Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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Only 7% of U.K. Films Earn a Profit, Claims BFI Report
Only 7% of British films released from 2003 to 2010 were profitable, claims a BFI report issued this week at London’s Screen Summit. From Michael Rosser’s article in Screen Daily: The stats showed that just 3.1% of films with budgets under £500,000 turned a profit. The numbers increase as budgets rise: £0.5m-£2m: 4.1% £2m-£5m: 4.6% £5m-£10m: 12.1% £10m+: 17.4% Speaking on stage, Steele said: “What does one do faced with those sorts of numbers? Clearly, portfolio investment is necessary to negate the risk and secondly, qualitative judgement. Try to choose filmmakers projects that have above average chance of making a […]
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How Many Films Does The Average Low-Budget Filmmaker Make?
Independent filmmaking is the land of the never-ending benchmark. If you’re not heaving a sigh after finally completing your film, you’re praying it’s accepted into a festival, that someone buys it, that it finds its audience, that you reap a modicum of returns, before daring to do it all over again. Or maybe, not. With the assistance of BFI, British producer Stephen Follows managed to fashion a list of all UK films budgeted at under £500k since 2008, and over £500k since 2003, for a data comparison on the career trajectories of filmmakers behind 2,737 films. His findings, while vaguely depressing, are […]
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American Hustle Tops New York Film Critics Circle Awards
If last night’s Gothams marked the first stop in the ensuing months-long award season, today’s New York Film Critics Circle Awards kicked off the circuit’s highbrow counterpart. At best, the two distinct forms of awards bodies function like a venn diagram, with critics bolstering fringe contenders for the televised shows, while marching to the beat of their own drum in equal measure. The NYFCC, however, has often tended to the inoffensive, lauding popular names and titles that will be all too familiar come March. This go around, they chose to throw their weight behind David O. Russell’s latest Hollywood fare, American […]
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Director Ryan Lightbourn shoots Sleepwalkers with the RED Scarlet and a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera
Ryan Lightbourn grew up in the Bahamas, but went to business school in the U.S. Becoming interested in music, Lightbourn transferred to Full Sail University after graduating. He wanted to become a music producer, but after playing with Final Cut Pro he started making “goofy little short films and music videos with my friends.” Switching to the film program he quickly decided that he could learn more by going out and actually shooting things than by going to class, so he dropped out and bought some gear. He continued shooting music videos, but always wanted to make films, and in […]
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Starlight Runner CEO Jeff Gomez on the Importance of Transmedia
As a continuation of Filmmaker‘s coverage on upcoming courses at the MINY Media Center by IFP, Starlight Runner CEO Jeff Gomez opted to share a few of his thoughts on why transmedia is no mere trend. “At the turn of the century,” notes Gomez, “our entire communications system went into hyperdrive, and has only been picking up speed. At the same time, our three network, three newspaper, three neighborhood movie theater world has been blown to a million pieces.” How one capitalizes on the wealth of new media is exactly what Gomez aims to instruct in his masterclass, “Creating Blockbuster […]
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How Much Can Your Film Make From Festival Screening Fees?
Film festival screening fee revenue is often a contentious topic, with festivals arguing the value of community and exposure while filmmakers point to the fact that the regional festival circuit is, for many, taking the place of traditional theatrical distribution. But what kind of numbers are being argued over? The Film Collaborative sends out a regular e-blast, and the most recent tackles just this topic. Gathering data from the films they’ve been involved with over the past several years, The Film Collaborative has determined screening fee revenue ranges based on films’ niches and premiere venues. Yes, where a film premieres […]
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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Editor Alan Bell on Editing for Performance
The day before its release, Alan Edward Bell A.C.E., the editor of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, as well as The Amazing Spider-Man and 500 Days of Summer talked about his career and his editing philosophy at a meeting of the Boston Creative Pro User Group. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bell’s father worked in the film industry, and Bell was sure he didn’t want to do that; he wanted to be a rock climber. He became, he said, pretty good at it. But to pay rent he took people out rock climbing, and most of them were from the […]
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New Cameras and Upgrades: Fall, 2013 Edition
Who says you have to wait until NAB for new cameras? In the past month alone there have been several new cameras, upgrades and other devices announced. Here’s a quick look at some of the most interesting ones: Canon C100 Autofocus upgrade Early in the month Canon announced a paid upgrade to the C100, the Dual Pixel CMOS AF Upgrade. This upgrade adds a new autofocus technology that first appeared in the EOS 70D DSLR. The dual-pixel AF upgrade will provide faster and smoother autofocus that can be particularly useful for documentary, sports, event and wildlife shooting. Focusing speed […]
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Holiday Friends-and-Family Fundraising Tips for Hustling Independent Filmmakers
The Thanksgiving tryptophan haze has worn off, your relatives are sprawled on the sofa, exhausted from their Black Friday marathons, and football blares on the flat-screen… is this a good time to hit them up for an investment in your independent film? Independent filmmakers seeking private equity in their films most often start by looking towards friends and family, and holidays do provide that necessary one-on-one face time. But, raising money from friends and family can be perilous at any time of year, with the holiday season offering its own particular dangers. Over at PandoDaily, Michael Carney has posted a […]
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Gael García Bernal on Documentaries
“Let’s go back to the time when there was VHS,” says Gael García Bernal at the RIDM (Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal or the Montreal International Documentary Festival). “In those days to see a documentary in Mexico your friend would buy a movie in New York or Amsterdam or wherever [and] they would come up to you and say, ‘If you want to see this…’” Inevitably, a documentary fell into the young García Bernal’s hands. “I don’t remember which one it was, but I remember feeling there was something beyond an investigation, that it had a bigger scope, a […]
