Filmmaker Julian Grant, who is a tenure-track film professor at Columbia College, Chicago, is making a "fiercely independent" ultra-low-budget, dialogue-less horror film entitled The Defiled, and he's reporting a very detailed blow-by-blow of its production on his blog. He describes the film as " a story of love and survival against a horror that is cataclysmic and...entirely possible."

Grant is shooting on the Canon HV20 with a cine-adapter and Nikon 50mm lens. He's in the middle of week two, so if you'd like to follow from his production, head over there now. You can find footage tests, make-up tests, test poster designs, a crew breakdown and more.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 7/08/2009 12:01:00 AM Comments (0)

The National Film Board of Canada has produced a documentary called Capturing Reality: The Art of the Documentary, and the website is incredible, featuring over 160 interview clips. Here's their description of the doc:

Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary is a film about contemporary documentary cinema and features some rock stars of the genre, including Albert Maysles, Errol Morris, Alanis Obomsawin, Michel Brault, Nick Broomfield, Kim Longinotto and Werner Herzog. Thirty-three filmmakers from 14 countries share their passion for documentary and talk about the artistic and ethical choices they make in their craft. Capturing Reality premiered at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam and has been making the rounds on the festival circuit.

In addition to the 97-minute documentary film, there are over four hours of interview clips included in the DVD package.

Below is one such clip, Fog of War director Errol Morris on interviewing Robert McNamara, the ex Defense Secretary and subject of the film who died this week.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 7/07/2009 11:33:00 AM Comments (0)

Producer Jake Abraham, well known to Filmmaker readers on account of his long tenure at InDigEnt Films, is a producer of Kirt Gunn's festival charmer Lovely By Surprise. He's taking the film out in a DIY-sort of way, and I'm going to spoil the closer of the article he's just written for us over at Web Exclusives by reprinting it here:

Our release date is today, July 7th. It feels different than opening days in the past. No premiere party, no box office reports. The effects of our plan will begin to appear over the next few weeks as we see how well the promotion has worked. Yet, our job is far from over. We will continue to actively promote the film for at least the next six months, far longer than I’ve ever worked on a film when it was being marketed through a traditional distributor.

Check out Abraham's 2,000-word-plus piece, in which he describes the film's online marketing initiatives, its theatrical strategy, and the necessity of making your video deals early and working with capable video distributors. (In fact, I know a couple of high-profile films that could have fruitfully taken the advice Abraham offers here). Along with Jon Reiss's recent pieces for us, it is must reading for those contemplating similar ventures. And, of course, check out the film, which is available today from multiple platforms. Filmmaker's Nick Dawson writes of it, "Lovely By Surprise is a playful and profound literary confection — a brilliantly original debut by Kirt Gunn, one of the most exciting prospects working in American indie cinema."

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 7/07/2009 12:23:00 AM Comments (1)

I missed the news that the astonishing German choreographer Pina Bausch died on June 30. From a lovely appreciation by Mark Swed:

She became associated with big spectacles that were part-theater, part-dance battles of the sexes and society played out in extravagant environments. She might litter her stage with zillions of carnations or put her company in pools of water. Her highly sexed world-weary women paraded around in high heels, clothed and nude – just like the men. They beat each other up and the men usually ended up worse for the wear.

Everything always looked amazing – costumes, sets, lights and, of course, movement. Just as Bausch gave out cookies in rehearsal to relieve pressure, she came up with startling ways to do the same thing in her work. A dancer in a crazed rage would suddenly burst out in a wonderful laugh.

Bausch’s work was loaded with metaphors, but what they meant exactly wasn’t entirely clear. Aggression unleashed inexplicable strangeness, and strangeness turned into ravishing beauty.

And from Alastair Macaulay in the New York Times:

Masochism was a recurrent feature in Bausch theater: you would see not only dancers tormenting another dancer (holding cigarette lighters to the soles of feet, for example, or pelting a face with tomatoes) but also the degree to which the victim was complicit in his or (usually) her suffering. Unusual among non-ballet artists of recent decades, there was little or no gender neutrality in her work: the differences between men and women were central and a subject for drama.

No single label will do. Ms. Bausch was not just a green artist protesting the desecration of the environment (though that was a powerful element in her works) or a feminist depicting the opposition between women’s pain and their social conformism (though that was evident) or an expressionist emitting rage at aspects of the socio-political status quo (though the intensity of that feeling was unmistakable). In some of her pieces she seemed to be celebrating the charm of the world, not just mourning its erosion. And she was often funny.

And from Judith Mackrell in The Guardian:

Bausch believed passionately in choreography but her works were not primarily about dance. She wove her material out of movement, speech, theatrical imagery and music, often starting out with no more than a feeling. She worked closely with her dancers, drawing on their own fantasies and experiences; in her darkest works, Bausch was famously accused by New Yorker critic Arlene Croce for indulging in a "pornography of pain". Not only did her productions feature brutally explicit confessionals, with the dancers spewing out shocking revelations of misery, hatred or desire, some of the choreography was so angry and dangerous that the performers seemed quite literally at risk of damaging themselves.

It was a formula that many choreographers imitated, but few came even close to achieving. There was a combination of terror, beauty, strangeness and even bawdy comedy in the worlds that she and her designers invented, from The Rite of Spring, in which the floor of the stage was covered in dark peat, to Nelken, where it was carpeted with carnations. In Victor, 20ft walls of mud flanked the dancers, so that they appeared like a lost tribe unearthed in an archaeological dig. It was the monumental magic of Bausch's productions that inspired and won assorted devoted followers including stage directors such as David Alden and film directors such as Federico Fellini and Pedro Almodóvar.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 7/07/2009 12:00:00 AM Comments (0)

I received an email asking if I'd post something about the upcoming Film Society of Lincoln Center Andrei Tarkovsky retrospective at the Walter Reade. Sure, I wrote back, laughing as I imagined that a retro of the great Russian filmmaker would actually need a press boost, that it wouldn't be packed from the outset with lines of people around the block hoping for tickets. But then I thought, what if that is not the case? Could it be that the current generation of young moviegoers has yet to fall under the spell of this rigorous and involving master director? Maybe. Tarkovsky is a director poorly aided by the video age (the dispute over the correctness of the various DVD editions out there compounds the problem.) His films demand to be seen on the big screen, because of the extraordinary beauty of the images but also because of the films' sense of quiet, the specific precision of their sound designs, and the sense of immersion they both induce and require.

When I was in my 20s working (not in film) in New York, there'd be a Tarkovsky retro at least once a year or so, and the individual films would play frequently on double bills at theaters -- the New Yorker, the Metro Twin, the Thalia, the Bleecker and even the decrepit Olympia, as well as the old Film Forum on Watts Street -- that are no longer there. It was easy to see these films on screen again and again, and just because it was, it doesn't mean that you still didn't go. I've seen all of them several times, something that's particularly apt when it comes to titles like (my favorite) The Mirror, his experimental, partly autobiographical film that beautifully and reverently fuses memories and dreams, newsreel footage and family drama and which almost demands to be seen in a kind of half-sleep.

