In the new issue of Filmmaker, Esther Robinson penned “The Big Art/Little Debt Plan,” which discusses the relation of filmmakers to risk, their films, and their money. She reached out to several filmmakers by email, and their responses helped shape her article. We are running several of the responses Esther received here on the blog. Below is the one from Paola Mendoza, director of Entre Nos. What strategies did you employ to stay no/low debt during your production? My strategy was pretty simple: I refused to go into debt. While making art is the essence of who I am, I […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 7, 2010Bristol’s Massive Attack return this week with a new album, Heligo Land, and word has it that the band that once invented trip-hop and now is probably best known for providing the theme music for House may be revisiting the former glory of their classic albums Blue Lines and Protection. Preceding the album is this website, Massive Attack Tweatre, which is unveiling seven music videos commissioned for the album. Three are up so far, and the grabber is “Paradise Circus/Life of a Pornstar.” It’s a beautiful downtempo song sung by Hope Sandoval, and the video, directed by Toby Dye, is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 7, 2010Baltimore director Matt Porterfield’s (Hamilton) latest film Putty Hill premieres this month at the Berlin Film Festival’s Forum. On the film’s nicely-done website, Porterfield describes coming up with a five-page treatment that would use 15 locations when financing for a larger project, Metal Gods, fell through. About the result, he writes: Putty Hill is not quite like anything I’ve ever seen. On a most basic level, it is an amalgam of traditional forms of documentary and narrative realism. But it is an approach to realism in opposition to the anthropological, lyrical, and romantic currents present in most of the genre. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 6, 2010Okay, it’s not Avatar, but if you have a pair of those old red and blue cardboard glasses lying around you can check out Gray Miller’s proposal for Sea Monster, which is being billed as a “3D stereoscopic web series exploring new film grammar.” He’s raising money for the “pulp sci-fi hard science mix” through Kickstarter and is about a third of the way towards his $5,000 goal with 37 days left. From his proposal: We’re launching a sci-fi 3-D web series inspired by Moby Dick. It’s designed to be shot in our own DIY stereoscopic 3-D, around Coney Island […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 6, 2010In the new issue of Filmmaker, Esther Robinson penned “The Big Art/Little Debt Plan,” which discusses the relation of filmmakers to risk, their films, and their money. She reached out to several filmmakers by email, and their responses helped shape her article. We are running several of the responses Esther received here on the blog. Here is Jonathan Goodman Levitt’s. What strategies did you employ to stay no/low debt during your production? I’ve had to take on a lot of more roles myself than would be ideal for the film, or for me personally. Life has been pretty much on-hold […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 6, 2010In the new issue of Filmmaker, Esther Robinson penned “The Big Art/Little Debt Plan,” which discusses the relation of filmmakers to risk, their films, and their money. She reached out to several filmmakers by email, and their responses helped shape her article. We are running several of the responses Esther received here on the blog. Below is the one from Dan Cogan of Impact Partners. What drives most filmmakers, and especially documentary filmmakers, is their deep passion to tell a story. It’s not about money or about a career for many filmmakers — it’s about the story. This is very […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 5, 2010In the new issue of Filmmaker, Esther Robinson penned “The Big Art/Little Debt Plan,” which discusses the relation of filmmakers to risk, their films, and their money. She reached out to several filmmakers by email, and their responses helped shape her article. We are running several of the responses Esther received here on the blog. Below is the one from Thomas Woodrow, producer, Bass Ackwards. With the current environment/budgets you are seeing, do think there will be more financing gaps than usual? If yes, do you think this might create an uptick in personal debt (both for you and the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 4, 2010Here’s the latest in the continuing series of videos by SABI Pictures executive produced by Filmmaker and the Workbook Project. The official word: SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah speak with Ted Hope, Jon Reiss, Mynette Louie (Children of Invention) and Linas Phillips (Bass Ackwards) to explore the solutions that are emerging for independent filmmakers – featuring some of the insights and actions that came from the 2010 Filmmaker Summit. NEW BREED PARK CITY – Exploring the Solutions, Part 1 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo. Watch all New Breed videos.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 4, 2010In the new issue of Filmmaker, Esther Robinson penned “The Big Art/Little Debt Plan,” which discusses the relation of filmmakers to risk, their films, and their money. She reached out to several filmmakers by email, and their responses helped shape her article. We are running several of the responses Esther received here on the blog. Below is the one from Mynette Louie, producer, Children of Invention. With the current environment/budgets you are seeing, do think there will be more financing gaps than usual? If yes, do you think this might create an uptick in personal debt (both for you and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2010