Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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Just Let Go Already! 12 Takeaways After Making the Microbudget Feature, The Purple Onion
After four years of working on my first feature film, The Purple Onion, it’s now ready and available online. You can read two earlier articles on Filmmaker where I chronicle the filmmaking process here. Dtill, my nurturing of this film could continue indefinitely with more festivals to submit to, more promoting to do, more distributors and agents to contact. But how long can this go on for? Especially when it’s just one person, me, doing all the work? That’s why the time has come to let go. I’m releasing my film on VOD today. And I’m walking away. The experience […]
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A World of Opinions
I got back from Loving the other night and there was an email from the online site where I bought the ticket. The site was asking me what I thought of the movie. But I didn’t really have an opinion. I didn’t feel one way or another about it. Which was kind of a relief. To not have an opinion. But more and more these days, our opinion is being requested. If you go out to a restaurant, you’re encouraged to Yelp about it. If you’re not on Twitter, people say, why aren’t you on Twitter? And then you look […]
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Self Protection for Filmmakers: Security Rules to Live by from DOC NYC
Of all the panels I attended at Doc NYC, the one called Protecting Yourself, on November 16, gave me the most hope for the future. The filmmakers were an impressive line-up of first-timers and veteran filmmakers, linked by their willingness to put themselves in dangerous situations in order to shine a light on stories otherwise cloaked in secrecy, denial and misinformation. The panel was moderated by Caty Borum Chattoo, Co-Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University. At several points, the audience was asked not to tweet or do social media on certain statements. Some details […]
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From DOC NYC, Five Takeaways from Veteran Documentary Editors on Successfully Cutting Doc Features
On Sunday I attended two editing-focused events at DOC NYC PRO. The “Morning Manifesto” was delivered by Matthew Hamachek, editor of films including Cartel Land and Amanda Knox. Later that afternoon, veteran editor Geof Bartz, Supervising Editor at HBO and a three-time Oscar winner, gave a masterclass on what to do when the pieces don’t fit. Having recently taken the Edit Center’s six-week Art of Editing Course at the IFP Made in New York Media Center, and currently assisting on the edit of a feature doc with a lot of moving parts, this seemed like a good way to spend […]
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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 […]
