Tag Archives: filmmaking

The ITVS Indie Roundup

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A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

Priceless advice on interactive documentary filmmaking comes from an unlikely source: The Guardian’s Global Development Professionals Network. Emma Wigley, director of the interactive documentary Big River Rising, says to take a holistic approach: “Big River Rising is much more than a media project. It is a long-term educational resource for students and development organisations around the world.” (via @povdocs)

Could this be the first documentary filmed with Google Glass? This latest gadget by Google displays information in front of your eyes — imagine a smartphone strapped to your face. Gizmodo claims to have spotted a camera team filming with the elusive product still unavailable to the public.

For once, filmmakers are seeking guidance on how to transition from the theatrical film world to TV. A panel at New York Television Festival counseled indie filmmakers to invigorate projects that “might otherwise languish in cinematic purgatory.” Indiewire writes: “Over the past few years, television’s begun to challenge film as the preeminent outlet for American storytelling, the breadth of interest and means of distribution at an all-time high for a medium that can no longer be looked at as of inferior artistic merit.”

UK doc-makers now have more opportunities to receive funding for their films. The BFI Film Fund will accept pitches twice a year, when selected applicants will give a 10-minute pitch to an expert panel.

This psychedelic short video by Dutch designer and director Mischa Rozema is an homage to the 1990 space shuttle Voyager 1, combining real-life NASA footage, sci-fi animation, and experimental orchestration. (via @brainpicker)

This could be the first year a YouTube video wins an Emmy, according to Mashable. With Arrested Development on Netflix, it’s clear that some of our greatest shows are no longer confined to cable.

The ITVS Indie Roundup

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A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

The director of concert documentary Andrew Bird: Fever Year has found an even more intimate subject to cover for her next nonfiction film. Xan Aranda will explore the Mormon film industry and her own disillusionment from the faith. She dished out the details to Chicago WBEZ’s The Morning Shift. (via Kartemquin Films)

D’oh! Here are five simple blunders documentary filmmakers make, including filming without a vision in mind.

How do you capture the feel of dancing on camera? The rush, dizziness, and gravity-defying lightness? Who better to answer that question than dancer-photographer, Mikhail Baryshnikov, who talked to the New York Times Lens blog about his techniques in dance and photography.

Check out this rediscovered Dutch TV documentary, The Making of The Empire Strikes Back. In an interview, Star Wars director Irvin Kershner says, “Some people call it science fiction. I don’t even consider it science fiction. I consider it a fairy tale.” Continue reading →

The ITVS Indie Roundup

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A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

Is your camera bag feeling like an anvil on your shoulder? The Tiziano Project just taught a filmmaking course in Kosovo with iPads, and they make a strong argument why you might want to go the lighter route.

Win $2,000! The 2012 James River Shorts mini-festival is accepting short films of all genres, as long as the running time is under 30 minutes, until Sept. 30.

A number of solid films are now streaming at POV: Emmy-nominee Better This World (until Oct. 10), My Reincarnation, the story of an exiled Buddhist master and his son (until Sept. 20), and Sound of Vision, a short film about a blind man’s experience of New York City. Continue reading →

The ITVS Indie Roundup

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A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

Quick! Today is the last day to submit your documentary film proposal to the MacArthur Foundation.

Lucky New York dwellers: The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) is hosting a filmmaker conference Sept. 16-20, including pitch workshops and small group conversations.

They called it “The Bullfight of the Century.” You can watch it as an 11-minute free LIFE magazine documentary. Ernest Hemingway’s protégé, the young bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez, inspired Luis Miguel Dominguín to come out of retirement for a one-on-one bullfight in Malaga, Spain. You can also see Papa Hemingway in the stands. (via @Kartemquin)
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The ITVS Indie Roundup

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A curated list of indie news and recommendations from ITVS’s Rebecca Huval.

