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Focusing the Eye Through Composition
An Interview with DP Neal Fredericks
In 1999, Blair Witch mania hit and made instant superstars
out of all those involved. For cinematographer Neal Fredericks,
it was the opportunity of a lifetime. With 10 years of experience
in film, television, commercial and music video experience
behind him, the success of that film was all he needed to
become one of independent film's most in-demand DPs. Here,
Fredericks talks about his preferred filming format, his new
projects, and how his globetrotting childhood helped to hone
a cinematic sensibility.
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Things We’ve Learned As Moviemakers
Don't ask people to do something they can't do. Casting is crucial. Don't give a very physical actor a lot of intellectual reasons to do something; learn to know your actors and direct each differently according to who they are as individuals
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Of Cinema and Cargo Pants
Palm Beach Film School's Jim York provides words of wisdom for the moviemaker of tomorrow
Palm Beach, Florida may first bring to mind images of sandy beaches, palm trees, alligators and the Everglades, but more and more novice moviemakers are finding it is the perfect city to start learning their craft. The Palm Beach Film School (PBFS) has been largely responsible for this indie boom, bringing together the various members of Palm Beach's moviemaking community to provide its students with a top-notch education in the cinema arts.
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What I’ve Learned As A Moviemaker
I think a major sin in screenwriting is not listening to your critics. However dumb they may seem to you, however brutal their criticism, remember that you are in a room with five people, and if you don't get it right there, you're going to end up out in the world with thousands of people and it doesn't get any better. So listen because they are trying to make it better, however wrong-headed their decisions may be. I think that young writers find criticism is hard because it's very personal, but it's crucial. It's called collaboration; it comes in the form of notes and sometime they're hard. Experience teaches you to take it less personally.
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From Mrs. Brown to Charlotte Gray
The Working World of British Screenwriter Jeremy Brock
English screenwriter Jeremy Brock had it coming. After cutting his teeth as a writer in British television for over a dozen years, he vaulted into feature writing when Miramax saw gold in his original script, Mrs. Brown. With Charlotte Gray -- his second feature -- in release, Jeremy Brock has returned to the big screen with another complex and fiery heroine. In an interview with MM, Brock discusses his beginnings in the industry, his ways of working and what it takes to create the kinds of characters that stay in your memory long after a movie's over.
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Henry Jaglom’s Moment of Truth
Film's freest director dissects the Hollywood machine in Hollywood Dreams
When it comes to the film world's original independent voices, names like Orson Welles and John Cassavetes are the first to be bandied about. But for more than 35 years, Henry Jaglom has been making movies the only way he knows how-his way! Beginning with A Safe Place in 1971 and leading up to the recent Hollywood Dreams, the former actor has managed to complete 15 feature films throughout his career-not just a writer and director, but as an actor, editor and distributor, too.
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Apocalypse Now and Then
A Conversation With Editor/Sound Designer Walter Murch
Editor/Sound Designer Walter Murch has worked with some of the film industry's most talented directors and stood alongside each one as an equal collaborator. With eight Oscar nominations to his credit and three wins, he has proven himself a true master of his craft. Here, he talks with MM about about the digital revolution, the challenges of a dual career and how his Apocalypse experience defined his life as an editor.
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Ice in Her Stomach
A Conversation with Dogme 95 Director Lone Scherfig about "breaking the rules of film language" on Italian for Beginners
In 1995 Danish moviemakers Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von
Trier took a break from the technical conventions of modern
cinema and created the now famous Dogme 95 manifesto. This
month, Italian For Beginners, the fourth Danish Dogme
film, will be released with director Lone Scherfig at the
helm. In a conversation with MM, Scherfig talks about making
a Dogme comedy, Danish insecurities and staying true to that
prickly "Vow of Chastity."
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Training the Next Generation
Exploring the "professional difference" at San Francisco's Academy of Art College
With hundreds of schools now competing for enrollment, choosing the right film education program can be an exhausting process. Students looking for a professional approach to moviemaking-and the chance to network with seasoned professionals-might want to add San Francisco's Academy of Art College to their short list.
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Kevin Costner Goes Psycho
Hollywood's golden boy gets dark in Mr. Brooks
Earl Brooks is a fabulously successful businessman, a devoted father and husband, a much-respected pillar of his community and, on those occasions when he simply cannot suppress his baser instincts, a coolly meticulous serial killer. Kevin Costner is an Oscar-winning director and a chronically underrated actor who delights in exploiting his own star power to illuminate every facet of his starring role in Mr. Brooks, a movie that is equal parts ice-cold thriller and pitch-black comedy.
