Category: General Info

Director Thais Francis Takes On Social Media in “Late Expectations”

February 15, 2016

Scrolling through picture-perfect Instagram shots inspired Thais Francis to write her first-ever film, Late Expectations, showing at Cinema Village on Saturday, February 20 at 4:30 p.m. as part of the 2016 Winter Film Festival (February 18 to 26 in New York City). In the short film, high school senior India seems to be living a … More Director Thais Francis Takes On Social Media in “Late Expectations”

Max May Wins King of Comedy Title at the Winter Laughs Competition

January 30, 2016

Max May, a New York-based comedian, walked away with first place honors at the Winter Film Awards Winter Laughs Competition, held January 19-21 at the Broadway Comedy Club in New York City. We checked in with him a few days after his big win to see how he was dealing with his newfound fame. You … More Max May Wins King of Comedy Title at the Winter Laughs Competition

Director Natalie van den Dungen Tells How Being a New Girl Herself Inspired “Bunny New Girl”

January 24, 2016

It’s Annabelle’s first day at a new school in the short film, Bunny New Girl, screening on February 20th at 8 p.m. at Cinema Village as part of the Winter Film Awards Festival in New York City. That feeling of anxiety is something that anyone whose family moved when they were a kid can relate to, but for … More Director Natalie van den Dungen Tells How Being a New Girl Herself Inspired “Bunny New Girl”

DGA Publishes Inaugural Feature Film Diversity Report

December 10, 2015

Two-Year Study Reveals Women Account For Only 6.4% of Film Directors – Dropping to Just 3% for Major Box Office Titles.  Warner Bros and Disney hired no female directors at all, despite collectively releasing 53 films in total. The Directors Guild of America (DGA) today released its inaugural Feature Film Diversity Report analyzing the gender … More DGA Publishes Inaugural Feature Film Diversity Report

250 seconds that will re-ignite the passion in any filmmaker or screenwriter

September 8, 2014

From ChrisJonesBlog: It’s often forgotten that we storytellers are in fact magicians. In all the hullabaloo of egos, opinions, reviews, funding proposals, endless rewrites, never ending shooting days in the rain, bad food, overdrafts, broken relationships… we have all been there and have that T shirt right? But what keeps us going is that we … More 250 seconds that will re-ignite the passion in any filmmaker or screenwriter

Is Piracy a Danger to Independent Film? Part 1: The Search – In Which I Can't Find Much of Anything

August 14, 2014

From IndieWire.com:  Last month, Tim League and Ruth Vitale, founder of and CEO of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and the Executive Director of CreativeFuture respectively, released an op-ed they jointly penned. In this post that appeared on Indiewire, they argued strongly that piracy is a danger to indie film. It’s a post that’s very impassioned. It’s also … More Is Piracy a Danger to Independent Film? Part 1: The Search – In Which I Can't Find Much of Anything

Researchers Have Developed a Way to Extract Audio From Silent Videos

August 9, 2014

This is one of those times when words like amazing and mind-blowing are not hyperbole. Researchers at MIT, Microsoft, and Adobe recently joined forces to do something that seems completely impossible: they’ve been able to extract audio from visual information alone — meaning they have recovered sound from videos that have no audio whatsoever. Here’s the video showing … More Researchers Have Developed a Way to Extract Audio From Silent Videos

How a Director Made a Sci-Fi Marvel in Five Days With No Script and No Budget

August 8, 2014

From IndieWire:  “Coherence” is not just smart science fiction: it’s a triumph of crafty independent filmmaking, made with few resources and big ambition. Director James Ward Byrkit stripped his vision down to the barest of bones to achieve a mind-shifting, metaphysical freakout about a dinner party gone cosmically awry. This film explodes with ideas, and … More How a Director Made a Sci-Fi Marvel in Five Days With No Script and No Budget

PRODUCTION TIPS: It's Better to Avoid a Lawsuit Than to Win One

August 7, 2014

The first article in a 3-part series from FilmStrategy.com. The main reason why producers hire lawyers is to avoid lawsuits.  However, a good production lawyer can offer more than that. For example, she can help formulate a strategy to take the film on a successful festival run or negotiate a deal at a film market … More PRODUCTION TIPS: It's Better to Avoid a Lawsuit Than to Win One

Take College Level Film Courses for Free with MIT's OpenCourseWare

August 6, 2014

From NoFilmSchool.com:  Film school is not for everyone and it is by no means required in order to make a movie. Plenty of great filmmakers decided to skip a formal education to go straight to making films, but if you’re interested in getting one, but either can’t afford it or don’t have the time or … More Take College Level Film Courses for Free with MIT's OpenCourseWare

'We Believe What We Can See.' Watch This Tedx Talk on the Mystery of Story

July 13, 2014

By Justin Morrow, NoFilmSchool:  n the 80s, the joke was that everyone, no matter what they did during the day, had a screenplay to hawk. With Joe Eszterhas getting millions for scribbling the plot of One Night Stand on a cocktail napkin, and Shane Black writing Lethal Weapon at the age of 26, what didn’t look like hard work … More 'We Believe What We Can See.' Watch This Tedx Talk on the Mystery of Story

Filmmakers face 10 years in prison for Sarah Jones’ death

July 3, 2014

By Iain Alexander, FIlmIndustryNetwork:   The ongoing criminal investigation into ‘Midnight Rider’ has reached yet another climax, with filmmakers being formally charged for the involuntary manslaughter of Sarah Jones. According to a report in Variety, The film’s director, Randall Miller along with the producers of ‘Midnight Rider’ have also been charged and could face a maximum … More Filmmakers face 10 years in prison for Sarah Jones’ death