Authors — Filmmaker Staff
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“Bad Taste Done with Good Taste”: Director Teemu Niukkanen | Fucking Bunnies
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? The development of Fucking Bunnies took almost two years. In every step of the way we needed to assure the funders (Finnish Film Foundation and Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE) again and again that we’re doing something really worth doing and seeing. The theme of xenophobia had been there right from the start, but in the beginning the script had more emphasis on the sexual stuff – which […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
“A Lot of Creativity and Beauty Can Come from Limitations”: DP Nicholas Wiesnet on L.A. Times
Five years ago, Michelle Morgan made her Sundance debut with the short film K.I.T. She returns to the festival in 2017 as the writer, director and star of her first feature, L.A. Times, a romantic comedy where she plays alongside Jorma Taccone of Lonely Island fame. Morgan hired Nicholas Wiesnet, a DP known primarily for documentary and short film work, to shoot the picture. Below, Wiesnet discusses how he got the job, why he shot the film in anamorphic widescreen and his approach to lighting and blocking comedy. L.A. Times will screen six times during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
“Might There Be a Desire to Cross Party Lines?”: Director Laura Dunn | Look and See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry
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? For the past several years, while I worked to raise money for this film, it seemed like most folks in the documentary film world, the gatekeepers as they are, were not particularly interested in a sympathetic, even loving portrait of white male tobacco farmers from the rural south. I found a few lone advocates, and for those people, I am very grateful as they encouraged me more […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
DP Chris Teague on Shooting Landline, Gillian Robespierre’s Follow-Up to Obvious Child
Three years ago, writer/director Gillian Robespierre premiered Obvious Child at Sundance to much acclaim. The film would go on to earn more than $3 million at the domestic box office, making it one of the bigger titles to emerge from Sundance 2014. Robespierre returns to the festival in 2017 with Landline, which reunites her with lead actor Jenny Slate and DP Chris Teague. Set in 1990s New York, Landline is a seriocomic portrait of a family in flux. Below, Teague discusses shooting in NYC apartments, the influence of ’70s American cinema on Landline and recreating the Village Halloween Parade on a small budget. Filmmaker: How and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
“A Nuanced Understanding of War”: Director Greg Barker | Legion of Brothers
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? Green Berets refer to themselves as “The Quiet Professionals,” and see themselves as a breed apart from more boastful units of the Special Forces, like SEAL Team Six, with their lucrative book deals and pumped-up war stories. So the biggest challenge on this production was simply convincing these guys that now was the time to finally open and reveal themselves – and not as stereotypical super-human war […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
The Sundance Question: What Specific Challenge of Communication Has Your Film Faced?
Each year Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. (To see past years’ questions and responses, click here.) This year, our question involves an issue cutting across all the political drama of the last year: communication. How do we really communicate to one another, to converse despite our differences? How do we step outside of our echo chambers so we’re not just trading slogans among our friends? On a filmmaking level, how do we make sure that problems of communication don’t cripple our visions or limit their reach? This year’s question: During its development, production or eventual distribution, what […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
“It’s about Populism and the Reactions of Europeans toward Asylum Seekers”: Director Tonislav Hristov | The Good Postman
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? The original challenge of communicating in the development of the film was making the financiers understand what I was actually doing. There was a lot of talk about “refugee films” which my film is not. It seems that people, financiers and producers do have a tendency to “label” projects, and this can be challenging in the financing phase of a film. At least sometimes it slows things […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
“Character, as Always, Proved to Be King”: Directors Susan Froemke and John Hoffman | Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman
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? The biggest challenge was working concurrently with an author who was profiling the same subjects but in a different medium. Print and film lend themselves to different ways of storytelling. The flood of information constantly coming at us from the author, with so much color, complexity, and detail, took time to sort through and evaluate in terms of what was best suited to film. We sometimes suffered […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2017 -
DPs Bob Richman, Buddy Squires and Thorsten Thielow on Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman
It took a team of four seasoned documentary DPs to capture the stories of Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman. Shot in Montana, Kansas and Louisiana, the film documents the lives of three men (the titular rancher, farmer and fisherman) who act as environmental conservationists in their respective fields. Directors Susan Froemke and John Hoffman have the action unfold in a vérité fashion, which stresses the land and the people who work it. Among the DPs they hired for the project were Bob Richman (An Inconvenient Truth), Buddy Squires (The Central Park Five) and Thorsten Thielow (30 for 30). Below, these three cinematographers discuss the unique challenges […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2017 -
“Mistakes Are What Make Life Interesting”: Director Helene Hegemann | Axolotl Roadkill
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? Axolotl Overkill is about a 16-year old girl, but was never supposed to be the typical coming-of-age odyssey that shows a teenager who struggles with the world just to find her place in it in the end. We always felt like we needed to do something different and to really make it relatable to how a young person feels – instead of showing her from the outside and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2017
