Filmmaking

COLUMBIA PICTURES PUTS SODERBERGH’S PITT-STARRING MONEYBALL IN TURNAROUND

In a “things are tough for everyone” reminder, Peter Bart and Michael Fleming in Variety report that Columbia Pictures’ Amy Pascal has put the new Steven Soderbergh movie, Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, into “limited turnaround” just three days before it was due to begin filming. From the piece: The move came after Pascal read the final draft delivered last week by Steven Zaillian and found it very different from the earlier scripts she championed. Pascal was uncomfortable enough with how Soderbergh’s vision had changed that she applied the brakes. Soderbergh and Pitt’s CAA reps spent the weekend attempting to get […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 21, 2009 Filmmaking
THE OPEN VIDEO CONFERENCE, DAY ONE

Yesterday wrapped up the first day of the Open Video Conference, a two-day event being held at New York University Law School featuring speakers, screenings and events all centering around the topic of Open Video. The conference, which can be livestreamed on its website, is produced by the Participatory Culture Foundation, the Yale Internet Society Project, the open source video platform Kaltura, iCommons, and the Open Video Alliance. What is Open Video? Quoting from the website: Open Video is a broad-based movement of video creators, technologists, academics, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, activists, remixers, and many others. When most folks think of “open,” […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 20, 2009 Filmmaking
KEITH GORDON BLOGS FROM THE SUNDANCE DIRECTORS’ LAB

It’s June, so that means it’s time for the Sundance Labs, where emerging writers, directors and composers hone their skills in preparation for their next films. This year, we’ll be featuring a number of Lab participants blogging from the Sundance Institute, and to launch the series we’re really happy to have actor and writer/director Keith Gordon (A Midnight Clear, Mother Night, Waking the Dead) conveying his experiences as an advisor to the Directing Fellows. In this first post, penned in the middle of his drive from L.A. to Utah, he writes about the reasons he goes back to Sundance year […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 17, 2009 Filmmaking
IRANIAN FILMMAKER BAHMAN GHOBADI COMMENTS ON HIS COUNTRY

In the upcoming issue of Filmmaker, Howard Feinstein covers the Cannes Film Festival and has high praise for Bahman Ghobadi’s No One Knows About Persian Cats (pictured), which played in the Un Certain Regard section. He calls the film, which is about two musicians trying to form a band after being released from prison, “a love/hate letter to Tehran itself.” Ghobadi, who now lives in Berlin, has recently seen his fiance, journalist Roxana Saberi jailed (she was recently released) and he himself was imprisoned for a week when he returned to the country recently to visit his mother. He speaks […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 16, 2009 Filmmaking
JAMES LONGLEY BLOGS FROM IRAN ABOUT THE DISPUTED ELECTION

Filmmaker James Longley (the excellent Iraq in Fragments) is in Iran working on his new documentary film, which includes coverage of the current disputed election. He’s been blogging at Doug Block’s D-Word doc forum, and over the weekend posted an amazing series of bulletins about the election, which include his thoughts on what it means for Iranian politics and then a gripping description of his being detained while his translator was beaten. A.J. Schnack has collected these posts in a single blog entry here. From one of the earlier posts: If this outcome is allowed to stand, we now have […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 15, 2009 Filmmaking
PALLOTTA PUTS AMERICAN PRINCE ON BITTORRENT

When we last checked in with producer and director Tommy Pallotta, he was talking about distributing his latest documentary, American Prince, through BitTorrent for free download by filesharers… but he hadn’t done it yet. Now he has. You can download the torrent uploaded by the filmmaker himself here at Mininova. And here’s the description on the page: In 1978, director Martin Scorsese turned his camera on his friend and roommate, Steven Prince, with his lost documentary American Boy. Best known for his role as the gun salesman in Taxi Driver, Prince was a true-life raconteur, actor, ex-drug addict, and road […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 15, 2009 Filmmaking
A GLIMPSE AT CINEVEGAS ’09

Head over to Festival Ambassador to see Mike Jones‘s coverage of the festival (part 1, part 2 & part 3), which wrapped over the weekend with Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s Easier With Practice winning the Grand Prize of $10,000. Other winners include:Best Documentary: Douglas Tirola’s All In: The Poker MovieBest Short: Destin Daniel’s Short Term 12Special Grand Jury Prize for Directing: Justin Nowell’s Acting for the CameraSpecial Documentary Jury Prize for Artistic Vision: Jessica Oreck’s Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo Robert Saitzyk (director) and Cory Knauf and Joseph McKelheer (screenwriters) Exceptional Artistic Achievement Award for GodspeedFilmmaker to Watch Award: Jeff Mizushima’s Etienne!

By Jason Guerrasio on Jun 15, 2009 Filmmaking
MOHSEN MAKHMALBAF SPEAKS OUT ON THE IRANIAN COUP

As news reports come in from the aftermath of Iran’s highly contested and most likely fraudulent election, film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a supporter of challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi, is one of the voices speaking out. From a post by Abbas Djavadi on the blog Iran & Beyond: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a prominent film producer supporting Mousavi, who stayed in his favored candidate’s headquarters, told Radio Farda that they were called by the Election Commission well before the first results were announced. “Don’t announce Mr. Mousavi’s victory yet,” they were told by authorities. “We will gradually prepare the public and then you […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 13, 2009 Filmmaking
NETFLIX FIND YOUR VOICE FINALISTS CHOSEN

The Netflix/Film Independent “Find Your Voice” competition has selected its ten semi-finalists, and now it’s time to vote for the winner, who will receive a total of $350,000 worth of production services and cash towards the making of his or her film. I’m going to go through the ten nominees right now and check them out but, not to play favorites, you might consider Dee Rees’s Pariah as we love her work: she was one of our “25 New Faces of 2008.” Her Netflix submission is below:

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 13, 2009 Filmmaking
MOORE TALK

Michael Moore‘s upcoming untitled film will look at the global financial crisis. Below is the teaser that began running in theaters this weekend. The film opens in early Oct.

By Jason Guerrasio on Jun 13, 2009 Filmmaking

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