Festival Beat: Freezing Weather Belied Warm Welcome at Slamdance 2017
My Park City initiation was like getting hugged and slapped at the same time. I produced Dave Made a Maze, a practical effects-driven adventure/comedy about...
50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee in 2017
Are film festivals getting better? That is, are they providing you—independent moviemakers—more of the things you want and need? I think they are. After all,...
The Best Advice I Ever Received: How the Team Behind Slamdance Film Cortez Found the Courage to Make Their Film
The Man with the White Hair sat a long way away from me, his ’80s-era glasses slipping down his nose. Next to me sat Cheryl...
A Recipe for Indie Success: The Tried-and-True Methods Behind Blake Robbins’ The Scent of Rain & Lightning
How was it possible to take a New York Times best-selling novel—spanning more than 20 years and dealing with 13 unique characters and a whole...
Festival Wrap: Small Discoveries Stand Out at the 11th Gasparilla International Film Festival
Among a massive slate of features screening incessantly over several weeks, a microbudget, no-name production or a foreign language documentary, say, have far less of...
ICYMI: The Best of January 2017 on Moviemaker.com
January 2017 was a historic month for political reasons we don’t need to tell you about here. In the world of film, we saw the...
Absolute Submission: Top Programmers Share the Secrets to Getting Into the Festivals of Your Dreams
Dear moviemakers, I want you to know this: I love you. Or at least, I really want to love you. I know that’s forward, but...
50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee, 2016: Plot Your Festival Course on This Interactive Map
50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee in 2016: now plotted out on this interactive map! So you’ve read about (and submitted your film to)...
Quick Change Artist: Costume is the Key to Accessing and Discarding Character, Says the Star of Hunky Dory
“Clothes make the man.” — Mark Twain When director Michael Curtis Johnson and I decided to make Hunky Dory, we knew I had to commit...
How They Did It: The Radical Sound Design of Driftwood, Shot Without a Sound Crew
Close your eyes and concentrate on the sounds around you: the humming of the refrigerator, footsteps from the floor above, water running through the pipes...
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Inside the Issue: Best Of
The Best Film Schools in the U.S. and Canada 2017: Film Programs to Shape You Into the Next Moviemaking All-Star
Perhaps you’re someone who dreams of a career in moviemaking, and has come to the realization that the discipline, experimentation and personal relationships that flourish in an academic setting are...
7Inside the Issue: Cinematography
What’s in Your Kit? The Underwater Gear Used in Jeff Orlowski’s Gorgeous Environmental Doc Chasing Coral
How do you show irrefutable proof that the world’s coral reefs are rapidly dying due to climate change? Director Jeff Orlowski’s feature Chasing Coral follows an impassioned team of...
Inside the Issue: Directing
Of Bad Apes and Twisted Revenge: Matt Reeves, Steve Zahn, Weta Digital and Others on War for the Planet of the Apes
Actor Steve Zahn—known for his roles in That Thing You Do, Riding in Cars With Boys, and Dallas Buyers Club—once stumbled onto an online post about his role in...