Sundance Film Festival
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“Anthologies Are All about Communication”: Director Roxanne Benjamin | XX
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? Anthologies are all about communication – you’re dealing with multiple productions in multiple states (if not countries) with quadruple the number of creatives and producers using different camera equipment, different lenses, with different visions, different styles. To that end, in my experience the biggest challenge for these types of productions usually lies in tying all of those disparate elements together into one cohesive whole that benefits and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017 -
Editor Evan Schrodek on the Fraternity Hazing Drama Burning Sands
A producer on Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, Gerard McMurray makes his debut as a writer/director with Burning Sands. The film tells the story of five college students who embark on a “Hell Week” of hazing and abuse in order to receive admission into a prestigious black fraternity. Evan Schrodek, an editor on The Walking Dead, cut the film after he became friends with McMurray at film school at USC. Below, Schrodek speaks about the film’s nuanced portrait of fraternity hazing, the personal nature of this story and his love of genre filmmaking. Burning Sands premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will be […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017 -
“How to Sell the Outrageous Premise of the Film”: DP Quyen Tran on Deidra & Laney Rob a Train
A pair of teenage sisters resort to train robbery to raise bail money for their mother in Deidra & Laney Rob a Train, a new comedy from director Sydney Freeland. Freeland returns to Sundance with her second feature after 2014’s Drunktown’s Finest, which debuted in Utah before earning a number of festival awards. Below, the film’s DP Quyen Tran (Pali Road) discusses the influence of the Coen brothers, filming on a moving train at night without any lighting and grounding an absurd story in naturalistic visuals. Deidra & Laney Rob a Train premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Netflix on […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017 -
DPs Yoni Brook and Joshua Z. Weinstein on Ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish Drama Menashe
Documentary director Joshua Z Weinstein makes his first foray into fiction filmmaking with Menashe, a drama set in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park in New York City. Weinstein shot the film with co-DP Yoni Brook, a fellow documentary DP and director. With dialogue almost entirely in Yiddish, the film premiered earlier this week in the NEXT lineup at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker spoke with Weinstein and Brook before the film’s premiere. Below, the two discuss the film’s necessary blend of documentary and fiction techniques, lighting scenes for first-time actors and earning the trust of a notoriously hermetic community. Filmmaker: How […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017 -
“A Survival Thriller Set in the Remote Bush”: Director Damien Power | Killing Ground
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? As a director, there are many ways to communicate your vision for the film to cast and crew. In the lead-up to shooting my first feature, Killing Ground, I used them all: screening and talking about films that resonated, mood boards, sketches, diagrams, notes, long conversations – whatever helped whoever I was talking to best understand the film we were making. During the shoot I discovered it […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017 -
“Both Playful and Unique”: Editor Dominic LaPerriere on Dayveon
Dominic LaPerriere has edited three feature films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival: Fishing without Nets (2014), The Free World (2016) and, this year, Dayveon. From first-time director Amman Abbasi, Dayveon tells the story of a 13-year-old boy’s coming-of-age after the violent death of his big brother. LaPerriere co-edited the film with Michael Carter. Below, he speaks with Filmmaker about how he got into editing and finding the right balance between moving a plot forward and letting an audience savor the moment. Dayveon premiered at Sundance last week in the NEXT lineup. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2017 -
“How Do You Show Something That Isn’t There?”: DP Sam Painter on Water & Power: A California Heist
The story of California is indelibly tied to water. Marina Zenovich, the director of well-received docs on Roman Polanski (Wanted and Desired) and Richard Pryor (Omit the Logic), explores this relationship in Water & Power: A California Heist, which screened in competition this week at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Her film investigates the state’s ongoing water crisis with an emphasis on Chinatown-esque corruption. Zenovich tapped DP Sam Painter (Going Clear) as one of two cinematographers for the film. Painter spoke with Filmmaker ahead of Water & Power‘s premiere about the film’s blend of hand held footage, dramatically lit interviews and drone imagery. Filmmaker: […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2017 -
“We Reduce Entire Groups to Monoliths”: Screenwriter Damon Davis | Whose Streets?
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? Perceptions and stereotypes about a certain demographic of people become barriers to character development. Meaning, after centuries of storytelling, people’s race, gender, age, orientation, whatever it might be, influences how we expect them to function in the story, and influences the depths to which we can relate to them on a human level. A major obstacle to telling unique stories is that people can’t see the uniqueness […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2017 -
“Elegant, Meaningful and Fun”: Director Kriv Stenders | Red Dog: True Blue
During its development, production or eventual distribution, what specific challenge of communication did, or will your film, face? How did you deal with it, or how are you planning to deal with it? Since Red Dog: True Blue is a sequel, our main challenge in communication was telling our story in a fresh and unique way that wouldn’t disappoint audiences who loved the original, but that also spoke to and was relevant to new audiences. The solution came by way of the wonderful screenplay by Dan Taplitz and the clever concept on which it was based. Basically, by making the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2017 -
“Grounded Yet Earnest, Awkward Yet Buoyant”: Editor Jacob Craycroft on Brigsby Bear
From Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion to Super Troopers, Jacob Craycroft has edited more than 40 features and shorts since 1997. In recent years he’s cut the young-Obama biopic Barry, a segment of the anthology film New York, I Love You and, at this year’s Sundance, Brigsby Bear. Craycroft spoke with Filmmaker ahead of the film’s premiere about the film’s tricky tone, working with the ever-busy cast and crew of SNL and the difficulty of editing a single project in both AVID and Final Cut Pro. Brigsby Bear screens five times during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2017
