Authors — Filmmaker Staff
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Sponsored Content: ActionVFX’s New Crowd VFX Will Make Crowd Replication Easier, Cheaper & Faster
ActionVFX.com has released 650+ clips of their new Sports and Concert Crowd VFX. As productions all around the world were canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw the landscape of what we considered “normal” completely shift. Now, we have to be more careful than ever when being in large groups, which can hinder industry productions. ActionVFX saw a chance to propel the industry forward in unprecedented times. Following their governing authorities’ guidelines, they got to work. ActionVFX hired real actors and actresses to safely visit their studio to film crowd plates that can be easily replicated in […]
by Filmmaker Staff on May 3, 2021 -
Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, I May Destroy You Win Multiple 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards
The Film Independent Spirit Awards were held last night — virtually, as opposed to at its customary Santa Monica beach location — and Nomadland was the big multiple winner, scoring wins for Best Feature, Director, Editing, and Cinematography. Other multiple winners included Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal and, in the new television categories, I May Destroy You and Unorthodox. The complete list of winners follows as well as Melissa Villaseñor’s opening monologue. BEST FEATURE – Nomandland (PRODUCERS: Mollye Asher, Dan Javey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloé Zhao) BEST DIRECTOR – Chloé Zhao, Nomadland BEST FEMALE LEAD – Carey Mulligan, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 23, 2021 -
Trailer Watch: New Directors/New Films 2021 Selection Wood and Water
One of the highlights of this year’s edition of New Directors/New Films, Jonas Bak’s strong feature film debut Wood and Water stars his own mother, Anke. Shot on 16mm in both the director’s native Germany and Hong Kong, where Bak is currently based, Wood and Water follows Anke in the immediate days following her retirement. When she leaves her small town to visit her long-gone son in Hong Kong, Anke finds herself adjacent to the protests unfolding there. With a keen compositional eye, palpable warmth towards all the strangers she meets and the occasional musical assist from Brian Eno’s New Space Music, Wood and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 22, 2021 -
Watch: “A Message to Viewers of Radu Jude: Forget About These Films!”
In the wake of Radu Jude’s Golden Bear victory at this year’s Berlinale for his latest, the pandemic production Bad Luck Banging, or Looney Porn, streaming platform DAFilms is hosting a five-film retrospective of his work. In the above video, recorded as an introduction to the series, Jude looks up a Romanian right-wing website which condemns him at last in verse. “You, cinephile, if you care who finances films, wish him to rest in peace and forget what he’s done,” reads part of the poem he recites without a blink. Click here to learn more about the series.
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 14, 2021 -
True/False Film Fest Announces 2021 Lineup
True/False Film Fest has announced its 2021 lineup. On the programming side, this year’s edition is notable for the return of festival co-founder David Wilson in an interim director position, as well as the addition of new programmer Angela Catalano, joining returning programmer Amir George. The festival will take place in two different parts from May 5 to 9. For those in Columbia, Missouri, all the features listed below will be screening outside, in four outdoor amphitheaters well as at a drive-in; those who sign up for the festival’s new, virtual “Teleported” option have access to seven features, designated with […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 30, 2021 -
Shot Reverse Shot: The Inheritance Director Ephraim Asili in Conversation with Residue Director Merawi Gerima (Part Two)
(Click here to read part one of Gerima and Asili’s conversation.) Gerima: Since we’re talking about the realities of Black cinema: when you don’t have time or money, a lot of times rehearsal plays an important part. I wanted to ask you about your process with your actors before you got to the studio. Did you have time to rehearse? Asili: Not as much as I would’ve liked, but what we did have, that I would say was even better than rehearsals was, I had written about half of the script, but I had pretty elaborate backstories. So, when I went […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 11, 2021 -
Shot Reverse Shot: The Inheritance Director Ephraim Asili in Conversation with Residue Director Merawi Gerima (Part One)
As I wrote last year in my 25 New Face profile of Ephraim Asili, his first feature, The Inheritance, begins when “Julian (Eric Lockley) moves into his late grandmother’s house and initiates an experiment in Black collective living. The influence of Jean-Luc Godard’s La Chinoise, evident in the film’s poster onscreen and the house’s boldly painted walls, is mixed with Asili’s personal memories of Philadelphia’s MOVE members (the Philadelphia native first met them as a teenager) and living in a Black Marxist collective. Shot, per Asili’s usual practice, on 16mm, The Inheritance marks a shift from overtly experimental to essentially narrative work. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 10, 2021 -
Trailer Watch: Slamdance 2021 Premiere Teenage Emotions
One of the highlights of this year’s forthcoming Slamdance, Frederic Da’s feature debut Teenage Emotions was shot during lunch breaks at the high school Da works at as a film teacher. Even with production was cut short by COVID, the results are lively, extremely of-the-moment, immersive and funny. We’ll be publishing an interview with Da on Friday, but for now here’s the trailer.
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 10, 2021 -
“A Very Sculptural Process”: Editors Natalia Almada and Dave Cerf on Users
Natalia Almada’s Users is an inquisition on technology and its inextricable nature from modern life. Juxtaposed against Californian wildfires and oceans on the rise, the film questions what progress means when we sacrifice so much in the process. Almada, alongside her co-editor Dave Cerf, describes the unique collaborative process used in editing the film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Almada: Well… I’ve edited all my films. In part I think it is because I need the editing […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 3, 2021 -
“Wildfires Are a Complicated Tornado of Danger”: DP Bennett Cerf on Users
Natalia Almada’s Users is an inquisition on technology and its inextricable nature from modern life. Juxtaposed against Californian wildfires and oceans on the rise, the film questions what progress means when we sacrifice so much in the process. DP Bennett Cerf discusses the morbid thrill of capturing disasters on film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Cerf: Natalia has always shot her own projects except for her narrative feature, which Lorenzo Hagerman shot. I was peripherally involved in […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 3, 2021
