Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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Sharp Teams with RED and THX for “Art of Amazing 4K Film Competition”
The following is a sponsored editorial post from Sharp. Sharp recently put out its 70” class AQUOS® 4K Ultra HD LED television, which is the first ever TV to have THX 4K-certified image quality. To celebrate this pivotal breakthrough, the company has teamed with two other picture pioneers, RED and THX, for a 4K short film contest, the Art of Amazing 4K Film Competition. To meet the submission criteria, short films need to be four minutes long or less. The films can be made especially for the contest, but entrants can also put forward preexisting work that is repurposed to […]
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I’m Previewing My Film i hate myself :) Online. Here’s Why.
After I premiered my personal documentary feature i hate myself :) at Rooftop Films this summer, filmmaker Kentucker Audley kindly invited me to show the film on his online screening venue, NoBudge. I hesitated, though. I’m still taking the film through the festival circuit and working on its release, so I wasn’t sure whether even a one-day online preview would be kosher at this point. But after spending quite some time on festival regulation research without reaching a decision, I realized I wasn’t admitting to myself the real reason for my hesitation. I was actually nervous about an online screening […]
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Following the Legacy’s Lead: Barbara Kopple on Running From Crazy
The name Hemingway carries a many numbered associations, “charmed” and “gifted” not least among them. But from the inside looking out, a far less sensationalized view slides into focus. Likening her namesake to Kennedy, Mariel Hemingway’s preferential description of her lineage can be summed up as “the other American family that had this horrible curse.” A curse — of suicide, depression, mental instabilities, drug and alcohol addiction — that is both respectfully and holistically probed in Barbara Kopple’s latest film, Running From Crazy. The youngest of Jack Hemingway’s three daughters, Mariel was often at odds with the free-spirited nature of […]
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Script Development, Casting and Locations: The Making of AfterDeath (Part 2)
In this second part of our interview with Gez Medinger, the co-director of AfterDeath, we cover script development, locations and the difficulty of casting a small ensemble feature. AfterDeath is a psychological thriller/horror movie currently in post-production and was co-directed by Medinger and Robin Schmidt. While Medinger and Schmidt have both been working in video and film for the past decade, this is their first feature film. The first part of the interview, which covers the journey to find the story for the movie, can be read here: Finding the Right Story to Tell: The Making of AfterDeath (Part 1) AfterDeath […]
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Deb Shoval Interviews Stacie Passon About Concussion and the IFP Narrative Labs
The following is a guest post by writer/director Deb Shoval, whose debut feature AWOL participated in the 2013 IFP Narrative Labs. Nine months ago, I sat down with the endlessly generous Stacie Passon, the writer/director of Concussion, for some words of wisdom on making the low budget, indie first feature. Her biggest piece of advice? Get AWOL into the IFP Narrative Labs. Fast forward to Part 2 of 3 of the yearlong lab fellowship: IFP Week. Stacie, now an IFP Narrative Lab mentor, gets into more detail. Passon: Now if my son comes in during this interview and starts whining, […]
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Finding the Right Story to Tell: The Making of AfterDeath (Part 1)
The psychological thriller/horror movie AfterDeath is the first feature film of directors Gez Medinger and Robin Schmidt. Shot on a tight budget and a tight schedule, the development and shooting of AfterDeath offers a lesson to anyone looking to make their first feature. AfterDeath is currently in post-production and is expected to be released in early 2014. Filmmaker spoke to Medinger about the project shortly after shooting wrapped. Medinger and Schmidt met at Oxford University in the late ’90s. Schmidt was studying English and Medinger was studying engineering. After leaving university, Schmidt became interested in film and video and learned […]
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Taking Horror Interactive: Neal Edelstein on Haunting Melissa
As the producer of films like The Ring and Mulholland Drive, Neal Edelstein is no stranger to horror films and thrillers. And with his new project, Haunting Melissa, he’s moved beyond traditional pictures with his first immersive production for iPad and iPhone. Available for free in the App Store, Haunting Melissa centers around the search for a girl who vanished from the farmhouse where her mother had earlier gone insane, but this story is told in a succession of videos released to the viewer in seemingly random bursts. The temporal extension – and unexpected timing – of the narrative through these push notifications […]
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Women Film Pioneers Project: Ready for More Than a Close-Up
Before there was Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, an upcoming documentary about the first female filmmaker and her suspicious erasure from early film history, there was the Women Film Pioneers Project (WFPP). The Columbia University Libraries recently launched this online anthology of essays about women in the early days of the film industry. The site houses overview essays to give context to the jobs women performed in early cinema — from editors to “cranks” to colorists — and several essays on the different roles they played in national cinemas, from the absence of women in the Canadian […]
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Fractured Atlas’s Artful.ly Software to Streamline Outreach
Aiming to give independent artists and arts organizations the same marketing power as their bigwig counterparts, the non-profit Fractured Atlas recently unveiled Artful.ly, a web-based software system that streamlines audience interactions. Among the service’s offerings is a MailChimp integration that directly manages and catalogues email outreach, and a ticketing and fundraising apparatus that can be embedded onto websites. There are no sign-up fees or contracts, however, in the interest of an event, ticket buyers will be charged $2 per purchase in addition to credit card processing. Filmmaker spoke with Selena Juneau-Vogel, program director for Artful.ly, about how filmmakers can make […]
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John Sloss’ Crusade for Transparency
As the first in what is to become a weekly, unprecedented occurrence, Cinetic Media released the VOD and theatrical gross of Escape From Tomorrow over at its sister site, Film Buff. Utilizing the Producers Distribution Agency catalogue, John Sloss and company will post an aggregate number every Monday that represents revenues from the divergent platforms, before hopefully moving on to films outside their network. “We call upon those distributors who have been pioneers of the day-and-date evolution to supply Cinetic with their cable and broadband VOD gross numbers so we can post a comprehensive snapshot of the distribution industry each week,” Sloss said in a […]
