Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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Six Filmmaking Takeaways from a Novelist-turned-Director
The path that finally led to the making of The Removals — a feature-length paranoid lo-fi thriller and love story produced by Two Dollar Radio — was a very, very long and twisty one. As it probably is for many films. I spent five weeks in the summer of 2015 with an amazing crew and actors making a film that I had been dreaming about and plotting out in fits and starts since I was about 20-years old. And I’m 50 now. I basically had to unlearn everything I thought I knew about the creative process. Here are a few […]
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On Being an Independent Filmmaker and Watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens Six Times
Like a lot of people, I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens when it opened in December. By my fourth screening, I started to feel embarrassed. By my sixth, I was at peace again. Most times, I went with combinations of family and friends (though that third screening was definitely solo) because Star Wars had helped shape these relationships years ago. Just as important, it was the series that hooked me and so many of us on filmmaking. In 1983, PBS aired From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga during their December telethon. I was […]
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Bringing People Together in VR: Sakchin Bessette on Moment Factory
For the past 14 years Montreal’s Moment Factory has been bucking the online trend to create larger-than-life, physical reality (PR?) experiences that force folks to come together in the flesh-and-blood world. With over 300 multimedia projects in wide-ranging locations under their belt — from the LAX international terminal, to the Atlantic City Boardwalk, to Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia cathedral — the studio is still perhaps best known to Americans for designing Madonna’s halftime spectacle at the 2012 Super Bowl. Filmmaker was fortunate enough to speak with co-founder and creative director Sakchin Bessette about the profession of experience designing, and whether the […]
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DP Caleb Heymann on Evoking the Early ’90s in Sundance Winner As You Are
The first feature film from writer/director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, As You Are unfolds as the story of three teenage friends in the early 1990s. Joris-Peyrafitte hired Caleb Heymann, a fellow newcomer to feature filmmaking, to shoot the film. Heymann spoke with Filmmaker about shifting aspect ratios, vintage anamorphic lenses and the execution of a tricky long take. As You Are premiered at Sundance 2016 in the U.S. Dramatic program. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Heymann: Producer Sean Patrick Burke had seen […]
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Cinematographer Steven Holleran on Capturing the Streets of Cleveland in The Land
Cinematographer Steven Holleran has shot more than a dozen shorts since 2011. He makes his Sundance debut with The Land, a film about four skateboarding teenagers in Cleveland. Holleran speaks with Filmmaker below about Cleveland and capturing a city’s essence visually. The Land debuted in the NEXT program at Sundance 2016. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Holleran: The writer and director of The Land, Steven Caple Jr., and I were in the same introductory filmmaker class at USC’s MFA […]
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“No One Slept for 30 Hours Straight”: DP Siddhartha Nuni on Shooting Brahman Naman
Styled in the vein of American slacker and teen comedies, Brahman Naman is the newest film from Indian indie filmmaker Qaushiq “Q” Mukherjee. DP Siddhartha Nuni shot the film in 23 days in the city of Bangalore. Filmmaker spoke with Nuni about his love of Trainspotting, recreating ’80s-era India and capturing the “confused teenage mind visually.” Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Nuni: The director of the film Q was looking for a cinematographer who had an experience of working under the constraints with which […]
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Ely Dagher on Blending Animation, Photography and Video in Sundance Short Waves ’98
Winner of the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, Waves ’98 is the debut film from writer/director/animator Ely Dagher. The film is set in Beirut – Dagher’s hometown – and concerns a young man who becomes isolated from reality. Filmmaker spoke with Dagher about the film’s blend of video footage, still photography and animation. The Sundance Film Festival presented Waves ’98 in 2016 as part of its Animation Spotlight shorts program. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being […]
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Cinematographer Richard Henkels on Sundance Doc Author: The JT LeRoy Story
From the director of The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Author: The JT LeRoy Story charts the literary universe created by writer Laura Albert. LeRoy, her literary alter ego, has enraptured and enraged readers since the 1990s. Filmmaker spoke with DP Richard Henkels about he sought to have the documentary “feel like a feature film, not a TV doc.” Author had its world premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Henkels: I was on a […]
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DP Nick Higgins on the Nearly Eight Hour Documentary O.J.: Made in America
The producers of ESPN’s acclaimed 30-for-30 documentary series deliver a nearly eight-hour opus with O.J.: Made in America. The film was shot by Nick Higgins, a seasoned cinematographer behind more than 30 non-fiction shorts and features. Below, Higgins speaks to the visual ideas of a film that’s 90 percent talking heads. He also discusses shooting “eight hour mega monster marathon interviews,” his love of classical portraits and working with a crew of two. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Higgins: In the […]
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Director Dawn Porter and DP Chris Hilleke on “Abortion Clinic Fluorescent Lighting” and Trapped
Documentary filmmaker Dawn Porter first entered the Sundance arena in 2013 with Gideon’s Army, a paean to the work of public defenders. She returns to the festival in 2016 with Trapped, her film about abortion in America. Porter and co-cinematographer Chris Hilleke speak with Filmmaker below about the many hurdles – both aesthetic and ethical – of filming a documentary in an abortion clinic. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Porter: It was really crucial that everyone who shot on this film […]