In many ways Tarkovsky's films fall into two categories. There are the "major films," that are often epic in scale and which have at their heart journeys: the life adventures of a medieval icon painter in Andrei Rublev; the mission to save a disabled space station orbiting a mysterious planet in Solaris; and a trip by three travelers to the mysterious "Zone" in some kind of vaguely apocalyptic future landscape in Stalker (pictured). All three are masterpieces and must be seen. (Especially Solaris if you've only seen Soderbergh's misguided remake.) But I've always especially liked the more intimate films: his debut, Ivan's Childhood, is one of the great movies about children during war time — in this case, a World War 2 in which our young Ivan is orphaned and then accepts a series of dangerous missions. Filmed in stunning black-and-white, Tarkovsky gives the film a dreamy. poetic texture, cross-cutting between Ivan's memories of his family and his time with the soldiers. The Mirror is my favorite, and a runner-up might be Nostalghia, which was co-written by Antonioni-scripter Tonino Guerra. Set in a small Italian spa town, the film was Tarkovsky's first outside Russia and its themes — the homesickness of, particularly, a Russian man for his country, and, of course, the subject of spiritual quest that can be found in all of Tarkovsky's work — are echoed in its production history and the director's subsequent decision to leave Russia and work in the West. The story concerns a poet who travels to the town to research a book. He's paired with a beautiful translator (the stunning Domiziano Giordano, later to appear in Godard's Nouvelle Vague) but, away from Russia and his family, he sinks into a kind of melancholic fugue, spending his days with a local madman who locked his family up underground, convinced that the end of the world is coming. The movie is as much film as installation, with dripping water, steam from the spa, the ancient buildings, and a final sequence in a shallow pool that is one of the most devastating film endings I've ever seen.

From Tarkovsky's Sculpting in Time:

Ultimately I wanted Nostalgia to be free of anything irrelevant or incidental that would stand in the way of my profound objective: the portrayal of someone in a state of profound alienation from the world and himself, unable to find a balance between reality and the harmony for which he longs, in a state of nostalgia provoked not only by his remoteness from his country but also be a global yearning for the wholeness of existence.

Tarkovsky's last film, The Sacrifice, made after he had been diagnosed with cancer, was shot in Sweden with Bergman's cinematographer, Sven Nykvist and regular actor Erland Josephson. It's once again amazing, with an emotional wallop of an ending dedicated to Tarkovsky's son, who the director left in Russia, but it's not as strong as the others, mostly due to a script that's too on-the-nose about its escatological subject matter.

There's so much to praise about Tarkovsky: his extreme formal control, the fusion of his religious intensity with his filmmaking practice (making that practice compelling even to non-believers), his exquisite sound designs, and his ability to shoot giant landscapes and sumptuous images that are as much about internal journeys as outer ones. But one thing I keep coming back to is an idea highlighted by Tarkovsky himself in the title of his book on filmmaking, Sculpting in Time. In this passionate argument for the centrality of artmaking in man's existence, he discusses the role of rhythm in cinema, arguing against Eisenstein's ideas of montage cinema by saying that meaning in cinema is not the result of a mechanical process or the riddle posed by the juxtaposition of one shot against another but is instead a product of the filmmaker's ability to use cinema to express a personal and artistic conception of time.

From the book:

In so far as a sense of time is germane to the director's innate perception of life, and editing is dictated by the rhythmic pressures in the segments of film, his handwriting is to be seen in his editing. It expresses his attitude to the conception of the film, and is the ultimate embodiment of his philosophy of life.

Also screening in the series is Dimitry Trakovsky's documentary, Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky, which is described like this:

In 1987, a year after Tarkovsky’s death, Dmitry Trakovsky and his parents emigrated from Russia to the United States, where he grew up feeling a special relationship to the images, sounds, and themes in Tarkovsky’s films. Here, he goes in search of other lives affected by the auteur’s work: collaborators Erland Josephson and Domiziana Giordano, friends Krzysztof Zanussi and Franco Terilli, an Orthodox priest, and even the director’s son. Andrei Andreevich Tarkovsky. The result is a touching, highly personal and provocative record of the lingering effects of Tarkovsky on an extraordinary range of individuals.

To buy tickets or learn more, visit the Film at Lincoln Center site. There's also a "Film Talk" podcast on the director. And for the ultimate fan/resource/information site, visit Nostalghia.com.

Here is the Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky trailer:



An amazing scene from The Mirror:

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 7/06/2009 08:11:00 PM Comments (1)

The latest, a Heathers-ish satirical horror film, Jennifer's Body, from screenwriter Diablo Cody, former Filmmaker cover-story director Karyn Kusama (Girlfight), and Megan Fox.

Related: Karyn Kusama in Filmmaker on Girlfight.

Diablo Cody in Filmmaker on Juno.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 7/06/2009 02:42:00 PM Comments (0)

In a time in which MTV barely shows music videos, want to score an audience for yours? Here's the trick: be the first out of the gate with a clip shot on a new camera. Here are two music videos shot with the new Apple iPhone 3GS.

The first is by XYFA and is directed by filmmaker Steve Ellington.

Technologic Overkill - The First Music Video Shot on an iPhone 3GS from Steve Ellington on Vimeo.

The second is by Ari Kuschnir and the track is by his fiance, Reyna Perez.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 7/06/2009 12:35:00 PM Comments (0)

Over the last two years a number of exciting conferences have sprung up to address the convergence of tech, film, and emerging business models. Scott Kirsner's The Conversation, Liz Rosenthal's Power to Pixel, the WorkBook Project's DIY DAYS and most recently Participatory Culture's Open Video Conference - all provide valuable insight from those who are experimenting with new methods and models.

DIY DAYS is a roving conference for those who create. In 2008, the conference traveled to LA, San Francisco, Boston, NYC and London. On August 1st DIY DAYS kicks off in Philadelphia with a free day of speakers, panels, workshops, and roundtables focused on how storytellers can fund, create, distribute and sustain from their creative work.

BUT if you happen to be in or around Philadelphia this coming Wednesday, July 8th the WorkBook Porject and PIFVA are hosting a special pre-DIY DAYS :: Creative Meetup / Networking Event @ Johnny Brenda's. The evening will feature live performances by VJ remix/culture hacker Scott Beibin, a series of speed power point presentations about the "futures of entertainment" plus a number of targeted networking sessions for those looking to find cast, crew, and resources for their projects.

A special aspect of the Creative Meetup will be the US debut of Scientists Are the New Rockstars (SATNR) a new remix project from Scott Beibin, founder of the Lost Film Festival. A long time fixture within the DIY scene, Beibin plans to travel with SATNR similar to the way he tours with his Lost Film Fest. This coming fall Beibin will tour SATNR as part of a TV series and global urban sustainability project.

