Film Strategy

Film-Makers’ Co-op Press Conference, 1964 L to R: Gregory Markopoulos, P. Adams Sitney, Andy Warhol, Ron Rice, Jonas Mekas © 1964 On September 30, 1962, a group of New York filmmakers (including Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Emile de Antonio, and Jack Smith) released “ The First Statement of the New American Cinema Group ,” a manifesto by New York artists to herald in new age of cinema. Railing against current modes of exhibition, distribution and financing, this group proclaimed low-budget filmmaking as its own aesthetic: “The low budget is not a purely commercial consideration. It goes with our ethical and esthetic beliefs, directly connected with the things we want to say, and the way we want to say them.” Overall they called filmmakers to unite and storm the box office. In their vibrant last words, “we don't want rosy films — we want them the color of blood.” While few of the filmmakers became household names, The Film-Makers' Cooperative they started liv

A Clockwork Orange |  Stanley Kubrick  | 1971 | UK, USA | Format: 35mm | 136 min   A great insight into Stanley Kubrick's work process via the making of A Clockwork Orange. Hat tip to mentorless and bonusfilm for the video. Orange Mécanique (Stanley Kubrick) - Making Of by Bonus-de-Film

Happy birthday, Pedro Almodóvar ( Sep. 25, 1951)!   "When you glance over the early life of Pedro Almodóvar, who turns [62] today, one can start to understand the formation of his style and preoccupations as a filmmaker. Born Pedro Almodóvar Caballero on September 25, 1949 in the country town of Calzada de Calatrava, the young auteur-to-be lived a life defined by poverty and hard work. He was one of four children being raised by his parents, who were poor peasants; his near-illiterate father’s small income came from hauling wine barrels by mule. Young Pedro, however, was intellectually curious and achieved a vaunted position within the community already as a very young child as he was able to read letters and teach literacy to his fellow visitors. At age 8, he was sent to a religious boarding school in Cáceres, with the ultimate aim of becoming a priest, an experience which informed his 2004 film Bad Education . Looking for an escape from his tough, c

Many years ago, two great films opened today, Berlin Symphony of the City (1927) and The Silence (1963).  What makes the two films equally memorable are how the directors expanded the language of cinema by focusing on a little-considered aspect of a subject (Ruttman) or doing something different from their past work (Bergman).  These works have became a source of inspiration and style for many filmmakers ever since. " Walther Ruttman’s unfurled Berlin: Symphony of a Great City on 23 September 1927 in the city for which it is named. Having entered film from the fields of architecture and design, Ruttmann saw form and shape where so many others perceived character and story. And while the film employed documentary strategies, it’s aim was more aesthetic than journalistic, trying to capture––as the musical title suggests––the rhythm of the city and the masses who inhabit it. Influenced by Soviet theories of montage, Ruttman divided his piece into five acts, a nod to s

Captain's Log. Star Date:9.18.13 62 years ago today A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE opens When Elia Kazan’s film  A Streetcar Named Desire  opened in September of 1951, those who’d read the play or seen the Broadway production, knew this was something very different. The 1947 drama, for which playwright Tennessee Williams received a Pulitzer Prize, was for the most part intact. The haughty Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) comes to live with her sister Stella (Kim Hunter), and her sister’s earthy husband Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando). But the nuances that defined William’s dramatic style were quietly erased. The Production Code Administration, led by Joseph Breen, demanded up front 68 changes (some rather major). Blanche’s dead gay husband is now simply referred to as sensitive; the rape is covered in darkness; Blanche’s sexuality is quieted down. But even this was not enough, as Warner Brothers worked out a 11th hour deal with the Catholic League (unbeknownst to either Kazan or

Captain's Log Star Date: 9.16.13 Almost 50 years ago today, A Fistful of Dollars was released in 1964. On September 16, 1964, a new kind of Western hero arrived on the scene… in Italy. On that day the first of Sergio Leone’s “Man with No Name” westerns, Fistful of Dollars, opened there, three years before it would arrive in the United States. Casting an American actor, Clint Eastwood, best known for his stint on the TV series Rawhide, Leone reinvented the American Western by not only shooting the film dubbed in Italy but also by creating an operatic style that favored wide screens and epic landscapes, emotional and unusually arranged music by Ennio Morricone, and morally ambiguous characters. At the center of Morricone’s movie was Eastwood, with his side-slung poncho, cigarette and a serenely unyielding visage. Of his star, Leone famously commented, "I like Clint Eastwood because he has only two facial expressions: one with the hat, and one without it.”

Picking your cast is one of the most important decisions you will make as a filmmaker, probably only second to the script you choose to shoot.  Not taking anything away from the beautiful shots, inspired soundtrack and rhythmic edits but it will be the cast embodying the characters and saying their lines that will be what audiences remember most about your movie.  People may say an actor was "born to play that role" and refuse to believe that anyone else could've played that role but actors don't just show up at the filmmaker's doorstep as if delivered by the stork readymade to act as the character.  A director needs to make that vital decision.   A big budget director has the luxury of a team and a casting agency to help him with the decision.  Furthermore, he has access to some of the top actors in the biz vying to be in the film.  An indie director rarely has those advantages.  Because the low budget director does not have the money to cast with the he