This video from DSLRguide covers the very rudimentary basics of shooting Super 8 — over- vs. under-exposure, things to look for when buying a camera, etc. Test footage is included.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 31, 2016
This one’s pretty self-explanatory: director Albert Gómez presents the first and last appearance of every major character in Quentin Tarantino’s movies in splitscreen. It does, of course, get bloody.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 26, 2016
Yesterday we premiered Christopher Jason Bell’s short film One Times One; today, we’re following up with the premiere of his colleague/interlocutor Theodore Collatos’ short Albatross. It’s the story of a young girl being raised by her uncle, only to have their relationship disrupted by the unexpected return of her father. As Collatos told Bell in their conversation (which we published Tuesday), “I really wanted to continue to build a fictional story within the context of Matt Shaw’s actual life. Elements of real story beats with real people in a poetic and seasonal time structure. Seasons pass, family changes and the mysteries of life go […]
by Filmmaker Staff on May 26, 2016
Yesterday we posted a conversation between filmmakers Christopher Jason Bell and Theodore Collatos about their films, practicing their craft, managing expectations and much more. Today we’re premiering Bell’s short film One Times One, which had its origins as excised footage from his feature debut The Winds that Scatter. As he explained: “For Winds, we ended up with a 3.5 hour assembly cut. There were a lot of things that I was very attached to that ultimately needed to go. One of them was a small arc in which Ahmad made friends with a man named Mike — he met this guy while looking […]
by Filmmaker Staff on May 25, 2016
The Palme d’Or winners are one matter, but what are the best films to premiere at Cannes this decade? Kevin B. Lee unveils a personal canon in this video essay, making the case for Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin, Hong Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives, Jean Luc-Godard’s Goodbye to Language and more.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 24, 2016
In his latest, The Nerdwriter considers how David Lynch manipulates audience expectations to subvert cliches and mess with your response as a viewer. Central talking points: Betty’s audition and, of course, Club Silencio.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 16, 2016
In Tony Zhou’s latest video, the question isn’t how editing is done technically, it’s how it feels. What does it mean to feel an emotion, and how much time does that take to register? Breaking down sequences from Hannah and Her Sisters and The Empire Strikes Back, among others, Zhou dives into the intangibles and instinctual particulars of editorial timing. With interview cameos from, among others, Michael Kahn, Walter Murch and Thelma Schoonmaker.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 12, 2016
The title pretty much says it all: is Takashi Miike’s indelibly scarring Audition feminist, misogynistic exploitation or both? The answer in Jessica McGoff’s video essay is a mixture of the two, which isn’t too surprising. Caution: contains both graphic violence and also some brief nudity, either of which might be objectionable in your workplace.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 10, 2016
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today the ten documentaries selected for the 2016 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 May 11-15 in New York City. As of 2015, the 196 projects that have gone through the program include such critically acclaimed films as the recent documentaries (T)error by Lyric Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe (Independent Lens), Nanfu Wang’s Hooligan Sparrow (POV), Sharon Shattuck’s From This Day Forward (POV), Leah […]
by Filmmaker Staff on May 9, 2016
Jacob T. Swinney’s latest video essay examines the many subjective POV shots of Taxi Driver. As Travis sees the world, we see it through him, and the result is a movie that locks us in his head more than most. A little more over here at Fandor.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 5, 2016