How to Make TV Shows Into Movies
Christopher McQuarrie, the director of “Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation,” was 5 years old when the television series ended its network run in 1973, but he grew up watching “Mission: Impossible” in...
View ArticleShould You Cut the Cord?
Use Slate’s calculator to see if dropping cable TV and paying for streaming services will really save you money. With the announcement of Sling TV at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, it’s...
View ArticleShould We Really Fear Movie Sequels?
There’s a new Pitch Perfect movie coming out next week. I knew that they were making Pitch Perfect 2 but I didn’t realise it was coming around for general release so soon. I became aware when I saw a...
View ArticleWhy Orson Welles Matters More Today Than Ever
What is there to say about Orson Welles that hasn’t been regurgitated a thousand times before, least of all this week, the centennial of his birth? How about this: I named my cat after him....
View ArticleGETTING INTO BED [with a distributer]
You’ve been seeing a lot of each other for a few weeks now. He calls you all the time, takes you out to nice meals, specifies Grey Goose when you order a vodka martini. He tells you all the right...
View ArticleNetflix’s Ted Sarandos Heckled at Cannes: “You Will Destroy the Film...
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandoscame under fire from European film protectionists during his keynote at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday. When the floor was opened to questions, one French...
View Article‘Pitch Perfect 2’ and the Rise of Hollywood’s Casual Racism
There’s a lot to like about Pitch Perfect 2. So why does it muddy itself with tone-deaf racial jokes? Worse, why is it part of an ugly trend in big Hollywood comedies? I enjoyed Pitch Perfect 2 so much...
View ArticleHelen Hunt Is in the Driver’s Seat: On ‘Ride,’ Sexism, and Ageist Hollywood
The Oscar-winning actress and Mad About You star dishes on her sophomore directorial effort, Ride, and the oft-depressing—but at times encouraging—state of Hollywood. The parts just weren’t coming. It...
View ArticleScreenwriter’s Guide to Finding a Hollywood Manager or Agent
The storyline: original. The structure: powerful. The characters: well-developed. The climax: mind-altering. The payoff: worth every single moment of the journey. This is the goal of any literary...
View ArticleWhat Do You Need to Open a Movie? a Post-Distribution Deal Checklist
So you made your film, screened it at a ton of festivals to rave reviews, and netted a theatrical distribution deal. Happy ending, right? Not so much, as many an exhausted filmmaker has discovered....
View ArticleHere’s How to Make a Million Dollar Movie for Thousands
“The passion translates. If you have passion for the project it comes across.” Some movies are just as expensive as they seem. At the high end you have films like “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” with its...
View ArticlePAUL FEIG SHOULD TEACH A SEMINAR ON HOLLYWOOD SEXISM
When Bridesmaids came out in 2011, Hollywood seemed taken by surprise at its immediate success both critically and at the box office. The comedy, directed by Paul Feig, became this bizarre item of...
View ArticleDistribution Transparency: Four Filmmakers Reveal Their Numbers, Part Two
Tuesday’s post looked at Neil Berkeley and Judy Chaikin as two filmmakers who wanted to create a theatrical release for their films to boost visibility, increase ancillary value and learn for...
View Article15 Things Every Producer Should Know
So much of what I learned at the Produced By Conference (presented by the Producers Guild of America) is extremely useful to producers and filmmakers at every level. Over two days, numerous panels...
View ArticleWhy Huge Budgets Can Ruin Movies
FILMMAKING IS EXPENSIVE, but bigger budgets aren’t always better. Jason Blum is one of the most prolific producers in Hollywood, having achieved great success with low-budget horror flicks like...
View ArticleThe Romantic Comedy Is Having a Revolution — And It’s Happening on TV
Everyone’s favorite guilty pleasure genre is getting funnier, weirder and more authentic. Here’s why we’re seeing it happen on TV. Deciding to stick with a TV series is no small commitment. It demands...
View ArticleThe Real ‘Happy Birthday’ Song Could Soon Make It To Movies And TV
Imagine a world where we can watch actors freely singing “Happy Birthday” on screen. For decades, characters on screens big and small have been held back from singing “Happy Birthday” to one another by...
