While NYC Production & Post News doesn't make a habit of covering exhibition and distribution, we do tackle the difficult maneuvering a production faces to fundraise and shoot a feature.

That's why I'm recommending you attend a screening of the two week run of Marta Mondelli's The Contenders at the Producer's Club on West 44th. How's that? To see what you can learn from a first project, especially as I'll be checking in on Mondelli now and again with short updates as she seeks funding and support for her next film.

What difficulties does a novice producer face in today's splintering media world? What innovative approaches are necessary when you're new to New York's hustle of an indie film scene? Mondelli says that she came to the City because of the energy and drive of its Indie film scene...we'll see how she feels going along the route that many have struggled to master.

The Contenders, the first feature by this young Italian expat actress and director, is a self-funded ensemble film that features an engaging group of actors, starring Mondelli herself.

These are just the type of actors and crew—full of energy and enthusiasm for the project--that a producer needs to find if they want to succeed with such tightly budgeted, self-funded projects. (Mondelli spent $36,000 of her own money, including some cash raised by selling products related to the film, to pull off her 74-minute effort.)

The director will attend the 6pm, 8pm, and 10pm screenings this weekend at the 358 West 44th Street venue. Click here for more info.

Tweet This Post

Bryant Frazer of StudioDaily offers a short, informative take on Sean Dunne; the 28-year old Brooklyn-based documentary maker has been creating a series of sharply-shot portraits and other shorts that he posts on his web site and on Vimeo.

His first short “The Archive”--about record-collector Paul Mawhinney--took Dunne to the Sundance Film Festival and Silver Docs. You'll also see promos he's done for The History Channel and an ad or two. Dunne has a good sense for selecting the right characters and situations. Worth checking out.

Tweet This Post

He's an animated guy who seems to have a hand everywhere; an author and editor, he started his editing career in New York, but now runs the Editing Track at the USC's School of Cinematic Arts.

This past week Hollyn launched a web site--2 Reel Guys-- that takes on one of his pet peeves. "There are lots of web sites that will tell you every last thing you want to know about the latest video technology," says Hollyn. "But I've found next to nothing on what should be a filmmaker's real concern—how to convey story."

Creating a Siskel & Ebert-like atmosphere is Hollyn's partner and co-creator of the site, Larry Jordan, a well-known digital media trainer and lecturer.

Their idea? Create a series of free webcasts that push story to the front of attention, showing how technology can be put at the service of visual storytelling. They have 20 shows in the can now, with new ones set to go up every two weeks. Avid is the site's sponsor.

The NLE maker has taken a beating in market share from the surge of younger users going for Apple's Final Cut Pro, though the Tewksbury, Mass.-based company still claims the majority of feature film editors use their app.

Highly recommended.

Tweet This Post

It's no secret. Solid, paying jobs in journalism (television or otherwise) are disappearing fast. So are jobs in video production, engineering and other facets of what was once termed "the television industry."...Even if you get a job, the pay is much less than in an earlier era. The situation in the traditional TV industry, to put it lightly, is not very promising.

Frank Beacham, a long-time industry observer, continues to write his interesting, useful columns for the TV Technology site--that's an excerpt above from the most recent one of April 28th. I wanted to quote a bit from this column because it starts to give a sense of Frank's long term, far-reaching overview of the industry. You've yet to read his advice, generous and uplifting as ever.

I met Frank years ago on the press circuit and know him as a sharp, funny guy who still has the charm of an old Southern gentleman, which he is.

I also wanted to point out this particular column as it has some good, down-to-earth advice for anyone kicking around for new work; the column is inspiring enough that you might still feel there's something out there for you, and figure some ways of getting there with his advice. While the observations about trends in video production and the Internet won't surprise most any regular observers of the industry, it's still helpful to have someone who can identify where, how, and what steps you might take to make a business in these turbulent times.

As to Frank's monthly column? It's just a good down home read on a regular basis. For the full Frank, don't forget to check out his website.

Tweet This Post

Bobbie O’Steen's interviews with top editors at the downtown 92nd Street Y--more properly known as 92YTribeca--are great evenings involving smart talk with a top editor and a screening of their film for a minor charge of $12.

Bobbie does these events as part of an ongoing series spun out of her popular editing craft book The Invisible Cut: How Editors Make Movie Magic. I covered a previous evening for the Motion Pictures Editors Guild magazine and had a lot of fun hearing what went on with the production and post on Altman's Gosford Park.

Thursday's event brought film editor John Gilroy, A.C.E. to screen and discuss the well-regarded George Cluny star'd Michael Clayton (2007), a film that includes a knockout performance by one of my faves, Tilda Swinton (she won an Oscar as best supporting actor for the role).

I'll be covering this for the Editors Guild magazine, so check out the link to the online version which I'll post as soon as it's ready. If you haven't seen the movie, get it from Netflix for two hours of a well-written script, great acting, fantastic cinematography courtesy of Robert Elswit, and yes, a well-edited adult entertainment.

Tweet This Post

I don't know how familiar you are with NYC life--Channel 25--the flagship station of NYC Media. It's very watchable, especially since Mayor Bloomberg and spark plug Katherine Oliver (also known as NYC Media President and General Manager) greatly revamped what was, up until the complete makeover in the Mayor's first term, a gloomy, had-something-to-do-with-CUNY property.

(The city station is a bit bigger than just a TV net, as it's the "official TV, radio and online network of the City of New York".)

