Filmmaker Magazine

BEST FILM NOT PLAYING AT A THEATER NEAR YOU @MOMA THIS WEEKEND

2009-11-20T21:44:00.006-05:00

Contributing Editor Brandon Harris has posted on his blog a new preview of Filmmaker and MoMA's annual "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" program, which unspools at the museum this week. Screening will be the five films that will be competing for the Gotham Award we sponsor on December 1. (For schedule and film descriptions, visit MoMA's site.) Brandon writes that this year's program is the strongest we've put together in the six years of doing this series, and I agree. This isn't to say that previous years haven't been strong, but in the past we've always been able to indulge ourselves with some element of whimsicality in the selection process, including films that would truly be offbeat pictures in a theatrical context. This...

THIS WAS MTV IN THE '90s

2009-11-19T18:53:00.003-05:00

It didn't used to be all reality shows. In 1990 MTV aired Buzz, an experimental video art collage show by director Mark Pellington. Genesis P-Orridge, William Burroughs, RU Sirius, David Byrne, and other transgressive thinkers (oh yes, and Jon Bon Jovi) were all featured in the debut show, which was openly inspired by Bruce Conner and other experimental filmmakers. Boing Boing noticed that the first episode has been been posted to YouTube, and I've embedded the clips below.

OSCAR DOC SHORTLIST: THE COVE & FOOD, INC. IN; TYSON & CAPITALISM OUT

2009-11-18T23:42:00.008-05:00

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have announced the 15 films that have made the shortlist for Best Documentary. Two of the most prised docs of the year made the list: Louie Psihoyos's The Cove and Robert Kenner's Food, Inc., as well as a few lesser known titles like Anders Ostergaard's Burma VJ and Matt Tyrnauer's Valentino: The Last Emperor. But surprisingly excluded were Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story and James Toback's Tyson. The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on February 2. Best Documentary Shortlist: The Beaches of Agnes Agnes Varda, director Burma VJ Anders Ostergaard, director The Cove Louie Psihoyos, director Every Little Step James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo, directors...

READY TO RECord

2009-11-18T12:53:00.012-05:00

The Sundance Institute announced today the 13 artists selected for the New Frontier section at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. These works will be shown at New Frontier on Main, open to the public Thursday, January 21 through Saturday, January 30, 2010. (The full list of artists are below.) One of the artists chosen this year is actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (pictured), who we discovered last year has an interest in the new media/digital artists on the Web as he's created the site hitRECord.org. In the Spring 2009 issue we talked to him about the site, which at the time was still not fully realized he admitted, but his goal is to have the site be a home where filmmakers, artists, poets, musicians, ect. can start or contribute to works (or...

THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD

2009-11-18T01:30:00.004-05:00

The mountain came to Mohamed. I picked up a bug that lingered and made me miserable. But I had accepted the honor of being a juror for the Kieslowski Prize at the 31st Starz Denver Film Festival, which began last week and runs through November 22. Only six foreign-language films were competing for our votes, and, either at other festivals or through the kindness of European sales agents, I had seen them all. (The prize is sponsored by Screen, for which I am a reviewer.) Something told me I should cover myself as a journalist just in case I didn’t heal in time, since I had promised to cover the event. So I made a list of films I hadn’t seen (many I had viewed at other fests) that seemed of particular interest and asked for screeners, which...

TWO TAKEAWAYS FROM JON REISS @ THE IFC CENTER

2009-11-17T22:05:00.003-05:00

Thanks to everyone who came out tonight for the first in our series, "A New World: A User's Guide for Filmmakers and Audiences" at the IFC Center. The speaker was Jon Reiss, who gave listeners an accelerated yet detailed overview of his thoughts on DIY distribution and what a theatrical release means today. (Some of these thoughts can be found in this article in Filmmaker.) There was a lot to take away, but here are a couple of things that impressed themselves on me. 1. During the development of your project, think of five specific audiences your film will appeal to. Jon said that too many people think of their audiences too broadly, like, "I think my film will appeal to women between the ages of 25 to 45." That's a demographic, not an...

