Film School of the Week: FatFreeFilm

Those who say you need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get a decent moviemaking education are clearly living in the Stone Age. These days, all you need is Internet access and the willingness to listen to some good advice. With FatFreeFilm, this type of DIY film school is just a mouse click away!

Founded by independent moviemakers Joel Marshall and Kamala Lopez-Dawson, FatFreeFilm is essentially a series of in-depth interviews with members of the moviemaking community. Over the course of the episode, interviewees--including Henry Jaglom and Peter Bogdanovich--weigh in on how to make it in the indie film world, and provide some choice anecdotes while they’re at it.

But FatFreeFilm doesn’t simply focus on the typical interview subjects like actors and directors; they also go behind the scenes to talk to editors, distributors, costume designers and many other underappreciated but essential members of the film world. FatFreeFilm’s ultimate goal, Marshall notes, is to create a virtual moviemaking community. “The beauty of our show is that it reaches places where there are no film schools--places where our listeners may be the only person in his or her town or village who has any interest in the art of filmmaking,” he says. “Trying to break into filmmaking can be a very daunting and isolating experience and what we are trying to do with FatFreeFilm is reach out to each other, share our stories, help each other and create a network of people with similar interests and goals who can support each other.”

For more information, or to listen to episodes of FatFreeFilm, visit www.fatfreefilm.com.

Sound Off: How much do you think anecdotes and advice from professional moviemakers add to one’s moviemaking education? Have you ever applied something you’ve heard in an interview to your own career? Talk back in the comments section!

--Jennifer Straus

May 14th, 2007 | Category: Film School of the Week | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: May 14

Rebecca Miller started rolling film on Personal Velocity: Three Portraits on this day in 2001. As the educated woman’s answer to girl-power cinema, the movie showcased the acting talents of Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Posey and Fairuza Balk in telling three separate tales of women grasping for their own empowerment. Sedgwick plays Delia, a woman on the path to freedom from her abusive husband; Posey is Greta, wavering in fidelity to her husband; Balk takes to the highway as Paula, desperate to prevent further meltdown. Personal Velocity premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2002 and earned both the Grand Jury Prize and Cinematography Award for now-frequent Miller collaborator Ellen Kuras.

Quotable: “How could he still love me? If he does, it’s because he doesn’t know me. I’m rotten with ambition, a lusty little troll, the kind of demon you’d find at the bottom floor of hell pulling fingernails off the loansharks.” --Parker Posey as Greta, often cited as the movie’s stand-out star.

May 14th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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In Theaters Now

28 Weeks Later...
directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
The follow-up to 2002’s successful 28 Days Later takes us back to London, where the Rage virus has been contained. Does anyone actually think it’s going to remain that way? Expect sprinting zombies, shotgun blasts to the face and at least one terrified child. Days director Danny Boyle produces, passing the director’s reins to Spaniard Fresnadillo. The first one offered an original take on the living dead, so expect them to hit the ground running with the sequel. (That was terrible, we apologize.)

Georgia Rule
directed by Garry Marshall
This is the movie that earned Lindsay Lohan a public scolding from Morgan Creek’s CEO James G. Robinson regarding her unprofessional behavior on set. Hopefully the lessons her character learns from a hard-talking grandmother (Jane Fonda) are just as entertaining. Lohan has since said her “underperformance” was due to a tough breakup during shooting. Her love affair with teenage girls everywhere, however, seems to endure. (We will decline further comment in the interest of preserving Lohan’s sobriety.)

Delta Farce
directed by C.B. Harding
C.B. Harding directs the most important film of the year. In this, his magnum opus, he illustrates the modern and nuanced American Soldier, proving why TIME named him “Man of the Year.” Larry the Cable Guy shows his range in this taut war drama. Oh wait, a pun! Hilarious! Three drinking buddies are misidentified as Army reservists and flown off to Iraq--only to end up in Mexico. Are things going to get wacky? Sir, yes, sir!

The Ex
directed by Jesse Peretz
Zach Braff stars as a slacker-turned-breadwinner who is hired by his father-in-law when his wife stays home to care for their newborn. Jason Bateman plays the titular ex-boyfriend. Bateman is the man. And with the inclusion of Amanda Peet as the wife and Amy Poehler as anything, there’s some definite comedic potential here. We’re even willing to give Braff a pass on The Last Kiss and be optimistic about his return to comedy (and slackerdom).

