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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
You have to learn to listen and understand to the needs of the director. You will learn to see things from new perspectives that will make your work richer and better.
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Hidden Agenda
For DP Rodrigo Prieto, it's better that you don't notice his work
In the two years since Amores Perros, nearly
everyone involved in the film has been catapulted onto Hollywood's
A-List, including cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto.
He has gone on to work with some of America's most celebrated
auteurs, including Spike Lee and Oliver Stone. Currently,
his work can be seen in Curtis Hanson's gritty urban drama
8 Mile and JulieTaymor's Frida. Right
now he's with the Perros team again on 21 Grams,
starring Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Naomi Watts.
The ultra-hot Prieto took time from his hectic schedule to
talk about his quick rise to the top, how being a DP is like
being a psychologist and how a children's haunted house started
it all.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Know your arse from your elbow. And keep your pecker up.
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Greetings from the Scottish New Wave
Lynne Ramsay brings a European sensibility to a recent American classic
There's no denying the passion that fast-talking, chainsmoking
writer director Lynne Ramsay has for her
work. Ramsay made her auspicious film debut with the critically
praised Ratcatcher. Now tackling the script for The
Lovely Bones, based on Alice Sebold's best-selling novel,
Ramsay will also direct the film. It's a coup for the moviemaker,
and the pressure will definitely be on, but from the looks
of her new film, Morvern Callar, starring Samantha
Morton, the unconventional and confident Ramsay is up to the
task.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
From the microskill to the macroskill, I feel with the level of DV that InDigEnt uses, the hardest job on making a DV movie is really the cinematographer's job. It is really a wonderful medium for the performers and the directors, and then you get to the cinematographer. They really need to be incredibly up for the task because of the nature of what those cameras inherently want to do, which is be on automatic the whole time.
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Crazy Like a Fox
InDigEnt's Gary Winick carries a torch for digital moviemakers
Moviemakers of all stripes and budgets have been touting the
benefits of shooting DV for several years now. But few have
staked their careers on the digital revolution as Gary
Winick has. In 1999, writer-director-producer Winick
became a pioneer of the digital medium when he co-founded
InDigEnt (Independent Digital Network), a digital film "collective."
The idea was to create ten $100,000 features with successful
and experienced moviemakers, each of whom would share in the
films' profits. Has the experiment worked? From his base in
New York City, Winick spoke with MM about
theInDigEnt philosophy and track record, and the myths of
DV.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
I learned very, very early-I spotted it at the age of twenty-two-that writing and directing could become inextricably one creative process.
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Balls in Blizzards
The Magic and Mystery of Mike Leigh
The characters in Mike Leigh's new picture,
All Or Nothing, are so fully realized, so three dimensional,
that at times you'll want to question whether you're watching
fiction film or documentary drama. For all its blunt realism,
All Or Nothing is ultimately a film about love, hope
and redemption. Starring Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville,
the picture features the sort of rich, honest performances
that fans have come to expect from a Mike Leigh project. On
a recent visit to LA, Mike Leigh told MM
about his unique approach to moviemaking and how it all came
together on All Or Nothing.
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Movies the Way They Should Be
MovieFlix.com's Robert Moskovits talks about the future of Internet
With a base of 800,000 customers and growing, MovieFlix.com co-founder Robert Moskovits just may hold the key to the future of the Internet.
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Film Education in the Emerald City
Seattle Film Institute Founder David Shulman believes in a hands-on approach
With the largest independent film program in the Northwest, the Seattle Film Institute is satiating the Emerald City's interest in moviemaking.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
I'm always so impressed when I'm working with him in looping sessions with actors. Even if he can't get a certain reading, he'll never go up and tell the actor how to do it. He'll just move on rather than tell the actor how to do it, because he feels that that's a real violation.
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Making Movies with Marty
Gangs of New York marks Thelma Schoonmaker's 16th collaboration with Martin Scorsese
The three-time Oscar
nominee (and winner for Raging Bull) Thelma
Schoonmaker gives us the lowdown on life in the trenches
with America's reigning master and their latest collaboration,
Gangs of New York.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Show respect to every person on the set, whether the biggest of stars or a PA on her first film. Good karma with be rewarded in kind.
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Cinematography Serves the Story
DP Wally Pfister's Laurel Canyon inspired by great films of early '70s
After toiling away for more
than a decade and under the tutelage of Roger Corman, Wally
Pfister is now the one calling the shots-first with
Memento, and now on Lisa Cholodenko's Laurel Canyon.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Stay true to the spirit of a film.
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Taking a Chance Takes Scribe “Beyond the Realm…”
Catch Me if You Can writer Jeff Nathanson is at the top of his game
What Jeff Nathanson thought would turn out to be just a great writing sample has quickly turned into a Steven Spielberg-Leonardo Di Caprio-Tom Hanks vehicle-and a box office hit.
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Things We’ve Learned as Moviemakers
Not only do you have to eat, but you need to spend time with your subjects as fellow human beings and not just as filmmakers. There's no better time to do this than over a meal. Put your camera down occasionally and experience life with your subjects. How can you hope to understand your subject's life if you don't experience it a bit for yourself?
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The Curse of Quixote
Documentarians Louis Pepe & Keith Fulton get Lost in La Mancha with Terry Gilliam
The Terry Gilliam School of Film may not be an education in conventional moviemaking, but it's certainly provided Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton with a world of experience.
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One-Stop Movie Shopping
An interview with MovieClubOnline's Roger Brooks
Turning casual American moviegoers into frequent ones may seem like a lofty goal for one man, but over the past three years MovieClubOnline founder Roger Brooks has made great strides toward reaching that goal.