You’ll never look at a dumpster the same way again. The sanitation department of Hamburg, Germany, teamed up with an advertising agency to form the Trashcan Project. They plant pinhole cameras on the dumpsters, offering a trash-level view of the city.

Awaken your creative juices by perusing the 10 Gold winners from Cannes Lions 2012, the advertising festival, including a surprising interpretation of the Three Little Pigs by The Guardian.

If you’ve made a film before, you understand that it’s an all-consuming labor of madness and passion. Now’s your chance for some schadenfreude. Watch other directors as they captain the impossible task of making a movie through this Sundance compilation of documentaries about filmmaking. Continue reading →

Ask Programming About LINCS Funding

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ITVS programming staff answer questions from filmmakers about the funding process:

Q: My proposal was declined from the last round of Open Call. Can I apply to LINCS with the same project?

A. Yes, you may apply for LINCS with the same project. The application and evaluation processes for the two initiatives are distinct and a declination in one initiative does not affect your chances in the other. There are differences between the initiatives. The most notable is that the LINCS initiative requires a producer and public television station partnership while Open Call does not. Please read the full guidelines to see if your project is a good fit for LINCS.

Q. I am putting together an application for LINCS. What makes a strong Letter of Agreement?

A. The Letter of Agreement is more than a simple contract between the filmmaker and the public television station. ITVS reviewers read an applicant’s Letter of Agreement as a reflection of the strength of your partnership with the public television station. The terms of this partnership are unique and vary for each production. However, the depth of commitment can be demonstrated in how well you lay out and articulate the obligations of the public television station and the role of the public television representative as well as the obligations of the filmmakers. Similar to your development and articulation of your program treatment, the Letter of Agreement should be one of substance.

For more guidance on crafting a Letter of Agreement >>

Our New Website: What’s in it for ITVS Filmmakers

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If you’ve been funded by ITVS, you’re already familiar with the resources we bring to bear in support of your project. The new ITVS.org takes it one step further, putting our reach and resources into your hands directly.

It’s all about leverage, and ITVS.org offers new ways to engage your audience. For the first time ever, you will be able to post your own screenings, making ITVS.org an extension of your current marketing efforts. (You should have received an email last week explaining how to post your screenings. Contact us if you need it resent.)

The new “Related Films” feature (at thew bottom of each film overview page) allows like-minded fans of other similar films to discover yours, and by linking your film’s page to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, we enable you to attract and engage these new fans, building a base you can convert when trying to fund your next project.

In addition, your film pages are also now a one-stop shop for all your promotional materials, turning ITVS.org into the perfect electronic press kit (EPK). Just point your adoring press to ITVS.org and you can be sure they receive all the info they need for that great review.

Got questions? Post them here in the comments and we’ll answer them.

Ask Programming: FUTURESTATES

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ITVS programming staff answer questions from filmmakers about the funding process:

Q: I recently discovered the FUTURESTATES website, and I’m really enjoying the films. How did ITVS come up with the idea for this project?

A: The long answer could fill a chapter in a book. But here’s the short version. ITVS has a long history of supporting independent narrative filmmakers, from TV Families in 1993, to the more recent Goodbye, Solo by Ramin Bahrani (airing nationally on Independent Lens on June 1st – check local listings). Back in the day, American Playhouse broadcast independent narrative films on PBS, but over the years it has become a lot harder for narratives to find a home on public television. Independent Lens remains one of the only national series to broadcast independent fiction films on PBS. Without guaranteed distribution on public television, how could ITVS continue to support narrative filmmakers in a way that made sense in the world of public media?

To help answer this question, ITVS convened two “Drama Summits” in 2007/2008, one in Los Angeles and another in New York. We brought together key stakeholders: writers, directors, and producers; academics; distributors; and media arts organizations. We learned a lot from this process, with discussions focusing on funding models, distribution obstacles, and new media opportunities. But one lesson stood out: Because of the broad scope of ITVS programming, narrative filmmakers found it difficult to know how to approach us with projects that fit our mission. They wanted clearer content guidelines. They wanted more direct cultivation and funding of narrative projects. It was clear we all needed a new way of working to create films that fit everyone’s needs, including the new generation of public media audiences.

