Month: August 2012

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Truly Free Film

Opportunities from The Berlinale Talent Campus

The latest newsletter from the Berlinale Talent Campus has some exciting opportunities for emerging filmmakers. Key information below, and for more go to: www.berlinale-talentcampus.de. 

1. Call for entries Berlinale Talent Campus #11: “Some Like It Hot”

The eleventh Berlinale Talent Campus will invite 300 emerging filmmakers from all over the world (directors, screenwriters, producers, distributors, actors, cinematographers, editors, production designers, sound designers/score composers, and film critics) during the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. The Campus will take place at the Hebbel am Ufer Theatre (HAU 1-3) in Berlin-Kreuzberg from February 9-14, 2013 with the title “Some Like It Hot”.

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Issues and Actions Truly Free Film

How Can Women Gain Influence in Hollywood?

I wrote my first piece for the NY Times the other day — and it’s up now! I was fortunate enough to be asked to be the lone male voice in the “Room For Debate” on How Can Women Gain Influence In Hollywood. It’s an excellent discussion and a great group of commentators. It’s also a question that action is not taken on enough.

My piece begins:

Mainstream mass-market film culture is stuck in a deep rut. When making money is the top priority, people produce work and hire people who keep them in power. Call it risk mitigation or cowardice, the lack of women in Hollywood comes from the same root.

Industries are like people: they change only when the pain of the present outweighs the fear of the future.

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Truly Free Film

Kickstarter for Filmmakers — Is Crowdfunding Right For You?

James Cooper has written an eBook all about Kickstarter, compiling what he learned over the course of his own project. He’s kindly letting us reproduce some of it here for you. Look out for two more excerpts next week, and check out his book at www.kickstarterforfilmmakers.com

 

Kickstarter For Filmmakers 

by James Cooper

 

Is crowd funding right for me and this project?

Seems simple, and probably a little obvious, but you’d be surprised by the number of campaigns that are launched without ever taking this into consideration. As I said before, crowd funding is not free money, and success isn’t made possible through the simple act of having a campaign. There are several questions to ask that will lead you to determine if you should be pursuing a crowd funding campaign or not:

Is the film interesting to people who aren’t working on it?

This is possibly the toughest question to ask, because people don’t like to consider the idea that they have a project that doesn’t really have an audience. Many filmmakers, are guilty of making films for themselves. This works when you’re footing the bill yourself, but when you’re looking for money from outside sources, you’re going to need elements that hook your potential audience. This may be a killer story, a unique way of making the film (stop motion, green screen, etc.), or noteworthy cast/crew (or anything else you can think of that makes your project stand out), etc. Preferably, you’ll have a combination of things.

The key here is to make sure you have a project that will catch not only the eyes of family and friends, but also their friends, people who follow you on Twitter, and complete strangers that may happen by your campaign by any of a hundred different ways.

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These Are Those Things Truly Free Film

Everything Counts; Try, Fail, Rebuild It Better

A friend of mine — an accomplished director and writer — once said to me that you have to write eight screenplays before you can actually write one.  It is a well know adage that writing is all rewriting. Yet do we really yet get to incorporate that in our filmmaking.

The analogue era was about completion and perfection.  You made it and put it out and that was it: it was part of the world.  Yet the digital era is about something quite different; it is about evolution, transformation, iterations, and versioning.  Not only can it change everywhere, but we can do it in ways that weren’t possible several years back.  We can shoot a film on the cheap, and then revise it, or connect to it, or pull from it subsequently.  Some artists are already adept at quoting themselves.  

Watching Bruce Sprinsteen perform from over 40 years back, it’s sort of thrilling to hear elements of his later work in his early songs.  I know that there are artist making movies now that will be doing just that same thing with their films of today when they make their films of tomorrow.

 

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Truly Free Film

2013 Sundance/Sloan Commissioning Grant

Established in 2005 to support the development of screenplays with science or technology themes, Sundance Institute and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provides two different opportunities for screenwriters through a Commissioning Grant or a Fellowship. Both provide a cash award to support further development of a screenplay and to retain science advisors, along with overall creative and strategic feedback throughout development. Only one of each is awarded per year.

Eligibility
Through this commissioning grant we are able to support filmmakers with a wider range of experience than in our Screenwriting and Directing Labs, including writers and directors who have made several features as well as those at an earlier stage in their careers.  For this grant, we are seeking a science or technology related narrative, English-language project that is in early draft stage or full treatment.
 
 

Grant & Support
The Commissioning Grant recipient will receive the following:

  • A cash grant of up to $20,000 to provide support during the writing period
  • A stipend of up to $5,000 for a science advisor and research
  • Creative support during the writing process from a Creative Advisor
  • The possibility of a Fellowship to a Lab
  • Creative and strategic support from the Feature Film Program staff
The Fellowship recipient will receive the following:
  • Attendance as a Fellow at a Screenwriters Lab, Directors Lab, Creative Producing Lab, Creative Producing Summit, or Sundance Film Festival
  • A stipend of up to $5,000 for a science advisor
  • A cash grant of up to $10,000 to provide support during the development of the project
  • Creative and strategic support from the Feature Film Program staff
 
Projects must have science or technology as a major theme or scientists as major characters.  We cannot consider science fiction or projects that stray too far from a base of scientific reality.  We also cannot consider projects that are already being developed within the studio system (including the mini-majors); it is fine, of course, if they are later made at the studios.
  
The deadline for applications for the Sloan Commissioning Grant is September 7, 2012.  Please feel free to pass this information on to anyone you feel might fit the criteria and benefit from this grant.  The online application and further information can be found at: http://www.sundance.org/programs/sloan-grant/
  
Please contact us at sloangrants@sundance.org  with any projects, recommendations or questions.
Categories
These Are Those Things

Jack London’s Rallying Cry

I was reading the NY Times piece on Occupy Oakland, and came across this quote from Oakland native Jack London, given to NYers at the turn of the 20th century:

 “A million years ago, the cave man, without tools, with small brain, and with nothing but the strength of his body, managed to feed his wife and children, so that through him the race survived. You on the other hand, armed with all the modern means of production, multiplying the productive capacity of the cave man a million times — you are incompetents and muddlers, you are unable to secure to millions even the paltry amount of bread that would sustain their physical life. You have mismanaged the world, and it shall be taken from you.
 

The words still hold true, and apply to many aspects of modern life.

We can build it better together.

Categories
Truly Free Film

The Only Other Job I Think I Would Want

I am happy. I have a great mission in front of me. I can’t think of anything else I would rather be doing. Well, except running Manohla’s studio with her:

“”If I were running a studio (ha!), I would take the money that I’d set aside for the next bad idea (like a remake of “Total Recall”) and give a handful of directors, tested and less so — Todd Haynes, Barry Jenkins, Kelly Reichardt, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Aaron Katz, Benh Zeitlin, Damien Chazelle — $10 million apiece to make whatever they want, as long as the results come in with an R rating or below and don’t run over two hours.”

Although I have to confess, I may not be quite so permissive…