Here's how Beibin explains SATNR:

"Scientists Are the New Rockstars (SATNR) is a live multimedia spectacle exploring the fuzzy and quarky lines between hard science, social science, metaphysics and art with hands-on examples of environmentally sustainable art and technologies. Garage science and maker culture is rapidly becoming more popular in the pantheon of DIY culture, especially in the creation of sustainable technologies. As it becomes clear we've reached the end of the era of proprietary intellectual property, it becomes apparent that all things are possible when tapping into the collective consciousness surrounding creativity. The world of science and art are quite connected."

To see the US debut of Scientists Are the New Rockstars

pre-DIY DAYS
Creative Meetup / Networking Event
Wednesday, July 8 :: 7-11pm
Johnny Brenda’s
1201 Frankford Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19125
$5 at the door or FREE for PIFVA members

# posted by Lance Weiler @ 7/06/2009 12:10:00 AM Comments (0)

As Indiewire reported, Brian Newman has left his position as CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute. In a statement he sent to his friends that he reposted on his Springboard Media blog. An excerpt:

As many of you know, I have quite an entrepreneurial spirit and want to now explore other opportunities. I will be launching a consulting business focusing on business development projects in the entertainment and cultural industries as well as helping filmmakers, artists and organizations to distribute content and connect with audiences through innovative uses of new technology.

His statement echoes comments he made at the Open Video Conference, specifically those on the need for new media content creators to discover and build new business models.

In the post prior, Newman discusses a presentation he made at Power to the Pixel: "I spoke about how filmmakers can continue to make money for their creativity in a world where things are trending towards free — not just free through piracy, but also where returns from ad supported sites are too little to live on, and where even the traditional models seem broken." Below is Newman's Powerpoint presentation, which he admits that, without his commentary, can be hard to follow at time. Still, you should be able to get the gist of his remarks.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 7/05/2009 06:51:00 PM Comments (0)

Once again channeling the spirit of revolution this holiday weekend BAMCinematek, hot off its inaugural BAMCinemaFEST, hosts the fifth annual Afro-Punk Festival, which will feature some filmmakers familiar to Filmmaker Magazine readers.

Bookending the repertory film portion of the event, which also encompasses concerts, a skate park and a closing weekend block party, are films by a pair of last year's 25 New Faces in Independent Film. Tonight Dee Rees, who's acclaimed short Pariah was one of our favorites of last year, will be on hand with her documentary Eventual Salvation. A penetrating glimpse at her grandmother's roots and return to war torn Liberia, the film received funding from the Sundance Documentary Fund and won the 2007 Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award. July 8th the festival's film screenings will wrap up with Barry Jenkins' Medicine for Meloncholy.

# posted by Brandon Harris @ 7/03/2009 12:43:00 PM Comments (0)

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 7/01/2009 01:52:00 AM Comments (2)

Premiering tomorrow at 7pm — and on the museum's YouTube channel — is the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)'s Chinatown Film project, a collection of short films by Miguel Arteta, Patty Chang, Jem Cohen, Cary Fukunaga, So Yong Kim & Bradley Rust Gray, Amir Naderi, Sam Pollard, Shelly Silver, Rose Troche, and Wayne Wang & Richard Wong on their unique visions of Chinatown, New York. (Advance registration required to attend the opening.) The museum is located at 215 Centre Street, and the exhibition continues both on YouTube and on the exhibition's blog (appropriately in Chinese and English.) The exhibition also includes a user-generated component:

We want you to share your films, up to 7 minutes long, about your city's Chinatown. We're interested in large metropolitan Chinatowns as well as single strip mall Chinatowns! We want all formats, from camera phone video to Super 8mm film. This project is about re-seeing Chinatown through the eyes of filmmakers. And it's about taking the art of filmmaking to Chinatowns the world over.

Accepted entries will be posted to the Museum's YouTube channel.

The series curating producer is independent film producer Karin Chien (The Exploding Girl), and the exhibition will continue with more films, including shorts on all the world's Chinatowns from a number of esteemed international directors. The trailer for the exhibition is below.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/30/2009 04:16:00 PM Comments (0)

Ted Hope tweeted this Current TV indie film parody short this morning and it's been getting a lot of comments. Yes, it's silly, but too often accurate in parts. So, whaddaya say, let's all vow to banish these indie cliches!

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/29/2009 07:32:00 PM Comments (1)

An eventful day in Los Angeles found the Los Angeles Film Festival announcing its award winners amidst gatherings of far different sorts. A massive Iranian march took over much of Westwood; impromptu rallies protesting the Honduran military coup sprung up across the city, and here and there were still pockets of moon-walking, white-gloved Michael Jackson mourners. But in the relative wine-sipping calm of an intimate Westwood locale, the festival hosted a small awards ceremony to announce the winners of this year's competitions.

The Target Filmmaker Award, which rewards the finest narrative film in competition at the Festival (and comes with $50,000) went to the directing duo of Sam Fleischner and Ben Chace for their Brooklyn-by-way-of-Jamaica odyssey Wah Do Dem (What They Do) (pictured above). Following a endearingly goofy young hipster (nearly the whitest man in Brooklyn) as he staggers across the beaches, mountains, and cities of Jamaica in order to reunite with a cruise ship he barely enjoyed anyway, the film fashions its seemingly haphazard travelogues and accidental encounters into a very concise sense of narrative movement, one mixed with an embrace of the sheer pleasure of opening oneself to strangers, chance, and life itself. For the jury (comprised of producer Albert Berger, actress Rosemarie DeWitt, and film critic Elvis Mitchell), Wah Do Dem was "“a film that could feel anecdotal but through its musical shifts and tone, and its vision of the world as a newly optimistic place, Wah Do Dem (What They Do) creates a strong and profound emotional narrative."




The Target Documentary Film Award, given to the finest documentary film in competition (and which also comes with a suitcase filled with $50k), went to Those Who Remain (Los Que se Quedan) (pictured right), by Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman. The flipside to the multiple documentaries on Mexican immigrants in the USA, this poetic documentary instead unveils the lives of "those who remain" in Mexico; many have loved ones in the U.S., and see them only once every few years, while others steadfastly refuse to follow the economic trail north, preferring instead to appreciate what they have. Rulfo and Hagerman's eye for details both poetic and utterly realist—a wrinkled hand picking crops, fireworks sparkling in a darkening sky, a battered telephone receiver that's the only connection between a father and daughter—give the film a power that's rare in documentary. The jury (film critic David Ansen, writer-director Anna Boden, and director Darius Marder) stated, “With its generosity of spirit and lyrical grace that illuminates a human landscape with fresh eyes, Those Who Remain reminds us that documentaries can be both journalism and poetry.” The film's Saturday evening screening offered up a further surprise, with one family that had been interviewed in the film finally reunited here; the mother and daughters had made it successfully to the United States, to join the father who had been separated from them for years. "I am so happy to finally see my father," said one of the young daughters, to barely a dry eye in the house; "I hope that no families have to be separated like we have."

