Filmmaking

SUNDANCE SANS CHECKBOOKS

“What if Sundance isn’t about the sales anymore?” asks Stephen Zeitchik in a Hollywood Reporter piece that’s worth reading for its take on the festival and the current acquisitions market. In it he mentions several films that are screening directly for executives instead of heading towards Park City, and he summons up the following vision of the festival (which is a lot like how it used to be a long time ago): But what these breakouts show is that the fest’s main value might now lie in the classic indie model, in which little money is spent and little is […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2009 Filmmaking
FINDING YOUR VOICE (AND BUDGET) AT NETFLIX

From a press release I just received from Film Independent: Today Film Independent and Netflix announced the immediate launch of the Netflix FIND Your Voice Film Competition, which will award one aspiring first-time feature filmmaker the means, guidance and resources to make a full-length, narrative film. The winner of the competition, who will own all rights to his or her film, will be determined between now and July 2009. In addition to production resources needed to make the film, the winner will receive a $150,000 cash production grant funded by Netflix, plus turnkey resources like film stock, processing, camera rental, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2009 Filmmaking
PREDICTING A NEW, SMOOTHER INDIE CINEMA

Below I posted John August’s take on the new iMovie HD, introduced this week at Macworld Expo. Now, the New York Times‘ David Pogue weighs in. He’s mixed/positive on the update, saying that it fixes some of the previous version’s deficiencies while ignoring others. But while most filmmakers don’t use this consumer-level application, I can’t help but think that one new iMovie development may reshape some no-budget filmmakers’ creative arsenals: Now, longtime readers may recall that I absolutely hated iMovie ’08. It wasn’t iMovie at all; Apple completely junked the beloved iMovie that had served it well for years, and […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2009 Filmmaking
DINNER AND A MOVIE?

If you’d like to impress your date with your taste and erudition — and thumb your nose at all your downsizing friends — you can buy a pair of tickets to what is the toniest movie fundraiser ever. From Quintessentially.com: The Alloy Theater Company will present a stunning recreation of one of the most amazing classical menus ever created, featuring the most decadent tastes from late 19th century Paris, and immortalized in the Academy Award-winning film Babette’s Feast, at Thomas Keller’s world-renowned Per Se restaurant. Taking place on Friday, January 9 at Per Se (10 Columbus Circle), Keller’s interpretation of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2009 Filmmaking
PREVIEWING THE GREATEST

This year we placed Shana Feste, writer/director of the Sundance Competition film The Greatest on our 25 New Faces list. Now, via Variety, is a preview clip from her film.

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2009 Filmmaking
ROTTERDAM ANNOUNCES TIGER COMPETITION FILMS

The Interational Film Festival Rotterdam, which opens this year January 21, has just announced its Tiger Competition line-up. The competition, which is limited to first and and second features, contains 14 films, including eight world premieres, and the opening night film is MIchael Imperioli’s directorial debut, The Hungry Ghosts. Here is the complete list: At West of Pluto, Henri Bernadet & Myriam Verreault (Canada)Be Calm and Count to Seven, Ramtin Lavafipour (Iran)Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly, Edwin (Indonesia)Breathless, Yang Ik-june (South Korea)Dark Harbor, Takatsugu Naito (Japan)Dogging: A Love Story, Simon Ellis (U.K.)Floating in Memory, Peng Tao (China)The Hungry Ghosts, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 7, 2009 Filmmaking
SELLING THE SIZZLE

In our current down economy, there is one indie film genre that is actually attracting new investment dollars: the porn biz. That’s according to The Atlantic, which, in an article by Tom Johansmeyer, tells the story of AdultVest, which bills itself as the adult industry’s first hedge fund and investment community. The fund won the Alternative Investment News Hedge Fund Launch of the Year Award, beating out a the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. As the piece makes clear, the fund’s CEO, Francis Koenig, sees opportunity amidst all the financial carnage and technological disruption of the current entertainment distribution system. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 7, 2009 Filmmaking
FILMMAKER YEAR IN REVIEW: MIKE PLANTE

Here’s the last of our ’08 wrap-ups, this time from contributor Mike Plante, whose interview with Wayne Coyne about the Flaming Lips Christmas on Mars is up now on the main page. Independent film distribution was having trouble before the economy began crashing around your house and new car. But I’m not talking about early 2008, when the likes of Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse and New Line went away — I am talking about the last 50 years. When the independent distribution arms of the major studios went out of business, I felt bad about the opportunities for smaller-budget studio […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 6, 2009 Filmmaking
“A BLUESMAN IN THE LIFE OF THE MIND”

On my “best of ’08” list is a sub-category for the best films I saw on the fest circuit that have distribution in ’09, and one of my favorites of these is Astra Taylor’s Examined Life. It’s a documentary in which the director takes eight philosophers to the streets and explores the way in which their ideas bleed back and forth between the world and their consciousnesses. It’s a smart, heady film that is also an especially warm, engaging, and high-spirited viewing experience. Here is the just released official trailer.

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 6, 2009 Filmmaking
JOHN AUGUST ON iMOVIE POST MAC WORLD

One of the questions Apple’s filmmaker fans had going into today’s Macworld conference was whether the rumored changes to the iLife suite of programs would include an upgrade to iMovie that bring the program’s functionality back to where it was before it was disastrously retooled as iMovie HD. Unfortunately, based on screenwriter and director John August’s opinion, it doesn’t sound like this happened today. From his blog: Among the products Apple announced today is iMovie 09, an update to their entry-level video editor that I currently find completely unusable. They have demo videos up showing some of the new features, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 6, 2009 Filmmaking

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