» Archive for the ‘film’ Category
Christopher Nolan’s Inception is the first movie I’ve seen at the multiplex this summer for which I felt I got my money’s worth. When it was over, I decided I would sit back for a week and enjoy the memory of the entertaining and intellectual film before reading what others had to say about it. I only like reading reviews of a movie after I’ve already seen it and formed my own opinions, and this post will fall in line with that approach, which is to say: don’t read this unless you’ve already seen the film (spoiler alert!). More »
This is a guest post by Mike Jones, Lecturer in Screen Studies at the Australian Film Television and Radio School.
Filmmaking is full of traditions. These traditions are the “way things are done,” they are what is “expected,” they are “industry standard,” they are “default” and “accepted.” This is all fine and dandy until we recognise the innate implication of such Traditions is to imply Right and Wrong – that there is a correct way to do things and deviations are “incorrect,” not “acceptable” or, worse still, not “professional.”
These traditions manifest themselves in all manner of guises – creative, technical, business, logistic. I have written previously about how the tools of filmmaking (particularly software) possess internal philosophies that enforce traditions – traditions which may or may not be a good fit for your own creative processes. In a similar light, there occurs to me to be another long-standing and entrenched tradition (one that may not be serving emerging and indie filmmakers as it should) that needs to be questioned. That is the significance of the Short Film. More »
In the battle of large CMOS-based cameras with capitalized names, ARRI is looking to steal RED’s lunch money. Earlier this month, RED’s Jim Jannard announced the high-end EPIC and less expensive SCARLET cameras have been delayed due to a major bug, for which “the fix could be tomorrow. Or not.” Meanwhile, ARRI today announced they are shipping their ALEXA camera, which in the words of 24 DP Rodney Charters, “will probably be the [camera] that transitions us away from film and towards truly electronic capture on large features.” More »
I was recently hired to be the A Camera operator on a fashion shoot for a company that will go unnamed. I’m not trying to be mysterious — they had me sign a Non Disclosure Agreement, so I’m erring on the side of caution. Actually, posting nothing at all would probably be erring on the side of caution, but there were too many expensive tools and newfangled gadgets being put to use on the shoot for me not to share. As an indie used to low-budget DSLR shoots, getting my hands on a $200k camera was quite the departure. More »
You too can have inexplicable lens flares in your film
I caught the 7D-shot French short USB Dream at HDSLR Shooter today. Note that its appearance here is not an endorsement of any kind — the fight scenes are laughable and there is a totally gratuitous stairway jump at the end that had me palming my forehead. But as I don’t speak French, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt — maybe the dialogue is amazing? Anyway, the reason I’ve posted the short here at NoFilmSchool is to talk about lens flares — specifically, the software emulation of lens flares. More »
For a musician to earn a meager living (defined here as a minimum wage of $1,160 a month), how many self-pressed CDs do they have to sell out of the back of a truck every month? If they have a record deal and their music is listed on a subscription service like Rhapsody (a former employer of mine), how many streams do they have to generate to take home the same amount? David McCandless, author of the book The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World’s Most Consequential Trivia, has published detailed statistics for musicians (included below). What if we had these same numbers for filmmakers? More »
I have noticed a disturbing trend, and I am here to quash it! Ever since Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras started showing up with a movie mode, people have felt the need to call them by a new name. The DSLR acronym was no longer descriptive enough, so shooters started adding on a “video,” “hybrid,” or “high definition” moniker to their camera to feel superior to the poor souls stuck with last year’s DSLR, which was limited to shooting sad, unmoving photos. Thus the acronyms VDSLR, HDSLR, and, confusingly enough, HDDSLR, have been bandied about far and wide. I’m here to stop this, or at least, give you the chance to vote on it once and for all! More »
Yesterday’s post about transmedia and the interactive filmmaker highlighted the challenges of developing a transmedia story for independent creators. It’s interesting, then, to look at an example of an expansive transmedia campaign from a studio — in this case, Warner Brothers’ Alternate Reality campaign for The Dark Knight.1 Independent productions are not going to be able to implement an ARG of this scope, but it’s nonetheless good brain candy for the concept of taking a movie “outside” the theater.
- Much of the transmedia strategy and implementation was run by the folks at 42 Entertainment, some of whom later split off to found No Mimes Media. [↩]
This video by Robert Pratten is a great introduction to what transmedia is and how it can be employed by the independent filmmaker (he also has a refreshing perspective on the “technological fetish” of our obsession with new camera technologies!). It’s a 45-minute presentation full of brain candy and should be required viewing for anyone thinking about telling stories across mediums. As Pratten stresses, “transmedia plays to indie’s strengths,” because delivering a consistency of story across platforms is possible for independent creators — not large studios made up of divided teams. In my opinion, his point about authenticity is even more important, because: I could care less about playing a social game if the original auteur had nothing to do with it, and I could care even less about buying a DVD if I suspect only 65 cents of a $15 purchase is going to find its way back to the original filmmaker. Creating our own cross-platform projects and retaining ownership not only gives us more creative control on all of the different incarnations of our story, it can also motivate fans to make purchases because they know we’re the ones benefiting from their support.
