» Posts Tagged ‘filmmaking’
Focus Forward Filmmaker Challenge Offering Largest Short Documentary Prize Ever: $100K to the Winner
Alright NoFilmSchoolers, it’s time to fire up your brains, set up your lights, check your mic levels, and turn on your cameras! GE and Cinelan are joining forces to bring you Focus Forward, a contest that challenges you to make a short non-fiction film on the theme of invention and innovation. There’s some serious money up for grabs, with $200k in cash prizes in all. Morgan Spurlock has more info: More »
Michael Haneke on Movies: 'The Ideal Film Scene Should Force the Spectator to Look Away'
Austrian director Michael Haneke is well known for “shocking” films like Funny Games (which he actually made twice in different languages), but there’s no question he also knows a thing or about creating a beautiful image, as can be seen in the gorgeous black and white Oscar-nominee The White Ribbon. One of Haneke’s greatest strengths is playing to audience expectations and showing, or not showing, pivotal mounts of his films on screen. In the interview embedded below, he talks about his views on violence in film, the extent to which it can be used, and his thoughts on the ideal film scene. More »
Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction has no shortage of memorable lines and scenes. Harvey Keitel’s character Winston Wolfe is particularly quotable, and he does exactly what independent filmmakers have to do hundreds of times on a daily basis: solve problems. IndieWire has a great post detailing 9 reasons why the actions of ‘The Wolf’ are applicable to independent filmmaking. More »
If you’re like me, you probably weren’t at this year’s SXSW festival — but through the magic of the internets we can still reap some of the knowledge shared there. Filmmaker Magazine’s blog covered two filmmaking related panels, “The Great Cinematography Shootout” and “Making it Happen: Financing an Independent Film”, and boiled each down to 10 ponderable tips. The first panel looks at how cinematographers handle low budget constraints while the second provides insight into what independent producers face while putting films together: More »
Filmmaking can be a byzantine process — commitments fall through, producers demand changes, accidents happen, and at the end of it all we persevere in the hope that we can deliver the film to an eager audience. Well, last year Canal+ released a series of playful flowcharts in support of the filmmaking industry. They illustrate some of the choices a filmmaker might make in the process of creating an animated film, a horror movie, an action movie, and a short film (oh– and a porno): More »
Producer Ted Hope Tweets 24 Tips for Independent Filmmakers
If you are one of those people who can’t stand any more 5D Mark III news (there are new leaked photos by the way), then Ted Hope has some filmmaking tips that will bring us back to what really matters. If you don’t know who Ted is, he works tirelessly as an independent film spokesperson and he writes a blog that always contains insightful or meaningful content. Ted’s goal is to make film accessible to everyone, and to help remove the shroud of secrecy that surrounds show business. He gave some great tips for independent filmmakers while speaking at the Athena Film Festival, and in a move common for Ted, he graciously tweeted that information to the world. More »
With The Artist up for an Oscar this weekend, I found this little item to be apropos. If we were to travel 100 years back we’d be avidly reading articles like the following interview with silent film director Marshall Neilan – “How To be a Motion Picture Director.” There’s a lot we can learn from watching silent films in terms of pure visual story telling, but it’s not often you hear advice about the business side. Mr. Neilan delivers in a big way, showing that as much as things change, some things stay the same: More »
Here is how many in my parent’s generation spent their careers and made their money:
They got paid by one company, and there was an assumption that the company would take care of them, providing health care, a retirement plan, and eventually, some sort of tacky gift to celebrate their 30 years of service.
But this isn’t the case for my generation; I don’t know anyone my age who’s going to work for one company for 30 years. Times have changed and no (large) corporation is going to take care of anyone, except maybe its executives. Indefensible golden parachutes. Fading pension plans. Growing income inequality. The writing is on the wall: it is up to us as individuals to take care of ourselves and forge independent careers. More »
last_SHIFT: @Shawn, That is a great response. I really can't fathom the undying fa… 5D Mark III/D800 Hands-On Part 5: Mark II vs. Mark III vs. D800 - Candleli…
shaun wilson: If kickstarter expanded to being a world wide opportunity not just for US … Crowdinvesting is Now Legal in the U.S., but Kickstarter Isn't Interested …
James: I believe Kickstarter is smart, anyone who has followed finance even brief… Crowdinvesting is Now Legal in the U.S., but Kickstarter Isn't Interested …
Guillaume: Is it me or the video for the Largest Short Documentary contest ever has b… Focus Forward Filmmaker Challenge Offering Largest Short Documentary Prize…
Rev. Benjamin: All that make-sense stuff aside... it's probably just plain fun to put a s… New Camera, Old Canon K35 Lenses: Some Thoughts on Buying Old Optics (Inst…