JON REISS AT THE IFC CENTER TONIGHT

2009-11-17T14:26:00.008-05:00

After a great week of discussions on our Weekly Player forum, Jon Reiss will be at the IFC Center tonight in NYC to conduct our first in a series of events at the Center on new, digital-era ways of financing, distributing, marketing and building an audience for independent films. Reiss's seminar will teach how to create unique distribution and marketing plans for independent films. He will also be selling copies of his new book Think Outside the Box (Office): The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution and Marketing in the Digital Era. Over at indieWIRE today the site has published a speech Reiss gave recently at at the CPH:DOX Forum in Copenhagen on new distribution methods. Click here to purchase tickets to the event.

FILMMAKER/APPLE PRESENTS MEET THE FILMMAKER: JOHN HILLCOAT

2009-11-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

Tonight at 7pm we will continue our Meet The Filmmaker series at the Apple Store in SoHo (103 Prince St) with a discussion with The Road director John Hillcoat. Based on the Cormac McCarthy best-selling novel, the film stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as a father and son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. For the Fall 2008 issue we were granted an exclusive visit to Hillcoat's edit room to talk to him as he put the finishing touches on the film. “The material doesn‘t shy away from the worst aspects of humanity, yet what‘s unusual about it is that it also has a sentimental love story at the heart of it, in a world that‘s dark and brutal although believable,” says Hillcoat about the film. “It‘s tricky, but it‘s real...

I CAN DIE NOW

2009-11-15T16:44:00.002-05:00

Forget the Oscars, as a producer, I can die now. (You need to watch both clips, and the first one especially to the end.) Original Video- More videos at TinyPic Seriously, when Harmony Korine forwarded me these links, I thought they were great and couldn't stop laughing. And then I thought about what we producers go through when trying to obtain music for our films. I can't remember how much we paid for the music rights for the Roy Orbison version of the Patsy Cline song "Crying" that closes out Gummo, but I'm sure it was a lot less than we'd be charged for it today now that licensors have jacked up their rates to compensate for declining record sales. I think it can be safely said, though, that the song's inclusion in Gummo 12 years...

JON REISS ON OUR FORUMS, AT THE IFC CENTER AND (MAYBE) FREE IN YOUR MAILBOX

2009-11-08T19:40:00.005-05:00

We inaugurate our “Weekly Player” series with filmmaker Jon Reiss (Bomb It), who will be on the forums all this week (November 9 - 16) answering your questions about DIY distribution, marketing, publicity and outreach. Jon is the author the new book, Think Outside the Box (Office): The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution and Marketing for the Digital Era, and readers will know him from the great series of articles he’s written for us — “My Adventure in Theatrical Self-Distribution," “My Adventure in Home Video," and “How to Market Your DVD Online." These articles grew into the book, which I've read and think is an indispensable manual for filmmakers figuring out how to launch their works in today’s new digital world. So, if you aren’t a...

ARE YOU OBJECTIFIED?

2009-11-06T10:00:00.005-05:00

2ND UPDATE: We have our winners. Thanks, all! UPDATE: To win a digital copy of Objectified, answer the question below and email editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com. Almost three years ago I decided to check out what seemed to be an obscure little documentary about graphic design at SXSW and was surprised to find the line to get in stretching all the way down the length of the convention hall. As the editor of a magazine, the subject matter of Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica — an examination of the historical, communicative and ideological meanings of that ubiquitous typeface — interested me. I hadn’t realized that SXSW, which is full of filmmakers, musicians and web designers who all have Adobe InDesign loaded on their laptops, contained a...

FILMMAKER/APPLE PRESENTS MEET THE FILMMAKER: JASON REITMAN

2009-11-06T09:00:00.011-05:00

Tonight at 7pm head over to the NYC Apple Store in SoHo (103 Prince Street) for what's sure to be a lively and entertaining conversation with director Jason Reitman. He'll be talking about his latest film Up in the Air starring George Clooney as a corporate downsizer whose life of collecting frequent flyer miles, perks and no-strings-attached hookups is in jeopardy. Interviewing Reitman for the Fall issue, Scott Macaulay writes: "One of the most astonishing things about Up in the Air is the clear eye it casts on 2009 America and a workforce undergoing the shock treatment of recession, outsourcing and the creative destruction of so many of our traditional industries.... Reitman refuses to go for stock Hollywood uplift with a last line and...

