Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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See No Evil 2 Directors The Soska Sisters on Collaborative Directing
In the upcoming issue of Filmmaker, Esther Robinson writes about directors who work in pairs. Robinson’s focus is on how two directors is better than one when it comes to navigating the development and financial aspects of being a director, and she surveys a number of them on how they structure their work. But then there’s the also the basic question: how do they actually do it? Is everything discussed jointly? Does one talk to the actors and the other direct the camera? Is one more dominant in production and the other in post? In this short clip, Jen and […]
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Why Independent Filmmakers Should Embrace GoPro (and Vice Versa)
Filmmaker Adam Bhala Lough is in the final days of an Indiegogo campaign for his skater doc, The Motivation 2.0: The Chris Cole Story, currently featured on our partner page. Below, he writes about his use of GoPro cameras for his independent films. Visit the Indiegogo page for more information on his project and please consider donating. GoPro cameras have long been popular in the action sports market and reality television, but have been completely ignored by the indie film community. This should change and here’s why: Recently I needed to film a car scene, where two characters were driving and […]
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Watch: The Art of Terrence Malick’s Voiceovers
They’re a tricky thing, voiceovers, and arguably no one utilizes them as frequently and as effectively as Terrence Malick. Where many filmmakers deploy them as an expository device, Malick allows voiceovers to deepen his characters’ perspectives through literal and abstract observations. This video essay from Kevin B. Lee and Scott Tobias at the Dissolve analyzes the evolution of voiceovers in Malick’s films, from a young Sissy Spacek and Linda Manz in Badlands and Days of Heaven to the layered choruses of The Tree of Life and To The Wonder.
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“A Zinging Mix of Naturalism and Edge”: Jessica Oreck’s The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga
With Jessica Oreck’s The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga opening today at MoMA in New York for a week-long run, we are rerunning Howard Feinstein’s review from the New Directors New Films festival. Running the length of this labor-intensive doc about man’s late-developing historical estrangement from nature are excellent hand-painted animated panels depicting a composite Slavic fairy tale about displaced tween siblings Ivan and Alona who have, out of desperation, taken refuge in a forest they had learned to fear as small children. Residing there is the evil witch Baba Yaga, whose house is built on chicken legs and […]
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“My Grandfather Nearly Blew Up the Entire Eastern Seaboard”: Matt McCormick on Kickstarter Doc Buzz One Four
Filmmaker Matt McCormick penned the following essay, published in conjunction with his Kickstarter campaign for the documentary Buzz One Four. Visit Kickstarter for more information, and consider making a donation. It’s true. My grandfather nearly blew up the entire eastern seaboard, or at least the area spanning from Washington D.C. to roughly Philadelphia, or maybe even New York, depending on which way the wind was blowing that day. But then again, it all depends on whom you ask. Air Force officials claim that there is no way the two 9-megaton thermonuclear bombs on board the B-52 bomber my grandfather (accidentally) […]
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Trailer Watch: Laura Poitras’ CITIZENFOUR
Ahead of its world premiere in the Main Slate at NYFF tonight, Radius-TWC has released the first trailer for the Edward Snowden documentary, CITIZENFOUR. Directed by Laura Poitras, who, along with The Guardian‘s Glenn Greenwald was the first journalist to be contacted in what would become the NSA leak, CITIZENFOUR purports to tell Snowden’s side of the story. Poitras was years into filming a documentary on post-9/11 surveillance when she reworked the narrative to incorporate her interview sessions with Snowden. Radius releases the film in New York and Los Angeles on October 24.
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Five Breakout Performances at TIFF 2014
In roles large and small, performers stood out at the 2014 edition of the Toronto Film Festival. Here are five who captivated us; Filmmaker Magazine looks forward to meeting whomever they become next. The Nigerian-German singer Ayọ (née Joy Olasunmibo Ogunmakin) makes her acting debut in a biting new chamber piece by Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck, Murder in Pacot (2014). Peck documented the aftermath of the earthquake in his powerful and damning 2012 documentary Fatal Assistance. His narrative take on the 2010 quake that killed roughly a quarter of a million people and left a million more without homes is similarly laced with despair and contempt at the […]
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Gone Girl, Mon Oncle d’Amerique and Mutually Negotiated Self-Destruction
[Massive spoilers from the first sentence onwards.] Gone Girl‘s plot in one sentence: dunce-ish Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) is the prime suspect when wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) disappears; halfway through it’s revealed he’s been set up for her murder in a fiendishly well-plotted revenge for his infidelity. The pivot point for Gone Girl arguments is whether “Amazing Amy” is merely an anomalous sociopath in a self-contained story or whether she stands for All Women and heavy-drinking adulterous dullard Nick is All Men. If that’s the case, it doesn’t matter that an innocent man is set up for capital punishment by […]
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Five Things Tinder Guys Don’t Know about Being an Independent Filmmaker
In addition to being adorable, overachieving independent filmmakers, we (Caitlin and Penny) are both single gals in various deserts of actual human interaction (Brooklyn and Central NY, respectively.) Thus, we rely on our phones and thumbs, through a mostly-unknown dating application called Tinder, to find “love” (or whatever). Here’s a first-date conversation we both get to have all the time: Tinder Guy: “You’re an INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER??! That is so cool! Is that just like, a nonstop adventure of inspiration and creativity?” Uh, yeah; that’s exactly what it’s like. This post is dedicated to you, Tinder Guy. 1) Most of the […]
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Mike Leigh’s Five-Minute Films and Finding the Rhythm of Whiffed Out
Celebrating its Online Premiere over at No Budge, Jay Giampietro’s Whiffed Out is a throwback rendition of a neurotic New Yorker’s summer of suck. The short film, an official selection of Maryland Film Festival and BAMcinemaFest, derives its humor from situational minutiae, and in the below guest post, Giampietro discusses his source of inspiration in the five-minute film series of Mike Leigh. — Sarah Salovaara I was turned onto the Mike Leigh five-minute films by Ronnie Bronstein about a year and a half ago, and even though I am obsessed with Leigh and had seen every one of his features (I used to […]