In addition to the above presentation, however, Pratten has written some very helpful articles at the Workbook Project on the process of developing transmedia projects: More »
I’ve been needing to write something for the About page on this site, since it’s been devoid of a raison d’être since I relaunched in January. While brainstorming about the project I’m currently working on — as well as reflecting on what I’ve learned over the past year — I came up with this post. Given the About page lives outside the RSS feed and doesn’t allow comments, I wanted to post this “manifesto” here. And as the About page is open to change over time, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. More »
First off, my write up of this year’s Full Frame Film Festival is live at Filmmaker Magazine; give it a read. More important than my writing, however, are the films themselves, so here are some trailers for the great docs from this year’s Full Frame: More »
Once again, I’ve updated and expanded The DSLR Cinematography Guide to the tune of 5,000 words — it’s gone from 10k to 15k. While I’m tossing out numbers: according to Google Analytics, the guide has had 70,000 page views, with an average time spent on the guide of 11 minutes. That’s 770,000 total minutes, or 12,800 hours collectively spent reading the guide! I will take this as a confirmation (in addition to all the comments!) that the guide is helpful to a lot of people. Onto what’s new in this version: More »
Part two of my notes from IFP’s Script to Screen conference last weekend. Some real-world filmmaking questions were answered on these two panels, including, “How do you make a living as a low budget film director?” and “Can you offer advice for someone who’s about to shoot a first low-budget feature?” Most of this is paraphrased, not word-for-word (often for clarity). More »
Here’s part one of my notes from IFP’s terrific Script to Screen conference last weekend (well, it’s really part two, as I turned the panel with The Daily Show head writer Steve Bodow into its own post). I didn’t take notes on all the panels, just the ones I thought might be of interest to the NoFilmSchool readership. Also, my Macbook Old only lasts two hours before its battery dies; I need one of those newfangled ones with the 7-hour runtime. Included here are the panels Development Demystified and Networking & Notice – Workshops, Contests & Competitions. Some real-world screenwriting questions were answered on these two panels, including, “How long does it take to get a movie made?” and “Do you have a chance of getting into festivals and competitions if you’re not connected, if you don’t have an in?” Most of this is paraphrased, not word-for-word (often for clarity). More »
Barry Jenkins’ terrific DIY feature Medicine for Melancholy won awards at the Sarasota, Woodstock, and San Francisco International film festivals and garnered three Spirit Award nominations. A.O. Scott of the New York times called it an “exciting debut” and made it a NY Times Critic’s Pick. M4M was picked up for distribution by IFC Films and was released theatrically last January (VOD and DVD releases followed).
Barry and I attended the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium together in 2002 and have run into each other a few times since on the festival circuit. Here we talk about DIY filmmaking, distribution deals, VOD, new media, brand integration, and film school.
Independent producer Ted Hope (Adventureland, 21 Grams, In the Bedroom, and seemingly a thousand other films) is expanding the perception of what “independent film” is and how it should be distributed. I had a chance to sit down with him at Power To The Pixel, where he gave me some very valuable advice; we share the same view of independent film, that with crisis comes opportunity. Ted’s been very generous on his Truly Free Film blog by sharing advice like Ten things to do before you submit a script and Display your value: you are different from them, as well as asking pertinent questions such as What defines an event? In short, his blog is a must-read for independent filmmakers. Here, he answers some questions for the forthcoming film Press/Pause/Play. More »
Thanks to everyone for checking out The DSLR Cinematography Guide, which is up to 20,000 views since launching less than a month ago. While it’s great to get traffic for something, what I’m most impressed by is the average time spent on the page: 12 minutes. This is an eternity by internet standards, where most people click on something, find it’s not for them, and immediately click away. I’m sure many visitors to the guide itself fall into that category, which means the rest of you are spending double or triple that on the page, so I’ll take that as proof it’s helpful. And, of course, thanks to everyone who’s commented on the guide.
Today I made some revisions and posted some new sections to the guide; read on to find out what’s new. More »
Here’s the lead from a post I wrote immediately after the Apple iPad announcement yesterday; it’s now live over at FreshDV:
The Apple iPad offers a number of exciting new possibilities for filmmakers and story architects thanks to its screen size, connectivity, and interactivity. At first glance it may seem like just a big iPhone, but it’s priced to move and — whether you plan on buying one or not — in 60 days it will be in the hands of millions. For filmmakers and independent creatives, there’s a lot of brain candy contained in that thin body; here are seven ways I think the iPad will change filmmaking and interactive storytelling.
To read the article, head on over to FreshDV.
Ty: Like you stated though, all you need is a PC that runs iTunes (for now) With the new Apple TV, Apple Decides the Living Room Can Wait
Ty: Ah. Good point. Ever since switching over to Apple I've kind of taken fo… With the new Apple TV, Apple Decides the Living Room Can Wait
William: What I want to see is a device that will bury the cable companies. Time Wa… With the new Apple TV, Apple Decides the Living Room Can Wait
Koo: That's a good point -- all you need is another piece of Apple hardware tha… With the new Apple TV, Apple Decides the Living Room Can Wait