Author Archives: Jeremy T. Hanke


About Jeremy T. Hanke

The director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films, Jeremy Hanke founded MicroFilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi collaborative community, World of Depleted, and has recently released the short action film in this series, Depleted: Day 419 .

Best of Show Feature Winner Shares Itself Free of Charge (News)

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Long time readers of MicroFilmmaker doubtless remember Best of Show Winner “Behind the Scenes of ‘Total Hell’”, which received an 8.8 score from Kari Ann Morgan in her critique. To celebrate the release of the Collector’s Edition and give love to fans of Indie films everywhere, the filmmakers are streaming the Behind the Scenes of ‘Total Hell’ Mockumentary free of charge starting on Sunday, April 21st! To find out more….

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Broadcast (Critique)

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Ethan is a car thief. He boosts cars for a living, which has led to a lifetime of friction and disconnect between himself and those closest to him. When he carjacks a car, throws the occupant out by the side of the road, and drives off into the boonies, it’s just another day in his life. However, as he drives toward the rendezvous he’s set up ahead of time with his cohorts, a disturbing news broadcast makes him realize that this is the worst day for business as usual.

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Chris Folino’s ‘Sparks’ to Premiere in Silicon Valley… (News)

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Long time readers of MFM doubtless remember Chris Folino and his hysterical comedy, Gamers, which won a 9.0 in our Special Critique Category (for those who are technically over the $50,000 budget cap, but whose ingenuity pushes the creativity of Independent films). Well, Folino’s new film, Sparks, is about to premiere in Silicon Valley and he let me know about it so that I could pass on the info…

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$70K Micro-Budget Film becomes First 3D Indie film to Premiere In Dallas (News/Industry)

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Zero One, a science fiction thriller written and produced by Kareem Gray, will be the basis for a TV series now in development, The Zero One Mandate. The film, which revolves around a man who discovers a computer program that has the power to save or destroy humanity, has been screened at film festivals around the world. It won the Best Screenplay and Best Original Music awards at the Boston Sci-Fi Festival, and was named Best Film at this year’s Dallas Black Film Festival. Ticket Stubs Entertainment called it ‘hugely enjoyable for all ages.’ Now the original 2-D version has been converted into a 3-D movie experience by P3DHD, a Dallas company that is pioneering quick, high quality, cost effective conversions of conventional film and video into 3-D.

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Panasonic Announces New Pricing For 2/3″ cameras including Micro-Budget Friendly AK-HVF70G (News)

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New pricing on 2/3" Panasonic Cameras!

Panasonic has announced system pricing and initial delivery date for its new AK-HC3800 studio camera system, featuring three high-sensitivity 2/3 type 2.2-mega pixel IT CCD sensors and a next-generation, 38-bit DSP (Digital Signal Processor) with 16-bit A/D converter.

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Smoking & Masochism (Critique)

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John's insecurities start an awkward night.

When John (Juan Amador) picks up Mimi (Angeline Prendergast) for a date, he’s excited to see hear that she wants to see a porno. However, when she lights up an electronic cigarette in his car, he finds himself unable to stop trying to guess what sort of abuse or childhood trauma led her to be a smoker. When she retaliates, threatening to burn him with her cigarette if he doesn’t shut up, she uncovers the fact that he’s into pain and would actually be turned on by that. She then proceeds to make assumptions about him as they drive.

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Smoking & Masochism (Straight Shooter Film Review)

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John finds himself unable to stop assuming he knows why Mimi started smoking.

John (Juan Amador) picks up Mimi (Angeline Prendergast) to take her to a porn film. Along the way, as Mimi puffs on an electronic cigarette, John makes wild assumptions about why she smokes, including that she wasn’t loved as a child, that she was beaten, and that she was raped. After pissing her off enough to threaten to beat him with an electronic cigarette, she realizes that he’s into S&M and starts to ask him the same sorts of questions about his addiction.

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Micro-Budget film, Friggin’ Aliens, Unveils Community Film Initiative in IndieGogo Campaign (News)

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Friggin’ Aliens is the first feature film for Darringer Productions and they are trying something new and experimental with the ownership of their film. Darringer Productions has created something they are calling the Community Film Initiative. CFI is a program in which the cast and crew (including the producers and director) receive non-expiring percentage of ownership in the film itself. (While it’s not uncommon to allow content creators to receive a percentage of profits to equal sweat equity, this usually has a monetary cutoff level or an expiration date.) This allows them to make the movie on a micro-budget, but also does something that is important to David Whitaker, Eric Henninger, and Lori Henninger (who make up Darringer Productions), and that is that it builds community. Eric Henninger says, “This is about more than just making a movie. It’s about building a community of creative and talented individuals and giving them a platform…

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Straight Talk with Oculus Feature Director, Mike Flanagan (Interview)

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Mike Flanagan, Director of Oculus Feature (2014).

The original Oculus short was so impressive that it stood at the top of the MFM shorts list for 18 months. Flanagan’s next feature, Absentia (which he raised money for on Kickstarter and shot with a 5D Mark II DSLR camera), received the first 10.0 for a feature in MFM’s history. Absentia would then go on a whirlwind festival tour and be released via video on demand, Redbox, and Netflix. Now we speak with Flanagan about his feature film version of Oculus which is slated for theatrical distribution in 2013!

