American Cinema Blog

I’ll be honest, it took me some time to buy into the whole “green” movement. It just seemed so drastic and sudden that I couldn’t help but be mildly skeptical of people’s genuine motives. Out of nowhere, people are carrying groceries in burlap sacks and using light bulbs that make your kitchen feel like an [...]

Every indie filmmaker has the dream of being that ‘it’ director with that huge breakout film at Sundance. You know the film, you’ve seen it a bunch of times over the last 15 years. It’s shot with loving care by a dedicated crew of visionaries on a shoestring budget supported by credit cards, video store [...]

Sounds obvious, right? Of course you’ll save some money for post! You need a rough cut. You need a fine cut. You need color correction, motion graphics, effects and titles. You need audio cleaning and mixing. Then, when the show is all done, everything looks and sounds great; you are thrilled to see your script [...]

When the economy turned down, filmmakers turned to other locations to make their movies. Los Angeles was home to a whopping 66% of film productions in 2003. That number has since dive-bombed to 31%. The drastic decline has a detrimental effect on employment and the local financial situation as a whole.

This morning, Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling led a press conference about the economic merits of local filmmaking. His A-List ace in the hole, Sissy Spacek, also stepped-up for the cause. She told candid little stories of life on the set sprinkled with hard-hitting facts about VA politics, tax incentives and programs. The presentation as [...]

I can’t say I’ve ready every single filmmaking book in the history of literature but I do boast a very extensive personal collection and feel quite confident dispensing this advice. After reading an absurd amount on the subject, there are a few titles that stick out above the rest – seemingly impossible to improve upon. [...]