6579 Results for “production”
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BLOGGING FROM THE SUNDANCE CREATIVE PRODUCING LAB: MYNETTE LOUIE
Over the next few days we’ll have blogs from participants of both the Sundance Documentary and Creative Producing Labs. Up first is producer Mynette Louie. Hello! I’ll try my best to sound coherent here… I’m kinda going nuts right now because I’m packing for the Lab (I leave for it in a few days), prepping for a short film shoot in August, prepping for a feature film shoot starting in October, shepherding a feature through the film festival circuit (and trying to figure out distribution for it), doing post-production duties on another feature, and developing three other features, including my […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 15, 2009 -
HOW TO (MAYBE?) MAKE A LIVING AS FILM JOURNALIST
I took note of Anthony Kaufman’s most recent blog post, “How to Survive the Recession?” for a number of reasons. First, Anthony writes our “Industry Beat” column, which is a place every issue where we survey the broader trends affecting this industry. He’s one of the few writers in our independent sphere who equally understands art and business issues, and he knows how to communicate both in concise and clear prose. But Anthony only does four columns a year for us, and if he’s finding the freelance world in general too forbidding at the moment, that’s awfully sad. He writes: […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 12, 2009 -
THE DEFILED’S "FIERCELY INDIE" BLOW-BY-BLOW
Filmmaker Julian Grant, who is a tenure-track film professor at Columbia College, Chicago, is making a “fiercely independent” ultra-low-budget, dialogue-less horror film entitled The Defiled, and he’s reporting a very detailed blow-by-blow of its production on his blog. He describes the film as ” a story of love and survival against a horror that is cataclysmic and…entirely possible.” Grant is shooting on the Canon HV20 with a cine-adapter and Nikon 50mm lens. He’s in the middle of week two, so if you’d like to follow from his production, head over there now. You can find footage tests, make-up tests, test […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2009 -
A Beacon of Democracy?: Distributing Lovely By Surprise
As I settle back in from a wonderful July 4th get-away, I am reminded of a mantra we used to chant at InDigEnt all the time (we were a spiritual bunch). It was about how the digital revolution in filmmaking truly is a democratizing factor in production and distribution. I believed it then and I believe it now. While that phrase has been thrown around to mean all kinds of things, what it really means to me is that technology is reducing the barriers to entry for the making of films and subsequently for the dissemination of those films to […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Jul 6, 2009 -
PINA BAUSCH, R.I.P.
I missed the news that the astonishing German choreographer Pina Bausch died on June 30. From a lovely appreciation by Mark Swed: She became associated with big spectacles that were part-theater, part-dance battles of the sexes and society played out in extravagant environments. She might litter her stage with zillions of carnations or put her company in pools of water. Her highly sexed world-weary women paraded around in high heels, clothed and nude – just like the men. They beat each other up and the men usually ended up worse for the wear. Everything always looked amazing – costumes, sets, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 6, 2009 -
AN ESSENTIAL ANDREI TARKOVSKY RETRO AT THE WALTER READE
I received an email asking if I’d post something about the upcoming Film Society of Lincoln Center Andrei Tarkovsky retrospective at the Walter Reade. Sure, I wrote back, laughing as I imagined that a retro of the great Russian filmmaker would actually need a press boost, that it wouldn’t be packed from the outset with lines of people around the block hoping for tickets. But then I thought, what if that is not the case? Could it be that the current generation of young moviegoers has yet to fall under the spell of this rigorous and involving master director? Maybe. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 6, 2009 -
Havana Marking, Afghan Star
TALENT SHOW CONTESTANT LIMA SAHAR IN DIRECTOR HAVANA MARKING’S AFGHAN STAR. COURTESY ZEITGEIST FILMS. Following in the footsteps of such filmmakers as James Marsh (Man on Wire), Stephen Walker (Young@Heart) and Parvez Sharma (A Jihad For Love), Havana Marking is the latest director of a British TV-funded documentary to find her film in the theatrical spotlight Stateside. The intrepid director went to school in Dorset, England, before studying Anthropology at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. Subsequently, she began working in documentary television, progressing from researcher through to producer, on shows as disparate as Himalaya with […]
by Nick Dawson on Jun 26, 2009 -
Keith Gordon, During The Sundance Directors’ Lab
Here’s actor, writer and director Keith Gordon’s (pictured) second post from the Sundance Directors’ Lab. For his first post, click here. OK, so the weather isn’t great so far (lots of rain), and the food is, well, it’s kinda like being at summer camp. (That’s why I always bring some cereal and cans of soup from home). And that’s all I can come up with to complain about. This place is magic, and I’m thrilled to be back in it’s grip. I unpacked in my cozy little condo, and headed down to the Sunday reception for us “new folk.” I […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 24, 2009 -
THE FIND FILM FINANCING CONFERENCE
At last year’s FIND Film Financing Conference in Los Angeles, Mark Gill told us the sky is falling. This year’s keynote speaker, Endgame Entertainment CEO James H. Stern, had a more optimistic message. Referencing Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, Stern reminded the crowd, “We are lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time for great opportunities.” Stern encouraged the crowd of filmmakers to not just make better movies, but smarter ones that keep a film’s audience — and how to reach it — in mind well before the cameras roll, not just after the film is complete. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 22, 2009 -
COLUMBIA PICTURES PUTS SODERBERGH’S PITT-STARRING MONEYBALL IN TURNAROUND
In a “things are tough for everyone” reminder, Peter Bart and Michael Fleming in Variety report that Columbia Pictures’ Amy Pascal has put the new Steven Soderbergh movie, Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, into “limited turnaround” just three days before it was due to begin filming. From the piece: The move came after Pascal read the final draft delivered last week by Steven Zaillian and found it very different from the earlier scripts she championed. Pascal was uncomfortable enough with how Soderbergh’s vision had changed that she applied the brakes. Soderbergh and Pitt’s CAA reps spent the weekend attempting to get […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 21, 2009
