» Posts Tagged ‘ifp’
The good news is that deadlines for IFP’s Independent Film Week programs Spotlight on Docs and No Borders International Co-Production Market were extended. The bad news is, that deadline is Friday, May 24th! If you are thinking of burning your rough assembly to DVD or printing out that screenplay just in time, IFP Producer and Programs Manager and Co-Programming extraordinaire Rose Vincelli Gustine was kind enough to give NFS a few thoughts on the program. (Spoiler alert: I went last year, and I loved it.) More »
Many films get stuck in the finishing phase due to lack of resources for important services such as Sound Mixing, Sound Design, and Color Correction, to name a few. In comes the Independent Filmmaker Project Labs, a program that aims to help first-time directors finish and distribute their films. Though the deadline for documentary submissions has passed for this year, narrative submissions are open until the end of the week. Each year they select 10 films for their narrative labs, and you can find out how to submit below. More »
It seems counterintuitive to shell out $100 or more to attend a fundraising workshop when you’re desperate for money to begin with, but if your entire fundraising strategy consists of “getting a grant from a top granting agency” in today’s climate, well it might be money well spent. Fortunately for us, IFP has uploaded an entire masterclass from 25-year-plus media executive Louise Rosen for us to watch, and we don’t have to pay a dime. What Louise outlines right off the bat is that the documentary funding landscape is in flux. Today, doc filmmakers have to get more creative, and Louise outlines just how to go about getting started on raising your budget incrementally in the video below: More »
Beasts of the Southern Wild is one beast of a movie. Produced by a bunch of old buddies that formed the loose collective Court 13 (which also produced Death to the Tinman), and directed by Behn Zeitlin, the film demonstrates the potential of independent films, as well as revealing its influence on audiences today. In the IFP Q&A video embedded below, the producers of the film go into detail explaining just how demanding and ambitious every phase of production was, and how the team managed to come out the other side with the movie we see today. Based on that video, we’ve got a list of five potential obstacles that could have derailed the film, but actually ended up working in its favor. More »
Every year I make sure to post about this, as New York-based IFP’s Labs are designed for first-time feature directors at the rough cut stage — a stage at which filmmakers can often use help, but especially first-time feature directors (as you can imagine, if the timing is right I’m definitely going to apply once MANCHILD is in the can). It takes a village to make an independent feature, and IFP can bolster the support structure around your project, as well as give you valuable feedback and mentorship. If you’re a first time feature director and you’ve got a rough cut, think about applying to the Documentary Lab or Narrative Lab — you have until March 8 and April 5, respectively. More »
IFP’s (Independent Film Project) Gotham Independent Film Awards took place last night, and the entire event was streamed live from their website. We already looked at a few of the nominees, but we’ve got the entire list of winners and some trailers below. I wasn’t able to find trailers or media for all of the films, but the majority have some sort of corresponding media. Click through to see who won the 2012 Gothams. More »
It’s that time of year again: Awards Season. While Hollywood’s major awards aren’t for another few months, Independent Film Project’s awards show, the Gotham Independent Film Awards, is just around the corner. The show, hosted by comedian Mike Birbiglia (who just starred in his own mostly true life story Sleepwalk With Me), will air live Monday, November 26th at 7:30PM Eastern Time. Check out the rest of the details below. More »
Independent Film Week is here again thanks to IFP (Independent Film Project). The conference “gives emerging and established writers, directors, producers, and creators the opportunity to explore the art and business of 21st century storytelling.” Attending the entire conference is impossible for most, so thankfully IFP is live streaming some of the talks and also posting them online. Click through to check those out and also see the rest of the live schedule for this week. More »
I posted about this before, but now that the deadline is approaching for narratives it’s worth another mention. Why? Because “it takes a village” to make an independent film, and New York-based IFP can bolster the support structure around your project. If you’re a first time feature director and you’ve got a rough cut, think about applying to the Narrative Lab — you have until April 9. And be sure to check out the below roster of some recent lab graduates, whose festival acceptance roster is a who’s-who of film fests in this country. More »
You’re editing your first narrative or documentary feature. You’re working with an assembly or rough cut; the film is coming together, but you’re not sure how to best carry the project through post-production. In short, you need help. If this sounds like you, I highly recommend applying to IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs, which provide mentorship at NYC events in May, June, September, and December. Note this is open to U.S.-based IFP members (join here) only. More »
The New York Film Festival is running this week and next, and I was fortunate enough to participate yesterday in the wonderful Emerging Visions program put on by IFP and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. An amazing day of panels with industry veterans, on-stage pitch sessions, and a sit-down meeting with my assigned mentor, Doug Liman (!), concluded with the sponsor, RBC, showing these spots. Though they’re just ads made for TIFF, they speak to the NoFilmSchool ethos perfectly and humorously: More »
