Filmmaking
Filmmaking
-
Our 25 New Faces of Film List for 2015 is Live
This is one of our flagship features, and we’re very proud of it. Check out the list here.
-
TV is Not the New Film
As much as I love Breaking Bad, The Wire, Mad Men and Twin Peaks, as great and as groundbreaking as those shows were, they still are not cinema. The recent explosion of quality long-form cable series has taken the TV form to a new level of artistry and craftsmanship. A show like Mad Men is not only thrilling because of its commentary on its era, but because of the zeitgeist energy created by everyone watching the show, talking about it and sharing opinions on social media. Today, perhaps more than ever, a new season of a quality show becomes a […]
-
Going Mobile: The Alpha1 Mobile Film Lab
In 1932, the Russian filmmaker Alexander Medvedkin convinced Soviet authorities to give him three decommissioned train carriages to turn into a mobile film studio. The “film-train” would travel across the USSR’s expanse, bringing with it 32 spots to sleep, six editing tables, a projection room and a film-processing lab. Equipped to handle all aspects of production and projection from beginning to end, the film train would record local issues and expose problems that the people would need to solve: in Medvedkin’s words, the portable facility would act as “a kind of special fire brigade to put out problem fires.” These […]
-
Milestone Films’ Dennis Doros on Ornette: Made in America and Project Shirley
Since founding Milestone Films in 1990, the husband and wife team of Dennis Doros and Amy Heller have been restoring and distributing some of the most significant and overlooked titles in the American independent cannon. Ornette: Made in America, one of four feature films in their “Project Shirley” Shirley Clarke collection, is wrapping up a week long run at Spectacle today, as part of a celebration of Ornette Coleman. Filmmaker spoke to Doros about the acquisition and restoration process behind Clarke’s characteristically singular documentary, as well as Milestone’s recent objection to Stephen Winter’s Jason and Shirley, which liberally re-imagines the set of Portrait of […]
-
“I’m Always Attracted to the ‘Mutt’ Aspect of Sets”: Production Designer Michael Shaw on Orange is the New Black
Michael Shaw has had an illustrious career as a production designer, moving from some of the most notable independent films of the 1990s (Heavy, Boys Don’t Cry, You Can Count on Me) to a string of this decade’s top television shows (The Big C, Orange is the New Black). On Saturday, July 25, he’ll be leading a production design masterclass focused on Orange is the New Black at the IFP’s Made in New York Media Center. Shaw kindly took time out from designing the Wall Street environs of Showtime’s upcoming Billions to speak about his career as a production designer, […]
-
Blackmagic NYC: Shiny Happy People
My biggest takeaway from this year’s New York Blackmagic Event is that the people at Blackmagic are really, really happy. I could dive into a detailed rundown of all the tech specs of their latest products, most of which are easily available online, but, honestly, having gone to this event for the past three years, the most important thing I got from it all was the tone. After five years of hard work, they know they’re nearing the point where it all comes together. Over the next several months, we’ll see the releases of Da Vinci Resolve 12, Fusion for […]
-
IFP Announces Selections for Project Forum at Independent Film Week 2015
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) announced today the full slate of 140 projects selected for its esteemed Project Forum at the upcoming IFP Independent Film Week, running September 20-25, 2015 at Lincoln Center in New York City. Under the curatorial leadership of Deputy Director/Head of Programming Amy Dotson and Senior Director of Programming Milton Tabbot, IFP Project Forum is a meetings-driven forum connecting filmmakers who have new narrative and documentary projects in development, production, or post-production with key industry executives interested in identifying projects with which to become involved at the development, financing, or distribution stages. A primary outcome for […]
-
MUBI CEO Efe Cakarel on the Move to Theatrical Distribution with Arabian Nights
Yesterday, the SVOD service MUBI announced its foray into theatrical distribution with the acquisition of Miguel Gomes’ much lauded Cannes triptych Arabian Nights. The move, in line with the recent trajectories of larger services such as Netflix and Amazon, points toward the ever expanding influence of online platforms. Filmmaker spoke to MUBI CEO Efe Cakarel about partnering with New Wave Films to distribute what some might term a challenging title, given its six hour runtime. Filmmaker: There seems to be yet another paradigm shift happening in independent distribution, with online services, formerly an alternative to theatrical exhibition, now entering that very arena. Why did you […]
-
Watch: The Evolution of Chuck Jones
Before Pixar, there was Warner Brothers — or more specifically, there was Chuck Jones. The latest in Tony Zhou’s “Every Frame a Painting” series examines how the animator utilized discipline and restrictions to create his iconic cartoons; how he enmeshed character traits into a simple comedic games of assumption and reality; how minimalism was his strong suit and more.
-
Sherlock Sr.: Bill Condon’s Mr. Holmes
We’re not in Victorian London anymore. Mr. Holmes takes place in the British countryside in 1947, two years after the end of World War II. Labor leader Clement Attlee holds the reins of power, and a new, heavily socialized country has begun to emerge from the wreckage of the Blitz. Sherlock is no longer searching for clues to a new case and logically deducing from forensic evidence and observation the course of events leading to a crime and holding the perp accountable. This film is not about the incarnation we are familiar with from Arthur Conan Doyle’s books and innumerable […]
