Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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The Map
Alice Munro wrote a short story once called “Deep Holes,” and it’s as fitting a title as any when one considers her body of work. Munro has made a career out of writing the same short story over and over again, but because that story is shot through with an incredible amount of depth, with endless bottoms of nuance and complexity and minor shifts and adjustments each time, it constantly amazes. Jonathan Franzen (who himself rewrote his 2001 classic novel The Corrections as the even better Freedom), reviewing Munro’s 2004 collection Runaway, nailed it: I like stories because it takes […]
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WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS, 2/13/01
Here are a few of the articles in my Instapaper this week. At Bad Lit, Mike Everleth has his usual excellent selection of Underground Film Links, including this link to “Foreign Cinema: Whither San Francisco’s Experimental Film Legacy,” by Kimberly Chun at the Bold Italic. She visits Canyon Cinema and and various local filmmakers, looking for scene described in the Pacific Film Archive’s first book, Radical Light. Chuck Tryon watches (and likes) The Fighter with his Massachusetts-born fiance and notes the reference to the documentary High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell: A look back at the documentary shows […]
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TRAILER WATCH: “ARTHUR” (VS. “ARTHUR”)
At Hollywood Elsewhere, Jeff Wells picks up on the character mystery suggested by Arthur‘s trailer, i.e., has Liza Minelli’s role of “Linda Marolla,” played in the remake by Greta Gerwig, really been demoted to not much more than a cameo? Or are Russell Brand, conspicuous consumption, and arch repartee with Helen Mirren (in the John Gielgud) role that much easier to market than Gerwig’s rising star? And, oh yeah, the original had something to do with drinking…. (By the way, can we put a moratorium on the use of “Under Pressure” in movies and movie trailers?)
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Darren Aronofsky’s Top 5 Books On The Movies
Over at The Browser, Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky names and discusses his top five books on films and filmmaking. There’s an obvious one (Sidney Lumet’s Making Movies), an unexpected autobiography (Kirk Douglas’s The Ragman’s Son), and then the following screenplay tome. From Aronofsky’s piece: The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler. It’s the Bible for screenwriters. I think it’s the best book on how to write a screenplay ever written. It helped me get through so many roadblocks as a writer. Vogler adapted the work of Joseph Campbell, an American academic, to the art of screenwriting. Vogler’s approach to screenwriting was […]
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FILMMAKER MAGAZINE LOOKING FOR BUSINESS WRITERS
Last Fall I posted a call for new writers to submit their work, and from that reach-out I connected with several folks whose bylines you have seen on our site and in our pages over the last few months. Now, I am specifically looking to connect with experienced writers interested in covering the business (i.e., financing, production, distribution and marketing) sides of independent film. If you are a published writer who has done hard news and investigative reporting on the film business and would be interested in writing for Filmmaker, please drop me a line at editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com.
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DIRECTOR MIGUEL ARTETA ON “CEDAR RAPIDS”
I love what director Miguel Arteta has to say about comedy at the end of this short, unedited interview conducted during this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The director of such Filmmaker favorites as Star Maps and Chuck and Buck is in theaters today with his new comedy, Cedar Rapids, starring Ed Helms.
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MORE THOUGHTS ON WALKING OUT OF MOVIES
Every Thursday we do a weekly newsletter that includes links to that week’s content, festival deadlines, and an original letter from me which I usually don’t repost on the blog. (And if you don’t get this newsletter, why not? You can subscribe here. It’s free.) But I’ll reprint this week’s because it’s a response to James Ponsoldt’s blog post about walking out of movies. “When is it okay to walk out of a movie?” James Ponsoldt asked on the Filmmaker blog yesterday. The post was inspired by his sitting through at Sundance a film he loathed; it was his attempt […]
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SXSW REVEAL MIDNIGHTERS, SXFANTASTIC & SHORTS
The South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival announced today the lineups for its Midnighters, SXFantastic and short films sections. Midnighters has always been a popular section at SXSW having highlighted the talents of Eli Roth and Ti West in the past, but its notoriety grew a few years ago when the fest added the SXFantastic sidebar, which are midnight films programmed by the largest genre fest, Fantastic Fest. Last year, the section had the world premiere of Gareth Edwards‘ impressive debut feature Monsters. The complete list of Midnighters, SXFantastic and short films titles are below. SXSW will take place […]
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When Is It Okay To Walk Out Of A Movie ?
Sundance is over. Ditto, Rotterdam. With Berlin right around the corner, it seems a good time to ask the question: When is it okay to walk out of a movie? I saw over 25 features at Sundance this year. Many of those films will receive serious releases in 2011 and wind up on “Best of” lists at the year’s end. Some of my favorites are still seeking distribution. I interviewed directors of a number of films. Of the features I haven’t already written about, personal favorites include Pariah, Terri, Catechism Cataclysm, The Mill and the Cross, Hell and Back Again, […]
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WHICH COMES FIRST? THE CHARACTER OR THE WORLD?
In film we are used to starting with the character (the protagonist who faces conflict in order to achieve his goal) or simply the concept (which usually yokes together the bare bones of character with a simply stated narrative). But what if you started elsewhere — with, for example, the world? Mike Mignola is creator of Hellboy and the new Baltimore and a visual consultant to director Guillermo del Toro on Hellboy, Hellboy 2, and Blade 2. From an interview at BLDGBLOG titled “Ruin, Space and Shadow.” BLDGBLOG: … Have you ever found yourself in a situation where a setting […]