View ArticleYou Will Find Your People: Emily Best
Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a crowdfunding and distribution platform for independent filmmakers. She’s also the publisher of Bright Ideas Magazine. Emily has raised hundreds of...
View ArticleAmazon’s Hollywood Shopping Cart Secrets
“Can I show you my Pinterest board?” offers Roy Price, holding out his iPhone. “This is how we develop shows on Amazon.” The head of Amazon Studios, the man Jeff Bezos has entrusted to turn the...
View Article2016 Will Make Or Break Superhero Movies
There are eight comic book superhero movies currently scheduled to hit theaters in 2016. We haven’t seen a spread like that since 2008, and that year’s crop was a different breed. We all remember the...
View ArticleOne Way or Another: Why I Released My Film for Free on YouTube
Within the independent film world, prestige is the name of the game. It’s all about where you premiere, who represents you, what kind of release you have. (Theatrical, limited, wide? Oh my!) There is...
View ArticleIMAX Theaters to Expand Into Movie Production
Homegrown programming would to plug gaps in the calendar when Hollywood isn’t producing blockbusters, entertainment CEO Greg Foster says Giant-screen specialist IMAX Corp. is joining the content...
View ArticleThe ‘Golden Age for Women in TV’ Is Actually a Rerun
Los Angeles — NOT long ago, I recommended a young woman for a job in late-night TV and when we met face to face to celebrate her getting hired, we made a charming discovery: She was born in 1987, the...
View Article“Happy Birthday” Copyright Ruled to Be Invalid
A judge grants summary judgment to a filmmaker challenging Warner/Chappell’s copyright to a song more than a century old. The world’s most popular English-language song is potentially free from...
View ArticleEntertainment CEOs Call on India to Accelerate Digital Transformation
A New York roundtable, hosted by Rupert Murdoch for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was attended by the CEOs of Time Warner, Discovery and other big entertainment companies. CEOs and top...
View ArticleA Better Budget: The Beginner’s Guide to Planning an Indie Budget
A typical feature budget has 30 to 40 categories, anywhere from 250 to 300-plus line items, and 400-800 “details” within those items. How does anyone figure all that out? The good news is that you...
View ArticleTribeca, Lionsgate Launch ‘Shortlist’ Movie SVOD Service With a Human Touch
Streaming service to include 150 curated titles monthly, with lists from guest actors and filmmakers. If Netflix is the Whole Foods of Internet subscription video, then the new movie service from...
View ArticleHow a Movement in Chile Is Transforming Film Worldwide
CHANCES ARE YOU haven’t heard much about The Stranger—it’s been hard to pick up any frequency other than “Jurassic” this week—but director Guillermo Amoedo’s unnerving sophomore feature is worth your...
View ArticleFemale-Driven Movies Make Money, So Why Aren’t More Being Made?
It’s good business to cast strong women in lead movie roles. Last summer’s opening weekend was a master class on femi-nomics when “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Pitch Perfect 2” faced off on May 15 — and...
View ArticleVimeo Announces New Slate of Original Series
This morning, Vimeo announced a new slate of “Vimeo Originals,” serialized and short form content available for purchase exclusively on the streaming platform. Now that their first Original, High...
View ArticleGoing Viral the Organic Way: New Media Meets Human Engagement in Tiffany...
Like many moviemakers, we think of our films as providing a moveable feast for the mind: the film being the appetizer, and the conversation that people have afterward—hopefully about the big questions...
View ArticleIs Netflix’s ‘Beasts of No Nation’ the Future of Movies?
‘True Detective’ helmer Cary Fukunaga’s excellent child soldier saga is the first film to be released day-and-date by Netflix, available in cinemas and streaming on Oct. 16. The award season kicks into...
View ArticleCan Budget-Slasher Jason Blum Prove The Way Hollywood Makes Movies Is...
If you want to meet the smartest man in Hollywood, head east from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre until the Walk of Fame fades into a barren stretch of dental clinics and Filipino restaurants and enter a...
View ArticleWho Makes What on the Lot and on Location
From the C-suite to the caterers on their feet: Information gleaned from the Sony hack, and reporting on comparable studios, give a glimpse into the paydays on studio film shoots. “People in this...
