Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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From NYC to Ukraine and Back: A First-Time Filmmaker Brings Julia Blue to the IFP Narrative Lab
First-time narrative filmmaker Roxy Toporowych, who previously directed the documentary Folk! and who has worked in the art department of films ranging from Safe Men to Captain America, is one of the ten filmmakers taking part this week in the IFP Narrative Lab. Here, the NYU Tisch graduate describes the genesis of her film, which sprung from a Fulbright Award she received to visit Ukraine as the Maidan protests were occurring and just before the revolution of 2014. Return later in the week for parts two and three of her story. A BADASS TAKE-OVER The statue of Lenin that stood […]
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How to Build Your Documentary’s Distribution Strategy
Gone are the days when if you were lucky enough to sell your documentary to a single distributor, they would take care of the rest. Though a select group of established documentary filmmakers still operate along those traditional lines, the majority of independent filmmakers working in documentaries today rely on a hybrid distribution plan in which theatrical, festivals, broadcast, educational, non-theatrical, and VOD rights are split. The upsides of a hybrid plan are that it potentially enables filmmakers to earn more revenue and also to develop a long-term audience. The downside? It means more work for filmmakers. A workshop at the recent Oregon […]
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“Going Beyond the Norm”: Theodore Collatos and Christopher Jason Bell on Making New Work, Going Beyond Hybrids and New Platforms
[Editor’s note: this conversation between filmmakers Christopher Jason Bell and Theodore Collatos is primarily about the making of their short films: Collatos’ Albatross and Time, and Bell‘s One Times One. You can watch Time at the bottom of this interview. We’ll be posting the online premieres of Albatross and One Times One over the next few days.] While I often disagree with who the majority of the micro-budget filmmakers taste-makers decide to anoint as One To Watch, I’ve found plenty of directors worth talking about in the few years I’ve been “in the game” (my debut feature The Winds That Scatter premiered last year). Theodore “Teddy” Collatos is one of those […]
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Venice Production Bridge Announces Gap Financing Market to Take Place During the Venice Film Festival
The Venice Production Bridge, a platform connecting European and international producers with potential sales agent, distributors and financiers able to provide final financing for their projects, announced today a new Gap Financing Market to take place during this year’s Venice Film Festival. Running September 2 – 4, the initiative will curate a selection of 25 European and international projects seeking the final 30% of their financing. Projects can be at any stage, from development to post-production, but must prove that the 70% of their existing financing is secure. Significantly, the initiative is open to both documentaries as well as fiction […]
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Werner Herzog to Teach Online Filmmaking Class
Traditional film school is overrated, according to Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Werner Herzog, who has signed on to teach an online filmmaking class. “You spend way too much time in film school. It costs way too much money. You can learn the essentials of filmmaking on your own within two weeks,” said Herzog in the (above) trailer for his class. The new class, which will focus on the art of both feature and documentary filmmaking, will be offered as part of the online education platform MasterClass. Pre-enrollment is open to everyone and the class will become available this summer. “Werner Herzog vibrantly and charismatically […]
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Fight Club Author Chuck Palahniuk Crowdfunding Lullaby
Though he wrote the novel on which David Fincher’s 1999 hit Fight Club was adapted, novelist Chuck Palahniuk has never written a screenplay. That will change with the upcoming film adaptation of the author’s 2002 novel Lullaby. Palahniuk will executive produce and co-write the screenplay with director Andy Mingo. Along with producer Josh Leake, the team has turned to Kickstarter to raise $250,000 to fund production of the film. Lullaby follows the life of Carl Streator, an over-the-hill reporter whose family mysteriously died years earlier. Palahniuk wrote the novel during the murder trial of the man eventually convicted of murdering his father. “Chuck doesn’t […]
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Sundance Institute Launches FilmTwo Initiative to Support Second Features
While making a first film is notoriously difficult, making a second film can often be even more challenging. To help a talented crop of filmmakers avoid the dreaded “sophomore slump,” the Sundance Institute today unveiled the FilmTwo Initiative. Led by the Institute’s Feature Film Program, with support from Founding Partner NBCUniversal, the FilmTwo Initiative will offer 13 directors creative and strategic guidance in navigating the unique challenges of making their second feature films. The inaugural FilmTwo Fellows are Andrew Ahn (Spa Night), Shaz Bennett (Alaska is a Drag), Bernardo Britto (Jacqueline (Argentine)), Steven Caple Jr. (The Land), Jonas Carpignano (Mediterranea), Marta Cunningham […]
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Trailer Watch: Ira Sachs’ Little Men
Little Men, director Ira Sachs’ latest film, premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was warmly received. The story of a friendship between two NYC middle schoolers whose parents become embroiled in a real estate conflict, Little Men takes a personal look at the damaging effects of gentrification. Starring newcomers Michael Barbieri and Theo Taplitz as the titular boys and Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle and Paulina Garcia as their parents, Little Men will hit select theaters on August 5, with a nationwide rollout to follow. The sensitive drama gets its first trailer (above) courtesy of distributor Magnolia Pictures.
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Friend or Foe: Maggie’s Plan
Until filmmaker, novelist, and funnywoman Rebecca Miller weighed in with the invigorating Maggie’s Plan, the history of films addressing the impasse between order and randomness — in theological terms, the conflict between free will and determinism — has rested on the mature products of profound Western European minds. Bresson’s Au Hasard, Balthasar and Dreyer’s Gertrud, for example, are stark, minimalist, and melancholic, with a divine presence at the very least implied. In Miller’s movie, intellectual musings are negligible in the fate debate. Destiny, whether embraced or resisted, is built into something more palpable: the actions of her quirky characters. Her earlier […]
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POV’s 2016 Calls for Entries is Now Open
POV, television’s longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films, has opened the doors for entries for the 2017 PBS broadcast season and beyond. The deadline for submission is Wednesday, June 15, 2016. Each year POV premieres 14-16 of the most memorable nonfiction stories to public television audiences around the country. Since 1988, POV has presented over 400 films, including some of our all-time favorite documentaries such as Roger & Me (Michael Moore) Street Fight (Marshall Curry), American Revolutionary (Grace Lee) and The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer), among many others. For submission details and requirements, check out POV’s Call For Entries Guidelines and to get a […]
