Archive for July, 2008
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
I just finished writing the letter for this week’s Filmmaker newsletter and discussed a few thoughts prompted by my trip this past weekend to the Creative Capital retreat at Williams College. I used some discussions I had with both artists and filmmakers to think further about our need to come up with new economic (and patronage) models that can support media work in that hybrid space between the art world and conventional theatrical distribution. (By the way, if you don’t subscribe to our newsletter, you can do so here on the main page. Each week I’ve been using the space to speculate on the indie scene in letters that are not reposted here on the blog.)
Anyway, I just came across this article by Frank Rose in Wired which makes clear that scrambling for new economic models is not just the province of indie artists and filmmakers at the retreat I just attended. The piece talks about Gemini Division, a new web serial starring Rosario Dawson. The following paragraphs position the world of web video as the 2008 version of the dotcom start-up.
From the piece:
Sure, the YouTube explosion was fueled by amateurs, but it will be showbiz professionals who cash in on Web video. That’s because most big corporate advertisers want a safe, predictable environment — not the latest YouTube one-off, no matter how viral. Once the major brands get on board, millions of ad dollars will follow. Which is why when the writers’ strike idled most of Hollywood last winter, talent agents fielded calls from clients eager to try their hand. At the same time, the fact that a three-minute clip can be shot for as little as $2,000 means Web video will be more open to ambitious neophytes than television ever was — witness the guys behind Lonelygirl15, who now have a second hit Web series called KateModern and a deal to develop more for CBS.
So far, however, this is a gold rush without any gold. Nobody knows how the business is supposed to work — what kind of stories to tell,
… Read the rest
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
I’m late to the linkfest on this one, but I just caught up with John Anderson’s piece in The New York Times on self-distributing indie films. It’s positioned as a trend piece, and the hook is this week’s release of Randall Miller’s Bottle Shock, which the filmmaker is getting in theaters himself with the help of Freestyle Releasing and former Picturehouse exec Dennis O’Conner. Filmmakers, of course, have been self-distributing for years — the difference now is that the specialty distribution circuit seems like such a bleak place that fewer are questioning the decision to do so.
What I found good and succinct in Anderson’s piece are these paragraphs, which lay out the kind of effort Miller is expending on his film. Anderson makes clear that today’s self-distribution involves a lot more than just four-walling a theater, buying a tiny Times ad, and hoping the crowds will show up.
To help navigate the sometimes treacherous world of film distribution, Mr. Miller and Ms. Savin hired Dennis O’Connor, a former top marketing executive at Picturehouse, to serve as a consultant. Freestyle Releasing of Los Angeles has been engaged, for an upfront fee and a small percentage of the gross, to handle the physical distribution of the movie (moving prints, booking theaters, etc.). And the publicity on the film is being orchestrated by Mr. Miller, Ms. Savin and Mr. O’Connor, with others enlisted by Mr. O’Connor from among the ranks of distribution veterans.
For the possibly lucrative DVD market, “Bottle Shock” has separate deals with Fox Home Entertainment and the all-important Netflix, both of which have helped in the marketing (which ensures them a better return later). Mr. Miller also negotiated his own deals with airlines and with advertising outlets, and has worked out his own price for prints. Most significant, he raised most of the money for filmmaking and prints and advertising through private investors.
… Read the rest
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
A new “Five in Focus” series launches today at FilmInFocus: five political writers or commentators discuss their five favorite films about political campaigns. Up today is a sophisticated and suprising list from Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. Along with Max Ophuls’ The Earrings of Madame De is Peter Watkins’ Punishment Park.
From Perlstein’s piece:
I’ve never seen a film that more convincingly projects the sheer rage Americans felt toward one another in 1970 than Peter Watkin’s astonishing mockumentary Punishment Park. In it, a group of radicals are basically tortured to death after conviction by a kangaroo court of “Silent Majority” citizens in a remote desert; both sides were played by type-cast non-professional actors. It feels like a family dinner table argument over the Vietnam War breaking out into a shooting match. After a screening, representatives from 24 PBS stations across the country agreed they could never show a movie this intense on American TV.
