Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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Video Artist Kalup Linzy on His Sundance Installation Queen Rose Family (da Stories)
Video and performance artist Kalup Linzy returns to Sundance in 2016 with Queen Rose Family (da Stories), an installation within the New Frontier program of the festival. The exhibit features prominent musicians such as Michael Stipe and Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio and was was shot, directed, edited and scored by Linzy himself. Hailing from New York, Linzy has had pieces at The Met, The MoMA and The Whitney, among other museums. In this interview for Queen Rose Family (da Stories), Linzy talks shop about how he captured the distinctly campy aesthetic of his latest installation. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being […]
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Director/DP Andrea Marini on Prank Maestro Joey Skaggs and the Slamdance Doc Art of the Prank
Art of the Prank documents the latest elaborate hoax from Joey Skaggs, an infamous culture-jammer who’s been pranking the media since the 1960s. The film marks the feature debut of writer, director and co-cinematographer Andrea Marini. Art of the Prank blends new footage of a prank-in-progress – his latest target: film festivals – with decades of archival material. In the interview below, Marini speaks about the style and structure of the film. Art of the Prank was selected to screen as part of the 2016 Slamdance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
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DPs Gregg de Domenico and André Döbert on the Howard Brookner Doc, Uncle Howard
Gregg de Domenico has more than 10 years of industry experience as a cinematographer, camera operator and second AC. At Sundance 2016, de Domenico served as co-cinematographer for Uncle Howard, a documentary on filmmaker Howard Brookner and the search for his archival remains of his debut documentary, Burroughs. de Domenico lensed the film with first-time DP André Döbert. In this interview, de Domenico and Döbert discuss the film’s blend of archival and new footage along with other visual challenges. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your […]
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Structuring Uncle Howard in Production and Post using William Burroughs’s The Western Lands and Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru
One of the earliest challenges in making Uncle Howard was figuring out how to tell a story around a main character who is essentially absent. My uncle, Howard Brookner, was a fairly obscure director, whose work went missing to varying degrees, and who had died some 25 years ago. Yet, to me and others around him, he left a very strong memory and spirit. How to show this? For inspiration, my producer, Paula Vaccaro, and I turned to Howard’s friend and former film subject, William S. Burroughs (Burroughs: The Movie, 1983), whose book, The Western Lands, was the last he wrote before dedicating himself […]
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Park City Critic’s Notebook: Suicide Watch
Sundance went into a frenzy over the weekend over flatulent corpses and new corporate money. While the rash of walkouts that greeted the world premiere of Swiss Army Man, in which the remains of Harry Potter pass gas and gets a boner for a significant amount of the running time, was the festival’s peak viral moment thus far, on the business end of things Amazon Studios and Netflix are proving to be the most muscular and hungry distributors at the festival. Amazon acquired well received new films from indie film veterans Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester By the Sea, of which early notices have made […]
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DP Sheldon Chau on Shooting Run-and-Gun in New York for Sundance Short Jungle
Hailing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Sheldon Chau has served as a cinematographer on 30 short films and two features since 2011. For Jungle, he collaborates with fellow NYU student Asantewaa Prempeh to tell the story of two Senegalese street vendors in New York City. Below, Chau discusses the everyday obstacles of shooting in the concrete jungle of NYC. 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? Chau: The director Asantewaa Prempeh (Sante) and I have been good friends for over a year […]
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Director/DP Nanfu Wang on Sundance Doc Hooligan Sparrow and the Perils of Political Filmmaking in China
Nanfu Wang makes her debut as a feature film director and cinematographer in Hooligan Sparrow, a documentary profile of human rights activist Ye Haiyan. The film, which participated in IFP’s Filmmaker Lab and the Sundance Institute’s Creative Producing Summit and Lab, is the work of a self-proclaimed “one-woman-band.” Here, Wang discusses her many run-ins with government agents and the intimidation she felt as a filmmaker highlighting political dissent in China. 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? Wang: When I […]
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Cinematographer Clair Popkin on Sundance Doc Jim: The James Foley Story
A New York-based cinematographer and camera operator, Clair Popkin has worked on such shows as Louie, 30 for 30, and Park Bench with Steve Buscemi. In 2015, he served as cinematographer for the HBO film Living with Lincoln, which was co-directed by Brian Oakes, the director of Jim: The James Foley Story. Below, Popkin discusses his unobtrusive visual approach to depicting the life of James Foley, a reporter who was held hostage and ultimately died in Syria in 2014. 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 […]
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DP Robespierre Rodriguez on Colombian Sundance Feature Between Sea and Land
Robespierre Rodriguez served as the cinematographer on Between Sea and Land, a World Cinema Dramatic Competition selection at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. In his interview with Filmmaker, Rodriguez outlines a calamitous shoot in Colombia filled with canoe rides, sudden rain and ever-dwindling sunlight. He also discusses his impromptu role as the film’s DP and his methods to “capture all of the actor’s feelings” through his images. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? Rodriguez: I was a producer for the film and started talking to Manolo about the cinematography and post-production on color, and he thought it was interesting. Additionally, the person who […]
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10 Lessons Learned While Making My First Short Film Budget
Earlier this year I produced a very low budget short film, Affections, directed by Bridey Elliott and premiering at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Armed with a Master’s Degree and several experiences assisting producers in the past, I assumed I knew everything I needed to in order to create an accurate budget. As with all firsts, this was an incredible learning experience that highlighted several integral lessons to keep in mind while creating any kind of film budget. Look to the script Although labor intensive, it’s worth spending the time to do a comprehensive script breakdown (a big spreadsheet outlining […]
