Roger Corman on Independent Filmmaking

Here is a personal hero of mine, the great Roger Corman, in a fascinating interview. The legendary "King of the B Movies" talks about making independent films, and includes clips from his many movies. The sound is a bit muddy at times, but its worth the time. Throwback Sundays this week remembers the work ethic and body of work of the great Roger Corman.



www.1wayoranother.net

What Directors Look For in a Producer

As a director, I used to fantasize about a producer that would one day come along and make my life easier. A producer to raise all the money, defend why I was the only director who could handle the material, defend the material itself, then to basically be a parent to me on set while I tried to articulate my vision to people and make my film my way. When that producer never came, I was forced to become that producer myself.

Now, as a producer of several low budget short and feature films, I have seen myself attempt to be (and hopefully become) the producer I always fantasized about having.

The absolute best experience I have had as a producer, as I always say, was during the strenuous, yet glorious production of Brian Ackley's Uptown - and had it not been for Uptown, I'm not quite sure I would have wanted to go on producing so many movies. Writing and directing is always my first love, but if I have to produce, that experience is the one I always hold up and compare others to. It was a perfect mix of hands on, hands off, respect, love, joy, hard work, and the stars being aligned, that for me, will be hard to compare it to anything else - especially in the ultra low budget realm of filmmaking. If you are making a film for next to nothing, make sure you are working on a film like Uptown, where the film was literally about the group - it wasnt about the stars, it wasnt about me, and it wasnt about the director, it was about the group. Everyone collaborated, and that, in my opinion, is what made it a stronger film. Although a couple times I wanted to strangle Brian because of time issues, I can honestly say that it was a pure joy working with this man, and because of this, I cannot wait to produce for him again. They say directors find the perfect producer, but in this case, I felt I found the perfect director. A director who knows what he wants, yet gains the affections of his entire team, by stepping aside and allowing others to do their jobs - from production paperwork, to sound, to editing, to promo art - we've heard a lot of praise about the experience of working with him on this film. And it helps if you ended up meeting two of your favorite actors and people in the process, stars Meissa Hampton and Chris Riquinha - 2 people that redefined the term "professional" for me those 9 days. With this as an experience, the wonderful reception the film is receiving is simply the icing on the cake.

Here is an interesting discussion about what directors look for and need in their producers. This is Episode Seven Of Christine & Ted Talk To Directors At Sundance '09, Lee Daniels speaks of the need to turn water into champagne, Alan Cumming talks about sharing passion, and Jeff Lipsky about protection and not knowing:

For more about Uptown go to their official site HERE.

- Princeton

Jace Nicole as Carmen featured on IIFF Poster

Jace Nicole as Carmen is featured on the official IIFF poster this year. We will be traveling to Boise, to screen Cookies & Cream for the Idaho film lovers in attendence. Again, you can find info on screening times HERE.

Cookies & Cream Official Site

Cookies & Cream Idaho Screening Information

Idaho International Film Festival has updated its website and included a nice write up about Cookies & Cream, and includes some words from director Princeton Holt's official statement.

If you are in Boise, Idaho during the 25th and 26th of September, make sure you check out the dates and come see the movie!

See the write up HERE.

Also check out the updated Cookies & Cream website HERE!

Sundance Finally Embraces the No Budget

The good people at Sundance film festival have decided to open a new category for submission. It's the "Next" category featuring the work of 6-8 low to no budget films.

From Indiewire:

"Festival Director John Cooper made the announcement today, citing 'the desire to discover and promote filmmakers forging new ways to tell their stories, limited by resources but uninhibited by creativity.'

Read the full article HERE.

Naama Kates Featured at Rogue Cinema

Rogue Cinema has a cool feature on Cookies & Cream's Naama Kates. Check it out below!

Name: Naama Kates

Age: 24

Location: City of Angels!!!

Some of my favorite things: Newly, the Silversun Pickups, my cat Masha, Nethack, my banged up Chevy Cavalier, the yoga mat, West coast sunsets, East coast seasons, Southern accents in Northern Liberty, salsa- the dance and the sauce. Rogue Cinema!

Most people would be surprised to know that I: Don’t have a TV, an i-pod, an i-phone, power-windows, locks, or steering, or any more clothes than fit into a couple of duffel bags. Don’t miss New York. I don’t. Really, I swear… hehe… Occasionally do musical theatre!! Have 4 tattoos.

Hobbies / special skills: Music of all sorts, listening, singing, writing, piano, guitar, Logic Pro, YOGA, NYT Sunday crosswords, “flaring” (tossing bottles around bartending), reading old books about religions and languages and magic, cutting boys’ hair, getting lost.




Read the full feature HERE!

Is the Internet Killing the Artist?

Here is a pretty interesting read from Andrew Keen of the Telegraph. Although there is no real discussion of how this all relates to film, I'll consider the intelligence of our readers to draw their own comparisons. More after the jump.

"It’s bad news, I argued in my 2007 book Cult of the Amateur, a polemic which suggested that the Internet is killing our culture and undermining the livelihood of cultural producers. No, it’s good news, counter the techno-optimists like Jeff Jarvis and Clay Shirky - who argue that the Internet offers creative artists and organizations an opportunity to escape from the sometimes unjust and inefficient control of industrial age mass-media.

Today, more than two years after the publication of Cult of the Amateur, as the destructive pace of technological change in the media business has dramatically increased, the debate about the impact of the Internet on high cultural artists and organizations has also become more urgent. Today, as the old mass media industries of television, newspapers, book publishing, recorded music and movies are being fundamentally restructured by the digital economy, it’s become clear that the early 21st century digital revolution is having as profound an impact upon culture as the mid 19th century industrial revolution.

Indeed, the relationship between creativity and technology has become such an emotive issue today that a new international political movement, the Pirate Party, has emerged which actively supports the rights of both the cultural producer and consumer against big media conglomerates. Thus, in an interview earlier this month in The Telegraph, Pirate Party UK leader Andrew Robinson underlined his party’s commitment to reforming copyright law in the UK which, he claimed, adds to the “wealth of big business” rather than 'benefiting the artist.'"

For the full article, take a look for yourself HERE.