--Kevin McCarthy

May 11th, 2007 | Category: In Theaters Now | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Dawn of the Dead

Director George Romeroâ€™s second, and arguably most influential zombie flick, Dawn of the Dead, premiered in Los Angeles on this day in 1979. Romero, who also wrote and edited the movie, had unexpected success with the horror classic Night of the Living Dead in 1968 and decided to move the action to a shopping mall for its sequel. As a comment on consumer culture, the movieâ€™s four main characters seek refuge in a local mall, stocked with all manner of desirable possessions. But soon enough materialism is not enough to stave off the reanimated creatures converging on their haven. Eventually released with an R rating, the MPAA had found the first cut so violent they assigned it an X. It was the second, less gore-filled cut that has become one of the defining horror movies of all time. Filmed on a now-preposterous $500,000 budgetâ€”money from acquaintances and even the director himselfâ€”Dawn of the Dead went on to earn more than $50 million at the box office.

Connections: So respected remains George Romeroâ€™s Dawn of the Dead that it has made a popular resurgence among young audiences nearly 30 years later. In 2004 alone, Zack Snyder (300) released a remake while Brits Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz) lovingly spoofed Romeroâ€™s work in their tribute, Shaun of the Dead.

May 10th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: A Little Princess

Alfonso CuarÃ³n’s A Little Princess was released in the United States on this day in 1995. Adapted by Richard LaGravenese from the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the movie tells the story of young Sara Crewe, sent from India to New York when her father decides to enlist for service in WWI. Within the walls of her New York boarding school, the young Crewe is worshipped by the headmistress for her familyâ€™s wealth and adored by her housemates for her vivid imagination and fanciful storytelling. But news of her fatherâ€™s demise turns her world upside downâ€”all captured with cinematic flair by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezski, who went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for this movie in 1996.

Connections: A Little Princess marked the first international success for the pairing of director Alfonso CuarÃ³n and DP Emmanuel Lubezki. The duo moved on to collaborations on Great Expectations (1998), Y tu mamÃ¡ tambiÃ©n (2001) and Children of Men (2006).

May 9th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Rosario Dawson

Rosario Dawson was born in New York, NY on this day in 1979. In her formative years, Dawson lived in a Lower East Side tenement, where she was famously discovered by director Larry Clark, who cast her as the promiscuous girl-next-door in his slice of pubescent New York City life, Kids. Since then, Dawson has embodied the quintessential New Yorker for Spike Lee (He Got Game and 25th Hour), Edward Burns (Sidewalks of New York and Ash Wednesday), Ethan Hawke (Chelsea Walls) and Dito Montiel (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints). In a large departure, the self-professed comic book geek took a role in the movie adaptation of Frank Millerâ€™s Sin City, thereby escalating her status as a fanboyâ€™s fantasy. Roles in Kevin Smithâ€™s Clerks II and Quentin Tarantinoâ€™s Death Proof have only cemented that status. Hereâ€™s to guessing what will happen when Sin City 2 hits theaters in 2008.

Factoid: In 2005 Rosario Dawson picked up the role left off by a pregnant Daphne Rubin-Vega, when she played Mimi Marquez in the film adaptation of the musical Rent. Although the Chris Columbus-directed film found little critical acclaim, Dawsonâ€™s role alongside the original Broadway cast was honored with nominations at that seasonâ€™s NAACP Image Awards and American Latino Media Arts Awards.

May 8th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Michel Gondry

To most people, Michel Gondry, born on this day in 1963, is most recognizable as the director of 2004â€™s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But his surrealistic work began long before that Jim Carrey/Kate Winslet vehicle played to mass audiences. And it continues today with smaller, more personal films like The Science of Sleep, which he explained to MM in Fall 2006, was a â€œvery personalâ€ journey for him. Born in Versailles, France, Gondry learned early on to appreciate the narrative nature of music. It was within this medium that the artist first made an impact, directing music videos for The White Stripes, Beck and others. His first feature, Human Nature, written by Charlie Kaufman, was a minor success, gearing the pair up for their Academy Award-winning, mind-bending Eternal Sunshine. Next up for the French moviemaker is 2008â€™s Be Kind Rewind, about a man who must recreate all manner of favored films when he accidentally destroys his friendâ€™s video store stock.

Quotable: â€œWhen you have a mixture of things going on in your life and all around you, that gets filtered through your imagination (to me, thatâ€™s what a dream does) it generates a lot of original imagery. So when Iâ€™m working on a music video or a film, I try to recycle what I see in my mind as much as possible. I like the way that something youâ€™ve seen on the street on the way to work will suddenly show up 10 times larger or 10 times smaller or in a totally different color.â€ â€”Michel Gondry, â€œRequiem for a Dreamerâ€ by David Fear, MovieMaker Volume 13, Issue 64.

