Filmmaking

PETER BRODERICK ON NEW MEDIA AND DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION

Scott Kirsner just passed along a few links that aren’t yet up on his great CinemaTech blog. The three clips linked below are Kirsner’s interview with indie film consultant (and sometime Filmmaker contributor) Peter Broderick just after the Cannes Film Festival. In part one Broderick and Kirsner discuss film and new technology. In part two they talk about the changing world of film financing. And part three is all about marketing and audience building. Peter has always been a thoughtful, ahead-of-the-curve commentator on independent film distribution, so I suggest you check these out on Google Video.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 16, 2007 Filmmaking
THE TRIAL OF JT LEROY

Metafiction collided with the law in a New York court this week as Antidote Films, the production company of producer Jeff Levy-Hinte (Thirteen, Laurel Canyon), sued Laura Albert, the woman behind the fictitious author JT Leroy and the novel Sarah, for fraud. Reports Alan Feuer in The New York Times: This intricate game of hide-and-seek with its interlocking issues of identity, fame, money and the healing power of art has now leapt from the media to what is arguably the culture’s second most obsessive arena: the courts. A film production company has sued Ms. Albert for fraud, saying that a […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 16, 2007 Filmmaking
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS

The Paul Thomas Anderson fansite Cigarettes and Red Vines has just posted the first trailer for Anderson’s latest, There Will Be Blood. It looks completely stunning and just the kind of change-up I want to see from Anderson right now. Can’t wait till this is released.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 16, 2007 Filmmaking
IN DREAMS

In the Village Voice, Robert Shuster reports on artist Christian Tomaszweski, who has spent three years creating a series of installations directly inspired by David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. According to the article, they remake “the movie’s spaces, props, and moods, including the hallways outside Isabella Rossellini’s apartment, a scale-model view from the closet where naked Kyle MacLachlan witnesses gas-sucking Dennis Hopper commit a brutal rape, and that notorious severed ear.” According to a press release issued by New York’s The Sculpture Center, which is exhibiting the work through July 29: Since 2004, Christian Tomaszewski has been plunging into the entrails […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 13, 2007 Filmmaking
INTO THE BLACK

Over at Movie City News, Larry Gross posts one of his occasional and quite brilliant critical essays, this time on those eight seconds of black at the end of The Sopranos. And although Gross sees in Sopranos creator David Chase echos of Tolstoy and Balzac and not the Joyce or Kafka of The Prisoner creator Patrick McGoohan, it’s occurred to me that the conclusion of Chase’s series has inspired the same level of audience vexation that the famous final episode of The Prisoner caused back in the ’60s. Gross’s article is long and fascinating in its consideration of the aesthetic […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 13, 2007 Filmmaking
IFP UNVEILS ROUGH CUT LAB SELECTIONS

IFP announced today the ten films selected to participate in its third annual Narrative Rough Cut Lab, a national program connecting mentors and projects by first-time feature filmmakers before they are submitted to festivals. Taking place in New York City June 12 – 15, this year’s Lab includes a number of new initiatives, such as: the formation of an Advisory Board, expansion of the program from three to four days, and moving the program from September to June, thereby ensuring that participants will have time after working with their mentors to submit their strongest work possible prior to the submission […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jun 11, 2007 Filmmaking
SHOOTING FROM THE LIP

Over on the main page check out Jamie Stuart’s Q&A with legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. Here’s an excerpt: Filmmaker: Apocalypse Now. Theatrically, it was amazing to see it in its Scope aspect ratio, in 2001. I know that at this point you’re preferential to 2:1, but some people were upset to see it on DVD cropped from the 35mm 2.35. Storaro: Well, I always connected with one painting that Leonardo did, The Last Supper. The Last Supper is 2:1. At the time of shooting Apocalypse Now, I was not aware. I don’t really remember when I became conscious of the […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jun 8, 2007 Filmmaking
BABY STEPS

At the Filmmaker office we’ve been researching the emerging online indie film market for an upcoming story about how independents are selling their work through digital download services. But perhaps I should just keep a running link to Scott Kirsner’s Cinematech blog as he’s made this field his beat for the last several months. This week he posted “For Indie Filmmakers: How to Sell DVDs Online”, a recounting of a conversation he had with Jamie Chvotkin, founder of FilmBaby.com, a site that assists filmmakers in the marketing and promotion of their DVDs. (More info here.) What’s interesting about the post […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 6, 2007 Filmmaking
CELEBRATING MELVIN

Out on DVD today is Joe Angio’s documentary, How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It), on the life and work of Melvin Van Peebles. I saw the film at its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival a few years back and when I watched it again on IFC not too long ago I was reminded by how well done the film is. Angio not only examines how Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song invented the Blaxploitation genre, but spotlights his renaissance life which includes working on Broadway and the New York Stock Exchange. But I think […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jun 5, 2007 Filmmaking
JUDD APATOW, FOREVER YOUNG

Over on the main page Nick Dawson interviews Knocked Up‘s writer/director, Judd Apatow. Here’s Apatow on what he considers to be his defining trait, awkwardness: It’s true, I’m a very awkward person. It’s hard to shake. Some people are wired for drug abuse or alcoholism or smoking; on some level, I’m wired to always feel like a goofball. No matter how well things go, I feel like I’m 15 years old. So when I’m out at a restaurant with my wife, I always feel like I’m on a first date and she might run at any moment. And it’s very […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 2, 2007 Filmmaking

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