Filmmaking

DSLR PRODUCER VS. QUALITY-CONSCIOUS D.P.

Here’s a funny video satirizing the conversations going on between d.p.’s and producers around the subject of DSLR cinematography. While in the video the producer talks about how DSLR cinematography needs no grading and pretty much offers a perfect image out-of-the-box, that’s, of course, not true. In fact, this video gives me a good reason to link to something from our current issue that word-for-word is perhaps the most useful article in the book: an article on how Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture was shot by d.p. Jody Lee Lipes on the Canon 7D.

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 3, 2010 Filmmaking
FILMMAKER FLASHBACK: WINTER, 1993

Leading up to our 18th birthday, I’ll be revisiting on the blog one issue of Filmmaker a day. Below is Winter, 1993. In our second issue of Filmmaker, attorney Robert Siegel interviewed Steven Starr, former head of the motion picture department at William Morris who left the agency to produce Tom DeCillo’s Johnny Suede (the first motion picture to star Brad Pitt) and direct his first feature, Joey Breaker. (Subsequently, Starr launched the web video site Revver and produced the documentary FLOW.) Peter Broderick interviewed Alex Cox, and I wrote the cover story on Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, interviewing Ferrara, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 3, 2010 Filmmaking
TRAILER WATCH: HAPPY LIFE

Writer/director Michael Bilandic forwarded me this trailer for “a low-budget rave comedy executive produced by Abel Ferrara.” He writes, “It’s about a thirty-something owner of a struggling all-techno music record store who, in a last ditch effort to save his place, attempts to throw an ‘old school’ rave. It stars the comedian Tom McCaffrey and features Matt Pinfield! Cinematography by Sean Williams (Frownland, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo).” Check out the trailer below.

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 2, 2010 Filmmaking
SPARROW SONGS LAUNCHES KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN

I was happy to see Adam Daniel Mezei on his new PMD for Hire blog respond to the work of the Sparrow Songs team of Alex Jablonski and Michael Totten from this year’s “25 New Faces” list. Like me, he found something special in the tone and execution of these monthly short documentary pieces. (Check out Mezei’s post for detailed musings on five of the episodes.) Now, Jablonski and Totten are launching a Kickstarter campaign to allow them to cover the expenses of the project and to shoot three particularly ambitious final episodes. Check out their work on their own […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 2, 2010 Filmmaking
NEW BREED L.A. #5: “MAKING PEOPLE NOTICE”

Here’s part five of the New Breed Los Angeles series looking at the creative filmmaking process through the eyes of several filmmakers attending this year’s Los Angeles Film Fest. Today’s episode focuses on the time-honored question of how to get people to notice your work. Speaking are Marwencol director Jeff Malmberg and The New Year director Brett Haley. NEW BREED LOS ANGELES – Episode 5 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 2, 2010 Filmmaker Videos
FILMMAKER FLASHBACK: FALL, 1992

As Filmmaker approaches its 18th birthday, I thought I’d fill the dog days of August with a series of posts taking you through our history. For the next few weeks I’ll be revisiting an issue a day, pointing towards significant pieces from our archive and commenting on interesting correspondences between independent film’s past and its present day. Of course I’ll start with our debut issue: Fall, 1992. Filmmaker was actually the spawn of two magazines, The Off-Hollywood Report and Montage. The OHR was the IFP’s publication, Montage was published by IFP/West (then IFP/Los Angeles and now Film Independent). The original […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 2, 2010 Filmmaking
VENICE COMPETITION TITLES ANNOUNCED

The Venice Film Festival have announced their slate of competition films vying for the Golden Lion. Included in the list is the opening night film, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan as well as Kelly Reichart‘s Meek’s Cutoff and Sofia Coppola‘s Somewhere. Also announced are out of competition titles The Town, directed by Ben Affleck; little brother Casey Affleck’s documentary on Joaquin Phoenix, I’m Still Here; and Robert Rodriguez’s Machete. The festival runs Sept. 1-11. The full list of titles are below. “Attenberg,” Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece “Barney’s Version,” Richard J. Lewis, Canada/Italy “Black Swan,” Darren Aronofsky, USA “Black Venus,” Abdellatif Kechiche, […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jul 29, 2010 Festivals & Events
NEW BREED L.A. #4: “ELEMENTS OF CASTING”

“Elements of Casting” is the title of the fourth New Breed video from the Los Angeles Film Festival. Look for two more next week, on Monday and Thursday. NEW BREED LOS ANGELES – Episode 4 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 29, 2010 Filmmaker Videos
ONE HUNDRED MORNINGS – WINS DISCOVERY AND DISTRO AWARD

This past winter we continued a tradition that started with the From Here to Awesome experiment, a “day and date” festival concept that helped 22 films reach theaters, living rooms and viewer’s computers in 2008. The WorkBook Project Discovery and Distribution Award gives a filmmaker an amazing prize consisting of a week long theatrical run in LA with social media, street team and PR support. A run where the filmmaker keeps the box office and we help to pull together the independent community in an effort to drive awareness around the film. Over a 100 films were submitted and today […]

By Lance Weiler on Jul 27, 2010 Filmmaking
TORONTO ANNOUNCES TITLES FOR 2010 FEST

Titles for the 35th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival were announced today. The mixture of world and North American premieres range from directors like Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden‘s It’s Kind of a Funny Story, to Julian Schnabel‘s Miral to Susanne Bier‘s In A Better World. The full list of titles screening in the Gala and Special Presentations sections are below. TIFF has also announced that the festival, running from Sept. 9 -19, will be extended one day longer this year and in celebration of their 35th year will be running a “TIFF For Free” series were past […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jul 27, 2010 Festivals & Events

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