Directing
Filmmaking - Directing
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Blast of Silence: Independent Filmmaking, Then and Now
1961 — I drove up to the gate of 20th Century Fox studios and hesitantly gave my name to the guard. I had an uneasy moment watching him look at a pad before he greeted me with “Good morning, Mr. Baron” and waved me forward. I steered my car under the elevated train set of Funny Girl and passed several soundstages to a parking area with my name in large white letters written on it. I got out of my car and paused to look at the surrounding studio activity, and the question. “How the hell did I get here?” […]
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Five Questions with Go For Sisters Director John Sayles
Childhood friends Bernice (LisaGay Hamilton) and Fontayne (Yolanda Ross) have been out of touch for a few years. When they reconnect, during an early sequence in John Sayles’ 18th feature film Go For Sisters, it is over a desk. Bernice, a parole officer, sits before folders of rap sheets to one side; Fontayne, a former junkie and criminal, fidgets on the other. It doesn’t take long, however, for the circumstance to turn from professional to personal. When Bernice’s drug running son vanishes near the Mexican border, she calls on Fontayne to help track him down. The two women head South, […]
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Following the Legacy’s Lead: Barbara Kopple on Running From Crazy
The name Hemingway carries a many numbered associations, “charmed” and “gifted” not least among them. But from the inside looking out, a far less sensationalized view slides into focus. Likening her namesake to Kennedy, Mariel Hemingway’s preferential description of her lineage can be summed up as “the other American family that had this horrible curse.” A curse — of suicide, depression, mental instabilities, drug and alcohol addiction — that is both respectfully and holistically probed in Barbara Kopple’s latest film, Running From Crazy. The youngest of Jack Hemingway’s three daughters, Mariel was often at odds with the free-spirited nature of […]
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So You Want to Make a Horror Film? On Jump Scares and Other Basics of Fright
If you’re looking to make a horror film simply because you think it might be an easy road to notoriety, you’d be dead wrong. This is a dish that’s best served cold by filmmakers who are fans — those who have long loved being chilled to the bone — so it should be in your blood. If you’re a filmmaker who’s new to horror, immerse yourself in the classics and study their techniques before you set out to try to create a monster of your own. The potential pitfalls you face when making a horror film are what’s really frightening. […]
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13 Steps to Directing Famous Actors in a Microbudget Film
As I wind up my festival and theatrical run of my film Between Us, it’s gratifying to see the amazing reviews for our four-person ensemble cast, with critics using blurb-ready adjectives like “brilliant,” “razor-sharp” and “career-best” to describe the performances of Julia Stiles, Taye Diggs and Melissa George. David Harbour, in particular, just won the Best Actor prize at the Woods Hole Film Fest, and many reviews agree that he steals the movie in his breakthrough film performance. Naturally, all credit is due to the actors themselves. But a couple people nicely said that I couldn’t have screwed up the […]
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“Pull the Threads until it Unravels”: Advice from TFI’s Fashion in Film Event
Director and cinematographer Christina Voros nicely summed up the difference between the fashion industry and the film industry at the Tribeca Film Institute’s Fashion in Film event Friday: “Fashion is sort of antithetical to film. The fashion industry is all about making sure the seams don’t show, that every thread is in place. Documentary is about pulling on the threads until it unravels.” She was speaking of the process of filming her second documentary feature The Director, about Gucci Creative Director Frida Giannini, but the sentiment was reflected in films and discussions throughout the two-day event. At first blush the […]
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Future Forward – A Day for New Voices in Independent Film
Sunday’s schedule of events at the IFP’s Filmmaker Conference titled “Future Forward” really couldn’t have been more perfectly named. Though each panel could be seen appropriately fitting for the title, two in particular really hit home the idea that our future and our way forward is through new voices and new stories, mainly through new, minority filmmakers (and that much of the success of these new filmmakers is in our hands). First-time writer/director Ryan Coogler, whose film Fruitvale Station is already appearing on Top 10 lists for 2013 with rumors of Oscar nods, spoke candidly about the film’s production, about […]
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Mark Peranson on his Apocalyptic The Last Movie Homage, La última película
Appearing in the Wavelengths section of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival is La última película, an experimental comedy about filmmaking and the apocalypse by two directors joined in collaboration by CPH:DOX’s DOX:LAB program. Filipino director Raya Martin (Independencia) collaborates with Canadian critic and filmmaker Mark Peranson on a crazily cinephilic conceit: remaking Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie as, literally, the last movie. The Color Wheel‘s Alex Ross Perry stars as a “disillusioned and delusional” filmmaker traveling to the Yucatan to make a psychedelic Western in the days leading up to the Mayan Apocalypse. Nicolás Pereda star Gabino Rodriguez plays […]
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Five Questions for A Plague So Pleasant Director Benjamin Roberds
Putting a new cinematic spin on the zombie genre is Benjamin Roberds’ microbudget (under $3,000!) indie, A Plague So Pleasant. In the film’s near future, a zombie epidemic has created an undead population that is largely harmless, attacking only when threatened. It’s even a felony to shoot a zombie in the U.S. A Plague So Pleasant‘s drama turns on protagonist Clay Marshall’s desire to do just that — shoot a zombie, the boyfriend of her sister, in order to jolt her back to reality. Also significant about A Plague So Pleasant — the filmmakers are releasing it online and for […]
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5 Lessons on Making a “Bigger” Movie
Movies come in all sizes. On one end of the spectrum, there’s the micro-micro, you-and-your-friends, five-person-crew, max-out-a-credit-card and play a festival (maybe) movie. And then there’s Spiderman. In between, there are steps — adding a more famous actor, getting slightly more money, shooting in a place that isn’t your apartment with people you’ve never met before. Below, some tips for adjusting to your “big movie” – some collected from experience, some handed down to me. YOU WILL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE DOING. Part One: You have no idea what you’re doing… and don’t worry about it. If someone rolls […]
