Filmmaking
Filmmaking
-
Deep in the Heart of Texas: San Antonio in the Spotlight (Sponsored Post)
San Antonio is where the new seamlessly meets the old. Where rolling Hill Country landscapes and farmland terrain are just a quick drive from the city’s bustling downtown core. Home to the first movie studio in Texas (Star Film Ranch), San Antonio has a proud, rich film heritage dating back to the early 1900s. With a built history of 300+ years, San Antonio is a treasure trove of unique locations. Whether you’re looking for Spanish colonial missions, dude ranches and dance halls, or sleek, modern buildings, vibrant murals and industrial warehouses, San Antonio can set the scene for all points and everything in between. The San Antonio Film Commission […]
-
Rathaus Announces Detroit-Focused $10,000 Film Production Grant
Rathaus, the New York and Detroit-based production company behind such films as Tim Sutton’s Funny Face, Cedric Cheung-Lau’s The Mountains Are a Dream that Call to Me and Diana Peralta’s De Lo Mio, has announced a new grant supporting Detroit-based filmmakers. The Rathaus Film Grant will give $10,000 to one moving image artist in support of a short film, feature film, documentary, hybrid piece, or video art. Funds are unrestricted. As the FAQ notes, they “can be used in any way that significantly progresses your project forward. This could be anything from; supporting you to take time off to write […]
-
Girlblogging: Cléo from 5 to 7
This post is part of a series, Girlblogging. Read the introduction here. In the music video for The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” (1997), lead singer Richard Ashcroft walks down a blue-gray London street, bumping into passersby, bowling over the girls and pissing off the guys. When you’re famous and beautiful on film, these are things you can get away with. Ashcroft represents a thoroughly contemporary creature—the 20th-century star, who, on a small screen today, looks more or less like the 21st; the detached, ambivalent, self-involved face of the modern urban world; the flâneur with somewhere to go, or something to […]
-
The Gotham Announces 2023 Variety Gotham Week
The Gotham Film and Media Institute, Filmmaker‘s publisher, announced today the programming for its 2023 Variety Gotham Week, taking place October 2 – 5th in New York City. In addition to three screenings and filmmaker conversations, the event will include The Expo, “a thought leadership program hosted by The Gotham’s Expanding Communities partner organizations specifically covering the topics of advocacy and career advancement for film & media creators.” From the press release: The Expo will launch with a panel taking an in-depth look at The Inclusion List hosted by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in collaboration with Adobe Foundation. Organizations […]
-
Vu One: Vu’s New All-in-One Virtual Production Studio
Vu just announced a new product that aims to make virtual production a lot more accessible: the Vu One. It’s two parts. One part turnkey virtual production studio in a (very, very, big) box. One part Vu’s Virtual Studio, a software platform that makes creating and running virtual scenes a lot easier. Let’s break down both parts. Complete Virtual Production Setup Vu One offers a complete, configurable VP setup, which includes: LED Wall by Unilumin, with sizing starting at 13×9 ft Media Server by Puget Systems LED Processor by Megapixel Stereoscopic camera tracker (more on that below) Optional camera tracker […]
-
“If I Ever Need to Rob a Bank…”: Melissa Miller Costanzo on Directing the Romantic Comedy The List
I got a call from my agents, and they told me they had a script they wanted me to read. It was called The List, a broad romantic comedy about a woman who finds out her fiancé had slept with someone on his celebrity free pass list, so she decides to go to Los Angeles and try to get with someone from hers. My initial thoughts were, great concept, and why me? When I finished the script my thoughts were, needs some work, and why me? My first film was something I had written and directed called All These Small […]
-
Looking Towards 2043: The Worldbuilding Weekend of Experimental Realities
In early July, a cohort of over a dozen filmmakers and artists gathered in the International Documentary Association’s sun-drenched conference room. Some had flown in from as far away as the UK and Serbia, others were local to LA. A number—perhaps most of them—weren’t exactly sure what was in store for them at the weekend-long Experimental Realities event. Or even why exactly they were there. I asked the event organizers how members of the impressive group — who included Greg de Cuir Jr., Alison Nguyen, and Mark Mushiva — were selected. “This is funny because the participants have been asking […]
-
In the Garden: Remembering Independent Film Distributor, Producer and Mentor Ray Price
I have lived longer and better than many others. I have selfishly demanded that I only do what I wanted to do—which isn’t completely true. But it is true that I have often spurned great amounts of money and stature because I believe good work is essential… The last time we spoke, I had you on speaker-phone as I made my way down the backyard garden, holding my baby in the morning sunshine, and as your words came over the cellphone, they wove into the chorus of finches chirping in the trees and the buzzing of the bumblebees joyously coating […]
-
Behind the Scenes of a Car Chase
Action director Lawrence Ribeiro has appeared in Filmmaker‘s pages before, writing about pre-viz’ing a fight scene and stunt training. Recently he has been directing a series of car chase short films, with the latest, Part Deux: The Chase, racking up 1.5 million views on YouTube. As he writes, these days he’s “working to expand Action Realism with upcoming projects that marry speed and movement with legendary talents in music and sound.” Here, in a conversation submitted by production company Art & Action Productions, he answers questions about the film, which can also be watched below. What was the purpose behind […]
-
Killing Pigs for Art? On Animal Cruelty-Free Cuts
A Hong Kong documentary crew travels to Borneo to dig up the grave of an ancient “evil dwarf sorcerer” for a mondo film on black magic; as you might imagine, protracted supernatural revenge is exacted for the next 70 minutes. This is the gist of Red Spell Spells Red (1983, d. Titus Ho), the second of two Hong Kong exploitation films written by Amy Chan Suet-Ming (the first being the previous year’s Centipede Horror, directed by Keith Li), of whom little is known beyond her proclivity for bug-based horror. Neither film is a major studio production, perhaps because Hong Kong’s […]