THE FONT OF ANGER

2009-11-04T23:46:00.002-05:00

Aaron Leming, who works as a specialist at the Southlake Town Square Apple Store in Dallas, created this resonant typographic rendition of Paddy Chayefsky's famous Howard Beale "Mad as Hell" speech from Network. Mad As Hell! Kinetic Typography from Aaron Leming on Vimeo.

A CHANGING OF THE GUARD AT OUR DIRECTOR INTERVIEWS COLUMN

2009-11-04T19:57:00.002-05:00

Back in March, 2007, with his talk with Color Me Kubrick's Brian Cook, Nick Dawson inaugurated a new column here at Filmmakermagazine.com: the Director Interviews. Over the course of two-and-a-half years, he infallibly spun out thoughtful and provocative discussions with directors ranging from emerging American indies to big-name international auteurs to everyone in between. Viewing the bulk of each week's releases before honing in on one person to speak with, Dawson brought dedication, scholarship and personality to a column that was always, first and foremost, simply a great read. Earlier this year Dawson published his first book, Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel, a rigorously researched, page-turning biography of the iconic...

SCHOOL'S OUT: ASTRA TAYLOR ON THE UNSCHOOLED LIFE

2009-11-04T19:20:00.002-05:00

Filmmaker Astra Taylor (Examined Life) gave the debut Artist Talk for the Walker Art Center's "Raising Creative Kids" series. The series is described as an initiative "designed to make the Walker a destination and resource for families and parents wanting to creatively engage their children." Here's their description of the talk: Raised by independent-thinking bohemian parents, Taylor was unschooled until age 13. Join the filmmaker as she shares her personal experiences of growing up home-schooled without a curriculum or schedule, and how it has shaped her educational philosophy and development as an artist. And, it is embedded below:

SUNDANCE BRINGS 2010 FESTIVAL TO A CITY NEAR YOU

2009-11-04T13:21:00.012-05:00

The Sundance Institute announced today the creation of Sundance Film Festival U.S.A. where direct-from-festival films from the upcoming 2010 festival will be screened nationwide in theaters in eight cities on the Thursday of the festival (Jan. 28). This will conincide with events and premiere screenings back at the festival, including the North American premiere of the socio-political documentary The Shock Doctrine, from directors Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross. The Sundance Film Festival runs January 21-31, 2010. From the release: On January 28, eight filmmakers and their films will be dispatched from Park City to cities across America, for the first time providing audiences the opportunity to experience screenings direct from...

GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN

2009-11-03T19:12:00.022-05:00

Before the tragic sudden death of John Hughes this past summer four filmmakers from Toronto -- Michael Facciolo (producer) , Kari Hollend (producer), Lenny Panzer (co-creator) and Matt Austin Sadowski (director) -- spent four years making a tribute documentary about the reclusive director, nabbing interviews with some of the main actors from his films (Andrew McCarthy, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson to name a few), directors who have been influenced by his iconic work (Kevin Smith and Jason Reitman) and traveling to Illinois last year to find Hughes. After Hughes's death the project suddenly became a hot commodity and got a worldwide deal with Alliance Films which released the film, Don't You Forget About Me, on DVD today. Learn more about the...

HOW THEY DID IT: ISN'T SHE?...

2009-11-02T12:10:00.007-05:00

Or I should say, how he did it. Here, Jamie Stuart breaks down the visual effects and tweaks he did for his short, Isn't She?..., through Final Cut Studio and Photoshop. Watch Isn't She?... Read parts 1 & 2 of Jamie's review of Final Cut Studio.

PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC

2009-11-01T15:06:00.012-05:00

If you've read the latest issue (or run into me recently) you know that I dig the blaxploitation spoof, Black Dynamite. From its straight face acting to the way it was shot, director Scott Sanders (aka Suckapunch) and star Michael Jai White have created an impressive comedy that aesthetically holds up to most of the real blaxploitations of the 70s and puts a shot in the arm of the recently watered down spoof genre. But one of Dynamite's greatest aspects is its music. The film's editor, Adrian Younge, created the original score through the use of instruments and analog recording equipment from the era the film is based in. He explains how he did this in a sidebar to our Black Dynamite feature in the Fall issue. But below is a promo of the...

