Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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Thunder Funder Talks its New Independent Film Financing and Production Venture
Thunder Funder is the recently announced film production arm of Thunder Studios, a Long Beach, California soundstage and production house, and it’s making a bold play for independent projects. Rodric David, founder and CEO of both Thunder Funder and Thunder Studios, has announced $12 million in annual investment and partnerships with several other companies — post-production services vendor Pace Pictures, Red Digital Cinema and, to handle distribution, indie vet Cassian Elwes of Elevated Film Sales — to bring to independents “all the tools required to present audiences with a film that is truly the best it can be.” A dive […]
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“I Try to Be Unbiased and Just”: A Masterclass with A Separation‘s Asghar Farhadi
In 2009, Asghar Farhadi made ripples around the world when About Elly picked up the Silver Bear at Berlinale. However, it was in 2011 that he truly took the world by storm. A Separation, a touching drama about a couple figuring their way out through a messy but amicable divorce, picked up the Golden Bear at Berlin and more than 60 other awards that year, including an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Having offended the conservative authorities back home, though, meant France became the setting of Farhadi’s latest project, The Past. At last month’s 33rd Istanbul Film Festival, the […]
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Trailer Watch: Ari Folman’s The Congress
At turns mesmerizing and confounding, Ari Folman’s The Congress was one of the more talked about titles of any Cannes sidebar last year. Though Drafthouse Films scooped up the rights less than a month after its Director’s Fortnight premiere, it’s only just now making it’s way toward theaters, with an official release set for August 29. A loose adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s The Futurological Congress, Folman’s followup to the Oscar nominated Waltz with Bashir positions Robin Wright as a fictionalized version of herself, who agrees to replicate her once commodifiable actress for a movie studio’s gain. Playing on recurrent themes of aging in the film […]
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“My Film is Not About Juggalos. It is a Juggalo”: Director Scott Cummings on Making Buffalo Juggalos
I’ve given up explaining that Buffalo Juggalos isn’t a documentary. I come from a narrative background but I should make clear that Buffalo Juggalos is not really a narrative film either. Three years ago I decided Buffalo Juggalos would be a 30-minute film, shot on video, composed of thirty shots, each one minute long. The film would be a series of scenes featuring real Juggalos. There would be no interviews or music; if there was dialogue, it would have absolutely nothing to do with being a Juggalo. Even though there are narrative elements throughout, they have been subjugated by the […]
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dana.io Debuts with a New, Low-Cost Crowdfunding Model for Filmmakers
Crowdfunding your film can be fraught with many potential dangers, but one of the most common issues overlooked by first-time crowdfunders is the cost of running a crowdfunding campaign. These costs are varied but can include: the production of promotional assets like campaign videos; the cost of your time for marketing the campaign and supporting your backers; the cost of fulfilling your campaign rewards; and finally the costs of using your crowdfunding platform of choice, Kickstarter, IndieGogo etc. The price of using crowdfunding platforms can be broken down into two key costs: credit card processing fees (normally something between 2-4% of […]
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Director Amy Scott on Her Upcoming Doc, Once I Was: The Hal Ashby Story
You know the films — Harold and Maude, Coming Home, Shampoo, The Last Detail, and Being There – but little about the man behind them. A quarter century after his death, director Hal Ashby remains one of the more mysterious figures to emerge from the New Hollywood movement. His rise as a director coincided with the brief but glorious period in American cinema when difficult, complex films were actually supported and encouraged by studios. That era came to an end with populist hits like Jaws and Star Wars, shifting the zeitgeist towards blockbusters and making it tough for uncompromising directors […]
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Cannes Announces Un Certain Regard and Critics Week Awards
Ahead of Saturday’s Competition ceremony, the Cannes Film Festival sidebars Un Certain Regard and Critics Week have announced their prizewinners. Critics are often want to beat the drum for various UCR selections, decrying their supposed relegation from the main slate, and this year was no different. Hotly tipped titles such as Lisandro Alsono’s Jauja and Jessica Hausner’s Amour Fou nonetheless went home empty-handed, as Kornél Mundruzcó’s more divisive White God scooped up the Prix d’Un Certain Regard. Also the source of critical contention was the opening night selection Party Girl, whose writing-directing trio comprised of Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis received an ensemble prize. Over in the Critics […]
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Former Managing Editor Nick Dawson Launches The Talkhouse Film
Now it can be revealed: former Filmmaker Magazine managing editor Nick Dawson is now the editor of The Talkhouse Film, an expansion of the popular site dedicated to musicians talking about music. As you might expect, The Talkhouse Film has directors discussing other directors’ movies. Today’s launch introduces a boatload of pieces that are already up, including Ping Pong Summer director Michael Tully on Cold In July, Sharknado director Anthony C. Ferrante on Godzilla (!), Ain’t Them Bodies Saints director David Lowery on The Immigrant, and much more. Take a look around and expect more in the weeks (and years) […]
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The Language of Motion: At Vincent Laforet’s Directing Motion Tour
On a wet Saturday in May, about 100 people gathered in a hotel ballroom for the Boston stop of Vincent Laforet’s Directing Motion tour. This daylong event, with an optional evening session, promised to teach all levels of filmmakers the cinematic language of motion. Laforet started by saying that he was going to ruin cinema for us, and proceeded to show a clip without audio. “It’s never, ever moving the camera because the camera should move,” he said. The event is structured in two parts: a daytime workshop that runs from 9:00 am to 4 pm, and an evening seminar […]
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Trailer Watch: Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria
The premise for Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria is a ripe one. An aging actress, cast opposite the role that provided her breakout decades prior, is now tormented by her young colleague and the passage of time. Looks can be deceiving, but the trailer, released today ahead of tomorrow’s Cannes premiere, hints less towards introspection and more towards camp. Perhaps it’s the peculiar pairing of Juliette Binoche and the stunningly one-note Kristen Stewart, but the plot mechanizations wherein Binoche’s new role mimics her lust for the Stewart assistant character feel a bit trite. Here’s hoping Assayas proves me wrong.
