Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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The Screen Matters
The way we watch TV shows is changing. Whether one is watching a movie or other program over a TV set, a PC or a mobile device, the size of the display screen matters in terms of a viewer’s appreciation of a show. A recent study by two ad service firms, YuMe and IPG Media Lab (IPG Mediabrands), analyzes consumer viewing experiences, comparing four TV screens – traditional TV, online TV, a PC and a smartphone. As it reports, “while the size of the video screen did drive more excitement, variables such as ad clutter, creative content, and context had […]
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Arthur “Sandy” Mandelberger, 1954 – 2012
I was very sorry to hear this week of the passing of Sandy Mandelberger, an indefatigable champion of independent film and independent film festivals. I first met Sandy almost two decades ago, when he was the Associate Market Director of the IFP’s Independent Feature Film Market. I remember him as a sunny, enthusiastic and engaged professional who thought very clearly about the ecosystem that supports independent film. He went on to form his own company, International Media Resources, where he consulted with both filmmakers and film festivals on their promotion and industry branding. He also organized the Independents Showcase at […]
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“25 New Faces” Screen Tonight at IFC Center
If you’re in New York, please join us tonight at 8:00 PM at the IFC Center for a program selected from our 2009 “25 New Faces” list. Derek Cianfrance, director of Blue Valentine and a 2009 “25” alumni, will be hosting along with myself and Nick Dawson, and a panel discussion will follow after the screenings. The complete information is below, and tickets can be purchased here at the link. A special IFP Film Week showcases of work from members of Filmmaker Magazine‘s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” of 2012: The Gathering Squall (Hannah Fidell, 2012, 13 mins) Doubles […]
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Eyes Wide Open: Appreciating Independent Film Week
At the risk of sounding like the luckiest, happiest, most ridiculously annoying girl in the world… WANNA KNOW WHAT I LOVE MOST ABOUT INDEPENDENT FILM WEEK?! I could run through a list… but I’ll cut to the chase: What I love most is watching people’s eyes widen as I describe my project in my one-on-one industry meetings. It’s one of those little things that I never anticipated. I mean yes, I’m sitting with people who already had a clue about my project and chose to have a meeting with me because there was something about it that appealed to them. […]
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The Potion to a Pitch
Independent Film Week kicked off on Sunday at Lincoln Center and co-writer/co-producer of Brooklyn Flee, Devon Kirkpatrick, and I sat in a room full of Emerging Narratives filmmakers nervously awaiting our moment to practice pitch our scripts in front of an esteemed industry panel. We spent two hours the day before sketching out our thoughts over bad guacamole and happy hour Chardonnay, attempting to figure out what makes a good two minute pitch. After a few hours, Devon and I parted ways needing to take a moment to center ourselves before a hectic week. I went home to fall asleep […]
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Filminute @ Filmmaker: Ant Blades’ Wildebeest
Throughout the month of September, Filmmaker is partnering with the online short film competition Filminute, hosting five of its nominated titles and running interviews with the director’s of these one-minute movies. Tell us who you are (where you’re from, background, previous credits as a filmmaker) My names is Ant Blades. I’m a director at Bird Box Studio in London. Here I have made many short films, all around a minute long and aimed at a YouTube audience (25 million views so far). I’ve worked previously as an animator for various studios, a digital creative for YouTube at Google, and a […]
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Rickey Henderson and 8 Tips for Pitching
Part of the No Borders orientation the first day is getting up in front of all the other participants in the program and pitching your project. I am very glad they made us do this–it prepared us for a week of meetings and pitching–but this was something Kat [Candler] and I were not exactly prepared for. To our credit, this fact was buried in a rather lengthy email (way to keep us on our toes, IFP). You could feel the collective nervousness from the group, but regardless, it was no big deal and it went great, no one fell off […]
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Five Questions with Backwards Writer/Actress Sarah Megan Thomas
Sarah Megan Thomas recently returned to her hometown of Haverford, Pennsylvania, with a script and a camera crew in tow, to shoot her screenwriting debut Backwards, which she also produced and stars in. Thomas plays competitive rower Abi Brooks who, after she fails to win a seat on the US Olympic boat, must steer her life in a new direction, ultimately landing a coaching job for the rowing team at her old high school. Just as in rowing, Abi has to look backwards — to old places and ex-boyfriends — in order to move forward, with her sport and her […]
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The Opportunity of a Lifetime
Is there such a thing as an opportunity of a lifetime? During the first two days of IFP’s Independent Film Week, it became clear that the answer is yes and no. Yes, a conversation, a short film, a meeting, a festival acceptance, can be the opportunity that changes everything, but a career isn’t just a year or one film – it’s a lifetime of dedication to craft. In his impressively extemporaneous speech, J.C. Chandor (above) recalled not the glories of having his first feature, Margin Call, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, but the 15 years he spent trying to […]
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Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best Writer/Director/Star Ryan O’Nan
No one can say actor/musician Ryan O’Nan didn’t pull his weight in his directorial debut, Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best, which makes its theatrical debut on September 21 via Oscilloscope Laboratories. Besides directing, writing, and starring in the film, O’Nan wrote and sang most of the songs on the soundtrack (album out 9/18 on ATCO Records). A 2011 IFP Narrative Labs project that premiered at Toronto last year, Brooklyn Brothers is the story of two ne’er-do-well musicians who make an unlikely alliance, embarking on the kind of quixotic journey that’s tailor-made for a buddy movie. But O’Nan’s film finds itself […]