… Read the rest
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Here’s the second of our catch-ups with previous “25 New Faces” filmmakers. If you’ve been on the list and haven’t sent us an update, you can still email one to editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com.
Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, directors, 2005: Since we were included in Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” we co-directed a film called Jesus Camp that was nominated for an Oscar, and have completed television projects for CBS and VH1. We are currently making a documentary in Saudi Arabia, and producing a segment of the Freakonomics movie. In addition, we just signed on to make a film for HBO which will be completed next year. Watch out for it!
Ari Gold, writer/director, 2001: After being named a “filmmaker to watch” — a terrifying proposition for paranoiacs — I shopped around my postmodern version of a Greek tragedy, which was not something that indie producers seemed eager to make — surprise surprise! I ended up in Serbia, where I’d presented my short films, and wrote a new movie about my experiences there while our countries were enemies. The movie, like the Greek tragedy, allowed me to explore my personal and political obsessions. My first day in jail there was the first day I began to lose heart. Making movies ain’t easy anywhere.
Film’s a medium where the moment of inspiration is followed by years of work before you can even see the fruit of your idea. The frustration of this lag-time drove me to pick up a ukulele and form a band with some old friends in New York. The band ended up a great creative decision, and even a great financial one. Being in The Honey Brothers improved my stamina to make movies, because I now had an instant creative outlet that was a perfect counterpoint to the long brainy creation-process of movies.
When I finally came back to the idea of being a director (I think the Filmmaker article haunted me!), I found notes I’d written years before, while living in copper country, about an air-drumming copper miner. I made a few videos playing … Read the rest
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Ted Hope forwarded this link to a fantastic list of “Top 10 Great Movies That Were Never Finished” over at List Universe. Of course, the term “great” is one of almost philosophical speculation as opposed to qualitative judgement. How can a film be great if it was never completed and viewed by an audience? Looking at it from another way, though, films create memories and desires in us long after we view them, and sometimes a film that is wished for yet remains an impossible object exerts a stronger pull on us than one that is released and quickly disappears from our thoughts.
With that in mind, below is a clip from the list’s number 2 selection, Orson Welles’s The Other Side of the Wind. From the piece:
Anyone who is a film buff would know that an Orson Welles film would have to be somewhere on this list. This Welles film was to star John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich and Dennis Hopper. Some believe that because this film was filled with so much sex and violence it was an attempt to revive Welles career. Apparently 96% of the film was complete but financial problems prevented it from being finished. Showtime cable network had guaranteed the money to complete the film, but a lawsuit by Welles’ daughter caused Showtime to withdraw its funding. In April 2007 Bogdanovich said in a press report that a deal was made to complete the movie. His goal was to release the film in 2008 but Bogdanovich recently said there is still over a year’s worth of work to be done.
… Read the rest
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
While we here at Filmmaker were busy trying to be so ahead-of-the-curve with our 25 New Faces list, we were dreadfully behind-the-curve in another area: figuring out an appropriately smart and knowing take on Comic-Con that would enable us to preserve our indie cred while attracting a fair share of fanboy surfers. Next year we’ll figure it out, but as for this year, I’m glad we didn’t try because we wouldn’t have beaten Karina Longworth’s take on the event, which benefits from her own experience at a Comic-Con of days past.
Her lede:
When I first went to Comic-Con, almost a decade ago, it was purely as a girlfriend. My then-love interest and I had gone to our respective home towns for the summer, and one day he called and asked for my measurements––he was making me an Uhura dress.
Longworth goes on to look at the expanded female presence at this year’s Comic-Con, which is initially exciting but soon reveals itself to be kind of depressing. Surveying the upcoming crop of action flicks and their female screen heroes, she writes, “What we’re seeing is the ghettoization of the female action star to below-the-title, near-disposable status. Even as eye candy, the sex appeal that many of these girls bring to a given film are just one element of an overall production design designed to keep aural erections intact for the duration.” The rest of her piece is recommended at the link above.
