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Notes From Movieland
Notes from Movieland: Okay, So I Made a Mistake...
Assorted moviemakers share their stories—Part 1
I’ve collected some kooky stories I hope you’ll enjoy. A number of independent moviemakers—some friends, others complete strangers—shared some of their most painful or amusing (or both) moviemaking experiences with me. I was so stoked (does anybody use that word anymore or am I lagging a decade or two?) by the response that I got that I’ve decided to turn this into an ongoing series over the next month!
April 7th, 2009 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Notes from Movieland: How Not To Make a Movie in 17 Steps
Or… make every mistake in the book and still get distribution!
1. Don’t start shooting until you have SOME money in the bank. But if you do, make sure nobody in your cast or crew seriously expects to be paid. And beg your mom to cater for free.
2. Don’t believe the first investor who swoons over your script and says he wants to fund it. Don’t believe the second investor who swoons over your script…. or the third one who swoons… or the fourth…. or the fifth… But if you do get to the point where you’ve drawn up an actual bona fide contract, don’t spend the money until the said investor has signed the said contract and the said money is in the said bank. And even then, wait 10 days in case the check bounces.
March 2nd, 2009 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
Notes from Movieland: From Heaven to Hell in Santa Barbara
Rodrigo Santoro, James Cromwell and a Primer on Eugenics
My trip to the Santa Barbara Film Festival a few weeks ago wasn’t the nirvana I’d expected. Interviewing two enlightened, preternaturally talented, hotter than habaneros actors is hard work! But due to my selfless commitment to serve the interests of you, our MovieMaker readership, I sacrificed two days of my life and cruised up the Pacific Coast Highway to one of the most hospitable cities in California.
February 16th, 2009 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
Notes from Movieland: Steal This
Last week I attended a party at my friend Nim’s post-production facility. I found myself in the kitchen, chatting with a handful of independent moviemakers (as if I know any other kind…). They were sharing war stories of pitches gone awry. And of theft—Hollywood-style. One producer detailed a pitch meeting he’d had with an actor’s manager. The actor passed on the high concept project, and lo and behold, one year later, he was staring at an almost exact replica of the script. Needless to say the producer’s name was nowhere in sight and nary a credit or percentage was on the horizon.
January 29th, 2009 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Notes from Movieland: Avoiding the Inevitable-In Memory of Edwin
Seven minutes. That’s the length of time I was able to focus on my script before boomeranging once again into my Yahoo! account. What if some unexpected job offer or a missive from someone I love, like or have passed a biz card to recently has sent me a message?
January 21st, 2009 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
Notes from Movieland: Do-It-Yourself Distribution—Part III
NewFilmmakers Online
I’m going to end this short series on self-distribution with some info on yet another outlet for distribution. Many others exist or are about to be birthed—with a little research, I trust you’ll stumble on at least a dozen. For now, I humbly present NewFilmmakers Online.
I met Barney Oldfield, the brains behind the service, when his NewFilmmakers screening series featured my film, Red is the Color of, at the Anthology Film Archives in New York. Barney’s been faithfully screening and promoting independent films, short and feature length, for over a decade. He’s relentless in his support of the indies and with his new company, VLADIcast, Inc., he's offering another distribution option for independents—one that puts the profit right back in the moviemaker's pocket.
November 28th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
Notes from Movieland: Do It Yourself Distribution - Part II
The Room: Cult phenom
Greg Laemmle—relentless supporter of indie moviemakers—suggested I include moviemaker Tommy Wiseau in my self-distribution series. Turns out Wiseau's movie, The Room, made 10 years ago, has not only become a “cult” phenomenon, but a veritable lesson in paint-by-numbers, cult-by-design moviemaking. Wiseau was very entertaining and still, after all these years, passionate to tell the story of his movie and its conception.
November 20th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Notes From Movieland: Do It Yourself Distribution - Part I
From Boogie Man to Everyman
When Gregory Laemmle of the priceless L.A. independent Laemmle theatre chain suggested I speak to Stefan Forbes about his experiences with self-distribution, I had not yet been exposed to the rapidly growing cinematic phenomenon: Boogie Man. As I spoke with Stefan over an extremely choppy cell phone connection, I mistakenly heard him say the subject of his documentary was “Leon Waters” who I assumed had been some obscure blues musician resurrected by this well-meaning moviemaker. When Stefan mentioned that this Leon dude had mentored George Bush Sr., Ronald Reagan and Karl Rove, I realized we were discussing different men. My Leon wasn’t interested in politics. Lee Atwater, on the other hand, had been knee deep in it. He’s often referred to as the godfather of modern negative campaigning. Oy, was I embarrassed.
November 6th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
Notes from Movieland: 14: Sundance, 28: Hollywood High
I promised to write about Antonio (Tony) Manriquez a few blogs ago. He’s one of the cinematic child wonders currently coming up through the ranks. Though still pursuing his own moviemaking expression on some level, Tony, 28, now teaches other youngsters the magic of moviemaking. One of the reasons I wanted to write about Tony was his incredible passion for and knowledge of not only the craft of moviemaking, but the world of film.
