Congratulations to 2008 Filmmaker 25 New Face writer/director Oren Peli, whose Paranormal Activity is not only a fantastic, genuinely scary independent horror film but now also the poster child for successful studio release experimentation. Quick recap: Peli’s film, shot with a three-person crew in seven days was bought by Dreamworks at Slamdance, 2008. Rumors were that the studio would shelve the film in favor of a remake, but there was always one problem: like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity depends on a feeling of casual verisimilitude. Throw in a name actor and that’s blown, and beef up the production […]
One of the most reprinted articles we’ve run at Filmmaker was South African producer Jeremy Nathan’s 2002 piece on “No Budget Nigeria,” the thriving Corman-esque film scene otherwise known as Nollywood. Now, artist Pieter Hugo has released a book containing his stunning square-format photos featuring portraits of performers from these films. It’s called, appropriately, Nollywood. In an essay about the images, Federica Angelucci explains Hugo’s approach, which is to compose photographs that play off the mythologies created by the films. An excerpt: Movies tell stories that appeal to and reflect the lives of its public: stars are local actors; plots […]
EZRA MILLER IN WRITER-DIRECTOR ANTONIO CAMPOS’ AFTERSCHOOL. COURTESY IFC FILMS. To call Antonio Campos a precocious talent would be to understate his abilities. Amazingly, the 26-year-old writer director, a native of New York City, has already spent half of his young life making films. Campos directed his debut short, Puberty (1997), at the age of 13 as part of a New York Film Academy program, and over the course of his teens made numerous shorts ā both fiction and documentary ā including First Kiss (2001), Pandora (2002) and Who’s Your Daddy? (2004). At 21, he had his short film […]
David Lowery, who worked on this short, passed along the link to the latest from Funny or Die, entitled “Birthday Suit.” It’s one of those satires that’s only really one step away from reality. Birthday Suit from Jason Lewis
In a week of stories surrounding Roman Polanski’s arrest in Zurich on a warrant for his three decade old conviction on a sex charge involving a 13-year-old girl in the U.S. and retired prosecutor David Wells‘s sudden admission that he fabricated the comments he made in Marina Zenovich‘s documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, it got me thinking of Zenovich’s answer to our yearly question to Sundance directors the year she screened the film there in 2008. The question: “If you had 10 percent more of anything, what would it be and why?” I wish Iād had a 10 percent […]
Nick Dawson at FilmInFocus picked up on this Levi’s commercial directed by Sin Nombre director Cary Fukunaga. Writes Dawson: Susan Hoffman, the executive creative director of ad company Wieden + Kennedy, described the campaign as aiming “to refresh and reinvent the idea of a pioneering spirit for the times in which we live.” Fukunaga’s commercial, entitled “America,” uses the Walt Whitman poem of the same name and juxtaposes the rousing, patriotic words of the poem with lyrical images of a young and untamed country. Fukunaga has great eye for detail and a strong sense of style, and his black and […]
Terence Nance was in the IFP Rough Cut Lab with his very original How Would You Feel in 2008. Now he’s raising finishing funds using a crowdsourcing approach. He only needs five grand. Donate up to $40 and you get a DVD of the film. From $40 – $250 you get a DVD and T-Shirt. From 250 – $1,000, all of the above, a “Special Thanks” credit, and a one-night stay at the filmmaker’s home. More than a grand? All the above, a producer credit and your investment treated as an equity investment. Here’s how Nance describes the movie: HOW […]
The New York Times reports that former Nixon speechwriter and columnist William Safire has died. While I disagreed with most of his politics, he had a great run at the Times with a column that was always witty, well-reasoned and well-written ā a far cry from much of current right-wing discourse. I thought his final column was spectacular, and I saved a copy on my hard drive to refer to periodically. It’s called “Never Retire,” and it’s about the necessity of keeping the synapses active and continuously adapting to and participating in cultural change. Obviously, it’s even more relevant today […]
In my last post on our distribution strategy for Kirt Gunn’s Lovely by Surprise I mentioned that Iād try to write a follow-up post when appropriate. It seems that time has come sooner than expected, and for one particular reason. Part of our DIY release for Lovely By Surprise has been focused on digital messaging platforms, particularly Twitter and Facebook. They have been great tools for aggregating fans and followers and keeping them informed about various topics, from trivia about our actors and crew, to release dates and special screenings. Twitter in particular has proven to be a great device […]
Indiewire and MoMA jointly organized a summit at MoMA on September 25 to discuss independent film and its future direction in a time of economic crisis and technological change. That the two groups could assemble a fairly astonishing collection of about 70 distributors, producers, directors, festival reps and others from the community at one place at one time is testament to the strength of the organizations but also the widespread sentiment that our business is changing and that what is yet to come will be defined by our collective actions ā or, possibly, non-actions. Some of the attendees, listed here […]