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Brains, Balls and Luck
Russell Gewirtz hits the big time with Inside Man
At first blush you may think that screenwriter Russell Gewirtz is the luckiest man alive… and you might be right! Originally written as a spec script, Inside Man is now one of the year’s biggest hits, thanks to taut direction by Spike Lee and an all-star cast that includes Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen. MM caught up with the screenwriting world’s most promising newcomer to discuss what makes a classic crime-drama and why it pays to live a little first.
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Everyday Heroes
Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne team up again for Sideways
Beginning with 1996's Citizen Ruth, Taylor and Payne have penned some of the most critically acclaimed scripts of the last 10 years, including Sideways, (a film that has already swept every critical and industry award list and is a surefire Oscar contender), Election and About Schmidt.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
I found that when you think you're done editing you can always cut out another 20 minutes (as long as your film is not 90 minutes when you first get that feeling).
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Full Sails Ahead
Orlando's Full Sail looks toward the future
It's got the term "Real World Education" in its name for a reason: Full Sail is all about training aspiring moviemakers to get out there and work once they've graduated. Here David Franko, Full Sail's program director for film, gets to the heart of the school's mission.
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Auteur Seeks Complex Character
Writer-Director David Jacobson tackles complex characters in Down in the Valley
First gaining attention with 2002’s Dahmer, a brilliant character study depicting the life of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, writer-director David Jacobson secured his position as a new and important voice in independent cinema with three Independent Spirit Award nominations. Now, with Down in the Valley, Jacobson is crossing character lines once again. Jacobson spoke with MM about working why test screenings do more harm than good and the joy that lies in writing characters that cannot be easily pinned down.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Budgets have never scared me as an actor or as a director or as a producer. I've worked on movies that cost $3 million and I've worked on movies with larger budgets. It's just the question about whether one feels the emotional connection to the material and the need to tell that story. I think a lot of movies have very large budgets because they're mismanaged and have indulgent qualities that don't need to happen. Lower budget doesn't mean lower quality. Look at the movies that were celebrated at the Oscars.
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For Love or Country
After 16 years, Andy Garcia brings The Lost City to life
Though he’s considered one of the most talented actors of his generation, bringing The Lost City to life was no easy task for Andy Garcia. A project 16 years in the making, the quadruple threat producer-director-actor-composer took time out from working on the film’s soundtrack to speak with MM about bringing his passion project to the screen and directing his first feature.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Making movies and television is impossible, and if you do finish a project it will probably be terrible.
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Chasing Emmy
Director Brent Roske takes on TV-online
What do you get when you take Angelina Jolie's body double, sexy female detectives, a who-dunnit murder mystery and combine them to form a Web-based episodic series? Evidently, an Emmy-nominated online show. Breaking new ground and boldly going where few NBC employees have gone before, director Brent Roske tells MM why shooting with an online format (and audience) in mind is surprisingly liberating.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
If you're not too tired, it can clear your mind and get some frustrations out. You also won't feel so bad about sitting in front of a computer screen all day long!
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Reflections of a Puzzlemaker
Editor Dana Glauberman believes in the power of images
Making movies aside, the most important job of any film school student is to forge strong relationships in the business, so that once they’re out in the “real world,” finding a place in the industry won’t be such a daunting task. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, 50 film school students were lucky enough to get a little networking help from one of the biggest names in the moviemaking software business when Adobe paired them up with some of the biggest names in the world of editing—for a week-long celebration of all things editing.
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Parlez Vous Adobe?
Adobe offers film students an all-access pass at Cannes
Making movies aside, the most important job of any film school student is to forge strong relationships in the business, so that once they're out in the "real world," finding a place in the industry won't be such a daunting task. At this year's Cannes Film Festival, 50 film school students were lucky enough to get a little networking help from one of the biggest names in the moviemaking software business when Adobe paired them up with some of the biggest names in the world of editing-for a week-long celebration of all things editing.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
I don't think of myself as a cinematographer or director. I think of myself as a filmmaker. When you're working on a studio picture, you are an element of this big machine with a function that is much more defined. There are places in Europe where cinematographers are considered the country's greatest filmmakers, more so than directors. They are considered the true artists. But usually it's a collaborative effort. I feel like I have a job as the cinematographer, but I'll still direct if it's a film I'm interested in.
