Ahead of the launch of the first-ever International Production Design Week, the Production Designers Collective has coordinated a series of meetings between directors and production designers in which they discuss the particularities about their working dynamics as well as how production design can elevate the vision of a filmmaker. Derek Cianfrance and Inbal Weinberg first collaborated on Blue Valentine, which set the stage for exploration and discovery. They continued to experiment with environment and process on such projects as The Place Beyond The Pines and I Know This Much Is True. Here they discuss the delicate balance of artifice and authenticity […]
Ahead of the first-ever International Production Design Week, the Production Designers Collective has coordinated a series of interviews with directors and production designers, in which they discuss their working dynamics and mutual passion for the craft of storytelling. Below, is the first of these conversations published at Filmmaker, a conversation between production designer Jade Healy and director David Lowery. Their first collaboration had them wearing different hats. Shot in Costa Rica, It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home was written by four friends, among them Jade Healy, an actress, and David Lowery, sound designer and editor. Years later, as […]
Rathaus, the New York and Detroit-based production company behind such films as Tim Sutton’s Funny Face, Cedric Cheung-Lau’s The Mountains Are a Dream that Call to Me and Diana Peralta’s De Lo Mio, has announced a new grant supporting Detroit-based filmmakers. The Rathaus Film Grant will give $10,000 to one moving image artist in support of a short film, feature film, documentary, hybrid piece, or video art. Funds are unrestricted. As the FAQ notes, they “can be used in any way that significantly progresses your project forward. This could be anything from; supporting you to take time off to write […]
Vu just announced a new product that aims to make virtual production a lot more accessible: the Vu One. It’s two parts. One part turnkey virtual production studio in a (very, very, big) box. One part Vu’s Virtual Studio, a software platform that makes creating and running virtual scenes a lot easier. Let’s break down both parts. Complete Virtual Production Setup Vu One offers a complete, configurable VP setup, which includes: LED Wall by Unilumin, with sizing starting at 13×9 ft Media Server by Puget Systems LED Processor by Megapixel Stereoscopic camera tracker (more on that below) Optional camera tracker […]
Neither Barbie production designer Sarah Greenwood nor set decorator Katie Spencer had Barbie dolls growing up. “Or a DreamHouse, or anything,” recalls Greenwood, who joined Filmmaker on Zoom alongside Spencer following the record-breaking opening of Greta Gerwig’s feminist smash hit. “I was probably a little judgmental about Barbie until this film — I fell into that camp. But I kind of readdressed my thoughts after meeting this Barbie, and [its creator] Ruth Handler.” Spencer adds, “And [after] meeting Greta. We were a part of the backlash generation. Even if we wanted a Barbie, I don’t know that our parents would have […]
SAG-AFTRA is joining WGA on the Hollywood picket lines. Following the collapse Wednesday of its negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the union voted to strike, effective tonight at 12:01 AM. It’s the union’s first motion picture and television strike since 1980 and the first time since 1960 that both the actors’s and writers’ unions have concurrently struck. “We had no choice,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher at a live-streamed news conference this afternoon. “We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity.” She continued, “I cannot believe it, quite […]
In today’s entertainment industry, owning a production company has become synonymous with having a trainer, manager or overall deal—no celebrity can be seen without! But what exactly makes owning a production company such a crucial and sought-after asset? How can aspiring producers, particularly those who are young and not yet famous or well-established, go about creating one? What are the key factors that contribute to making it successful? Drawing from a decade of observing producers, learning from their triumphs and setbacks, as well as my personal experiences, here I explore the anatomy of a production company, the elements that lead […]
Given our tech-driven and communication-obsessed culture, it’s highly likely that you’re reading this article while multitasking on your smartphone. But as is the case with so many commodity industries like data, the true cost of all this connectivity often eludes us. This disconnect is what drove us to write the film HIGH, set in the fascinating and rarely seen world of telecom tower climbers. In the aftermath of a tragic accident, team foreman Butch Robbins leads his crew through the brutal Buffalo winter to finish their job on deadline and save the company, all without losing the connection he needs […]
Though Wes Anderson’s films can be seen as the product of the director’s sharp imagination, the finished work is nothing without those who turn his thoughts into spreadsheet-enabled reality. Most of the physical things on screen—the punctilious graphic design on signs and cards, the actual locations, the trimmed sets and the giant buildings in the distance that exist just to fill up white space—exist thanks to production designer Adam Stockhausen, who has been Anderson’s go-to since 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom. Stockhausen has noted his fondness for planning productions in an old-fashioned, tactile way which likely appeals not only to the very […]
At NAB I had a mission: find out what new products are making virtual production more affordable, more accessible, and not require a master’s degree in Unreal. Fortunately, I found a few options. Plus some new tools that are blending generative AI with virtual production. Let’s dig into what’s new in VP from NAB. Budget-Friendly Virtual Production First is the VIVE Mars CamTrack—a complete package for creating an affordable virtual volume. HTC’s VIVE has been in the virtual reality space for a while, with some of the top VR headsets. They also make the VIVE Tracker, a palm-sized puck that can track […]