Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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KICKSTARTER: MATT PORTERFIELD’S “I USED TO BE DARKER”
What do you do when your first Kickstarter campaign, which included a heartfelt personal direct-address video, has been cited as one of the best, and most successful, indie film ventures on the crowdfunding site? Well, you mix it up a bit for the next one. Putty Hill director Matt Porterfield is raising money for the production of his new feature, I Used to be Darker, which is shooting in three weeks. It’s a drama about marriage and divorce, and it’s set within the Baltimore music industry. Here’s the synopsis: When Taryn, a Northern Irish runaway, finds herself pregnant in Ocean […]
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SCHAMUS, ZIZEK (AND ADORNO) IN RAMALLAH
James Schamus — screenwriter, professor and Focus Features CEO — travelled to Ramallah last month with philosopher Slavoj Zizek to give a series of talks to young filmmakers and students, including those from the Jenin Freedom Theater. At Guernica, Schamus writes about the event, including his use of Adorno as a teaching tool and a visit to a rehearsal of the Freedom Theater’s upcoming open-air production of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Here’s Schamus’s opening for the piece, titled “How I Spent My Summer Vacation, or Adorno in Ramallah.” A Friday afternoon in the village of Bil’in is quite an experience, […]
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ECONOMIST FILM PROJECT LAUNCHES WEBSITE
The Economist Film Project, which I wrote about previously in this interview with editorial director Gideon Lichfeld, has just launched its website. At the site, viewers can watch the short documentary excerpts that appear via the project on the PBS News Hour. For example, embedded below is the debut offering, Dawn Sinclair Shapiro’s The Edge of Joy, about maternal healthcare in Nigeria. Also up on the site now are excerpts from Robin Hessman’s My Perestroika, N.C. Heikin’s Kimjongilia, and Adam Wakeling’s Up in Smoke. The website follows a Variety article on The Economist Film Project, which states that it’s now […]
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Convento — A Hammer to Nail Review
(Convento world premiered at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival. It has its New York City premiere on Saturday, July 16, 2011, as part of Rooftop Films. Visit the film’s official Tumblr page to learn more.) Built to house an abbot and 12 monks 400 years ago, the Portuguese monastery Sao Francisco had deteriorated into an unlivable state. But when the Zwanikken family relocated from Holland in 1980 to restore the beautiful but troubled structure, their hard work and dedication turned that once religious house into a happy home. Though their husband and father Kees is no longer with them, the […]
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Polish Brothers Release Successful No-Budget Movie On iTunes
From Steve Pond at The Wrap comes a piece on the Polish Brothers’ latest, a French-shot no-budget romance called For Lover’s Only, which was made with a production budget of, the article says, “zero,” and has already made $200,000 on iTunes. It stars Mark Polish and Stana Katic (Detective Kate Beckett on ABC’s Castle), and it was shot on a Canon 5D, with the filmmakers posing as tourists, not worrying about location fees, and, writes Pond, “They even got the film classified as an experimental film by the Screen Actors Guild, which meant they didn’t have to pay Katic, who […]
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SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES THIS YEAR’S CREATIVE PRODUCING INITIATIVES
The Sundance Institute announced today the participants for its annual Creative Producing Labs and Creative Producing Summit, which will take place in Sundance, Utah starting July 18. From the 18-22, ten projects will participate in the Labs (five narrative, four documentaries) and receive ongoing support throughout the year. Following the Labs, from the 22-24, leaders in the independent film community will partake in the Summit that will include case study sessions, panels, roundtable discussions, one-on-one meetings and pitching sessions. Summit panelists include Josh Braun (Submarine Entertainment), Victoria Cook (Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz), Liesl Copland (William Morris Endeavor), Eric d’Arbeloff […]
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TRAILER WATCH: SWANBERG AND WINGARD’S “AUTOEROTIC”
In recent months, Joe Swanberg has been making movies. A lot of movies. I don’t know how many, but I think his unreleased films could outnumber other filmmakers’ back catalogs. And, I think he’s thinking of interesting new ways to get them out. Hopefully there will be more news on that front soon, but in the meantime, here, via Indiewire, is the trailer (NSFW, by the way) for Autoerotic, his latest film premiering via IFC Midnight. The ensemble cast features the talented Kate Lyn Sheil (Green), and the film is co-directed by Adam Wingard. According to IFC Midnight: Autoerotic follows […]
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CHOOSING ANOTHER ROAD TOWARDS DIRECTING
Last September I blogged a bit for this site about my experiences as part of the 2010 Emerging Narrative class within the Independent Filmmaker Project’s (IFP) Project Forum at Independent Film Week (here, if you’re so inclined.) As a direct result of IFP’s support and my experience at Ind. Film Week, I sold my screenplay to a Hollywood studio a few months ago, which (Filmmaker Magazine editor) Scott Macaulay kindly covered here. Being part of Emerging Narrative quickly changed my life, but not without my careful consideration of what those changes might mean, and going forward with an open but […]
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HOW TO CREATE WORD OF MOUTH (AND PROMOTE “THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER”
I’m posting an email I received from producer Adele Romanski here (with permission) for a couple of reasons. The first is that I completely endorse the message, which is trying to get everyone to go see David Robert Mitchell’s Myth of the American Sleepover (pictured) when it opens July 22. The film is a gem — visual, expressive and fresh, with the screen loving its young actors. Mitchell gently guides his ensemble tale of young summertime love and impending adulthood through, in places, the intimate crevices of a European art film without any trace of pretension. The film has an […]
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MICHAEL RAPAPORT AND MALIK TAYLOR ON “BEATS, RHYMES AND LIFE”
Opening today is Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest. Actor and longtime fan Michael Rapaport stepped behind the camera to both introduce a new audience to the seminal hip hop group but also to answer an aficionado’s longtime questions. Here’s a short interview filmed at Sundance, 2011. Photographed by Jamie Stuart, edited by Daniel James Scott, music by T. Griffin.
