Directing
Filmmaking - Directing
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Mike Leigh’s Five-Minute Films and Finding the Rhythm of Whiffed Out
Celebrating its Online Premiere over at No Budge, Jay Giampietro’s Whiffed Out is a throwback rendition of a neurotic New Yorker’s summer of suck. The short film, an official selection of Maryland Film Festival and BAMcinemaFest, derives its humor from situational minutiae, and in the below guest post, Giampietro discusses his source of inspiration in the five-minute film series of Mike Leigh. — Sarah Salovaara I was turned onto the Mike Leigh five-minute films by Ronnie Bronstein about a year and a half ago, and even though I am obsessed with Leigh and had seen every one of his features (I used to […]
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Watch: Breaking Down David Fincher’s Directorial Techniques
While the gender politics behind David Fincher’s much-anticipated Gone Girl adaptation may be muddled, the “dark lord of cinema”‘s direction is as crystalline and precise as ever. Tony Zhou, in his latest Every Frame A Painting, examines how Fincher manages to make even the most expository exchanges cinematic by using framing to relate character dynamics. He also takes a close look at Fincher’s faithfulness to the tripod, sparing use of close-ups, and almost inhuman camera movements. It’s a must watch for anyone who values the abilities of visual language.
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6 Lessons on Filmmaking From Darren Aronofsky
Last evening, The New Museum held a conversation between Lynne Tillman and Darren Aronofsky as part of their annual Stuart Regen Visionaries Series. Tillman began with an excerpt from Genesis, a winking reference to Aronofsky’s Noah as well as the frequent depiction of beginnings — of identities and obsession — in his work. Over the next hour and a half, the two parsed through his filmography in chronological order, weighing in on themes and construction. Below are a few major takeaways from the discussion, and if time is not of the essence, the full version can be viewed above. Using Format to Create Cohesion Per […]
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Steven Soderbergh Re-imagines Raiders of the Lost Ark as a Masterclass in Staging
A little belated in posting the latest installment from Steven Soderbergh’s guerrilla film school, but better than never, as the saying goes. Here, Soderbergh sets Steven Spielberg’s seminal blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark to an electronic tinged soundtrack and black-and-white wash. His reasoning is that a dialogue-free version allows the film to be appreciated as a master class in the elusive technique of staging. In my book, Fassbinder is the top of the heap as far as blocking goes, but Soderbergh makes the case for the other Steven in the following terms: I value the ability to stage something well because when […]
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How to Address the Gender Divide in Filmmaking
Recently, I realized that Kelly Reichardt is the only working American female filmmaker with a body of work I can wholeheartedly exalt. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of films to admire that are directed by women in this country, but that those films so often stand on their own, as that director’s first and last achievement. There is no “late period” to debate, because these women are rarely making it on to their second or third feature. TV money and exposure factor, sure, but even the standard bearer success story that is Lena Dunham never directed another after Tiny Furniture. Instead, Judd […]
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Five Lessons from a Ten-Year Film School
The following is a guest post from 25 New Face filmmaker Jake Mahaffy on his new project, Free in Deed, currently fundraising post-production at Indiegogo. Check out the film’s campaign here, and also see Filmmaker‘s new partner page of curated Indiegogo projects. “How could a man crush a child for over two hours, the entire time believing that he was helping him?” That was a question that formed in my mind as I read mainstream news stories back in 2003 of a failed faith healing. But as time went on, I did more research. I met with the actual man and […]
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Five Questions for The Reach Director Jean-Baptiste Leonetti
After screening his debut feature, Carre Blanc, at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011, French director Jean-Baptiste Leonetti returns to the festival to world premiere his latest, The Reach. Described as a cat-and-mouse thriller about a corporate shark and the young guide he hires for a hunting trip across the Mojave desert, it stars Michael Douglas, whose capacity for embodying and, through his performances, critiquing American greed is unquestioned. Below we ask Leonetti about Douglas, maintaining tension in a two-hander, and the differences between French filmmaking and American. Filmmaker: In both this film as well as Carre Blanc, class […]
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Watch: Gina Telaroli on Smaller Cinema as an Extracurricular
Ricky D’Ambrose consistently runs some of the most revealing, worthwhile video interviews over at MUBI Notebook, and his latest is no exception. This go around, Ambrose converses with Gina Telaroli, one of our brand new 25 New Faces, about her process, the “classic Hollywood system,” and the potential drawbacks of having your hand in too many of the industry’s depleted honeypots. Most significant are Telaroli’s opening remarks: “I think there’s really a lot of people who still have this idea, either filmmakers or film writers, that they will be the person that somehow makes it, that somehow is the genius. […]
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Watch: Cassavetes Between Takes of Love Streams
“If our films are supposed to be something like life is…then how can you determine what’s going to happen tomorrow?” That’s John Cassavetes from the set of Love Streams on the importance of surrendering to the unpredictability of filmmaking. Excerpted from the film’s on-set documentary I’m Almost Not Crazy…–John Cassavetes: The Man and His Work, this short clip provides a glimpse of Cassavetes’ ethic between takes. The full behind-the-scenes exposé is available in Criterion’s just released edition of Love Streams, and you can read Dennis Lim’s supplemental essay over at the site, which examines the film as a brilliant collision of Cassavetes’ (and Rowlands’ and […]
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Breaking Down the DIY Visual Effects in A Truncated Story of Infinity
Paul Trillo’s A Truncated Story of Infinity considers the limitless schema of possibilities that unfold over the course of a series of moments. The eight minute film — recently featured on Short of the Week — also boasts some pretty impressive practical effects for a budget of $10,000. I asked Paul to break down the means behind each technique, which he notes may not “the correct way” to render an effect, even if they look pretty fine to me. Hall of Mirrors at :00 “Our ‘mirror’ was just a framed piece of green on a wall. We did a simple dolly into the green so it […]
