Derek Cianfrance
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“We Had to Row a Kayak to the Camera Truck to Save the Film Cans”: Director Derek Cianfrance and Production Designer Inbal Weinberg
Ahead of the launch of the first-ever International Production Design Week, the Production Designers Collective has coordinated a series of meetings between directors and production designers in which they discuss the particularities about their working dynamics as well as how production design can elevate the vision of a filmmaker. Derek Cianfrance and Inbal Weinberg first collaborated on Blue Valentine, which set the stage for exploration and discovery. They continued to experiment with environment and process on such projects as The Place Beyond The Pines and I Know This Much Is True. Here they discuss the delicate balance of artifice and authenticity […]
by Javier Irazuzta on Oct 16, 2023 -
Decisive Moments: Earth Mama Director Savanah Leaf in Conversation with Derek Cianfrance
There are two long back-and-forth tracking shots in Savanah Leaf’s wise, emotionally full debut feature, Earth Mama. In the first, the pregnant Gia—a 24-year-old Oakland single mother fighting for custody of the two young children she already has lost to state-sponsored foster care—purposefully strides across a playground, the camera focused on her as she passes expensive strollers and children playing in the background in soft focus. Moments before, she has asked the owner of the photo studio she works at for a cash advance: “I don’t want my baby coming out with no clothes or nothing,” she says. (Leaf cuts […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jun 27, 2023 -
The Noise Inside: Writer/Director Darius Marder on Sound of Metal
The following interview with Darius Marder about Sound of Metal, currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, was originally published in Filmmaker‘s Fall, 2020 print edition. Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal stars Riz Ahmed as Ruben, the drummer for a two-person heavy metal band who loses his hearing and, for much of the film, his perspective and sense of self as a result. His hearing falters and almost entirely disappears early in the film during the middle of a tour with his girlfriend/bandmate Lou (Olivia Cooke). Both are recovering addicts, and as their world is turned upside down, Lou fears Ruben […]
by Alison O'Daniel on Oct 28, 2020 -
“We Only Zoom In on This Show! We Don’t Zoom Out!” DP Jody Lee Lipes on I Know This Much is True and Shooting 600 Hours of 35mm
Jody Lee Lipes’ first answer was drowned out by a cacophonous eruption outside his window. We’d scheduled our interview about HBO’s new show I Know This Much Is True for 7 pm—the time when New Yorkers take to their windows and balconies each night to shower frontline workers with cheers of appreciation. Wally Lamb’s source novel was released in 1998 and the show’s 10-month shooting schedule began in early 2019. Yet it’s not hard to draw parallels between the show’s weary humanism and our new pandemic reality, with lines like “We’re connected, whether I like you or not” and “You […]
by Matt Mulcahey on May 8, 2020 -
Who Inspires Us?
A feature entitled “Who Inspires Us?” appeared in the Fall 2003 edition of Filmmaker. Suggested by Ted Hope, the article contained 36 filmmakers writing simply about the inspirations sustaining their creative lives. I think that we can all agree that, 14 years later, inspiration is now an even more important commodity than ever. So, we went back to six of that article’s filmmakers, asked them to read their original responses and comment again — both on those responses and on who or what is inspiring them now. Screenwriter (Savage Grace) and former WGA President Howard Rodman’s contribution cited German artist […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Dec 14, 2017 -
The Men’s Club, Stanley and Iris, Jane Fonda and The Light Between Oceans: Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Picks
One of my personal holy grails finally arrives on Blu-ray this week in the form of Olive Films’ release of Peter Medak’s bizarre, riveting The Men’s Club. Released in 1986, the film’s print ads promoted it as the successor to popular ensemble films like The Big Chill and The Breakfast Club, which is a little like trying to convince people to watch Abel Ferrara’s The Bad Lieutenant by comparing it to an episode of CHiPs. The Men’s Club follows a night in the life of a group of men (and what a group: David Dukes, Richard Jordan, Harvey Keitel, Frank […]
by Jim Hemphill on Jan 27, 2017 -
Five Questions for Towheads Director Shannon Plumb
The following interview first ran on this site in January 2013 to coincide with the world premiere of Towheads at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It is republished here to mark the theatrical run of Plumb’s film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York between January 23 and 29. Premiering in Rotterdam, the disarming and oddly delightful Towheads is the feature debut of artist and experimental filmmaker Shannon Plumb. Exploring and extending aspects of her short-form Super-8 work within a feature context, Towheads is, on the surface, a familiar story of a bored housewife whose creative aspirations are […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2014 -
Win a Prize Pack for The Place Beyond the Pines
The follow-up to his breakout hit Blue Valentine, writer/director Derek Cianfrance’s excellent epic crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines comes out next Friday, March 29, and one Filmmaker reader can win themselves an extra special viewing experience, thanks to a prize pack being offered by the film’s distributor, Focus Features. The lucky winner will get a $25 Visa Gift card to see the film in theaters, a T-shirt, the official soundtrack (featuring the original score by Mike Patton, plus tracks by Arvo Pärt, Bon Iver and Ennio Morricone) and a poster for the film. To win this prize pack, send an email to […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 21, 2013 -
Five Questions for Towheads’ Shannon Plumb
Premiering in Rotterdam, the disarming and oddly delightful Towheads is the feature debut of artist and experimental filmmaker Shannon Plumb. Exploring and extending aspects of her short-form Super-8 work within a feature context, Towheads is, on the surface, a familiar story of a bored housewife whose creative aspirations are stifled by the pressures of domesticity and the disinterest of a work-obsessed husband. But these frustrations are just the catalyst for a charmingly playful series of episodes in which Plumb’s character adopts various guises — a drag king, a pole dancer and many more — in an attempt to explore alternative […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 24, 2013 -
Michelle Williams Q&A
by Jason Guerrasio on Oct 28, 2011
