To read or not to read? Where literary adaptations are concerned, that is the eternal question. If you land firmly in the “read the book first” camp, then now is the perfect time to dive into the source material for some of this year’s most anticipated series and films. Here are some of the thrillers, romances, sci-fi page turners, detective novels and literary classics coming soon to a screen near you (more…)
“Anytime you make an independent film on a micro-budget, your challenges are gonna stem from not having enough time, not having enough money, the challenge of it being based on a true story, based on a story that didn’t happen that long ago, so there were a lot of strong feelings about what we were working on, in the Bay Area. It went from being a challenge to a benefit because people were passionate about us doing it right, and people opened their businesses to us, opened their homes to us and allowed us to shoot in places we probably wouldn’t been able to get on our budget. It went from a challenge to a blessing.” -Ryan Coogler
I walked up Seventh Ave, took a right at 18th Street, went straight up to my loft and started pounding out a scene. It began with shooting up a church funeral and ended with the shooter disguised as a Hassid getting the jump on his pursuers and murdering all of them. I called him Jimmy Jump. It was only a start, but it was the vibe that I passed on to Nicky St. John, my screenwriter and filmmaking partner. We eventually called it King of New York.
1 – Thou shalt not take the crisis out of the protagonist’s hands.
2 – Thou shalt not make life easy for the protagonist.
3 – Thou shalt not give exposition for exposition’s sake.
4 – Thou shalt not use false mystery or cheap surprise.
5 – Thou shalt respect thy audience.
6 – Thou shalt know thy world as God knows this one.
7 – Thou shalt not complicate when complexity is better.
8 – Thou shalt seek the end of the line, taking characters to the farthest depth of the conflict imaginable within the story’s own realm of probability.
9 – Thou shalt not write on the nose — put a subtext under every text.
10 – Thou shalt rewrite.
“I had an antagonistic relationship early on, at least in my mind, with most directors and films. A lot of what I was trying to do is the opposite of what I was seeing. I was trying to get to a place that was more internal… there were images and sounds and things that were specific to what I wanted to see in a way that I had never seen them before. I was trying to invent my own film language.”
“I know it’s not the U.S. government or the President’s job to understand how movies are made,” says entertainment consultant Kathryn Arnold, “but if you understand how complex and interconnected the global film market is—both on a production and a distribution level—it’s devastating and doesn’t make any sense
Alamo Drafthouse employees at the lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn locations announced their union had successfully struck a deal in which all laid-off staffers will be rehired. The union went on strike in mid-February after months of bargaining with management over key issues like scheduling, wages and safety concerns. The agreement, which was ratified on Sunday, will reinstate the roughly 70 workers who were let go. It will also restore those employees’ previously accrued paid time off, sick days, seniority and hire date, the union said. Struck staffers will resume work on Friday.
In these turbulent, uncertain times, No Film School reports that the indie funding ecosystem is still intact.
Here’s a list of opportunities for the Independent Filmmaker in 2025.
They can try to take everything from us, but they can’t take this!
Fight the machine, make movies!
“ We want it to be an experience to come into the store and browse the shelves like you did back in the day, the idea of being able to find something new purely on the cover art or because of a blurb is much more exciting than finding a listing on Amazon… I think that these Blu-rays and 4Ks, these new editions, are sort of where vinyl records were 15 years ago, there’s no question it’s a niche market, but that niche is passionate, rabid and is growing all the time.” Night Owl Video opens April 11th
Filmmaker Tom DiCillo talks collaborating with Steve Buscemi,
why his Director of Photography purposely sabotaged his film,
receiving a heart-warming letter from Peter Dinklage’s parents,
his battle to cast an unknown actor named Brad Pitt in his first leading role,
and much more on the Film Situation Podcast.