Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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Kickstarter is for People!
A filmmaker asked me, “Do you think I can raise $400,000 on Kickstarter?” I told her that that sounded like a lot. Start-up technology companies using Kickstarter as, essentially, a customer-financed pre-buy platform, are raising in the seven figures. But $400,000 would be on the high-end of a feature film raise. Blue Like Jazz raised about $350,000, and that was based on a New York Times best-seller. Koo did great with Man-Child, scoring about $125,000, but he spent a couple years seeding his campaign by building an audience at No Film School. But as I was talking, I realized the […]
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ADAM YAUCH (1964 – 2012)
It was with great sadness today that we read of the tragic passing of Adam Yauch at the age of just 47. As a member of the Beastie Boys, Yauch was an icon of American music, and for the last decade his involvement with Oscilloscope Laboratories, the film company he co-founded, made him a beloved figure within U.S. independent cinema. Until earlier this year, Yauch was an IFP board member, and on the IFP website Executive Director Joana Vicente offers the following tribute: On behalf of the IFP staff and board of directors, we are deeply saddened by the passing […]
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The Blue Velvet Project, #110
Second #5170, 86:12 In the spirit of the humor of the scene from which this frame is taken (and because it’s Friday) this is a post of a different stripe. Part of what constitutes Blue Velvet’s weird chemistry is its humor, the humor that lies at the end of despair and that arises out of a confrontation with the absurdity of evil. Frank is terrifying in this scene—having just wiped some lipstick from Jeffrey’s face with that talismanic swatch of blue velvet—but also oddly funny. He is a monster, but also pathetic, and the aura of theatrical performance he has […]
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BAMCINEMAFEST FULL SLATE REVEALED
Today the full lineup for BAMCinemafest has been unveiled, including the opening and closing night films. (The initial slate of titles was announced just over a month ago.) The fest will be bookended by comedian Mike Birbiglia’s Sundance charmer Sleepwalk with Me and Rock ‘n’ Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen, the latest doc from British musician and filmmaker Don Letts (Dancehall Queen). The Spotlight screening is Benh Zeitlin’s Sundance Grand Prize winner Beasts of the Southern Wild, and other highlights out of the newly announced titles include the Ross brothers’ Tchoupitoulas, Cory McAbee’s Crazy and Thief and Tim Sutton’s […]
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The Connection — A Hammer to Nail Review
(The purpose of Milestone Films’ ‘Project Shirley’ is to re-introduce the best available prints of Shirley Clarke’s work to audiences across the world. The Connection opens in NYC at the IFC Center on Friday, May 4, 2012. Visit the Milestone website to learn more.) Usually when you watch a once-banned film decades after the fact, it leads to a deflated feeling that the film wasn’t ban-worthy at all, that it wasn’t ever close to being “dangerous.” But when one of those films is also widely deemed a classic by trusted sources? Well, that just about guarantees it’s going to land […]
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15 Steps To Take After You Finish Your Script
A Filmmaker reader recently emailed me with a simple question. After going to film school, making some shorts and working conspicuously within his means, he’s now written a script purely from the imagination — not censoring himself by thinking of things like money and production requirements. The resulting project, I take it, is too big for his usual DIY methods. He asked, “What do I do now?” A tough question, not knowing the filmmaker very well and not having read the script. There are easier-said-than-done answers: “Find a producer! Get an agent!” But just sending out a bunch of PDFs, […]
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CISPA, EXPLAINED IN PICTURES
I’ll confess to, after getting all worked up about SOPA and PiPA, not being up to speed on CISPA, the latest internet bill barreling through Congress. So, I found the below graphic, from ParaLegal.Net, pretty helpful. Created by: Paralegal.net
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Jon Reiss Launches the TOTBO System
Jon Reiss has finally realized that the secret to indie-film tutorial success is having a catchy moniker. So, his DIY distribution-and-marketing book Think Outside the Box Office has now birthed what he is artfully dubbing “the TOTBO System.” If you’re a filmmaker, file this snazzy acronymn along GTB, Zen to Done, or 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Oh yeah, and you need a YouTube channel too. Reiss has relaunched his under the authoritative title “TheJonReiss.” Each week he’ll be posting excerpts from his workshops, which I recommend to anyone considering releasing his or her own film. Here he is […]
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WIN “DRAGONSLAYER” SKATEBOARDING SWAG!
Our friends at SNAGFILMS are giving away swag for the iTunes launch of Dragonslayer, director Tristan Patterson’s award-winning skate documentary about Josh “Skreech” Sandoval. (You can watch it here.) The first prize winner will receive an Addikt Skateboard deck (right) inspired by the legend of “The Gonz” graphic, Skatebook 3 — a skateboard photography coffee table book — as well as an action-packed street skateboarding DVD featuring Skreech and other insane skaters. Two runners-up will receive the Addikt deck and the DVD. To enter, just send an email to nick@filmmakermagazine.com and tell us which award Dragonslayer won at last year’s SXSW Film Festival. To […]
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Five Questions with Jessica Oreck About Her New Kickstarter Project
With her debut documentary, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, Jessica Oreck reinvented the nature doc. Oreck, an entomologist who worked as a docent at the American Museum of Natural History, made a film about an insect that was as much about man’s fascination with that creature as it was the creature itself. To top it off, she made her poetic and allusive picture in Japan, exploring the country’s endemic beetle-mania through evocative cinematography and haunting voiceover. When so many documentary filmmakers make their artistic choices based on the desires of their funders, Oreck chooses the harder path. Her latest film, Aatsinki, […]
