6580 Results for “production”
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The ARRI Alexa: Bridging Past and Future
Originally published in the Fall 2010 issue. The time frame needed to produce an independent feature these days can seem longer than the lifespan of its underlying technology. Cheap HDSLRs challenge high-end camcorders that cost 50 times more. Even RED One, whose revolutionary bona fides were golden two years ago, suddenly feels status quo. And lurking around the corner — due at year’s end — is a vanguard of new, inexpensive large-sensor camcorders from all the usual suspects. It’s been said that the geek shall inherit the earth, but this is getting ridiculous. How’s a producer to make sense of […]
by David Leitner on Dec 4, 2011 -
The Microbudget Conversation: The Journeymen
As most of us receive our early morning Sundance rejection email (which literally makes us the 99 percenters…again.) we should all take a moment and reflect: what drove us to this? What brought us to this moment where a single email is either enormously heartbreaking, or just another bump on the dirt road of DIY/micro filmmaking? I’ve asked fellow columnist, and bi-coastal filmmaker, Gregory Bayne to shed a bit of light on his practice of treating each project as the first uphill battle of many, and how that journey is essential for the career independent filmmaker. We have an almost […]
by John Yost on Dec 2, 2011 -
Sundance 2012 Announces Films In Competition
The films selected for U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival were announced today. The compete list of titles are below. Films in the Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, NEXT and New Frontier sections are here. See films in the Premieres sections here. Taking place Jan. 19-29 in Park City, Utah (as well as Salt Lake City, Odgen and Sundance, UT), this year’s fest includes representatives from 31 countries, 44 first time filmmakers and 88 films will make their world premiere at the fest. Over 4,000 features were submitted for the 2012 edition […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 30, 2011 -
Sleeping Beauty Writer/Director Julia Leigh
When Filmmaker chose Australian novelist Julia Leigh for our 25 New Faces list of 2008, the author of such books as The Hunter and Disquiet was teaching at Barnard while establishing herself as a screenwriter of provocative, nuanced dramas for directors like Walter Salles and production companies like Plan B. She said when I interviewed her that screenplay writing was originally a form of “diversion therapy” while working on Disquiet, but that she grew to appreciate the form. “I actually find scripts hard to read — ugly,” she said in 2008. “I got my head around the very basic conventions […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 30, 2011 -
Lightworks Revamp Just Around the Corner
Postproduction is in a state of flux. As is well known by now, Apple’s latest Final Cut Pro iteration left a lot to be desired for professional editors, and competitors Avid and Adobe were quick to step in and lure away Final Cut users. And now the newest competitor is also the oldest. Lightworks, one of the first viable nonlinear editing systems when it was first released in 1989, has been used by luminaries like Thelma Schoonmaker and has racked up a number of Oscars and other awards, including a technical Oscar and Emmy for the system itself. It couldn’t […]
by Randy Astle on Nov 29, 2011 -
The Microbudget Conversation: Form And Content
As we wind down “Season One” of the conversation we take a look back and discuss what might have been overlooked. When I first started this column my hope was that filmmakers and tastemakers would use this forum as a way to debate, raise questions, and challenge one another. For the most part I’ve been happy with the subjects raised by this column and the subsequent conversation that has started in the comments section of some of the posts. However, as we push forward in the new year I would like if we didn’t just talk at you, but with […]
by John Yost on Nov 29, 2011 -
Leitner’s Mondo NAB, Part 5: Roundup
Originally posted April 2011. This fifth and last NAB 2011 blog is really about churn. Churn, to my way of thinking, is the degree of agitation and upheaval in the industry at a given point in time, such as this NAB. Apple’s sneak peek of FCP X at the Final Cut Pro Users Group 10th anniversary SuperMeet reminded me that even a decade ago, indie filmmakers were still coming to grips with the desktop revolution. I remember producers transferring MiniDV cassettes of my footage to Betacam for digitizing back to Avid, oblivious to FireWire or FCP 1.0. How professional could […]
by David Leitner on Nov 27, 2011 -
Leitner’s Mondo NAB, Part 4: 3D
Originally posted April 2011. NAB’s ubiquitous buzzwords this year were 3D and 4K. Or should that be, buzz-acronyms? James Cameron and camera design partner Vince Pace kicked off NAB with a keynote in which they announced founding a new company, Cameron-Pace Group, to spur the industry, particularly television, into rapid adoption of 3D technologies. Cameron, who knows a thing or two about being on top of the world, may have it right again. He and Pace think that TV is fertile soil for 3D, that in a space of five years TV viewers will expect 3D. By then, they contend, […]
by David Leitner on Nov 27, 2011 -
Leitner’s Mondo NAB, Part 3: SSD, Tapes and Storage
Originally posted April 2011. At back-to-back press conferences prior to the opening of NAB’s show floor, both Panasonic and Sony acknowledged the still-unfolding natural disaster in Japan and asked that our thoughts be with the Japanese people. Sony added that despite critical damage to its media plant in Sendai, supplies of HDCAM-SR tape would return to normal by June. Sony’s Sendai Technology Center (which I’ve visited) practically invented the high-performance tapes necessary to DV and HDV (metal evaporated) and HDCAM-SR (metal particle), and still manufactures a preponderance of them. Having persuaded both film and television industries to adopt HDCAM-SR as […]
by David Leitner on Nov 27, 2011 -
Leitner’s Mondo NAB, Part 1
Originally posted April 2011. The big NAB show in Las Vegas opened Monday, and I’ll be filing reports for Filmmaker’s readers at the end of every day through Thursday, when the show floor closes. For those unfamiliar with NAB, it stands for National Association of Broadcasters, a powerful trade association and influential Washington lobby, no bastion of progressive politics. But for filmmakers and indie producers, it also stands for the huge annual April trade show in Vegas, where the latest in cameras, lenses, recorders, lighting, audio, and all manner of production gear are introduced. TV execs, techies, DPs, and crew […]
by David Leitner on Nov 27, 2011
