Analyzing Alfred Hitchcock Presents “Back for Christmas”

Back for Christmas is the quintessential Hitchcock story shown on his TV series Alfred Hitchcock presents. Filmmaker and Author Jeffrey Michael Bays analyzes this episode with the help of our own John P. Hess in this installment of The Hitch20!Read More



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Par Avian: Lance Edmands’ Bluebird

A frosty night alone inside an unheated school bus puts a hypothermic gradeschooler at death’s door. The mulitiple protagonists in model ensemble Bluebird milk the mishap, each in their own way. In an oddly similar fashion, director Lance Edmands works — let’s say plays — his audience. He short-circuits a chilling overview of the mishap’s immediate impact in favor of charging a profound visual essay on the power of love — ongoing, terminated, or altogether lacking. The titles of the two mournful vintage pop songs most prominent on the soundtrack evoke cataclysms, in theory echoing the emotional toll on those […]

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Photography Everyday Superheroes on the Edge of a Skyscraper

Fantasy Photographer Extraordinaire Benjamin Von Wong illustrates how he created these stunning photographs from the top of a 45 story building. Every child has dreamed of being a superhero It’s a fantasy we’ve all had at some point. We imagine ourselves standing on the edge of a building, overlooking the city, hair blowing in the Read MoreRead More



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“There’s No Space for that Old Style of the Big Barking Orders Coming from the Big Man”: Debra Granik Talks Documentary Filmmaking on the She Does Podcast

We’re so excited and honored to feature Debra Granik in our fourth episode of She Does. Granik is the Academy Award-nominated director and writer of Winter’s Bone, which features a young Jennifer Lawrence in a gripping story set in the Ozarks. Winter’s Bone won several awards including the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It also received four 2011 Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor. Previously, she wrote and directed Down to the Bone, starring Vera Farmiga. Her narrative work is heavily influenced by real life […]

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Working Class Heroes: Karim Aïnouz on Futuro Beach

I, I wish you could swim I, I wish you could swim Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim Though nothing, nothing will keep us together We can beat them, for ever and ever Oh we can be heroes David Bowie, “Heroes” “How could I do the movie without that song?” Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz asks rhetorically. I’ve just noted the few jabs he’s taken for ending his vibrant new film with the arguably overused Bowie anthem. “That’s the song that actually started Futuro Beach for me. Maybe it was excessive, but I don’t care.” Italics mine: the polite, affable […]

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Why Comic Book Geeks Must Be Stopped (Before It’s Too Late!)

Comic-book geeks have invaded Hollywood and turned mainstream movies into an endless parade of overblown, juvenile drivel. Kevin Maher says: they must be stopped before it’s too late. I had a strange and disconcerting experience in a darkened Soho screening room in late November, in the year 2000. It was barely 30 minutes into a Read MoreRead More



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The Stories Behind Annie Leibovitz’s Most Meaningful Works

Annie Leibovitz takes us through her gallery of her life’s most meaningful work. Get an insight into her life and her passion as she shares her stories.Read More



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7 Ways to Improve Your Work When You’re Not Working

Bobby Marko lists seven ways for self improvement when things are slow. 1. Get or Update Your Website You may not know but my path to film and video was actually through building and designing websites. Coming out of the music industry I saw the need and the creative ways websites could communicate to a Read MoreRead More



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The Cooler Bandits Screening and Discussion at Columbia University on February 26

Followed by what promises to be an amazing discussion between filmmakers and subjects alike, John Lucas’s documentary The Cooler Bandits will be screened Thursday, February 26 in New York at Columbia University. The event is free and open to the public. For Filmmaker, Alix Lambert wrote about the film and talked to Lucas while The Cooler Bandits was in post-production. An excerpt: The Cooler Bandits is the film’s title as well as the crew consisting of Charlie, Donovan, Frankie, and Poochie, who were all teenagers in 1991 when they spent the better part of the year robbing restaurants. Collectively they […]

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How Do You Take a Meeting? Learn How at the IFP’s Made in New York Media Center

There are resources to help you pitch your screenplay, and even articles for writers and directors on how to behave at a general meeting, but a broader discussion of how producers, directors and anyone else in the film business should play it when work talk moves off email to IRL is strangely absent from our tutorial landscape. Our friends at Tangerine Entertainment, Amy Hobby and Ann Hubbell, aim to change that with their workshop, “How to Take a Meeting,” occurring at the IFP’s Made in New York Media Center on March 3. Full information is below, and note the special […]

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7 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Mean Girls

Can you believe it’s been ELEVEN YEARS since Mean Girls came out? In honor of this milestone, we’re taking another look at what we’re pretty sure is the most accurate presentation of the High School emotional landscape, ever.Read More



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BIRDMAN: Following Riggan’s Orders

David Bordwell takes a really in depth look at the Oscar Winner Birdman, from it’s story structure to how the one shot style both mimics traditional editing style while adding new dimension to the story. Birdman’s plot covers six days at a critical period in Riggan’s life. He’s an over-the-hill movie star identified with playing Read MoreRead More



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Annie Sprinkle on Reuniting with Golden Era Porn Legends for CineKink’s “A Tribute to Club 90″

It’s splendidly ironic that the birth of Club 90 — “the world’s first porn star support group” — occurred in 1983 at a baby shower, the ultimate celebration of sex positivity. Porn actress Veronica Hart (who may be familiar to viewers of Six Feet Under and Boogie Nights, and is still with her high school sweetheart today) was due, porn star-turned-sexologist/performance artist Annie Sprinkle volunteered her apartment at 90 Lexington, the women of NYC’s adult industry showed up, and the rest, as they say, is kink history. At the urging of the late Gloria Leonard (a feminist porn star who […]

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Why Does February Only Have 28 Days?