A new (and much deserving) award this year was the Target "Dream in Color" Award, given to the Best Short in the "Future Filmmakers" Section (a showcase for high-school student filmmakers) was given to Sam Lubin for Lipstick. During the presentation, the jury proclaimed, "We congratulate all the filmmakers on their extraordinary work. While we were impressed with the scope and diversity of all the high school shorts, we select Lipstick, a simple and powerful film, which can inspire other future filmmakers to make movies with very little. Using just two props, one location, and two actors, the filmmaker creates a compelling story about a character dealing with personal yet universal issues of identity and communication. It is a visual film with a strong point of view. In Lipstick, we see both a present and future filmmaker.”

Other awards given include:

The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to the topical The Stoning of Soraya M., directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, which followed the struggles of a Iranian widow, and ignited a fascinating post-screening seminar with the director, lead actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (who has become a kind of accidental spokeswoman on Iranian women's rights during the film's release), and novelist Khaled Hosseini on women's rights under Islamic regimes, the rise of fundamentalism, and the dichotomies between Islamic scripture and practice.

The Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Soul Power, directed by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte. Eva Norvind’s Born Without (Nacido Sin), part of the festival's intriguing spotlight on the Mexican documentary festival Ambulante, won the Audience Award for Best International Feature.

The award for Outstanding Performance in the Narrative Competition went to Shayne Topp for his performance in Suzi Yoonessi’s Dear Lemon Lima. Given to an actor or actors from an official selection in the Narrative Competition, this is the sixth year the award has been given at the Festival.

The award for Best Narrative Short Film went to Antonio Mendez Esparza’s Time and Again. The award for Best Documentary Short Film went to Anna Gaskell’s Replayground. Jérémy Clapin’s Skhizein won the award for Best Animated Short Film.

The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to Instead of Abracadabra, directed by Patrick Eklund. Grapevine Fires, directed by Walter Robot won the Audience Award for Best Music Video for Death Cab for Cutie.

# posted by Jason Sanders @ 6/29/2009 03:08:00 PM Comments (0)

I was working with a young director who was very talented, but who was also prone to panic — causing her to lose her perspective and clarity (an issue I’ve had to deal with myself at times). So I wrote this ‘"cheat sheet" for the fellows to carry with them for when they felt lost. To be honest, I created it just as much for myself…


The Unofficial Sundance Shooting Cheat Sheet

You may never need this, but if you’re feeling a little lost, or out of control, or not sure, remember…

1. Breathe. Calm down. Fear and anxiety are the enemies of complex, open, creative thought. A calm leader inspires confidence. If you need a minute to clear your head, or decide what you want, take it. Everyone can wait.

2. Slow down — rushing is not the same as efficiency.

3. Remember what your scene is really about: Why is this scene in your film? What do you want the audience to feel or understand from it? What are you trying to achieve emotionally with your use of camera and image? What do each of the characters want in this scene? How are they trying to achieve it? Which character’s scene is it? What is their journey in this scene?

While all of the above SHOULD seem obvious, there isn’t a director alive who hasn’t lost sight of some or all of the above while they were shooting a difficult scene.

4. In both rehearsal and shooting — try giving your actors actions — things their character is trying to achieve in the scene, instead of emotional states to play. Get back to what the character WANTS.

Let’s say you’re doing a scene where one character wants to intimidate another.

If you tell the actor "yell" you may just get a general, obvious performance.

But if you give them something to DO (e.g. ‘try and scare the crap out of the other character’), you will allow them into the creative process, and they may find ways of achieving what you want that weren’t what you expecting, but that are more interesting. Maybe instead of the screaming you imagined, you’ll discover they’re more frightening with a whisper. Maybe a chilling smile is more effective than a glare.

Be brave enough to let your actors (and your crew) make you better. No one is genius enough to do it alone. Then you can gently guide those creative impulses, picking the ones you like best, and helping the actor shade what you find together

5. When you have the scene on film the way you think you want, if you have a little time, do an extra take or two in a different way. Why not see what happens if you try something a bit different. If your actor has been intimidating the other with a lot of outward emotion and intensity, suggest they try one with everything held in, like a snake. See what you get.

What’s the worse that happens? You hate it and don’t use it. What’s the best that happens? Unexpected magic. Plus, a good actor will often have something they want to try, but are scared it might not work or will look foolish. Give them their chance to go out on a limb.

6. Remember the scene will NEVER be just like it is in your head. It may be better, it may be worse, it may just be different. But if you get stuck trying to make it "just the way you imagined it" you may well get stuck on the road to hell. Remember what Truffaut said: "The secret of good directing is knowing exactly what you want, but having no ego about giving it up the second anyone has a better idea."

Remember the script is a blueprint, an outline. But when building a house you often deviate from blueprints to make things better. — Keith Gordon

7. Remember to thank, praise and take care of your cast and crew. They’re your team. They’re your army. If they feel unappreciated and ignored you will not get their best efforts and thus your best scene. Don’t leave your actors standing out in the sun, wondering what’s going on while you talk to your DP for a half hour.

8. Have fun. Breathe. Smile. There are so few people lucky enough to have the adventure you’re on.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/29/2009 12:01:00 AM Comments (2)

Leaving the Sundance Lab is always a melancholy feeling. I’m happy and excited about seeing my wife, but not about re-entering the "real world" of Los Angeles, where the deal is the thing, and where projects are judged on potential economic return, not artistic merit.

The week is full of great memories, watching young filmmakers take steps — sometimes leaps — towards defining their voice and material.

Some bravely challenged their whole script, re-writing as they worked, and adding whole new scenes to their pieces that gave them more depth.

Others found ways to integrate their desire to create a specific cinematic style, with a way to maintain the emotion of the story.

Directors of pieces with divergent elements and styles made strides towards seamlessly integrating their scripts’ humor and sadness, so within one scene they could leap nimbly back and forth in mood.

One filmmaker learned that scenes she dismissed as ‘exposition’, could be very emotional and important if she approached them with passion.

Every filmmaker grew, stretched and challenged themselves. I think (I hope!) they all leave with a greater sense of clarity and confidence then when they started. I only wish we’d had even more time with them.

They’ve had so much thrown at them by so many people, they’ll be a lot of processing to do. And it will be fascinating to see what the films themselves are like when they actually get to make their features (a surprisingly large numbers of the fellows do, with Sundance’s help). That part is often delightful,

A few years back I worked with Miranda July on Me and You and Everyone We Know. I loved her script, but while I was at the lab — early in the process that summer — she was still struggling to deal with her actors and crew to get what she wanted, and to find a visual language that would capture the quirkiness of her script, without being self-conscious. It was a major thrill to see her final film in the theater, and realized how much she had triumphed to create something whole, special and unique.

