Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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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.
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Xavier Dolan’s Mommy Was Shot In a New Aspect Ratio
As far as I know, this is a first: Québecois auteur Xavier Dolan’s fifth feature Mommy premiered at Cannes today, and word has trickled out from first viewers that it’s shot in a ratio that’s new to the movies. 1.1 is a perfect square: think a CD cover photo. Dolan shot a music video in the aspect ratio last year, which inspired him to do the same for Mommy — a fact he somehow managed to keep under wraps. In the press kit, Dolan explains his thought process: “After having shot a music video in 1:1 last year, it dawned […]
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Cannes Day 8: Solidarity, “Busting” Anti-Fracking Celebrities and Ukrainian Crisis
Some notes of interest from the Cannes Film Festival as it enters its closing stretch: • Programmed in the less-exhaustively covered “Un Certain Regard” section, Philippe Lacote’s Run is the first film from the Ivory Coast to play at Cannes in 29 years. In an interesting interview with Reuters’ Michael Roddy, Lacote gets into the historical particulars of his genre movie and has some words about his relationship to the festival’s most prominent African film, Abderrahmane Sissako Timbuktu. “The problem with the international festivals and with European and American audiences is this ‘vogue,’” he notes. “People in the Occident want […]
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Indiegogo Campaign: Once I Was: The Hal Ashby Story
Nick Dawson, former Managing Editor at Filmmaker, is serving as an advisor to what will be the first ever Hal Ashby documentary. With the blessing of the Ashby estate, Amy Scott will render a definitive portrait of the revered yet unsung director behind Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, and Being There, to be titled Once I Was: The Hal Ashby Story. The Indiegogo video alone features appearances from John C. Reilly and Jane Fonda, with additional interviews with Robert Downey, Rudy Wurlitzer and Jerome Hellman still to come. Prizes include a plethora of prints from the Hashby estate, criterions, memberships to Cinefamily and Film Forum and […]
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#ArtistServices Austin Workshop: Talking Crowdfunding, Torrents, DCP and More
Sundance often faces criticism from the independent film community as being inaccessible and too commercial. Two weekends ago Austin Studios, the Sundance Institute and the Austin Film Society held the sold-out “#ArtistServices Austin Workshop,” proving Robert Redford’s initial vision of supporting truly indie film is strongly intact. The day-long event was focused on educating filmmakers about the business side of fundraising, marketing, and distribution for small movies. Filled with local filmmakers like Two Step director Alex Johnson and Before You Know It director PJ Raval and producer Annie Bush, the raw hanger space (Austin Studios is located on the site […]
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Smartphone Cinematography: Viable Gimmick?
Making its way on the festival circuit since last fall’s Raindance is a film called I Play With The Phrase Each Other, which purports to be the first-ever feature comprised entirely of cell phone calls. It is, rather fittingly, shot on an iPhone and rendered in attractive black-and-white hues that belie its format. In addition to serving as a nice narrative tie-in, the filmmakers choice of camera was also likely dictated by budgetary constraints (or, perhaps as more likely, an Apple tie-in.) Still, it’s remarkable that a lucrative automobile giant like Bentley Motors would shoot their latest ad campaign on a consumer phone like […]
