This month I speak to Sydney Levine, president of SydneysBuzz — whose tagline for her company — “Pulling Back the Curtain on the International Film Industry” — precisely does just that. Levine focuses on international film industry developments and analysis of the international film market related to buyers, sales agents, filmmakers, film festivals and distribution.
Click on link to read more:
Joining a screenwriters’ group is a terrific way to have your work read by others, to receive feedback on your writing, as well as to share resources, brainstorm ideas and insights about the film business.
How do you find a group in your area? Contact your state’s film commission for suggestions, as well as organizations like the Independent Film Project (www.ifp.org) which has chapters throughout the country, Women in Film and Video New England (www.womeninfilmvideo.org), and check listings in screenwriting and film publications.
To read more of my article and interview with Harvard Square Script Writers Director:
http://www.newenglandfilm.com/magazine/2013/11/harvard_square_script_writers
Winning or placing as a finalist in a screenplay competition is one way to get your foot in the industry door and might help get your work some recognition. Competition winners are often listed in trade publications, and this might grab industry folks’ attention. Having a winning contest credit could give you the needed edge over other projects vying for industry attention.
TO READ MORE OF MY COLUMN:
http://www.newenglandfilm.com/magazine/2013/10/screenplay
ARTHUR COHN – PRODUCER
Locarno International Film Festival: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis and Producer Arthur Cohn
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini) was presented in the Piazza Grande under the stars at the Locarno International Film Festival’s ‘pre-Festival’ show.
Directed by Vittorio De Sica in 1970, the film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. The film was introduced by three-time Oscar winner and producer of the movie, Arthur Cohn, who spoke about his work with Vittorio De Sica. “He taught me three points: 1) Anytime you make a movie don’t necessarily go with known actors; 2) Always insist to shoot the scene in the original, intended location; and 3) Always do what you feel; listen to your instinct and not what others tell you.”
Read more:
Matt Johnson‘s first feature, The Dirties, (Slamdance Best Narrative Feature winner) is gaining the kind of buzz that every film student dreams of. But more about film school later. Unapologetically confronting issues of high school bullying with a distinct visual style and pathos, and just the right balance of humor, this film will certainly provoke a discourse about accountability and violence.
I sat down with Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson at the Locarno Film Festival where his film was included in the Concorso Cineasti del presente, to talk about the making of The Dirties, his filmmaking background, and more.
Read more of my interview from the Locarno Film Festival with THE DIRTIES director Matt Johnson for INDIEWIRE/SYDNEYSBUZZ
Owen Williams and Matt Johnson after their SRO screening at the Locarno Film Festival
Master Class with Werner Herzog at the Locarno Film Festival
German director, screenwriter, producer and actor Werner Herzog was awarded the Pardo d’onore Swisscom at the Locarno Film Festival on the Piazza Grande on 16 August. In addition to the screenings of his films during the Festival, Herzog conducted a Master Class hosted by Grazia Paganelli, author of Sinais de Vida: Werner Herzog e o Cinema .
The intensive Master Class covered a wide range of topics — from shooting on celluloid versus digitally — to the challenges of working in fiction and documentaries — to recounting compelling and often humorous anecdotes, including his voiceover acting role on the animated series The Simpsons.
German director, screenwriter, producer and actor Werner Herzog was awarded the Pardo d’onore Swisscom at the Locarno Film Festival on the Piazza Grande on 16 August. In addition to the screenings of his films during the Festival, Herzog conducted a Master Class hosted by Grazia Paganelli, author of Sinais de Vida: Werner Herzog e o Cinema.
The intensive Master Class covered a wide range of topics — from shooting on celluloid versus digitally — to the challenges of working in fiction and documentaries — to recounting compelling and often humorous anecdotes, including his voiceover acting role on the animated series The Simpsons.
Herzog detailed his vast experiences, offering insight and strong opinions about both fiction and documentary filmmaking. Showing clips of his films, as well as a clip from the opening of Viva Zapata, “Just to see how ingenious you can be to introduce your characters; I’ve never seen a better introduction of any film,” Herzog addressed the importance of casting a documentary, similar to that of a fiction film.
The conventions of documentary filmmaking is a topic that Herzog is quite passionate about, as seen in his films and as discussed throughout the Master Class, raising questions about staging situations and scenes, shooting retakes, and selecting (casting) the characters.
What is the truth in the documentary narrative? Is it subjective — satisfying the director’s vision and intent? Does objectivity occur when
something unexpected occurs in front of the camera?
Advice
From One Second to the Next
“There are millions who have cell phones; everyone can make films and photos on phones. The Internet is spread out into everywhere so you have to find your own means; new outlets for distribution. I’m just in the middle of discovering it. I just made a film From One Second to the Next released a few days ago. It’s new terrain; you have to be daring enough to test it.
From One Second to the Next, a documentary about texting and driving — there were 1.7 million viewers in a few days. It functions because you have to offer something that has great
substance. It doesn’t matter whether you distribute it in theaters or DVD; you need to articulate something no one else has. Stick to your own vision. Be bold enough to follow your vision. You have to earn $10,000 and make a feature film. I would never accept any complaint from anyone.”
