“GHOST FROM THE MACHINE” DIRECTOR MATT OSTERMAN

When Matt Osterman attended the IFP Narrative Lab a few years ago, his $25,000, science fiction/supernatural thriller, about a grief-stricken man who builds a machine to communicate with the dead, was titled Phasma ex Machina. But when the film was finished and released this summer on DVD and, later, iTunes and Netflix by Screen Media, it went under the less obscure title of Ghost from the Machine. Now, however, another name change is in the works. This August Universal Pictures acquired the remake rights, attaching Gary Shore and Nathan Parker to write and direct. The new film will be called Our House, and I interviewed Osterman about his inspiration for the film, his involvement in the new picture and what advice he would give to other filmmakers contemplating remake deals.

Filmmaker: How did you get started on Phasma, and how did you go about acquiring distribution?

Osterman: The film was shot in Minneapolis-St. Paul at the end of 2008, and it was all local cast and crew. We shot for about $25,000 and were in post for about three or four months. I had a rough cut, so I took a break and did a trailer. It blew up online and our crew, including producer Jennifer Kramer and co-producer Jon Maichel Thomas, weren’t really ready for it. It was on more than 20 websites in Spain, Poland, Japan and France, and we had a ton of industry folks contacting us, but we only had rough cut at that point. So we attended the IFP labs in New York City, which was amazing, and we learned a ton. The movie itself didn’t change, but we learned a lot from the industry side. We screened at Fantasia in Montreal, a genre festival, and we had a sales agent and producers rep. and they began shopping for distribution. We decided to go with Screen Media, and we had an international distributor come on board.

Filmmaker: When was your original version of Ghost From the Machine released, and how did Universal gain interest in it?

Osterman: The film came out … Read the rest

IFW: A NOTE TO SELF

By Tim Sutton

Note to self: do not start meetings by asking, “Have you ever had a dream that you were in outer space and you weren’t like, this is insane, but rather, it felt somewhat familiar?”

Silence.

Needless to say, the poor woman across the film-pitch-as-speed-date table had, actually, not had that dream. But, well, the meeting progressed in an orderly, casual, if not excellent fashion. While a tad forced (a tad?) these meetings have been really worthwhile. From International Film Festival Rotterdam and Cannes Critics Week to Cinetic, Visit Films, and Elephant Eye, I’ve been able to show the Pavilion trailer and site (both are truly connecting), talk about the film’s essence and strategy, and learn what festivals and sales agents/distributors are looking for in taking on projects. There seems to be genuine interest which is, at the very least, nice to know, if not a reminder to keep it slow. And not all of the useful meetings are with those ends of the industry. Meeting with the Torino Film Lab, Crowdstarter and US Artists helped continue the conversation on artistic development and the various paths toward connecting with audiences. Imagine that, connecting with audiences. We shall see.… Read the rest

A DIY DATE WITH “MR. SADMAN”

By Patrick Epino

A few years ago I took part in the IFP Narrative Labs with a feature I wrote and directed called Mr. Sadman, about a 1990 Saddam Hussein double who loses his job and moves to Los Angeles to start his life over — a satire about what it truly means to become American.

We had a brief, almost nonexistent festival run and then regrouped and thought about next steps. Every now and then we’d get an inquiry from a distributor or sales agent, but in the end nothing really ever made sense for either us or them. “No stars” plus “no heat” equaled no leverage, so we knew we were always going to be dealing from a profound position of weakness. Furthermore, I had seen and heard enough from friends and other filmmakers who had gotten screwed by distributors of all shapes, sizes and reputations. Some of these productions took horrid deals ostensibly just so they could say their film got Distributed with a capital “D”.

My intention had always been to at least partially self-distribute, not as an act of desperation but as an act of common sense. Self-distribution used to be the equivalent of taking your mom to the prom, but now it’s more like walking into the gym with that mysterious, offbeat girl with the funky fashion-forward style from the rival high school. You have a responsibility to yourself and everyone you worked with to try to get the film out there as best you can, and for this particular project it just seemed to be a more pragmatic course of action than having a distributor relegate the film to a tiny thumbnail on page 14 of its online catalog.