It’s funny, sometimes the most important thing you can give as an advisor are small bits of advice that help lead to directors thinking in new ways. On one set, I pointed out that the actor whose close-up was being shot couldn’t see the person he was talking to, because a lighting flag was in the way. The director hadn’t felt comfortable challenging their DP’s needs, and so said nothing. But once he mentioned it, they quickly came to an accommodation that worked for both the actor and the image. After that he was more aware of what his actors needed, and that as captain of the ship he had every right to try to get everyone what they needed to do their best work.

Other times it’s hour-long, sometimes tearful talking sessions, that go way beyond filmmaking into the challenges these young people carry from their personal lives that are affecting their work. Someone who felt judged and belittled as a kid, can either be too meek on a set, or too much a bully — either way a form of self-protection. Sometimes we have to be amateur psychologists to get at the issues underneath their struggles.

I’ll leave off with a document I created at Sundance a few years ago. I was working with a young director who was very talented, but who was also prone to panic — causing her to lose her perspective and clarity (an issue I’ve had to deal with myself at times). So I wrote this "cheat sheet" for the fellows to carry with them for when they felt lost. To be honest, I created it just as much for myself…

Check back tomorrow for Gordon's Sundance Director's Cheat Sheet.

For part one of this series, click here. For part two, click here.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/28/2009 11:49:00 AM Comments (0)

“When I see this picture, the chemistry between us is delightful still,” began Jon Voight as he and Dustin Hoffman took the stage late last night after a packed Los Angeles Film Festival screening of John Schlesinger’s 1969 classic Midnight Cowboy at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater. “It's still a little bit of a miracle to see, when actors have such chemistry; when one of us starts moving, the other one does too.” Forty-some years after making the film, that chemistry was still on display during the two great actor’s conversation, hosted by LA Times critic Kenneth Turan. Exceedingly generous with their time and thoughtful responses, Voight and Hoffman entertained the audience with recollections of the film’s shooting, the director John Schlesinger and his working style, American filmmaking in the early Seventies, and, above all, their collaboration together. Seeing the film again (the two claimed to have sat in the audience for the final half hour), what’s clear is that Midnight Cowboy has lost none of its power over the decades. In fact, compared to many contemporary “independent visions” on display here, it’s probably gained power, its scaly gutter-level realism and humanist force only serving to highlight the relative lack of such filmmaking in today’s American independent cinema.

What follows is a loose transcription of highlights from a memorable evening….

ON (FINALLY) GETTING CAST IN MIDNIGHT COWBOY

DH: I was just going to go back to the stage after The Graduate (Hoffman’s first role, which made him an immediate star). As a New York actor working in theater and used to working with great works, film scripts were a bit “thin,” so I wasn’t getting anything interesting. But Midnight Cowboy had an amazing script (by Waldo Salt), and was based on a novel. The problem was that Schlesinger, as a serious “artist,” refused to see me, because of the success of The Graduate; he considered it, and me, too lightweight.

“When I finally got an audition, I got all dressed up in character, and had him meet me at around 3am around Times Square, in some laundromat, just to show how serious I was.”

JV: “I thought of Dusty immediately when reading the script.”

"On a trip to London I saw Schlesinger's A Kind of Loving, and couldn't believe what I saw, couldn't believe that I could work with this guy."

“When I first went in to read, I think I lost it. Put too much into it. A few months later I ran into an actor friend of mine in LA, who said, “Oh, I’m doin’ GREAT; I’m up for this great part in a new Schlesinger film!” And then I realized I needed to get back to New York, and read again for that part, and get it.”

(Voight went on to praise the casting director, a friend and champion who was able to get him another audition. "I pleaded with her, and when I went in to audition, she was there, and was able to introduce me to Schlesinger; I think that personal introduction from her truly helped.")

DH: "Schlesinger didn’t want Voight because he was from Yonkers, didn’t have that Texas accent, but I told him, “Well, John, He’s an actor.” So Jon went to Midlands, Texas, or Big Springs, with a tape recorder to nail the Texas accent.”

JV: "I’d go into bars to try and get away with being Texan."


THEIR COLLABORATIVE PROCESS:

DH: "Jon and I were fascinated with these guys (the characters), and how they were friends. We’d improvise and rehearse together forever."

"We improvised that bit with the comb (on the stairs after the party). Putting my head on his chest was improvised. And improvisation work is just something they don’t make time for now."


On their friendly rivalry during the shoot, each anxious to upstage the other: DH: "We were like fighters, who in the end would embrace."

On an early shoot, even before they really began to work on their characters, the walk across a bridge in the snow:
DH: "So I’m still working on my character, and even trying to get a sense what the cough is all about. So I’m coughing and coughing, and I start coughing so much as we’re walking, I throw up all over his boots. And Jon goes up to Schlesinger, and says, 'Is he going to do that every scene?'”

WORKING WITH DIRECTOR JOHN SCHLESINGER (a key figure in the British New Wave, whose features included Billy Liar, Darling, and A Kind of Loving; Midnight Cowboy was his first American feature)

JV: "Schlesinger was an artist. Whatever he’s doing onscreen, he’s painting. You see him up there, and that’s what he’s doing with the film."

“What I remember about John is his self-doubt. And that was his process. Like he was having a child, having labor pains before each scene. This film came out of him.”

"We knew something was happening, and it was because of John Schlesinger."

"The director is the man. We’re the beneficiaries of this great talent.”

On the final day of shooting, in Texas, when Voight noticed Schlesinger shaking and sweating in the hot Texan sun, looking ill:
"I thought he was having a heart attack, and I asked him what was wrong. 'What will they think of us?!,' he said. 'We’ve made a film about a dishwasher who goes to New York City and fucks a lot of women!” (Laughter).

"He had finally realized what the film was about." (Laughter).

"And I grabbed him and said, “We’ve made a masterpiece that we’ll live in the shadow of forever.”

On Hoffman's doubtfulness over the movie's power:
"I always do little sketches during my shoots, and I had done a little sketch of me and Dusty in character. And Dusty sees it, and just says, “Geez, I hope the movie is that good.”

DH: "He knew about acting, and could talk the language of actors more than any other actor that I knew.”

SCENES AND MOMENTS:

On the hippie/acid sex party scene, with cast members culled from the Andy Warhol circle (including Viva, Ultra Violet, and Paul Morrissey):
DH: "John was friends with all of those people. That shoot for the party went on for a week. It sure didn’t have to." (Laughter).

“We’d get there at 7am for makeup and prep and everyone would still be there, shooting up, with all kinds of oral sex going on….”


On the "taxi" scene ("I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!!!):
DH: "Schlesinger just told us to walk down and then across this street. We didn’t have any permits or anything, so we were shooting with a hidden camera in a van across the street. Jon and I were in character, looking like real New Yorkers, and nobody knew who we were. It was a real problem, though, walking and then getting to the light, to time it right on the “walk” signal, because Schlesinger didn’t want us to stop and wait, just keep walking."