If you haven't tuned into any of the shows that have become hits (Kelly Choi's Eat Out New York draws responses that seem to veer between "love her" to "worse thing to happen to NYC food culture in some time"), you really aught to. For anyone considering what goes into good Web and info design when you have such a huge and sprawling creature like the NYC gov't to deal with...well, you need to check out the website, as it's some of the best design going.

Anyway, all this is to lead up to today's announcement of the new television line-up on NYC life, which actually premieres on Monday, May 10. There's a new approach to saving money when possible; the announcement claims that the new lineup won't cost a thing. That's right, NYC Media will now run 15 new series "valued at $4 million" and not dun you or me.

How's that? And what's the production angle here? Well, the city is saving money because of "partnerships" with established players (they're getting some shows from networks including History, A&E, and WNBC-TV) as well as "accepting" series from indie producers and production companies looking for a platform for their series.

So if you are among those developing a series that might not immediately have a chance at making money but still have the moxie that could make it into something bigger, you could do worse than go with our own vibrant little cable network NYC life. The contact page for queries can be found here.

Tweet This Post

I had a great time last week attending 92YTribeca to interview Tim Squyres on his editing work and challenges of working for Bob Altman on Gosford Park.

Squyres gave an enthusiastic account on the complex challenges of editing for that great and unique artist (no standard shot/reverse shot structure for Altman, of course, but constantly prowling cameras that left Tim digging for matching shots and cut-aways..sometimes he found them, sometimes he had to invent something).

Bobbie O'Steen, an author of two well-received books on editing, ably set up explanations of Tim's puzzle piece. By giving his work more context, she gave a good sense of the real challenges laying behind the hidden work of an editor.

My story for the Editor's Guild website, which includes Bobbie's helpful explication of several of Tim's edit decisions, can be found here.

Tweet This Post

While I don't cover movie premieres on a regular basis, I do want to take special note of Miguel Coyula's Memories of Overdevelopment. This very indie feature, which recently debuted at Sundance, reflects over four years of struggle to pull together a compelling, visually intriguing narrative on a—trust me--very small budget.

(You can read The Hollywood Reporter's generally positive review here. I qualify my comment because--even though we're about 90 years past Eisenstein, and well out of the MTV age--the Reporter's critic still wants to claim the film can only make it in a festival ghetto because its non-traditional technique might be a just little too much for the general public...)

Sure, each year sees lots of independent features made under very difficult circumstances. Somehow, drive and creativity still win out in a number of examples.

The director, Miguel Coyula, began with even greater ground to make up than most American directors at the festival. As a Cuban émigré, Miguel has great drive to succeed by following his own, very unique, non-mainstream vision.

That approach has worked already. He received great response from the critics at Variety and elsewhere with his first feature, Red Cockroaches. Done with an even more minuscule budget than his current effort, this debut film was entirely postproduced using simply a Mac and Final Cut Pro. Invention won out, since even the well-handled special effects didn't rely on apps like the industry-standard After Effects.

Ron Blair's character, an exiled Cuban intellectual, floats through American society.

Coming years later, Memories of Overdevelopment benefited, of course, from newer generations of light, fast Sony camcorders, an even more capable Final Cut Pro, along with Adobe After Effects and other software. But most everything in post was still handled with modest Mac gear.

Miguel was also able to rely this time on a depth of real world problem solving brought to the project by producer D.W. Leitner. (I profiled David earlier here.) David—who himself has premiered a number of projects at the fest--worked along with Miguel over these past four years. I know just a little of the long hours, and days spent doing those things a producer does with a budget that disappeared when the market sank.

Believing in Miguel and his vision for the film, David brought his decades of experience as a director, DP, producer, gaffer and writer to the project. It worked.

Congrats to both for an inspiring partnership that goes well beyond run-of-the-mill Hollywood link-ups.

Tweet This Post

My friend and long time coworker at millimeter magazine, Michael Goldman, recently launched his own website, Hollwood-scribe.com.

If you want smart, inside writing from someone who an easy, conversational approach to Hollywood's doings from top directors on down, you'll want to turn to Michael's site regularly. You might want to check out his interviews with Marty Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and other top Hollywood talent, or maybe his entertainment coverage for the LA Times, such as this article on the storied cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond.

Michael has a great, deep view of the scene—he's been a reporter for Daily Variety, has four books to his credit (there's a fifth one in the works, title to be revealed soon), and even finds the time to do regular writing and podcasts on his blog at the ProVideo Coalition which you can access here.

Tweet This Post

SMPTE tapped a sister organization—the I triple E, as most everyone voices it—for its new executive director, Barbara H. Lange.

Lange, who was staff director of product management and business development for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, will be responsible for managing business development, operations and marketing activities for the White Plains, New York-based group, which calls itself the leading technical society for the motion imaging industry.

Now in its 94^th year, SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) enters a challenging time for its charge to help set technical standards and practices for the motion-imaging industry—new technologies abound, including 3-D distribution to the home, ever mutating formats for production and post, and concerns for some practical way to archive all those 1s and 0s. But society membership is aging, stagnating as engineers get tossed aside by broadcasters, while industry support wavers as stalwart funders such as Eastman Kodak face their own challenges.

It's no wonder SMPTE looks to the upside, touting Lange in a press release as "instrumental in developing new subscription products and innovative business models that leverage the Internet, mobile phone, and other platforms…(driving) double-digit increases in revenue for IEEE."

Ken Fuller, SMPTE president praised Lange's "vision and proven effectiveness" in creating new opportunities for making money and growing membership as the group rolls out an "aggressive" growth plan.

Tweet This Post