Over on the main page check out select stories from our Fall issue. (mag hits stands next week) There’s interviews with Lars von Trier on his latest film, Antichrist (which opens this weekend), Oren Moverman talks about his much anticipated directorial debut, The Messenger and we profile Larry Fessenden‘s Glass Eye Pix company. Also, Esther B. Robinson tells us how filmmakers can be successful during a recession, Anthony Kaufman learns how filmmakers are turning a profit with VOD and I look at the mammoth book about the greatest movie never made: Stanley Kubrick’s film on Napoleon. And remember, you can […]
I saw Spike Jonze’s exquisite Where the Wild Things Are weeks ago, long before articles over its budget and whether or not it kids would see it hit the press. We tried to get it into the magazine but scheduling didn’t work out. (If you follow my Twitter stream, you know that I’m a fan of it.) Apparently, Kanye West had something to do with it. In any case, I’m thrilled it opened big and that kids apparently are digging it. And, that dialogue about it is rippling beyond the film blogosphere. Jon Taplin is a movie producer who teaches […]
Each week I hear from more and more filmmakers who are shooting professional pieces on the new Canon, Nikon and Panasonic still cameras. This footage from 23-year-old filmmaker Khalid Mohtaseb of Next Level Pictures is some of the most gorgeous I’ve seen. It’s shot on the Canon 5D MKII using the Magic Lanterns Firmware Update as well as a Kessler Pocket Dolly. Egypt / Lebanon Montage from Khalid Mohtaseb on Vimeo. For more on these cameras, see here at Filmmaker “Shutterbugs” and “Pimp Your DSLR,” both by Roberto Quezada-Dardon.
If you’ve taken a look at our Web Exclusives section, you’ll see that we’ve just posted a new essay, “5 Things You Should Do If You Want Your Movie to Last.” It’s written by Gareth Higgins and Jett Loe of The Film Talk, which is, at the moment, my favorite film podcast. Each week Higgins and Loe review a new film that’s hitting the theaters, and occasionally riff on other topics such as director retrospectives (like the recent Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Ang Lee series) as well as interview directors themselves (recent guests have included Francis Ford Coppola and […]
For the past three years, we’ve been pursuing a noble goal: to try to talk about movies and meaning in a way that might interest someone other than ourselves. We do this over at The Film Talk, and want our work to be an ongoing conversation about the movies and how they intersect with our lives. You’re welcome to join the conversation. Sometimes it’s difficult enough for us to interest each other, so that can be a pretty tall order. But thankfully there is sometimes also serendipity in talking about cinema – one of us has insights into the human […]
Here is director Zak Forsman’s second post from the FIND Filmmaker Forum, which took place in Los Angeles last weekend. In the men’s room of the DGA, I overheard a conversation by two gentlemen who had sat through two full days of panels at Film Independent’s Filmmaking Forum. One in particular was mentally exhausted, “I don’t know, should I hire a producer’s rep or a publicist? Should I be blogging? Tweeting?” He joked, dismissing them with a laugh. The man standing with him simply answered, “Yes.” And it reminded me of the post-event murmur I heard at DIY Days LA […]
CATALINA SAAVEDRA IN DIRECTOR SEBASTIAN SILVA’S THE MAID. COURTESY ELEPHANT EYE FILMS. Sebastián Silva could seemingly make a career out of a variety of creative pursuits, however at the moment it is on filmmaking that he is focusing all his attention. Silva was born in Santiago, the capital of Chile, in 1979, and grew up attending a Catholic school in the city. Though from a young age it was clear that he had a talent for art, after finishing high school he went to study film at the Escuela de Cine in Santiago. After a year, however, he quit to […]
“Cinema is a driving force in my life. I don’t want it to leave us, nor do I want to have to leave it behind; it’s provided me with hope and inspiration, and an incredibly fulfilling livelihood. It is also a one hundred year old industry, and, in my opinion, damn close to both a perfect art form and a perfect entertainment, but is also one whose applicability to our lives and livelihoods must now be completely reevaluated.” That’s Ted Hope delivering his keynote address at Power to the Pixel. Yesterday in my Filmmaker weekly newsletter I suggested that rather […]
Monty Python fans rejoice, airing on IFC beginning Sunday is Monty Python: Almost The Truth (Lawyer’s Cut), a six-part documentary on the legendary Brit comic troupe. A very thorough examination of the six members (with new, refreshingly frank, interviews from all five living members) directors Bill Jones, Ben Timlett and Alan G. Parker leave no stone unturned as they examine everything from the troupe forming while writing sketches for David Frost, how they came up with the name Monty Python, their fights with the BBC, George Harrison fronting the money to make Life of Brian, and finally what they’ve done […]
My posting of a strange letter from the future I received from an independent filmmaker has prompted a diverse group of reactions throughout the blogosphere. Ted Hope kindly called it “brilliant” over at his blog while an Anonymous poster here said he was “revolted” by it and hoped it was a Jon Reiss parody. One producer/distribution executive accused us of revealing his business plan. And at Film Utopia, filmmaker Clive Davies-Frayne called it “one of the most depressing articles” he’s ever read and posted a response not to the author (who, after all, is both redacted and from the future) […]