During the day (EST) through Thursday the 22nd there should be free live streaming of the panels taking place here at Independent Film Week. The week is now over but after the jump there are some archived videos for watching on demand. More »
My screenplay for Man-child (the project I’m currently trying to get funded with your help!) is one of twenty scripts that will be participating in IFP’s Emerging Narrative program a month from now. Put simply, Emerging Narrative is a program for screenwriters looking for a producer — a situation that many screenwriters and writer/directors find themselves in. Whether you’re participating in a program like Emerging Narrative or not, one way of helping producers better understand your project is to bring additional materials to the table besides your script. These materials might include a sample of a previous work you directed, another writing sample, test footage, a spec trailer, or a lookbook. A lookbook is a collection of stills culled from a variety of sources (not necessarily images you shot yourself) that convey what you want your movie to look like. Instead of using still images as is typical, however, I decided to make a multimedia lookbook: a collage of film and TV clips that demonstrate the aesthetic of Man-child. I hadn’t seen this done before, so I cut together clips from over a dozen films, and paired the visuals with a voiceover about some of the more technical aspects of Man-child — including what camera I’d like to shoot the film on, and a particular kind of camera stabilizer I’m planning on utilizing: More »
IFP’s Independent Film Week is currently accepting applications for filmmakers, producers, and screenwriters for its 33rd annual forum, being held for the first time this year at Lincoln Center in New York City, September 18-22, 2011. They’re currently seeking entries for No Borders (for U.S. and international producers with partial financing on new narrative projects seeking additional partners) and Spotlight on Documentaries (for U.S. filmmakers with projects in production or post-production seeking financing partners, broadcast/distribution opportunities, and festival invitations). Deadline is Friday, May 20 — I highly recommend anyone with an eligible project apply, as am I: More »
I’ll be in the audience tomorrow at Power to the Pixel’s joint event with IFP, the Cross-Media Forum. The entire transmedia conference will be streamed live here, so tune in between the hours of 9am and 5pm if you’d like to attend virtually (the schedule can be found here). The official word: “Featuring an impressive array of storytelling experts from the worlds of film, games, advertising, interactive, the IFP / Power to the Pixel Cross-Media Forum is a not-to-be-missed event. If you can’t make it to New York, you can watch events unfold right here from the comfort of your own chair from 09.00 – 17.00 EST.”
First-Time Feature Directors in Post-Production: Submit to IFP's Independent Filmmaker Labs
If you’re a first-time feature director — documentary or narrative — I highly recommend you submit your project to IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs, which is “the only free program in the U.S. supporting first-time feature directors when they need it most – at the crucial rough cut/post-production stage.” The deadline for documentaries is tomorrow (March 11) — sorry for the late notice! — but the narrative deadline isn’t until April 8, so that should give narrative filmmakers sufficient time to put together an application. More details here: More »
Whenever I get an email from a filmmaker moving to (or thinking about moving to) New York, I always make sure to impart the following advice: join IFP. There’s no better way to become part of the indie film scene in the Big Apple. IFP puts on a few conferences a year, and this Saturday is the Script to Screen Conference, which as you can guess focuses on issues for screenwriters (and writer/directors). I was a panelist at last year’s conference, and I learned a lot just by sitting in the audience for the other panelist’s presentations. This year’s guests include Mark Heyman (Black Swan) and Barry Levinson (Diner, Rain Man, Sleepers), and also includes a Pitch Workshop. More »
The Gotham Independent Film Awards took place last night here in New York, and despite being fairly plugged into the indie film world, I couldn’t help but notice when presented with the opportunity to vote for the audience awards online that I had seen less than half of the nominees. So now that the awards have been decided, I thought I’d call whatever attention I could to the winners, since indie films are too damn hard to see. Perhaps if one of these trailers piques your interest you’ll add it to your Netflix queue or even buy it via Amazon. Without further ado: More »
The reason I slipped from my daily posting schedule this week is because it’s Independent Film Week here in New York; as a participant in the No Borders co-production forum, I pitched my feature-length, interactive murder mystery 3rd Rail to something like eighteen different producers/financiers/sales agents/distributors over the past three days. This post, about the experience of attending and pitching at Ithe Project Forum, is cross-posted on the Filmmaker Magazine blog. For more on what the Project Forum is and why you should apply, check out this post. More »
Independent Film Week kicks off in New York City this Sunday the 19th, and the main event of the week is the Independent Filmmaker Conference. It’s going to be a networking clusterlove, with reps from CAA, ICM, Kickstarter, Paramount, Sony Pictures Classics, Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, IFC, and festival programmers from Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, Toronto, Berlin, Rotterdam and more out and about. I’ll be there as part of the No Borders Project Forum with my transmedia project 3rd Rail, but I’m going to try to make it to as many panels as I can — of which there are 33 in all, covering the latest in need-to-know info for indies: More »
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