Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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Amazon Launches New Self-Service Video Platform
In addition to YouTube and Vimeo, filmmakers can now upload and sell their original video content on Amazon. On Tuesday, Amazon announced Amazon Video Direct (AVD), a new self-service program for creators and storytellers to make their video content available to Amazon customers. Through the new program, filmmakers and video providers can distribute their content directly to tens of millions of Prime members and earn royalties based on minutes stream. Amazon will pay partners 50% of the retail price for digital purchases, rentals and subscription fees. If they choose Prime Video distribution, creators will earn royalties of 15 cents per hour streamed in the […]
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IFP Announces Documentary Projects for Annual IFP Labs
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today the ten documentaries selected for the 2016 IFP Filmmaker Labs, IFP’s annual yearlong fellowship for first-time feature directors. The creative teams of the selected films are currently attending the first week’s sessions – The Time Warner Foundation Completion Labs – taking place May 11-15 in New York City. As of 2015, the 196 projects that have gone through the program include such critically acclaimed films as the recent documentaries (T)error by Lyric Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe (Independent Lens), Nanfu Wang’s Hooligan Sparrow (POV), Sharon Shattuck’s From This Day Forward (POV), Leah […]
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Controversial Film Financier Steven Mnuchin Joins Trump Campaign as National Finance Chairman
Steven Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs veteran and hedge fund manager who has executive produced a number of studio films, has joined the presidential campaign of Donald Trump as its National Finance Chairman. Through his Dune Capital, and later through a partnership between Dune and Ryan Kavanaugh’s now bankrupt Relativity Media, Mnuchin was involved with the financing of such films as Mad Max: Fury Road, Black Mass, Our Brand is Crisis and American Sniper. A partner in RatPac Dune Entertainment along with Brett Ratner and James Packer, Mnuchin has also been involved with the financing of many Fox and Warner films […]
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The Changing Face of Documentary Distribution: The 17th Annual Hot Docs Forum
The 17th annual Hot Docs Forum kicked off Tuesday in Toronto with all the pomp and ceremony of a high school model UN tournament. Axel Arno, SVT commissioning editor and one of three forum moderators, laid out the rules: each team will have seven minutes to pitch, followed by another seven minutes of question-and-answer discussion; the bell will ring once at the six-minute mark and twice at the seven-minute mark. Over two days, 20 producing teams pitched projects while 20-odd commissioning editors, broadcasters and video-on-demand reps sat at the table giving their feedback while other financiers and gatekeepers, most notably […]
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Sickhouse Becomes First Feature Film Designed for Mobile Viewing
Sickhouse, a horror thriller produced by Indigenous Media, is billing itself as the first-ever scripted film, shot in real time, that’s designed for mobile viewing. Written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Hannah Macpherson, Sickhouse was shot over the course of five days, April 29-May 3, in Los Angeles and experienced live on Snapchat and other social platforms. The story was designed to be told through a series of snaps, but also as a linear film. The snaps are now being edited into a Director’s Cut with additional footage. The final feature-length film will be available exclusively on Vimeo beginning Wednesday, June 1. The film tells […]
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Watch: Trump Rally, St. Louis, 3/11/16
With Donald Trump’s path to the Republican presidential nomination cleared, it’s a good time to take a look at this short documentary of a Trump rally. The place is St. Louis, MO, the date was March 11, and everybody on the ground got profane and (rhetorically) punchy very fast; it’s bracingly bleak stuff. Director Alexandra Watkins is one of Robert Greene’s students at the University of Missouri’s documentary journalism program.
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Hulu Dives into Documentaries with Beatles Doc from Ron Howard
Looking to compete with Netflix in the documentary arena, Hulu announced this morning at its upfront presentation for advertisers in New York that it has launched Hulu Documentary Films, a destination for original and exclusive documentary film titles. Hulu Documentary Films’ first acquisition is The Beatles: Eight Days a Week (working title), a feature documentary directed by Ron Howard. Hulu has acquired U.S. streaming rights to the documentary, which will premiere in theaters in the fall before heading to Hulu. The documentary, which will explore the early years of The Beatles’ career, is produced with the full cooperation of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko […]
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What is a Video Essay? Creators Grapple with a Definition
Perhaps video essays are like pornography in that, as the saying goes, you know it when you see it. But what distinguishes a video essay from a short film and what are the ground rules for this relatively new form? Finally, how much creative leeway can a video essayist take with a filmmaker’s work without being disrespectful or misrepresentative? These questions arose last month when we published a video essay from Kevin B. Lee, chief video essayist at Fandor, about the spaces in Chantal Akerman’s final documentary, No Home Movie. Initially, Lee edited the video to music. But after receiving some complaints, including from the distributors […]
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Trailer Watch: Zachary Treitz and Kate Lyn Sheil’s Independent Civil War Drama, Men Go to Battle
Written by Zachary Treitz and Kate Lyn Sheil, and directed by Treitz, Men Go to Battle is an ambitious independent historical drama that tells the story of two quarreling brothers whose back-and-forth are interrupted by the Civil War. Here’s how the filmmakers synopsize the film, which stars Tim Morton, David Maloney and, from Spring Breakers, Rachel Korine: While most Americans predict that the Civil War will end by Christmas, Henry (Tim Morton) and Francis Mellon (David Maloney) are more concerned about braving another winter on their struggling rural Kentucky farm. The brothers have become suffocatingly close. Francis’ practical jokes become […]
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Vimeo Acquires VHX With Plans to Boost Video Subscription Business
Vimeo, the ad-free video platform, today announced it is acquiring VHX, the OTT (over-the-top) video distribution platform which allows creators to sell videos in forms ranging from individual downloads to subscription channels. In fact, VHX’s subscription technology, which includes the ability to build apps for the web, mobile and set-top boxes, is what drew Vimeo to the startup. Kerry Trainor, Vimeo CEO, told Filmmaker, “With the addition of VHX, Vimeo now offers a complete streaming ecosystem for individual creators, niche programmers and major media partners to offer subscription video on demand (SVOD) channels. Only Vimeo offers partners the ability to build […]