"So it took us like 10-15 takes, and we were always messing up the timing. And then finally we get it right, and we’re walking across the street…and this cab runs the red light. My brain is yelling, 'Hey, I'm ACTING here,' because it was messing up the take, but I can’t do that, cause we’re still shooting, so my mouth translates that as 'Hey, I’m WALKING here.' And so it worked. But that cab still almost hit us."

On the toilet-sex scene:
DH: "In previews, blocks of people would just get up and walk out. Bob Balaban (actor and future director) was all excited about his first role; he even called up his parents. But he’s gotta tell them, 'Hey, it’s my first role; I’m getting a blow job in a toilet.'" (Laughter)

JV (laughing): "See, whenever I do an interview with Dusty, I’m getting upstaged.”

DH (deadpan): Well, I’m sure my memory is, um, somewhat faulty.”

THE TIMES OF MIDNIGHT COWBOY, AND ITS POWER:

DH: "Back then there was no language of hits or indies. We were just trying to make a movie, and stay true to it, and naturalistic. Those were good days. We were experiencing the residue of the New Waves. The French, the Italian, the British, were all coming into the Thalia, the other New York theaters."

JV: "The studio system had gotten stale. Stars were fading, films were not making money, but all these new artists were coming up at the same time, all eager to make films more real, to express what we were seeing. Some of those talents broke through; it was a very interesting time."

"This movie has a moral force to it. It’s a very rough film, but it has a tremendous love for humanity in it."

# posted by Jason Sanders @ 6/26/2009 05:17:00 PM Comments (1)

The trajectory of careers can be pretty fascinating. I remember when G.G. Allin was a Lower East Side punk rock performance freakshow, cutting himself on stage, fighting with audience members and threatening/promising to kill himself during one of his performances. Todd Phillips was attending NYU Film School at the time and while a junior there made his debut feature, a documentary portrait of the performer entitled Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies (1994). He also, with Andrew Gurland, founded the New York Underground Film Festival, would go on to make with Gurland the controversial college hazing doc Frat House (1998) and then, just two years later, would make the very successful comedy Road Trip. There was also Old School (2003) and now, of course, The Hangover, which is shaping up to be one of the summer's biggest hits (and probably the most profitable one).

In an interview with Erin Broadley at Suicide Girls, Phillips discusses how the seeds of his filmmaking can be found in Hated.

EB: Well, you also talked about how with documentaries you almost have to create characters as well. What were some of the problems or strange rewards you found with the Murder Junkies crew, developing the characters within the bounds of this documentary?

TP:I think what I meant was that, to me it was never a big leap to go from documentaries to features. I think a good documentary has a beginning, middle and an end. A good documentary is storytelling and has character development so you know, in this film, in Hated it was the same thing, it was like, okay, you build your movie around your main character GG but you have this sort of circus that follows him around…like Unk the fan or the ex-guitarist who’s thrown out of the band. He’s sort of the antagonist of the film.

EB:Chicken John?

TP:Yeah, and you kind of just let stuff come out slowly just like you would a regular narrative film. I don’t think Hated does it flawlessly because there’s not too much of a narrative thread through it. But a movie like Some Kind of Monster they do do that so perfectly and when it’s done in a documentary, to me it’s just the best.

EB:One thing you are noted for is the level to which you are right in there in the action, participating in your documentaries. Where do you draw the line between being a filmmaker and becoming too much a part of your subjects’ lives?

TP:For me, I grew up watching Nick Broomfield documentaries. You know Nick Broomfield? He did a great documentary about Heidi Fleiss. He did one about Aileen Wuornos. Yeah, Nick Broomfield -- he’s like Michael Moore even before Michael Moore, but not so much political, more just character [driven] pieces. This was very much our approach with Hated and the movie I did after that called Frat House. I don’t know if you’ve seen it. That one takes that concept even further. To me documentaries are basically about the journey, not the destination. So much about the documentary journey is the process of making the film and you see a little bit of that in Hated and much more of that in Frat House, but I do think that came a lot from my seeing Nick Broomfield movies. There’s no rule about what’s in it, how much of that or how little, it’s just whatever serves the story.

From today until a week from now you can watch Hated for free, courtesy of Pitchfork TV at this link.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/26/2009 10:52:00 AM Comments (2)

Here's actor, writer and director Keith Gordon's (pictured) second post from the Sundance Directors' Lab. For his first post, click here.

OK, so the weather isn’t great so far (lots of rain), and the food is, well, it’s kinda like being at summer camp. (That’s why I always bring some cereal and cans of soup from home). And that’s all I can come up with to complain about. This place is magic, and I’m thrilled to be back in it’s grip.

I unpacked in my cozy little condo, and headed down to the Sunday reception for us "new folk." I was very happy to see lots of old friends among the staff and my fellow advisors.

The next morning we saw the scenes from the first week (all of which show talent, but also the work left to be done), and got the update from Gyula, Michelle, and the wonderful Joan Darling who comes up every year before the production week's start, to work with the fellows on acting, becomes an advisor for the first production week, and then stays to fill in the 2nd week advisors on what she’s seeing with each of the fellows and what she thinks they could use from us.

Joan is quite an amazing teacher — warm, loving, inspiring, and endlessly enthusiastic. She’s able to be critical when needed, but in a way that never could be misinterpreted as belittling or hurtful. Over a couple of weeks she becomes every fellow’s wise mother.

The scripts this year range from very good to VERY, VERY good. And no, I’m not saying which I think is which. All were written by their director, except one. In alphabetical project order;

All Fall Down – Jonathan Wysocki. (USA) Thank god I really liked this script, since Jonathan is good friends with a close friend of mine, and we live about two blocks from each other (in spread out LA, that’s like living in the same apartment building in NYC). It’s a bittersweet look at how 9/11 effects a family in a small town, the Halloween right after the attacks. It has a gently satirical eye for small town life, without ever being condescending or judgmental. It’s also very touching, sad and real about family dynamics and national fears.

Beasts of the Southern Wild — Behn Zeitlin (co-writer/director), Lucy Alibar (co-writer). (USA) I guess one could call this alternately hysterically funny, and tragic film "magical realism," but that’s somehow too simplistic. This is one of those unique scripts that’s not like anything else I’ve come across. A portrait of a bayou town slowly sinking into the water, it deftly combines poetry in it’s language, fantasy elements, subtle politics, Beckett-like absurdity, and deep humanity. It’s a fairy tale meeting the earthiness of Mardi Gras.

Goodnight Moon — Elgin James. (USA) A carefully observed, sometimes terrifying view of adolescence, as two 14 year old girls escape their poor, but sheltered existence near California’s Salton Sea for a couple of stolen days in L.A., where they end up getting into events way over their heads. A bracing and moving in its portrait of teens growing up, and apart, in the modern world.

