Filmmaking
Filmmaking
-
“Thumbs Down” Study Shows Gender Imbalance Among Critics
There has been no shortage of studies about the gender imbalance of women in the film industry, particularly behind the camera. Now a new study suggests that women are outnumbered when it comes to writing and broadcasting about films as well. “Thumbs Down 2016: Top Film Critics and Gender,” a new study from the San Diego-based Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film (CSWTF) examined 5,776 reviews by 247 “top critics” appearing on the Rotten Tomatoes website during spring 2016. The most comprehensive study of women’s representation as film writers, “Thumbs Down” concluded that men outnumber women by 73% to […]
-
How to Rebuild The Sound of an Arena Concert: Sound Designer Lawrence Everson on Contemporary Color
Contemporary Color follows ten color guard troupes from across the country as they perform in multiple concerts put on by David Byrne in Toronto and Brooklyn. Crafted to appear to take place over one night at the Barclays Center in New York, the Ross brothers’ documentary places as much emphasis on the process of the show as it does the concert itself. Swiftly moving through the interior of the arena, into the stands, onto the stage, and even away from the arena entirely, Contemporary Color creates a visual landscape that sometimes moves into the abstract to recreate the environment of the performance. […]
-
New Documentaries Use Animation to Bring Nonfiction Stories to Life
In recent decades, some of the best documentary films — including Oscar-winners such as Bowling for Columbine and Searching for Sugar Man, and, more recently, festival favorites Point and Shoot and Meet the Patels — have have relied on animation to tell compelling nonfiction stories in nontraditional ways. It’s a technique audiences have grown accustomed to and nonfiction filmmakers have learned to adopt with varying degrees of success. While in the past, documentary purists might have posited that animation had no place in non-fiction storytelling, it’s now largely accepted that even observational documentaries involve some degree of manipulation. If anything, by using animation in a documentary, the manipulation is more […]
-
BitTorrent Launches BitTorrent Now with Streaming Option for Creators
BitTorrent Bundle will re-launch as BitTorrent Now, extending the platform with new streaming apps for Apple TV, iOS, and Android, as well as introducing advertising as a new revenue stream for creators, BitTorrent announced today. Straith Schreder, BitTorrent’s VP of Creative Initiatives, who has been the principal driver of this initiative, told Filmmaker, “we wanted to build a platform with the ability for creators to connect with their audience no matter where they are in the world. So being able to bring their project to what’s now an audience of 200 million passionate fans of indie film and indie music and to be able […]
-
“I Wrote This Role For My Brother, Not About Him”: Jesse Klein on Making We’re Still Together
Editor’s note: the following is a guest post from Jesse Klein, director of the drama We’re Still Together, which will be having its world premiere at Karlovy Vary. A Kickstarter to raise funds for deliverables, travel, accommodations and other necessary expenses can be found here. In thinking about my film We’re Still Together and what could be said that the film itself does not say, I thought of my older brother Joey. The movie starts with him in every way. In the fall of 2012, I was back in Montreal after finishing an MFA in filmmaking at UT-Austin without an idea of […]
-
Cinema Eye Names Semifinalists for Nonfiction Filmmaking for Television
Now entering its tenth year, Cinema Eye, the organization that recognizes outstanding work in nonfiction film, today announced the ten films that have been named as semifinalists for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Filmmaking for Television. Films eligible for this award must have aired or broadcast between June 1, 2015 and May 31, 2016, which explains why O.J.: Made in America, Ezra Edelman’s stunning five-part documentary series for ESPN, which premiered June 11, didn’t make the list. Among the documentaries recognized this year are HBO Documentary Films’ Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures by documentary veterans Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, A&E’s Happy Valley, […]
-
Trailer Watch: Ron Howard’s Beatles Doc Eight Days A Week
We recently reported that Hulu has launched Hulu Documentary Films, a destination for original and exclusive documentary film titles. Now its first acquisition — The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, a new Beatles documentary from Ron Howard — has its first trailer (above). The film features rare and exclusive footage, and was produced with the full cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. It focuses on the early part of The Beatles’ career (1962-1966), and will explore how John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr came together to form the Fab Four. The documentary’s U.S. theatrical […]
-
Producer Miranda Bailey Debunks Swiss Army Man Controversy and Challenges Conventions about Women in Film
You may not know Miranda Bailey’s name, but you probably know her work. As an actress, writer, director and producer, Miranda Bailey has a hand in just about every aspect of the independent film business. Early in her career, she executive produced Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, and since then her producing credits have included Oren Moverman’s Time Out of Mind and the award-winning documentary Spinning Plates. Bailey’s production company Cold Iron Pictures was behind the award-winning 2015 Sundance sensation Diary of a Teenage Girl, in which she played a supporting role opposite Kristen Wiig. This summer two other films that […]
-
Watch: Dawn Porter’s Op-Doc Film The Chosen Life
The New York Times today debuted a new Op-Doc film, The Chosen Life, the latest film in a series by independent filmmakers supported by Chicken & Egg Pictures. Directed by Dawn Porter, The Chosen Life chronicles the challenges faced by Dr. Yashica Robinson, the only practicing OB GYN in Huntsville, Alabama who provides abortions. This film was inspired by Porter’s feature Trapped, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking. Trapped will appear on PBS’s Independent Lens on June 20. “While making Trapped, I met this beautiful smart determined woman and I […]
-
Upstream and Downstream: 5 Observations about Independent Film Distribution at the 2016 Midpoint
The following article appears in our Spring, 2016 print edition and is appearing from behind our paywall today for the first time. Will 2016 be remembered as the year that Amazon and Netflix gobbled up the indie film market? Probably. While the two online behemoths could always change their strategies in the next several months, the ramifications of their first quarter dominance stretched far and wide, sending shockwaves through the business. But there were other changes afoot, as well. Here are five industry trends that continue to linger long after Park City. 1. The Enduring Impact of Amazon and Netflix Okay, Amazon […]
