Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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POV Offers Funding Suggestions for Filmmakers
Here’s a list to bookmark: the POV for Filmmakers site has handy, spreadsheet-style lists of funding sources for documentary, new media and web films. From the Alter Cine Foundation to World View, the site offers links and one-paragraph summaries of the organization’s mission and funding range. Additional sections of the site provide links to engagement strategists — individuals and companies who can work on films’ outreach campaigns — as well as film festivals and the various entry points to PBS.
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Uneasy Does It: The Comedic Filmmaking of Issa Rae
“My name is J, and I’m awkward and black. Someone once told me those were the two worst things anyone could be. That someone was right.” So says the title character in the pilot episode of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, one of YouTube’s biggest Web series that’s spawned two seasons and a major career. Issa Rae, 28, is the creator and lead actress of the series (commonly referred to as ABG), which has millions of views and legions of fans, including Pharrell Williams, now an executive producer on the series, and Shonda Rhimes, who has added Rae’s forthcoming […]
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Editor’s Letter
“Should filmmakers learn to code?” That’s the question posed by MIT OpenDocLab’s Katie Edgerton in a story in this issue on the relationship between filmmakers and technologists. Before too many of you complain that you can’t crowdfinance, DIY distribute and now code interactive content, too, while also making movies, I’ll rush to assure you that the short answer is “no.” There’s a “but,” however, and that’s that filmmakers do need increasingly to understand what developers and coders do and how to talk to them. Edgerton’s piece is a companion to a series of interviews on the Filmmaker website, and in […]
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Secrets of the Glam Squad: Inside the World of Film Hair and Makeup Departments
You’re the producer of a low-budget movie, and, as usual, there isn’t enough money. Each department is straining against their budgets, and you don’t want the production value of the film to falter. So you are forced to prioritize. More lights? Well, that’s hard to argue with — the movie has to look good. Another van? No way around that; you have to get people to the next location in time. But makeup and hair needs a space heater? Um … can’t they just put on sweaters? “If the electric department says they need two hours, no one questions it,” […]
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Ornana’s euphonia Now Free to Watch on Vimeo
Though the film only debuted at SXSW last month, Ornana’s euphonia is already out in the world, with the six-man collective we selected for our 2012 “25 New Faces” opting to generously stream it for free on Vimeo. I’ve been a huge fan of the film since I saw it in rough cut last summer, and it solidified my conviction that director Danny Madden and his collaborators — wh0 had previously made the charming animated short (notes on) biology — were on to something special. To further whet you appetitite, here’s Scott’s take on the film from SXSW: A real […]
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Five Questions with Sunlight Jr. Director Laurie Collyer
While the lives of the working class are not the stuff Hollywood dreams are made of, they are at the heart of Laurie Collyer’s new film, Sunlight Jr. Starring Naomi Watts and Matt Dillon as a couple dealing with an unexpected pregnancy while trying to survive on minimum wage jobs, Sunlight Jr. premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend where it is sure to stir up a conversation about what it means to be numbered among the working poor in American society today. Filmmaker: Although income inequality and poverty is one of the biggest issues facing America right now, […]
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Using a Stair Climber for a Crane Shot
Sometimes a piece of everyday equipment can be used for an unusual purpose. While shooting a recent music video for the band Run 8 Rider, director Sean Meehan noticed a stair climber at the location and wondered if it couldn’t be used to create some kind of crane shot. An additional twist is that the shot would consist of three sequences shot at different times in the shooting day and be spliced together. Sean explains how the shot was made: We walked in, I saw this stair climber and my first thought was “That’d be really cool to use for […]
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The New Digital Storytelling Series: Ingrid Kopp
In the seventh part of Filmmaker‘s interview project with prominent figures from the world of transmedia, conducted through the MIT Open Documentary Lab, Ingrid Kopp, Director of Digital Initiatives at Tribeca Film Institute, answers our questions. Kopp oversees the TFI New Media Fund, runs Tribeca Hacks and produces TFI Interactive during the Tribeca Film Festival. For an introduction to this entire series, and links to all the installments so far, check out “Should Filmmakers Learn to Code,” by MIT Open Documentary Lab’s Sarah Wolozin. MIT Open Documentary Lab: How do you see people making the transition to digital interactive storytelling? Kopp: I think people have […]
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Ryan Koo on Amateur, Feature Fundraising, and the Kickstarter Long Game
In the Fall of 2011, filmmaker Ryan Koo — featured along with then-partner Zachary Lieberman on our 2008 “25 New Faces” — announced his debut feature, Man-child. Embarking on an ambitious Kickstarter campaign, Koo leveraged not only the community he had been building via his excellent website, No Film School, but also his project’s selection for the IFP and Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Visions program. The campaign was a success, raising $125,100, and, as he’s moved his story of youth basketball forward, Koo has been, essentially, open-sourcing his progress, giving advice on not only social-media fundraising but screenplay […]
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POV’s Third Nonfiction Transmedia Hackathon
The most encouraging aspect of POV’s third hackathon, which wrapped with a public presentation Sunday night, was the social commitment of the five projects. When they hit close to home, events like Monday’s bombing in Boston can make you step back and reevaluate your work, its purpose and meaning. So it was gratifying, a day earlier, to see how committed the hackathon teams were to remedying some kind of societal problem, including some situated half a world away. Over two days the participants worked together to use new technologies to make real strides against issues like homelessness, war, and the […]
