Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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Cinematographer Andrij Parekh on Lighting Ryan Gosling
Starting this week, every Thursday the Filmmaker website will be hosting exclusive videos courtesy of Craft Truck, a new website which hosts “conversations with the world’s best cinematographers, editors, technology companies and more from the world of film and television.” To kick off this series, acclaimed d.p. Andrij Parekh talks about his approach to lighting and how this impacts on the performances of actors, such as Ryan Gosling, who he shot in Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s Half Nelson and Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines.
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Braden King Creates Haunting, Tumblr-based Music Video for Califone
Filmmaker Braden King has made a hauntingly beautiful, web-only “interactive music video” for “Stitches,” the new single from Califone. In real time, the video pulls and sequences images from a curated selection of Tumblrs, sidescrolling them across your monitor in sync to the song’s elegant melancholy. Black-and-white photos and animated GIFs drift by, and by highlighting one with your cursor color bleeds back in. Click and the image flips over, allowing you to write a caption that is then sent to the band (and included on the “Stitches” home page) or, if you want, reblogged. Califone’s Tim Rutili and King are […]
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8 Rules on Being a Locavore Filmmaker
Plenty of us independent filmmakers claim to be as environmentally friendly as can be, but beyond a few minor lifestyle tweaks (like claiming we just watched Gasland 2 while bemoaning Hollywood’s reliance on sequels), are we really as green as we’d like to think we are? Sadly, probably not. But one way we can help make a small difference to our planet is to take a page from the food movement and become locavore filmmakers — making movies close to home, in order to reduce our carbon footprints. I tried this strategy on my new film (Between Us, starring Julia […]
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Five Film Reviewers Advise Filmmakers
Top L to R: Lauren Wissot, Michael Tully, Laura Blum; Bottom L to R: Mark Bell, Dusty Wright Part I. Five Film Reviewers on Screening Films Part II. Five Film Reviewers Advise Filmmakers In Baal – the BBC’s 1982 cinematic adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s 1918/1923 dramatic play – Ekart is broke and unable to pay his bar bill. In a grimy tavern, he explains: “If I had money to pay, it would undermine my sense of self.” Paying a bar bill can be a bitch, but living as a drunken-pauper doesn’t sound better. Unlike Ekart in Baal*, I doubt today’s bohemians would be […]
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A D.P. Chooses the ARRI ALEXA
It’s been said that choosing between digital video cameras is a bit like choosing between film stocks; they provide different images that suit different uses and aesthetics. I’m not sure that the analogy is entirely accurate, but it’s certainly worth considering. For this reason, I’m always interested in hearing about d.p.’s experiences when working with a camera other than the one they usually shoot with. When Boston cinematographer Chris Loughran recently tweeted that he was going to be shooting with an ARRI ALEXA, I was curious to ask him about his experience with the camera. I first met Loughran a […]
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Filmmaker Seeks Contributing Web Editor
Are you a good writer, knowledgeable about new developments in film and new media, and a reader of Filmmaker? Filmmaker is currently seeking an NYC-based Contributing Web Editor. This is a part-time position involving daily writing and posting to this site. In addition to possessing strong writing, reporting and editing skills, our ideal candidate will have experience with filmmaking itself, whether that’s in features, shorts or web/new media work. Our Contributing Web Editor will report on developments of interest to our filmmaking audience, including reports on new equipment and technologies, software and events as well as stories focusing on the […]
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Fruitvale Station D.P. Rachel Morrison
“She was an incredible collaborator,” says Ryan Coogler of his Fruitvale Station d.p., Rachel Morrison, in Ava DuVernay’s cover story on the writer/director this issue. “She’s very tough,” he continues. “On your first glance of her, you know she has edge. You know she’s somebody who will bust her butt to get the shot. But as you get to really know her and some of the things she’s been through in her life, she’s just this big ball of emotion on the inside. Once she’s set on fire by a story there’s just no stopping her.” Selected after a recommendation […]
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The Essential Guide to Webfests
Compared to film festivals, webfests — “film” festivals geared specifically toward web series (like Mission Backup Earth, pictured above) and other online videos — are definitely the new kids on the block, but they’re fast coming to fill the role for web video that names like Venice and Cannes did for film decades ago. And they’re springing up much faster — 10 of the thirteen events described below are premiering in 2013 or ’14 — making it appropriate to survey what’s out there, how filmmakers can get their content shown and who’s eligible. TO WebFest (Toronto): Announced Tuesday by the Independent […]
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Irregular Warfare: Marketing Snow On Tha Bluff
Snow On Tha Bluff is a film that I produced that illuminates Atlanta’s forgotten neighborhood, The Bluff, known for its violent crime, heroin market and extreme poverty. The film follows real-life criminal Curtis Snow as he robs drug dealers and attempts to provide for his child. The most controversial element of our film is that some of the footage is real while other scenes are staged. After our films are in the can, we as filmmakers are met with the daunting task of marketing our work. Our eyes are met with a towering cascade of media everyday, and, for any […]
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Nenad Cicin-Sain on The Time Being
In Nenad Cicin-Sain’s moody debut feature, The Time Being, Frank Langella plays Warner, a wealthy art patron who after buying a painting at an art gallery hires the financially strapped artist behind the work (Wes Bentley) to do odd, artistically tinged jobs for him. Daniel, a dedicated painter who’s dour work isn’t exactly flying off the walls, struggles to support his family — to the increasing annoyance of his wife Olivia (Ahna O’Reilly). He is drawn to the reclusive and mysterious millionaire as a potential new benefactor, but when Warner’s assignments for Daniel become increasingly bizarre surveillance excursions, Daniel senses that he may […]
