The latest trend is to reach out with the same cutting edge technology to both consumers and pros alike, offering near or exact versions to both target markets. No more highly publicized example of this is Apple’s move with Final Cut X.
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“With everyone aimed at volume customers and software innovation dropping in price every year, the future looks bright for microfilmmakers everywhere!”
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Blackmagic proves they are interested in the microfilmmaker market with a $1k cinema quality camera. Another exciting day of NAB sent even more great news for Microfilmmakers everywhere, with both production and post-production related gear hitting the block. This year is as crowded as ever, with a bevy of interesting people and their cameras both purchased and on loan from the various companies fighting for exposure (no pun intended) crossing the floor to test, shoot vlogs, and hope to purchase at some date within the year.
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“This is easily the most significant innovation in camera support since the steady cam.”
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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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Sheri Candler interviews Writer/Director Edward Burns discusses the value of using Twitter to connect with his fans and collaborate with them on his projects…to a point. His next project, Winter Spring Summer Fall, is now in production with a Kickstarter campaign…
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Sheri Candler interviews director Shaka King during Sundance 2013. King’s film, Newlyweeds, was included in the NEXT category for ultra low budget films and secured distribution through Phase 4 Films. King discusses the value of film labs like those from the IFP, making short films, and using Kickstarter to successfully fund the film’s…
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Writer/Director Edward Burns sat down with us at the Sundance Film Festival 2013 to discuss why he loves the freedom that comes with microbudget filmmaking, the compromises that are involved when working with less money, why digital distribution interests him more than conventional theatrical, using social media (primarily Twitter) to reach his audience and why he enjoys it.
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One company has sprung up in the last year to provide both distributors and filmmakers who are self releasing with a way to take the financial risk out of public screenings. Tugg.com is a web-platform that allows the audience bring movies they want to see to a local theater. A person in the community can search through Tugg’s library of available titles and choose one, provide details such as screening date and preferred location, set up the event with the help of a Tugg representative, spread the word to their friends in the local community encouraging them to buy tickets and, if enough people reserve their tickets to meet the minimum ticket threshold, the screening…
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Director J.R. Hughto discusses his entry into filmmaking from being a photographer and graphic novelist starting with making short films, his new microbudget feature Diamond on Vinyl, and how he views the sacrifices filmmakers have to make in order to work within…
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Director Andrew Bujalski on the red carpet for the premiere of Computer Chess at the Sundance Film Festival 2013. He is one of the leading figures of micro-budget filmmaking known as mumblecore. Bujalski used a 1969 Sony AVC-3260 tube video camera to give the film its period feel (and to show that video definitely doesn’t look like film!). Computer Chess centers around a weekend computer chess tournament in the early 1980s at the dawning of the age of personal computers and well before technology was in the palm of our hands…
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In our third (out of four) articles detailing the process of independent film making, I sat down once again with Jennifer Clary to discuss post-production on her first feature length film, The Silent Thief.
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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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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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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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GenCon offers films for viewing, gaming activities, live music and more as there are events scheduled 24 hours a day (the con never shuts down during the entire four days…never).
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GenCon’s tag line is, “The Best Four Days in Gaming”. They have earned every right to that tagline. GenCon celebrated its 45th convention this year and has plans to keep going another 45 and more. I’m here for three of the four days and I am having incredible fun time gaming, seeing great films, learning new techniques and tips, and meeting people.
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Roleplaying games as visual media just took a step closer to reality with the launch today of a new website for hobby game players around the world. Now roleplayers have the opportunity to experience a Dungeons & Dragons® campaign in a whole new way: through a Web series hosted exclusively at www.thefirstpaladin.com. Viewers can watch The First Paladin™, a campaign being played with D&D Next rules, and see the game evolve dynamically as game master Peter D. Adkison and the players make their own choices. This new series is produced by Hostile Work Environment™, a new multimedia company owned by Adkison, the former CEO of Wizards of the Coast and owner of Gen Con®, LLC.
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Huge improvements are being made on the side of motion capture. Some not very affordable but necessary steps to increasing our knowledge base for producing high fidelity capture and playback. Today, I had a chance to catch up with the guys at Reallusion who do have a motion capture solution that is financially more in reach with our readership than most other products on the market.
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Well, finally back from another day of strolling the aisles and perusing the booths looking for anything that I think will interest the Microfilmmaker community. There is great deal to get excited about for the future of film making and the developers that are creating the tech to make it happen. Here are the hits from today.
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