Ted Hope
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“Understanding Taiwan on Its Own Terms”: Vanessa Hope on Invisible Nation
With Vanessa Hope’s recommended documentary Invisible Nation opening today in theaters, including NYC’s Quad Cinema, where Hope and producer Ted Hope will be doing Q&A’s tonight and tomorrow, we’re reposting Lauren Wissot’s interview with the director published last Fall. — Editor Though producer-director Vanessa Hope has spent her career zeroing in on China—from producing Wang Quanan’s The Story Of Ermei and Chantal Akerman’s Tombee De Nuit Sur Shanghai to directing her own short China In Three Words and feature-length debut All Eyes and Ears—Hope’s followup feature is nonetheless a bit of a surprise. An intimate portrait of Taiwan’s first female […]
by Lauren Wissot on May 31, 2024 -
Two Questions: Producers on Net Profits and Sharing Their Personal Lives
In this new series of articles, Filmmaker poses two questions to producers, directors and other filmmakers. One question is directed toward the nuts and bolts of filmmaking—questions having to do with terms, practices, legal issues, technology and so on. The second question deals with topics that are softer or more amorphous—questions that necessarily can’t have right or wrong answers and whose replies are based on the personalities and practices of the individual participants. This issue, we directed our questions to producers, both fiction and doc, and asked them: What are points, or backend, and how do they work? What’s your […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Dec 15, 2022 -
“You’re a Storyteller”: Ted Hope on Being a “Holistic Film Producer” in an Ever-Changing Industry at IFP Week 2020
Ted Hope describes himself as a “holistic film producer.” What he means is this: When he signs up for a project, he’s there from the very beginning. And he’s there throughout it all, every step, even well into its streaming after life. Every stage is interconnected, and no parts works without the other. A holistic film producer is one that lives not only in the present but in the past and the future. They also try to advance the film ecosystem and what they perceive as their community in meaningful ways. It’s to see a production from all angles at […]
by Matt Prigge on Sep 24, 2020 -
Don’t Worry, Be Happy: Producer James Schamus Responds to “Indie Film is Dead”
In Filmmaker‘s Fall, 1995 issue, producer Ted Hope penned a provocative essay, “Indie Film is Dead,” that critiqued multiple elements of the independent film financing, distribution and marketing system. James Schamus — producer, screenwriter and Hope’s partner at the New York production company Good Machine — responded in the same issue with this equally provocative piece, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” published online for the first time. — Editor Dear Ted, sure it’s the end of the world as we know it, but before the lights go out, I thought I’d respond to a couple of your points. “Acquisitions are driven by […]
by James Schamus on Jan 3, 2020 -
Indie Film is Alive
“It’s going be called ‘Indie Film is Dead,’” I remember Ted Hope saying to me back in 1995. He was referring to an article he was submitting for that fall’s magazine, a many-thousand-word takedown of the business practices and internalized logic of the specialty film business. Hope, a prolific producer who had worked with Ang Lee and Hal Hartley, was a frequent contributor to Filmmaker in our early days, writing pieces like one on how to interview a production designer or another on the job of the production manager. But this piece would be different. Here’s the lede: “The marketplace […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 14, 2017 -
Rise of the Machines: Cathy O’Neil and James Schamus on How Algorithms are Changing Society — and Filmmaking
Amazon and Netflix are having a huge impact on the independent film business, and there are more players entering the subscription VOD space every day, both here in the United States and worldwide. I myself just had a great experience working with Netflix on Kitty Green’s Casting JonBenet, which Green, Filmmaker’s own editor-in-chief Scott Macaulay and I produced. Opening day on Netflix was, though, a bit unsettling. The data driving the film’s marketing, and the measures for its success or failure, are closely held corporate secrets — even the sources and kinds of data the company uses to determine how […]
by James Schamus on Sep 14, 2017 -
Ted Hope Announced as Head of Production for Amazon Original Movies Division
Independent producer Ted Hope, who recently left his position as CEO of Fandor, has been announced as the new Head of Production for Amazon Original Movies. As announced by Amazon today, the division, part of Amazon Studios, will produce and acquire up to 12 films a year for theatrical release and then early window play on Prime Instant Video four to eight weeks later. With producing credits such as The Ice Storm, 21 Grams, Super and Hope, of course, is well known to Filmmaker readers and, encouragingly, he has been tapped to bring “unique stories, voices, and characters from top […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2015 -
There’s Still Hope for Cinema: Ted Hope in Toronto
On a chilly night earlier this week at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox, Ted Hope addressed a capacity audience of filmmakers to wax about the future of film. For 90 minutes, the former CEO of Fandor and producer of indie classics 21 Grams, Happiness and In The Bedroom held a Socratic, existential discussion that (unsurprisingly) dismissed Hollywood’s traditional blockbuster-based mentality. “We’re stuck in a rut of legacy practices,” he declared. Hope urged new distribution and marketing models, yet failed to offer a framework in its place. Instead, Hope and SampoMedia’s Michael Gubbins engaged in an abstract dialogue that inspired many filmmakers in […]
by Allan Tong on Jan 16, 2015 -
On the Southern Circuit During the Season of Republican Resurgence: Hot Springs, Savannah, Memphis & Key West
I first heard the term “southern circuit” while talking to former New York Times film critic, The Treatment radio host and venerated international playboy Elvis Mitchell. Over lunch in Krakow several years ago, he described the series of spring and fall film festivals throughout the American south. After a relatively quiet summer, come late August a festival seems to unfurl almost every week somewhere below the Mason-Dixon line, starting with the Sidewalk Moving Pictures Festival in Birmingham, Alabama. While high-profile southern fests such as SXSW, Atlanta, Oxford, Little Rock and Nashville take place during the spring, an even larger share […]
by Brandon Harris on Dec 9, 2014 -
Hope for Film Author Ted Hope on Life, Independent Film and Systems Reboots
Ted Hope — producer, Good Machine co-founder, and now CEO of Fandor — is no tongue-tied wallflower in the independent film community. Indeed, his passionate commentary, counsel and editorializing on topics ranging from net neutrality to making better films to a “systems reboot” of the independent film economy seem to be everywhere these days. But while his website, Twitter account and frequent speeches at industry events may make it seem that his opinions have been enabled — or at least turbo-charged — by this current social media age, he has, in fact, been lobbing list-driven rhetorical broadsides for years. (Don’t […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 24, 2014