Find Your Voice
“It took me quite a while until I found my own voice, my cinema voice. I found it through a long process in documentaries, notably in Grizzly Man, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. You have to find your own voice; it’s not a physical voice. It’s something you can get across on the screen. The caliber of a person is always visible on screen.”
Taking Control of the Set
“Filmmaking itself, I don’t spend much time. I do the essentials and everyone is nervous on the film set. Like on The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call — New Orleans. I was asked: ‘Why don’t you shoot coverage?’ I took my assistant aside and asked, ‘What do they mean by coverage? I have coverage for my car, $250,000 for bodily damage.’ I shoot what I need for the screen. The second day when everyone was complaining
about coverage, Nicholas Cage said: ‘Silence. Can I say something?” He said to everyone, ‘Finally someone who knows what he’s doing.’ I felt very proud of that. It somehow silenced the kind of fear. There is always fear on a set.
You have to take control of your set. Whatever you do. Where ever the camera is, even if it’s not rolling. I have no walkie-talkies within 30 meters of the camera. No cell phones within 100 meters away from wherever the camera is located. All of sudden you have focused sets.”
On Grizzly Man
“Intimacy and power. It’s an essential quality of filmmaking. Set ethical boundaries before shooting. The story behind Grizzly Man was known to the general public about Timothy and his girlfriend eaten by a bear. There was only the audio because the attack was so violent. Apparently the girlfriend switched on the camera. They had no time to take off the lens. The camera was found inside the tent. Everyone insisted I had to show it. Everyone wanted me to address it. There is a dignity that must not be touched. It’s the privacy of death.”
Anti-Film School
“You should gain experience in life and I would advise everyone don’t spend time in film school. If you travel by foot for four months, it’s better than four years in film school. Read. Read. It gives you different perspectives. You enter in a different way. Doing essential things like raising children, those who have done it are normally better grounded in reality. Otherwise it’s not going to function.”
The Controversy of Staging a Documentary
“Long ago at a festival where I was on a panel, they were raving about Cinéma vérité. A young woman was exuberant, saying that one had to be a fly on the wall. I thought, ‘Oh my God I can’t take it any longer,’ and grabbed the microphone and said, ‘No one should be the flies on the wall. We’re the hornets that have to sting.’ You’re not the security camera in the bank with video running for two and a half hours, waiting for that someone who steals money.”
The Parallel Story
“There is one thing you have to be very careful about in both documentaries and feature films — there is a special parallel story that occurs with the audience. The audience anticipates and rushes ahead of your story. For example, in a romantic comedy, there is a story evolving in the collective, ‘I hope they kiss each other.’ If you don’t understand the parallel story you will never make a great film. Pay attention to what you are seeing in cinemas; to what you see evolving on the screen.”
Silence
“Trust your cameraman. Never whisper. Never stir. Just stand there. It is unusual. The network for example, says the movie has to go ‘fast’ and ‘cut this whole thing out.’ And I say no, ‘If I cut this silence out, I have lived in vain.”
Undoubtedly, Werner Herzog will continue to challenge film studios, his audience, and narrative conventions both in his fiction and documentary films.
Award-winning Cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger
Speaks to Locarno Summer Academy Students.
Since 1996, award-winning cinematographer, filmmaker, screenwriter and editor, Peter Zeitlinger, has worked with Werner Herzog as his director of photography on many films, including Encounters at the End of the World, Grizzly Man, Into the Abyss, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans, On Death Row, and From One Second to the Next . The Czech born Zeitlinger fled the country as a child in 1968, during the Soviet occupation and moved to Austria.
Werner Herzog joined Peter Zeitlinger for the beginning of the seminar for students of the Summer Academy moderated by Academy Director Stefano Knuchel and Documentary Summer School Lab and Artists Workshop Director Nevina Satta. Hours later on the Grande Piazza stage, before an audience of thousands, Peter Zeitlinger presented Herzog with the Festival’s Pardo d’Onore Swisscom award.
Zeitlinger and Herzog
ZEITLINGER:
(Turns to Herzog, smiles.) As far as I remember, I was an ice hockey player. This was the main reason why you took me for the work with you. You mentioned
it several times.
HERZOG:
(Smiles at Zeitlinger.) It was for distracting attention. People asked me about deconstructing of images, esthetics. I said, ‘I don’t want esthetics. I
want a cinematographer who knows how to play ice hockey.’ (Looks at the students.) It put the stupid question to rest. Peter brings in esthetics. Esthetics
infiltrates film without thinking about it. The inner breath of a film.
Preparing for a Shoot
HERZOG:
We know the location beforehand, except the cave in Antarctica. Even in the cave you have to adapt quickly.
I don’t do much rehearsal with actors beforehand and don’t read the script with Peter. I’m completely unprepared. Peter comes unprepared because he doesn’t
know what I’m up to.