(Pictured: James Jean’s pin-up styled portrait of Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter in the upcoming Watchmen.)… Read the rest
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
The vastly different worlds of Mardi Gras and Chinese factories meet head-on in Mardi Gras: Made in China. Asking the question where do those beads come from, director David Redmon captures the insane atmosphere of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, where thousands and thousands of strings of beads are bought and given away to revelers. More common than just handing out beads is the ritual that started in the 70s of women flashing their boobs in exchange for a single string of beads.
The doc gives a down-to-earth view of a Chinese factory that makes the beads, showing the ins and outs of the workers’ daily lives, struggling at work. The factory owner is interviewed quite extensively as well, proudly stating how happy the workers are and that they don’t mind doing overtime or being penalized for failing to meet superhuman quotas or talking. Yes, talking. The film also shows he is full of shit.
Director Redmon does a great job dispelling that annoying myth that “oh its okay, ten cents an hour over there is a lot.” The factory is making millions as the workers (ironically, all female) plan strikes to be treated better and have the more apt saying, “its very hard to make a living.”
What I didn’t expect was a humanizing of the revelers – Redmon pulls a great move as he shows footage of the Chinese factory to the people partying on the street. While many partiers “don’t know, don’t care” where the beads come from, many realize the disparity of the two worlds. When the Chinese workers see photos of the New Orleans streets, they have a great reaction you should see for yourself. The doc is modest and straight forward, and all the more powerful for it.
The DVD also contains a 48-minute educational version of the film that is appropriate for PG audiences. A booklet contains a short diary from one of the factory workers. Deleted scenes add even more poignancy to the workers, as well as footage of the revelers you love to hate.
DVD is available from the … Read the rest
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
A director came into my office the other day wearing one of the fantastic “film director name rendered in heavy metal script” T-shirts that can be found at CineFile Video in L.A. Our whole office was knocked out, and I made a point of stopping by the store when I was in L.A. to pick some up… but forgot. Fortunately, they’re available by mail order, so I can order them and so can you.
Each t-shirt marries the name of particular director with the logo and font design of a specific heavy metal band. The new DePalma/Def Leopard design is pretty great, the Bela Tarr/Black Flag has its fans, the Ozzy/Ozu one is cool, although I’ll be starting with the Fassbinder/Metallica.… Read the rest
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Prior to this year’s 25 New Faces hitting the stands and screens, we asked everyone previously selected for this feature to send us a short email updating us on their activities since. Here are the first three responses — thanks to the filmmakers who sent them in. More will appear in the coming days. And, if you are reading this, appeared on this list and haven’t replied yet, please drop us a line and update us. In the coming days you’ll read about people whose films have been made and people who have decided to take other paths in life, so, really, any kind of response is appreciated. You can email us at editor.filmmakermagazine AT gmail.com.
Keith Bearden, writer/director, ’05: As I write this, I am in my office in Livonia, MI at the production HQ for my first feature, Miss January. Yes, the same feature I was hoping to shoot when I was a New Face of Independent film back in 05. This is a slow moving, conservative, bottle-necked biz, especially now, when hundreds of indie features get financed and made every year that don’t even see major festival play much less theatrical release. But I found a smart, committed young producer (Jordan Horowitz at Camelot Pictures) and two years and many rewrites later, we’re casting and scouting locations. It’s a great, great feeling, and I am very lucky that my years of hard work have gotten me this far. Many exceptionally talented people I met when my first short The Raftman’s Razor played festivals are still struggling to get to this spot, or even get paying work.
This business is SLOW. I naively thought that after having a short film that got praise, awards and TV play all over the world getting a feature happening would be smooth sailing. WRONG. There is no smooth sailing in the film world, unless maybe you are a sell out from day one who’s life’s dream is to make an ADHD-paced candy-colored Disney movie involving CGI animals and Hannah Montana, or write and direct Who’s The Boss: the Movie. … Read the rest
Monday, July 28th, 2008
In keeping with our all-embedded-video blog day, here’s Cinematech’s Scott Kirsner with Lance Weiler discussing “The Conversation,” a conference event that will premiere this October in Berkeley. Click play (and turn off David Byrne’s auto-starting clip) and learn more.
… Read the rest
