Authors — Filmmaker Staff
-
“I Wanted to Romanticize a Bit and Be Nostalgic”: DP Eunsoo Cho on I Was a Simple Man
Set in the countryside of O’Ahu, Hawai’i, Director Christopher Makoto Yogi’s second feature film I Was a Simple Man is a surreal portrait of an elderly man’s final days. Told in chapters, the film follows Masao (Steve Iwamoto) as he’s visited by ghosts of his past, including his wife Grace (Constance Wu). DP Eunsoo Cho clues us in on how to capture the majesty of Hawai’i’s landscape, as well as how to portray a movie that eschews time and space. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2021 -
“Strange to Accomplish Your Dreams in Such Times”: Director Pascual Sisto | John and the Hole
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? The events of 2020 clearly had a major impact on all of us, from the pandemic to the racial unrest protests and all the way to one of the most divided US elections I have ever seen. If I have to filter it within the context of my film, it’s been quite an emotional rollercoaster with a very contrasting set of emotions. On one hand it was one of the darkest years in recent […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2021 -
“The Natural World and Our Interconnectedness”: Director Sally Aitken | Playing With Sharks
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? Playing With Sharks is the story of a one-of-a-kind, passionate woman, Valerie Taylor, and her remarkable life’s relationship with the ocean’s most notorious predators, sharks. As both a contemporary and archival film, with gob-smacking real scenes of this fearless and glamorous, maverick conservationist, the events of 2020 had the potential to completely derail our production—but—fortunately, probably, ended up defining the movie, certainly, defining the way I feel now in thinking about the natural world […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2021 -
“People Will Watch Films Differently Today Than They Did a Year Ago”: Director Ronny Trocker | Human Factors
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? Even though many other things happened in 2020, the pandemic was without doubt the most significant event. However, at the moment it is difficult for me to say if it has changed my view on the film in some way. Like most films coming out now, it was written and shot before the pandemic. The post-production was affected by the restrictions, causing some notable delays, but I don’t think it changed the result of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2021 -
“Art Is Never Finished, Only Abandoned”: Director Mariem Pérez Riera | Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided Go For It
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? I finished the final cut of the documentary on Friday, March 13th, 2020. That was the deadline to lock the film in order to move on to color correction and sound mix. That night, I had watched the film one last time before leaving the editing room and as I was driving home, an enormous sadness seized me. At first I couldn’t explain what it was, but then I realized I wasn’t satisfied with […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2021 -
“It Was as if the Film Had Given Us Permission to Connect”: Director Christopher Makoto Yogi | I Was a Simple Man
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? I Was a Simple Man is a film that is inspired by my personal experiences with death in the family, and the making of the film was a way for me to confront and process these experiences. But one of the most unanticipated aspects of developing our film was that whenever someone would read the script or listen to me speak about the film, folks would immediately tell me a story about someone dear […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2021 -
“It’s Reflecting the Times but Arriving Warped”: Director Dash Shaw | Cryptozoo
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? Animation takes a long time. Cryptozoo was written and storyboarded when Obama was president. The first voice recordings were done in the early months of the Trump presidency. The final pick-up voice recordings were recorded remotely due to the pandemic. Now it premieres under Biden. During all of those years, we worked on this every day. The plan never changed, but of course everything (from painting a background, or recording a voice) happens in […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2021 -
“I Became More Interested Than Ever in Trying to Understand My Daughter’s Story”: Director Peter Nicks | Homeroom
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? The filmmaker often begins with a vision: maybe the inspiration of a song, a book, or a hot social issue. Or perhaps it is simply an extraordinary person whose story must be told. This process begins with inspiration and often yields to obsession as we go deeper into turning our inspiration into reality. And along this path it is not uncommon to meet up with that sly artist rigidity, a doppelgänger of our most […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2021 -
The Sundance Question: “How Did Events of 2020 Change Your Film?”
Each year Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. (To see past years’ questions and responses, click here.) This year’s question: “How did events of 2020 — any of them — change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? “The Scope of the Story Also Expanded”: Director Nanfu Wang | In the Same Breath “I Feel Like in 2020 I Was Lucky”: Director Miriam Guttmann | Seeds of Deceit “Whether It’s a Refugee Crisis or a Pandemic, We Are All in This Together”: Director […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2021 -
“The Scope of the Story Also Expanded”: Director Nanfu Wang | In the Same Breath
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? In the Same Breath is a product of 2020. The project was developed in response to events from the very beginning of the year in Wuhan, and as the year unfolded and the impact of the virus was felt just about everywhere on Earth, the scope of the story also expanded. Every new day, in my personal life as well as in the making of this film, I was forced to adapt to the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2021