My Brother the Devil — Sally El Hosaini. (UK/Egypt) We’ve all seen gang-related dramas, but this portrait of two brothers of Arab descent growing up on the tough streets of London transcends cliché into something deeper, richer, and more emotional. One of those rare scripts where I literally had no idea how things would work out, which puts it ahead of 99% of what I read in Hollywood. Again, great attention to the details of life, something that gratifyingly runs through many of the scripts here.

The Narrow Frame of Midnight — Tala Hadid (Morocco/USA). This tremendously affecting script about the human search for connection, follows two separate stories that intersect, a young girl kidnapped to be sold into slavery, and a man searching for his disappeared brother. It reminded me (favorably) of one of my favorite films of the last few years The Edge of Heaven by Fatih Akin.

Porfirio — Alejandro Landes(Brazil/Ecuador). The is true story of a wheelchair bound man,; living in poverty, waiting for government help, trying to raise his son, maintain his love relationship and keep his dignity, who finally explodes. Deeply moving and disturbing, like many of the scripts here, it takes you inside the mind of someone you never thought you’d be able to identify with, across barriers of culture and class.

On the Ice — Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (USA). This is a deceptively simple (but emotionally complex) tale of two Inuit best teen-age best friends who end up in deep trouble. It captures a culture foreign in it’s details, but familiar in it’s humanity, and in its themes of guilt, loyalty and responsibility. This script will be a challenge at Sundance — it’s so much about the visually icy world of the far north. But seeing Andrew’s amazingly shot short film, it’s clear that he can handle that element, and his work at Sundance can focus on bringing the richness of his script to his actors’ performances.

The Story of Ram — Ritesh Barta (USA/India). Another hard to classify but easy to love script, this, like the totally different Beasts of the Southern Wild combines elements of magical realism, and fantasy with deeply rooted realism. A young, poor Indian man makes a powerful friend on his ham radio, changing his life, and the life of his town. It made me smile a lot, and kept me wondering what would happen next.

While I’m doing lists, here are this years advisors. Week one was (I think) Michael Almereyda, Joan Darling, Caleb Deschanel, Suzy Elmiger, Ed Harris, Peter Medak and Joan Tewksbury (our week 2 group arrived just after group 1 left, so I’m going off hastily scribbled notes… hope they’re right).

My group has Lisa Fruchtman, Randa Haines, Catherine Hardwicke, Michael Lehmann, Rogier Stoffers and Alfre Woodard. I know almost all of them, having either spent previous labs together and/or actually working on a film as I did with Alfre. It’s a great bunch. Funny, insightful, eclectic. We’re all over the map in terms of energies and style, but we quickly bond.

One of the interesting new challenges this year is that a couple of projects are not being shot in English. And indeed, my first "assignment" is to work with Alejandro while he’s rehearsing a scene for Porfirio. When I get to rehearsal I find that not only is the scene being played in Spanish, but his leading man speaks no English, so all directions are given in Spanish as well.

This makes for an interesting quandary. Not only do I not know exactly what the actors are saying (although I do have a translated script), but I have no idea how Alejandro is communicating with his actors, how he’s translating his ideas to them, etc.

It makes for an exercise in Zen. I find that if I stop telling myself "I don’t understand," I can get much more than I expected by watching people’s eyes and body language during the scene. I’m able to see whether it seems "alive," and follow the arcs of each characters’ emotions. It’s a powerful reminder of how universal human experience is.

On the other hand, when Alejandro is quietly directing them, I really can’t tell what’s going on. He could be calling me "the idiot in the corner" for all I know. ☺ But I am able to see the effect that his direction has, and that’s what matters.

I come in mid-rehearsal and watch. The scene is the father and son silently eating, when the father’s girlfriend returns home late, quietly stoking the father’s sense of impotence and jealousy, and the son’s anger.

I point out to him that the way the scene is playing there’s no real turning point. The mood is so somber from the start, that there’s no room for the energy to change when the girlfriend walks in late, so we don’t really get the dynamics of the scene.

Alejandro is going for a minimalist, understated style with his actors, and he’s afraid of too much emotion being displayed, but I reassure him he can keep it as ‘small’ as he wants, but still have real behavior in the silences, real relationships and change, even if it’s only a small nod, or moment of eye contact.

He speaks quietly in Spanish to his actors for a few moments, and when they do the scene again it’s immediately very different. Now the father and son look at each other, there’s a sense of ease between them, even if no words are spoken. So when Vicki the girlfriend enters, you can feel the tension suddenly rise, and the room get chilly, well before anything is said.

I encourage him to keep experimenting in that direction, and over the next few times through a world of life, all in tiny moments, opens up between the father and son; a little smile at a burp, a nod of thanks, to the son having made the food. This connection in turn, sets up a father-and-son versus the intruder dynamic when the girlfriend becomes part of the scene. It’s all still very quiet and underplayed as per Alejandro’s style, but now it feels like life, with something at stake, and situations evolving for everyone involved.

With the scene playing well, we take a break and play some basketball. I immediately tweak my knee. It’s official, I’m getting old. (sigh…)

At night we see a screening of Catherine Hardwick’s amazing Thirteen, and afterwards she answers lots of questions about how she was able to do such an terrific job, with so little time, so little, money, and one of her three leading actresses having never acted before. She talks about her careful preparation, her getting the house they were going to shoot in early, so the actors could work in, and even sleep in the place they’d be using as "home," etc. She speaks with such enthusiasm and excitement that it’s impossible not to caught up in the joy of her process, and ends the long day with a jolt of energy.

So far, so good… — Keith Gordon

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/25/2009 12:32:00 AM Comments (4)

I've been slow on the blog and behind on posting my notes on day two of the Open Video Conference because we're trying to finish the Summer issue and get it off to the printers before the July 4th holiday. It's our annual "25 New Faces" issue, so it's a tougher one to pull together than usual. Anyway, one person I won't be writing about when I get that OVC Day Two post up is keynote speaker Clay Shirky — because he wasn't there. Travel difficulties derailed his presentation but for those who want to hear him anyway, here's his talk on open source, activism and creative practice delivered two days before at Upgrade New York. (Hat tip: The Change You Want To See.)

Upgrade NY: Clay Shirky on Forking, Failure, and Open Source (Part 1) from Not An Alternative on Vimeo.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/25/2009 12:24:00 AM Comments (0)

At last year’s FIND Film Financing Conference in Los Angeles, Mark Gill told us the sky is falling. This year’s keynote speaker, Endgame Entertainment CEO James H. Stern, had a more optimistic message. Referencing Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, Stern reminded the crowd, “We are lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time for great opportunities.” Stern encouraged the crowd of filmmakers to not just make better movies, but smarter ones that keep a film’s audience — and how to reach it — in mind well before the cameras roll, not just after the film is complete. He cited distribution execs Bob Berney and Ira Deutchman as conceptual thinkers on the cutting edge of the new independent film business, and took lessons from football hero Herschel Walker, who infamously turned to ballet for his off-season training so that he could learn to use a completely different set of muscles to improve his game. Stern reminded us that, as producers, it’s time for us to do the same in our business.

