I did a script coaching session for someone I’ll call Lisa. Lisa had spent the past four years pursuing her dream of becoming a professional screenwriter. She had written six scripts with nothing to show for it. No agent, no manager, no meetings, no nothing. Lisa was obviously discouraged. Her husband was obviously discouraged. They decided she’d write one last screenplay, and if it didn’t sell, that was it, she would quit....
Demme, whose awards include a best director Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs in 1991, spoke about his career with Film Independent Curator Elvis Mitchell at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival. The director is also known for the features Philadelphia (1993), Stop Making Sense (1984) and Something Wild (1986). His films are usually defined by working people and work with a sense of honor, such as Angela (Michelle Pfeiffer) in Married to the Mob (1988)....
I interviewed Desiree Akhavan, writer-director of Appropriate Behavior, after the film world premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. The winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Screenwriting at Outfest, Appropriate Behavior opened theatrically in LA and NY and on VOD on January 16, 2015, and is up for a Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. Roya Rastegar: I am a total fan of The Slope. How did you approach your film differently from your webseries?...
Amid a stage crowded with instruments for a climatic live performance of selections from his recent score to Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, the Oscar winner first sat for an extended conversation about his work and career with journalist and film music historian Jon Burlingame. Marveling at a clip of The French Dispatch, Desplat said of his collaborator’s visual style, “It’s just crazy. I mean the detail of each shot is like a painting....
For fun, Project Involve Fellow Kady Kamakaté (also the recipient of the inaugural Turner Fellowship cash grant) peruses the Instagram account of New York hot spot The Wing because, as she puts it, it’s “Badass women regularly doing badass things.” But this isn’t your typical social-media escapism. It’s more like finding comradery, as Kamakaté herself is regularly involved in badassery: the filmmaker recently wrapped production on her Project Involve short This Little Light and is keeping tabs on the strong festival run of They Charge For the Sun, the Terence Nance-directed short she produced for Project Involve in 2016....
“Less is more; show, don’t tell”– such is the mantra of stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski’s creative team on the John Wick franchise. The Keanu Reeves-led assassin/revenge/action saga has amassed $581 million worldwide, from three entries to date. Transforming the way modern action movies are shot, the John Wick films steer clear of the fast cuts and shaky cameras of the past two decades. And instead of relying heavily on editing and CG, Stahelski prefers wide shots and long takes to capture the blunt, intense, intoxicating action sequences in-camera....
With a cast including real-life nomads Linda May, Swankie and Bob Wells – who all play themselves in the film – to accompany Best Female Lead nominee Frances McDormand’s Fern, Zhao’s melancholic narrative empathetically spotlights a large segment of older Americans, who have found themselves permanently displaced in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Fern’s journey is a tale of loneliness, bereavement and self-discovery, as the 61-year-old widow works through her grief after losing her husband, their house and pretty much everything she owns after her mining town all but evaporated once the local gypsum plant is shut down....
On February 27, the final night of Film Independent’s 2019 Directors Close-Up series devoted itself to all things scary, delving deep into the minds of the masters of modern horror and mystery/thriller moviemaking—a panel that featured Fede Alvarez (The Girl in the Spider’s Web, Don’t Breathe), sibling co-writer/directors Drew John Erick Dowdle (Waco, Quarantine), Aaron Katz (Gemini, Cold Weather) and Daniel Stamm (Fear the Walking Dead, The Last Exorcism), moderated by Collider film critic Scott Mantz....
But even so, if you saw a pie chart outlining my overall media consumption, the gross number of minutes spent ingesting features films would be hugely dwarfed by those I spend listening to film podcasts, reading movie blogs and discussing film culture over social media. Which leads me to ponder: are movies actually the thing I care about? Or are they just the excuse for a broader, interactive, multi-platform telecommunications experience I may secretly enjoy even more?...
For film lovers, even those who are fairly well versed in the business, the credits that roll at the end of all films—everything from Short Term 12 to The Avengers—can sometimes seem like an endless series of made-up titles. I myself am guilty of this. Until I was 19, I thought a line producer and 1st AD were the same thing. Yeah, I know. But as aspiring filmmakers become working filmmakers, suddenly that jumble of words has all of the meaning in the world....
