We're thrilled that 2006 Outstanding Television Writer Award recipient David Milch has another terrific show on the air, LUCK, which airs on HBO Sunday nights. The show premiered this month and has already been picked up for a second season. Check out this clip of David taking about the influence of his mentor, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robert Penn Warren.
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Should I Stay or Should I Go: The Rise of Cinema-on-Demand
As you have no doubt noticed in
recent years, there are more ways than ever to experience films. Want to watch
in the comfort of your own home? You can stream on Netflix, rent from iTunes, or
order Video-on-Demand from your cable provider or video game system. Prefer the
old fashioned method of going to the theater? You can choose the optical
trickery of 3D, the pulse rattling grandeur of IMAX, or the pure insanity of
motion seats. There truly is a wealth of options for movie lovers today, with
more to come in the near future.
This also means there are more options for studios and distributors to determine how they can maximize profits on a film’s potential, leading to a debate about whether or not indie filmmakers are being given golden opportunities or the short end of the stick. On the one hand, you can now see films in Austin, TX, through VOD or iTunes that would, in past years, have only been exhibited in a handful of theaters in New York or Los Angeles, opening more eyes to new filmmakers and fresh ideas than ever before.
On the other hand, this means that fewer indie filmmakers will experience the exquisite feeling of screening their film in a movie theater. As far as we have come with on-demand movies, and as comfortable as most people have become with viewing films at home, the allure of the movie theater is still not lost on a majority of filmmakers. Playing in an actual cinema remains the ultimate dream, but the low costs and accessibility of VOD are so appealing to studios and distributors that this dream is even less likely to come true.
Not that most filmmakers are likely to complain if a VOD deal comes knocking on their film’s door. In this economy, an indie filmmaker with a walletful of maxed-out credit cards will be more than happy to take any opportunity to get their movie watched and their debts erased. Luckily, these opportunities abound, with Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, and others offering a multitude of channels through which a film could find an audience.
Unfortunately, these opportunities also eliminate the risk-taking that sparked the independent film scene into vibrant life. Would “Reservoir Dogs” have been given a chance on the big screen? Would “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” have been labeled a “small screen movie” and gone straight to iTunes? It’s hard to say, but one thing is certain right now: if you don’t have James Cameron’s cameras or Peter Jackson’s special FX units or the Fox Searchlight/Weinstein Company/Sony Pictures Classics logos on your poster, you’re going to have a difficult time getting your film on the big screen.
What does this mean for those of us who can appreciate the potential of VOD but ultimately still enjoy the rush of discovering indie films at the local arthouse? It means we should go, and go as often as we can.
-Stephen Jannise, AFF Film Program Director
This also means there are more options for studios and distributors to determine how they can maximize profits on a film’s potential, leading to a debate about whether or not indie filmmakers are being given golden opportunities or the short end of the stick. On the one hand, you can now see films in Austin, TX, through VOD or iTunes that would, in past years, have only been exhibited in a handful of theaters in New York or Los Angeles, opening more eyes to new filmmakers and fresh ideas than ever before.
On the other hand, this means that fewer indie filmmakers will experience the exquisite feeling of screening their film in a movie theater. As far as we have come with on-demand movies, and as comfortable as most people have become with viewing films at home, the allure of the movie theater is still not lost on a majority of filmmakers. Playing in an actual cinema remains the ultimate dream, but the low costs and accessibility of VOD are so appealing to studios and distributors that this dream is even less likely to come true.
Not that most filmmakers are likely to complain if a VOD deal comes knocking on their film’s door. In this economy, an indie filmmaker with a walletful of maxed-out credit cards will be more than happy to take any opportunity to get their movie watched and their debts erased. Luckily, these opportunities abound, with Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, and others offering a multitude of channels through which a film could find an audience.
Unfortunately, these opportunities also eliminate the risk-taking that sparked the independent film scene into vibrant life. Would “Reservoir Dogs” have been given a chance on the big screen? Would “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” have been labeled a “small screen movie” and gone straight to iTunes? It’s hard to say, but one thing is certain right now: if you don’t have James Cameron’s cameras or Peter Jackson’s special FX units or the Fox Searchlight/Weinstein Company/Sony Pictures Classics logos on your poster, you’re going to have a difficult time getting your film on the big screen.
What does this mean for those of us who can appreciate the potential of VOD but ultimately still enjoy the rush of discovering indie films at the local arthouse? It means we should go, and go as often as we can.
-Stephen Jannise, AFF Film Program Director
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Conversations in Film: Writing Action!
