Filmmaking
Filmmaking
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These Uncomfortably Exciting Times
I’m an eye. A mechanical eye. I, the machine, show you a world the way only I can see it. I free myself for today and forever from human immobility. I approach and pull away from objects. […] I creep under them. I move alongside a running horse’s mouth. I fall and rise with the falling and rising bodies. This is I, the machine, maneuvering in the chaotic movements, recording one movement after another in the most complex combinations. Freed from the boundaries of time and space, I co-ordinate any and all points of the universe, wherever I want them […]
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Keystone Cop: Why 1.66 and 1.78 Aspect Ratios Are Often Misprojected (And How to Fix That)
Jackie, Fox Searchlight’s best hope for 2016 Oscar glory, will be improperly projected throughout the world. There will be the usual projection mistakes and corporate carelessness that have become the norm in today’s multiplexes, but Jackie’s 1.66 aspect ratio will be presented keystoned more often than not: instead of a narrow rectangle that is 1.66 times longer than tall, the tops of the image will either curve inward or outward in relation to the screen. It’s an easily corrected mistake that is being ignored because of laziness. Since most projection booths are devoid of projectionists who can fix the problem, […]
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Secret Pizza, #pizzagate and Hyperreality: How My Film About Alternate Realities Was Swept Into One
“In the province of the mind what one believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits.” – John C. Lilly “I don’t believe anything, but I have many suspicions.” – Robert Anton Wilson “Reality used to be a friend of mine.” – P.M. Dawn My name is Matthew Lessner. I have been making films for the past decade, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d never seen any of them. Several of my films have screened at big-name festivals, but none of them have been exactly championed or widely released. I’ve never been mentioned in […]
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“I Have to Feel Sincere and Real When I Do It”: Joanna Fang on the Lifestyle Work of the Foley Artist
In Weiner, Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg’s documentary about Anthony Weiner’s attempted political comeback running for New York mayor, there’s a scene of Weiner shoveling a drippy deli wrap with a side of crispy fries in the back seat of his car. Between bites, Weiner chews through his hopes of a rebounding campaign after having sabotaged it by, once again, sexting on Twitter. He gazes out the car window, jaw muscles flexing, trails off mid-sentence, and dumps the plastic to-go container’s final fistful of french fries directly into his mouth. The masticating sounds of Weiner lunching were produced at Alchemy […]
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The Asphalt Jungle, Loophole and More: Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Recommendations
Nearly 30 years after his death, writer-director John Huston remains, in my estimation, a slightly underrated figure in the landscape of American cinema. This may seem like a perverse statement given his multiple Academy Award nominations (including two wins) and the fact that several of his films (The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, etc.) are widely acknowledged classics, but Huston is even better — far better, in fact — than his reputation suggests. His is a career of astonishing variety and endless probing, one that includes not only multiple jewels of classical Hollywood narrative […]
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Listen: Brian McOmber’s Haunting Score for Celia Rowlson-Hall’s MA
Celia Rowlson-Hall made our 25 New Faces list in 2015 on the basis of her entirely original, stunningly assured and nearly indescribable feature debut, MA. A year later, we picked for the list her film’s composer, former Dirty Projectors drummer Brian McComber, who not only composed her amazing score but did similarly outre work for Trey Shults’s Krisha. As he relates in our profile, the experimentalism of Rowlson-Hall’s film let him go slightly wild with the score; hence, the evocative gongs and cymbals. Now, over at the Soundcloud page of the film’s production company, MEMORY (yet another 25 New Face […]
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Four Lessons for Filmmakers from Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto
Throughout December, perhaps the best film showing in New York wasn’t in a theater at all but in a Civil War-era equine drill hall. Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto, a multiscreen installation starring Cate Blanchett in twelve different roles, closed its stay at the Park Avenue Armory last week. A single-screen linear version will reach a broader audience at Sundance next week, prompting me to reflect on the (presumed) differences between the two versions and what video artists and filmmakers of all stripes can learn from Rosefeldt’s latest work. First, a description. Manifesto takes its title and its text from the written manifestos of artists […]
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Will Streaming Services Gain the Right to Show Films without Licensing?
As Filmmaker recently reported, on January 1 in the U.S. the federal tax incentive program known as Section 181 expired, with little prospect of resuscitation: although the program benefits high net worth individuals like Donald Trump and his advisors, current Republican animosity toward Hollywood (see: Meryl Streep) could translate to low congressional will to assist the film industry. This has the potential to reduce filmmakers’ options at the beginning of a project’s life cycle. But another issue is emerging that could affect it at the end: the continuing legal battle over the streaming company VidAngel and their incipient campaign to have Congress strengthen the […]
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Sundance Trailer Watch: The Female-Directed Horror Anthology XX
Four female directors helm the various short works comprising XX, a new horror anthology from Magnet Releasing. Directors include musician Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) and Karyn Kusama, whose Girlfight graced our Summer 2000 issue and whose The Invitation is one of the best films — horror or otherwise — of ’16. From the press release: XX is a new all-female helmed horror anthology featuring four dark tales written and directed by fiercely talented women: Annie Clark (St. Vincent) rocks her directorial debut with The Birthday Party; Karyn Kusama (The Invitation, Girlfight) exorcises Her Only Living Son; Roxanne Benjamin (Southbound) […]
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Panasonic GH5 Raises the Bar with 6K and Much More
Panasonic’s GH4 has been a hit with documentary and low-budget indie filmmakers thanks to its small size, internal 4K recording and low cost. But it’s now over two and a half years old, and in today’s world that can be a lifetime for a camera. Fortunately, Panasonic has a replacement coming that looks like it could be as popular as the GH4, not only because it improves on the original capabilities but because it also marks a first step to 6K capture. Panasonic first teased the GH5 in September, but at CES they announced the feature list, along with planned […]