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Film School 101: The Principals’ Office
A round-table discussion with school administrators on the value of a film school education
We know you have questions about whether or not film school is the right choice for you. So we went to the experts. In part one of our roundtable discussion, New York Film Academy's Jerry Sherlock and Michael Young, Vancouver Film School's Marty Hasselbach, AFI's JJ Jackman, UCLA's Stephanie Moore, Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Charlie Humphrey and Digital Media Education Center's Jaime Fowler give some insight into whether a career in film is right for you.
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Martin Walsh: Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
One thing I learned in my very short career as an assistant was that there aren't too many editors prepared to give up the big chair without a fight, so you've got to make your own luck.
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The Showoffs Get the Attention
Hard work paid off for Chicago editor Martin Walsh, who just nabbed his first Oscar nomination
Scoring the gig as editor of the most highly touted cinema
musical in years didn't come easily to Martin Walsh, but it
was a cakewalk compared with the editing itself. In a film
with this much constant motion, the months of laboring through
the labyrinth of editorial decisions was literally mindboggling.
But with his first Oscar nomination to show for it, Walsh
now knows that it was all worthwhile.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
You think your creative writing teacher was mean? Getting critiqued by most producers and executives is like standing there naked while they point out all your flaws (see Emily Mortimer's bare-all scene in Lovely & Amazing for an apt comparison). My advice is lay out in the sun a lot, so your skin gets nice and tough.
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The Art of Collaboration
Legally Blonde scribe Kirsten Smith discusses writing partnerships and the ups and downs of working with producers
Where Kirsten Smith goes, success seems to follow. She sold
her first screenplay, 10 Things I Hate About You, as
a spec script to Disney, and the resulting movie launched
the careers of Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. Reese Witherspoon
has Smith and her writing partner, Karen Lutz, to thank for
the $15 million paycheck she'll receive for this summer's
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, the sequel
to their 2001 hit Legally Blonde. Though Smith and
Lutz are not penning the sequel, Smith is keeping plenty busy
with several projects of her own, including Don't Ask,
a story that she describes as "sort of a 'Private Benjamin
with a gay man.'"
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What I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Don't wait to start your documentary until "all the funding is in place."
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Lives That Deserve to Be Told on Film
The balancing act of Stevie's Steve James
Though Steve James' new documentary, Stevie, is being
touted as the "long awaited follow-up" to his 1994 film, Hoop
Dreams, the past nine years have not been idle ones. After
the triumphant success of Hoop Dreams, he went on to
direct three feature films—Passing Glory, Prefontaine
and Joe & Max. This spring he makes his return
to the documentary genre with the very personal Stevie,
which won the Best Documentary Cinematography award at
Sundance, and which will be released by Lions Gate on March
28th.
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Film School 102
Education Insiders Give the Lowdown on Film School
Still wondering whether or not film school is the right choice for you? Here, the heads of some of the country's top film education programs-New York Film Academy's Jerry Sherlock and Michael Young, Vancouver Film School's Marty Hasselbach, AFI's JJ Jackman, UCLA's Stephanie Moore, Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Charlie Humphrey, Digital Media Education Center's Jaime Fowler and Academy of Art's Dr. Elisa Stephens-conclude their roundtable discussion.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Robert Duvall played both Adolph Eichmann and Stalin, yet he found in their characters a sense of humanity and created performances that weren't cliches.
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Quality over Quantity
Robert Duvall's "personal editor" on his career and famous collaboration
Unlike Robert Duvall, his close collaborator, editor Stephen
Mack's career in feature films has not been what one would
call a prolific one. "I hope Assassination Tango
will receive some well deserved attention and that I'll be
recognized as a major feature film editor who happens to have
only a couple of credits in 33 years," Mack jokes about
his latest project, a film starring, written, produced and
directed by Duvall.
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Things I’ve Learned as a MovieMaker
It's not what you light that separates the men from the boys, it's what you don't light.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Passion beats experience. In some cases, passion can be more valuable than experience.
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Analyzing the Human Condition
All the Real Girls DP Tim Orr seeks emotional connection in his work
There are all kinds of reasons one decides to embark on a film career. For cinematographer Tim Orr, it was boredom: "I spent my early 20s working boring jobs, playing music, writing, painting, taking photographs, getting my heart broken, trying to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. The more I opened myself up to the arts, the more films I saw, the more I had the feeling that filmmaking was what I wanted to do with my life."
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Leave the ego at home.
The worst thing a director can do is be so in love with his or her own ideas that he or she won't listen to anyone else's. Some directors fall into the trap of needing to appear authoritative by being firm. The point of creative discussion should be to make the best movie possible, not to be able to take credit for everything. I was really good at recognizing when people had better ideas than I did.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
They always want to see something sooner rather than later, but I've shown something early to a producer and I've regretted it. They're not your co-writers, they're your producers. The last thing you want is them barraging you with bad ideas to fix something you already knew you should have fixed in the first place.
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Soldiering On
Screenwriter Eric Axel Weiss on adaptations and Evian bottles
Plenty of screenplays have instigated debates. A few have incited riots. But only Eric Axel Weiss can lay claim to writing a script that prompted a Sundance audience member to launch an Evian bottle across a crowded room-nearly clobbering Oscar-winning actress Anna Paquin.
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Gotham Independent Film Awards Series Comes to NYC
IFP, the nation's oldest and largest organization of independent moviemakers, presents the Gotham Independent Film Award Series. The three-week program of screenings and panel discussions will highlight the work of nominees and honorees from the 18th Annual Gotham Independent Awards, which take place on December 2.
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