One of the basic concepts was to make it as easy as possible for someone to watch the film. In our case, that meant implementing the popular “freemium” idea: offer a basic version for free and higher-end versions for a fee. I broke Mr. Sadman down into its DVD chapters and set it up for free streaming on my site with an ad sprinkled in here … Read the rest

IFP NARRATIVE LAB APPLICATION LAUNCHES TODAY

By Scott Macaulay

The IFP Narrative Lab launches its online application today. From the website:

IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs is the only program in the world currently supporting first-time feature directors in post-production to complete, market and distribute their films. Focusing exclusively on low-budget features (

Through the Labs, IFP works to ensure that talented emerging voices receive the support, resources, and industry exposure necessary to reach audiences.

The Lab is really an excellent program that provides a wealth of intensive mentorship having to do with all the aspects of filmmaker that follow production. Recent Lab films include such Sundance selections as Pariah, Restless City and Kinyarrwanda and current Berlin selection Yelling to the Sky. Click here to apply. The Narrative deadline is April 8. (Also note the Documentary Labs, the application process of which is ongoing. Deadline is March 11.)… Read the rest

THE MICROBUDGET CONVERSATION: FILMS TOO SMALL TO FAIL

By John Yost

I first met Zak Mulligan through my DP Sean Donnelly a few years back. After a bit of back and forth on the merits of Kickstarter, I helped him with a little production design on his first feature, and we became fast friends and supporters of each others work. Zak and his directing partner Rodrigo Lopresti were recent participants of IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs with their first feature film I’m not me. Zak also won the Best Cinematography award at Sundance last year for his work on the film Obselidia. He’s here to talk a bit about the advantages of staying small.

Picture this: Two guys with a camera, a rental car, and an afternoon to kill. The duo take a drive out of New York City with no particular destination in mind, possessing only the vaguest of ideas and a desire to shoot something… Anything. Suddenly a kernel of a thought takes hold and the first frame is captured. What now? One idea flows into another until they have something. It’s not exactly a short film; it’s more like a doodle. A quick sketch that could perhaps be developed later on. This humble beginning marks the inception of my latest film “i’m not me” (pictured right).

Along with actor extraordinaire and my directing partner Rodrigo Lopresti, we continued creating these doodles for several months. It was great fun, required no pre planing, and most importantly nothing was sacred or precious. Our creativity spawned out of whatever we had in front of us at that moment. These moments then led to new ideas and we began to branch out by enlisting the help of other actors we knew. Before we could even finish editing all the pieces, we realized we had something much bigger. So, we decided to put the camera away, break out the laptop, and start writing a script.

The following weeks after finishing the script, we thought long and hard about how to get this thing in the can. A few strategies came to mind. The first we tried was to ‘get a name … Read the rest

13 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE IFP NARRATIVE LAB

By Scott Macaulay

The recently concluded IFP Narrative Lab was a dense week of study and mentorship as our participating filmmakers, all with films somewhere between rough and fine cut, were given guidance about picture lock, sound design, scoring and music licensing, festival strategy, distribution deals, and DIY, self and hybrid distribution efforts. Amy Dotson and Rose Vincelli from the IFP did a fantastic job of putting the program together. Susan Stover, Jon Reiss and I were the lab leaders. In addition, an inspiring group of editors, filmmakers, producers and industry vets came in to lend their expertise.

At the end of the Lab I emailed Susan and Jon and asked them to tell me a few things they’d want to stress. Along with a couple of my own, below is that list. It’s not a summary of the week by any means. Rather, these are 13 points, some obvious and some not, that we wanted to emphasize one more time.
Understand Your Goals. Why did you make this film? To tell a personal story? To experiment artistically? To score a commercial success? To break into the industry? Some combination of the above? Understand your own reasons for making the film, and try to make sure that you are aligned with collaborators in the post, sales, distribution and marketing spheres who understand that vision and are working towards it with you.

Or… Make Sure Your Film Knows What It Is. Another way of saying the above — make sure your film knows what it is and is comfortable in its own skin. Is it a flashy commercial proposition or an intriguingly reticent festival flick? Make sure to have an understanding of the current film ecosystem and know where your film sits on the food chain, who its natural audience is, and who its potential supporters will be.

Make the Best Film You Can. A seemingly obvious point, but one that can be hard to achieve. Have you cut short your creative options because you’ve rushed to meet a festival deadline? Or, even worse, is your festival premiere your first test screening? Have you … Read the rest