Filmmaker Videos
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Watch: Jason Tippet’s My Gal, Rosemarie
Jason Tippet is the co-director of the lovely Only the Young, which premiered at True/False in 2012. That portrait of California skater kids who evangelize for the Lord was distinguished by Tippet and co-director Elizabeth Mims’ impressive ability to seemingly never repeat an immaculate shot set-up in even the most returned-to locations. From the opening shot My Gal, Rosemarie shows Tippet hasn’t lost his eye for finding strong compositions in domestic spaces, opening here with a hanging hummingbird feeder viewed from directly below, a defamiliarized circle with birds floating weightlessly around it. This is the home of Ray and Rosemarie: the latter, age 90, finds […]
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Music Video: Beyonce, “Formation”
“I might be a black Bill Gates in the making….” There’s a lot going on in Formation, the new single and music video surprised-released by Beyonce this afternoon. Hurricane Katrina, Black Lives Matter, the antebellum-era American South. Oh, yeah, and Red Lobster in one perversely profane lyric. Plus, the last shot is a fantastic riff on what is a pretty familiar indie-film trope — the actress submerging her face in a bathtub. I’ve been searching around and can’t find a director credit but will add if I come across it. You can download the song for free here.
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“Flop”: The Conclusion of Short Film Winner Jim Cummings’ Sundance Video Diary
“You won a trophy in a bowling alley — get it together!” Thunder Road short film award-winning director Jim Cummings deals with sudden success in this final installment of his video diary series from the Sundance Film Festival. There are parties and drugs, bad behavior in the snow, nods to Kanye and Birdman, and much more. Check it out above.
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Watch: What Does Oscar Nominated Cinematography Look Like in 2016?
Kevin B. Lee has been considering the candidates in the major Oscar categories. In this video essay, he breaks down the styles of the five candidates (The Hateful Eight, Sicario, The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, Carol). The sound’s off as Lee narrates, but he also recommends watching the video silently to focus more on the cinematography. Pressed for time? You can read his essay here.
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Watch: The Revenant by Tarkovsky
Is Andrei Tarkovsky a dominant influence for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant? Misha Petrick makes the case in this split-screen video, with The Revenant on the left and a broad swath of Tarkovsky’s films for comparison on the right.
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Jim Cummings’ Thunder Road Video Diary, Part Three
In part three of Jim Cummings and team’s video diary documenting their time at Sundance, Thunder Road wins a jury prize! But before that, there’s more anxiety about networking to get through, both before and after the awards. Part one is here, part two is here.
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Jim Cummings’ Thunder Road Takes Sundance, Part Two
In part one of this video series, Jim Cummings and his team got ready to go to Sundance with their short. In this installment, they’re on the ground and feeling shaky. Actor PJ McCabe practices his networking skills in front of a mirror, there are arguments about who was supposed to get tickets to the premiere, and of course there are parties. Funny stuff.
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Jim Cummings’s Thunder Road Goes to Sundance
After appearing on our 25 New Faces list in 2012, director, writer, producer and actor Jim Cummings has popped into the page of Filmmaker from time to time, offering advise on making and marketing short films and what filmmakers can learn from South Park. Cummings, who is a producer of two of the past year’s best independents (Krisha and The Grief of Others), has an intriguingly hard-to-pin down filmmaking personality. So, when he suggested that Filmmaker partner with him on a series of videos documenting the journey of his new short, Thunder Road, to Sundance, we quickly agreed. Of course, […]
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Watch: Quentin Tarantino’s Visual References
Jacob T. Swinney scratches the surface of Quentin Tarantino’s copious visual allusions/steals (depending on how you feel about his work) in this neatly split-screened video. Scenes, characters, costumes and even title cards all have their precedents.
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Watch: Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg Talk about Bridge of Spies
Sitting down for an hour-long chat about Bridge of Spies a few months ago, Martin Scorsese noted that he’s already watched the film twice. In the subsequent hour, a lot of ground is covered: sharing memories of growing up during the Cold War, the role of the Coen brothers in the screenwriting process, the movie’s allegorical applicability regarding Guantanamo Bay. There is, of course, mutual admiration: Scorsese’s for this film, Spielberg’s for Raging Bull.
