Since opening its doors last October, the Made in NY Media Center by IFP has enjoyed a wealth of creative activity in seminars, workshops, screenings, events and even the average work day. The Dumbo forum is currently in the thick of its membership drive, accepting applications for the community workspace and incubator levels through January 31. Home to technologists, content creators, entrepreneurs and innovative companies like Seed&Spark, the Media Center offers its members access to workspace, networking opportunities, rentals, discounted classes and more. Apply now with the discount code Resolution14 and win a chance to receive 6 months membership for […]
For their Op-Doc collaboration with Sundance Institute grantees, The New York Times tapped 25 New Face Andrew Droz Palermo and his cousin Tracy Droz Tragos, filmmakers behind the Sundance title Rich Hill, to produce a short profile of Sarah, a pregnant Midwestern teen, struggling to strike out against her familial trajectory. Sarah’s Uncertain Path acts as a microcosm for what Droz Palermo and Droz Tragos call “a myth in America.” “If you have a strong moral compass, work hard and make good choices, you will have equal opportunity,” they write of this unfulfilled promise. “But after two years of listening to and documenting low-income […]
Last week, Vimeo announced its partnership with crowdfunding platforms Kickstarter, Seed&Spark and Indiegogo, the latter of which is looking to keep as many options open for its filmmakers as possible. Indiegogo has gone and brokered a deal with the direct-to-fan streaming platforms VHX and Yekra: successful campaigns will receive a sizable discount should they choose to distribute their final product on either site. These initiatives seem to strike at the heart of crowdfunding’s dilemma — that raising funds is only half the battle. Once a film is completed, there’s still the matter of it being seen. This should be relatively easy, […]
The interactive documentary is on the rise. Elaine McMillion Sheldon, one of our 25 New Faces, found that countless filmmakers were after her advice on crafting this intricate new medium following the release of Hollow, her comprehensive portrait of small-town West Virginia. As such, McMillion Sheldon and her team — including Sound Designer Billy Wirasnik, Technical Director and Senior Developer Robert Hall, and Art Director/Designer and Architect Jeff Soyk — thought to hold a Google Hangout, in which interested parties can have their questions about fundraising, community building, design, development and other building blocks of the interactive documentary, fielded from those who’ve experienced the […]
Music in cinema continually captivates audiences. Scores and soundtracks can become as renowned as a film itself and play a large part in an audience’s emotional engagement with a movie. Awards are distributed honoring Best Original Song, Best Original Music Score, Best Film Music, and Best Music Direction at multiple film festivals and award ceremonies. But music has also always been a fascinating subject for movies as well. Struggling musicians to sensational bands, and everyone in between, have been captured in film. The Sundance Film Festival is often the first venue at which these movies premiere, and this year is […]
Mauricio Zacharias is currently in Park City for the premiere of his latest film, Love is Strange, directed by Ira Sachs. The previous project the director and writer collaborated on, the erotic and turbulent love story Keep the Lights On, also premiered at Sundance back in 2012. Love is Strange tells the story of Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina), a couple who’ve been together for 39 years who finally tie the knot in New York City. As soon as George’s employer, a Catholic school, hears the news of the gay marriage he is fired from his longtime job. Unable to afford the […]
Setlife Magazine has generously compiled the technical specifications of the films nominated for the Cinematography, Directing and Best Picture Oscars, and let’s just say ARRI shows up more than once. All of the Cinematography nominees were photographed on an ARRI (3 Alexas versus 2 Arricams), with a mix of Panavision, Zeiss, Cooke and Angenieux lenses. Also noted were the films’ negatives and prints, which bandied back and forth between Kodak and Fuji. Only her (C300) and The Wolf of Wall Street (EOS C500) opted for Canon, in addition to their arsenal of Alexas and Arricams. Notably absent is any sign of Red. […]
The Sundance sale. The turning point of the festival for more than just the expected filmmakers and distributors can, at times, be an inscrutable transaction. Is X the best fit for Y? Is X really worth Z amount? Does X’s release in W mean Y’s jockeying for awards season? And so on and so forth. In honor of the inaugural issue of their magazine, Bright Ideas, Seed&Spark teamed with Accurat to present a data visualization of Sundance sales from 2011 to 2013. The exhaustive infographic demonstrates, above all, that there are no guarantees in translating Sundance buzz to the box […]
Is anyone else already exhausted? Day Two was about keeping energy up. Despite a late Friday night, a less than peaceful rest over at the crew condo, and once again forgetting to drink enough water, on Saturday we had to keep moving. It’s pretty incredible how quickly the hours disappear. Waking up at 7A to realize it is quickly 6P and you have no idea how that could have happened. Where did the day go? Day Two went to supporting fellow filmmakers, an extremely successful radio show, pouring over press breaks, and a long drive back and forth to Salt […]
A week ago, I posted a rundown of the visual effects at work in The Wolf of Wall Street, which, at least to this eye, appear fairly seamless. As wonderful as computers are, however, there’s nothing quite like a good, old-fashioned in camera effect. The dolly zoom — pushing or pulling the camera while zooming out or in (respectively), and keeping focus locked on the subject — lends its resulting surrealistic planes to thrills, suspense, action or even a meaningful chat. The invention of a Paramount second-unit cameraman, Irmin Roberts, and a favorite of Scorsese, Hitchcock, Spielberg and Tarantino, this new video […]