May 7th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Top of the Box Office

1. Spider-Man 3
Sony Pictures
Weekend Gross: $148,000,000
Total Gross: $148,000,000

2. Disturbia
Dreamworks SKG
Weekend Gross: $5,720,000
Total Gross: $59,883,000

3. Fracture
New Line
Weekend Gross: $3,425,000
Total Gross: $26,458,000

4. The Invisible
Buena Vista
Weekend Gross: $3,125,000
Total Gross: $12,346,000

5. Next
Sony Pictures
Weekend Gross: $2,768,000
Total Gross: $11,835,000

6. Lucky You
Warner Bros.
Weekend Gross: $2,515,000
Total Gross: $2,515,000

7. Meet the Robinsons
Buena Vista
Weekend Gross: $2,466,000
Total Gross: $91,771,000

8. Blades of Glory
Paramount Pictures
Weekend Gross: $2,302,000
Total Gross: $111,632,000

9. Hot Fuzz
Focus Features
Weekend Gross: $2,054,322
Total Gross: $16,145,075

10. Are We Done Yet?
Sony Pictures
Weekend Gross: $1,700,000
Total Gross: $46,106,000

All numbers courtesy of The-Numbers.com.

May 7th, 2007 | Category: Top of the Box Office | By MovieMaker Staff

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Location of the Week: Minnesota

Quick word association: What are the first two words that come to mind when you hear “Minnesota?” If you thought “cold” and “snow,” you’re not alone. Of course, it doesn’t help that some of the best-known Minnesota-shot movies back up those associations. Fargo takes place almost entirely in cold and snow; winter weather figures prominently into the plots of Jingle All the Way, Grumpy Old Men and A Simple Plan; and who can forget Apollonia’s dip into the freezing waters of one of Minnesota’s many lakes (that wasn’t Lake Minnetonka) in Purple Rain.

While those films make use of the frigid Minnesota climate to great effect, the Minnesota Film and TV Board knows the state is more than just freezing temperatures. The state has a lot to offer any moviemaker, says production services manager Christopher Grap. “You can be shooting an industrial site or urban setting in the morning and isolated farm country or river banks in the afternoon,” Grap says. “Something producers have commented on is the close proximity of diverse locations. You don’t have to travel far in Minnesota to get a great range of backdrops.”

Through the board’s new website, www.mnfilmtv.org, and the Minnesota state production incentive, Snowbate, which returns up to 15 percent of production costs to producers on eligible projects, Minnesota certainly has more to offer than snow angels.

Other notable productions from the Land of 1,000 Lakes:
Graffiti Bridge
Beautiful Girls
The Mighty Ducks trilogy
Grumpier Old Men
Pushing Tin
A Prairie Home Companion
North Country
Airport

Sound Off: Like many other states, Minnesota offers a tax incentive program to entice productions into the state. Besides tax breaks, what are some other important economic sweeteners that would entice you, the moviemaker, to a specific location?

â€”Dante A. Ciampaglia

May 6th, 2007 | Category: Location of the Week, Locations | By MovieMaker Staff

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Film School of the Week: The Secrets to Distribution

”Many moviemakers won’t share the information that took them years to learn, for fear of diminishing the value of it and their strategies,” claims writer-producer Jerome Courshon. Luckily for up-and-coming moviemakers, Courshon has not been so stingy with his own knowledge of the Hollywood machine. Using the experience he gained from getting his first feature, God, Sex & Apple Pie, picked up by a major distributor, Courshon is now imparting his hard-earned and practical wisdom through a traveling seminar entitled “The Secrets to Distribution: Get Your Movie Distributed Now!”

Over the course of one day, Courshon provides seminar attendees with the essential tips needed to get on the path to U.S. distribution, from advice on how to best utilize the festival circuit to the names and contact information of the 80-plus U.S. home video distributors. “I came to my experience and knowledge from my own trials and tribulations of getting distribution for the independent movie I produced,” explains Courshon. “So this isn’t coming from someone who hasn’t done it themselves or what I call a ‘theorist’â€”which makes a big difference.”

Over the next several months, Courshon and his seminar will make their way across the country, starting in New York on May 12, and ending in Los Angeles in August. For more information on upcoming seminars, visit www.distribution.la.

Sound Off: How much do you depend on the advice and insight of other moviemakers to help you find your way in making and distributing your own work? Do you have, or would you like to have, an “industry pro” give you advice and support? Talk back in the comments section!

