Last week we announced our 2012 list of “25 New Faces,” a group that numbered 37 as a result of a large number of filmmaking duos, but was expanded even more by a six-man production collective. Ornana, the collective in question, made the playful and funny SXSW-winning animation (notes on) biology and are in postproduction on Euphonia, a live-action narrative feature that is radically different from biology and further underlines the talent as well as the versatility of these young men. (You can read more about both films on their 25 New Faces page.) The gang are currently looking ahead […]
“It’s about being a kid and so in touch with spooky things,” said animator Julia Pott about her short film Belly when Nick Dawson interviewed her for this year’s “25 New Faces” list. “I called it Belly because it’s about living with this thing that you’ve lost in the pit of your stomach for the rest of your life. I really like feeling sad. It’s so good sometimes to just wallow in misery.” The short that captivated us here at Filmmaker is now online. Watch it below. Belly from Julia Pott on Vimeo.
The trailer for Jon Lefkovitz’s micro-budget psychological thriller Engagement caught our eye here at Filmmaker. It’s a Hitchcock-inspired tale about an young groom-to-be and the woman who may or not be the sister of his out-of-town fiancée. The film is currently up on VOD through Film Buff, and below we ask Lefkovitz five questions about making smart genre entertainment for a price. Filmmaker: Where did the concept of the film come? What were your inspirations? Lefkovitz: The concept for Engagement is actually semi-autobiographical — in 2009, my then-fiancée (now wife) went away for six weeks, leaving me alone in our […]
In the current issue of Filmmaker, Lance Weiler writes about scarcity and abundance in the digital world — namely, the trend of digital artists creating physical media limited editions for their fans and followers. Weiler references several such projects in his piece, and, indeed, I’m discovering more every day. Here’s the latest: Quarterly, a subscription service that brings you a unique, curated gift from a trusted curatorial source every three months. “Each shipment tells a story,” the site promises. From the site: Quarterly is a new way to connect with the people you follow and find interesting. We spend so […]
“In Production” is a regular column which focuses on notable independent films that are currently shooting. After dropping out of the Ben Stiller-produced comedy The Apostles of Infinite Love, Richard Ayoade is busy directing The Double, his follow-up to his 2010 debut Submarine (also produced by Stiller). Described as a comedic take on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novella, The Double is about an insecure young man (Jesse Eisenberg – shocker) whose life turns upside down when he encounters his more confident doppelganger. The film also stars Mia Wasikowska (The Kids Are All Right), Wallace Shawn (My Dinner with Andre) and Noah Taylor […]
I’ve had wind of this for a while, via both filmmaker Kentucker Audley and programmer Miriam Bale (who has a feature on Beasts of the Southern Wild in our current issue), but now the news is public. On September 14 and 15, the 92Y Tribeca will host the first La Di Da film festival, which takes a look at the recent work of a group of post-Mumblecore figures, including Amy Seimetz, the Safdies, Sean Price Williams, Dustin Guy Defa, Alex Karpovsky, Kate Lyn Sheil, Eléonore Hendricks and Audley. In the press release explaining the genesis of the event, Bale says, […]
Second #6674, 111:14 The seemingly insignificant, glimpsed, unremembered moments of a film revealed in the details of a random frame. In this case, Jeffrey’s watch, fleetingly illuminated as he retraces his steps back up to Dorothy’s apartment, in flight from the Well-Dressed Man. The importance of the watch may be the very fact of its unimportance—it has no significance in terms of the plot. And yet, it is a part of the film; it constitutes an element of Blue Velvet’s image-archive. The frames come from a compressed sequence made up of 17 shots that, in less than a minute of […]
Brandon Vincent is a Massachusetts-based freelance videographer and editor and a Sony NEX-FS100 owner. He’s had the camera for almost a year, and I recently talked to him about his experience using it. Filmmaker: What kind of work are you shooting? Vincent: I do pretty much whatever comes to me really, but I do a lot of interviews, highlight videos of events, and I do a lot of my own personal stuff. I shot some comedy things. I don’t shoot a lot of documentary work, but it’s something I would like to get into. Filmmaker: When did you get the […]
Second #6627, 110:27 In one of Blue Velvet’s most unsettling moments, Jeffrey, on his way out of Dorothy’s carnaged apartment, sees the Well-Dressed Man coming towards the building in the night. Like some figure from a dream, he approaches, his police radio crackling. At this point, neither Jeffrey nor the audience knows, at least with any certainty, that the Well-Dressed Man is in fact Frank. In his essay “The Uncanny” (1919) Freud wrote that it is only this factor of involuntary repetition which surrounds with an uncanny atmosphere what would otherwise be innocent enough, and forces upon us the idea […]
Up now on Filmmaker’s curated Kickstarter page is Stand Clear of the Closing Doors, the second feature from Sam Fleischner. The production is in the final days of its campaign and could use your help. What follows is a guest blog post from producer Veronica Nickel. What do we want?! When do we want it?! The next question in that cheer should be: how in the hell do we get what we want right now? Sam Fleischner’s answer must be to assemble the best incognito team that you can find and get out and make your movie. Undeterred by a […]