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MFM Writer Mike Flanagan Completes Production on Intrepid/Focus Feature of Oculus (News)

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Oculus Feature Cover

After Mike Flanagan’s masterful release of Absentia–which won best feature film at LA’s 2011 Shriekfest and was distributed by Phase 4 films earlier this year–his Oculus franchise was picked up by Trevor Macy and Marc D. Evans of Intrepid Pictures for the major Feature treatment. (The original Oculus short is a cult classic that was made for $1500, garnered a 9.5 from MFM when it came out, and used a single room, a single actor, and a cowled mirror to strike fear in the heart of viewers everywhere.) Intrepid is a production company that seems to be taking a page from the origins of New Line and focusing on films that have very targeted audiences. While they’re most recently known for producing James McTeigue’s (V for Vendetta) film, Raven, starring John Cusack, they’ve also produced or presented such varied works as The Cold Light of Day, Crush, and Balls of Fury.

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Litepad Loop (Review)

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We tested the Rosco Litepad Loop in a new interview for a Gothic group. (Leslie Jenkins featured.)

Having attractive fill lighting is something that can really separate the pros from the amateurs when it comes to cinematography and photography. Close, soft light is most ideal, especially when filming and photographing women (where harsh light and shadow demarcations are undesirable), but the security mirrors which are the human iris have a tendency to reveal artificial shapes in distracting ways. Thus, circle or ring lights are the preferred way to get closeups, as the circles of illumination reflected in the liquid-coated human iris seem natural and organic.

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Roundabout American (Straight Shooter Film Review)

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However, when he meets a high priced call girl named Helen (Marielle de Rocca-Serra) he begins to look for reasons to stay in America awhile longer. And a new friend, Ron (Patrick Zielinski), helps him come up with just that reason: The Extra Topping, a pizza and prostitution combo platter.
The money from the venture seems to what can turn their lives around for the better, but when a dangerous party with a group of ruthless politicos goes south, Alex will have to decide what he’s willing to die for and who he wants to live for.

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The MFM Straight Shooter review to be unveiled… (News)

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(Photo Featuring Lorra Whitescarver.)

Our filmmaker fans have long had a single request for an improvement here at MFM: film reviews! While we are very well known for our film critiques, which are aimed at helping filmmakers learn from their mistakes and improve their craft as filmmakers, the technical details which make these critiques so helpful aren’t as great for folks who want to get publicity on the film viewer side of things. As such, we will now be launching our Straight Shooter Film Reviews. A “straight shooter” is someone who doesn’t shovel manure, but tells you the unvarnished truth. These reviews will be all the things our filmmakers have said they want for publicity: short, non-technical, and designed for film watchers!

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Tumbleweed! (Critique)

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For their first foray into digital (at least that I’ve seen), the Varavas (Justin wrote andd Jared directed) went with the RedOne (which is arguably the highest end digital rig that most microbudget filmmakers can afford to rent and still stay microbudget). But what to tell with this digital exploration? Why, what else? A Western tale about a tumbleweed, of course! But not just any tumbleweed, of course. A loner tumbleweed who marches to the beat of his own windstream!

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Chatting with new Mavericks: Kickstarter for Events…

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One of the personalities I got a chance to know is just launched DarkestGoth Magazine editor, GV Pasclato. Recently, he and his team started working on a new way of using Kickstarter in the form of the mira nocta Bluegrass Goth Festival. I personally hadn’t thought of using Kickstarter for an event, but had to admit it had lots of possibilities for Independent filmmakers who might want to do their own film festival or a multi-faceted exploration of a few film series with cult followings.

I liked what their ideas were enough that I was even willing to speak on camera to some of their readers, who have a lot of similarities to our filmmaking audience, and even to agree to show the Day 419 film with a Q&A if their event is funded.

With that said, here’s a brief interview that GV was kind enough to give me about what they’re doing:

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The Deposition (Critique)

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In a small West Virginia town, on-again off-again lovers Adam Long (Charles Rashard) and Jill Dotey (Rachel Forbes) leave a wedding reception to be reunited in a passionate drive. Unfortunately, when a chaotic series of events leads to an accident, Jill is killed in the wreck and Adam is left doubting his own memories.

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CS6: San Jose Reviewer’s Workshop Early Insights

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The new CS6 artwork adorns the Adobe Building in San Jose

San Jose: CS6 Reviewer’s Workshop Training in the Adobe Headquarters in San Jose This past week, I had a chance to check out some pretty incredible new features from Adobe’s new CS6 release along with Flash reviewer Mike Muwanguzi and … Read the rest of this story…

Getting Near Perfect Video From Your New Camera: The Basics

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With the right knowledge and right project in mind, even a security camera can create compelling images!

When you get a new camera, the first thing you want to know is: what are the best settings to make it look like a million dollars? The short answer: you’re already asking the wrong questions. This does not mean there aren’t ways to tweak your camera, but those are final touches to some much more preliminary understandings. The radio station you listen to while you drive your car is a much later choice than learning how to drive your car in the first place.

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Powerful New Adobe CS6 Release at Heart of Transformative Creative Cloud Initiative

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Creative Suite 6

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Creative Cloud™, a radical new way of providing tools and services* that will change the game for creatives worldwide. A subscription-based offering, Adobe Creative Cloud is a hub for making, sharing and delivering creative work and it is centered around a powerful release of Adobe Creative Suite® 6 software, packed with innovation across its industry-defining design, Web, video and digital imaging tools.

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