View ArticleStrengthen Your Lookbook with This Checklist
Pitch not strong enough? A lookbook can be the ace up a hardworking producer’s sleeve. Richard Botto, founder and CEO of the nearly 400,000 member-strong filmmaker network Stage 32, once told us that...
View ArticleEx-Paramount President Adam Goodman Launches “Nimble” New Film Label
Dichotomy, which will employ an incremental financing structure for microbudget projects, aims to ask, “If we were starting this business today, how would we make movies?” Adam Goodman, who departed as...
View Article100 Women Directors Hollywood Should Be Hiring
Studio executives often protest that there simply aren’t enough talented female filmmakers to choose from. They are wrong. Enough. Enough with the studios like 20th Century Fox, Sony, Paramount, and...
View ArticleThe YouTube Stars Taking Over Hollywood Right Now
Watch out, Hollywood – YouTubers are taking over. The latest web sensations securing a movie deal: Lionsgate bought the rights for Natural Born Pranksters, a film starring the people behind the...
View ArticleHOW TO MAKE SURE YOUR FILM IS VIABLE IN TODAY’S MARKETPLACE
Independent filmmakers dream of making that indie darling that premieres at Sundance, sells for a hefty figure and garners critical acclaim, earning Oscar nominations and launching careers. But...
View ArticleWill ‘By the Sea’ Kill Hollywood “Favor” Movies?
As Universal and Warner Bros. take hits with films from Angelina Jolie Pitt and Sandra Bullock, respectively, failing at the box office, passion projects greenlighted for big studio stars face off...
View Article‘Toy Story’ at 20: How Pixar gambled on computer animation and changed movie...
Twenty years ago, moviegoers witnessed the birth of a new filmmaking technique that would prove as revolutionary as sound and color: computer animation. The movie that brought it to the masses was “Toy...
View ArticleCommunity-Based Moviemaking Takes Off: Drone Enthusiasts Unite to Create...
Moviemaker Chad Kapper sees the future of filmmaking as a new paradigm, where entertainment is created through a collaboration between artist and audience. When the auteur theory was popularized in the...
View ArticleHigh Concept, A Recipe: The Four Essential Components to a High-Concept Pitch
The single most in-demand quality of a script is for it to be “high concept.” But what does that really mean? That demand comes from producers, directors, financiers, studios and, most importantly, the...
View ArticleHow the Tiny Studio Behind Coraline Became a Powerhouse
TEN YEARS AGO, Laika could have just as easily named itself “Longshot.” Sure, it was backed by Nike co-founder Phil Knight, who had bought a controlling interest in the animation studio back when it...
View ArticleSocial Media for Moviemakers: Everything You Always Wanted to Know
Keeping up with your crazy cousins, reconnecting with your high-school crush, maybe even documenting your every meal—you use social media in your everyday life. Yet developing platforms for your film...
View ArticleHollywood Inequality Made Headlines In 2015 But Did We Make Any Real Progress?
I’ve been writing about culture for six years, four and a half of them full-time. And while I’ve always been curious about the gap between Hollywood’s liberal reputation and the obviously illiberal...
View ArticleNine Tips for Pitching Your TV Series
With the arrival of the Golden Age of Television, many indie-slanting stories are finding a home in episodic series. And if you’re one of these independent filmmakers with a hot series concept, you...
View ArticleThe Future of Hollywood Blockbusters Moves Even Closer to China
Wanda Group’s purchase of Legendary Entertainment solidifies a push eastward in the works for years. The future of American blockbusters has long been in China, where growing business relationships and...
View ArticleHollywood’s Issue With Diversity Goes Beyond The Oscars Boycott
Last year when the Oscar nominations were announced, I was, like most Black people, annoyed at the absence of Black faces. I didn’t have that same reaction this year. I was disappointed that Idris Elba...
View ArticleCrowdfunding is a Full-Time Job: Tips from the Directors of ‘The Dog’
Though the co-directors of “The Dog” managed to raise over $52,000 on Seed&Spark, their experience crowdfunding didn’t turn out as they had expected. Indiewire recently spoke with Allison Berg and...
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