6303 Results for “Open ”
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Sundance: Exploring the Implications of Amazon’s New Distribution Play
Earlier this week, Amazon Video Direct (AVD, a department within Amazon focused on self-publishing distribution tools for filmmakers) announced an intriguing new opportunity available to Sundance 2017 feature filmmakers. Dubbed the “Film Festival Stars” program, AVD is offering, in exchange for a two-year worldwide SVOD (subscription VOD) contract (with one-year exclusive) an up-front “cash bonus” to Sundance titles on a sliding scale based on section ($100,000 for US Narrative Competition titles, $75,000 for US Documentary Competition Titles, and $25,000 for titles in the NEXT, Midnight, Kids, World, New Frontiers, and Spotlight sections). The deal also offers a preferential rate on […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 20, 2017 -
“A Lot of Creativity and Beauty Can Come from Limitations”: DP Nicholas Wiesnet on L.A. Times
Five years ago, Michelle Morgan made her Sundance debut with the short film K.I.T. She returns to the festival in 2017 as the writer, director and star of her first feature, L.A. Times, a romantic comedy where she plays alongside Jorma Taccone of Lonely Island fame. Morgan hired Nicholas Wiesnet, a DP known primarily for documentary and short film work, to shoot the picture. Below, Wiesnet discusses how he got the job, why he shot the film in anamorphic widescreen and his approach to lighting and blocking comedy. L.A. Times will screen six times during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
“Might There Be a Desire to Cross Party Lines?”: Director Laura Dunn | Look and See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry
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 the past several years, while I worked to raise money for this film, it seemed like most folks in the documentary film world, the gatekeepers as they are, were not particularly interested in a sympathetic, even loving portrait of white male tobacco farmers from the rural south. I found a few lone advocates, and for those people, I am very grateful as they encouraged me more […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
Is Sundance Worth It for Film Crew Members? Veteran Festival Goers Offer their Advice
Over the next ten days, the Sundance Film Festival will screen 113 feature films, and tens of thousands of people descend on the small town of Park City, Utah. Included in those crowds are the crewmembers from all over the world that made those 113 movies possible. While directors with projects premiering at Sundance are flown out to Utah by distributors or financiers, many crewmembers who worked tirelessly and often for very little money wind up paying their own way to the festival in order to support their own films. It’s an expensive trip, and they may wind up without […]
by Alexandra Byer on Jan 20, 2017 -
DP Chris Teague on Shooting Landline, Gillian Robespierre’s Follow-Up to Obvious Child
Three years ago, writer/director Gillian Robespierre premiered Obvious Child at Sundance to much acclaim. The film would go on to earn more than $3 million at the domestic box office, making it one of the bigger titles to emerge from Sundance 2014. Robespierre returns to the festival in 2017 with Landline, which reunites her with lead actor Jenny Slate and DP Chris Teague. Set in 1990s New York, Landline is a seriocomic portrait of a family in flux. Below, Teague discusses shooting in NYC apartments, the influence of ’70s American cinema on Landline and recreating the Village Halloween Parade on a small budget. Filmmaker: How and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
“A Nuanced Understanding of War”: Director Greg Barker | Legion of Brothers
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? Green Berets refer to themselves as “The Quiet Professionals,” and see themselves as a breed apart from more boastful units of the Special Forces, like SEAL Team Six, with their lucrative book deals and pumped-up war stories. So the biggest challenge on this production was simply convincing these guys that now was the time to finally open and reveal themselves – and not as stereotypical super-human war […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
The Sundance Question: What Specific Challenge of Communication Has Your Film Faced?
Each year Filmmaker asks all the incoming feature directors at Sundance one question. (To see past years’ questions and responses, click here.) This year, our question involves an issue cutting across all the political drama of the last year: communication. How do we really communicate to one another, to converse despite our differences? How do we step outside of our echo chambers so we’re not just trading slogans among our friends? On a filmmaking level, how do we make sure that problems of communication don’t cripple our visions or limit their reach? This year’s question: During its development, production or eventual distribution, what […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 20, 2017 -
DPs Bob Richman, Buddy Squires and Thorsten Thielow on Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman
It took a team of four seasoned documentary DPs to capture the stories of Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman. Shot in Montana, Kansas and Louisiana, the film documents the lives of three men (the titular rancher, farmer and fisherman) who act as environmental conservationists in their respective fields. Directors Susan Froemke and John Hoffman have the action unfold in a vérité fashion, which stresses the land and the people who work it. Among the DPs they hired for the project were Bob Richman (An Inconvenient Truth), Buddy Squires (The Central Park Five) and Thorsten Thielow (30 for 30). Below, these three cinematographers discuss the unique challenges […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2017 -
A Slice of Southern Life: DP Dustin Lane on Dayveon
Hailed one of Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces in 2016, Amman Abbasi makes his Sundance and feature film debut with Dayveon. The film stars Devin Blackmon as a 13-year-old kid coping with the violent death of his older brother in small-town Arkansas. Given the setting, age of the characters and Abbasi’s lyrical approach to the story, the film has strong echoes of George Washington by David Gordon Green, who served as an executive producer here. Below, Filmmaker speaks with Dayveon DP Dustin Lane about his connection to the American South, shooting in a small town and his visual approach to this story. Filmmaker: How […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 19, 2017 -
Pink Skies and Poetic Artifacts: DP Linus Sandgren on La La Land
Early in La La Land, Emma Stone’s aspiring actress rises from a restaurant conversation about the unpleasantness of contemporary moviegoing and sprints to the Rialto Theatre to take in Rebel Without a Cause with Ryan Gosling’s intractably traditionalist jazz pianist. The burst of exuberance doesn’t last. The Rialto later closes down and as Gosling waxes poetic about jazz’s declining cultural relevance you begin to feel that for La La Land jazz is just a surrogate for the state of film itself. La La Land is an ode to the magic of movies – at a time when going to the movies has […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Jan 18, 2017
