Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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“We Both Think Beauty Lies in the Imperfection”: DP Ante Cheng on Justin Chon’s Gook
Actor Justin Chon appeared in all five Twilight films and a number of TV shows before making his directorial debut in 2015 with Man Up. His second feature, the provocatively titled Gook, premiered in the NEXT lineup at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The film was shot by Ante Cheng, a Los Angeles-based cinematographer from Taipei. Cheng had previously shot shorts and directed commercials and music videos before getting tapped by Chon for Gook. Prior to the film’s debut at Sundance, Cheng spoke with Filmmaker about shooting in black and white, his favorite Los Angeles-set films and finding inspiration in the words of cinematographer Harris Savides. […]
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Scandal, Fassbinder, Garfein’s Something Wild and Fellini’s Roma: Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Picks
This week ABC dropped a nice surprise for Scandal fans in the form of a new web series that bridges season five and the twice-delayed (first by star Kerry Washington’s pregnancy, then by Trump’s inauguration) season six, which finally begins on January 26. Currently streaming on ABC’s website and app, Gladiator Wanted is the exceptionally entertaining brainchild of Scandal costar Darby Stanchfield, who created the web series and occupies the director’s chair for all six episodes. Scandal has long been one of the most dynamically directed shows on network television, boasting exceptional work by Ava DuVernay, Tom Verica, Jessica Yu, […]
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DP Simon Chapman on Sundance-Bound Australian Thriller Killing Ground
Simon Chapman has has served as DP on nearly 50 features, shorts and TV series since 2001, including five shorts from director Damien Power. In 2016 Chapman shot Power’s debut feature, Killing Ground, which premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival and is set to screen during the Midnight section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to his work with Power, Chapman has shot films for Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones, The Devil’s Candy) and Tony Ayres (Cut Snake). He speaks below about the naturalist thriller Killing Ground ahead of its screening at Sundance. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]
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“On a Picture of this Size, Time and Money Are Your Enemy”: DP Armando Salas on Bitch
Writer/director/actor Marianna Palka has appeared at Sundance to present a feature (2008’s Good Dick), a documentary short (2014’s The Lion’s Mouth Opens) and to serve as a Sloan Juror. She returns to Park City in 2017 with Bitch, her surreal new film on the crumbling of a nuclear family. Palka hired DP Armando Salas to shoot the film, which stars Jason Ritter, Jaime King and Palka herself. Ahead of the film’s premiere, Salas spoke with Filmmaker about the film’s seriocomic tone, visual influences and its toughest scene to shoot. The film will screen four times at Sundance this year. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind […]
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Sundance: Exploring the Implications of Amazon’s New Distribution Play
Earlier this week, Amazon Video Direct (AVD, a department within Amazon focused on self-publishing distribution tools for filmmakers) announced an intriguing new opportunity available to Sundance 2017 feature filmmakers. Dubbed the “Film Festival Stars” program, AVD is offering, in exchange for a two-year worldwide SVOD (subscription VOD) contract (with one-year exclusive) an up-front “cash bonus” to Sundance titles on a sliding scale based on section ($100,000 for US Narrative Competition titles, $75,000 for US Documentary Competition Titles, and $25,000 for titles in the NEXT, Midnight, Kids, World, New Frontiers, and Spotlight sections). The deal also offers a preferential rate on […]
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“A Lot of Creativity and Beauty Can Come from Limitations”: DP Nicholas Wiesnet on L.A. Times
Five years ago, Michelle Morgan made her Sundance debut with the short film K.I.T. She returns to the festival in 2017 as the writer, director and star of her first feature, L.A. Times, a romantic comedy where she plays alongside Jorma Taccone of Lonely Island fame. Morgan hired Nicholas Wiesnet, a DP known primarily for documentary and short film work, to shoot the picture. Below, Wiesnet discusses how he got the job, why he shot the film in anamorphic widescreen and his approach to lighting and blocking comedy. L.A. Times will screen six times during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]
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DP Chris Teague on Shooting Landline, Gillian Robespierre’s Follow-Up to Obvious Child
Three years ago, writer/director Gillian Robespierre premiered Obvious Child at Sundance to much acclaim. The film would go on to earn more than $3 million at the domestic box office, making it one of the bigger titles to emerge from Sundance 2014. Robespierre returns to the festival in 2017 with Landline, which reunites her with lead actor Jenny Slate and DP Chris Teague. Set in 1990s New York, Landline is a seriocomic portrait of a family in flux. Below, Teague discusses shooting in NYC apartments, the influence of ’70s American cinema on Landline and recreating the Village Halloween Parade on a small budget. Filmmaker: How and […]
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Thinking about Trump and Streep on Martin Luther King Day
It’s not so hard to see how Meryl Streep is like Donald Trump. They share a taste for the ornate, the larger than life showy stuff. For every gold plated monstrosity that Trump has erected, there is a larger-than-life character Streep has chosen to play (“You have a script with a fatally sick socialite soprano who can’t sing? Sign me up!”) They both have an energy that is, as Trump might say, huge. And both of them can bully with their energy, wield their seemingly ageless and endless vitality like a dare, like a threat, like a weapon. Both of […]
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DPs Bob Richman, Buddy Squires and Thorsten Thielow on Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman
It took a team of four seasoned documentary DPs to capture the stories of Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman. Shot in Montana, Kansas and Louisiana, the film documents the lives of three men (the titular rancher, farmer and fisherman) who act as environmental conservationists in their respective fields. Directors Susan Froemke and John Hoffman have the action unfold in a vérité fashion, which stresses the land and the people who work it. Among the DPs they hired for the project were Bob Richman (An Inconvenient Truth), Buddy Squires (The Central Park Five) and Thorsten Thielow (30 for 30). Below, these three cinematographers discuss the unique challenges […]
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A Slice of Southern Life: DP Dustin Lane on Dayveon
Hailed one of Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces in 2016, Amman Abbasi makes his Sundance and feature film debut with Dayveon. The film stars Devin Blackmon as a 13-year-old kid coping with the violent death of his older brother in small-town Arkansas. Given the setting, age of the characters and Abbasi’s lyrical approach to the story, the film has strong echoes of George Washington by David Gordon Green, who served as an executive producer here. Below, Filmmaker speaks with Dayveon DP Dustin Lane about his connection to the American South, shooting in a small town and his visual approach to this story. Filmmaker: How […]
