WME’S GRAHAM TAYLOR ON ENTREPRENEURIAL FILM

By Scott Macaulay

Today’s morning read is WME Global head Graham Taylor’s keynote speech at the Los Angeles Film Festival, a smart and entertaining walk through not only his own career but the trajectory of independent film’s past and future. Since his speech references Hollywood blockbusters, perhaps it’s appropriate that it starts with Taylor’s own origin story, beginning in Portland, Oregon, where he grew up with an economist father and artist mother — two influences that will intertwine throughout his career. Another part of that origin story: Reservoir Dogs, the film that blew him away and made him want to be involved in this business.

While I’m sure most blog reports will focus on Taylor’s talk about the current state of independent film, his dubbing of it “entrepreneurial film,” and his proscription to work at creating work that audiences can actively engage with, I also was inspired by hearing of Taylor’s early days in L.A., where he pounded the pavement for a foothold in the industry. When he has problems financing a film, he shoots ten minutes and stages a “Van Dance” at Sundance where prospective supporters can watch the trailer in an RV and drink a complimentary gin and tonic. This idea of one-on-one engagement that Taylor used to get his first film made is now an imperative for everyone. He said of today’s world:

What I’m trying to say is, the consumer is speaking. Loudly. Art does matter to them, and their money talks. It’s about empowering the artists to reach for alternative platforms that will make people pay attention. It’s about engaging your consumer in a meaningful way. This stuff should matter to everyone in this room.

I entered the agency business seven years ago because of my desire to be part of a larger platform to access artists, financing, internet, telecoms, cable companies, and retailers. I thought it would bring me closer to the audience to construct financing and distribution with an eye toward the future. Going in I thought it was an indie vs. studio conversation. What I have learned is that it’s actually a consumer conversation.

… Read the rest

THE NEW BREED L.A. #7: “SCREENING THE CUT”

“Don’t make your festival premiere your first test screening,” I always say to the filmmakers who take the IFP Narrative Lab. It’s sounds basic, but you’d be surprised at how many filmmakers I’ve come across who never properly screen their cuts with an audience before taking them out into the world. In this final episode of The New Breed‘s series on filmmakers and their creative process shot at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Marwencol director Jeff Malmberg and producer Ted Hope discuss their late-edit screening processes.

Thanks to Zak Forsman and Kevin Shah of Sabi Pictures and to the Workbook Project for their work and collaboration with this series.

Go back and watch all the episodes here.

NEW BREED LOS ANGELES – Episode 7 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.… Read the rest

NEW BREED L.A. #5: “MAKING PEOPLE NOTICE”

Here’s part five of the New Breed Los Angeles series looking at the creative filmmaking process through the eyes of several filmmakers attending this year’s Los Angeles Film Fest. Today’s episode focuses on the time-honored question of how to get people to notice your work. Speaking are Marwencol director Jeff Malmberg and The New Year director Brett Haley.

NEW BREED LOS ANGELES – Episode 5 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.… Read the rest

NEW BREED L.A. #4: “ELEMENTS OF CASTING”

“Elements of Casting” is the title of the fourth New Breed video from the Los Angeles Film Festival. Look for two more next week, on Monday and Thursday.

NEW BREED LOS ANGELES – Episode 4 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.… Read the rest

NEW BREED L.A. #2: “ENGINEERING SERENDIPITY”

Here’s the second of the New Breed videos on the creative process filmed this year by Sabi Pictures at the Los Angeles Film Festival and presented by Filmmaker and the Workbook Project. Appearing in this episode are filmmaker Julius Onah (one of our “25 New Faces”), filmmaker Jeff Malmberg, actress Trieste Kelly Dunn (another “25 New Face”), director Brett Haley and producer Ted Hope.

NEW BREED LOS ANGELES – Episode 2 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.… Read the rest

LA FILM FEST WINNERS

The LA Film Festival (held June 17-27) announced its winners. The prize for Best Narrative Feature went to Danish director Pernille Fischer Christensen for A Family. The Documentary Award went to J. Clay Tweel for his doc Make Believe. Christensen and Tweel both receive $50,000.

L.A. Film Festival winners (descriptions provided by the festival):

Narrative Award (for Best Narrative Feature): A Family (En Familie) directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen (Denmark).

The conflict between love and duty plays out in this stunning, award-winning saga about a successful Danish family that faces agonizing choices when its charismatic patriarch falls ill.

Documentary Award (for Best Documentary Feature): Make Believe directed by J. Clay Tweel (Japan/South Africa/USA).

Armed with magic hoops, decks of cards and homegrown illusions, six hopefuls from around the world prepare for Las Vegas’ World Magic Seminar, and the chance to win the title of Teen World Premiere.

Best Ensemble Performance in the Narrative Competition: Sabrina Lloyd, James Urbaniak, Lynn Cohen, Harry Chase, Nate Smith and Kamel Boutros in Adam Reid’s “Hello Lonesome.”

With an enchanting mixture of laughter and longing, the worlds of six, eclectic, lonely individuals are woven together as they explore those age-old human desires: to love and be loved.

