Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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The Blue Velvet Project, #65
Second #3055, 50:55 “I’m leaving now,” says Jeffrey. Dorothy, her back to the camera, stands in the bathroom, facing the mirror, her red shoes on the tiled floor beside her. Another radiator, like an iron spy from another world. The screen, divided against itself. Crowded by darkness, Dorothy’s space is a like a music track awaiting the vocals. The open toilet some sort of joke. A zombie film: Dorothy dead and not knowing she is dead, hungry for Jeffrey’s flesh, or the way hallways always lead to bad ends. In a room across the city, her son held hostage. The […]
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Michael Barry on His Career in Film Sound
Michael Barry has been a re-recording mixer for more than two decades, working on over 100 films. Some of the directors he has collaborated with include Tony Gilroy (Duplicity, Michael Clayton), Stephen Daldry (The Reader), David Koepp (Ghost Town, Secret Window), Robert Altman (Short Cuts, A Prairie Home Companion) and the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski, Fargo). In our interview he discusses his beginnings in sound, the job of the mixer, and the future of sound in film. Filmmaker: When did you become interested in sound and film? Barry: My mother studied piano at Juilliard. I grew up with her […]
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WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOCUS FEATURES FILM?
On its 10th anniversary year, Focus Features is running a poll on Facebook asking its viewers to select their 10 favorite Focus films. So far, the results are favoring Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Lost in Translation and Brokeback Mountain, but my list also includes Greenberg, Lust, Caution and The Constant Gardener. Head over to Facebook to vote for yourself.
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Luke Matheny Tells You How to Get an Agent
The auspiciously-titled National Film Society is, according to its YouTube page, “a new media studio co-founded by Los Angeles filmmakers Patrick Epino and Stephen Dypiangco, who’ve decided to take their talents to YouTube. They produce original content, showcase amazing movies, interview talented creators and make fun of each other as much as possible.” The page has short films, interviews about acting and film school (as in, to go or not), and even a (nepotistic) awards show. Below is Academy Award-winning short filmmaker Luke Matheney on getting an agent.
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SEAN MCMANUS, JOSH WELSH PROMOTED TO FIND CO-PRESIDENTS
Congratulations to long-time staff members Sean McManus and Josh Welsh for their appointment today as Co-Presidents of Film Independent. Independent filmmakers know both men well as McManus has been serving as Senior Director and Welsh the Director of Artist Development. The two men replace Dawn Hudson, who left FIND to become the CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The press release, issued today, follows: FILM INDEPENDENT APPOINTS SEAN MC MANUS & JOSH WELSH AS CO-PRESIDENTS LOS ANGELES (January 10, 2012) — Today, the Film Independent Board Chairman Bill Condon announced that Senior Director Sean Mc Manus […]
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Don’t Do This!: 12 Mistakes Commonly Made on Independent Film Productions
The mixture of risk-taking, cost-cutting and pure enthusiasm that is independent film production can lead to great movies but also, all too frequently, poorly thought-out productions. Here, from producer Maureen A. Ryan (Man on Wire), is a list of 12 mistakes often made by new filmmakers and their producers as well as many who should know better. It originally appeared in our Winter, 2012 issue. 1. Decide to shoot before you have the best script possible. You’re dying to shoot your first feature but don’t start prepping until your script is ready to be shot. It doesn’t matter if your […]
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An Interview With Frederick Wiseman
The New Year can be as much a time to reflect as it can be to project into the future. Some see the act of looking back as an integral part of moving forward. But on a brisk afternoon in Cambridge the day before New Year’s Eve, Frederick Wiseman resists this notion. The legendary documentary filmmaker has been making roughly one film a year since 1967, only taking breaks when funding difficulties, or in this case critical recognition, require him to do so. Tomorrow night Wiseman is receiving the Legacy Award at the annual Cinema Eye Honors for his debut […]
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DP’s Discuss The Canon C300
The Canon C300 had a coming out party in Boston last week where Larry Thorpe of Canon presented the camera at an evening event hosted by Rule Boston Camera. A large crowd turned out to hear Larry speak about the camera, and to play with the four demo units that were present. When the camera was first announced I asked some local DPs for their reaction to it, and I took advantage of this opportunity to get their reactions after seeing the camera in person: Jeremy Traub is a DP based in Boston who is very familiar with RED […]
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The Blue Velvet Project, #64
Second #3008, 50:08 Dorothy’s face fills the screen, leaving no room for thought. At this moment, there is no possibility of anything outside the frame. This may seem an odd moment, an odd frame, to re-introduce the power of ideology, for there seems to be nothing overtly “political” about this frame. And yet, Dorothy’s suffering here—rendered in a fashion-photography aesthetic—is utterly reactionary and in tune with a certain mid-1980s, Ronald Reagan wave of nostalgia. In their toxic, neural pathway altering chapter from Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) entitled “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (an essay which remains the ultimate […]
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TRAN ANH HUNG TALKS ABOUT “NORWEGIAN WOOD”
For many Japanese readers — and readers around the world too, actually — Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood is one of those novels, a book read during youth that somehow defines, at least for a few years, your inner self. Like Catcher in the Rye, it’s a book readers feel they have an intimate relationship with, which makes it also a tough film adaptation. A filmmaker can always do the plot and the characters, but what about capturing that something else? With his adaptation of Murakami’s 1987 novel, director Tran Anh Hung (Cyclo, The Scent of the Green Papaya) has shaken […]
