Kyle Patrick Alvarez has carved out an unusual niche for himself within American independent cinema; as he himself comments, “Everyone keeps on joking I have This American Life authors named David cornered now.” Alvarez made his feature debut in 2009 with Easier with Practice,… Read more
Filmmaker is sponsoring this week’s pitch panels at IFP’s Filmmaker Conference. Tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM will be The Art of the Narrative Pitch, Monday the 16th at 11:00AM will be Wild Card New Media pitches, Thursday the 19th at… Read more
Playwright, film director and now novelist Peter Mattei (The Deep Whatsis) was the guest recently on Brad Listi’s Other People podcast, where he told a surprising tale about contemporary Hollywood screenplay sales. Matthei, whose feature Love in the Time of… Read more
The following is a guest post by veteran entertainment attorney Robert Zipser. It originally appeared on his official website. “In the motion picture business, nothing is more important than rights.” –Prominent Business Affairs Executive Hollywood has loved books ever since… Read more
This is the first of a three-part series on the independent horror film AfterDeath, which is currently in post-production. The first part is an interview with writer Andrew Ellard, while the following parts will feature an interview with producer and co-director Gez Medinger. In school, Andrew Ellard thought he wanted to be a cartoonist, but it took a long time and a “not very successful A-level art” for him to realize that he actually couldn’t draw. This led him to a second revelation; that he wanted to tell stories — he’d just picked the wrong medium. After finishing school, Ellard […]
by Michael Murie on Aug 6, 2013Writer Nick Antosca was a guest recently on the Other People podcast, and, along with discussion of his literary practice and new short story collection The Girlfriend Game, he talked about screenwriting. Antosca writes film and television scripts with writing partner Ned Vizzini (It’s Kind of a Funny Story), and offers good advice on transitioning from fiction to screenwriting and breaking into television. Towards the end of the conversation Antosca, currently a writer on the NBC show Believe, speaks about how his fiction has changed as a result of screenwriting, citing one specific screenplay maxim: get into scenes late and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 5, 2013Many filmmakers make a low-budget movie in the hopes of getting to L.A. and working on a big-budget movie. The Rasmussen brothers went in a different direction. Going out to L.A. they wrote and sold a script that was made into The Ward, directed by John Carpenter. But they wanted to do more than just write the script, so after completing their next screenplay they came back to Boston and made the movie Dark Feed on a shoestring. The Rasmussun brothers, Michael and Shawn, spoke to us recently about this experience, and what they have learned about making a movie […]
by Michael Murie on Jul 1, 2013Last week, Amazon added a new tool to Amazon Studios called Amazon Storyteller. Storyteller is a free, easy to use storyboarding tool, but before you rush out to try it, you might want to know a little more about Amazon Studios. A little history Not content with creating a distribution mechanism for films and videos, Amazon began dabbling in the world of production with the launch of Amazon Studios in latter 2010. Amazon Studios invited screenwriters to submit movie and television scripts with the prospect of prizes and production deals. During the first few months the incentive was primarily cash […]
by Michael Murie on Jun 10, 2013May 9, 2012 My friend Arnold Barkus and I decide to collaborate on a script about the true-life relationship between outsider artist Joseph Cornell, a 59 year-old virgin who still lived at home with his mother and crippled younger brother, and Joyce Hunter, a 19 year-old waitress and teen runaway. January 17, 2013 Arnold and I submit a draft of our script, titled The Story of Joseph Cornell and Joyce Hunter, to the Hamptons Screenplay Lab. March 18, 2013 I receive a voicemail from David Nugent, the artistic director of the Hamptons International Film Festival. He informs me that our […]
by Caveh Zahedi on Jun 10, 2013Sundance Institute announced the 13 projects selected for its annual June Directors and Screenwriters Labs, taking place at the Sundance Resort in Utah from May 27 through June 27. Under the leadership of Michelle Satter, Founding Director of the Institute’s Feature Film Program, and the artistic direction of Gyula Gazdag, the Fellows selected for this year’s program include emerging filmmakers and projects from the United States, Europe, Mexico, Peru and Somalia. Projects supported through the Directors and Screenwriters Labs receive continued, customized, year-round support from the Feature Film Program, which can include the following resources: ongoing creative and strategic advice, […]
by Billy Brennan on May 9, 2013