Sundance
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“The Film I Imagined on That First Read Came to Life Before My Eyes in the Edit”: Editor Patrick Lawrence on Scare Me
In Josh Ruben’s Scare Me, two strangers, stuck in a secluded cabin during a power outage, tell each other scary stories to pass the time. As tensions rise and fears are heightened throughout this horror-comedy, Fred must also face his own insecurities as a writer. The film’s editor, Patrick Lawrence, discusses the challenges of best showcasing the performative scary stories that make up the film, as well as the ways in which his background in music has influenced his editing style. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes […]
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“Not Your Regular Scented Candles”: Natalie Erika James | Relic
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? One prop in Relic that’s not necessarily integral to the plot, but certainly tells the story of the film is the grandmother, Edna’s, candles. Not your regular scented candles, but these hefty candles that are carved intricately into blooming designs with layers of hand-dipped wax. We establish these candles quite early […]
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14 Films Not to Miss at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival
Always a bellweather for the health — artistic as well as business — of the American independent film scene, the Sundance Film Festival began yesterday in Park City, Utah, preceded by more than the usual amount of pre-fest news and drama. On the positive front, Sundance 2020 is something of a launch party for a new documentary financing and production company, Concordia, formed by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim and former Participant Media production president Jonathan King, in partnership with Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective. One quarter of the Documentary Competition slate boasts the Concordia logo. And then distressingly there’s Oprah Winfrey’s withdrawal as […]
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“It Serves as a Physical Manifestation of Climate Change and the Challenges to Rebuild”: Ron Howard | Rebuilding Paradise
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? The closest thing we had to a set was the town of Paradise as the film really celebrates the resilience and courage of the community. The Campfire is the most important visual in the film. Beyond the palpable impact on the film’s subjects and the residents of Paradise, it serves as […]
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“The Objects Then Unexpectedly Became Integral to a Brutal Murder Case”: Emma Sullivan | Into the Deep
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? When I first started filming at the space lab in Copenhagen, the objects symbolized dreams and positive ambitions; they were the tools used to create the crude inventions forged by the hands of excited young optimists, eager to be part of Peter Madsen’s quest to launch a rocket into space. The […]
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“Water Is the Source of Life, Cleansing Element, Purifier, Serene”: Jayro Bustamante | La Llorona
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? The water. It was important to have it in every set represented in different forms. Water is the source of life, cleansing element, purifier, serene. It has the power to infiltrate inside sets, inside characters themselves. For us, its use completely differs from the one in the original legend, an element […]
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“The Minox Miniature Camera That Penkovsky Uses to Photograph 50,000 Secret Soviet Military Documents”: Dominic Cooke | Ironbark
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? There is one object that is absolutely essential to Ironbark and that’s the Minox miniature camera that Penkovsky uses to photograph 50,000 secret Soviet military documents. Our hero Greville Wynne, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, passes these to the U.K. and U.S. governments, including essential information about the nuclear weapons that the […]
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“Sitting in Front of That Whiteboard for Two Days, Joe Came Up With Some Hilarious and Strange Drawings”: Eugene Kotlyarenko | Spree
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? There’s a prop at the heart of Spree that wasn’t actually meant to be in the movie at all. Joe Keery and I met up a lot before production trying to get to the bottom of his character. If we were going to convey the reality of a failed influencer taking […]
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“This Log Cabin Is the Fifth Cast Member”: Josh Ruben | Scare Me
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? This might be a little on the nose, but the most integral piece to this movie (the brilliant Aya Cash, Chris Redd, and Rebecca Drysdale aside), was our location. Though it wasn’t always the most pleasant to shoot in, this log cabin is the fifth cast member. We shot every corner […]
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“They Amplify the Size of Her Eyes, Enhance Every Nervous Tic”: Adam Carter Rehmeier | Dinner in America
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? The eyeglasses Patty (Emily Skeggs) wears in the film are one of the more integral props in Dinner in America. They amplify the size of her eyes, enhance every nervous tic, really give the audience a clearer window into how she processes the world around her. On the happy accident side […]