It’s not the size of the month that matters…Read More



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BAFTA Focus on Directing Multi-camera Productions

In this masterclass, an array of multi-camera directors from TV programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing, The Graham Norton Show and The X Factor offer insights into their craft, and give their top tips on getting into the industry!Read More



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Paul Newman talks Actors Studio in rare 1964 interview

Paul Newman talks about his motivations to become an actor and the role the Actor’s Studio played in his career.Read More



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The Evolution of Merriam-Webster’s Most Looked-Up Word

Stefan Fatsis went to great lengths to explore the future of words. Or, more accurately, the future of defining words. In this video above, we consider the past and present of one word in particular—Merriam-Webster’s most looked-up modern definition, pragmatic (formerly pragmatical).Read More



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Oscars 2015: In Memoriam

Meryl Streep introduces the In Memoriam segment of the 2015 Oscars, a tribute to the many talents we lost in the past year.Read More



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Birdman, Boyhood, CITIZENFOUR Top 30th Annual Independent Spirit Awards

Birdman won Best Picture at this afternoon’s 30th annual Independent Spirit Awards. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s film scored two other awards — Best Male Lead and Best Cinematography — while its main Academy competition, Boyhood, won Best Director and Best Supporting Actress. Laura Poitras’s CITIZENFOUR won Best Documentary. Held, as always, a day before the Oscars, Film Independent’s Santa Monica beachside awards ceremony also recognized a number of lower-budgeted independents, including Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (producer Chris Olson won the Piaget Producers Award), H. (directors Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia won the Kiehl’s Someone to Watch Award); Dear White People (Best […]

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Bruce Sinofsky, 1956 – 2015

Documentary director Bruce Sinofsky, whose Paradise Lost Trilogy collaborations with Joe Berlinger caused the release of the wrongly-convicted West Memphis Three, died this morning of complications from diabetes. Sinofsky’s passing was reported by Berlinger on Twitter. Sinofsky and Berlinger were nominated for an Academy Award in 2011 for the final film in the Paradise Lost trilogy, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory — the culmination of a filmic and legal odyssey that began in 1996 with Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills. In a 2011 Filmmaker interview, Sinofsky remembers the series beginning: When we went down to Arkansas, for […]

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Spongebob Square Pants Cast Redub Casablanca, Singing in the Rain, and Godfather

Spongebob voiceovers of scenes from Casablanca, Singing in the Rain, and the Godfather Here’s Tom Kenny doing just DeniroRead More



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Five Women Directors Discuss Their Art and Craft at the Berlin Film Festival

I walked out after the first 15 minutes of 50 Shades of Grey. Granted, I thought I was walking into a meeting, so this unexpected private screening caught me off guard. I was also thrown by the venue’s attempt to mirror the film’s billion-dollar company, “Grey Enterprises.” Christian Grey impersonators literally barked orders and insults at the arriving guests. This did not get me in the mood. Also, the film was dubbed in German (which is not to say that I would have preferred to suffer through it in English). Somewhere between the 15 minutes of 50 shades of folly […]

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The Real ‘Mad Men’?

Don Draper is a character that could only exist in fiction: impossibly handsome, endlessly talented, and crippled by alcoholism and other impulse-control problems. VICE was curious to see if there was any truth behind Mad Men protagonist, and that’s how they found George Lois. A leader of the Creative Revolution, Lois helped create the campaign Read MoreRead More



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How to Pull off a Headshot!

Ryan Connelly shows how to fake a perfect headshot.Read More



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Why Makeup Isn’t Superficial – Idea Channel

When someone puts on makeup there is no easy way to know why they’ve done it. Or why they’ve made the decisions they have about their makeup. Answers to those questions might not even be clear to the makeup wearer themselves! After a very long history of putting stuff on our bodies to accentuate our Read MoreRead More



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How to Visualize Your Story

The problem with so many first projects is they lack a sense of visual style. This article is not about how to create beautiful images, but to develop a sense of beautiful imagery. The third Key Element to your story is the visuals. It’s pretty obvious, yes, but there’s more to it than just “make Read MoreRead More



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Andrew Allen and Jason Sondhi on the Relaunch of Short of the Week

“A new way to watch films” is what the venerable platform for short films, Short of the Week, promises in its new relaunched edition, online now. Founders Andrew S. Allen and Jason Sondhi have done a top-to-bottom redesign — a clean look that also makes both searching and streaming easier. Indeed, the new Short of the Week acknowledges that a viewer today is as likely to watch a short on a large phone or streamed through a device like Chromecast to a television as on a laptop window. Filmmaker readers should recognize both Allen and Sondhi’s names as the two […]

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