Emerging filmmakers got a kick-start today courtesy of the Austin Film Society’s 2012 Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund (TFPF). The AFS backed 16 narrative and documentary (short and feature length) projects with over $89,500 in cash grants in addition to $6,000 of Kodak film stock and $15,000 in productions services. Since its inception in 1996, the AFS has granted $1.3 million to 344 projects. Past winners include Heather Courtney for her award-winning Where Soldiers Come From and Kyle Henry for his Cannes entry Fourplay: Tampa. Here’s a list of this year’s recipients: A FORCE IN NATURE Hayden Yates A biopic of an 89 […]
“In Production” is a regular column which focuses on notable independent films that are currently shooting. If you would like your film to be included in this space, please send an email to nick@filmmakermagazine.com Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac is only two days into filming and has already stirred a great deal of controversy (no surprise there). The film has been described as an erotic drama that, according to star Shia LaBeouf, will feature hard-core pornographic sex scenes (the producers insist that “body doubles and visual effects” will be used). Von Trier plans to release it in two parts – each in a soft-core […]
Episodes of Frontline have an average eight-to-twelve month gestation period from the time they are awarded to the time they go to air. “We might have some programs that go two or five years, and we have some programs that are done in a matter of weeks, but the average is eight to 12 months” explains Tim Mangini, Frontline’s Director of Broadcast. In broad strokes, this translates to four-to-five months of research, a month of shooting, followed by two-to-three months of post-production work. The typical number of shooting days is 20 to 25. Post-production is done offline; Frontline still uses […]
Part Two of our interview with Tim Mangini, the Director of Broadcast for WGBH’s Frontline: (Read part 1 here) Filmmaker: Do you feel like you’re now moving away from DSLRs at Frontline? Mangini: When Canon made the 5D they added the video capability almost as an afterthought. It was not, “Hey, let’s revolutionize filmmaking.” Well little did they know, they revolutionized filmmaking. Along the way, people started asking for things like, “It would be really great to be able to record audio that was worthwhile, or it would be really good if the files could be transferred easily, or it […]
Tim Mangini is the Director of Broadcast for WGBH’s Frontline. His overarching role is to make sure the programs get made and that they get made on time, on budget, and that the quality level meets Frontline’s expectations. Tim began his career working in animation and sound in Hollywood, then came back to Boston and worked in the corporate and broadcast video world before joining WGBH in 1995 as a post-production supervisor. One of his roles as Director of Broadcast is to work with producers to identify the equipment they need to capture their vision. We recently spoke to him […]
Director Mark Raso, whose short film Under won a Student Academy Award earlier this year, is writing a series of blog entries about making his feature debut with a microbudget movie shot in Copenhagen, Denmark. This is his second dispatch. After starting principal photography on July 18th, I sat down every Sunday — our one off day per week — with the intention of writing an entry for this blog. It was not my plan to agree to do this and come up lame, but it seemed that despite my best efforts I just couldn’t finish one. Perhaps I was too […]
“In Production” is a regular column which focuses on notable independent films that are currently shooting. Daniel Radcliffe is stuck in the friend zone in Michael Dowse’s The F Word. Resuming his post-Harry Potter career, Radcliffe stars alongside Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks) in this romantic comedy about a young man who meets the love of his life only to discover that she is already spoken for — not the most uncommon circumstance. The cast also includes Rafe Spall (Prometheus), Megan Park (ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager) and the terrific Adam Driver (HBO’s Girls). Written by Elan Mastai (The Samaritan), […]
“In Production” is a regular column which focuses on notable independent films that are currently shooting. After four documentaries (three of which were produced by HBO, the other by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh), the story of the West Memphis Three gets the narrative treatment courtesy of director Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter). Devil’s Knot focuses on three young men, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr. who were wrongfully accused of murdering three children as part of a satanic ritual. Appearing in the lead roles are newcomer James Hamrick (a Wesleyan drama student) as Echols, Seth Meriwether (Trouble with the Curve) as […]
“In Production” is a regular column which focuses on notable independent films that are currently shooting. Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Ben Foster (Here) are among the impressive cast members assembled for newcomer David Lowery’s second feature, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. Currently shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, the drama-thriller has been described as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde. Coming off the success of his short film Pioneer (which got him on Filmmaker‘s “25 New Faces” list in 2011), Lowery developed Ain’t Them Bodies Saints at the Sundance […]
Our friends at the National Film Society sent over this video interview with the filmmakers who go by the name of Wong Fu Productions. If you don’t know them, what’s wrong with you? They have 1.2 million subscribers and over 190 million views. Here, they give us tips on audience building and navigating the waters of the video sharing giant.