Filmmaking
Filmmaking
-
Kickstarter Announces Sundance-Bound Projects
The countdown to Sundance 2016 has begun with a slew of recent announcements of film selections for the festival, which runs from January 21-31. Earlier this week, the crowdfunding platform unveiled the list of Kickstarter-funded works which made the cut for this year’s festival, including new documentary features from Dawn Porter (Trapped), Penny Lane (NUTS!) and Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker (Unlocking the Cage). Read the full blog post here and check out highlights below: This year at Sundance, we’ll be crossing our fingers for a great roster of docs and dramatic features in competition for major awards: NUTS!, Spa Night, Trapped, and When Two Worlds […]
-
Dial it Down a Little: Disney Lets You Shape Actors’ Performances with New Face Director Software
The director Ruben Östlund shoots wide in 4K, composing the individual shots for films like Force Majeure by, in post-production, pushing in and moving from side to side. Now, Disney Research has developed a new tool, Face Director, that offers directors even greater possibilities; it crosses the final frontier in post-production manipulation: actors’ performances. Whereas, previously, directors would shape a performance by using multiple takes or, in post, skillful editing and music, with Face Director directors can alter performance by modulating them between two extremes. From Disney’s page: We present a method to continuously blend between multiple facial performances of […]
-
Targeting Kids: Should the MPAA Rate Gun Violence in Movies?
Recently a friend sent me a link to a movie I made a little while back. The poster for this movie, Glass Chin, has the lead actor, played by Corey Stoll, caressing a gun. In the movie Corey’s character is scared of guns. And only touches one once, in fear, passing it to a psychopathic killer. That’s the only time a gun appears in the entire flick. And Corey’s character is scared shitless. He touches the gun like it’s the plague. But now the movie is being sold as a gun-toting movie. It’s a big porn pistol, and Corey holds […]
-
TASER Tries to Discredit Killing Them Safely Documentary
It’s not unusual for filmmakers digging into difficult truths to face backlash or even retaliation. The Church of Scientology, for instance, launched a smear campaign against director Alex Gibney after his film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief addressed some of the religion’s questionable practices. Now TASER International has tried to discredit the new documentary Killing Them Safely, which raises serious questions about the safety of TASER guns, by posting negative reviews on various web sites, including Amazon.com, iTunes and IMDB. Because TASER employees used their real names when posting these reviews, it’s been easy to spot these fake reviews (after Berardini shared […]
-
Stinking Heaven Filmmakers Create Limited Edition VHS
Stinking Heaven, Nathan Silver’s latest film, opens in select theaters this week and is available digitally at Fandor. But distributor Factory 25 is also making the new lo-fi rehab drama available in VHS. If any film deserves a VHS release, it’s Stinking Heaven, which is set in 1990, when VHS was still the norm, and was shot on Betacam video. Set at a communal home for former substance abusers, Silver’s fifth feature has a gritty, documentary feel to it which lends itself to the outmoded VHS format. Factory 25 founder Matt Grady explained the genesis of the VHS edition. “I’ve been […]
-
Rooftop Filmmakers Fund Grant Winners for 2015 Announced
Rooftop Films, which is heading into its 20th season, has awarded 13 cash and service grants to alumni filmmakers. The GarboNYC Feature Film Grants were awarded to directors Kitty Green and Sebastian Silva. Green will receive a monetary grant of $15,000 to help finish her new film, Casting JonBenet, and Silva will receive a $10,000 grant to support his film, Demon Me. Casting JonBenet, a documentary about the infamous murder of child model JonBenet Ramsey, marks Green’s second feature after her 2013 documentary debut Ukraine Is Not a Brothel. Among the films Silva has directed are Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus and Nasty […]
-
Recipients of 2015/2016 TFI New Media Fund Announced
Tribeca Film Institute (TFI), in partnership with Ford Foundation’s JustFilms initiative, has announced the grant recipients of the 2015/2016 TFI New Media Fund. Grantees were selected by an advisory board comprised of Just Vision’s Julia Bacha, director Malika Zouhali-Worrall (Call Me Kuchu), director-producer Sandi Dubowski (Trembling Before G-d), Google’s Lisa Steiman and Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Jenni Wolfson. The fund provides monetary grants and support to nonfiction, transmedia projects which tackle a social issue. Each of the three selected projects will receive $50,000 in funding as well as expert mentorship for producers to help them develop their projects and build engagement with audiences. You […]
-
Top Indies in the iTunes Store for 2015
As the year winds to an end, it seems everyone’s got a Top Ten list to share. In the case of iTunes, they’ve unleashed their Best of 2015 list, which is broken down into various lists, including the most downloaded films overall, the most downloaded independent films, the most downloaded documentaries, the most downloaded films that debuted at film festivals in 2015 as well as iTunes’ editorial picks. In other words, it’s a great place to start if you want to catch up on festival favorites or other indie hits that you may have missed so far. Interestingly, most of the […]
-
Support Tangerine’s Juice Fund to Boost Emerging Female Talent
You’ve seen the abysmal statistics about women filmmakers, yet they still manage to shock. According to a recent study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, the number of women directing the top 250 grossing films declined by 2% over the past 17 years. And that’s just one measurement. In 2013, Amy Hobby and Anne Hubbell launched Tangerine Entertainment with the express purpose of giving voice to more female directors. Now they are raising funds on Seed&Spark to support The Juice Fund, an annual award which recognizes women directors who have […]
-
How The Award-Winning Rich Hill Made an Impact
It’s been nearly two years since Rich Hill, an observational documentary about three teens growing up in rural poverty, won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize Documentary Award at the Sundance Film Festival. But the conversation the film sparked continues today and the film’s engagement campaign is still going strong. Directed by Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos, Rich Hill invites viewers into three families’ homes where they witness first-hand the hardships and challenges the families face as they struggle to make ends meet. Following its premiere at Sundance, Rich Hill was acquired by The Orchard and Independent Lens. It was […]
