MovieFanFare - The Movie Collector's Blog. Nuit Blanche B&W Short. Film Reviews - Most Popular Films. InterScience :: JOURNALS :: The Journal of Popular Culture. WATCHMEN. Rebel Without a Crew: How a 23 Year-old Film-maker with 7, 000 Dollars Became a Hollywood Player: Robert Rodriguez. Noir of the Week. Entertainment | The makings of a movie revolution. Armed with computers and cheap editing software, a new generation of budding film-makers is finding it easier than ever to get noticed.
The days of scrimping and saving to get a first short film made are not necessarily over - but the cost has been driven down dramatically in the past decade, and that's thanks to advances in technology. For Bafta Award winner Shane Meadows, this shift can only be a good thing. "When I was a kid, camcorders were as big as your dad's car and they were really expensive," he tells the BBC. "And then you needed editing equipment so it was something that wasn't open to people unless you had a privileged background.
" Meadows is a member of the old school. He had to beg cameras and editing equipment to make his first short film Smalltime in 1996. He became so frustrated at there being nowhere to screen Smalltime that he founded a "mini event" showcasing it and other shorts. This year, his feature This is England won the Bafta for best British film. Internet revolution. Entertainment | Mammoth film tops US box office. Film noir. Film noir (/fɪlm nwɑr/; French pronunciation: [film nwaʁ]) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography.
Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. The term film noir, French for "dark film",[1] first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era.[2] Cinema historians and critics defined the category retrospectively. Problems of definition[edit] Background[edit] Cinematic sources[edit] Silent Era: The silent film website. Guide Picks - Top 10 Scariest Movies. These are the movies that keep us up at night. Their images creep into our subconscious and change the way we feel about the dark corners of our lives. Everyone has their own top 10 films that scared them the most. Here's mine. They all succeed, in their own ways, of affecting the audience on a deeply psychological level.
The Exorcist Director William Friedkin had the formidable task of translating William Peter Blatty's novel to the screen, and succeeded with flying colors - mostly a sickening green. The Haunting (1963) Forget the dumb 1999 remake, the original, directed by Robert Wise in 1966, is the truly scary one. Jacob's Ladder Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is a Vietnam vet who seems to be profoundly affected by his nightmarish war experiences. Poltergeist This is still one of the best ghost stories ever made. The Sixth Sense Nine-year-old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) always seems disturbed, frightened... and his mother cannot figure out why.
Rosemary's Baby The Omen The Innocents Psycho. Welcome to Next Wave Films. FENSLERFILM. Proletariat Pictures. DIGITAL. The upside is the cost of production. You could literally shoot the whole thing on a couple hundred bucks of tape, edit it and have a finished video for what, couple thousand? Then take that finished video in what ever format you finish in (digital, Beta, hi 8) and hand it to a lab to turn into a print. Beware. One of the medium prices quoted at a popular lab is 425$ per minute of running time for projects longer than 60 minutes. They will produce a negative and optical track. Also be sure that it's what you want. 35mm - Looked the best. 16mm - Grainy, but good. Truth is, none of the formats, even transferred from high definition look nearly as good as film and, for my purposes, the process looked too good; it did not look like video with scan lines and the video artifacts usually associated with same.
The labs will all try to tell you to light your set in the lowest contrast possible even for digital cameras. The big advantage shooting consumer digital cameras over High 8 is the sound. Production Check List. Dealing With Agents. So, you've got to the point where you realize you are going to have to get a marquee actor in your film to; a) Get the budget you need to make this film. b) Attract a large enough audience so the film gets seen. Unless of course you can call up the actor and hand him the script because he's your poker buddy, how do you find out where he is, and how do you get him a script?
Well, finding out where is the easy part; call the Screen Actors Guild and ask them for contact information for the actor in question. Now the proverbial ka ka hits the fan. I hate the agent system. An actor finally proves himself in some arena in which people can see his work and then he's isolated from the good scripts because his agent doesn't see a percentage for himself or the 'commercial potential' of a script. Take it or leave it, that's how things work with agents. Recently I've been shopping a project around, take heed, learn from my mistakes. First of all, I knew I had a good script . 1. CLEAN UP. This is probably the worst thing that could happen to your film and I hope for your sake it never happens. But, family crisis, accidents, so many things can happen to people while in production that the idea that this could happen is not far fetched, but improbable.
