TORONTO by Scott Macaulay High Rise has long been considered one of the J.G. Ballard’s most “adaptable” books, with the author’s dispassionate meditations on disassociation, inner and outer space, and the psychologies and paraphilias unleashed by 20th-century life encased within the sturdy confines of a modern apartment building and a class-based tale of survival. Nonetheless, High Rise has taken decades to reach the screen, despite the attachments of numerous directors, including Vincenzo Natali, Bruce Robinson and, revealed producer Jeremy Thomas at a talk at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, interest from Nicolas Roeg. Premiering at the festival in Platform, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 28, 2015Fox 100th By the time you read this, Fox will be well underway with its “Fox 100th” initiative. To commemorate its 100 years, 20th Century Fox is making 100 of its films available for digital rental (and, in many cases, purchase) in HD. Taking a deep approach to its catalogue rather than focusing on the most obvious titles, the Fox 100 body of titles is overwhelmingly slanted to films made before 1950. Some of these have never been available on home video before, like Raoul Walsh’s vibrantly racist, rowdy and essential 1933 pre-Code drama The Bowery; classic film buffs will […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 28, 2015Blue City The 1986 release Blue City might not be one of the best movies Walter Hill ever had his name on, but it’s certainly one of the most fascinating from an auteurist standpoint, despite the fact that Hill isn’t even its auteur. That credit goes to Michelle Manning, who got the job while still in her mid-20s after her former boss, Ned Tanen, took over as head of Paramount. Manning’s early career trajectory was swift: fresh out of University of Southern California film school, she rose from Zoetrope production assistant to a position as Tanen’s associate producer on a […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 28, 2015Here’s the final piece of the Gothams nominations. The previous nominations can be found here, but this time around we have the nominations for two new categories honoring long- and short-form breakthrough series. For the full press release, click here. Breakthrough Series – Long Form* A continuing or limited series with episodes running 30 minutes or longer. Jane the Virgin, Jennie Snyder Urman, Creator (The CW) Mr. Robot, Sam Esmail, Creator (USA Network) Transparent, Jill Soloway, Creator (Amazon) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, Creators (Netflix) UnREAL, Marti Noxon, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, Creators (Lifetime) *Additional nominee credits to be […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 27, 2015Jorge Luengo Ruiz’s straightforwardly titled supercut breaks down Hitchcock’s close-ups (from Rebecca to Family Plot; the British films await their own supercut) by category: hands, money, letters, paintings. Brisk work.
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 27, 2015As part of the “Gothams Classics” event series celebrating the Gotham Independent Film Awards awarded annually by IFP (Filmmaker‘s parent organization), directors Mira Nair and Debra Granik will be in conversation at the Made in NY Media Center following screenings of two of their films. Tonight, Mira Nair will be speaking in between screenings of two of her best known films, Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake; more information on that event can be found here. Tomorrow night, acclaimed narrative and documentary filmmaker Debra Granik will speak after screenings of Down to the Bone and Winter’s Bone; more information on that event can be found here. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 26, 2015Maybe you’re storyboarding and know you need a Venice aerial. Or you’re in post and realize a cutaway would make all the difference. When time is at a premium, budget at a minimum, and those shots are non-existent, Dissolve’s free research service can help. Creative thinkers themselves, Dissolve’s research team will work with your storyboard, shot list, even one specific clip request to find the stock footage you need. You’ll get only the best results — no wading through pages and pages of irrelevant content. The team works quickly too, usually delivering within one day. Ally Oleynik, a producer at […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 15, 2015There is really no reason for us not to post a trailer for a forthcoming “holiday special” directed by Sofia Coppola and designed expressly as a hang-out vehicle for Bill Murray. Judging by the fact that A Very Murray Christmas has an actual plot and a lot of shadowy interior lighting, it would seem that Coppola has effectively made her next medium-/feature- length film rather than dashing off a simple TV assignment. It drops December 4.
by Filmmaker Staff on Oct 14, 2015PremiumBeat, a royalty free music library, offers a variety of affordably licensable cues that can be used in your video project. In addition, the company is offering a number of other useful tools for free that can be of use for your video editing projects. Here are five of the most recent packages from their site: 20 free hand-made animated icons that can be dropped into your package. The icons are all pre-rendered footage, meaning they’ll work in any video editing or motion graphic software. The icons were all created in After Effects and you’ll see the project file included […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Sep 30, 2015A bit of a rant, Stephen Murphy’s video essay “Capturing the Moment: In Search of Adequate Images” springboards off a diatribe against the epidemic of smartphones at concerts to riff off of Werner Herzog’s long-ago warning that we as a society need to find adequate images. What are these adequate images, and how do we define them? Murphy has some thoughts, and some high praise for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night as well.
by Filmmaker Staff on Sep 22, 2015