Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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.
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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 […]
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Nine Answers for Anxious Film Investors
The process of finding investors for independent film can be trying, to say the least, but it can also be illuminating. Anyone who has ever attempted to find money for a film knows that there are typical questions that always get asked by first-time investors: How will I make back my investment? When do the investors get paid? How is the deal structured? Can I come to the premiere? While looking for partners for Lazy Eye, our micro-budget feature, writer/director Tim Kirkman received an e-mail from a potential investor who had forwarded our package to a friend/advisor. The email contained […]
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“Hollywood is a Town that Especially Wants Women to be… Not Human…”: Caitlin FitzGerald Talks Acting on She Does Podcast
Caitlin FitzGerald, writer and actor, is one of Hollywood’s emerging talents. She may be best known for her role as Libby Masters on Showtime Network’s Masters of Sex. The series, which is currently in its third season, is set in the late 1950s and is a drama centered around the true story of the pioneers of the science of human sexuality. You may have also seen FitzGerald in the feature films It’s Complicated, Damsels in Distress and Newlyweds, and TV shows including Gossip Girl, How to Make It In America, and Law & Order: SVU. Additionally, FitzGerald co-wrote and starred […]
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New German Cinema: Uisenma Borchu and Marie Wilke at the Munich International Film Festival
Audiences respond to movies at the Munich International Film Festival much like the way popcorn is served — sweet or salty. It’s a relatively peaceful festival, with neither chaotic ticket lines nor crowded after-parties. But pouring out from small dark cinemas into the summer sun, attendees quickly share ruthless but straightforward critiques, a la Roger Ebert thumbs-up or down. This definitive sweet or salty response to a film feels standard among the German crowds. It’s certainly an effective method for rating movies. But when I need some time to marinate after watching Uisenma Borchu’s world premiere of Don’t Look At […]
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Film Writing on the Spam Internet: A Hasty Categorization
We were deep in production on our summer issue last week, so I didn’t have much time to think about the extremely sudden shuttering of The Dissolve, the three-days-shy-of-two-years site that attempted to fill a surprising hole on the internet by primarily/substantially dedicating itself to writing moderate-to-lengthy reviews for just about every film released. This is a service still performed by the trades, The New York Times and other periodicals, but decisions inevitably must be made about which films to relegate to 200 terse words or less, or to ignore entirely. Ignoring this hierarchy, The Dissolve made sure all reviews […]
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Pain, Gain: The Sublime Stations of the Cross
How would you transpose 14 sequential artworks on canvas that hail back to the 15th century to contemporary technology and artistic sensibilities? The closest approximation might be a group of photographs, or a film comprised only of a series of fixed shots. Stringing together the individual tableaux would create a slightly disjointed narrative disregarding conventions that have been in effect for sequences for over a century. Even though each shot could stand on its own, there is a flow to the whole. Continuity is implicit, not laid out neatly with eye-line matches, shot-reverse shot set-ups, and cutting from establishing shots […]
