IFP Narrative Labs
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No Poster is Better than an Amateur Poster: Five Takeaways from the IFP Narrative Lab
My first feature film, Kids Go Free to Fun Fun Time, is a drama/romance that takes place in three different countries, showing how a couple’s relationship evolves over the course of a decade. I have been working on this film for longer than I’d like to admit. I had little luck getting the funding or support needed to get the film done, but then I got accepted into the IFP Narrative Lab, and my world completely changed. To talk about everything I learned during the IFP Narrative Lab would take about 40 pages, so I’m going to try and boil it […]
by Ben Hicks on Jan 17, 2018 -
IFP Announces 10 Films Chosen for its 2017 Narrative Lab
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker’s publisher, announced today the projects selected for the 2017 edition of its Narrative Labs. A program designed for first-time filmmakers currently in post-production on narrative films, it provides resources and mentorship on all the activities that go into finishing a film and taking it out into the world, from work with music and sound, to locking picture, to festival and distribution strategies. The program begins today and runs through May 12 at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP located in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Commented IFP Executive Director Joana Vicente in a press release, […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 9, 2017 -
10 Ways to Advance Your Film’s Story, Outreach and Impact: A Report from the IFP Filmmaker Lab
With all the trauma of this past week, I at least had the good fortune of spending it at the IFP Filmmaker Lab in New York City. Filmmakers and my fellow mentors all showed up Wednesday morning stunned, tired and depressed from watching the election returns all night. Some stayed home but by the middle of the morning nearly all the filmmaking teams had turned up. I say that I was fortunate because one of the things that I love about the labs is that we become a community of support for each other. Even though my morning presentation was […]
by Jon Reiss on Nov 22, 2016 -
Bringing an Untitled Hasidic Film to the IFP Narrative Lab
While often demonized and misunderstood, the Hasidic community is an insular one that keeps to itself. No wonder then that the community is underrepresented cinematically. There aren’t many honest representations on film that explore the meanings of its traditions and rituals with vibrancy or humor. This is one of the reasons writer/director Joshua Z. Weinstein sought out to make Untitled Hasidic Film, in order to portray this world in the most authentic way possible. The film features actual Hasidic non-actors, a rarity to say the least, and is entirely in Yiddish. Joshua embedded himself in this world earning the trust […]
by Danelle Eliav on Jun 14, 2016 -
Is It All About “Who You Know”? The Seven Steps Towards the IFP Narrative Labs
“It’s all about who you know.” That’s the suspicion when you’re a filmmaker trying to get the right kind of attention. I found this troubling because I knew absolutely no one. I kind of knew my mailman, but I could tell he wasn’t that into my movie when I talked to him. However, I was just selected for the IFP Narrative Labs with my film, A Bad Idea Gone Wrong. So, I went from an unenthusiastic relationship with a postal carrier to being in the IFP Narrative Labs. And you can too in seven easy steps! Step One: Write a […]
by Jason Headley on Jun 1, 2016 -
“Ducking” Prison Drama Heartlock Heads to the IFP Narrative Labs
Have you heard of Richard Matt and David Sweat? They are the two convicts who engineered a meticulously plotted escape from a Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York last summer. The plan was set in motion once they were assigned to an inmate sewing shop, which was overseen by a female prison worker. The two convicts spent the next nine months methodically breaking down the personal and professional boundaries of their overseer — befriending her, coaxing her into a sexual relationship, and, finally, coercing her into assisting with their escape. Sadly, by the time all was said and done, […]
by Jon Kauffman on May 25, 2016 -
IFP Announces Ten New Narrative Films for Its Filmmaker Labs
The IFP announced today the ten work-in-progress narrative films that will take part in its 2016 Narrative Lab. They include a romance shot in Ukraine in the months following the 2014 revolution; a drama about the astral travels of a comatose man during what may be the apocalypse; and a comedy about house thieves trapped inside a house by its high-tech alarm system. The filmmakers, all first-time feature directors, are attending this week in New York a series of programs and mentorship sessions providing feedback on their edits as well as advice and counsel on festival strategy, distribution deals, marketing, […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 23, 2016 -
Deadline Approaching for the IFP Narrative and Documentary Labs
The IFP Labs, which offer intensive, year-long mentorship to first-time filmmakers with features in post-production and budgeted less than $1 million, has a March 1 deadline coming up. Still the only Labs focused on post-production, festival strategy, marketing, distribution and DIY strategies, the program is, I think, an invaluable resource and one of the IFP’s best activities. (Full disclosure: IFP publishes Filmmaker, and I was a creator of the IFP Narrative Labs.) In addition to the guidance and advice from Lab Leaders and professional mentors, the Labs also create a tight-knit community of filmmakers who wind up being their own […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 24, 2016 -
Kevin Smith, Branding and the Pressures of Independent Filmmaking: Rodrigo Reyes on the IFP Narrative Labs
I spent mid-June of this year within the folds of the IFP Narrative Labs, keeping an eye open for an endearing moment, an anecdote or an auspicious situation that could somehow encapsulate the intensity of the experience. After months of review, late nights grinding through hundreds of rough cuts, careful readings of submission materials and vigorous debates, the selection committee had whittled down their picks to a slate of 10 films from all over the country, all amazing and in varying stages of post-production. They brought us together in a theater in the heart of DUMBO for a week of […]
by Rodrigo Reyes on Jun 22, 2015 -
Speed the Plow, Gently (Or, What I Took Away From the 2014 IFP Narrative Labs)
Toru Takemitsu referred to music as the art of time. He modeled his compositions after gardens, attributing the ideas of time and space involved in cultivation to the placement of notes and time signatures within his music. The elements of nature were musical notations; dirt was the base layer; the stones never move; some plants grow and have different cycles than others. The ideas of cultivating time, space, movement, and growth into a composition were an inspiration to my process as a filmmaker. Like a garden, a film involves a delicate balance that you can never force or will into […]
by Cameron Bruce Nelson on Jan 21, 2015
