Or I should say, how he did it. Here, Jamie Stuart breaks down the visual effects and tweaks he did for his short, Isn’t She?…, through Final Cut Studio and Photoshop. Watch Isn’t She?… Read parts 1 & 2 of Jamie’s review of Final Cut Studio.
If you’ve read the latest issue (or run into me recently) you know that I dig the blaxploitation spoof, Black Dynamite. From its straight face acting to the way it was shot, director Scott Sanders (aka Suckapunch) and star Michael Jai White have created an impressive comedy that aesthetically holds up to most of the real blaxploitations of the 70s and puts a shot in the arm of the recently watered down spoof genre. But one of Dynamite‘s greatest aspects is its music. The film’s editor, Adrian Younge, created the original score through the use of instruments and analog recording […]
According to Variety, Miramax president Daniel Battsek has been let go. This is on the heels of parent company, Disney, scalling down the specialty division’s staff and release schedule. Under Battsek Miramax released award-winning titles The Queen and No Country for Old Men. And according to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood, Miramax’s New York office is closing down and its LA office will move to the Disney lot in Burbank.
As a genre that’s all about keeping the audience on its toes, the horror movie naturally needs a regular injection of fresh talent, and writer-director Ti West is the latest to give it a shot in the arm. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1980, West spent his adolescence watching as many movies as he could catch on TV or rent from his local video store. Though he made stop motion movies with his G.I. Joe action figures, he didn’t give much serious thought to filmmaking until he decided to make a short film to indicate to colleges that he had […]
In September we put up a survey on our site that aimed at getting input from filmmakers about some of the issues that impact the making and preservation of their films. Below are the results of the survey. These stats have been passed on to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their final report which they will be publishing sometime next year. The only results that aren’t posted below are the ones where a written answer was required. And for those who aren’t familiar, read the story that inspired this survey. Thanks to those who participated. Please […]
Producer Gill Holland forwarded me a link to this provocative interview by Eric Garland, whose company Big Champagne reports on filesharing activity for its customers — the major studios and broadcast networks. A lot of people talk about the relationship between what’s happened to the music business and what’s happening to the film business, but Garland effectively points out not only the similarities but also, promisingly, the differences. That said, he is not predicting that the mainstream film business will be able to maintain its revenue figures in a time of migrating audiences and technological change. An excerpt from the […]
Young producers should seriously think about applying for the IFP/Rotterdam Lab Fellowship. I go to Rotterdam every year, and for U.S.-based producers it’s a great place to learn the ins and outs of the global market for arthouse and specialty film. The deadline for this year’s program is Friday, November 13. The official word is below. Through its No Borders’ partnership with CineMart, IFP will select and provide travel assistance to two American producers to participate in the 2010 Rotterdam Lab Fellowship. The Rotterdam Lab is a four-day training workshop which runs concurrently with the CineMart Co-Production Market. Designed to […]
We here at Filmmaker have been big fans of Alexander Olch‘s experimental memoir/documentary The Windmill Movie since seeing it at the New York Film Festival in ’08. If you missed it in theaters over the summer it will premiere on HBO2 tonight @ 8pm. For those who don’t know about it, the film is about the 300 hours of autobiographical footage left behind by filmmaker/professor Richard P. Rogers after his death in 2001. Olch (who was a student of Rogers’s) was calling in to look over the footage and finish the film his mentor never could. What he delivers is […]
You may have noticed that I’ve been posting in our Web Exclusives a number of first-person pieces by filmmakers discussing their distribution saga. We have already had producer Jake Abraham on distributing his film, Lovely by Surprise, and then writer/director Rob Perez on making the transition from studio distribution to DIY distribution with his nobody. The latest in our informal series is from Zachary Levy, director of the documentary Strongman. His piece, “Making our DIY Moment Matter,” is a refreshingly thoughtful take on what the trend towards alternative distribution should mean for our filmmaking. Check it out, and look for […]
Though Oren Peli‘s Paranormal Activity was number one at the box office last weekend and has a total gross of $62 million since its release late last month (and is primed for a big upcoming Halloween weekend), The New York Times reports that the film’s overnight success hasn’t impressed Hollywood as Peli’s next film, Area 51, a $5 million horror set at the infamous UFO site, is still looking for a distributor. An excerpt: At least six companies, including several major studios, have expressed interest in the film, according to people associated with the deal for “Area 51,” who spoke […]