The Witch
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Playing the Long Game: Producers on Sustaining a Career in Independent Film
When legendary producer and studio executive Robert Evans penned his autobiography — later adapted into a documentary — he picked a telling title: The Kid Stays in the Picture. You would think that after producing films like Chinatown and Urban Cowboy, Evans could happily rest on his laurels, but his book’s title, with its defiant use of the present tense, speaks to the ambitions and anxieties affecting every filmmaker with producer DNA. These, of course, are issues of continuing relevance and professional durability — or, to use the independent film parlance of the moment, sustainability. Contrary to the imagination of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 20, 2016 -
The Witch Gets a Creepy New Trailer for its Return to Theaters
Whether you missed The Witch in its first time in theaters or you’re ready to return for a second helping of horror, you’ll get a chance to see Robert Eggers’ stunner this weekend. In advance of its return to theaters on Friday, April 1, distributor A24 has released a new trailer (above) for the festival favorite, which initially premiered at Sundance in 2015. Back in February, The Witch gave A24 its biggest weekend opening ever, earning $8.8 million. Having already earned $24 million at the box office, it seems likely to edge out A24’s award-winning Ex Machina, which has grossed $25.4 million. Set in […]
by Paula Bernstein on Mar 30, 2016 -
“If You Start on 10 on Your Dissonant Scale, How Do You Go Beyond That?” Composer Mark Korven on The Witch
A New England folktale envisioned by production designer turned director Robert Eggers has become a critical and box office darling. As striking as The Witch‘s imagery of a 17th century Puritan family exiled to live beside an ominous forest is, it is made even more haunting when combined with the score conceived by Toronto-based composer Mark Korven (Cube). Filmmaker: You must be pleased with the critical and box office reaction to The Witch. Korven: Both have been amazing. I certainly didn’t expect for the movie to go this far. When I started working on it I thought that a lot of people weren’t going […]
by Trevor Hogg on Mar 21, 2016 -
The Witch DP Jarin Blaschke’s Lens Tests (With Stills)
In conjunction with his interview regarding The Witch, cinematographer Jarin Blaschke shared with Filmmaker a series of frames taken from his preproduction lens tests. Here’s Blaschke’s thoughts on the tests, which were conducted at Panavision Hollywood with an Arri Alexa: I had used Cooke Panchro Series 2s [from the 1950s] on a couple smaller pieces and Super Baltars on the last short film with [The Witch] director Rob Eggers, Brothers. I liked them both for certain things, but never compared them side by side or alongside other vintage glass. I asked Panavision [Hollywood] about everything available pre-Panavised Zeiss and made a […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Mar 8, 2016 -
“We Needed the Fresh Urine of a Nanny Goat”: DP Jarin Blaschke on The Witch
In the midst of my opening day viewing of The Witch, the screen went black. It wasn’t unexpected considering the multitude of perfectly timed ellipses that punctuate director Robert Eggers’ 17th century tale of a devout Christian family torn asunder. And this particular ellipsis seemed opportunely placed – coming just as the film’s hypothetical dread morphed into tangible terror. But this time, the darkness persisted. The theater’s projector bulb had burned out. Of course, the audience didn’t know that yet. At any other screening, the reaction would’ve been instantaneous. My fellow moviegoers and I would’ve turned to the projector and […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Mar 3, 2016 -
Now It’s Dark: Robert Eggers on The Witch
Read about Robert Eggers’s staggeringly accomplished first feature, The Witch, winner of the 2015 Sundance U.S. Dramatic Best Director Prize, and the first thing you’ll learn about is the writer/director’s obsession with authentic detail. As he has explained in articles like the one Filmmaker published when selecting him for our 2014 25 New Faces list, the writer/director developed his 1630s-set story of a Puritan family under attack by a witch living in a nearby forest from not just period fairy tales but diaries, court records and other primary source materials. He wrote his dialogue in the Caroline-era English of the […]
by Robin Carolan on Jan 20, 2016 -
Sundance 2015: Results, Entertainment and The Witch
He may not be your bag, but it’s tough to deny that Andrew Bujalski is one of the most distinctive American independent filmmakers working today. So distinctive that even when he sets his sights on the pseudo-pedestrian genre of the romantic comedy, he finds a way to completely reconfigure the shape of its central love triangle. In Results, Trevor (Guy Pearce) is an Australian in Austin who owns the Power 4 Life fitness studio, living and breathing his own advertising mantras about self-improvement. The recently divorced, suddenly rich Danny (Kevin Corrigan, brilliant) is new in town and eager to buy […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 29, 2015
