6582 Results for “production”
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Mood Reels and Lookbooks: In Today’s Pitches, the Image Comes First
The pitch — boiled down to its simplest terms, it’s when someone with an idea tries to sell it to someone with the money or resources to get it made. Writers and directors can pitch their own original ideas or pitch their creative skills to win a job on an already-developed for-hire project. For decades, these pitches were purely verbal. They were about “being good in the room.” But today the pitch game is changing, and it’s a harder game to play than ever before. A great verbal presentation is still key, but filmmakers are increasingly supplementing their pitches with […]
by Ariston Anderson on Jul 19, 2012 -
The Shooting Parties
John Cassavetes once described the role of the director as essentially indirect: “I don’t direct the film. I set up an atmosphere and the atmosphere directs.” Atmosphere and budget may seem like two very different issues, one ephemeral and elusive, the other pragmatic and denumerable, but in practice they are intimately linked. Decisions regarding the selection and number of cast, crew and locations; the scheduled duration and pace of the shoot; the resources at its disposal—each choice is at least partially determined by financial limitations, and each, in turn, affects the atmosphere of a production and the qualities of the […]
by Donal Foreman on Jul 19, 2012 -
Alternate Routes
As the keynote speaker at the Los Angeles Film Festival this June, Chris McGurk, of digital theatrical distribution platform Cinedigm, described seven signs of a resurging indie film industry — an “indie renaissance,” he called it. Most of his bullet points had to do with the ways in which digital technology and social media allow for new ways to program for and reach audiences in theaters and online. “Just as happened in the ’80s,” he said, “there is an exploding demand for filmed entertainment. There is huge competition now going on between all of these digital retailers. It’s an ‘arms […]
by Randy Astle on Jul 19, 2012 -
Alternate Routes: New DIY Distribution
How three films are navigating the new distribution landscape.
by Randy Astle on Jul 19, 2012 -
Five Questions with Shut Up And Play the Hits Directors Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace
Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’s LCD Soundsystem movie Shut Up and Play the Hits has a one-day-only release today through Oscilloscope Pictures (in partnership with TUGG). The following interview was conducted just prior to the film’s premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. Over LCD Soundsystem’s ten-year career, the band grew from early blog darlings to lauded indie stalwarts. After telegraphing the group’s demise years in advance, band-leader James Murphy officially disbanded LCD last April with a star-studded, marathon-length performance at Madison Square Garden. Now, less than a year later, Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace present Shut Up […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jul 18, 2012 -
Inside a Three-Minute Film Competition
On the first Sunday of July, a group of filmmakers gathered at the Salem Willows Park in Massachusetts to participate in a Three-Minute Film Challenge. The brainchild of local d.p.s Rick Macomber and Paul Antico, the event was as much a gathering of enthusiasts as it was a competition. “I was watching a 48-hour film fest,” says Rick, “and I had an idea that maybe we could do something like this, with a group of people, and [a film length limit of] three minutes. I’d never tried anything like this, and it was my first narrative attempt.” “We’d talked about […]
by Michael Murie on Jul 18, 2012 -
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES CREATIVE PRODUCING LABS
This week, Sundance Institute announced its 2012 participants in the Creative Producing Initiatives. The week-long program begins with two concurrently-running Creative Producing Labs (July 30-Aug. 3)—the Feature Film Program and the Documentary Film Program and Fund—before capping off with the Creative Producing Summit (Aug. 3-5). Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, “Sundance Institute is committed to supporting emerging independent film producers, and our Creative Producing Initiative is a rare opportunity for them to sharpen their creative instincts, evolve their problem-solving skills, and deepen their knowledge of the distribution landscape. In doing so, they are better equipped to successfully […]
by Billy Brennan on Jul 17, 2012 -
The Solar Odyssey: Shooting with the Sony NEX-FS100, Part Two
Todd Mahoney recently spent ten days shooting a documentary project using the Sony NEX-FS100. It was his first experience with the camera. He was documenting the pre-voyage progress of the Solar Odyssey Project, the voyage of a solar powered boat that will be traveling The Great Loop. You can read more about that in the first half of this series [“THE SOLAR ODYSSEY”: TAKING PART IN A DOCUMENTARY, PART ONE] In this interview, conducted after he had returned, Todd talks about his experiences shooting with the Sony NEX-FS100, the Sony NEX-7 and a GoPro Hero. So what happened? The boat […]
by Michael Murie on Jul 17, 2012 -
Storm Song: Beasts of the Southern Wild and Tchoupitoulas
After the recent BAMcinemaFest screening that marked the first time Benh Zeitlin’s magical-realist Beasts of the Southern Wild screened alongside Bill and Turner Ross’s immersive New Orleans documentary Tchoupitoulas—both South Louisiana-shot pictures produced by members of the film collective Court 13—there were two celebrations on either side of BAM. At the beautiful dive-bar Frank’s, the Ross brothers and various doc and indie film bros were watching the NBA championships with loud exuberance and strong opinions. There was a rumor that there was a dance party across the street at the Fox Searchlight-hosted party for Beasts, which was flowing with delicious […]
by Miriam Bale on Jul 14, 2012 -
Five Questions with The Imposter Director Bart Layton
Bart Layton’s excellent The Imposter, one of the most inventive and cinematic documentaries of recent years, opens theatrically today. The following interview was originally published on the eve of its Sundance Film Festival premiere. More and more often different mediums and genres of filmmaking are being meshed together and Bart Layton’s newest documentary The Imposter is no different. The film’s official synopsis declares, “Documentary meets Film Noir in this astonishing true story which has all the twists and turns of a great thriller.” But this is not just a hoax to get people into the theatre. Based on an extremely […]
by Alexandra Byer on Jul 13, 2012
