Alex Karpovsky, writer/director, 2006: Since being included in the list back in 2006, I teamed up with Indiepix to release my first feature, The Hole Story, on DVD. The film is now available at retail stores across the country, Netflix, and other outlets. I have also completed another feature, Woodpecker, which premiered at SXSW last March and is now bouncing along on the festival circuit. Currently, I am in post-production on my first feature-length documentary TJ and Dave, which focuses on America’s most revered long-form comedy improvisers, Tj Jagadowski and Dave Pasquesi. I’ve also done a bit of acting recently, […]
Independent film is, unfortunately at times, a cyclical business. In 2002 we commissioned producer Bergen Swanson to write “Hollywood or Bust: What if Your Producer Goes Bankrupt.” It was relevant then and may be relevant at now. It’s in our Web Exclusives. Here’s a taste: YOU’VE DONE IT! The screenplay you’ve been slaving over for months has finally been optioned by an edgy production company noted for offbeat films. Or, the movie that has consumed your life for the past two years has been picked up by a noted distributor. Emptying out your savings, selling your comic book collection, sleeping […]
Here’s the fifth of our catch-ups with previous “25 New Faces” filmmakers. If you’ve been on the list and haven’t sent us an update, you can still email one to editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com. Don Handfield, writer/director, 2005: Life for me has changed dramatically for me since 2005, no pun intended. I am married now – to a beautiful woman named Tressa, and we had our first baby – a little girl – Robinson Dawn Handfield – just two weeks ago. She came in on the day of the recent earthquake and has been making her presence known with more little […]
An interesting conversation is developing over at Anne Thompson’s blog, in which she writes about some of the recent executive departures. Of course, the big news this week was Paula Wagner’s leaving UA, and in a piece about that development Thompson references Bill Horberg’s stepping down as head of production at Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. SKE has recently downsized after producing several films, including Charlie Kaufman’s ambitious and out-there Synechdoche, New York, which cost, reportedly, north of $20 million and, according to Thompson, was bought “for a song” by Sony Classics. She characterizes both Wagner and Horberg as being “ill equipped […]
Here’s the fourth of our catch-ups with previous “25 New Faces” filmmakers. If you’ve been on the list and haven’t sent us an update, you can still email one to editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com.Laura Colella, writer/director, 2000: In 2000, I was gearing up for the Sundance Directing & Screenwriting Labs with my 2nd feature project Stay Until Tomorrow. After the amazing lab experience, I spent over a year trying in vain to get a company or established producer behind the project. Amy Geller, a great young producer, signed on. We set a date, were offered many substantial donations of equipment and […]
Directors Bradley Rust Grey and So Yong Kim just directed a short film for the Museum of Chinese in America Chinatown Film Project. Grey also acted as d.p. and shot the film on the new Red camera — the same camera Steven Soderbergh used to shoot his recent CHE. Grey plans to use the Red to shoot his next feature, which should begin this fall, and was kind enough to send us this entry for the blog in which he quickly summarizes his impressions of the experience. I haven’t written a blog before. So I’m just sort of thinking of […]
Announced today, IFP‘s 30th annual Independent Film Week (formerly the IFP Market) will include Kevin Smith, filmmaker/activist Robert Greenwald and SnagFilms CEO Rich Allen as the headliners for this year’s festivities. Read full release below. KEVIN SMITH, ROBERT GREENWALD AND RICK ALLEN TO HEADLINE IFP’S 30th ANNUAL INDEPENDENT FILM WEEK SEPT. 14-19 Film Screenings, Panel Discussions, and Networking Highlight Six-Day Event www.independentfilmweek.com New York, NY (August 5, 2008) – IFP announced today that IFP alumnus Kevin Smith (Clerks), filmmaker and activist Robert Greenwald (Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism), and SnagFilms.com CEO Rick Allen will headline public events during the […]
Producer Noah Harlan of 2.1 Films just came back from the Sundance Producer’s Lab and forwarded these comments about some of the topics discussed there. Like every producer, Harlan is trying to figure out what the new digital distribution landscape will look like for independents. I particularly responded here to his attempt to parse the revenue possibilities for the streaming and ad-supported models — a topic you’ve read about on this blog previously. For now, though, here’s Harlan. I just got back from the Sundance Producer’s Conference and had a few thoughts that I wanted to share with some of […]
Here’s the third of our catch-ups with previous “25 New Faces” filmmakers. If you’ve been on the list and haven’t sent us an update, you can still email one to editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com. Marshall Curry, director, 2005: Since releasing Street Fight, I have been working on two docs– one about the radical environmental group, the Earth Liberation Front, and the other about three 12-year old kids who aspire to be NASCAR drivers (they race gokarts that go 60 mph in a nationally competitive circuit that’s sort of the little leagues for NASCAR.) Both films are in post now, and the […]
While we here at Filmmaker were busy trying to be so ahead-of-the-curve with our 25 New Faces list, we were dreadfully behind-the-curve in another area: figuring out an appropriately smart and knowing take on Comic-Con that would enable us to preserve our indie cred while attracting a fair share of fanboy surfers. Next year we’ll figure it out, but as for this year, I’m glad we didn’t try because we wouldn’t have beaten Karina Longworth’s take on the event, which benefits from her own experience at a Comic-Con of days past. Her lede: When I first went to Comic-Con, almost […]