Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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IFP ANNOUNCES INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER LABS NARRATIVE LINEUP
IFP has announced the 10 projects selected for participation in this year’s narrative edition of Independent Filmmaker Labs which takes place June 7-11 in New York City. The 2010 Labs include an initial five days of workshops that assist filmmakers with the technical, creative and strategic advice needed to complete their films; a Strategy & Networking Lab following in September with specialized workshops on web building, sales & marketing and audience building, as well as pre-scheduled meetings for the projects with potential buyers, funders and festival programmers during IFP’s Independent Film Week; and a winter intensive Distribution Lab, specifically focused […]
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DAVID MAMET’S “LOST MASTERPIECES OF PORNOGRAPHY”
Written and directed by David Mamet, shot by Robert Elswit, and starring Kristen Bell, Ricky Jay and Ed O’Neill. David Mamet’s “Lost Masterpieces of Pornography” w/ Kristen Bell, Ed O’Neill & Ricky Jay from David Mamet
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THE NEISTAT BROTHERS PREMIERE ON HBO
I checked out the first two episodes of the Neistat Brothers HBO show on Thursday night at the Rooftop Films premiere party at Kips Bay. I liked them. Somehow, the Neistats got HBO to give them an eight-episode series which mostly seems to be about the two brothers making stuff and doing things and then documenting these processes in as rag-tag, homemade and lo-fi manner as possible. What kind of stuff? Stuff like smuggling American maple syrup past TSA to Amsterdam because the waffles are great but the syrup sucks there, or finding one brother’s biological birth father. (The series […]
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NEW JERSEY CONSIDERS TAX CREDIT SUSPENSION
The bad news regarding state film and television tax credits for films continues. Yesterday, it was reported that Pennsylvania is out of money for new projects applying for their incentive. Now, New Jersey is contemplating halting their incentive for fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1, 2010. Here is a letter I received from Tax Credits LLC. Senator Paul A. Sarlo, Chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, has called a special public Committee hearing to discuss the future of New Jersey’s Film and Digital Media Tax Credit Program. The Hearing will take place on Wednesday, June 9th, from […]
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GUCCI TRIBECA DOCUMENTARY FUND GRANT RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED
Out of 390 applicants from 23 countries, the Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci announced yesterday the seven recipients of the 2010 Gucci Tribeca Documentary fund, whose projects highlight globally important social issues. The projects that will receive a total of $100,000 in grant money are : African Deep, Directed and Produced by Rachel Boynton. – (USA) African Deep is a riveting adventure about the heated quest for oil in the deep waters off West Africa’s coast. Shot over the course of four years, at a time of rising demand for energy and increasing competition for resources worldwide, the film takes […]
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NEISTAT BROTHERS TV SHOW SHOW
Though it’s become a ubiquitous descriptor of anything short, visual, funny or shocking, setting out to make a “viral” video is like trying to make a “hit” movie. Videos go viral because they make people freak out a little bit. 2006 25 New Faces Casey & Van Neistat have made hundreds and hundreds of videos, earning their infectiousness the old-fashioned way: by getting forwarded, blogged, cited in court cases, covered on CNN, and — beginning this month — turned into a TV show on HBO. “I hate the word ‘viral.’ Any successful online short is ‘viral.’ A short that no […]
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“HAYNESVILLE” AT STF
Last night Thom Powers screened two docs, Jessica Edwards‘ short, Seltzer Works and Gregory Kallenberg‘s feature, Haynesville as the penultimate screening in his Spring Stranger Than Fiction series. The series rarely features shorts, but Powers credited the move to the fact that both films focused on gas crises – one very small, one very large, both man-made. Deftly shot, Seltzer Works is a carefully composed bit of nostalgia for a time when deliverymen schlepped heavy glass bottles full of fizzy water all over Brooklyn. A portrait of a third-generation seltzer man struggling to survive in a world that no longer needs him, […]
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CANNES COVERAGE, CAM ARCHER INTERVIEW NEW ON THE SITE
With both our “25 New Faces” feature and the IFP’s Narrative Lab coming up, I’ve been kind of backlogged here on the blog. But, I just posted a couple of things: first, Livia Bloom’s recap of Cannes in our Festival Coverage section, and then my interview with Shit Year director Cam Archer, conducted in Cannes after the premiere of his film in the Director’s Fortnight section. And, in a separate post, Bloom wonders why there were not any female directors in Competition in Cannes this year. You can check them out at the links.
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Shit Year Director Cam Archer at Cannes
It is both accurate and reductive to call Cam Archer’s Shit Year, which premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Director’s Fortnight section, the story of a retiring actress grappling with the emotions produced by her move away from the Hollywood spotlight. Of course, on narrative terms, that is what it’s about. Ellen Barkin plays the actress, who has just given her final talk-show interview, moved to a cabin in the woods, and now spends her days avoiding her neighbors and flashing back to a brief affair she had with a younger actor (Luke Grimes) on the set […]
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STEVE JOBS ON THE TV INDUSTRY
From today’s D8 conference, a comment by Apple’s Steve Jobs that resonates with the recent conversation here on the blog about internet TV. Q: Hi, I’m from Hillcrest Labs… do you think it’s time to throw out the interface for TV? When will Apple do something there? Jobs: The problem with innovation in the TV industry is the go to market strategy. The TV industry has a subsidized model that gives everyone a set top box for free. So no one wants to buy a box. Ask TiVo, ask Roku, ask us… ask Google in a few months. So all […]
