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, the greatest communication challenge that I encountered while working on my film happened during the prep phase, where I was still scrambling to raise funds and cast my leads. This was my first feature and a lot of people just weren’t sure of me yet. And short of surgically implanting someone into my head, it was nearly impossible to convey to them how the film […]
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? Oftentimes, indie filmmaking in China is something that invites suspicion. You will need to persuade potential collaborators and investors with convincing arguments. For the rest of the process, it could also be true. Chinese indie filmmakers would run into these problems on a regular basis, which is why communicating becomes a craftsmanship. It is of vital importance both in terms of the efficiency and the final result […]
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 greatest communication challenge in making Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton was how to take a somewhat conventional mode of storytelling – the iconic surf film – and tell it in an unexpected, unconventional way. Most surf films operate like their own contained love stories: Man (or woman) meet wave; Man rides wave; Man reflects on riding wave before going off to ride another. […]
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 […]
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? I was in a small town on the border of Brazil and Paraguay, trying to convince locals from both sides to work with me on a film, a poetic tale that would bring together actors and non-actors from two areas sharing memories of a war. The effects of the Paraguayan War have lingered and neither side trusts the other. How would it be possible to convince the […]
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? As filmmakers we must continually declare what our film is about, and explain the process in which we intend to achieve it. It begins in the funding phase and concludes with the distribution of the film, when you must devise ways to communicate the story to a potential audience. For an artist and filmmaker this process is not necessarily positive, because it can kill your artistic intuition. […]
Twice in a row the first film I’ve seen at Sundance is so brilliant, so accomplished that I start Sundance on a mountain high — and it’s not the thin air. I had to miss 2016 Sundance, but two years ago it was Tom Hardy in Steven Knight’s Locke, a tour de force of a one-hander that’s nonetheless a nail-biter — Hardy in close-up the entire film, speeding through the night in his car, his life crumbling in real time with each harrowing Bluetooth call. You learn a lot about concrete pours and the consequences of poor choices. But I […]
Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau are the cofounders of Reel Peak Media, a production company that prides itself on documentary work of both “journalistic integrity and cinematic quality.” Both filmmakers began as photojournalists before making the move to documentary cinema. On Trophy, Schwarz and Clusiau served as DPs with Schwarz acting as director. Their film explores the worlds of big game hunting, breeding, and wildlife conservation. Below, the two discuss these issues ahead of Trophy‘s premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? Schwarz and Clusiau: Since we are directors who started as photojournalists, […]
Katie Flaxman has edited 35 shorts, TV series, fiction films and documentaries in the past 12 years. Her most recent feature, Killing Ground, made its U.S. premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this week. A violent thriller from director Damien Power, the film tells the story of a nightmarish camping trip in the Australian woods. Below, Flaxman discusses the film’s non-linear structure, her techniques for “storyboarding” a film in the editing suite and the importance of POV in thrillers. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that […]
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 […]