Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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“The Need to Crowdfund is a Major Curse, Indeed”: The Yes Men on the Changing Funding Landscape
Over at the Creative Capital blog, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men have posted a sober essay about the changes they’ve seen in the documentary funding landscape since 2000, when they received one of the organization’s first grants for their feature, The Yes Men. Two films and 15 years later, the two are still at it — creatively agitating for social change while producing actions and making documentary films. Their latest film, The Yes Men are Revolting, directed with Laura Nix, opens June 12, and it mixes their trademark anarchic political humor with more ruminative passages reflecting on […]
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Why Every Film Producer Should Own a Publishing Company
Why does someone who has various film producer credits on over 100 independent features and documentaries own a record label and a music publishing company? And why does this music company give its music away for free to independent films? After two decades of producing independent film and clearing music for movies, I have come to the realization that every producer should own a music publishing company. As a producer, I have paid many record labels and music publishers to license music (I learned quickly one needs licenses for both “sides” — the master recording and the song copyright/publishing) and […]
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Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan Wins the Cannes Palme d’Or; Son of Saul, The Assassin, Rooney Mara Score Other Top Prizes
A jury headed by Joel and Ethan Coen awarded the Palme d’Or to Jacques Audiard’s immigrant drama Dheepan at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, which concludes today. The film tells the story of a Tamil fighter fleeing the Sri Lankan civil war who improvises a family — a wife and daughter — in order to better seek asylum in what turns out to be an inhospitable France. The award was something of a surprise, with most English-language journalists pegging either Laszlo Nemes’ Holocaust drama Son of Saul or The Assassin, a period martial-arts picture from Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-Hsien for […]
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The New York Times Announces It Will No Longer Guarantee Coverage of New Releases
Variety just announced that The New York Times will no longer guarantee critical coverage of every weekly release throughout the five boroughs, perhaps putting an end to, if not a damper on, the long debated practice of four walling. While the decision — gleaned via an email A.O. Scott sent to independent distributors — will likely see smaller companies pulling back on the financially draining one-week theatrical runs and shifting their attention toward VOD, it also ensures a considerable drop in profile for these lesser known releases. A handful of sites like The Dissolve have begun to fold VOD releases into their coverage, but it doesn’t appear that The Times will be […]
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Tickled: The Farewell Party
Such a rare thrill to see films with seniors who have credible back stories and channel a lifetime of experience toward the resolution of whatever issues they currently face. The lead characters in The Farewell Party, a delightfully dark Israeli comedy (perhaps adorable tragicomedy is more on point), are full-blooded humans, not vampiric nasties or one-dimensional goody two shoes. They converse with delight and share their joys, but they also threaten, backbite, and blackmail. Each has attachments, with ups and downs — not so different from young people, as it turns out. At about the halfway point, a group of […]
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“The Idea of Bringing a Camera into an Interview is Unfathomable to Me”: Bianca Giaever on the She Does Podcast
Bianca Giaever is a radio producer, filmmaker and our youngest guest to date. You may have heard her on RadioLab or This American Life or seen her short films on NPR, The New York Times or featured as Vimeo Staff Picks. She recently won a Webby for Videos 4 U, a new series she’s heading for This American Life. In this episode, Bianca talks about her inherited curiosity and inclination to talk to strangers as well as how her personal life, questions and struggles influence the themes of her work. We talk about the paralyzing effect of your first successful […]
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“Olivia Can Fly”: Oscar Sharp on The Kármán Line
A BAFTA nominee, Oscar Sharp’s The Kármán Line tells the unusual tale of Sarah (Olivia Colman), who inexplicably begins to levitate in her living room, showing no signs of slowing down, not even as she breaches the atmosphere above her very roof. A rich tonal brew, the film is also a showcase for some seamless visual effects as Sarah moves through floors and the sky alike. Since The Kármán Line premiered at SXSW, Sharp signed with Tobey Maguire’s Mental Pictures and is in development on a sci-fi feature. You can watch the short, now streaming in The New Yorker‘s Screening Room, above, and hear from […]
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Specimens: Collin Schiffli’s Animals
This extra-rewarding if occasionally trying film opens with a slow-gaited nocturnal entrance into an ER. Going into and out of hospitals is a hazard of the trade — of the work, in fact — of the habit for young lovers Bobbie (Kim Shaw, destined for the big time) and Jude (David Dastmalchian), fully committed addicts whose survival depends on the luck of the draw: carrying through scams, or being scammed themselves. They are caught up in a vicious cycle. Most of the time, they come out relatively lucky: In spite of some bad eggs — my gosh, some of the […]
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Chicken & Egg Pictures Announces Call for Accelerator Lab
As part of their 2015 Open Call, Chicken & Egg Pictures has announced a brand new Accelerator Lab, which will focus on identifying and supporting a diverse group of women nonfiction directors who are first- and second-time filmmakers. Five selected applicants will receive a $35,000 grant for the production of a film, to be developed, produced, and launched over the course of a 12-month program (with the possibility of an extension). The grant will be disbursed in two parts, with the first part awarded in November 2015. The catch is that films must already be in production, but with no more than […]
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The Tainted Veil: Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill
The soldiers can barely agree to disagree. They are primarily ex-pilots but a few video gamers have recently thrown into this mix that operates drone strikes from the safety of temporary metal trailers on a military base outside the rhinestone city of Las Vegas. The year is 2010; the U.S. drone program is at a new high. Some of these armchair warriors have increasingly strong feelings against the manner in which drones are deployed in places like Afghanistan, Yemen, and Waziristan; others feel that anything goes to keep America safe following the events of 9/11; and a couple are practical […]