At the same time, along with many other public media organizations, ITVS was exploring ways to help filmmakers take advantage of the rapidly expanding world of online distribution. Already, a few full-length films were streaming on AOL True Stories and Snag Films. So it was perfect timing when the Programming Department proposed an online series, inviting narrative filmmakers to create short films specifically for the web. Eighteen months later, we have season one of FUTURESTATES streaming online, with season two in development right now. By asking filmmakers to explore the direction of our society by projecting their stories into the near future, ITVS was able to fulfill two important goals at the same time — creating a home to showcase the work of narrative filmmakers, and creating a place online for a wide audience to engage with the ideas that public media does best.

Anne Makepeace and Eugene Shirley Discuss the Making of I.M. Pei: Building China Modern

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I.M. Pei: Building China Modern follows the renowned architect I.M. Pei as he returns to his ancestral home of Suzhou, China, to design a new museum. The film premieres tonight, Wednesday March 31 on American Masters on PBS (check local listings). Beyond the Box recently caught up with director Anne Makepeace and producer Eugene Shirley to give you an in-depth behind the scenes look at the making of the film.

Producer Eugene Shirley with I.M. Pei

Was there a certain visual theme that you were looking to obtain for this program?
Eugene Shirley: Yes, indeed – and this is one of the fundamentals about the project that was set out from the beginning and that everyone on the team knew: we were looking to document the interplay between tradition and modernity. It’s an idea we kept exploring and Pei kept articulating, but it’s also seen visually throughout the film. It’s pretty much everywhere.

You can see the quality of the image shifting from the beginning of production to the end of production. What were some of the decisions that were made in terms of the type of cameras and equipment you used on location?
ES: Where possible, George [Adams, director of photography] and Anne [Makepeace] would discuss camera needs and I would throw in my two cents. This is exactly how it worked when we shot in Paris, for example, and one of the reasons why we got those lovely shots of Pei at the Louvre, as well as of the architecture. When we filmed in China, however, we often did not have the long lead-time required for us to bring in our own equipment – which would have required advance notice of many weeks in order to secure the necessary visas. We were committed to accompanying Pei on every trip he made – and we stuck to that commitment – but it meant that we often had to move heaven and earth at the last minute.  And under these circumstances you can’t always get the equipment you want.

How did you begin to select the crew for this project?
ES: There certainly was a small U.S. crew but there was also a very significant team from China. Our partners were the China Intercontinental Communication Center (CICC) and we were small by their standards. The CICC supported us with a team of executives, producers, interpreters, production managers, and drivers. The American team spun out of long-term relationships that both I, and my executive producer and sister, Anne Shirley, have had for many years. We tried to make sure there was a good working relationship between the American and Chinese teams – and then to keep those relationships steady for over a decade.

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Ask Programming: Recent Questions from Filmmakers

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ITVS programming staff answer questions from filmmakers about the funding process:

LINCS Initiative

Q: My proposal was declined from the last round of Open Call. Can I apply to LINCS with the same project?

A. Yes, you may apply for LINCS with the same project. The application and evaluation processes for the two initiatives are distinct and a declination in one initiative does not affect your chances in the other. There are differences between the initiatives. The most notable is that the LINCS initiative requires a producer and public television station partnership while Open Call does not. Please read the full guidelines to see if your project is a good fit for LINCS.

Q: I have had communications with two stations who are interested in supporting my proposal for LINCS this year. Can I partner with both?

A. Yes, you can partner with more than one public television station for the LINCS initiative. Letters of Agreement with each station must be negotiated and included with the proposal materials. These letters should make clear how the required LINCS partnership responsibilities are divided up among the partnering stations. You can also use the combined in-kind from both stations in your matching funds request from LINCS (up to $100,00).

Continue reading →