panoply of speedily crafted user videos depicting white supremacist goon and Trump supporter Richard Spencer […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 13, 2017 -
Super 8: Secret Signals in Dangerous Times
The Gatekeepers It may not make for comforting reading at this time, but context is always helpful: Chris Whipple’s new book is succinctly described by its subtitle, “How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.” Whipple — formerly a producer for 60 Minutes and ABC News — uses his years of access to interview all 17 of the living chiefs of staff plus a bonus two presidents. Explaining how the chief of staff can help make or break the implementation of policy, The Gatekeepers may help illuminate the role Reince Priebus will play (or hopefully fail to) in […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 13, 2017 -
From the Kitchen to the Shower
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du commerce, 1080 bruxelles What are the films you lie about having seen ? A friend posed this question to me recently, and it’s a telling query. Not only about your own ethical barometer, but also about what films are deemed unmissable — and by default make you worthy of shame for not having made the time to watch them. For years, my dirty secret was that I had never seen Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. When I confessed this, the responses were of shock. It’s not just that Akerman was a […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 13, 2017 -
Watch: David Lynch’s Visual References (NSFW)
Andreas Halskov’s video essay analyzes David Lynch’s visual references, finding nods to Edward Hopper, Suspiria and Laura, among others, across his work. Warning: contains full-frontal nudity and, via Dario Argento, some graphic violence.
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 4, 2017
