| Filmmaker Magazine

Veit Helmer, Absurdistan

MAX MAUFF AND KRISTYNA MALÉROVÁ IN DIRECTOR VEIT HELMER’S ABSURDISTAN. COURTESY FIRST RUN FEATURES. German writer-director Veit Helmer is a true oddity, a creative mind whose films might well have been unearthed from a time capsule buried during the era of silent comedy. Born in Hanover in 1968, Helmer spent much of his childhood watching Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd and by the age of 14 had already made his first film. He studied at Munich’s School of Television and Film, and made quirky shorts throughout his time there, such as the highly inventive Surprise! (1995). When Wim […]

by Nick Dawson on Feb 6, 2009

NEW YORK FILM TAX CREDIT ON HOLD

From Crain’s New York Business comes this disquieting news about the New York State refundable tax credit for film production that has been integral to the health of our business here. It’s titled “Television Production Stalls Out in New York,” and its subhead says it all: “The state’s tax credit for filming in the Big Apple has become a victim of its own success; the state is out of money and a lack of pilots is threatening jobs.” From the middle of the piece, this salient passage: Studio and local production executives began to worry several months ago about the […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 5, 2009

THE ORPHANAGE SHUTS DOWN

Slash Film passes on the sad news today that The Orphanage, the San Francisco-based special effects house that worked on such films as Iron Man and Superman Returns but was also known to indies for their so-called “Magic Bullet” tape-to-film process back in the early days of digital cinema, has closed its doors, an apparent victim of the economic downturn. Co-founder Stu Maschwitz is also the author of the excellent Pro Lost blog, which I’ve linked to here before. From his most recent post: Today I had the heart-wrenching task of joining my co-founders Scott Stewart and Jonathan Rothbart in […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 5, 2009

LIONSGATE, TWC FILE LAWSUITS OVER PUSH

On the same day The New York Times published a piece on the difficulties facing the marketing of Lee Daniels‘s Push: Based on The Novel by Sapphire, indieWIRE‘s Eugene Hernandez reports that lawsuits have been filed by Lionsgate, which according to reports has acquired the film, and The Weinstein Company, which says they are the ones who closed a deal for the film (TWC is also suing the film’s sales rep Cinetic Media). An excerpt from the iW story: Bert Fields’ TWC statement noted that Lionsgate filed a pre-emptive suit against TWC yesterday. “This is obvious forum-shopping by a party […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 5, 2009

LUX INTERIOR, R.I.P.

1946 – 2009.

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 4, 2009

TICK, TICK, TICK… NOT

Commercial mortgages, CDOs, the derivatives market — there are a lot of ticking time bombs present in American society right now. Something that is not, however, such an impending explosive is the type of scenario regularly featured on shows like 24 — interrogations that promote torture as a tool to keep America safe. Don’t believe me? Then check out this video by a group of army interrogators who preach the message that “Jack Bauer is a great fantasy hero… and [the real world] doesn’t work that way.” In addition to the interrogators, the video includes comments from the producers of […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2009

HEY, WE’RE RECESSION PROOF… AREN’T WE?

Yes, the economy is tanking, but, hey, we’re in the entertainment business! Escapism rules in downturn. People want to go out and forget the troubles, and the price of a movie ticket is just… Reality check: Nick Wingfield and Piu-Wing Tam argue in The Wall Street Journal that the economically distressed are not heading out to the movies — they’re staying home and surfing the ‘net. From the piece: It’s been decades since Americans had this much time on their hands and — thanks to the Web — never have there been so many opportunities to burn it. In November, […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2009

“W.”

Oliver Stone is no stranger to mixing presidents and controversy, so his look at the 43rd president in his latest film, W., comes to no one as a surprise. But unlike JFK or Nixon, decades have not passed in Stone’s look at George W. Bush. As time has judged the actions and events depicted in those films long before Stone made them, the wealth of information on Bush’s decisions in office and our addiction to have everything instantly has lead to the making of a film that was released while its subject was still in office, and is probably its […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 3, 2009

YOUTUBE CAST-OFF’S, READ THIS!

Via Boing Boing comes this link to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is jumping into the fray to help those who, like Kevin Lee recently, have found their clips taken down by the user-generated video giant. (For the record, Lee’s account was reinstated, although I believe individual videos remain pulled.) From the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Fair use has always been at risk on YouTube, thanks to abusive DMCA takedown notices sent by copyright owners (sometimes carelessly, sometimes not). But in the past several weeks, two things have made things much worse for those who want to sing a song, post […]

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2009

I AGREE WITH HARRY…

It’s a workplace incident that occurred eight months ago. None of us were there and we have no idea what happened before or after. It’s BS to post it. Have I witnessed similar? Sure… but I don’t post it here.

by Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2009

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.

17734 Results for “”