Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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ELLE FANNING’S DAYS OF RODARTE
Todd Cole directed this short film, The Curve of Forgotten Things, for Rodarte starring Elle Fanning and with music by Deerhunter. The film was shot by Matthew J. Lloyd on the RED using Cooke lenses from the 1970s. From Nowness: As for the title, Cole explains: “It’s the title of a Richard Brautigan poem. The poem and the film are about forgotten things—circles and the curve of time.” The film follows on from last spring’s intergalactic project that Cole shot with Rodarte and comes at an extraordinary moment for the designers, whose dazzling costume contributions to Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan […]
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“LOST IN SUNSHINE” — CROWDFUNDING TRANSMEDIA R&D
Writer/director Jentri Chancey emailed to tell me about her and producer Lorrie Marsh’s approach to developing their independent film project, Lost in Sunshine. She writes: We’ve been continuously working to lift this project from its feet for the past two years. Our approach is to reach out to our (target) audience before the movie’s ever made. And creating an online prequel by expanding narratives, and enhancing audience participation via games, etc., is how we’re attempting to do it. Instead of raising money for actual film production costs right now, we’re raising funds so that we can use fan input, digital […]
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Are You A Nobody Filmmaker ?
Filmmaker Christopher Boghosian has a great post up today at Truly Free Film. Titled, “I am a Nobody Filmmaker,” it’s not a self-pitying whine but rather a rational discussion of what a young and relatively unknown filmmaker can expect from the independent film marketplace as well as audience. He writes: I’m a nobody filmmaker: I don’t have a recognizable name nor a recognizable film. In essence, most of the world couldn’t care less about me nor my movies. This sounds pathetic, I know, but coming to grips with this reality has truly liberated me and provided an invaluable perspective on […]
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Jamie Stuart’s Sundance Masterpiece
From the shards of our experience shooting interviews and seeing movies at Sundance 2011 comes Jamie Stuart’s “Masterpiece.” With appearances by: Miguel Arteta, Alrick Brown, David Carr, Paddy Considine, Nekisa Cooper, Phife Dawg, Danfung Dennis, Andrew Donsunmu, Sean Durkin, Liz Garbus, Paul Giamatti, Megan Griffiths, Colin Goddard, Rutger Hauer, John Hawkes, Azazel Jacobs, Miranda July, Tom McCarthy, Peter Mullan, Adepero Oduye, Elizabeth Olsen, Jessica Oreck, Lindsay Pulsipher, Michael Rapaport, Calvin Reeder, Dee Rees, Amy Seimetz, Kim Wayans, Vilmos Zsigmond. Shot on the Canon 7D. Download the Quicktime here. (Contains adult language — NSFW.) Look for the longer edits of these […]
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WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS, 2/6/2011
Here’s what’s in my Instapaper this week. At Hammer to Nail, Mike Ryan returns from Park City and declares, “Indie is back!?!” Specifically, he sees the festival embracing a wider spectrum of the independent community and jettisoning its reflexive propensity towards cinematic naturalism: First off, what is great about Sundance 2011 is not only the selection of unusual, formally inventive films, but the near total absence of corporate engineered, market driven, faux indie high-budget QUIRK CRAP (although there were some more offbeat versions of the old style quirk like My Idiot Brother and Terri, there was not an Answer Man […]
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MAKING LOW-BUDGET, INDIE ACTIONER “RETRIBUTION”
Retribution is a low-budget indie action film that its producers at Openview Cinema plan to release April 1, 2011. Producer Cody Norris sent me the below trailer, and I asked him for more info on how they got the movie, directed by Colten Kidwell, made. Here’s what he wrote: We made Retribution with a tiny budget. Our actors were all volunteers, we were given the use of all our locations, we borrowed or made props, and we didn’t hire any additional crew. When we couldn’t buy things, we improvised. Production lasted more than a year because our actors were volunteers […]
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A RESPONSE FROM NEOFLIX’S JC
Before I posted Thursday’s blog post about financial troubles at independent fulfillment service Neoflix, I tried to reach its owner and president, JC, for his account of the situation. Tonight I received from him an email addressed to me and Jon Reiss, whose blog post I included in my posting. I am reprinting JC”s response here in its entirety Dear Jon and Scott, Those in the Indie film community who are interested in self-distribution deserve a direct update from me on Neoflix shutting down. I hope you will include this letter in its totality in any articles or blog posts […]
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R.I.P. TURA SATANA, 1935 – 2011
Tura Satana, star of such films as Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Astro Zombies and The Doll Squad, died this week at the age of 75. From a remembrance posted today at Screen Rush by filmmaker Shade Rupe: Tura earned her most visible role while performing in Irma La Douce. She got a call from her agent to come read for Russ Meyer. She didn’t have time to change so she showed up in the wedding dress she was wearing for Irma La Douce. Russ handed her the script for “Leather Girls,” the original title of Faster, Pussycat! Kill Kill! and […]
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DOES PHILOSOPHY STILL MATTER?
A rainy today like today’s in New York is a good time to ask yourself, “Does philosophy still matter?” Below is the complete video from last week’s sold out event at the New School. From their blog: In an age of instant punditry, 24/7 Twitter updates, and political discourse that seems to discourage careful reflection, an all-star panel at The New School will ask Does Philosophy Still Matter?, marking the publication of NSSR Professor James Miller’s new book, Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011). Panelists include Simon Critchley, professor of philosophy at The New School […]
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IN ROTTERDAM, AMERICAN FILMS THAT COULDN’T EXIST ANYWHERE ELSE
After the rush of sales in Park City this year, it seems the entire American cine-punditry is racing to declare this the beginning of a new golden age in American Independent Film. I sure hope they’re right. One wonders if March’s SXSW Film Festival in Austin will continue the trend and finally push that festival into true market status. Nearly 40 films were acquired in Park City and many more that premiered there will surely be acquired in the weeks and months to come. Yet for some of the most daring new American films, the sales rat race at Sundance […]
