SHOOTING “TINY FURNITURE”

By Filmmaker Staff

Originally published in the Summer 2010 issue.

Only a few months after we selected her for last year’s “25 New Faces” list, writer-director Lena Dunham went into production on her second feature Tiny Furniture. Shot by fellow 2009 “25 New Faces” Jody Lee Lipes and produced by Filmmaker contributing editor Alicia Van Couvering and Kyle Martin, the film wound up winning the Grand Prize at 2010’s SXSW Film Festival and was picked up by IFC for distribution this fall. The film was shot on the Canon 7D, and we asked Lipes, focus puller Joe Anderson and Technicolor colorist Sam Daley to comment on the DSLR format and their production and postproduction decision making. –S.M.

“Choosing to shoot on the Canon 7D was a bold move on [director] Lena [Dunham’s] and [d.p.] Jody [Lee Lipes’s] part,” says focus puller Joe Anderson. “At the time of production there were few (if any) rental houses in New York supporting the new hybrid-SLR cameras as movie cameras. Subsequently we had to make due with far fewer accessories than a traditional movie production would use. Existing tools like matte boxes, follow focus wheels and multiple monitors had not yet been updated to work smoothly with these new cameras.” The production rented a few different types of handheld and tripod mounts, most manufactured by Zacuto, from still-camera rental houses in New York City, and Anderson worked with Lipes to retrofit them for the shoot’s needs.

Technicolor agreed to convert test footage to HDCam SR so that everyone would know what they were getting into. Before the test screening, Anderson remembers Daley warning them, “You really shouldn’t shoot with this camera. It records in the h.264 format, which is more of a YouTube format; it’s not meant for production.” “But that was before we started shooting, and before he saw the final tests,” adds Lipes. “I think the color correct is really what sold him — when he saw how much flexibility he had with the color while we were in the final grade.”

Anderson recalls that first screening of test footage at Technicolor: “We … Read the rest

WEINSTEINS TO FIGHT “TILLMAN” RATING

By Jason Guerrasio

Over at Deadline Hollywood, Nikki Finke reports on The Weinstein Company’s announcement today that they will be appealing the MPAA’s “R” rating that they have bestowed on Amir Bar-Lev‘s doc The Tillman Story.

The MPAA says they have given the rating based on the film’s excessive language. Granted, the Tillmans do throw out a lot of F-bombs in the film (and you may recall that the original title was I’m Pat F______ Tillman, which in fact are the last words Pat Tillman said before he was killed) but there’s a difference between a Kevin Smith profanity-laced film and this family’s colorful language.

From the Deadline piece:

“Of course there is excessive language,” states [the film's producer] John Battsek. “This is a film that follows a truly exemplary family torn apart by the death of their loved one and the barrage of government deceit they encountered in their pursuit of the honest truth. We should be looking at this film as a way to show our younger generation the power of true family values and the sometimes unfortunate failings of our government.”

Bar-Lev certainly had the audience in mind when he changed the original title, a topic he spoke about when I interviewed him for our Summer issue:

“It limits the audience if you’re being realistic about it, and there’s an opportunity with this film to reach audiences that normally don’t watch documentaries.”

With Oscar buzz already building for the film (and docs always struggling for big returns in theaters) the Weinsteins certainly want to get the “R” off the film.… Read the rest

SUMMER ISSUE ONLINE

By Jason Guerrasio

Select stories from our Summer issue are now available, including this year’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. (Read the press release here.)

You can now read online our interviews with Amir Bar-Lev on his new doc, The Tillman Story; Gaspar Noe talks about his psychedelic look at the afterlife in Enter the Void; we look at the latest innovations in DSLR cameras; and some of our friends give their favorite apps, program and Web services.

Plus, Lance Weiler’s Culture Hacker column focuses on transmedia while Anthony Kaufman’s Industry Beat looks at the realities of the Do It With Others new media tools.

The issue hits stands next week, but you can read the whole issue now on your desktop by subscribing to our digital issue. Learn more here.

Enjoy.… Read the rest

CULTURE HACKER: IT’S ALL ABOUT STORY

By Lance Weiler

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THE TRIP

By Brandon Harris

Beginning with the dying moments of a young drug dealer in Tokyo, Gaspar Noé travels deep into our subconscious to explore what happens after we Enter the Void.

THE FOG OF WAR

By Jason Guerrasio

In his gripping documentary, The Tillman Story, Amir Bar-Lev investigates the cover-up of the death of football star turned Army Ranger Pat Tillman.

SOFT SELL

By Filmmaker Staff

Filmmaker and its friends recommend our favorite apps, programs and Web services.

STATE OF THE ART: HDSLRs IN 2010

By Roberto Quezada-Dardon

Roberto Quezada-Dardon looks at new models, new techniques and recent innovations.

Bonus Articles: Shooting: Tiny Furniture and
Street Style

25 NEW FACES – PART 5

By Filmmaker Staff

Susan Youssef

At the IFP Narrative Lab, a mentor said of Susan Youssef’s first feature, Habibi Rasak Kharban (literally, “Darling, Something’s Wrong with Your Head”): “It’s a classic story, like Romeo and Juliet.” True, but the roots of Youssef’s story go back far further. The film is an adaptation of the 12th-century Sufi parable Majnun Layla, which was itself based on a 7th-century Arabic story. Over the years, the tragic tale of undying love between a woman and the wandering poet her family forbids her to marry has formed the basis for countless works of art, from Shakespeare’s classic to several Indian films of the 1920s to even pop songs like Eric Clapton’s “Layla.”

Youssef is currently in post on her feature, and it’s been a long road. “I’ve been working on the film for eight years, continuously,” she says. “I’ve never fought for something so hard before — I’ve defined my whole existence around this film.” The feature began in 2002 when Youssef traveled to Gaza while in post on a short documentary, Forbidden to Wander. She noticed all the graffiti on the walls there, and decided to make Majnun Layla’s poet one who scrawled his works on walls for all to see. She received a Fulbright scholarship to work on the script and, later, brought on an Islamic specialist as a co-writer. In 2007 she traveled to Gaza with the intention of shooting the film there, but the violence was too heavy. Realizing she needed a backup plan, she visited the West Bank and figured out ways she could cheat it for her Gaza locations. She also cast Palestinians with Israeli passports so that she’d be able to shoot in the West Bank if she had to. “In 2009 I finally raised enough money to make the film, and I had an organization sponsoring my application [to shoot] in Gaza, but it was denied. We went ahead and finally shot in the West Bank, although the film is still the first film set in Gaza in 15 years.”

Youssef was born in Bay Ridge, … Read the rest

INDUSTRY BEAT: DIWO REALITIES: WHY WON’T KICKSTARTER AND TWITTER SAVE INDIE FILM?

By Anthony Kaufman