As the lights dimmed in anticipation of Film Independent at LACMA’s January 21 Live Read of Dr. Strangelove it made sense that the night would open with the 1939 tune “We’ll Meet Again”—originally sung by soldiers during World War II amid tearful goodbyes before heading off to battle. The Film Independent at LACMA series kicked off the New Year with Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 political satire and black comedy, guest directed by Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go, One Hour Photo and countless music videos....
‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. So wrote Alfred Lord Tennyson, which we definitely knew off the top of our heads and did not need to Google. But what Tennyson (whose whole thing we definitely know tons and tons about) neglects, in this perennial yearbook quote of his, is that loss is in fact an inextricable part of loving. Anything held dear can only be held for so long; separation invariably looming, courtesy of divergent pathways, a faltering of affections or—barring all else—the inevitable creep of death and aging....
Starting this Friday, Film Independent co-hosts a month of free, outdoor screenings at the Santa Monica Pier, kicking off with the Los Angeles premiere of Elise Salomon’s music doc, Los Wild Ones. In anticipation of watching a movie under the stars and alongside the Pier’s iconic carousel and roller coaster, I starting thinking of some other non-traditional spaces that make film going an even more magical experience than usual. Short, Sweet: The Sol Cinema, South Wales Powered entirely by solar panels, this converted camper trailer features a red carpet, a concession stand and a friendly usher who will help you to your seat, of which there are only eight....
With white wine on the stage, best friend-ship established and an adoring audience ready, Film Independent at LACMA curator Elvis Mitchell spoke to Kaling about her prolific career and the qualities necessary to achieve her craft and success. After 11 years on network television—including working on NBC’s The Office and introducing The Mindy Project on Fox before its cancellation last year—Kaling has now found a home for her show on Hulu....
Producer and distribution expert Stu Pollard has been making films for more than a decade. His producing credits include Bass Ackwards, True Adolescents, Dirty Country and Ira & Abby. He has also directed two feature films, Nice Guys Sleep Alone and Keep Your Distance. He also works as a freelance consultant specializing in private equity financing, investor relations and distributor delivery. Here’s what Pollard had to say about the logistics and legalities of deciding to hang out one’s own shingle and seize the reigns of production: I want to start a production company....
Pre-production is where producers need to get their legal ducks in a row, lest lawsuits and litigious threats pick them off like, well, ducks in a shooting gallery. While the producer can do some or most of this work, the advice of an entertainment attorney may be critical during pre-production. At a recent Film Independent education event, IndieWorks attorney Nicole Papincak and paralegal Kirk Hamilton outlined six of the major legal issues producers need to consider....
Last year’s winners, producer Katherine Fairfax Wright and writer/director Malik Vitthal took their film Imperial Dreamsthrough our Producing Lab, and it went on to win the Best of Next! at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. “There are new voices in cinema that should be heard. ARRI is very proud to help bring Malik Vitthal’s directorial debut to screen,” says Bill Russell, VP of ARRI Inc., Camera Products. “Imperial Dreams is a special story, and we are pleased to have played a part with our Alexa Grant package....
One such eco-activist also happens to be an independent filmmaker. Shalini Kantayya is an Indian-born, Brooklyn-based director who credits her nationality as the inspiration for wanting to make movies. It was in India, which she considers “one of the most visually arresting places in the world”, that Kantayya first discovered her passion for storytelling, and realized filmmaking was the art form through which she felt she could truly convey her most urgent ideas and emotions....
NOMADLAND Guests of honor: Chloé Zhao (writer/director/producer/editor), Peter Spears (producer), Mollye Asher (producer), Dan Janvey (producer); moderated by Mark Olsen (Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times) About: Following the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, Fern (Frances McDormand) packs her van and sets off on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. The third feature film from director Chloé Zhao, Nomadland features real-life nomads Linda May, Swankie and Bob Wells as Fern’s mentors and comrades in her exploration through the vast landscape of the American West....
Bull stars Rob Morgan, Amber Havard and Yolanda Ross in an intimate and exciting character drama about absentee parents, the myth of the American cowboy and the vanishing romance of the Old West. The film was released on digital streaming platforms worldwide last week. To complete the film, Silverstein and co-producer Ryan Zacarias received support from Film Independent in the form of the EFILM | Deluxe Grant—available to Fellows and alumni of the Film Independent Spirit Awards and LA Film Festival....
