ANNA FARIS AND SETH ROGEN IN DIRECTOR JODY HILL’S OBSERVE AND REPORT. COURTESY WARNER BROS. In terms of the sheer number of great filmmakers it has produced recently, the North Carolina School of the Arts is pretty much untouchable, and its latest alum in the spotlight is writer-director Jody Hill. Hill, a native of North Carolina, attended the university along with a prodigious group of classmates including directors David Gordon Green, Craig Zobel and Jeff Nichols, as well as writer-actors Danny McBride and Paul Schneider, D.P. Tim Orr and soundman-turned-writer Chris Gebert. After graduation, Hill briefly worked in television in […]
Via Everything Unfinished, the blog over at Identity Theory, comes an interesting post on the law of supply and demand, marketability, and the Darwinian nature of the marketplace. The discussion is prompted by a post on Curtis Brown literary agent Nathan Bransford’s blog, and it’s about the world of book publishing, but it’s not hard to extrapolate the data and apply it to the world of film and screenplay representation. On Monday Bransford is beginning a contest that is inspired by all the grumbling he’s heard from writers who complain that agents don’t respond to queries. Bransford will be posting […]
Opening today in New York at the Cinema Village is Jeremiah Zagar’s documentary In a Dream, which is a fascinating story of artistic obsession and its effects on an entire Philadelphia family. In our current issue, which is just coming off the newsstands, Lauren Wissot interviewed not only Zagar but his longtime producer Jeremy Yaches and their executive producers Pamela Tanner Boll and Geralyn White Dreyfous. Here is a brief excerpt: Filmmaker: I know that Jeremiah is a big fan of Errol Morris, and that definitely comes through in In a Dream. Are there other films or books or works […]
With the Tribeca Film Festival less than two weeks away, its new Chief Creative Officer Geoff Gilmore posts on Tribeca’s website an essay on his orientation as well as the festival’s — and independent film’s — future. Here’s how he opens: I’ve been at Tribeca for almost a month now, so I guess I can’t claim that I’m still completely frazzled or barely able to follow the complexities of morning staff meetings. Every institution is different, of course, and the familiarity I have with the arenas of independent and global film after nineteen years of operating inside these realms is […]
The Sundance Institute has just announced that its executive director, Ken Brecher, has resigned but will continue to play a role with the organization as a strategic advisor. The press release: LOS ANGELES, CA — Wally Weisman, Chair of the Board of the Sundance Institute, today announced the resignation of Ken Brecher, Executive Director of the Institute, effective April 30, 2009. Weisman stated that Ken Brecher had led the Institute for nearly 14 years through a period of significant growth, productivity and global impact. Brecher will assume the role of Strategic Advisor for the Institute for the next two years. […]
The trailer for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are is so incredibly great that posting this satirical knock-off that just isn’t on the same level of brilliance feels almost sacrilegious. I decided to put it up for a vote to the interns in my office who said… post it. So here then, via AdRants, is an imagining of Jonze directing another children’s classic… Everyone Poops.
According to an email alert from The Incentives Office, the new New York State film and TV credit was approved by the legislature as part of a new budget, which is awaiting signature from Governor Patterson. However, there are notable changes to the way in which the credit will be dispersed. From their email: The $350M is an additional allocation to their state tax credit program which ran out of funding last month, and the percentages (state – 30% and city – 5%) remain the same. The major change is the manner in which the rebates will be paid out. […]
If you are a filmmaker looking for cheap Accutane, or to have your penis enlarged, then, in the last couple of weeks, our message board has been for you. If you are anyone else, it has been rendered unusable by an automated spambot attack that has filled up every category with horrible junk. Accordingly, we’ve disabled posting on the site and are embarking on revamp that will involve upgraded software to prevent this from happening in the future. We will also have more coherent and useful forum headers and we’ll be more actively moderating the boards. First, though, we will […]
Andy Bouve — up 600% on iMDB’s Star Meter! — directed this satirical take on today’s Web 2.0 business models. As a recent Twitter convert, I did get a kick out this video’s send up of the different assumptions regarding business models and consumer behavior that are dominating the internet world right now.
Here’s the last of our guest blogs from Sundance Lab-supported filmmaker Gayle Ferraro, who blogged from the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. Back in NYC Reflecting while recovering from jet-lag – it was quite the trip. It was extremely full and Sundance took wonderful care of us filmmakers. Now sitting in one place to review the collection of business cards I gathered and process some of what went on I realized what an unusual event it was for filmmakers and social entrepreneurs to come together that way and share. Surely, the dedication of the social entrepreneurs was matched by […]