Independent Filmmakers

Women Take Center Stage at Sundance

Wed, 01/22/2020 - 11:05 -- Nick Dager

In partnership with AMC Networks, Women in Film LA and ReFrame, New York Women in Film & Television will hold a panel discussion January 24th in Park City, Utah, during the Sundance Film Festival. The topic is Women on the Front Lines: Changing the Game. Sundance Institute reports that 46 percent of directors competing in this year’s festival are women, up six percent from 2019. While there’s still further to go, these statistics show that progress is possible when concerted efforts are made to address systemic biases.

Goldcrest Post Supports Five Sundance Films

Wed, 01/08/2020 - 12:17 -- Nick Dager

Goldcrest Post provided post-production services for five films making their world premieres in the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Four of those films, The 40-Year-Old Version, Nine Days, Save Yourselves! and Shirley, have each been accepted in the festival’s prestigious U.S. Dramatic Competition. The Truffle Hunters is included in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. The festival runs January 23 to February 2 in Park City, Utah.

The Gynecological Cinema Chair

Fri, 01/03/2020 - 10:50 -- Nick Dager

The organizers of the upcoming Göteborg Film Festival have posed a question: Do you have what it takes to put yourself in a woman’s position? In a unique interactive film experience created by celebrated artist and filmmaker Anna Odell, powerful men such as hockey legend Börje Salming, a former president of Interpol and a Swedish former minister of justice are offered the chance to undergo gynecological exams as a way of showing their vulnerability. Welcome to The Gynecological Cinema Chair at Göteborg Film Festival.

Solving School Fight’s Budget Woes

Mon, 12/16/2019 - 12:34 -- Nick Dager

How do you make a full-length feature film, with flawless, cinematic values when your camera budget only stretches to the Sony FS7 cinema cameras already owned by the crew? School Fight is a low budget, independent feature film, but you’d be forgiven for assuming the investment in the on-screen image was far more high-end. This comes from the crew’s unwavering commitment to achieving the highest possible production values by squeezing everything they could out of the camera equipment they had available and a minimal budget.

NYWIFT Announces Third Annual Online Shorts Festival

Tue, 11/12/2019 - 10:17 -- Nick Dager

The trade association New York Women in Film and Television has partnered with GoIndieTV to showcase showcase the work of its talented membership through the third annual NYWIFT Online Shorts Festival. Members are invited to submit their short films, TV pilots and webisodes to the festival, which will run on GoIndieTV.com and on Roku for public viewing in early 2020.

Shooting on Short Notice

Mon, 09/09/2019 - 12:07 -- Nick Dager

The Long Walk is the third feature film by director Mattie Do (Chanthaly, Dearest Sister), who was raised in Los Angeles but relocated to Laos to become the country’s first, and only, female filmmaker. In an interview in Women and Hollywood, Do described her genre-bending film as “an unconventional time-travel thriller set in a forgotten rural village in Laos, about the ethos of a man, plagued by regret and loneliness, and his downward spiral into becoming a serial killer. He also has a very complicit ghostly friend.” Cinematographer Matthew Macar shot the low-budget feature over 32 days in Vientiane, Laos with very little prep time.

Crafting Sound for Single-Take Scenes

Thu, 09/05/2019 - 09:35 -- Nick Dager

The Climb, director Michael Angelo Covino’s engaging debut feature, centers on the complex friendship between two men, Michael and Kyle, played by Covino and real-life friend Kyle Martin. For its Foley team from Alchemy Post Sound (working under supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Ryan Billia), The Climb posed unique creative and technical challenges. Its first act centers on a bike ride that Michael and Kyle take in France prior to Kyle’s wedding. As the two men ascend a long hill, Michael makes a stunning admission regarding his friend’s fiancé. The results are disastrous with the men ultimately becoming involved in a violent confrontation with a passing motorist. Adding to the tension, the whole scene is captured in a single, intricately choreographed Steadicam shot.

The Pefection Demanded Different Looks

Thu, 06/13/2019 - 14:14 -- Nick Dager

The Netflix Film The Perfection, which was shot by cinematographer Vanja Černjul, ASC (The Deuce, Crazy Rich Asians), directed by Richard Shepard (The Matador, Dom Hemingway, Girls), and written by Eric C. Charmelo, Nicole Snyder, and Richard Shepard, follows the story of a troubled musical prodigy who seeks out the new star pupil of her former school with shocking consequences.

Overcoming Equipment Limitations

Thu, 06/13/2019 - 14:09 -- Nick Dager

San Francisco-based cinematographer/colorist Stephen Berke was director of photography for the award-winning short film Snaggletooth, which had its New York premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. Berke was also the DP for two additional short films, The Interview (currently showing on the festival circuit and Best in Show winner at the 2019 Albany Film Fest) and The Shepherds of Cat Island, a 10-minute single-take, premiering soon. His camera of choice is the Panasonic VariCam LT.

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