--Jennifer Straus

May 6th, 2007 | Category: Film School of the Week, Education | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Whale Rider

Niki Caroâ€™s Whale Rider made its New York debut this day in 2003, when it screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. Previously the movie had been the Peopleâ€™s Choice in Canada, where it made its world premiere at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival and won the Audience World Cinema Award earlier this same year at Sundance. After hitting three of the biggest international film festivals, the New Zealand movie opened to U.S. audiences in limited release on June 6 but continue to be showcased at film festivals around the world until October 2005. Based on the novel by Witi Tame Ihimaera, Whale Rider is an inspiring tale about a pre-teen female, played by the precocious Keisha Castle Hughes, the only living descendent of a legendary tribal chief who traveled to the village on the back of a whale. Tradition dictates a male heir reign over the tribe, which leaves an elderly downtrodden chief and a granddaughter (Hughes) eager to prove she is a worthy descendent.

Factoid: New Zealand native Keisha Castle Hughes made her acting debut in Whale Rider and soon became the talk of the industry. The following year, at the age of 13, the actress became the youngest woman to receive a Best Actress Academy Award nomination.

May 6th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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Festival of the Week: Action/Cut Short Film Competition

YouTube is currently the world’s hottest technological phenomâ€”allowing any one who wants it the ability to make his/her own short movie and stream it online to a worldwide audience. That’s sort of the same concept Guy Magar had in mind when he began the Action/Cut Short Film Competition four years ago. But instead of YouTube’s superficial and fleeting recognition, passionate moviemakers who submit their movies to Action/Cut’s online competition can earn valuable prizes to help them further their careers.
Over 1000 films are submitted to the online festival each year and all are put into the competitionâ€”no schmoozing needed. This pretty much means that by submitting a short film, it’s pretty much guaranteed that it will be seen by any number of the top industry professionals who make up the jury. “Also, as part of the 125 prizes we award, about 30 of those are actual meetings with top industry players, which is very unique and intended to open industry doors,” adds Magar. In all, there are five categories from which major winners are declared. The winners then have their films streamed onlineâ€”accessible worldwide for a six month period.
So instead of posting your undiscovered short on a popular video broadcasting websiteâ€”hoping that it just might stand out among the millions of vacuous and frivolous home moviesâ€”check out Action/Cut for guaranteed exposure and feedback. The deadline for the 2007 Competition is May 15, 2007.

To find out more about upcoming and past Action/Cut programs, visit http://www.actioncut.com/sfc/competition.htm.

Sound Off: Action/Cut bases its philosophy (and prize packaging) on the idea that moviemakersâ€”both homegrown and schooledâ€”need that foot in the door to make it in the industry. What do you think is key to an independent moviemaker’s success? Sound off in our comments section!

â€”Mallory Potosky

May 6th, 2007 | Category: Festival of the Week, Festivals | By MovieMaker Staff

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Exhibitor of the Week: IndieOrbit.com

A new kid moved onto the block when IndieOrbit.com launched in early April 2007. Be wise and prepare for the revolution. Founded by William Cicchino and Los Angeles moviemaker Javier Ruisanchez, the young site offers its Web space and services to any artist looking for the next step in independent distribution. “Finding a distributor is the last link in the Hollywood chain holding back the indie filmmaker from reaping the profits,” says Cicchino. “I created IndieOrbit.com as an alternative.”

The site’s concept is “true Web distribution,” which means that for less than $200 your movie can be made available online to paying customers for a six-month period. That’s rightâ€”paying customers, plus space enough to sell advertising on your designated page. Which means you can make that money back and conceivably distribute your film for less than what you spent on crew meals for one week! You set the price and keep the rights with IndieOrbit.com.

“I see putting films on IndieOrbit.com as one of the standard steps in the process of distributing films, just as entering festivals is a standard now,” offers Cicchino of his hope for his online venture. “Whether as a sole form of distribution, a means to attract theatrical distribution or just a means to recoup some of your production costs, IndieOrbit.com will be a mainstream tool for independent filmmakers.”

Find out about IndieOrbit’s piracy protection enforcement (customers pay for a copy-proof, 48-hour rental) and other special features atâ€"that’s right, you guessed itâ€”IndieOrbit.com.

Sound Off: For worldwide distribution, which would you prefer: Getting into a few festival screenings or posting your film online on a site like IndieOrbit.com? Sound off in our comments section!

â€"Mallory Potosky

May 6th, 2007 | Category: Exhibitor of the Week, Exhibition | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Audrey Hepburn

Brussels, Belgium welcomed beloved actress Audrey Hepburn as a newborn citizen this day in 1929. The would-be style icon made her first mark on the world in 1951, when she began a Broadway run in Gigi; by 1953 she had a leading role opposite Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday. Classic characters and charismatic leading men quickly followed with 1954’s Sabrina, opposite Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. In 1955 came War and Peace, followed by 1957’s Funny Face. By 1961 Hepburn had created some of Hollywood’s timeless individualsâ€”real and fictionalâ€”including Holly Golightly in the movie version of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Eliza Dolittle in George Cukor’s My Fair Lady. Her later years saw little in the way of screen roles, but as a UNICEF ambassador she received the President’s Medal of Freedom in 1992â€”just one year before she passed away from colon cancer.

