Filmmaking
Filmmaking
-
“Good Movies Don’t Get Seen:” Ted Hope at EbertFest
“I don’t actually think it’s worth my time to make movies right now,” said producer and Fandor CEO Ted Hope at an EbertFest panel last month. “If I really want to see a vibrant, ambitious film culture,” he continued, “I can help a lot more by trying to build a better infrastructure.” Keyframe Daily, the blog imprint of Fandor, is running a four part series from this conversation, the first of which was posted yesterday. In this excerpt, Hope puts forth six key issues which he hopes to address for the betterment of the independent film industry: 1. Independent film needs […]
-
Without Frills
As a teenager going into a movie theater, I was looking for some true reflection of the absurd darkness that had come on seemingly overnight. I was looking for a place to rest my pimples from the light and to be told that others had survived similar such onslaughts. For some before me it was James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause. Molly Ringwald in all them John Hughes movies. Then it was Claire Danes on TV in My So Called Life. But for me, it was the actor Liza Weil in Whatever. I was 19, hadn’t graduated high school, […]
-
In Trans(media)ition: the Seattle Transmedia Independent Film Festival
After ten years of being the scrappy little guy to the Seattle International Film Festival’s big kahuna, the Seattle True Independent Film Festival has run its course — which is exactly why I decided to visit the tech-addicted city (as a guest of the fest) to check out the outgoing underdog. Rather than pluck along as second fiddle for another 10 years, STIFF has done what I wish more regional festivals would do: rebrand for the future. As of this year STIFF now stands for the Seattle Transmedia Independent Film Festival, putting the focus squarely on “web series, video game […]
-
Case Studies and How Tos: Selling Your Film Abroad
In navigating the distribution market, many independent filmmakers channel their efforts toward domestic deals. While it is an understandable preoccupation, a new collection from The Film Collaborative entitled Selling Your Film Outside the U.S. offers some substantial insights on how to position your film in the lucrative territory of overseas VOD. In her section Carpe Diem for Indie Filmmakers in the Digital/VOD Sector, Wendy Bernfeld breaks down the differences in transactional vs. subscription vs. ad-supported VOD deals, and determines varying revenue shares for each. She looks at what does well with audiences and ventures how to connect your film to a platform […]
-
“The Unseen Seen”: Reiner Riedler’s Photos of Film Reels
Very neat: Reiner Riedler has come up with a new way to look at the death throes of 35mm. Granted access by the Deutsche Kinemathek to its archives, Riedler photographed a broad cross-section of movies — features and trailers, original negatives and copies, preserved and decayed, nitrate and acetate — in their increasingly-rarely-seen state as coiled reels around a core. “I drew up a list of well-known films and those with unusual titles,” Riedler explained to Design Boom. “I set up a little photo studio inside the cinema of the archive and backlit the film rolls by installing film lights […]
-
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 […]
-
“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 […]
-
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 […]
-
“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 […]
-
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 […]
