Sundance
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“I Cried Many Times Watching Clare Dunne’s Powerful Performances”: Editor Rebecca Lloyd on Herself
In Phyllida Lloyd’s Herself, single mother Sandra (Clare Dunne) struggles to support and accommodate her two daughters in Dublin after leaving her abusive husband. Realizing that the system in place is not designed to provide any meaningful support, Sandra reaches the conclusion that she is the only one who is able (and willing) to affect any real change in her own life. She decides to build a house—literally from the ground up—in order to ensure that she and her daughters have stability and security in the future. Editor Rebecca Lloyd shares insight into her roots as an editor, what it […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
Sundance 2020 Dispatch 1: Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets; Epicentro; Olla
There will be time and occasion, I’m sure, during this year’s Sundance Film Festival to go big picture: to attempt to take the temperature of independent film in 2020, once again fuss over what that designation could possibly mean at this point and so on. But let’s skip that for now: for this year’s first dispatch, I have the rare of pleasure of leading with enthusiasm, and I’d like to lean into that. Barflies mistranslate William Blake’s exhortation to see the world in a grain of sand as “study the human condition through endless hours sitting at the bar”—if in […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 24, 2020 -
Sundance 2020 Dispatch 2: Exil, The Earth is Blue as An Orange
In the very first scene of The Social Network, Rooney Mara tells Jesse Eisenberg that he may go through life thinking that girls don’t like him because he’s a nerd, but “that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.” That line rang through my head all through Visar Morina’s Exil, Komplizen Films‘s first Sundance world premiere, and was directly echoed near its end by Sandra Hüller—star of Komplizen co-founder Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, here the long-suffering wife of Albanian immigrant Xhafer (Misel Maticevic), who’s convinced he’s being discriminated by German society. “Did it ever occur to you that it’s not because you’re […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 24, 2020 -
“The Film I Imagined on That First Read Came to Life Before My Eyes in the Edit”: Editor Patrick Lawrence on Scare Me
In Josh Ruben’s Scare Me, two strangers, stuck in a secluded cabin during a power outage, tell each other scary stories to pass the time. As tensions rise and fears are heightened throughout this horror-comedy, Fred must also face his own insecurities as a writer. The film’s editor, Patrick Lawrence, discusses the challenges of best showcasing the performative scary stories that make up the film, as well as the ways in which his background in music has influenced his editing style. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
“Not Your Regular Scented Candles”: Natalie Erika James | Relic
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? One prop in Relic that’s not necessarily integral to the plot, but certainly tells the story of the film is the grandmother, Edna’s, candles. Not your regular scented candles, but these hefty candles that are carved intricately into blooming designs with layers of hand-dipped wax. We establish these candles quite early […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
“It Serves as a Physical Manifestation of Climate Change and the Challenges to Rebuild”: Ron Howard | Rebuilding Paradise
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? The closest thing we had to a set was the town of Paradise as the film really celebrates the resilience and courage of the community. The Campfire is the most important visual in the film. Beyond the palpable impact on the film’s subjects and the residents of Paradise, it serves as […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
“The Objects Then Unexpectedly Became Integral to a Brutal Murder Case”: Emma Sullivan | Into the Deep
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? When I first started filming at the space lab in Copenhagen, the objects symbolized dreams and positive ambitions; they were the tools used to create the crude inventions forged by the hands of excited young optimists, eager to be part of Peter Madsen’s quest to launch a rocket into space. The […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
“Water Is the Source of Life, Cleansing Element, Purifier, Serene”: Jayro Bustamante | La Llorona
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? The water. It was important to have it in every set represented in different forms. Water is the source of life, cleansing element, purifier, serene. It has the power to infiltrate inside sets, inside characters themselves. For us, its use completely differs from the one in the original legend, an element […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
“The Minox Miniature Camera That Penkovsky Uses to Photograph 50,000 Secret Soviet Military Documents”: Dominic Cooke | Ironbark
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? There is one object that is absolutely essential to Ironbark and that’s the Minox miniature camera that Penkovsky uses to photograph 50,000 secret Soviet military documents. Our hero Greville Wynne, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, passes these to the U.K. and U.S. governments, including essential information about the nuclear weapons that the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020 -
“Sitting in Front of That Whiteboard for Two Days, Joe Came Up With Some Hilarious and Strange Drawings”: Eugene Kotlyarenko | Spree
Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? There’s a prop at the heart of Spree that wasn’t actually meant to be in the movie at all. Joe Keery and I met up a lot before production trying to get to the bottom of his character. If we were going to convey the reality of a failed influencer taking […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 24, 2020