ZEITLINGER:
Sometimes Werner reads the script the day he shoots.
HERZOG:
With Peter we arrive on the set sometimes beforehand and a few things are pre-settled. Otherwise we work ourselves into the scene. Peter normally has a
camera and weaves into the choreography of the people. We have an attitude; the camera moves only when physical necessity of our curiosity.
ZEITLINGER:
You are not directing shot-by-shot, you are directing an event, and the scene is the event so it’s the world you create there, not just something that
happens for one particular shot. The main thing is to see the whole world, so you don’t see the filmmaking itself. It is important to see everything so you
don’t get a tunnel view.
(l-R, Stefano Knuchel, Zeitlinger, Herzog, Nevina Satta)
Zeitlinger Now Takes Center Stage
The first films (I made) I used to edit myself. I looked for storytelling that was very real. Every cut is a betrayal of the audience. You pretend
something that is not continuous. But I cannot handle this time-wise, so I gave up editing. For example, every four seconds in German TV, even if there’s
no need for it, they want a cut. You can’t work with the actors this way. They don’t like it.
Shooting On Death Row
Scary. Dark. There were a few cameramen working on this. Death Row was conceived like television; we never pretended it was cinematic. Even when I
tried to sometimes, Werner didn’t want that. He always destroyed it; he wanted the naked pure realism for this film. It would work less if it was
cinematic; it was stronger that it was so naked.
(Responding to a student’s remark: ‘I could see your shadow on the wall.’)
It’s a mistake. Mistakes are important material to work with. The word “mistake” is misleading; you think something is wrong, but it can be something
great.
Working Effectively on Set
For me it’s much more necessary for everyone who is there – who is pulling the dolly, who is acting, who is moving the backgrounds — everyone has to adapt
to mistakes of the others, and choose the mistakes for the right creation of the shot.
Trick yourself and others to be natural, to be relaxed. You have to do this with actors, with everyone who is in front of the camera. Because the camera
makes them nervous.
Shooting Celluloid versus Digital
It depends on the project. I think film will die somehow or preserved for some special events. Digital has lots of advantages, but also has a trap. When you keep the camera running, you can lose focus. When film is on, the money runs; when film is turned it off, the money stops. When you keep rolling, it’s just tape, all the aesthetic structure floats away. Try to shoot once, and shoot twice only when really necessary. Everyone has to find his own tricks. I like to trick everyone to shoot once, not to discuss — unless there is CGI.
On Herzog’s ‘Staging’ Documentaries
Werner is not staging a specific shot, he’s staging the situation. He’s interviewing a person, he’s staging him somewhere. He’s creating a world in his words. It’s his truth, which he is staging. He’s not telling people what to say. Never. I believe that he’s free of prejudice; he really asks a person, because he really wants to know things. He doesn’t think, ‘What do I need in the film?’ or ‘Where it should end in the film?’ He does not have this intention. That’s why I believe the people are giving so much.
More Highlights and Insights
· We have the responsibility to develop the view of the audience.
· I try to recreate what I see in reality and what I see in my dreaming.
· I am ‘just in this world’ looking into the lens; it is kind of safe because you’re not there. This is good for actors when you’re in this world, they
trust you; you’re not judging them.
· Authenticity — there are different ways to approach it. If you’re there a long time, they (characters) get used to it.
· Our profession is constantly changing. The profession of cinematographer will not be anymore; you have to be a visual creator.
· Responding to the question: ‘What was the film that you worked on that changed your life?’ Every film changes your life. Because you get two months
older.
Camera Movements and Choreography
Concerning camera movements it helps to know how to — (he pauses) — move. The use of camera. To be free. To surprise.
(Zeitlinger gestures a dance movement. A student then asks Zeitlinger to demonstrate how he moves with the camera, using Summer Academy Director Stefano Knuchel as the subject he’s filming. Zeitlinger obliges; he grabs his plastic water bottle, places it above his shoulder and moves seamlessly to, and then around Knuchel, and then back. A graceful and focused choreography. )
(Responding to the final question about his next project, Zeitlinger smiles.)
I am learning salsa.
Breaking into the Business…
Readers’ Questions…My Answers…Read the article:
http://www.newenglandfilm.com/magazine/2013/09/screenplay
During the Locarno International Film Festival in August, I interviewed Manakamana filmmakers Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez where their film had its world premiere: at the Festival’s Concorso Cineasti del Presente (Cinema of the Present competition), which is dedicated to emerging directors from all over the world. Just days after our interview, Manakamana was awarded the Golden Leopard, the top prize in its category
To read more of my Interview from the Locarno Film Festival with Manakamana award-winning filmmakers Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez…
Click on: http://www.newenglandfilm.com/magazine/2013/09/sprayvelez
Click on link to read my piece on Arthur Cohn and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.
Producer Arthur Cohn at Locarno Film Festival
Lino Capolicchio, who played the main character, Giorgio, said a few words about his experience working with De Sica, and then the lights dimmed, and the credits rolled.
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