The biggest muscle producers need to flex, it was implied in the panel discussions that followed Stern’s keynote, is harnessing the power of the internet. During “Independent Financing Models,” Paradigm Consulting distribution strategist Peter Broderick touted the success of “crowd-funding” films, or raising production money in small donations via Facebook, websites and other social networks. He used documentarian Robert Greenwald’s Iraq for Sale and the filmmakers behind The Age of Stupid as successful examples of films that not only raised six-figure budgets online but built critical relationships with their respective fan bases even before they began shooting. In these cases, Broderick pointed out, the filmmaker’s mailing lists were their most valuable assets.

The discussion continued in the “Digital Distribution” panel, during which SnagFilms’ CEO Rick Allen, Oscilloscope Laboratories' David Fenkel and New American Vision co-president Orly Ravid helped the audience of producers navigate the tricky waters of online distribution models, and figure out how to make them even modestly profitable. Allen boasted that the producers of the 800 or so films on SnagFilms.com get a check every quarter because of his company’s unique sub-distribution model (according to Allen, SnagFilms has partnered with nearly 25,000 niche websites to market films to their target audience online, and that they also help push traditional DVD sales). Fenkel and Ravid countered that in spite of the rapid growth of online distribution platforms, iTunes and NetFlix still capture the lion’s share of the business, and both have a very high barrier to entry. All concurred that there is no one-size-fits-all model, and that each film has to be evaluated individually and producers must create a tailor-made distribution and marketing plan for their product.

The irony of discussing the future of independent cinema—in which very few films will actually be seen projected in 35mm in traditional movie theaters—while sitting in the plush stadium seating at the Landmark wasn’t lost on anyone. Nor was the fact that, by 6pm, attendees were hastily ushered out of the theater to make room for moviegoers lined up to see The Proposal.

For all the cautious optimism, the earnest plans and the crystal-ball predictions of the future, the critical question of whether independent film is doomed to become just another commodity remains unanswered. Perhaps a worthy topic for next year’s keynote. — Smriti Mundhra

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/22/2009 02:55:00 PM Comments (1)

I'm still typing up my thoughts on day two of the Open Video Conference, but in the meantime, here is an example of open video in action. At his Mind Flip blog, Jay Cousins writes about "augmented content" as being a potential driver for video monetization on the web. He gives an example of the technology at play by embedding the below video which demonstrates some of the functions of Firefox's new version 3.5, which supports Ogg video. Check it out.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/22/2009 10:23:00 AM Comments (1)

Tonight our first Filmmaker/Apple "Meet The Filmmaker" event takes place at the Apple Store in SoHo at 8pm (103 Prince St.). Nick Dawson will be interviewing our Spring cover director Kathryn Bigelow about her new film, The Hurt Locker, which opens this weekend.

The event is open to the public.

Following the first 38 days of army bomb expert Sgt. Will James (Jeremy Renner) in Iraq, The Hurt Locker (pictured) is a trademark Kathryn Bigelow film. Like Near Dark, Point Break or Strange Days the action is non-stop and includes a breakout performance by Renner. Check out what we mean below.

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 6/22/2009 09:00:00 AM Comments (0)

The surprise guest at the conclusion of this weekend's Open Video Conference was Peter Sunde of The Pirate Bay, which bills itself as the "world's largest BitTorrent tracker." As many of you know Sunde and three of his colleagues were recently convicted in a Swedish court and were sentenced to a year in jail and a $3.6 million fine. They have accused the judge of bias and are now battling the verdict on appeal.

The Open Video Conference organizer introducing Sunde, who appeared via Skype from Sweden, acknowledged the controversial nature of his activities, particularly for the content creators in the room, and noted the group's political activism as well as its influence on the creation of the Pirate Party, which recently won a seat in the EU Parliament. Also noted was The Pirate Bay's support of Iranian critics of the country's election. The site changed its logo to "The Persian Bay" in support of the Iranian protestors and reported that it helped a group of Iranians set up an anonymous internet site allowing users to uncensored and tracked web surfing.

BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin moderated the Q&A.; At one point, after a discussion of how Hollywood must change its business model to survive in a post-censorship world, an audience member asked about independents. He described himself as an independent film and videomaker and said he didn't have an MBA or the business skills to envision a new business model that would allow himself to make a living. Sunde's response to him is below.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/21/2009 07:58:00 PM Comments (0)

In a "things are tough for everyone" reminder, Peter Bart and Michael Fleming in Variety report that Columbia Pictures' Amy Pascal has put the new Steven Soderbergh movie, Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, into "limited turnaround" just three days before it was due to begin filming.

From the piece:

The move came after Pascal read the final draft delivered last week by Steven Zaillian and found it very different from the earlier scripts she championed. Pascal was uncomfortable enough with how Soderbergh’s vision had changed that she applied the brakes.

Soderbergh and Pitt’s CAA reps spent the weekend attempting to get another studio to play ball.

If a new financier doesn’t emerge by today, Columbia will re-examine options that include replacing Soderbergh (and hoping Pitt doesn’t ankle), delaying the film until Pascal and the filmmaker find themselves in synch on the script or pulling the plug.

According to the piece, either Warner Bros., the studio of the Oceans movies, or Paramount, which just saw the departure of John Lesher and Brad Weston from the executive suites, is hoped to provide a home for the film.

Soderbergh discussed Moneyball briefly in our interview about The Girlfriend Experience:

I remember hearing that you had been working on The Girlfriend Experience for a while, but, nonetheless, it did strike me as a kind of “zeitgeist film.” I thought of your K Street HBO series. Both that project and this one seemed to have a certain kind of elasticity in terms of being able to quickly absorb things going on in the broader culture. How do you create something that has that kind of space within it, or that is able to absorb things from the outside during shooting and postproduction?

It’s kind of a continuation of an idea that I started being enamored of around the time of Traffic actually, which was this fusion of real people and real stories with a fictional story. K Street was another attempt to smash these two ideas together, Bubble was a continuation of it and The Girlfriend Experience is another attempt. And Moneyball, the movie that I’m about to shoot this summer, is, I think, actually going to be the most extreme attempt at what I’ve been playing around with for almost a decade now. I guess it’s something that grows out of my frustration with the norms of cinema narrative storytelling and the fact that I’m convinced that the gains that can be achieved through presenting something that seems like it really is happening in front of you are more significant than the gains you get from something that doesn’t seem as real but is better constructed. That may just be a reflection of my personal taste, but I’m pushing harder and harder to try and get some of these projects into this area where they are almost like designed documentaries. Bubble, GFE and K Street — [on all of these] we literally worked from outlines that just described who’s in the scene and gave a very, very loose description of what the scene is about. They’re all controlled improvisations.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/21/2009 05:05:00 PM Comments (2)