Production
Filmmaking - Production
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Behind the Scenes of a Car Chase
Action director Lawrence Ribeiro has appeared in Filmmaker‘s pages before, writing about pre-viz’ing a fight scene and stunt training. Recently he has been directing a series of car chase short films, with the latest, Part Deux: The Chase, racking up 1.5 million views on YouTube. As he writes, these days he’s “working to expand Action Realism with upcoming projects that marry speed and movement with legendary talents in music and sound.” Here, in a conversation submitted by production company Art & Action Productions, he answers questions about the film, which can also be watched below. What was the purpose behind […]
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“I Think We Sampled 100 Pinks”: Production Designer Sarah Greenwood and Set Decorator Katie Spencer on Barbie
Neither Barbie production designer Sarah Greenwood nor set decorator Katie Spencer had Barbie dolls growing up. “Or a DreamHouse, or anything,” recalls Greenwood, who joined Filmmaker on Zoom alongside Spencer following the record-breaking opening of Greta Gerwig’s feminist smash hit. “I was probably a little judgmental about Barbie until this film — I fell into that camp. But I kind of readdressed my thoughts after meeting this Barbie, and [its creator] Ruth Handler.” Spencer adds, “And [after] meeting Greta. We were a part of the backlash generation. Even if we wanted a Barbie, I don’t know that our parents would have […]
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SAG-AFTRA Votes to Strike, Shutting Down Film and Television Production
SAG-AFTRA is joining WGA on the Hollywood picket lines. Following the collapse Wednesday of its negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the union voted to strike, effective tonight at 12:01 AM. It’s the union’s first motion picture and television strike since 1980 and the first time since 1960 that both the actors’s and writers’ unions have concurrently struck. “We had no choice,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher at a live-streamed news conference this afternoon. “We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity.” She continued, “I cannot believe it, quite […]
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NAB 2023: New Gear That’s Making Virtual Production More Affordable and Accessible
At NAB I had a mission: find out what new products are making virtual production more affordable, more accessible, and not require a master’s degree in Unreal. Fortunately, I found a few options. Plus some new tools that are blending generative AI with virtual production. Let’s dig into what’s new in VP from NAB. Budget-Friendly Virtual Production First is the VIVE Mars CamTrack—a complete package for creating an affordable virtual volume. HTC’s VIVE has been in the virtual reality space for a while, with some of the top VR headsets. They also make the VIVE Tracker, a palm-sized puck that can track […]
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New York State Budget Includes Expansion of Film and Television Tax Credits
New York state’s just-passed fiscal year 2024 budget includes an expansion of the New York Film Tax Credit, Governor Kathy Hochul announced yesterday. The amount allocated to the program has been raised substantially, from $420 million per year to $700 million. Additionally, the base credit, which was reduced to 25% in 2020, has been raised to its prior level of 30%. And within the details are other significant changes. For the first time, the New York credit will apply to above-the-line costs. Salaries of writers, directors, “specific producers,” actors, and composers will be eligible for the credit, capped at $500,000 […]
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Camera to Cloud to Remote Collaboration: New Remote Tools and Workflows from NAB 2023
From uploading to the cloud to editing in the cloud to collaborating across the cloud, there was no shortage of new tools and workflow ideas at NAB to help shoot and edit quicker regardless of where your team is located across the globe. Let’s dive into a few of the most interesting updates, from remotely collaborating to remotely working. Camera to Cloud First up, let’s talk about camera-to-cloud workflows. The biggest update from Frame.io was the extension of the C2C workflow to still photos. Now, unlike video where you can use an external device from Atomos or Teradek to add […]
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How AI Will Change Your Future Media Workflow
The two big product updates from Adobe at NAB were text-based editing in Premiere and still photo support in Camera to Cloud (you can read our coverage on Frame.io updates here). But in chatting with Michael Cioni, Adobe’s Senior Director of Global Innovation, things took a fascinating turn when discussing Firefly, Adobe’s generative AI model, and the future of AI in media production. Our conversation explored the integration of AI tools in Adobe’s products, as well as the broader implications of AI-driven technologies on the creative process. Michael shared his insights on how the shift towards generative AI solutions could significantly […]
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Speaking Volumes: The Production Benefits and Challenges of Shooting on Virtual Stages
For Metropolis special effects artist Eugen Schüfftan, a model, a mirror and a sharp-edged tool were all the instruments required to create cinematic wonder in the 1920s. The mirror—placed at a 45-degree angle in front of the camera—reflected the image of a model cityscape located just out of frame. The tool then scraped away sections of the mirror’s reflective layer, leaving only glass and revealing strategically placed actors in the distance. When the mirror was filmed, the citizens of Metropolis now magically appeared to inhabit the colossal urban dystopia. A century later, virtual production is the latest evolution in cinematic […]
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State Hopping: The U.S. Film Tax Credit Landscape
As the pandemic exited its first lockdowns and film production tentatively recommenced amid overall economic uncertainty, the fate of U.S. tax incentives for feature film and television appeared cloudy. Wrote James Cutchin in the Los Angeles Business Journal on August 20, 2020, “State coffers have been drained after months of lockdowns, starved of key tax revenues and exhausted by the costs of fighting the virus. With states facing such bleak financial outlooks, some wonder whether governments will continue to fund film tax credit programs.” Two and a half years later, those worries have been largely banished. Last fall in an […]
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Late Fees: New York State’s Film Tax Credit Delays
Increasing delays in receiving the New York State film tax credit are affecting profitability and even dissuading some from shooting in the state, say a number of independent producers. What has long been one of the most robust and dependable of tax credits in the nation has become less appealing to producers and financiers due to timelines that can stretch out to five years from the start of principal photography. These lengthening timelines, especially in the face of rising interest rates, affect independent films needing to borrow against the credit more than studio and streamer productions, which are often fully […]
