If you were a director or producer coming up in the New York independent film scene of the early 1990s, you wanted to work with Thérèse DePrez. Right out of the gate as a production designer, DePrez, who had been diagnosed with cancer and passed away Tuesday in New York City, defined for herself an imaginative, boldly-colored and stylized approach that brought a high level of ambition and finesse to often meagerly-budgeted films. Not settling for generic indie naturalism — the gentle accenting of our everyday world that is the default approach on so many low-budget pictures — she cited […]

The following profile of production designer Thérèse DePrez was written by producer Ted Hope for Filmmaker‘s Spring, 1994 issue, and is being rerun on the sad occasion of DePrez’s passing this week in New York. After the standard art school stint, and the pay-your dues PA/grip/electric rigmarole, Thérèse DePrez nabbed her first designer gig on Tony Jacobs’s low-budget consumer/horror send-up, The Refrigerator, which sent her further down the blood-spewed path to art direct three straight-to-video horror pics. The creepy crawlers allowed DePrez to hone the “specialty prop” and set design skills she would later call on for Tom Kalin’s Swoon, […]

For Filmmaker‘s 25th Anniversary issue, we took note of production designer Judy Becker’s lovely Instagram, where she posts location scout photos and other inspirations that inevitably find their way into her design work. We asked her to write more about this convergence with social media and production design practice, and here’s what she wrote back. To: Filmmaker Magazine From: Judy Becker Subject: My Instagram Today at 11:34am I’m happy you guys liked my Instagram. I’ve taken photographs pretty much my whole life. I got my first camera when I was about seven, when my family spent the summer in Rotterdam, […]

Modern cinema, deconstructed to its most basic elements, is the art of combining light and sound to tell stories. If you’re reading this, chances are you can name five cinematographers. But how many production sound mixers can you name? To find out what it’s like to be in this essential line of work — and to hear their hard-earned advice on getting great sound — I spoke with three sound mixers working in independent film about a job that is, by its very nature, the sort of thing audiences only tend to notice if there’s a problem. Gillian Arthur, 30, […]

Opening tomorrow at New York’s Metrograph and the Maysles Documentary Center is In Transit, about Amtrak’s long-distance passenger train, the Empire Builder. It was legendary Direct Cinema pioneer Albert Maysles’s final directing credit, a collaboration with young directors Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Ben Wu and David Isui. Below, from our Spring, 2015 print issue, is Paul Dallas’s report on the film. An attractive, middle-aged woman sits isolated against a snowy landscape that sweeps by. Her eyes are bright and sad. “I’ve always been a wife, a mother, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s something,” she explains. “But it didn’t matter. I was just […]

While David Lynch fans eagerly await the premiere of the new Twin Peaks on Sunday, a documentary that peers deep into the iconic director’s life is currently making its way around theaters across the U.S. After premiering last year in Venice to rave reviews, we caught David Lynch: The Art Life at the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland toward the end of its festival circuit. The film will play local dates this summer before being sent out to the film’s thousand-plus Kickstarter backers who have been waiting on the documentary since its 2012 campaign. The film’s young director, Jon Nguyen, […]

On a shady street in New Orleans’ Lower Garden District you’ll find Second Line Stages’ annex building, where Apex Post Production is located. Depending on the day you arrive, you might witness an ADR session for Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven or Ava DuVernay’s new TV show Queen Sugar. The man running the ADR session is Jon Vogl, a Los Angeles transplant and studio veteran who moved to New Orleans to take advantage of increased film and TV production in the state. In this sit-down we discuss the technological changes that he’s witnessed in his twenty-plus years working in post-sound […]

“Guerilla filmmaking” is a term that refers to the process of shooting films with bare-bones crews, simple props, real locations and no permission. You rebel. The concept is not new, but it’s never been easier to sneak into a place with a camera in your pocket or backpack and still come out with high-quality footage. With you and your cousin being a two-person crew (and cast) and making the world your on-location shoot, certain aspects of the biz may be easier, but other important facets have not changed. Without permits or permission, municipalities may shut down your production, fine you […]

Part of LG’s family of ultrawide monitors, the 34UC98 model is a fast, reliable fit for all aspects of post-production. For editors, the 21:9 display screen (34′ diagonally) provides plenty of organizational room, eliminating the need for multiple monitors. Keeping track of everything becomes easier with the monitor’s LG Screen Split options, which allows control over resizing and displaying windows, as well as offering 14 different options for picture-in-picture display.An sRGB display of over 99% provides accurate color display for the post-production process. That process can begin quickly, since two Thunderbolt input/output ports allow movement of about 20 gegabits per second […]

I’ve been writing, shooting and producing short films, about twenty of them, since 1999. I’ve also DP’d several shorts and a zombie feature. I enjoy assisting other filmmakers in North Carolina, where I live, and I’ve worked as AD over the last five years on both short- and long-form projects. The projects I’ve ADed have had budgets ranging from the tiny to the small, all well under $100,000. More about my work at Turnip Films. This article describes what I’ve learned as AD about how to run a shoot. Everyone I’ve worked with did their best and turned out some […]