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A Tale of Two Johns
John Cassavetes and Johnny Cash have helped cement DP Phedon Papamichael's place in Hollywood
Athens-born cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, ASC made his first trip to the United States at the age of four when his father was the art director on John Cassavetes’ Faces. And it was Cassavetes who encouraged him to move to New York 15 years later “to shoot his next picture,” after seeing some of his still photography. Though still in the dawn of his career, Papamichael has already compiled an impressive and eclectic list of narrative credits including Phenomenon, The Million Dollar Hotel, Sideways, The Weather Man, Walk the Line and the upcoming The Pursuit of Happyness.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
One day, when there's real interactivity, it will be just like life, with stories generating themselves. People will be getting online, and some guy will decide to shoot some other guy. Suddenly, a thriller exists.
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Slevinth Heaven
Screenwriter Jason Smilovic on Lucky Number Slevin
Here's the set-up: You're the son of a New York video store owner, proclaiming to your mom, "I'm gonna make it as a screenwriter." Using her unconditional support as fuel, you fire up the ol' laptop and churn out more words per minute than Mavis Beacon can track. Suddenly, multiple production teams jump on board. Paul McGuigan, director of the cult hit Gangster No. 1, joins the team. To seal this sweet deal, Sir Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis sign on. Things become exciting. This is the life of screenwriter Jason Smilovic.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Gone with the Wind in the morning and The Dukes of Hazzard just before wrap. You can't take way too much time with stuff-you have to pick and choose what your vital scenes are to get done because you have a finite time to get them done in (unless you're Stanley Kubrick).
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The Dark Side of the Circus Performer
Donal Logue goes from comedic supporting actor to dramatic scene-stealer in The Groomsmen
Donal Logue has one of those faces-the kind that you'll spot in a movie or on TV and immediately think, "Hey, that guy looks familiar." There's a reason for that. With more than 60 film and TV roles to his credit, including this month's The Groomsmen, Logue is proving that he is a leading man's worst nightmare-a rare character actor who, even in the smallest of parts and armed only with wit and charm, can upstage the star.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Soundstages are more reliable than Mother Nature.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
When you're in the editing room at want to scream at the DP, sound guy, boom operator, AD, script supervisor… etc., try to have sympathy for them. People on set aren't making mistakes expressly for the purpose of making your life difficult. It's hard to know what they were going through that day, but it's more than likely that they were under intense pressure and time constraints-all while having been sleep-deprived, hungry and cold. This leads to piece of advice #2.
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Dirty Pretty Things
Award-winning editor-and founder of The Edit Center-Alan Oxman encourages students to get their hands dirty
It’s one thing to sit at a computer and learn how to edit a film; it’s an entirely different thing to do it at The Edit Center. Founded by two-time Emmy Award-winning editor Alan Oxman, whose credits include Douglas Keeve’s Unzipped, Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness and Storytelling and Michael Ian Black’s The Pleasure of Your Company, The Edit Center does away with stuffy lectures and instead puts its students in the driver’s seat on real indie films.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Build your foundation with the basics: Read folk stories, fairy tales, ancient plays, Shakespeare and mythology (and not just Greek and Roman-explore Chinese, African and Native American myths as well). Each offers a unique perspective on the world and the human condition and could be the foundation for your next big idea.
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Novel Scribe
Screenwriter Matthew Waynee explores the Unknown
What would you do if you woke up chained inside a dungeon and couldn't remember anything about how you got there or what you had done? You could be a good guy or a bad guy, a hero or a traitor. In that moment of unknown terror, what would you do? These are the questions that screenwriter Matthew Waynee explores in his new film, Unknown.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
If you can shed your ego and get other people to help you, you all benefit more in the end. I think that could be applied to anything in life. But the good thing as the director is that you get so much of the credit in the end anyway.
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Master of the Universe
Director Frank Coraci has the world in the palm of his hand
Curtiz and Bogart. Kurosawa and Mifune. Herzog and Kinski. Scorsese and De Niro. Coraci and Sandler? College buddies Frank Coraci and Adam Sandler may not be aiming to make the next Casablanca, but there’s no denying the magic that exists in their collaborations. Of the five feature films that Coraci has directed, Sandler has starred in three of them—including The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy—and together they’ve brought in close to a half billion dollars at the box office.
