Columns
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Panavision’s Dan Sasaki on their Large Format Digital Lenses, the Primo 70
Late last year Panavision introduced a new lens line, the Primo 70. These lenses are specifically designed for use on larger sensor digital cameras and, according to Panavision, cannot be used on film cameras. We spoke with Dan Sasaki, VP of Optical Engineering at Panavision, about the development of these lenses, and how they differ from film lenses. Filmmaker: What was the impetus for developing digital lenses? Sasaki: Our Primo 35 lenses have been around since the late ’80s, early ’90s, and they are designed to work with film cameras. The Primo lenses have what’s called the blue line shift on […]
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“I Still Love Film, But This is the New Golden Age of TV, with Deeper and Darker Approaches to Storytelling”: Molly Breeskin on Developing Television
I remember my first summer in New York. Washington Square Park was my backyard, I had an unconvincing fake ID that somehow worked, and I ate frozen yogurt for breakfast. I also remember spaceship battles and Cylons because when I wasn’t outside living the dream, I was in a Battlestar Galactica fantasy in my dorm room. And when I wasn’t binge-watching the television show, I was dreaming about it. The memories of my first summer in New York are largely constructed around this BSG association; it’s as if the context of my real life has been grounded in the memories of the fantasy one. I similarly refer […]
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“I am Optimistic about the Film Industry Finding Alternative Methods of Distribution”: Leslie Vuchot on Non-Theatrical Distribution
I’m sitting in a small 190°F room. I have taken my glasses off because I think they’d melt, so I can’t see. Also, I’m naked, as is everyone around me. My friend and I are whispering, most likely disturbing the neighboring nudes, but this is my first time in a Berlin sauna, so I’m not familiar with the collective sweaty silence that Germans call relaxation. As my friend escorts me through the different bathing rooms, I try to keep an open mind because a night at the Stadtbad is a Berlin staple. Twenty-five years ago, two friends also made a […]
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Job Listing: Filmmaker and IFP Are Seeking an Advertising Sales Associate
Filmmaker and its parent organization IFP are seeking an Advertising Sales Associate, a salaried position based out of the IFP’s DUMBO-based office. A short description of the job is listed below, and this post will be updated with links to LinkedIn and Vediabistro when they go live. In short, though, the Advertising Sales Associate is responsible for ad sales for Filmmaker across print and web as well as IFP. IFP, a world class nonprofit devoted to independent film and its creators, seeks a mid-level Advertising Sales professional to secure revenue for its publication, Filmmaker, and online channels. The successful candidate […]
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David Carr, R.I.P.
David Carr flew under my radar for a little while. I never read his book, The Night of the Gun, and my general disinterest in the Oscar Industrial Complex meant that I wasn’t a regular reader of his late aughts Carpetbagger column at The New York Times either. I had heard rumblings that there was a guy with an arresting voice and upright posture bringing an outsider (and from his basement) attitude to awards season coverage. Maybe I read a few of them, but it wasn’t until Carr sequed into his Media Equation column that he became essential to me. […]
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“I Don’t Particularly Like Networking…. I Just Care About Making Good Films”: Shih-Ching Tsou on Producing
I’m walking up the ballroom steps of Berlin’s Ritz Carlton on the third night of the Berlinale. Around the circular balcony are crowds of men, drinks in one hand, cigarettes in the other. Between sips and drags they survey the arriving guests. The scene is worth checking out — it’s a mix of German film celebrities, socialites and a smattering of film industry who are seduced less by the scene than by the promise of free food. But the sustenance provided during the first two hours is limited to frosted flutes of vodka and second-hand smoke. Feeling starved throughout a […]
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“I Believe the Most Important Changes Will Come from Women Lifting Up Other Women”: Sarah Hack on Business and Legal Affairs
I’m with a small group of friends for our inaugural weekly movie night. Thinking that a club name will beget commitment, we arbitrarily choose “Zeitgeist.” It’s the first word we see, frozen on the makeshift projector screen. Zeitgeist Films is the distribution company for our opening film, the first in Laura Poitras’ post-9/11 trilogy and a 2007 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary, My Country, My Country. For her film Citizenfour, Poitras is one of two female directors nominated for Best Documentary in the 2015 Oscar race. None have been nominated this year for Achievement in Directing. None have been […]
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Filmmaker‘s Winter Issue Launches with Cover Story Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
Filmmaker‘s Winter issue is now arriving in mailboxes, newsstands, and is online for subscribers. I’m very happy to have as our cover story my favorite film from Sundance ’14, the Zellner Bros’ beautifully surreal fable for the internet age, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter. It arrives in theaters in just a few weeks, and in my spoiler-free interview you’ll read about David and Nathan Zellner’s love of ’80s adventure films, their diligent approach to sound design, and stealing shots on the Tokyo subway. And don’t miss the companion article by the film’s d.p., Sean Porter, who impressively and personally talks about […]
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Hits & Misses 2014
Like the growing income gap in the United States, the indie film world has become increasingly divided between richer and poorer. While Sundance 2014 alumni such as Boyhood and A Most Wanted Man proved there’s still a spot for unique and well-crafted non-Hollywood crossovers in the popular culture (the films earned, respectively, more than $24 million and $17 million at the U.S. box office), the vast majority of last year’s festival titles had to scrappily pull together alternative distribution strategies in an ever-fragmenting entertainment universe, caught somewhere between the old and the new, ticket sales and downloads. As Roadside Attractions […]
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“I’ve Made it a Priority to Not Be Afraid of Evolving”: Jennifer Cochis on Producing, Programming and Directing
My German teacher in Berlin has been hacked. In class, she violates her “no speaking English” rule to explain that for nearly a year, a hacker has tracked her digital life in order to stalk her in real life. I’ve never been personally hacked — or so I think — but, the inconvenience of it seems rather minor compared to the sense of intimate violation. The Sony leak, the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence, and my teacher’s less gossip-worthy admission all underscore this pervasive reality of digital fragility. This is a topical conversation, but it’s also a really abstract one. […]