BATTSEK EXITS MIRAMAX

2009-10-30T15:19:00.009-04:00

According to Variety, Miramax president Daniel Battsek has been let go. This is on the heels of parent company, Disney, scalling down the specialty division's staff and release schedule. Under Battsek Miramax released award-winning titles The Queen and No Country for Old Men. And according to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood, Miramax's New York office is closing down and its LA office will move to the Disney lot in Burbank.

DIGITAL DILEMMA SURVEY RESULTS

2009-10-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

In September we put up a survey on our site that aimed at getting input from filmmakers about some of the issues that impact the making and preservation of their films. Below are the results of the survey. These stats have been passed on to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their final report which they will be publishing sometime next year. The only results that aren't posted below are the ones where a written answer was required. And for those who aren't familiar, read the story that inspired this survey. Thanks to those who participated. Please check all boxes that apply to you Director - 72 (77%) Producer - 64 (69%) Production company owner - 28 (30%) Production company executive - 5 (5%) Executive producer...

TOASTING THE MEDIA MELTDOWN

2009-10-29T08:49:00.004-04:00

Producer Gill Holland forwarded me a link to this provocative interview by Eric Garland, whose company Big Champagne reports on filesharing activity for its customers — the major studios and broadcast networks. A lot of people talk about the relationship between what's happened to the music business and what's happening to the film business, but Garland effectively points out not only the similarities but also, promisingly, the differences. That said, he is not predicting that the mainstream film business will be able to maintain its revenue figures in a time of migrating audiences and technological change. An excerpt from the CNET article: CNET: But it doesn't appear that Hulu is making the kind of money that will satisfy content...

ATTENTION PRODUCERS! THE IFP/ROTTERDAM LAB FELLOWSHIP DEADLINE NOV. 13

2009-10-28T18:31:00.005-04:00

Young producers should seriously think about applying for the IFP/Rotterdam Lab Fellowship. I go to Rotterdam every year, and for U.S.-based producers it's a great place to learn the ins and outs of the global market for arthouse and specialty film. The deadline for this year's program is Friday, November 13. The official word is below. Through its No Borders’ partnership with CineMart, IFP will select and provide travel assistance to two American producers to participate in the 2010 Rotterdam Lab Fellowship. The Rotterdam Lab is a four-day training workshop which runs concurrently with the CineMart Co-Production Market. Designed to build up the international networks and knowledge of producers in its professional panels and speed-dating...

THE WINDMILL MOVIE ON HBO TONIGHT

2009-10-28T16:23:00.000-04:00

We here at Filmmaker have been big fans of Alexander Olch's experimental memoir/documentary The Windmill Movie since seeing it at the New York Film Festival in '08. If you missed it in theaters over the summer it will premiere on HBO2 tonight @ 8pm. For those who don't know about it, the film is about the 300 hours of autobiographical footage left behind by filmmaker/professor Richard P. Rogers after his death in 2001. Olch (who was a student of Rogers's) was calling in to look over the footage and finish the film his mentor never could. What he delivers is a fascinating essay filled with Rogers's footage (including beautiful landscapes of the Hamptons), audio recordings, actors like Wallace Shawn playing Rogers, and Olch's narration....

MAGGIE Q, AWARD-WINNERS AT HIFF

2009-10-28T16:09:00.003-04:00

The Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) wrapped up its 29th incarnation this past weekend with encore screenings of its award-winning films and a closing night honoring of actress Maggie Q, who was on hand to introduce her newest film, Tian Zhuangzhuang’s fantasy swordplay epic The Warrior and the Wolf. A successful Hong Kong fashion model who morphed into a film career there and later in China and Hollywood (she’s appeared in such diverse films as Gen-Y Cops, Rice Rhapsody, Three Kingdoms, and Live Free or Die Hard), Maggie Q (nee Maggie Quigley) is actually not from Hong Kong at all, or even Chinese; in fact, she’s half-Vietnamese and Polish/Irish, and was born and raised in Hawaii. After graduating high school in Honolulu she...