We will be kicking off our 2012 Conversation in Film Series this month with a bang. Derek Haas (3:10 TO YUMAS, WANTED, 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS) and Ric Roman Waugh (ex-stuntman, FELON, the upcoming SNITCH and EVEL) will join us Tuesday, February 21st for a discussion on Writing Action. Using film clips and scenes from their scripts, Ric and Derek will talk about how to craft effective action scenes on the page that both further your story and convey the tension and energy that will translate to the screen.
Derek Haas is the author of several novels and co-wrote the screenplays for 3:10 TO YUMA, WANTED, 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS and THE DOUBLE. In 2008 he published his novel THE SILVER BEAR about the young contract killer Columbus. The sequel, COLUMBUS, was released in 2009. Derek is also the creator and editor of popcornfiction.com, where he publishes short stories by various authors. Haas explains that the site "grew out of a love for pulpy short fiction that used to dominate popular magazines in the mid-20th Century. I wanted to create a place where new popular short fiction could flourish, and Hollywood could have a new resource for cultivating great ideas."
Ric Roman Waugh began his career as a stuntman and became one of the youngest stunt coordinators at the age of eighteen. Gaining success as a writer, Waugh has developed, written, and rewritten over 20 studio-based feature film screenplays for producers such as Jerry Bruckheimer, Mark Gordon, Neil Moritz, Barry Josephson, Todd Garner, Mark Canton, Jim Sheridan and Nick Wechsler. His latest screenplay, titled THE BRAND, is a dramatic thriller about the rise of the Aryan brotherhood with Leonardo DiCaprio set to star and Marc Foster to direct. His next feature film to start this fall will be EVEL, a biopic on the legendary daredevil, Evel Knievel. You can read more about EVEL in this article written for The Hollywood Reporter.
Storyboards from GONE WITH THE WIND
Conversations in Film: Writing Action! takes place at 6pm on Tuesday, February 21st at the Harry Ransom Center. Tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for AFF members, and can be purchased online here.
Admission to the opening reception and exhibit is free! Doors open at 5pm.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
My Super Bowl
A friend recently asked me
who I think will win the Super Bowl. My
response was: “The Super Bowl? It’s this
Sunday? Are the Cowboys playing?” Obviously, I am not planning to watch the
game on Sunday (although I heard Madonna will be performing). Lately, my focus has been diverted to my own
version of the Super Bowl: the Oscars.
Some guys are into fantasy football; I’m into predicting the Oscars.
My earliest memory of the
Oscars was in 1991 when Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best
Picture. I was 8 years old then living
in Southern California and my school took a field trip to watch the film at the
El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. It was perhaps the first time that I had
actually seen a film that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture and I
hoped it would win. Instead, another
film about a beauty and a beast would eventually win (Silence of the
Lambs). Since then, I was hooked on the
Oscars.
Fast forward several years
later and I would find myself a student in film school attending friends’ Oscar
parties still debating who will win. I
would religiously read Entertainment Weekly’s coverage of the Oscars and
frequent many Oscar message boards and blogs especially Sasha Stone’s
OscarWatch site (now called Awards Daily).
I became obsessed. Before the
Academy cracked down on unofficial Oscar-viewing parties, I used to attend the
Alamo Drafthouse’s annual Oscar party.
For two years in a row, I won their prediction contest and was asked to
go to the stage to accept a fake Oscar and give a speech.
This may all seem silly, I
know, but what makes predicting the Oscars so fun and interesting is that it
opens a dialogue about a film’s merits.
Just because a film wins an Oscar, does it validate it as the best film
of the year? As I’ve come to realize
firsthand as the director of a screenplay competition, judging art at any level
is, by nature, extremely subjective. The
measure of an artist’s talent is not subject to the outcome of a competition or
an Academy Award but it sure is fun to debate about it.
So who will win the Super
Bowl? Unless Meryl Streep is playing
quarterback this Sunday, I have no idea. In the meantime, I’ll eagerly await my
Super Bowl on February 26th.
In the weeks leading up to
the Oscars, I’ll reveal my picks for each of the categories. This week, I’ll give my predictions for the
writing categories.
Writing (Adapted
Screenplay)
Will Win: The Descendants should take this but the
dream team of Zaillian and Sorkin for Moneyball might be enough to upset.
Will Win: Midnight in Paris.
The Artist could win here but I think Hazanavicius has a better shot for
Best Director and the Academy probably can’t resist giving Woody Allen another
Oscar even though he probably won’t show up.
--Matt Dy, Screenplay & Teleplay Competition Director
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
