6579 Results for “production”
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“We Have Complete Creative Control”: Chuck Russell on Witchboard
The first film directed by Chuck Russell I can remember seeing was the special effects-driven Jim Carrey vehicle The Mask at a multiplex with my family thirty years ago (the summer comedy opened on July 29th, 1994 in over 2,300 North American theaters). However, it was his work in the horror genre with co-writer Frank Darabont that really hooked me. Both 1987’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors—released when the filmmaker was only 28—and 1988’s remake of The Blob were gooey and gory, yes, but also competent adventure films, their charm derived from Russell’s nimble craftsmanship and the […]
by Erik Luers on Aug 12, 2024 -
TikTok, Building a Slate, and the Life of an Independent Producer: It Ends With Us Producer Alex Saks
If you’re a TikTok-using film producer, then the feed of Alex Saks has undoubtedly been delivered straight to your phone by that platform’s ruthless and unerring algorithm. Over the past year-and-a-half, and across nearly 200 clips, Saks, a former ICM financing agent and more recently a producer of such films as The Florida Project, Thoroughbreds, and Sometimes I Think About Dying, has been dispensing on the platform pithy, direct pieces of advice on topics such as securing book rights, defining the role of the line producer, imposter syndrome and the state of the industry. There’s the occasional stitch or commentary […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 9, 2024 -
Trailer Watch: David Gutnik’s Ukraine War Doc, Rule of Two Walls
David Gutnik’s Rule of Two Walls — the title referring to the recommended method of sheltering during a bombing raid — receives its theatrical premiere August 16 at New York’s DCTV Firehouse Cinema before rolling out to selected cities via Monument Releasing. The doc, which depicts the work of Ukrainian artists making defiant work during the current war in Ukraine, is executive produced by Liev Schreiber and is the director’s foll0w-up to his fiction debut, Materna, which, like Rule of Two Walls, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In an interview with Lauren Wissot timed to that festival premiere, Gutnik […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 8, 2024 -
“You Don’t Have a Lot of Control Over a Head Exploding”: MaXXXine Cinematographer Eliot Rockett
After the 1970s grit of X and the Technicolor sheen of Pearl, Ti West and cinematographer Eliot Rockett turn to the 1980s with MaXXXine. Shot with the same combo of Sony Venice and Vantage MiniHawks, the L.A.-set story finds adult actress Maxine Minx’s big break into mainstream films curtailed by a series of giallo-esque murders. With the movie freshly out on VOD, Rockett spoke to Filmmaker about the concluding chapter in the trilogy. Filmmaker: Ti talked in an interview about how MaXXXine is his first film shot in L.A. despite living there for 20 years. X and Pearl were both […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Aug 8, 2024 -
The Gotham Announces 2024 Project Market Slate
The Gotham, Filmmaker‘s publisher, announced today the projects and creators accepted into the 2024 Gotham Week Project Market, which takes place in Brooklyn and Manhattan September 30 – October 4. A long-running program of The Gotham, the Project Market introduces projects in development seeking financing or distribution to industry partners, including producers, sales agents and distributors. It returns this year following last year’s break due to the ongoing Writers Guild strikes with 112 projects spanning feature films, documentary and television. Among the projects are Buffalo Stone, which Lily Gladstone co-wrote and produced, with co-writer-directors Daniel Glick and Ivy Macdonald and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 7, 2024 -
U.S. in Progress 2024 Submissions Now Open for American Independents Seeking Finishing Funds
U.S. in Progress is now through September 8 accepting submissions from American independent filmmakers with pictures in post-production seeking finishing funds. Accepted filmmakers and projects will attend the in-person event at Wroclaw, Poland’s American Film Festival from November 7 – 9, where they will present the rough cuts of their narrative projects to European buyers and Polish post-production companies providing over $100,000 in post services. Recent and upcoming projects that are alumni of U.S. in Progress include the Venice-bound Familiar Touch, directed by 2023 25 New Face Sarah Friedland; the recently released Summer Solstice, by writer/director Noah Schamus; India Donaldson’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 5, 2024 -
“I Wanted to Make a Black, Gay Paris, Texas“: Shatara Michelle Ford on Their BlackStar-Premiering Sophomore Feature Dreams in Nightmares
Three cross-coastal best friends reunite for a spontaneous road trip across the American underbelly in Dreams in Nightmares, the sophomore feature from writer-director Shatara Michelle Ford. Though a significant pivot in theme and scope from their lean yet intense debut feature Test Pattern, Ford’s latest continues to plainly indicts the oppression that finds Black, femme, queer bodies at a stark institutional disadvantage. After being laid off from their respective jobs in academia and finance, Z (Denée Benton) and Tasha (Sasha Compère) hop on the phone to reschedule a planned trip to the Dominican Republic. Instead of lounging in paradise, Tasha […]
by Natalia Keogan on Aug 2, 2024 -
28 Projects Selected for Sundance Institute Documentary Fund 2024 Grants
Sundance Institute announced today the recipients of this year’s Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, which awarded unrestricted grants with a total granting pool standing at $1,450,000 to 28 projects. From the press release: The Documentary Fund prioritizes the support of artists from historically marginalized communities and seeks to amplify global voices telling crucial stories. More than half of the grant proposals came from outside the U.S., with the final group of grantees representing 25 countries. The majority of projects (92%) receiving grants are directed by artists from communities that have been traditionally marginalized and 60% are from first-time feature directors. Through […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Aug 1, 2024 -
“I Can’t Run a Control Experiment with No Cameras”: Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber on War Game
On January 6th, 2023 in Washington, DC, the advocacy group Vet Voice stage an elaborate mass role-playing scenario inspired by the attempted insurrection in the Capitol two years before. The loser of a presidential election declares the result illegitimate and encourages the public to rise up, and an extremist militia group with sleepers inside the National Guard does just that. Within the simulation, one side roleplayed the incumbent presidential administration (with former Montana governor Steve Bullock portraying the president), while the other was the terrorist “Red Cell” attempting to stop Congress from certifying the election results. If the Red Cell […]
by Dan Schindel on Aug 1, 2024 -
“Playing in the Best Sandbox Ever”: DP Chris Teague on The Acolyte
Set a century before The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte follows a Jedi master (Squid Games star Lee Jung-jae) and his former apprentice (Amandla Stenberg) as they hunt for a killer who’s dispatching Jedi. The new series holds a distinction that no other live action Star Wars saga can claim—not the half dozen Disney Plus shows or the eleven feature films, not the Star Wars Holiday Special, not even that Ewok movie with Wilfred Brimley. The Acolyte is the first live action story set in the heretofore unseen High Republic era that served as the zenith of Jedi influence and power. […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Jul 31, 2024
