Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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The Documentary Masterpiece that is Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old
By now you must have heard about Peter Jackson’s “controversial” restoration of 100-year-old 35mm newsreel footage from WWI, taken from the archive of London’s Imperial War Museum. A splendid profile by Mekado Murphy occupied #1 in the New York Times Trending section for several days after it appeared Dec. 16, joined by coverage by Chris O’Falt in IndieWire and David Sims in The Atlantic. Unfortunately, in a highly unusual release pattern, distributor Warner Bros. Pictures is screening this groundbreaking film on two dates only: Dec. 17 and Dec. 27 at select theaters across the U.S. (check local listings if you […]
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2018’s Ten Best Films Directed by Women
The films on this list represent only a small fraction of films from 2018 directed by female identifying filmmakers ranging greatly in production from impressive big budgeted masterpieces, to smaller, spirited low-to-no budget indies. One thing that emerged more than in recent years was that many films on this list implicate the audience in their inquiries and creativity; they reach into the senses to make sense of our unmoored present to provide meaningful connection. These directors remind how human the medium of film is and how our choices as an audience make us just as responsible as the filmmakers, artists, […]
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The Black List Announces its 2018 Screenplays
The 13th edition of The Black List has just been released. Founded by development executive Franklin Leonard, the list is a survey of the best un-produced screenplays in Hollywood, according to an anonymous selection of agents, managers, and production companies. Topping the list is Frat Boy Genius, a seemingly Social Network style take on Snap’s Evan Spiegel. Other highlights include a new project from Lena Waithe, and Nobody Nothing Nowhere, written by last year’s 25 New Faces Rachel Wolther and Alex Fischer. Read on for the full list. 36 Votes: Frat Boy Genius by Elissa Karasik A disgruntled employee of Snapchat tells the […]
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Three Faces of Evil: Top Scary Political Docs of 2018
If there was one theme that dominated the landscape on the doc fest circuit this year it was politics — and not just that of the Trump administration or the Kremlin (though those subjects were well represented). Filmmakers around the globe seemed to be in obsessive pursuit, trying to find some rational explanations for the irrational hell that’s been going on. Which means that as bad as the decline of western civilization might seem in our current time, there is one upside — it makes for some stunning cinematic art. So with that in mind I’d like to give a […]
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Your Film is Too Long: 11 Tips on How To Get Your Film to Its Correct Runtime
I know, it’s maddening. People watch 10-hour series that take five hours to get good, but your 101-minute comedy is too long. Michael Bay makes three-hour Transformers movies, but your 95-minute drama is too long. Critics love seven hours of Sátántangó, but your 18-minute short is too long. Sorry, but it’s probably true. I learned this the hard way on my first feature film, Jake. After our initial 118-minute cut, we proudly got it down to 104 minutes. We couldn’t cut a frame more! We locked picture and sent out our perfectly formed film to festivals. Final runtime? 88 minutes. […]
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Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K: Is it Worth It?
A $1300 4K RAW camera that comes with DaVinci Resolve and produces stunning, detailed images as those featured in the above camera test seems like a no-brainer. But as Blackmagic begins shipping their latest Pocket Cinema Camera, reports are rolling in of faulty battery life and other hang-ups. More than one reviewer noted that the battery has a tendency to jump from 70% to 0% in a second flat. Another suggests remedying the issue by purchasing a handful of Canon LP-E6Ns for back-up, effectively tacking an extra couple hundred dollars onto the baseline price tag. He also warns that the audio jacks can […]
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Talking Gender Parity in the Immersive World at the FilmGate Interactive Media Festival
No film fest is complete these days without an attempt to tackle the vast gender inequality that’s long afflicted the industry. So it comes as no surprise that the sixth edition of the FilmGate Interactive Media Festival devoted an entire panel to searching for remedies when it comes to immersive media. “Reaching True Gender Parity in Interactive Storytelling” proved to be a fascinating chat amongst four fervent ladies — Marie-Pier Gauthier of the National Film Board of Canada (who also served as panel moderator), HP’s Global Head of Virtual Reality Joanna Popper, Vivian Marthell, who leads local art house O […]
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Is The End Nigh for Fandor?
On the heels of FilmStruck’s closure, independent film streaming services have taken another hit as Fandor laid off about 40 employees towards the end of last week. The company’s CEO, Chris Kelly, announced that their assets were sold to a newly formed entity — Fandor ABC LLC, which is managed by GlassRatner — and that Fandor.com “will continue streaming movies without interruptions.” Their homepage now features a very small header that, once clicked upon, offers up the following statement: Fandor has prided itself on providing access to great film and visual expression to a broad audience. While we have had […]
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“If the Content is Sh*t, It Will Still be Sh*t in VR and AR”: Virtual Reality and Hard Truth at the 2018 FilmGate Interactive Media Festival
The Virtual Reality Portal at the FilmGate Interactive Media Festival, which this year overlapped with Art Basel in downtown Miami, featured a wealth of new discoveries alongside some stellar high-profile projects. Among the three-dozen or so interactive works on display were a pair that made for great companion pieces. The first was Lynette Wallworth’s “psychedelic documentary” Awavena, an inner trip that I’d just missed experiencing at IDFA DocLab (and which made me wish that every VR experience came with a hammock). The second, Eliza McNitt’s Sundance-premiering outer trip Spheres, also had perhaps the widest target audience of any of the […]
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“If You Want Something to Exist, Figure Out How to Do It”: Ian Clark on Eastern Oregon Film Festival and A Morning Light
As both a programmer and filmmaker, Ian Clark has had a long-standing relationship with Filmmaker. Named a 25 New Face in 2012, Clark is also a co-founder of the Eastern Oregon Film Festival (EOFF), which hosts its annual online program on this very website. I’ve attended EOFF for three years, and every time I am amazed by the sense of community Clark fosters and his prowess as a programmer, a curatorial mindset that feels like a direct extension of his person. Clark and I had a conversation about the festival’s origins, his relationship to his hometown of La Grande, and his […]
