Back in July, UK horror anthology project Blood Cuts reminded us that bedtime stories sometimes contain much more terror than comfort with fifth entry in the series, gothic fairytale Suckablood. More frights, blood and gore have followed since, bringing us now to the eighth chilling instalment, Don’t Move. We get our fright on and talk to Series Producer Ben Franklin about the challenges of upping the Blood Cuts ante with each release after the jump. Join us, if you dare… (more…)

Trinity Anderson is barely 12 years old and she makes me feel like I’m slacking: she knows how to operate a steadicam, has been animating for years, and just finished a successful kickstarter for her short called Me and Ewe. Seriously? I’m pretty sure at 12 years old all I did was play tetherball and draw really awful stick figure cartoons. (Come to think of it, not much has changed.) Trinity was ever-so-kind enough to sit down for a video interview with NFS to talk about anything from her Dragonframe stop-motion software, to her thoughts on gender equality in the movie biz. (more…)

BitTorrent, a tech company whose name is commonly and incorrectly associated with pirating, has been running a legitimate business since 2004 with over 2 million pieces of licensed content in the BitTorrent download manager, which serves more than 170 million people monthly. The company is now beginning to launch a new endeavor to empower those in the content creation business. BitTorrent Bundle provide a way for creators large and small to have all the advantages of the peer-to-peer protocol while also maintaining control over their content by creating ‘gates’ that must be unlocked by the consumer. We had a chance to chat with Matt Mason, VP of Marketing at BitTorrent, who is very impassioned about what this new publishing platform could potentially mean for creators. Read on for the interview and get the full scoop: (more…)

Last week I posted AMATEUR, the prequel to my forthcoming feature MANCHILD, and the response to the short has been downright amazing. Thank you to everyone who has watched it! If you haven’t seen it yet, it is embedded below, and if you have seen it, here’s how two seconds of your time can make a big difference for the project: (more…)

This is a guest post by filmmaker Jeremy Engle.

Many filmmakers are weary of casting real teenagers, particularly non-professional ones, in their movies. And for good reason: You can’t shoot long hours, if you film during the school year, you need to get them tutors, and there’s tons of extra paperwork. And I haven’t even mentioned the parents. For many, teenage actors just add up to too many headaches. (more…)

Amidst a revolution to overthow invading oppressors, a beautiful young woman becomes a spy for the resistance under the moniker ‘Ruby Blade.’ While she sneaks in messages to the imprisoned, non-violent leader of said resistance, they begin a glorious love affair. And get this, it’s not starring Leo DiCaprio, it’s a true story! From chasing sharks to helicoptering heads-of-state, filmmakers Alexander Meillier and Tanya Ager Meillier are taking their very first feature documentary Alias Ruby Blade to Tribeca. Director Alex Meillier was kind enough to sit down with NFS to explain just how you go about telling an action-adventure love story…that really happened. Read on for the interview, plus a way you can watch it online through Tribeca tonight. (more…)

Each new day that passes it seems the world of distribution for filmmakers is being turned on its head. With so many new content destinations popping up all the time, it’s hard to know what’s what. Reelhouse is a company who seems to be breaking through the mold, as a recent partnership with Sundance would suggest. Reelhouse is planning a big launch on April 22nd — read on for our interview with Bill Mainguy, CEO and Founder of Reelhouse and get to know the platform: (more…)

AMATEUR is a short prequel demonstrating my vision for MANCHILD, the feature film we’re making next. I’ve never been so excited to release something, so I hope you like it! If you like the short and want to see the feature, please head over to our just-launched website for MANCHILD and share it. I’m releasing this directly online, and that’s how this short will spread — every tweet, facebook like, and share makes a BIG difference. Thank you! (more…)

Have Nicolás Alcalá and his team at Riot Cinema Collective discovered the future of filmmaking? After learning what steps these filmmakers, based out of Madrid, took to get their project, The Cosmonaut (para los hispanohablantes, El Cosmonauta), made you might say “yes”. This film is a transmediatic experience that has broken all the world’s crowdfunding records by raising €130,000 in 3 days. On May 14th the film will be available to view for free. However, with an investment of €5 to €50 (about $6.55 to $65.46) you can purchase the “K-Pass” to gain access to tons of extras: 32 additional web episodes, mockumentary, a “secret newsletter”, and the opportunity to copy, remix, and distribute the film as you wish.”The Film Made by More Than 5000 People” is, in fact, not only a film, but an experience; an experience created, had, and shared by thousands of people all over the world. (more…)

The filmmakers behind the new, entirely found-footage documentary Our Nixon weave an eclectic portrait of one of the most peculiar American Presidents and best Futurama talking heads ever: Richard Nixon. This doc is no historical snooze-fest, but an “Anti-Nixon-Film Film” revealing never-before-seen private Super 8 movies filmed by Nixon’s youthful White House Aides. (The contemporary version might be like stumbling onto Malia Obama’s iPhone with two years of Vine videos that had never been uploaded.) While waiting for a delayed flight to the SXSW film festival, Producer Brian L. Frye sat down with NFS to give us insight about how they pulled off the film, from before-and-after 4k scans, to standing up for your fair use rights as a filmmaker. (more…)

It’s the stuff of dreams. Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq started out on a no-budget journey to make their first film about one man, a non-proselytizing humanitarian in Pakistan named Edhi. The film, These Birds Walk, just premiered at SXSW to sold out crowds, with Oscilloscope Laboratories coming on board in their first-ever producing role; the film will probably play in theaters later this year. Our Q&A follows. (more…)

So, you’ve decided to quit your day job and venture into the exciting world of freelance work, where you get every day off, you set your own hours, and life is always enjoyable? At least that is how it feels as you sit behind your desk finishing out the remainder of your two-week notice. It is true, there are many perks to living life in the freelance world. However, it is not for the faint of heart, as it brings with it a whole new set of struggles. In what follows, I’m going to give you seven tips on how to succeed in the world of freelance, so that those struggles will be fewer and easier to bear. (more…)

UPDATE: In response to some of the (heated! opinionated!) questions and comments on this post, we did a long video Q&A as well.

I wrote recently about finishing the screenplay for my feature MANCHILD (for now… ), but it’s been a while since I talked about what else is going on in the trenches of first-time feature filmmaking. The title of the post gives it away: we’re making a short. Why are we doing this? And why do I think this strategy makes a lot of sense for other first-time feature directors? Because there are millions of people with a screenplay, all trying to figure out how to get from here (words on a page) to there (actual finished movie). If your goal seems impossibly far off, that’s when it’s time to bite off a smaller chunk and show what you’re capable of. (more…)