Filmmaking

LIFE, ART, AND JIM LYONS ON THE CRAFT OF EDITING

In the comments section of my post on the passing of Jim Lyons, Josh Apter notes a podcast he’s put up of Lyons at the website for the Manhattan Edit Workshop. Click over to the site and into the section on Jim and you can download a podcast of him discussing the craft of editing. And here’s what Apter wrote in his post: Jim’s viewpoint and candor were always refreshing, and his commitment to process had a devilish enthusiasm. Whether screening an ancient 16mm copy of Jean Genet’s Un Chant d’Amour or deconstructing Roland Barthes’ essay on Greta Garbo’s face, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 25, 2007 Filmmaking
LET ME THINK ABOUT THAT…

The problem with our sound-bite culture is that stuff that’s not a sound bit rarely makes it onto a news. But as any good film director can tell you, sometimes a person saying nothing can communicate so much more than an actor delivering the most eloquently written monologue. Over at The Huffington Post, director Alex Gibney blogs about his new doc, Taxi to the Dark Side, and, more specifically, Alberto Gonzalez. He poses the question, “Is Alberto Gonzalez stupid?” and wonders whether the Attorney General’s testimony last week is truly as hapless at it appeared or whether there was a […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 25, 2007 Filmmaking
GET CONNECTED AND GIVE BACK

On Saturday, April 28 the IFP will be doing a special Producing 101 panel with Waitress producer Michael Roiff, and veteran producers Lydia Dean Pilcher (The Namesake) and Big Beach’s Peter Saraf (Little Miss Sunshine). The three will be sitting down to discuss Roiff’s first producing effort with Waitress, written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly, along with talking about some of the challenges producers face — developing material, finding money, building a strong team to get the project from script to screen. The panel (with reception to follow) takes place at the Helen Mills Theater (137 West 26th […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Apr 24, 2007 Filmmaking
CHOOSE… BUT CHOOSE WISELY

With the Tribeca Film Festival a few days away, Anthony Kaufman has a great piece over at indieWIRE about the rivalry between Tribeca, SXSW and LAFF. As the three fests are scheduled so close to one another, most of the times they are fighting for the same films (and leaving regional fests like Sarasota, Florida Film Festival and Independent Film Festival Boston with little to choose from). This causes headaches for filmmakers who due to premiere-crazed programming aren’t choosing a festival that’s best for their film but what fest will give them the most exposure. Here’s an excerpt: “’Call me […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Apr 23, 2007 Filmmaking
MORE CRISIS

In 2005 Filmmaker selected Rachel Boynton as one of our “25 New Faces of Independent Film” based on the advance knowledge we had on her completely excellent doc Our Brand is Crisis, which was successfully released in theaters last year. Today came more great news for Boynton and her doc. Pamela McClintock and Adam Dawtrey report in Variety that Warner Brothers has picked up feature remake rights to the doc for George Clooney and his Smoke House production company. According the trade paper, the film will be “reimagined as a dark comedy,” which is not much of a stretch if […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 23, 2007 Filmmaking
A MESSAGE FROM BLACKSBURG

There’s been so much in the mainstream media in the last week about the horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech — much of it rather soul deadening in its own right — that I hate to direct you to one more story. But if you’ve been following the MSM coverage you’ve probably come across a quote from or reference to Paul Harrill, an independent filmmaker who teaches film at the school. Harrill was the one who discovered a similarity between the images in Park Chan-wook’s Old Boy and the homemade videos of the killer. On his blog, which I’ve linked to […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 23, 2007 Filmmaking
SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES DIRECTORS/SCREENWRITERS LABS

The Sundance Institute has announced the 13 projects for its annual June Directors and Screenwriters Labs, held May 28-June 28. The Labs have evolved to include filmmakers from around the world, with fellows this year from Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Haiti. The participants and projects selected for the Labs are: DIRECTORS LAB THE CAVANAUGHS / John Morgan (co-writer/director) and Meg LeFauve (co-writer), U.S.A. When the mother of a deeply evangelical family suddenly rejects motherhood, falls in love with a woman, and disavows her faith, the remaining members of the family are thrown into chaos, forcing each of them […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Apr 23, 2007 Filmmaking
ROUGH CUT WISDOM FROM THE BOOK OF CALEB

Below I posted about the upcoming IFP Rough Cut Lab I’m teaching with Gretchen McGowan and a group of fantastic advisors in June. The deadline is April 27 (find more info here) so we’re in the final rounds of accepting and looking at material. But if you have a project and have been on the fence about submitting it, here’s an email I received from Matt Manahan, who went through the lab last year with his feature The Book of Caleb (pictured). It might help you decide if the process is one that can help you and your film. The […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 20, 2007 Filmmaking
CHECK OUT THE SPRING ISSUE

For those who bookmark the blog, head over to the main page where you can see select stories from the Spring issue of Filmmaker, which hits newstands today. Some of the features you can view on the site include an in-depth look by Alicia Van Couvering on the twentysomething filmmakers who’ve been dubbed “Mumblecore,” and James Ponsoldt talks to Charles Burnett on his masterpiece Killer of Sheep, which has finally gotten a theatrical release after 30 years. Enjoy.

By Jason Guerrasio on Apr 20, 2007 Filmmaking
WAITING FOR THE DIRECTORS

In The Guardian, John Patterson wonders if auteurs are all they are cracked up to be. An excerpt: The auteur theory, I’ve finally decided, can kiss my ass. I’m done with it. It bores me. I flee in great haste from the mere mention of its name. It’s a cult of personality. It’s a marketing scheme. It’s become a misleading umbrella-term falsely uniting a diverse body of collectively created work under a single name. And it just encourages the tacky, egomaniacal film-school cult of the writer-director as lone presiding genius…. The “auteurs” are still out there, but most of them […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2007 Filmmaking

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