Authors — Filmmaker Staff
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Watch: Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn’s New Music Video
Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn (L for Leisure, 25 New Faces of Film) are at work on their next film, Two Plains & a Fancy. This music video for Aa is a taste of what’s to come. Per Kalman and Horn: This viddy was shot when we were on-location for our upcoming feature Two Plains & a Fancy. It’s the first thing we edited when we got back, and Aa is led by our composer John Atkinson, so this was a working out of the vibes we’re corralling in the feature. The footage is a mix of out-takes, B-Roll, and shots […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 15, 2017 -
Watch: Mark Rappaport’s “The Empty Screen” (Mildly NSFW)
Director Mark Rappaport produced this video essay for The Talkhouse, meditating on the different functions the movie screen serves within movies. Titles considered include The Purple Rose of Cairo, Saboteur and, of course, multiple Godard films. It’s mildly NSFW in terms of having ~3 seconds of female rear nudity.
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 13, 2017 -
Watch: “Roger Deakins Can’t Get a Break”
Roger Deakins has been nominated for an Oscar for his exceptional work as a DP 13 times — and won precisely zero. Daniel Mcilwraith’s video essay compares and contrasts the films Deakins was nominated for with the films he was beaten out by.
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 7, 2017 -
Watch: “Not Another Camelot [How We Got from Jackie to Melania]”
Kevin B. Lee’s latest video essay is a desktop documentary taking a look at media perceptions of first ladies from Jackie Kennedy onwards. The short was commissioned by this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival to show prior to screenings of Jackie. It ends, as it must, with Melania Trump.
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 6, 2017 -
SXSW Announces Full 2017 Lineup
Yesterday SXSW unveiled the full slate for this year’s film festival. Hihglights include the world premiere of the first feature from 25 New Face Anthony Onah, the world premieres of new features from Edgar Wright, Terrence Malick and Joe Swanberg, and a boatload of popular titles from this year’s Sundance. This year’s SXSW runs March 10 to 19. Narrative Feature Competition A Bad Idea Gone Wrong (World Premiere) Director/Screenwriter: Jason Headley Two would-be thieves forge a surprising relationship with with an unexpected housesitter when they accidentally trap themselves in a house they just broke into. Cast: Matt Jones, Eleanore Pienta, Will […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 1, 2017 -
“You Are Forced to Look Very Carefully”: DP Alan Jacobsen on Strong Island
Hailed by Filmmaker as one of the 25 New Faces of independent cinema in 2011, Yance Ford makes her feature film debut with Strong Island, an intensely personal documentary on the 1992 death of his brother. Ford worked with DP Alan Jacobsen to create the film’s singular aesthetic, which combines long takes and a camera that never pans or tilts. Ford and Jacobsen drew inspiration from the long take masters, from Tarkovsky to artist Sharon Lockhart. Jacobsen spoke with Filmmaker ahead of Strong Island‘s premiere in the U.S. documentary competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Below, he touches on the painful nature of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017 -
“Anthologies Are All about Communication”: Director Roxanne Benjamin | XX
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? Anthologies are all about communication – you’re dealing with multiple productions in multiple states (if not countries) with quadruple the number of creatives and producers using different camera equipment, different lenses, with different visions, different styles. To that end, in my experience the biggest challenge for these types of productions usually lies in tying all of those disparate elements together into one cohesive whole that benefits and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017 -
Editor Evan Schrodek on the Fraternity Hazing Drama Burning Sands
A producer on Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, Gerard McMurray makes his debut as a writer/director with Burning Sands. The film tells the story of five college students who embark on a “Hell Week” of hazing and abuse in order to receive admission into a prestigious black fraternity. Evan Schrodek, an editor on The Walking Dead, cut the film after he became friends with McMurray at film school at USC. Below, Schrodek speaks about the film’s nuanced portrait of fraternity hazing, the personal nature of this story and his love of genre filmmaking. Burning Sands premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will be […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017 -
“How to Sell the Outrageous Premise of the Film”: DP Quyen Tran on Deidra & Laney Rob a Train
A pair of teenage sisters resort to train robbery to raise bail money for their mother in Deidra & Laney Rob a Train, a new comedy from director Sydney Freeland. Freeland returns to Sundance with her second feature after 2014’s Drunktown’s Finest, which debuted in Utah before earning a number of festival awards. Below, the film’s DP Quyen Tran (Pali Road) discusses the influence of the Coen brothers, filming on a moving train at night without any lighting and grounding an absurd story in naturalistic visuals. Deidra & Laney Rob a Train premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Netflix on […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017 -
DPs Yoni Brook and Joshua Z. Weinstein on Ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish Drama Menashe
Documentary director Joshua Z Weinstein makes his first foray into fiction filmmaking with Menashe, a drama set in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park in New York City. Weinstein shot the film with co-DP Yoni Brook, a fellow documentary DP and director. With dialogue almost entirely in Yiddish, the film premiered earlier this week in the NEXT lineup at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker spoke with Weinstein and Brook before the film’s premiere. Below, the two discuss the film’s necessary blend of documentary and fiction techniques, lighting scenes for first-time actors and earning the trust of a notoriously hermetic community. Filmmaker: How […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017