However, what if your lead actor walks in the middle of production, what in Kurosawa's name will you do? You've got all this film on her/him, she/he absolutely refuses to continue for whatever reason that you absolutely cannot solve, what can you do? Make it a positive. This could be a nightmare if you let it be one. What if you go through the scenes and story line you've already shot and decide what you have and can use and either do one of two things; 1. 2. O.K., you've got half a film with this now missing character, what other character in this film might have just as interesting a story that you haven't revealed yet ? Try something! What a heartache. "Film & Video Budgets" - Michael Wiese RECOMMENDED Foto Kem - Burbank CA. FESTIVALS & DISTRIBUTORS. Congratulations. You've got something you can show to people that you're proud of and you want it to be seen by as many people as possible.
The strategies you employ to get your film seen are varied. Here are some ideas and related experiences. PRODUCERS REPRESENTATIVES often can have very beneficial results for your film. A producers rep. is a person supposedly with connections or some weight or pull with film festivals, buyers, and distributors. FILM FESTIVALS are one of the best ways to get your film seen and reviewed, and to start some kind of buzz about your film. It is much easier to program a film with Winona Ryder than your cousin Ed (who also happens to be a great actor) in a film festival. Opening at Sundance is great, if you get in, but if you've finished your film in February, do you wait a year before releasing it?
Hopefully you will be approached by a number of programmers who want your film in their festival. It's not a democracy and it's not fair. Preface. Actors & Editing. NO ONE can tell you how to work with your actors, you will have to discover what works best for you and your style of filmmaking. There ARE things you can do as a director to improve your communication on the set. Every director I've ever talked to has a different way of working with his actors and his crew. I've known directors who love actors and don't know how to direct them or have any idea where to put the camera or why. I've known directors who simply hate actors and tolerate them simply to get what they need for the performance they want.
Good actors usually need good characters to work from, psychological motivation for their actions, the right kind of encouragement from the director, and made to feel this is a safe place to work. Directors must prepare for a scene, just like an actor, or the crew. Don't be a director who does not know what he wants, that's where most problems start. Process is EVERYTHING. Who the character is. What do they want.
Why do they want it. For instance, 1. Producer Stuff. Recently I sent a much less experienced producer than I a well written and well received script of mine. This 1 film producer said to me, "as Mozart said in Amadeus, 'too many notes'. " Heh heh. While I did not point out to her that was made up by a writer for the character of a dull witted dilettante German prince speaking to Mozart, who responded, "There are just as many notes as are needed. ", I did say thank you for the kind words and wished her luck, to which she responded by saying I couldn't take criticism, and laid a few cliché's on me. On another shoot I gave a young man the chance to be location producer, with no experience.
He never worked on a feature but guaranteed he could deliver the locations and equipment needed for the shoot. A famous screenwriter told me a long time ago, "a good producer will say "not for me, but thanks. " Don't Lie. Don't lie. If you get people to help that know what they are doing, get them for next to, or nothing, count your blessings. 1 . 35 or 16? OK. BUDGETS & BREAKDOWNS. In the 80's I finished a script I thought was really an exciting piece for my first feature, and 20th film. I had been trying for a long time to get name talent involved while constantly looking for the right unknown actors for 2 very tough parts. It wasn't until 1993 I ran into some actors I was convinced would be perfect for the parts, and that wanted dearly to do it. That chance meeting sent me on the trip of completing my first feature film. Now that you have answered your question's of motivation with whatever degree of satisfaction, you must now decide if you can cast the actors in the parts.
In all films, casting is everything. For the no-budget guerrilla filmmaker you also have to factor in; What will you do if your lead actors have "had enough" and walk on your film? Which comes first, casting or budget? Very hard to do, not so hard to start. Read the resume's and see what kind of experience, stage or film, the actors you're considering have had. EXT. So, how's the budget now? Guerrilla Filmmaking 101 - MOTIVATION. Why are you doing this? That simple question that I felt I had to answer time and time again after committing all my resources, time, energy and money to a project I didn't feel was 'commercial', and had absolutely no name talent attached was one that kept popping up repeatedly.
The answer was very simple; I had to do it. I had a great script, great actors, I happened to have maybe enough money and I thought maybe, if I'm lucky, this has the potential to be a great film. The idea that it would make money never affected my decision to proceed with the film, and once committed finishing was not a question of "if", just "when". I thought it would be a great film. If you are considering taking your first plunge into no-budget, self-financed filmmaking and believe you have a great script that you have to shoot, do yourself an enormous favor and honestly answer that question before you start. If you are the only person that believes your script is great, you've got a problem. The easy stuff. Movie School Encyclopedia. Sideshow Collectibles, Inc. - Captain Rex Sixth Scale Figureby Sideshow Collectibles $169.99 USD Payment Plans starting at $42.50 USD/month Sideshow Exclusive Earn $8.50 in Reward Points.