Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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MAY VOD CALENDAR
Now up on our VOD Calendar are the titles available in May. Some of the highlights include Derek Cianfrance‘s Blue Valentine, John Carney‘s Zonad, Mark Ruffalo‘s directorial debut Sympathy for Delicious (which is also in select theaters now, read our interview with Ruffalo), Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu‘s Biutiful and the premiere of the Adrien Brody/Penélope Cruz starrer A Madator’s Mistress. To find titles from other months go to our VOD Calendar homepage.
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TEST SCREENING “THE LOST CHILDREN,” PART ONE
In other places I’ve talked about our process for trying to vet a story ahead of time. We’ve had script readings, we’ve made small test videos expressing the tone we would shoot for in the feature. We’ve shot shorts with the characters from the feature. Now in the rough cut phase, we’re about to have a test screening of my feature film, The Lost Children, on May 4th. This screening is generously provided by Cinema Speakeasy out in L.A. The purpose of this screening is to show a rough cut and get some audience feedback before we lock. We will […]
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10TH TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES WINNERS
Tonight at the W Hotel Union Square the winners of the 10th Tribeca Film Festival‘s competition categories were announced, with the grand prize in the international narrative competition going to Lisa Aschan‘s She Monkeys (pictured), an evocative Swedish thriller about the burgeoning, sexually explosive rivalry between a pair of teenage girls engrossed in the world of competitive equestrian acrobatics. Both a daring coming of age tale and an increasingly tense thriller, the Danish born Aschan’s directorial debut made its North American premiere at Tribeca after winning the best new Nordic film prize at last year’s Goteberg Film Festival. Alma Har’el stunningly […]
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NICK FLYNN ON THE SET OF HIS “ANOTHER NIGHT” ADAPTION
From Focus Features comes this on-set interview with author Nick Flynn, whose book Another Bullshit Night in Suck City is being turned into a movie by director Paul Weitz. Here he talks about recreating his Boston youth in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and what it’s like to have Robert De Niro playing his dad and Paul Dano playing himself.
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A Conversation with Milyoni’s David Raycroft, Part Two
In this part two of a two-part interview with David Raycroft, co-founder and Vice-President of Product and Operations of Milyoni, the company responsible for streaming Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight and Harry Potter titles through Facebook, Raycroft talks about the company’s Video on Demand streaming solution. Also check out part 1 he talks about their iFanStore, which allows the easy set up of a storefront on Facebook that integrates with your own fan page. Filmmaker: How has the Warner Brothers Dark Knight experiment been going? How would Milyoni measure the success of that project? How would Warner Brothers? Raycroft: We […]
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The Arbor — A Hammer to Nail Review
“Time heals all wounds,” goes an old adage with which everyone involved in The Arbor would likely take issue. Clio Barnard’s cinematic assemblage on English playwright Andrea Dunbar is certainly a document of sorts, but to call it a documentary would be to slight it: The Arbor is equal parts fact, reenactment, and archival footage. Adding to the genre-blending is a series of audio interviews recorded with Dunbar’s siblings, children (particularly Lorraine, in many ways the main “character” of the film), and acquaintances which Barnard then had actors lip-synch onscreen. The result is at first off-putting, eventually immersive, and unlike any […]
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Milyoni’s David Raycroft on the Facebook iFanstore
After reading that Warner Bros was streaming The Dark Knight and soon thereafter the Harry Potter films though Facebook, I immediately thought it was a genius move. More information is shared on Facebook, and this would be a great way to close the window between discovery and consumption. In addition, on Facebook distributors and filmmakers are provided very meaningful analytics — and then, of course, there’s the monetization aspect. In Part One of this two-part email interview I talk to David Raycroft, co-founder and Vice-President of Product and Operations of Milyoni, the company that made this all happen. He talks […]
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POLY STYRENE, R.I.P.
Singer Poly Styrene (Marian Joan Elliott-Said), best known for her work in the iconic punk band X-Ray Spex, died today from breast cancer at 53. From Dangerous Minds: Poly upended every stereotype of the female rock and roll front person. She looked like an innocent school girl but when she opened her mouth she had a soul searing wail that made John Lydon sound like a squealing mama’s boy with his dick stuck in a zipper. Poly had one of the greatest punk rock voices in all of rock and roll. From banshee to wounded vulnerability, Styrene emoted with a […]
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KICKSTARTER: “BE LIKE AN ANT”
Rocks. That’s what you get when you support Mike Plante’s hour-long portrait film, Be Like An Ant. But they aren’t just everyday rocks. They are rocks from underneath the subject of the film’s home, and he has selected, polished and cut them. Here’s how Plante describes his project: The story: Post-Vietnam, Paul bought a trailer for his family to live in. Annoyed by how bad living inside a mobile home during winter could be, he took matters into his own hands and started to build a house – around the trailer. He never made any blueprints. As the house took […]
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KICKSTARTER: “THE HAPPY SAD”
Amidst all the online talk about DIY and arguments over who is “indie” and who isn’t, sometimes real directors quietly and steadfastly pursuing an independent agenda don’t get the attention they deserve. One such director is Rodney Evans, whose 2004 Brother to Brother ambitiously fused an exploration of the Harlem Renaissance with a contemporary tale dealing with gay African-American identity. Now he’s got a new movie, and he’s using Kickstarter to raise funds for actors’ salaries and equipment rental. Here’s how he describes the picture, titled The Happy Sad. Armed with roses and art, Stan brunches with his girlfriend Annie, […]
