6303 Results for “Open ”
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“We Are Living through a Very Divisive Time”: Director Barbara Kopple | This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? Obviously we are living through a very divisive time, and transgender issues are among the most controversial of what people call “the culture wars.” That was something I was aware of while making this movie, and it’s something we are aware of as we release it. That said, every film I make involves going as deeply as I can inside the lives of the people whose stories […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2017 -
“We Never Wanted to Treat the Film as a Comedy”: DP Christian Sprenger on Brigsby Bear
In 2007 a group of four comics and creators joined to form Good Neighbor, a sketch comedy team that would go on to breach the ranks of Saturday Night Live. The group is known mostly for Kyle Mooney, a weirdo comic voice whose left-of-center SNL skits often get cut for time. Mooney stars in Good Neighbor’s feature film debut, Brigsby Bear, directed by fellow group member Dave McCary. The film tells the story of a secluded young man with an unhealthy obsession with a TV show literally no one has ever seen. Below, DP Christian Sprenger speaks to the film’s tricky tone, which eschews […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2017 -
“I Want the Viewer to Feel Totally Immersed in My World”: Director Francis Lee | God’s Own Country
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? For me God’s Own Country is an investigation into authenticity of emotion and landscape. Having grown up on the same hillside where the film is set, it was critically important to me to communicate what this very specific landscape not only looks like but how it feels, sounds, tastes, smells. The wind, the cold, the rain that gets into your bones when you work outside all day. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2017 -
Sundance Dispatch 3: Columbus, Golden Exits
Columbus certainly doesn’t look like a standard American independent film: even if you didn’t know debuting director kogonada’s background as a video essayist primarily concerned with High Art (Bresson, Tarkovsky et al.), it’s clear this is made by somebody who’s studied the framing of Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang et al. quite closely. No matter how mundane the setting — average small downtown streets, a drab university library — kogonada and DP Elisha Christian stick to the visual philosophy espoused by architecture-obsessed protagonist Casey (Haley Lu Richardson) as she annotates one building’s properties, noting how it’s “asymmetrical but also still balanced.” I […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 23, 2017 -
“Unexpected, Beautiful Things Began to Happen”: Director John Trengove | The Wound
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? The Wound was cast almost entirely with non-professional actors who speak Xhosa, a language which I do not understand. In the film they enacted a very nuanced rites-of-passage ritual which I had no first-hand experience of. Despite the support of exhaustive research, excellent script translations and a full-time facilitator on set, I knew that the only hope I had of achieving any kind of life in front […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2017 -
Sundance Notes: On Political Action in Park City
Sundance coincides with Presidential inaugurations, and I have indelible memories of twice racing to find a cozy Main Street bar in order to watch the live television broadcast of Barack Obama’s inauguration and speech. All of us in the bar, strangers but inspirited fellow citizens, were glued to every minute. Saturday, sitting in an idling car outside the Park City Marriott, I happened to catch Trump’s speech over the car radio as my partner was inside picking up our press credentials. Something about “carnage.” Ho-hum. Hyperbole and bombast may be the new normal, but this act grows old fast. Films […]
by David Leitner on Jan 22, 2017 -
“A Show about a Family Going Through a Transformation”: Co-creators/Co-Writers Giles Andrew & Dan Marshall | Playdates
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? We originally got the idea for Playdates through conversations with our friend and co-creator Alex Bourne — a stay-at-home dad who would complain about the playdates he was forced to take his two daughters on while his wife held down a steady job. So, we based our main character, Bennett, on Alex’s personality, his experiences with parenting, and his reaction within certain situations. We thus had a […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2017 -
“I Knew it Would Cause Problems”: Director Justin Chon | Gook
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? The biggest challenge of communication my film Gook will have is the actual title. It was a problem when we were trying to get financing for the film, when we were trying to cast the film and will be a problem when we take the film out into the world because of judgment without understanding. It will be our job to communicate and open up dialogue on how […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 21, 2017 -
Scandal, Fassbinder, Garfein’s Something Wild and Fellini’s Roma: Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Picks
This week ABC dropped a nice surprise for Scandal fans in the form of a new web series that bridges season five and the twice-delayed (first by star Kerry Washington’s pregnancy, then by Trump’s inauguration) season six, which finally begins on January 26. Currently streaming on ABC’s website and app, Gladiator Wanted is the exceptionally entertaining brainchild of Scandal costar Darby Stanchfield, who created the web series and occupies the director’s chair for all six episodes. Scandal has long been one of the most dynamically directed shows on network television, boasting exceptional work by Ava DuVernay, Tom Verica, Jessica Yu, […]
by Jim Hemphill on Jan 21, 2017 -
“On a Picture of this Size, Time and Money Are Your Enemy”: DP Armando Salas on Bitch
Writer/director/actor Marianna Palka has appeared at Sundance to present a feature (2008’s Good Dick), a documentary short (2014’s The Lion’s Mouth Opens) and to serve as a Sloan Juror. She returns to Park City in 2017 with Bitch, her surreal new film on the crumbling of a nuclear family. Palka hired DP Armando Salas to shoot the film, which stars Jason Ritter, Jaime King and Palka herself. Ahead of the film’s premiere, Salas spoke with Filmmaker about the film’s seriocomic tone, visual influences and its toughest scene to shoot. The film will screen four times at Sundance this year. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017