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Slamdunk Conquers the World
John Peterson discusses his organization's winning formula for running a film festival-and empire
The founders of Slamdunk are on the cutting edge of a trend that has seen an increasing number of festivals take their shows on the road, with very successful results.
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What I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
When you get a brilliant idea that sounds familiar, think of a new idea.
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Comic Relief
Mike Binder and Adam Sandler team up for a unique take on the events of 9/11 with Reign Over Me
Six months after the five-year anniversary of the events of September 11th-and months after United 93 and World Trade Center-comedian-turned-auteur Mike Binder is releasing his own take on the events of that fateful day-or, more appropriately, the after effects-with Reign Over Me, starring Adam Sandler.
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Innovation and Creative Intuition on the Set
An Interview With Legendary Cinematographer John Toll
Though he has been a frequent collaborator with several of
the world's most celebrated directors, John Toll, DP of such
disparate work as Legends of the Fall, Braveheart
and The Thin Red Line has always succeeded in bringing
his own vision to the forefront.
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Truly Moving Images
The Center for International Disaster Information announces a call to arms for film students looking to make a difference
Socially-conscious moviemaking is on the rise-from thought-provoking documentaries like Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts to dramatic adaptations of real-world atrocities such as those seen in Hotel Rwanda and The Last King of Scotland. But how does a film student break into this arena? The Center for International Disaster Information's PSAid Film Contest may be the answer.
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What I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
When you're the editor, you're not the director. You didn't conceive or shoot the film. When the footage for a scene arrives, try to forget every notion you had about what the scene was supposed to be like and take all your cues from the film that was actually shot. There will be time later to try to push the scene in some other direction, but it's important for me to not have a plan, and to simply find the scene in the footage.
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Breaking Away
Editor Tim Squyres on his longtime collaboration with Ang Lee and his latest work on Robert Altman's Gosford Park
If Tim Squyres' name is not immediately recognizable, most of the features he's edited in the past decade are: Eat Drink Man Woman, The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are four of Squyres' collaborations with director Ang Lee.
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Tough Love
Sam Jackson tames Christina Ricci-and Amy Vincent catches it all on film-in Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan
After riding an unexpected wave of success with their debut collaboration, Hustle & Flow, writer-director Craig Brewer and cinematographer Amy Vincent are partnering up again, this time on Black Snake Moan, an unconventional "coming of age" story in which an aging blues musician helps to cure a young nymphomaniac of her sexual addiction.
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Things We’ve Learned as Moviemakers
Writing with a sibling is a unique collaboration. Because we share similar backgrounds and experiences, there is a kind of unspoken communication between us that can save time.
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13 Conversations About Writing
The Multiple Storyline, Sisterhood and Aristotle, for Starters: An Interview with Jill and Karen Sprecher
Five years after their triumph at Sundance with Clockwatchers, sisters Jill and Karen Sprecher have re-emerged with 13 Conversations About One Thing, an extraordinary film that explores the dramatic impact strangers can have on one another.
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What I’ve Learned as a MovieMaker
Don't stop working. For me, moviemaking is practice that makes you better but never perfect.
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The New School’s Truth, Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth
The New School is about to graduate its first Documentary Studies class-and is gearing up for year two
Box office receipts confirm what The New School's assistant chair for documentary studies Annie Howell already knows: "Documentaries are hot!" This current trend toward truth in moviemaking has prompted the New York City-based university to create an all-new Certificate in Documentary Media Studies, a one-year, full-time, graduate-level program.
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A Few Minutes with William (Bill) Lustig
Lustig speaks with MM about his career and what it takes to stay at the top of the moviemaking game over the long term.
Bill Lustig has been appreciated by the French as a director with a unique, unflinching cinematic eye for years. At home in L.A., he?s best known as a cult midnight moviemaker who has crafted some of the most fun, frightening, gory films of the ?80s, including Maniac, Vigilante, and Relentless. Intelligent, articulate and intimidatingly well-steeped in film lore, the hardworking Lustig recently began a new career as a film restorer and DVD producer with Anchor Bay Entertainment.
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Indie Movie Guide
Reviews of some of the independent film world's newest independent films
Reviews of The Adventures of Prince Achmed,
Surfing for Life and Cipher in the Snow.
