Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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“Suddenly the World’s Wider, More Exciting, More Engaging”: Criterion’s Peter Becker on the New FilmStruck and Criterion Channel Streaming Service
For film lovers of all stripes, the launch this month of FilmStruck, a new streaming service partnership between Turner Classic Movies and the Criterion Channel, is nothing short of a major event. As Netflix tilts more and more towards television and original programming, and actual movies cycle on and off on-demand services at a dizzying pace, FilmStruck is poised to be a dependable and invigorating destination for anyone wanting to watch a simply great movie at any time of the day or night. FilmStruck will source films from indie distributors such as Janus Films, Zeitgeist, Film Movement, Oscilloscope Laboratories, as […]
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“Just Because It’s Not Online Doesn’t Mean it Doesn’t Exist”: Tips on Finding and Using Archival Footage from DOC NYC Pro
Sitting in the audience at a DOC NYC Pro Masterclass just days after the election, I found it impossible to separate the discussions and stories from the story of our country at this moment. Everything going on in film seems so important and relevant to how we see ourselves and the world, and nowhere do we see this as directly as in documentary. This was brought home by producer, director and archivist Sierra Pettengill (director, Town Hall; archival producer, Kate Plays Christine) in a panel taking place Sunday, November 13 called “Getting Creative With Archives.” Pettengill showed a clip from […]
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Five Ways to Build a Powerful Financing and Distribution Network for Your Film
You’ve heard it said before: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” As an independent filmmaker, your network — the relationships you forge with individuals, institutions and media in your niche — is what will drive every step of your film’s distribution. After all the hard work of getting your film made, you’ll need a tight-knit group of supporters and evangelists who believe in your work and will help you build an audience. For our documentary Age of Champions, which tells the story of five competitors up to 100 years old who compete in the Senior Olympics, our […]
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“More Publicity Means More Protection”: Sonia Kennebeck on National Bird
Sonia Kennebeck’s National Bird is a humanistic look at those responsible for and affected by America’s divisive drone war program. Those working in drone warfare are thousands of miles removed from the destination of their attack, so National Bird is primarily placed in suburban America, away from the crimes at the film’s core. Through three former air force workers turned whistleblowers (and their victims), Kennebeck’s film is equally about an emotional and spatial disconnect. We do not interact with those we are affecting most – please feel free to draw your own parallels to current American politics here – and therefore the country can […]
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No Budget, No Problems? Intellectual Property Challenges for Film Production Start-Ups
“Guerilla filmmaking” is a term that refers to the process of shooting films with bare-bones crews, simple props, real locations and no permission. You rebel. The concept is not new, but it’s never been easier to sneak into a place with a camera in your pocket or backpack and still come out with high-quality footage. With you and your cousin being a two-person crew (and cast) and making the world your on-location shoot, certain aspects of the biz may be easier, but other important facets have not changed. Without permits or permission, municipalities may shut down your production, fine you […]
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Dolby Atmos, Dr. Strange, Laser Projectors and True Blacks
I’d seen none of the Marvel movies outside the Iron Man trilogy and wasn’t planning to dive into the MCU with Dr. Strange. But positive early responses piqued my interest, and then I got a curious invitation to a screening preceded by a technical demonstration of the Dolby Atmos sound system. Never having gotten the financial willpower together to shell out the super-premium price to check out what 128 channels of sound (including speakers on the ceiling), it seemed worth a listen. The presentation turned out not to be about just Dolby Atmos but the Dolby Cinema, a package deal theater space you can currently only track down […]
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Can There be an “Indie Netflix”?
If you happen to be a fan of either (1) the Chicago Cubs, or (2) subscription-based VOD streaming platforms, it must be a pretty exciting time to be alive. Last Tuesday saw the launch of FilmStruck, a new subscription-based streaming platform (or, “SVOD Platform,” a term coined by industry insiders who own nice hats). The goal of this platform? To cater to arthouse audiences underwhelmed by Netflix’s dwindling selection of classic films. With the combined muscle of TCM and beloved DVD imprint The Criterion Collection behind it, FilmStruck launched to a buzzing New York Times piece, copious social media fanfare, […]
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Robert Bresson x 2 via NYRB Classics
NYRB Classics is not only reissuing Robert Bresson’s Notes on the Cinematograph but publishing Bresson on Bresson, a freshly translated interview collection. While the imprint’s never published a straight-up film book before, the former isn’t that eyebrow-raising: Bresson’s slender volume of koan-like declarations has been a fetish object outside of Film World since initial publication. Bresson on Bresson, though, is a different proposition. Interview collections (like the Conversations with Filmmakers series published by the University of Mississippi) are both valuable and inherently redundant, as subjects inevitably are forced to give the same answers over and over through the years. The interviews aren’t trimmed down […]
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Tips for Writing a Micro-Budget Feature
The following guest essay is from filmmaker Darren Coyle, whose feature The Hunt is currently crowdfunding for production. I have written and directed a bunch of short films, and I’ve even gotten them into a few festivals where they received some awards. I enjoyed working on short films but wanted to write and direct a feature. The problem is, features are expensive and I don’t have connections or know any rich people. So, I thought I would make the feature myself using the resources I have: time, friends, and talent. What needs to go into a movie? People, places and words […]
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Five Questions for The Secret Scripture Director Jim Sheridan
In Jim Sheridan’s new film The Secret Scripture, based on the novel by Sebastian Barry, the six-time Oscar nominated director returns to themes familiar to him: politics, religion, family and truth. Vanessa Redgrave stars as Rose McNulty, a woman imprisoned for four decades in a mental ward, accused of killing her own son. Not only is she convinced she didn’t kill him, but she believes her son is still alive, and keeps a journal in the margins of a Bible recounting her stories. When the decaying mental ward is on the verge of being turned into a resort, she refuses to move, […]
