What fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? “Racing Extinction is like The Avengers but real, but you might want to bring Kleenex.” There’s an annoying film industry “truism” that a director’s second film after a successful first will be a bust. A well known and respected Hollywood director told me, “Don’t even try to make another movie after The Cove, you’ll never top that one.” We didn’t break any box office records with The Cove but […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2015What fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? I have learned to be fearless in my career as an independent documentary producer in China. There is almost no public funding to support independent documentaries, there are very few theatrical permits issued to independent documentaries and there is virtually no distribution platform for independent documentary either. If these are the reasons to fear, it will be endless. Personally, fear for me is a mixed feeling of anxiety to […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2015What fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? Early in the development phase of this project, I was apprehensive about approaching former Black Panther Party members because the Party had so often been misportrayed by popular media. I had a great fear of being turned down and not having any former Party members be part of the film at all. At some point I decided this was a film that needed to be made and in order […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2015What fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? When we first got to Florida Justice Transitions in 2010, we expected to make a film about the parallel society that we had read the sex offenders in this trailer park lived in. Very soon we met the people in the park, and by sitting with them in therapy, talking to them, and getting them to open up about their situation, we learned about sex offences and sex offenders […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2015Each year Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. This year, our question revolves around fear. Specifically, what fear — whether it’s personal, or one related to the development, financing, production or distribution of your film — did you have to confront and conquer in the making of your movie? (To see past years’ questions and responses, click here.) We’ll upload the responses individually over the course of the festival. So, as the festival progresses, click the links below. The Sundance Film Festival is being held in Park City, Utah from January 22nd to February 1st. “The People Behind the Crimes”: Directors Frida […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2015International Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival – CPH:DOX 2014 by Pamela Cohn There is no way by which the events of the world can be directly transmitted or recorded in our brains. They are experienced and constructed in a highly subjective way. Our only truth is narrative truth, the stories we tell each other, and ourselves, the stories we continually re-categorize and refine. This sort of sharing — this communion — would not be possible if all our knowledge, our memories, were tagged and identified and seen as private, exclusively ours. —from Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi’s film The 50 Year […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2015Larry Gross’s Twitter Amidst of sea of social media me-too-ism and diffidently composed schtick, screenwriter and critic Larry Gross’s Twitter feed stands out. Often composed in tweetstorm-style, the author of films ranging from 48 Hours to We Don’t Live Here Anymore spills out arresting meditations and poetic aphorisms on everything from Alain Badiou’s take on St. Paul to the poetry of Wallace Stevens to Paul Thomas Anderson’s intuitive understanding of the crisis in American cinematic narrative. twitter.com/@larryagross Y2K What separates Y2K from other independently developed role-playing games? According to the designers at Ackk Studios, their novelty comes from being a […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2015Don’t Look Now Asked by Time to name the sexiest sex scene of all time, three female writers and producers of Showtime’s Masters of Sex came to immediate agreement: Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie’s memorable coupling in Nicolas Roeg’s otherwise entirely scary Don’t Look Now. Simultaneously encompassing lust, despair and forgiveness, the scene shows the married couple passionately overcoming grief and mutual recriminations in their new Venice flat following the drowning death of their young daughter back in England. The scene sparked rumors neither actor was acting — an allegation Roeg has denied — but what makes the scene so […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2015Looking to make the most of a modest independent film budget? The Victoria, Texas-based Film Exchange invites filmmakers to come and take advantage of $500,000 worth of equipment — for free. Through Film Exchange, filmmakers can save thousands of dollars and raise their production value by implementing gear from the Film Exchange studio, including the 4K Canon C500 and Blackmagic 2.5K cameras, Zeiss cinema zooms and compact primes and a $60,000 sound package including Lectrosonic transmitters and Sennheiser microphones, as well as five 4K post-production and color grading stations. In addition to providing production services, Film Exchange can help with […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2015Here’s the full list of the 2015 Academy Award nominees, led, improbably, by Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel with nine apiece. Best Picture American Sniper Birdman Boyhood The Grand Budapest Hotel The Imitation Game Selma The Theory of Everything Whiplash Best Actor Steve Carell, Foxcatcher Bradley Cooper, American Sniper Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game Michael Keaton, Birdman Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything Best Actress Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything Julianne Moore, Still Alice Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl Reese Witherspoon, Wild Best Supporting Actor Robert Duvall, The Judge Ethan Hawke, Boyhood Edward Norton, Birdman Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher J. K. Simmons, Whiplash Best Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette, Boyhood Laura Dern, Wild Keira Knightley, The Imitation […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 15, 2015