Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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MIRANDA JULY SHOWS YOU HOW TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE
Productivity systems are a booming cottage industry, and while the commercial ones are aimed at businesspeople, artists are fascinated with them just as much. I met an artist/writer/actress the other night and we more or less geeked out on what productivity system we favored, debating the merits of the Four-Hour Work Week vs. Getting Things Done. At the website Nowness today, Miranda July tackles the issue of productivity in a deleted scene from her most recent film, The Future. It’s been recut and newly scored by David Byrne, and it might offer you some insight into your own patterns of […]
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HAMMER TO NAIL REVIEW: “IN THE FAMILY”
(In The Family opens at the Quad Cinema on Friday, November 4, 2011, after recently screening at the Hawaii International Film Festival and winning two richly deserved awards at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Visit the film’s official website to learn more. *Full disclosure: I am not a film critic. I saw the film at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, where my film Surrogate Valentine was also in competition. I did not, however, have a chance to meet Patrick Wang.) Every once in a while, a movie comes out of nowhere and hits you like a ton of […]
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KICKSTARTER: HAL HARTLEY’S “MEANWHILE”
Okay, first the exciting news: Hal Hartley has made a new film! What’s the “but”? Well, it’s not ready quite yet. It’s in post, though, so it’s close. To help it get to the finish line, Hartley has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its final post-production. He’s also appealingly pitched his campaign as a “DVD Collector’s Edition Pre-Buy.” For $25 you’ll receive this limited edition when the film is finished. And there are other rewards too. For example, for $1,000 you can be a co-producer. That’s right, a grand gets you a very nice IMDb credit. Here’s what Hartley writes […]
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CINEMATOGRAPHER ED LACHMAN DISCUSSES HIS CRAFT
At Independent Film Week this past September, Ed Lachman taught a Masterclass sponsored by Kodak. An acclaimed cinematographer known for creating lush and arresting images in films such as I’m Not There, Erin Brockovich, and The Virgin Suicides, Lachman was nominated for an Academy Award and received an Independent Spirit Award for his work on Far From Heaven. While the full panel is pay-walled and available only to IFP members, you can watch these three free excerpts right now: Here, Lachman discusses the difference between working with first-time directors and more experienced directors. Here, Lachman theorize about the difficulty of […]
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The Blue Velvet Project, #37
Second #1739, 28:59 The lights on the stage, they illuminate Dorothy, whose talent in this frame to deny Jeffrey her gaze. She is Gilda transported from 1946 to 1986, the curtains behind her unanimated with the sort of predatory menace that the Production Code forbade Rita Hayworth from exploiting. Lynch must have recognized the power of restraint, of not showing, and so nearly the first one-third of Blue Velvet is as tame as an Andy Hardy movie. In this regard, the enduring power of Blue Velvet is that it meets a very specific need and desire: our desire for the […]
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FILMMAKER PHOTOGRAPHER HENNY GARFUNKEL IN TORONTO
Reading Filmmaker online is great and all, but one thing you don’t get — in addition to about 60% of the content — is the full impact of Henny Garfunkel’s original photography. For the Fall issue, we have quite bit of her work, including the David Cronenberg cover, another Cronenberg shot inside, and full-page portraits of Jessica Chastain, Jeff Nichols, Michael Shannon, Todd Rohal, Dee Rees, Sean Durkin & Elizabeth Olson, Steve McQueen and Asghar Farhadi. The issue is on newsstands now, and you can see Garfunkle at work in Toronto, where many of these photographs were taken, in this […]
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NOVEMBER VOD CALENDAR
Now on our VOD calendar are titles available for the month of November. Some highlights: Mike Mills‘ Beginners, Miranda July‘s The Future, Evan Glodell‘s Bellflower, Mike Cahill‘s Another Earth and John Sayles‘ Amigo. And our pick of the month: 25 New Face Alma Har’el‘s impressive debut Bombay Beach. For titles from previous months go to our VOD Calendar homepage.
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VIMEO LAUNCHES PERKS PROGRAM PROVIDING DISCOUNTS TO SUBSCRIBERS
This morning, Vimeo announced the launch of Vimeo Perks, a new program that offers discounts on camera and video products to their Pro and Plus subscribers. Through partnerships with electronic manufacturers such as B&H, Kessler, and Garage Cube (a VJ software), Perks will feature dozens of curated packages, with savings ranging from five to twenty-five percent. In some of the pricier packages, such as B&H’s DSLR kit, savings range up to $300. Vimeo VP of Creative Development Blake Whitman spoke with Filmmaker about the process of curating the Perks packages. “It’s not everything under the sun,” he explained. “It’s not […]
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A THANKSGIVING KICKSTARTER FOR “YEAR WITHOUT RENT”
If you visit this site regularly, then you’ll know about “A Year Without Rent,” filmmaker Lucas McNelly’s Kickstarter-funded twelve-month experiment in community-minded film production and online journalism. At the beginning of this year McNelly staged a dramatic Kickstarter campaign for what seemed like a crazy goal: he’d spend twelve months crisscrossing the U.S., working for free on independent films. Then, he’d document them on his site and at places like Filmmaker, Film Courage, Film Threat and Mubi. The Kickstarter raise was successful, and McNelly has been hard at work since then — rigging lights, manning craft service, holding a boom, […]
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FILMMAKER PAUL RACHMAN REMEMBERS ZOE LUND
I interviewed Zoe Lund for the second issue of Filmmaker, back when we put Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant on the cover.She was the screenwriter, and she also appeared in one of the film’s most memorable scenes. Previously, Lund starred in a number of films, including Ferrara’s breakthrough, Ms. 45. Lund was fascinating, beautiful, talented, and she had a unique and powerful charisma.She died in Paris in 1999. Recently I ran into filmmaker and Slamdance co-founder Paul Rachman, and he told me about the series of short documentary films he’s making about Lund. He agreed to answer a few questions about […]
