Sundance Chat with Nicolas Gonda: Using Tugg for your theatrical release (Interview)

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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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Interview with Director J.R. Hughto at Diamond on Vinyl premiere, Slamdance 2013 (Interview)

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JR Hughto Interview

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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Sundance Video Interview with mumblecore director, Andrew Bujalski (Interview)

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Andrew Bujalski Interview

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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Where Am I? (Critique)

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Where Am I?

Bill (Daniel Munns) is lost in his own mind. Images of his wife and their life together flash before his eyes, but he keeps getting interrupted by mysterious voices and, curiously enough, an image of himself that keeps changing costume. He thinks there was some sort of accident, but the real truth is much more terrifying.

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Reason 6.5 (Review)

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Reason 6.5 Cover

Hailing from Sweden, Reason 6.5 is a music creation program for the Mac and PC. Reason supplies users with everything necessary to create film scores and sound effects from scratch—everything from synthesizers and sampled pianos to drum kits and orchestral strings. Unlike SonicFire Pro, the ability to write music is a prerequisite for this program, and those familiar with playing a musical instrument (preferably the piano) will find this program much easier to navigate. The quality of the sampled instruments is quite good for the price, and the possibilities to create new sounds with digital synthesizers are endless.

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Corel VideoStudio Pro X5 (review)

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VideoStudio Pro X5

Corel VideoStudio Pro X5 is a surprisingly powerful video editing tool given it’s really low price tag. While it’s geared towards new editors, or those that just like to “dabble,” there’s a lot to this package that professional editors typically pay a lot more for.

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A Walk In Hyde Park (Critique)

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A Walk In Hyde Park Cover

Sachen (Anmol Mishra) lives in Sydney, Australia, and works at an antique store. One day, his car runs out of oil and he happens to run into a damsel in distress – Elisa (Susanna Richter), a German immigrant. She had just been kicked out of her apartment and was sitting outside crying. Sachen offers her comfort, and soon this unlikely meeting evolves into a relationship.

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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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InDesign CS6 (Review)

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InDesign CS6 Cover

One of Adobe’s established programs has become even easier to navigate, giving novice and advanced users alike the ability to create the marketing pieces they need to professionally sell their products. At first glance, InDesign may seem like a program only for creating print pieces such as flyers, magazines and books. But InDesign CS6 is so much more.

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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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Story Plus CS6 (Review)

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Story Plus Review Cover

Many of us have had the opportunity over the past year or two to beta test Adobe Story as a screenwriting program that allows you to collaborate online with other writers, producers and directors. Taking in much of the user feedback, Adobe has released Adobe Story PLUS with its latest creative suite.

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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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Dreamweaver CS6 (Review)

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Dreamweaver CS6 Cover

Dreamweaver CS6 is another solid, stable and innovative release from Adobe. While there certainly isn’t a major jump in new features when upgrading from Dreamweaver CS5.5 to CS6, fluid grid layouts and the ability to integrate PhoneGap and Business Catalyst will be enough from some viewers to spend the money on the upgrade. If you have never purchased Dreamweaver, now is as good of a time as ever to enter the world of web design and app development (Dreamweaver has now made these two creative endeavors one in the same).

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