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Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
I think, especially these days, one of the big advantages of DV is you can just make a film. You don't have to wait two years while someone decides whether or not to finance your script. As soon as I hear someone is waiting for a financier to finance a script I'm like 'Just write the script! What have you got to lose?' It doesn't cost you anything to write, so why don't you just write the script?
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Just Shoot It
Michael Winterbottom owes much of his prolificacy to the digital revolution
It's hard to imagine Michael Winterbottom ever being bored. Since 2002 he's leapfrogged from one project to the next, releasing at least one film a year, each as different in story as it is in style. This year he has released two: First was the comedy Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, where Winterbottom teamed with Steve Coogan to adapt what's known as the "unfilmable novel." Now it's his most political film to date, the DV docudrama The Road to Guantanamo, which won him the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
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The Color of Forbidden Fruit
Chen Kaige lights up the screen with The Promise
Longtime fans of Asian cinema might be jarred by director Chen Kaige's radical stylistic turn with The Promise. But they shouldn't be surprised. Having endured China's Cultural Revolution during his youth, the director is no stranger to abrupt cultural shifts, violent social upheaval and the need for adaptation.
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‘Populist Festival’ Matures
Manhattan Short Film Festival's Nicholas Mason brings it to the people
Ever thought you had better taste than a film festival jury? Well, now's your chance to prove it! Celebrating its sixth year, the Manhattan Short Film Festivaldecided to go online-and give the first 100,000 visitors to their Website the chance to "be the judge" of their film festival, broadcast live from NYC's Union Square Park on Sunday, September 28th. But whether you attend the live, free event or log on and watch, one thing's for sure: choosing the best of this talented dozen will be a difficult task. The winning prize? Resources and cash to make a feature film!
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Freedom and Frustration
48-Hour Film Project's Mark Ruppert on Creativity and Limitations
Entering into its third year, the 48 Hour Film Project has invaded more than a dozen cities worldwide-beginning in our nation's capital and traveling as far overseas as Auckland, New Zealand and London, England. Now, with the National Film Challenge, you can be a moviemaker anywhere and participate. Ruppert discusses the Project's genesis and why such a short timespan is freeing and frustrating all at once.
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All Grown Up
Kansas International Film Festival founder Ben Meade on Kansas' biggest film event
The Kansas International Film Festival may be located only halfway to Hollywood, but their dedication to innovative and socially conscious films extends to the moviemaking capital and beyond. Founded in 2001, the fourth annual Kansas International Film Festival will take place this September--but MM sat down with festival founder Ben Meade to discuss how moviemakers can get involved today.
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Indie Movie Guide
Reviews of some of the independent film world's newest independent films
In this month's edition, check out reviews of:Iditarod... A Far Distant Place, Making a Killing: Philip Morris, Kraft and Global Tobacco Addiction, Alzira: A Matriarch Tells Her Story, and Nice Guys Sleep Alone.
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An Interview With DV Expo’s Scott Gentry
Setting goals and taking on challenges is nothing new for Scott Gentry.
When Scott Gentry decided to launch his own automotive video production company, DV Magazine became his guide to buying tools. He enjoyed the magazine so much, in fact, that he eventually sent the editors a resume, which led to working his way from the sales department to publisher. Now, as Group Director, he oversees not only the magazine and Website, DV.com, but the DV Expo tradeshow.
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Things I’ve Learned As A Moviemaker
In terms of progressing either as a technician or, if you like, an 'artistically-inclined technician,' as long as you keep practicing your art, it's going to get better.
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From the Battlefield to the Deep End
A high contrast conversation with British cinematographer Giles Nuttgens
For British cinematographer Giles Nuttgens, the accolades he's receiving for The Deep End must seem like a trip from the ridiculous to the sublime. Last year critics described his work on the John Travolta bomb Battlefield Earth as dark and murky. But that was last year...
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James Schamus Honored with Trailblazer Award at Woodstock
James Schamus, the man behind Focus Features (think The Constant Gardener, Atonement), was chosen to receive the 2008 Trailblazer Award from the Woodstock Film Festival. Prior to working at Focus he was co-president of independent production company Good Machine for 11 years and won numerous awards for his own work, including the award for Best Screenplay at the 1997 Cannes International Film Festival for The Ice Storm.
Posted 09.5.08 | No comments yet...
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