Film Strategy

If you want to reach the Chinese market, one way to do it is through the Netherlands. Here's why .

Mad Max: Fury Road |  George Miller | 2015 | Australia, USA | Format: 35 mm (anamorphic) (Kodak Vision 2383), D-Cinema (also 3-D version)  | 120 min Mad Max is essentially one long chase scene. But what a complicated and thrilling chase scene it is. It surprises me none to find out that George Miller, the director, created a storyboard comic book to map out the shooting of the film from logistics to aesthetics. Storyboards and concept art are important tools for filmmakers but even moreso for filmmakers making action movies. Below is a compendium of links to articles on the making of Mad Max: Fury Road. Read, watch, enjoy but don't forget to take notes. The making of Mad Max: Fury Road (according to Wikipedia ) Development Plans for a fourth film in the  Mad Max  series hit financial difficulties and the project spent several years in " development hell ". [17]  The idea for a fourth installment occurred to Miller in August 1998 when he was walking in an

Among the many traditions that befall us throughout the month of December, the end-of-year-lists can not be avoided. Whether we read them or write them, lists are everywhere. Film magazines and blogs partake in that tradition by putting out their best/worst list of films for the year. I have nothing against them, personally, but I wanted to go deeper and probe the news and trends in the film industry for my own list which would be of strategic use to filmmakers and producers. However, my trip to Cuba for the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano and the usual holiday fanfare put to sleep all that. Still, my Catholic guilt insists that I share something with you. Since I did read some really good lists that go beyond the fun but banal topic of what film was the best/worst in 2014, I have compiled them here.  The 14 lists below can either help you understand the industry better, give you a glimpse of where the industry is going, or deepen your love and knowledge for th

BBC has recently launched  a series of diaries by directors . Reposted below is  part 3  of 8 journal entries filmmaker  Chris Cooke  has written to give you a glimpse of the creative thought process and the practical obstacles filmmakers have to overcome during development.  Read and see how it relates to your production life. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Chris avoids Americanisation in his third video diary I am ill and tired as usual, as regular watchers of these video diaries will know already. My flat has a small and unhealthy ergonomic triangle that is bad for me when I am writing at home. I sit typing only two feet from my refrigerator and two feet from my sofa, fags and remote control... my routine seems to be: Type and smoke; walk to fridge, make sandwich; walk to sofa; chill out and smoke and watch some film or other while eating, smoking, etc... lie down and think up new script-based idea. Er, that's it! It's all

BBC has recently launched  a series of diaries by directors . Reposted below is  part 2  of 8 journal entries filmmaker  Chris Cooke  has written to give you a glimpse of the creative thought process and the practical obstacles filmmakers have to overcome during development.  Read and see how it relates to your life. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Chris outlines outlines in his second video diary For a moment I thought I was having writer's block. You sit down to solve your writing troubles and find that there's nothing going on in your head at all... but the great thing about developing these current projects is collaboration. While we are in development you can follow us on the early stages of that process. I am writing with two people: Helen Solomon is co-writing our bleak comic road movie; and Steve Sheil and I are developing our comedy of pain set in the world of regional wrestling. He appears in the two diaries so far because

BBC has recently launched a series of diaries by directors . Reposted below is part 1 of 8 journal entries filmmaker Chris Cooke  has written to give you a glimpse of the creative thought process and the practical obstacles filmmakers have to overcome during development.  Read and see how it relates to your life. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A few introductory words by Chris... Chris Cooke has been based in Nottingham for the last ten years and has not just set films there, but drawn on local cast and crew to make the films. Previously a fine artist (terrible results), Cooke became a filmmaker when a friend took a filmmaking degree and Cooke tagged along, pretending to be a student until he had a vague grounding in film and video. Later, after five years of unemployment, Cooke found himself on a ten-month training scheme run by Intermedia Film and Video, where he learned everything he could in linear and non-linear editing, film and shoo

I normally reach out to filmmakers and producers when I write a case study but it is a long and involved process of outreach and interviewing and then creating the case study for Film Strategy. Lately, I have been busy with my legal work but I am also developing a documentary based on archival footage and photography and so I have been doing my research on all fronts. Lo and behold, I ran across this case study on a PBS documentary about Fidel Castro based on archival footage, The Fidel Castro Tapes , at Peter Hamilton's great website: www.documentarytelevision.com . Because I found it so useful, I felt I had to share it.  We wondered about the challenges of creating an archive-based film about an 88-year old Spanish-speaking personality who can be dangerously controversial, and who is the founding father of a government whose people are still blockaded by the US.   Castro ‘ s producer Tom Jennings earned a Peabody with the Smithsonian Channel for  MLK: The Assassination