Producers
Interviews - Producers
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SXSW: Five Questions with Spaceship Producer Olivier Kaempfer
He may only have three features under his belt, but producer Olivier Kaempfer is quickly establishing himself as an central figure in London’s independent film community. His first production, director Jules Bishop’s Borrowed Time, won Best of the Fest at Edinburgh in 2012, and his second, Desiree Akhavan’s Appropriate Behavior, broke out at Sundance 2014 followed by a successful theatrical run and extensive critical praise. Now his third film, Spaceship, a family drama packaged as a trippy science-fiction story, has pushed Kaempfer and his company Parkville Pictures into new territory, both in terms of content and the production process. Written and directed by Alex Taylor, the […]
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Emelie‘s Andrew Corkin on Becoming an Independent Film Producer
With over 30 assorted producing credits ranging from Martha Marcy May Marlene to An Oversimplification of Her Beauty to The Benefactor, Andrew Corkin is a constant figure in New York’s independent film scene. Uncorked, the production company he runs with partner Bryan Reisberg, has a filmography encompassing shorts, features, television and web, and the material ranges from auteur independent drama to so-called “elevated genre” pictures like Emelie, in theaters and on VOD platforms now from Dark Sky Films. Corkin’s most recent production, The Alchemist Cookbook, world premieres next week at SXSW. Last year I sat down Corkin for a public […]
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Opening Doors: Jessica Jones Creator Melissa Rosenberg
The more money involved in any industry, the more timid and conservative the financiers become about what they are willing to back. When deciding what to greenlight, they cling to outdated ideas of what audiences will want to watch, often lagging behind what the rest of us have always known: both men and women alike will watch, love and cheer a badass female protagonist. Props, then, to Netflix for recognizing that a series based on the Marvel character of Jessica Jones and created by Melissa Rosenberg could be fed to a hungry audience waiting like chicks with tiny beaks open […]
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Talking Sex Work with The Red Umbrella Diaries Producer Audacia Ray
It was a little over half a decade ago that I read at one of Audacia Ray’s intimate Red Umbrella Diaries events on the Lower East Side. Since then this sex worker storytelling series founder – whose resume also includes stints as a bodyworker, escort, and executive editor of $pread magazine – has become one of the foremost voices of sex work advocacy through her Red Umbrella Project (RedUP), harnessing the media to de-stigmatize the oldest profession in the world. Now, after waging battle against violence and for the public health of those in a long-marginalized industry, she’s executive produced The Red […]
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Four “Soft Skills” You Need to Remain Sane as a Creative Documentary Producer
It’s an unfortunate, but all-too-real paradox that one of the most demanding roles on or off the documentary filmmaking process is also one of the most under-appreciated: the creative producer. A problem-solver, accountant, disciplinarian, and therapist all rolled into one (and that’s just the tip of the iceberg), the responsibilities a creative producer faces on a daily basis go far beyond mere finances or logistics. From the visceral, chest-pounding conviction described by Emmy-winning producer Julie Goldman that inspires her to take on a project in the first place, the job requires an emotional strength and investment that’s just as, if […]
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IFP Screen Forward: 5 Questions for Producer Peter Phok about Crowdfunding’s Aftermath
Producer Peter Phok (The Sacrament, The Innkeepers, V/H/S) is one of five professionals this morning at an IFP Screen Forward panel titled “Bridging the Gap after Crowdfunding.” The title of the panel is an interesting collision of terms as only recently has crowdfunding been factored into independent film financing equations alongside terms like “mezzanine,” “senior debt” and “tax credit monetization.” But, indeed, crowdfunding is part of many independent films’ financing schemes, and its success — or failure — has much to do with a film’s greenlight. Below, Phok answers questions about film and crowdfunding. Filmmaker: Your panel is called, “Bridging […]
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IFP Screen Forward: 5 Questions for Documentary Producer Julie Goldman
One of the most prolific documentary producers around, Julie Goldman, takes the main stage this afternoon at IFP’s Screen Forward conference to talk about the evolving practice of non-fiction production. With producing credits going back to 1997, Goldman has produced or executive produced such notable films as Buck, Beware of Mr. Baker, 1971 , Best of Enemies and Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden. She’s currently producing through her production company, Motto, which has allowed her to increase the quantity of her production, just one of several topics she discusses below. Filmmaker: Your producing credits go back to 1997, yet […]
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IFP Screen Forward: Five Questions for Producer Mike S. Ryan
Ahead of his conversation at tomorrow’s Screen Forward conference, Mike S. Ryan fielded five questions about his career and recent Filmmaker piece “TV is Not the New Film.” A producer on such films as Meek’s Cutoff, The Comedy and Palindromes, Ryan explains how transmedia represents an loss of faith in the filmic medium, why True Detective is an exception to the rule of the TV writer as auteur, and what he looks for in a script. Filmmaker: In your “TV is Not the New Film” piece, you mention that the move to transmedia shows a “[loss] of faith in the medium,” while many others seem to argue that transmedia is […]
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IFP Screen Forward: 5 Questions for Sales Agent and Producer Bill Strauss
You can conceive an ingenious plot, pen the perfect script, even begin to line up your ultimate cast — but it all risks being for naught if you can’t sell your vision. Even today, as alternative platforms emerge onto the distribution landscape, a successful pitch and getting that greenlight remains one of the most critical steps towards your project seeing the light of day, not to mention one of the most intimidating. But what goes into — and stays out of — making a powerful pitch? How do the people on the other side of that desk approach the process […]
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How to Fake a Movie That Takes Place Entirely on a Laptop: DP/Producer Adam Sidman on Unfriended
My gripe with most found footage horror films is that the subgenre strips away so many of a filmmaker’s paintbrushes in the name of verisimilitude. Score, editing, composition and lighting are sacrificed at the altar of faux reality. Unfriended strains under some of those same constraints, but the film diverges in the way it uses perspective. Instead of limiting point of view to a single shaky handheld camera wielded by one of the characters, Unfriended unfolds entirely on the Mac laptop of Blaire, a high schooler who, along with five or her friends, is terrorized by the spirit of a […]