Best Narrative Short Film: My Invisible Friend by Pablo Larcuen

Best Documentary Short Film: The Lucky Ones by Tomasz Wolski

Best Animated Short Film: Wonder Hospital by Beomsik Shimbe Shim

Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: Four Lions directed by Christopher Morris

Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: Thunder Soul, directed by Mark Landsman.

Audience Award for Best International Feature: Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith’s Presumed Guilty.

Audience Award for Best Short Film: Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No, directed by James Blagden.

Audience Award for Best Music Video: OK Go’s This Too Shall Pass, directed by James Frost, OK Go, and Syyn Labs.… Read the rest

“THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS” TO HIT EDINBURGH, LA, SILVERDOCS AND MUNICH

After hit screenings at SXSW and HotDocs, Alexandre O. Philippe‘s The People vs. George Lucas will be shown at four film festivals this month: Edinburgh International, LA, AFI’s Silverdocs,  and Munich.  Philippe’s film examines the relationship between filmmaker George Lucas and his fans over the past thirty years.  PvG is one of six documentaries at SILVERDOCS nominated for the WGA Documentary Screenplay Award this year.

You can catch the film at any of the following screenings:

DEADLINE ALERT: LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL

Early submission deadline for the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival is this week (Dec. 5). Final deadline: Jan. 16.

Learn how to submit your film here.… Read the rest

LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL By Justin Lowe

The defining moment of the Los Angeles Film Festival (June 19-29), presented by Film Independent, didn’t occur at a gala screening or a high-profile filmmaker panel, but transpired instead at the fest’s annual Finance Conference as Mark Gill, former president of Miramax and currently CEO of The Film Department, delivered the keynote address.

As widely reported in the entertainment press, Gill’s speech presented a comprehensive overview of the state of independent film, detailing his premise that “Yes, the Sky Really Is Falling.” He cited a variety of reasons for the poor performance of indie releases this year, including the surfeit of films available for sale and competing against one another for screen space, the flight of capital from the independent sector, contracting (or collapsing) foreign sales opportunities, the poor theatrical performance of documentaries, and the recent demise or reconfiguration of specialty outlets New Line, Picturehouse, Paramount Vantage and Warner Independent, as well as ominous rumors if imminent collapse at ThinkFilm..

These and other factors have contributed to a contraction in financing and distribution opportunities for independently produced projects — apparent even at the beginning of the year from slow sales at Sundance and the major spring festivals. The trend was also evident during LAFF, as distributors passed over a number of strong competition films, although a deal was announced before the fest for Morgan Dews’ doc Must Read After My Death, acquired by Gigantic Releasing, while IFC picked up Barry Jenkins’s narrative Medicine for Melancholy, which had premiered at South by Southwest.

Jenkins’s inventive two-hander captivates with fine performances from Wyatt Cenac as Micah and Tracey Heggins as Jo, San Francisco African-American 20-somethings navigating the awkward aftermath of a drunken one-nighter. Undaunted by Jo’s firm indifference to his attempts at establishing a further connection, Micah’s spontaneous familiarity with the city wears down her initial resistance as they develop a comfortable, if somewhat wary, rapport and maybe even the beginnings of a romance.

Shooting with a de-saturated palette reduced nearly to black and white, Jenkins lends many of his infrequently lensed San Francisco locations an almost classic resonance. James … Read the rest

2007 FAST TRACK
By Jeffrey Kunze

Currently in its fifth year, Fast Track, a joint program of the Los Angeles Film Festival and Filmmaker magazine, was created to promote the careers of talented filmmakers over the course of a year, while spreading the word about their newest projects. The filmmakers chosen are alumni of the LAFF as well as alumni of Film Independent’s Talent Development Programs: the Filmmaker Labs, Project: Involve, and the grants awarded at the Spirit Awards. Here are the Fast Track filmmakers of 2007 and their upcoming projects.

Robbie Pickering
You know you’re in for some trouble when your dutiful Christian wife discovers that you’ve been secretly donating to a local sperm bank. That’s the premise of Robbie Pickering’s feature film Natural Selection, which follows housewife Linda White as she breaks off from her idyllic yet reserved life in search of the “mulleted, foul-mouthed child” that her husband laid the seed for behind her back. In addition to directing, he also wrote the screenplay which was selected to take part in Film Independent’s 2006 Screenwriter’s Lab.

Pickering, one of only four students to graduate with thesis honors from USC’s Graduate Screenwriting Program in 2006, was prompted to write the story “about a year ago, [when] my stepfather became terminally ill and my mom, a Texan housewife, was suddenly faced with the prospect of being alone for the first time in her life. I had been wanting to write a story about the women I knew growing up in Houston for a long time, and my mom’s fragile emotional state became the starting point for the movie,” he says, “…did I mention it’s a comedy?”

Before going to USC, Pickering graduated from the Film Production Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Art in 2003, where he was awarded a Lew Wasserman Screenwriting Award and a Warner Brothers Production Grant for what would become his critically acclaimed short film, Prom Night, “a raucous comedy about an awkward boy’s chaotic senior prom.”

Now in the midst of directing his first feature, which is being produced by Charlie Mason and Justin Moore-Lewy, whose company … Read the rest