October 12th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
Notes from Movieland: Do the Distribution Dance
After a veritable maze of introductions, letters, meetings, “possibly"s and even a "yes" or two that transformed into "no" with the grinding of time, my little indie movie finally met her distribution match: The prince to my Red princess, the Bogart to my Bacall, the Captain to my Maria. When I was still a starry-eyed novice, I truly believed in the conventional distribution route. So did most of my fellow moviemakers. We were all after that golden carrot, which, it seems, isn’t as edible as I was led to believe.
September 30th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Notes from Movieland: Vampire/Zombie Funnels Art
I met with Antonio (Tony) Manriquez at the Borders cafe in Sherman Oaks last week. Tony directed his first feature film at the ripe age of 14 and landed in Sundance with his fellow student moviemakers. I like him a ton. At the age of 28, he wears a cloak of worldliness that continually surprises me. In contrast to his jaded edginess, he possesses a passion for everything and anything to do with moviemaking that is truly scrumptious. I love his unabashed nerdiness when discussing the history and theory of film. Tony teaches moviemaking to Los Angeles high school kids and Final Cut Pro to adults. That’s how I met him. I was taking a Photoshop course at the North Hollywood Adult Learning Center and he was teaching the editing course right afterwards.
September 8th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
Notes From Movieland: The Green Goddess
A psychedelic journey to the mystical heart of cannabis
My dear friend, Craig Nisker, thinks he can save the world one crop at a time. The crop being cannabis (marijuana to the uninformed). And that’s only one of the reasons Craig found himself knee-deep in a seven acre field of cannabis, in the foothills of the Alps, just outside Lucerne, directing a rag-tag group of neophytes in a feature film that’s soon to become a cult-classic (how many years does it take to be a “classic”?) Their bizarre journey is rife with bungles, serendipity and magic. Once again, fact proves itself stranger than fiction.
August 26th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
Notes from the Underground: Tarkovsky, Alli, Maddin and Me
Andrei Tarkovsky re-wrote my life. I was merrily moving along on my little path, happily completing my B.F.A. in photography at Parsons, when a friend suggested I check out the Tarkovsky film festival at the Film Forum. The imagery reminded him of my artwork (www.annenorda.com). I signed up for a double feature—Mirror and Nostalgia—the perfect blend of Russian surrealism and melancholia. Although the realm of sadness Tarkovsky dredged up felt more visceral, something like heartbreak or deep regret.
July 28th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>Chaos c/o Dr. Mickhead
My friend, Frank Cameron, is not a tattoo kind of guy. So when he revealed his spanking new shoulder tattoo to me, I almost swooned. 'What? Why? When?' was all I could muster. Not that Frank is conservative; he’s just not the type to advertise his beliefs to the world in any print form other than a screenplay.
July 7th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
Baseball Cap, Emblazoned With The Foot Fist Way
Okay, let’s address the female elephant in the room. Her name is Hillary and in her brave, relentless, determined, stubborn, selfish, irresponsible, ridiculous, cunning, dangerous mission to, once again, sleep in the hallowed bed of the White House, she stirred up the question, “Can a woman really lead?” How dare she have tried to usurp that title from the more capable, rational, cold-hearted, assertive, likeable, powerful, alpha-male (insert ANY of the other candidates) who not only has been born to lead (by virtue of being a man), but has been trained to tell folks what the hell to do from the time he was captain of the football team (metaphorically speaking.)
June 17th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
Time to Sacrifice My 28mm
What do I do when I'm not being a director?
All right, I have a confession. I have done NOTHING even tangentially related to the film business this month. Well... in a very, very tangential way, I did something… I wrote a poem! The New Yorker just rejected it. Okay, so my mom liked it. And my friend, Vivian, in Arkansas.
Let's see, what else did I do in the cinematic realm? I… participated in the theater of life! Yeah, participated, reveled in and rejoiced in life. I spent quality time worrying about making a living. These intoxicating thought forms take a ramble through my grey matter way too often since I have become a filmmaker… I'm broke, oh dear, I'm broke, oh dear, what will I do? What will I do? I will NOT waitress… not yet… I'm broke… maybe law school… etc… etc…
June 3rd, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
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' . $phpAds_raw['html'] . ''; } ?>These Are Free, Right?
I'm a relentless truth teller (by "truth" I do not mean the eternal truths of the universe, I mean my personal and completely self-righteous opinion). I will blurt out my truth at the drop of a hat with complete disregard for the impact it has on others. I try not to upset people, but the sad truth is… I kind of enjoy irking those who dare to disagree with me. Knowing my nasty rebellious tendencies, Tim Rhys, publisher of MM, asked me to write a bi-weekly blog. He'd read a cheeky article I wrote for a friend's blog, www.hotinhollywood.tv, and found it somewhat amusing. My initial answer was a gracious "not in a million years." I was terrified that I'd write something incriminating or embarrassing. I think that's what he was counting on. Finally, I relented.
May 20th, 2008 | Category: Notes From Movieland | By Anne Norda
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