Officially, my book “Hope for Film” comes out today. It’s been many years in the making though. Started and stopped, started and stopped. It was hard to get done and I feel fortunate to have found all the help I needed to get it done. I hope you like it.
But why did I write it? Here are ten reasons.
Last week, I greatly enjoyed my first three days on the job at Fandor– and anticipating all the ones still to come. It’s funny how timing works sometimes… It couldn’t be a better time for me to learn and engage in something new. And it’s remarkable how sometimes somethings end, just as something new begins. Such changes and coordination need so much support, it is a marvel that so much still gets done.
Ten years ago,
You are in, and now you have all sorts of wonderful problems — the kind most filmmakers wish they could enjoy. You know, you have to do all the things you have to do for a film festival. I have tried to collect the various blog posts I have written or have found written by others that will really prepare you. There’s a lot more to be written. But this is a good start:
At the Toronto International Film Festival this year I had the privilege of being asked to partake in their “Moguls” talk. Anthony Kaufman interviewed me. I think I set a record taking up the first sixteen minutes or so with my first answer. Granted it was about how MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE and DARK HORSE came together, and neither one was a simple story — but then never are, are they? Well, it does boil down in each instance to making the movie for less than what the apparent value is, but that’s the film business today, isn’t it?
Just in case you are wondering, the class that I mention isn’t happening when I said it was. It’s happening soon though, and we will announce it sooner.
I talk about SUPER around the 35 minute mark.
41 Min: budget agnostic, genre agnostic, medium agnostic, platform agnostic. First and foremost, I want….
42 Min: What makes a good film?
43 Min: When I was falling in love with my wife Vanessa…
44 Min: That list is this one.
45:50 Reverse engineering of Film
46:45 How can film mirror free will?
47:30 The End Of The Auteur Era Of Film
54:30 “Making Independent Films is a crime.”
57:20 “There’s never been a better time to shoot celluloid than there is today.”
58:10 “Independent Film is a luxury good.”
If you want to help me index this further, I would appreciate it.
I don’t like panels. They can never be conversations. They are usually five people pushing separate agendas that have no relation to what the audience is looking to learn.
I like discussions. Two, maybe three participants is best. It was just me & Anthony Kaufman in Toronto. I happily moderate panels though, when it is an issue, film, or organization I care about. And sometimes I break my own rules. This weekend I am doing one panel and one conversation. I hope you will come. I may start enforcing my rules after this.
Tomorrow I am participating in ” Co-Production Strategies: Identifying and Negotiating US and International Partnerships” at the Film Finance Forum / East. Get tickets here.
“This session will address how to identify the right partners and locations for enhanced incentives, work out financial structuring, distribution territories, agreements, and accounting practices, among many other issues when working on co-productions in the current environment.”
Moderator: Jeff Begun, Production Executive, The Incentives Office
Panelists: Ted Hope, Producer, Double Hope Films
Randall Emmett, Co-Chair, Emmett/Furla Films
Harris Tulchin, Owner, Harris Tulchin & Associates
Pat Swinney Kaufman, Executive Director, New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development
Lloyd Kaufman, President, Troma Entertainment
On Sunday, I am participating in IFP’s Independent Film Week in “The Hot Button: Is Indie Filmmaking A Career Or A Hobby?” My fellow participants are Scott Macauley and Mynette Louie. The blurb explains: “As production budgets contract and sales struggle to rebound, is it possible to make a career of independent filmmaking? Join the debate on the sustainability of the industry.” Get tickets here.
Christine Vachon recently had a talk with Anthony Kaufman at the NewFest Visionary Award presentation and had many interesting things to say about her career, producing, and indie film — all that plus a lovely impression of yours truly.
The interview is a wealth of good advice. Add this video to your film school curriculum. Scott Macauley has selected some of his favorite quotes for you. And IW’s own, Anthony Kaufman — who moderated the event, gave a nice brief of the discussion, here.
I have long felt the indie film community has needed someone to write regularly and call attention the various issues that both effect our life as filmmakers, and how film, in all its various forms, effect our life as citizens, societies, and individuals. What an awesome gift for us all that Anthony Kaufman has taken it upon himself to do this. His first post from his re-booted blog, REEL POLITIK, lays out the manifesto:
Inspired by such declarations of purpose as Dogme 95, the Oberhausen Manifesto, Dziga Vertov’s We: Variant of a Manifesto and Charles Foster Kane’s “Declaration of Principles,” I’d like to outline my reasons below in a little manifesto. I’ve always liked such proclamations. Pretentious and polemical, sure. But they’re also passionate and alive.
So here are 6 reasons for ReelPolitik’s being:
1. Because over the next 16 months, we will enter a contentious period of political skulduggery, with lies, distortions, and propaganda from both the right and the left. And filmmakers, film lovers and the film community need more places to exchange ideas, vent, and respond to the political-ideological formations of that mass entertainment machine known as the movies. As a community, we must also remember that there’s strength in numbers, and if we don’t want the country (and the world) to go to hell, we must stay politically involved.
2. Because we have lost sight of what film can do.
Read the rest here.
