| Filmmaker Magazine

“THE ART STAR AND THE SUDANESE TWINS” writer-director, Pietra Brettkelly

A large part of my film, The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins, was shot in the extraordinary region of southern Sudan. Its first language is Dinka, its second language Arabic. Casual greetings are unfortunately my limits in both these languages, and this was both the challenge and the beauty of trying to film an observational documentary. My cameraman and I were often running on instinct, interpreting the body language of people we were filming. We’ve both filmed overseas and have gained some familiarity with European and Pacific Island languages. But Dinka in particular has no similarity to anything I’d […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 14, 2008

“BAGHEAD” writer-directors, Mark and Jay Duplass

Penis size was definitely an issue on Baghead. In fact, we could have used a LOT more than 10 percent extra, but we would have been glad to have as much as we could get. Now please don’t think we’re superficial. We generally don’t concern ourselves with such things. We’ve traditionally viewed ourselves as nice, sweet brothers who lean toward more personal, relationship-oriented films like The Puffy Chair. Maybe we were even better off making these sensitive films with the limited equipment God gave us, you know? But Baghead turned out to be one demanding, feisty little bugger. And we […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 14, 2008

“DEATH IN LOVE” writer-director, Boaz Yakin

You always wish you had more of everything: budget, talent, time, emotional courage, personal magnetism, etc., but part of maturing as a filmmaker, for me, means accepting what I have and doing the best I can with it. That doesn’t mean not pushing as hard and as fiercely as possible during every moment of the process — it just means a willingness to fight for the things I have a chance of getting and genuinely letting go of the things I can’t. In this instance, it would have been nice to have 10 percent more willingness from the financiers who […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 14, 2008

“SLEEP DEALER” co-writer-director, Alex Rivera

Rasquachismo. Sleep Dealer is a science fiction set in Mexico. In the script I described everything from exploding buildings and fighter-jet dogfights to remote-control robots. The effects were never the focus of the film — they existed to give a politicized futuristic setting for my characters. When time came to actually produce the insanely challenging visuals, my amazing d.p. and VFX supervisor and I solved many, many problems with rasquachismo. Rasquachismo refers to a spirit in Latino communities of taking what’s at hand, cobbling it together, and making something wondrous out of it. Like using parts of one old car […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 14, 2008

“CHRONIC TOWN” director, Tom Hines

If I could’ve had 10 percent more of something on Chronic Town, I would have to say that it would’ve been 10 percent more length on our extension cords. That may sound odd, but when you have to plug in your production vehicles (which on our budget equaled two minivans) to prevent the oil in your car from freezing overnight, then every inch counts. During the winter in Alaska, you need to plug your car into an outlet to keep the oil in your engine from freezing (it’s advised to be plugged in when it’s below zero, which it was […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 14, 2008

STRANGER IN A STRANGE AWARDS CEREMONY

With the Golden Globes having seemed to have been beamed in from some alternate universe, the timing is right for Jamie Stuart’s latest short, in which a friendly space alien tries to grok that red-carpeted human ritual known as the awards show.

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2008

WEEKEND BLOG ROUND-UP

Here are some posts that have caught my eye this week. Jon Taplin, probably the only professor at the Annenberg School for Communication who can also lay claim to producing one of the seminal films of the ’70s (Mean Streets), has a great blog that mixes his commentary on politics, economics and the film business. (Hat tip: Ted Hope.) The former Dylan tour manager and Merrill Lynch v.p. has written a two-parter entitled “Memo to Hollywood: Stop Making Movies.” He compares Hollywood’s battle for market share to players locked in the classic example of game theory, The Prisoner’s Dilemma. From […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2008

NOTHING BUT ‘NET

Joseph Menn has written an article for the Los Angeles Times demonstrating that the hype about new internet content start-ups during the WGA strike is more than just talk. From the piece: At least three start-ups, each with a different business approach, are unveiling their corporate monikers and the names of their founders as they intensify the search for venture capital and top management. With names such as Hollywood Disrupted and Virtual Artists Inc., these new ventures have lured investors such as the Oscar-winning writer of “Rain Man” and the Emmy-winning scribe behind “Homicide,” along with prominent software developers and […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2008

THE HERMENEUTICS OF THE MYSTERY BOX

Lost creator and Cloverfield producer J.J. Abrams spoke at the TED conference about his creative process, which he symbolizes at one point by displaying a “mystery box” from New York’s Tannen’s Magic. Last April Abrams spoke to the New York Times about the “mystery box” and described it thusly: Prized possession: I have a mystery box from Tannen’s Magic in New York. It’s a cardboard box with a question mark printed on it. It’s one of those things you buy for $15 and they advertise that it has at least $20 worth of stuff inside. I’ve never opened it. I […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 10, 2008

AXIUM FUNDS: ‘NOT IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE"

The Los Angeles Times has a good follow-up to the Axium story today that spells out the ramifications of the company’s closure on those who have payroll funds deposited there. From the piece: “It’s a mess,” said writer-producer Jody Savin, who with her writer-director husband, Randall Miller, had “tens of thousands” of dollars frozen in an Axium payroll account for their upcoming feature film, “Bottle Shock.” Still, they consider themselves better off than some other Axium clients who were required to deposit a percentage of payroll amounts to be processed by the Los Angeles company. “We have a friend who […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 10, 2008

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