Quotable: “I don’t want to own anything until I find a place where me and my things go together. I’m not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It’s like Tiffany’s.” â€”Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

May 4th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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In Theaters Now: May 4, 2007

Away from Her
directed by Sarah Polley
When Grant (Gordon Pinsent) finally admits to himself that his wife, Fiona (Julie Christie), has Alzheimer’s, he commits her to a nursing home. But as he struggles with being physically and (increasingly) emotionally apart from his wife, she begins a new relationship with another resident in the home (Michael Murphy). Sarah Polley mines some familiar territory in this, her directorial debut, but from the looks of things she does so with honesty, heart and panache. Like Adrienne Shellyâ€™s Waitress (see below), Away from Her might prove to be excellent alternative programming in this kick-off weekend of the summer movie season. Also starring Olympia Dukakis, Kristen Thomson, Wendy Crewson and Alberta Watson.

The Flying Scotsman
directed by Douglas Mackinnon
Lance Armstrong may have made America safe for cycling, but it’s a sport with a significant international following. Case in point, The Flying Scotsman. The film is the true story of Graeme Obree (Jonny Lee Miller) and his quest to revolutionize the sport by developing a new bike despite the protestations of the sport’s old-fogey authority. While the film should appeal to cycling enthusiasts, it’s hard to imagine The Flying Scotsman catching the imagination of the masses a la Lance Armstrongâ€”no matter how hard it’s peddled. Also starring Billy Boyd and Brian Cox.

Lucky You
directed by Curtis Hanson
Even though Lucky You isn’t the first film to deal with the world of high-stakes poker (there’s always Rounders), this is one of the biggest to come along since the explosion in poker’s popularity. But since this is a Curtis Hanson movie, it’s not really about poker; it’s just a metaphor for how the main characters, Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) and Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore), are playing the odds in life. Hanson is an excellent director, but this might be a little too overwroughtâ€”even for him. Also starring Robert Duvall and Debra Messing.

Spider-Man 3
directed by Sam Raimi
In a summer of franchise pictures, Spider-Man 3 might be the biggest release. (Of course, the third Pirates of the Caribbean film might have something to say about that.) And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that this third installment of the popular series finds Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) locked in a battle with his dark side, thanks to an evil black suit, a new villain (Thomas Hayden Church), his friend Harry Osbourne (James Franco), who’s bent on avenging his father’s death, and Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), a rival photographer. Add to the mix Peter’s desire to marry Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), and what you have is a very full film that might be stuffed a little too full for its own good.

Waitress
directed by Adrienne Shelly
Keri Russell kind of dropped out of the limelight after “Felicity,” but her turn in Adrienne Shelly’s final film, Waitress, as a lovelorn food-slinger with a penchant for concocting excellent pies, has already garnered many positive notices. If you find this film playing near you this weekend, it might be excellent indie counter-programming to the explosive kick-off to the summer movie season happening this weekend. Also starring Cheryl Hines, Nathan Fillion, Jeremy Sisto, Adrienne Shelly and Andy Griffith.

May 3rd, 2007 | Category: In Theaters Now | By MovieMaker Staff

Comments: 1

This Day in Indie History: Bobby Cannavale

It was on this day in 1971 that Bobby Cannavale was born in Union City, NJ. After high school, the Cuban-Italian joined the Circle Repertory Theatre in New York City and used the experiences as his acting school. His time was spent performing many duties, including janitorial work, just for the opportunity to one day earn his way to the stage. He finally got the chance in Paul Rudd’s Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. Cannavale’s early career involved many television shows, including “Third Watch” and “Ally McBeal.” In 1996 the actor made his screen debut as walk-on in I’m Not Rappaport. Since then, Cannavale’s resume has expanded to include Washington Heights, Fast Food Nation, 10 Items or Less, opposite Robin Williams in The Night Listener and most notably in the 2003 Sundance Audience Award-winner, The Station Agent, with co-stars Peter Dinklage and Patricia Clarkson. In 2005 the actor won an Emmy award for his guest stint as Will Truman’s boyfriend on “Will & Grace.”

Factoid: Bobby Cannavale has made a career out of niche independent films and New York-centered television shows (typically as gay men). Look for him next in Spike Lee’s 2007 television pilot, “M.O.N.Y.”