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Wisdom: Randall Emmett’s Golden Rules of Producing
Born and raised in Miami, Randall Emmett started his long and prolific producing career in the unlikely position of Mark Wahlberg’s assistant. Since then, he has produced, amongst countless others,...
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Fictionalizing Truth: Lee Daniel’s The Butler & More
We’ve all seen those stately biopics (usually with Oscar aspirations), in which renowned actors portray real-life historical figures (Patton, Queen Elizabeth, Gandhi, etc). They are often interesting...
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Wisdom: Chris Weitz’s Golden Rules of Filmmaking
This week, our Wednesday Words of Wisdom come from the Hollywood jack-of-all-trades that is Chris Weitz. The consummate professional reminds fellow moviemakers to avoid clichés and always mind their...
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DIY Legal: Telling the Truth Without Paying for It
Fact or fiction? For this week’s DIY Monday MovieMaker is exploring how to limit your liability when adapting a true story for film (telling the truth without paying for it), which as history tells us...
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Short Films: Sharpen Your Script Before Page One
You just got a great concept for a short film. It moves you. It excites you. It scares you because it’s too good not to make, and now that responsibility rests on your shoulders. Take a deep breath....
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My New Film: American Jesus Is Not A Horror Movie
Larry Fessenden, producer of the new documentary American Jesus, explains why Glass Eye Pix became involved in Aram Garriga’s exploration of the sometimes bizarre relationship between faith,...
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She’s Just Not That Into You: Lessons Before You Make A Deal With SAG
This Wisdom Wednesday, producer Randy Bobbitt (It’s Gawd) shares invaluable lessons he’s learned about the SAG signatory process. Engaging SAG can be a tricky process, but here, Bobbitt provides the...
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Snowpiercer: Composer Marco Beltrami
After gaining exposure for his chilling work in Wes Craven’s Scream, Oscar-nominated composer Marco Beltrami has become something of a dab hand with horror-action, with scores for Resident Evil, Blade...
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Behind the Gate: Co-Director and EP Mark Giardino
Behind the Gate is co-directors Jack Lucarelli and Mark Giardino’s documentary about the tremendous efforts that go into training a racehorse for the Kentucky Derby. Casting his own purebreds as stars...
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Rookie Mistakes: What A First-Time Producer Learned Making The Demon’s Rook
Two first-time filmmakers team up to make a microbudget, DIY fantasy-horror feature about “a portal that allows an unspeakable evil to travel freely into our world.” Sounds like a recipe for disaster?...
View ArticleCinema Law: Using a Song Title as Your Movie Title
Welcome to Cinema Law, where you ask the questions of our resident team of legal experts and, each week, they’ll provide the answers to your production queries. Cinema Law is presented as general...
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Wisdom: Randall Emmett’s Golden Rules of Producing
Born and raised in Miami, Randall Emmett started his long and prolific producing career in the unlikely position of Mark Wahlberg’s assistant. Since then, he has produced, amongst countless others,...
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Accepting Applications: Dogfish, the world’s first film production accelerator
Back in 2005, Paul Graham and Trevor Blackwell, two tech pioneers who’d made fortunes in Silicon Valley, founded a company called Y Combinator. The business model was based on publicly funded business...
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Breaking the Mold: Bodybuilder Mo Anouti Turns Actor and Producer in Hero of...
If you’re a would-be moviemaker nervous about the dive from a non-creative job into the risky waters of filmmaking, rest assured, at least, that you aren’t alone. Career change is a daunting prospect,...
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Horror Stories: Examining the Business of Genre Filmmaking
A decade ago, the primary focus of independent horror moviemakers was making a good horror movie, knowing that if they did their job well, they were virtually guaranteed to find an audience and make...
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The Low Down on Gap Financing: How Does it Work, and is it for You?
Gap financing: You may have heard the term before. But what does it mean—and, more importantly, can it help you get your film funded? Well—maybe. This primer explains why. Once a producer acquires a...
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Independent TV’s New High: Vimeo’s High Maintenance and the Future of...
It’s been a topsy-turvy year for the independent world, with moviemakers making TV, TV feeling more like movies, web series earning increasingly mainstream levels of recognition (and not a moment too...
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Mindful Moviemaking: Put Your Film in the Green and Save the Environment, Too
My decision to change the name and philosophy of my thriving production company, Tidal Wave Productions, to Green Shoot Films, and launch the first eco-friendly film production company in South Africa,...
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Staying Clear: How the First Amendment Can Protect Your Documentary
If there’s one thing both Alex Gibney and Scientology should agree upon, it’s the value of the First Amendment: freedom of speech, religion, and the press (in addition to the freedom to assemble and...
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The Joy of Fly Casting: Indie Casting Tips from Man From Reno
August, 2012. I’m sweating like a pig on the streets of Tokyo, frantically looking for my Japanese casting director, Satoshi Mashida. Even though I speak Japanese fluently, I’ve never lived in Japan...
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