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World [Record] Cinema
A Conversation with Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival President Gregory von Hausch
Founded in 1986, the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
now holds the title for the world's longest film festival
clocking in last October at 28 days. Festival President and
CEO, Gregory von Hausch, came aboard as FLIFF's Executive
Director in 1989, and has been helping to build its reputation
as one of the country's preeminent regional festivals ever
since.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
I think I've learned to be a bit more diplomatic, although I'm not sure if that's true (laughs). Maybe I've learned not to care so much about what people think. What you really need to learn is that the film is not made on the first day of shooting. It's a long haul. You need to pace yourself over the course of a film.
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Shooting Life
DP Roger Deakins talks about what's important and his collaboration with the Coen Brothers
The sheer number of excellent films Roger Deakins has shot
since his career began in the late 1970s is impressive by
any standard. He is one of the most celebrated cameramen in
Hollywood, and a regular collaborator with Joel and Ethan
Coen. Deakins has worked with some of the most interesting
directors in the business, including David Mamet, Mike Figgis,
Frank Darabont, John Sayles and Martin Scorsese. His most
recent work can be seen in the Oscar-winning film, A Beautiful
Mind, as well as the Coens' The Man Who Wasn't There.
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Things We’ve Learned as Moviemakers
Decisiveness. Confidence. Being able to set your ego aside, because an editor doesn't always get stroked a lot. Most things you hear are criticisms. So you need to have a thick skin and not take things personally. That's a crucial thing for an editor to learn.
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Hill and Hanley: Twenty Years of Continuity
Ron Howard's editors discuss their longstanding collaboration
Film editors Mike Hill and Dan Hanley have a lot to celebrate
these days, including the fact that their baby, A Beautiful
Mind, just won the Best Picture Oscar. This prolific duo
of veteran cutters just marked their 20-year anniversary as
partners in the cutting room, almost exclusively for director
Ron Howard.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
I didn't realize until years later that my college experience was not like others. SUNY Purchase at least in the era that I attended was a haven for weirdo artists and misfits. It was originally conceived as a state university for the arts, so freaks were the normal people, no frat boys or rich brats. It was a very healthy place to be in that regard. And there's a pretty vast network of Purchase mafia that continue to work together, live together, drink together...
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Tales From Margaritaville
An Interview With Margarita Happy Hour Director Ilya Chaiken
Writer-Director Ilya Chaiken plunged into her first independent
feature, Margarita Happy Hour, even before she found
financing. Set within the community of downtown artists now
relocated to Brooklyn, Margarita Happy Hour is a richly
detailed, funny and unsparing glimpse at motherhood on the
fringe. Chaiken, a single mom herself, first received attention
for her acclaimed short film, The Actress, a festival
favorite later broadcast on PBS.
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Things I’ve Learned as a MovieMaker
The process of each actor is different. Some are intuitive, some love to rehearse, some hate to rehearse. In some instances, you may want to rehearse even when they don't want to; it's just a matter of them understanding the process. Actors are so exposed. Directors are behind the camera crafting our world while the actors are exposed in front of the camera, exposed with their emotions. It's a matter of finding the best atmosphere for them to work.
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From Mexico to Hollywood and Back
Writer-Director Alfonso Cuarón discusses Y Tu Mama Tambien
Alfonso Cuarón's Y Tu Mama Tambien is a film
set in Mexico about two young men on the cusp of manhood who
take up one summer with a beautiful young woman several years
their senior. A sexy road movie with a dispassionate, often
blunt take on modern day Mexican social and political realities,
Cuarón's latest work showcases his off-the-cuff visual
and narrative style that nearly got him banned by Mexican
censors.
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Indie Movie Guide
Reviews of some of the independent film world's newest independent films
Reviews of Emily Hubley's Pigeon (and more) From Within, Frederick Wiseman's High School II, Beret E. Strong and John Tweedy's Iwo Jima: Memories in the Sand; and Carl-Gustaf Nykvist's Light Keeps Me Company.
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Now, More Than Ever-The Power of Film
A Conversation with Avignon Festival Director Jerome Rudes
Though born and educated in Texas, Jerome Rudes' entrepreneurial
spirit first took hold when he created the French-American
Film Workshop in Avignon, France 19 years ago. Today, that
event continues to prosper—though it's now known as the
Avignon Film Festival—and its American sister fest, The
New York Avignon Film Festival, continues to stand as one
of New York City's film festival highlights.
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