Filmmaking
Filmmaking
-
In the Pope’s Shadow: Michael Curtis Johnson at IFP Film Week
[Editor’s note: this is Michael Curtis Johnson’s second guest post from IFP Independent Film Week. His first can be found here.] Sunset. Jamaica, Queens. The final day of IFP Film Week 2015. I’m spending my last night in a hotel watching Pope Francis’ Mass at Madison Square Garden on TV. The plan is to eat one last slice of New York Pizza from Margherita, get on a redeye and “go in peace.” “Thanks be to God!” Cue the recessional hymn. But let me take it back to the Introductory Rites. My trip started with the marketing portion of the the […]
-
Watch: Shading and Cutting in Cassavetes’ Shadows
Amid all of the internet’s Kubrick/Anderson/Fincher devotees, few video essayists turn their scalpel toward Cassavetes, perhaps in part because his directing prowess is not so easily distilled. Kevin B. Lee has thus chosen to focus on the opening 14 shots of Cassavetes’ debut Shadows, and how he uses incisive editing and lighting to convey the shifting sentiments in a series of scenes between the two lovers Leila and Tony. Check it out above.
-
Roofless: Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes
“America doesn’t bail out losers,” real-estate-loophole master practitioner Rick Carver (Michael Shannon) tells victim-turned-protégé Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield). “This nation is rigged for winners.” He proceeds to milk Noah’s ark for a metaphor. “I’m not going to drown.” With rapid visuals, pounding music, characters constantly in motion, montages of exploiters in action, and his usual astute observations of processes that enable the marring of innocents, Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo, Chop Shop, Man Push Cart) impeccably dramatizes the reality behind this cynical point of view. One that, as the the chasm between the 99% and the 1% widens, is especially valid […]
-
Trailer Watch: Jacques Rivette’s Out 1: Noli Me Tangere
To celebrate the November 18 Blu-Ray and DVD release of Jacques Rivette’s opus Out 1: Noli Me Tangere, the French label Carlotta Films has put out a 2 minute trailer for the 775 minute film. For those of us who don’t own a region agnostic Blu-Ray or DVD player (but live in the New York area), it’s worth trying to catch the film at BAM, showing in four parts from November 4 – 19.
-
“Pitching Is Just An Extension of Your Best Self”: Reinaldo Marcus Green at IFP Independent Film Week
[This is Reinaldo Marcus Green’s second guest post from IFP Independent Film Week; his first one can be found here.] It’s a wrap on IFP Film Week! Having the Pope in New York City this week certainly added some delays to my daily commute, but I think somehow it also added hope to my meetings. If you saw a Black and Puerto Rican man in a suit and tie running in front of the Vivian Beaumont theater (across from the Henry Moore sculpture pond in Lincoln Center) every single day last week, it was probably me. I want to take […]
-
“I Play a Little with Fire”: Photographer and Director Stacy Kranitz on She Does Podcast
Stacy Kranitz is a documentary photographer who explores history, representation and otherness. She has developed her style, one that is full of movement, emotionally raw, gritty and features individuals in high-octane environments. These individuals are sometimes new subjects and other times her longtime friends, folks she has been documenting since she started her work in Appalachia in 2009. Stacy’s photos are sometimes bloody, many times violent, often sexualized, occasionally drug-induced and always causing a stir. She has documented people and places all around the world, including snake handlers in Appalachia, cockfighting in Louisiana and black metal bands in Norway. Her […]
-
Blurred Lines: Content Intersections at the IFP Screen Forward Conference
As the IFP Screen Forward Conference comes to a close this afternoon with a series of talks on VR, I’ve collated a handful of takeaways from the week’s panels that point towards an ever thinning gap between episodics and film, festivals and an official release, marketing and distribution, and, hopefully, creator and audience. With the abundance of tools at her finger tips, today’s filmmaker must function like a Swiss army knife, ready and willing to carry her project every step of the way from inception to distribution. Here are a few tips on how to do just that. Know your serials before pitching your film. During […]
-
Shooting on Film? At IFP Screen Forward, Debating the Merits and Pitfalls in a Digital Age
In this era of digital projectors, ALEXA cameras and minimal, DSLR-enabled budgets, the art of loading rolls of film into a magazine and shooting with a 16 or 35mm lens is fast becoming a fading practice. And yet, there are those determined storytellers who dare to pull it off. But is shooting on film on a low budget even possible these days? A Wednesday morning panel at the IFP’s Screen Forward conference comprised of cinematographer Frank DeMarco (All is Lost, Margin Call), producer Adam Piotrowicz (Listen Up Phillip, Queen of Earth). cinematographer/producer/director/editor Ferne Pearlstein (Imelda) and director/producer Ari Taub (79 […]
-
NYC Filmmakers Supporting One Another: Ani Simon-Kennedy at IFP Independent Film Week
[As IFP Independent Film Week comes to a close, Ani Simon-Kennedy shares her experience there in this guest post.] “I think coffee counts as a food group.” As we enter Day 3 of IFP Film Week, talk is of the fuel that keeps us going. It’s been a mad dash from meeting to meeting with my partner-in-crime, Cailin Yatsko, who has the badass title of cinematographer/producer on our next feature film The Short History of the Long Road. As one of the 25 projects selected for RBC’s Emerging Storytellers, ours is in good company and part of the fun of this week has been getting […]
-
IFP Screen Forward: 5 Questions for Producer Peter Phok about Crowdfunding’s Aftermath
Producer Peter Phok (The Sacrament, The Innkeepers, V/H/S) is one of five professionals this morning at an IFP Screen Forward panel titled “Bridging the Gap after Crowdfunding.” The title of the panel is an interesting collision of terms as only recently has crowdfunding been factored into independent film financing equations alongside terms like “mezzanine,” “senior debt” and “tax credit monetization.” But, indeed, crowdfunding is part of many independent films’ financing schemes, and its success — or failure — has much to do with a film’s greenlight. Below, Phok answers questions about film and crowdfunding. Filmmaker: Your panel is called, “Bridging […]
