| Filmmaker Magazine

SIGHTS SKYWARD

Filmmaker Lance Weiler, whose Workbook Project has, in a short while, become an indispensable source of information on independent film production and marketing, is launching a new event that employs his expertise in online distribution to help emerging filmmakers. Entitled “From Here to Awesome,” it is a multi-exhibition-platform film festival created in collaboration with two other filmmakers well known to the Filmmaker audience: Arin Crumley and M dot Strange. Here is more information about the festival from the press release, and look forward to news of its progress on the blog in coming weeks. NEW DISCOVERY AND DISTRIBUTION FESTIVAL “FROM […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 10, 2008

Abby Epstein, The Business Of Being Born

AN EXPECTANT MOTHER IN DIRECTOR ABBY EPSTEIN’S THE BUSINESS OF BEING BORN. COURTESY RED ENVELOPE ENTERTAINMENT. After years as a theater director, Abby Epstein has transitioned into being one of the most important new female voices in documentary film. Epstein began directing plays in the 1980s in Chicago where she started her own theater company, Roadworks Productions. In the late 1990s, she relocated to New York to helm the highly successful Broadway musical RENT. Notable amongst numerous other credits is her involvement with Eve Ensler’s seminal The Vagina Monologues, which she directed during its New York run as well as […]

by Nick Dawson on Jan 9, 2008

THE AXIUM PAYROLL STORY UNFOLDS…

In my initial post on the sudden bankruptcy filing of Axium Payroll Services, I commented on the potentially huge effect it would have on independent films currently in production and using Axium for their payroll. Typically, a small film will have posted some kind of payroll bond or advance that payroll monies are being drawn down against. Now, news is coming in from the production community about all of this. I received this email from NYC production accountant Joe Lombardi, currently working on a production affected by Axium’s shutdown, which I am reprinting with his permission: I have to say […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2008

VARIETY REPORTS ON AXIUM BANKRUPTCY

Variety has posted its story on the Axium bankruptcy, which we wrote about in the blog post below. Their story has a couple of quotes from affected parties — a director, Charles Matthau, who says he is owed $75,000 of his director’s fee on an indie film, and a production executive who comments on the loss of the long-term accounting and record-keeping functions of Axium’s software. Earlier in the day I talked with an indie distributor who used Axium to pay SAG and DGA residuals on the company’s DVD releases. The DGA had called him and told him to cancel […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2008

BREAKING NEWS: AXIUM PAYROLL SHUTS DOWN

In a sudden and stunning piece of news that’s just breaking within the film production comunity, Axium, one of the industry’s largest payroll services and a leader in the administration of state tax incentives for independent producers, is closing and will be filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In a Chapter 7 corporate bankruptcy, a company ceases its operations and its assets are liquidated to its creditors and investors by a court-appointed trustee. We will try to have more details, including news of what will happen to current productions that have their payroll with Axium, soon. UPDATE, 7:00PM: News on Axium’s closing […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2008

HONORING NONFICTION

If you read our blog often you’ve seen us link to filmmaker AJ Schnack‘s great blog All These Wonderful Things from time to time to get the real and honest take of what nonfiction filmmakers have to go through to get their films shown, and the hurdles they jump to get recognized for the major awards. Well, Schnack is going a step further now by co-chairing a new award for nonfiction filmmakers that will champion the best docs of the year. Set for March 18 at the IFC Center in New York, the inaugural ceremony will recognize all the different […]

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 8, 2008

GLOBES SCRAPPED

According to a report by Variety moments ago, the Hollywood Foreign Press has announced the Golden Globes’ traditional dinner ceremony will be replaced with a 6 p.m. PST news conference to announce the winners this Sunday.

by Jason Guerrasio on Jan 7, 2008

DAVID LYNCH ON THE iPHONE

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 7, 2008

A WHOLE LOT OF GREEN

Filmmaker, performer and musician Brent Green, one of Filmmaker‘s 2005 25 New Faces of Independent Film, sent an email with all of the exhibitions and performances he’s planned for the next couple of months. If you haven’t seen his intense and theatrical live performances, in which he collaborates with musicians for a live score and, in the process, comes up with a different model of independent film exhibition, I highly recommend you check one of them out. A recent performance clip is embedded below, and here’s the email: On Jan. 11th I’ll be screening all of my films with live […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 7, 2008

STRIKE SEQUEL-ITIS

Thom Taylor’s opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times about the possible lasting effects of the WGA strike is worth a read, even if he’s perhaps a bit more optimistic than I’d be about the ease by which striking writers are going to slot into new entreprenenial positions as web content creators. But his historical recap of the previous strike and his foreshadowing of media marketplace churn feels right. From the piece: The transition to making money from the new paradigm will naturally take time. Right now, anybody with a computer connection can create an overnight sensation on YouTube — […]

by Scott Macaulay on Jan 7, 2008

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