9 Tricks to Engineering Chance Into the Creative Process
Can you use chance in your creative process? Isn't chance this random thing you cannot control and, if openly used, means you don't have much merit in the first place? Lulu Miller doesn't think so. Lulu Miller thinks embracing chance is the most powerful way to get out of our head, with all its...
Jeff Nichols on the Only 3 Things Filmmakers Have to Build Their Point of View
A couple of days ago I finally watched Midnight Special and got immediately obsessed with a film that screamed personality, originality and mastery of the cinematic tools to tell a powerful story. Jeff Nichols, just like David Lowery, is a filmmaker that has built his toolkit one film at a...
The 4 Steps to Getting an Idea
Video essayist Kirby Ferguson is known for his ongoing series of videos Everything is a Remix, that tackles one topic and tries to shows its many connections, ripple effects, roots etc. His video essays were actually the first ones that I remember seeing circulating, before video essays became the new black. It's...
Masterclass: How Darren Aronofsky Would Shoot Pi Today
This is the second true masterclass from Darren Aronofsky, and once again, the American filmmaker proves generous in sharing his knowledge but also in adapting the content he shared to the crowd attending the event. While his talk at the New Museum was directed toward an older-ish crowd with a...
Pedro Almodovar on What to Say to a Director Whose Film You Hated
There's always a time when a maker ask your (subjective) opinion about their creation, and you can't say the truth. Whether a painting, a novel, a poem or a film, when you love it, it's easy and perfect, but when you hate it, it gets tricky. Thankfully, in his compilation of stories and...
Tim Robbins on What Gets Lost With Modern Filmmaking Workflow
Every now and then, a seasoned talent talks about her/his experience adapting their skills to the filmmaking revolution. Cate Blanchett learned how to work with a digital workflow with David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino disregards the video village to stay close to the actors, and so on. The reduction in size and cost...
Where Neil Gaiman Gets His Inspiration
British writer Neil Gaiman has had a long career on different medium, starting as a comic-book writer, with the now classic Sandman, moving to writing dozens of novels for adults and children, and seeing many of his work adapted to the big screen. (American Gods getting closer and closer to...
3 Benefits of Attending a Pitching Program (Film Log #27)
The Film Log is a vlog I record to share my journey making my first feature film, In Five Years. In these videos, I share what I learn and discover as I go about all aspects of being a first time indie filmmaker in today’s changing landscape. Find the full Film Log series here, and subscribe to...
Tom Hooper on Compromising his Artistic Vision to Make It Work
Besides directing, Tom Hooper is really good at one thing: finding a great anecdote about his journey making a particular film, and sharing it during the Oscars race. I've seen The King's Speech in Los Angeles during that time, and Hooper works his magic and win a crowd, me...
Seeds of Inspiration from Rian Johnson, Abi Morgan & Joe Swanberg
For years I've been collecting quotes that I found inspiring from storytellers, often filmmakers and screenwriters but not only. They were too short to write an article about and yet, they felt like precious gems that should be highlighted and passed around. Today I finally found a way to...
Destin Cretton Reminds Us to Never Listen to the Naysayers
American filmmaker Destin Cretton made a name for himself with his second feature film, Short Term 12, that he first shot as a short film to convince financier, which he did when he won the Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize in U.S. Short Filmmaking. (If this story reminds you of Whiplash's making, that's because...
Watch Brick’s Making-Of, Rian Johnson’s First Feature Film
"Anybody who's gone on making a movie at this budget level has gone through this. The hardest thing in the world in this process is when you have the money in place or you have an actor in place, and then it falls appart, and it's all gone, and you...
Crowdfunding for Films: Coolest & Worst Perks?
6 years ago, when I first backed created an account on Kickstarter to back up the making of a feature film by a first time unknown filmmaker, I felt like I was being part of History. Since then, I have backed around forty short films, documentaries, feature films and I've hosted...
How Our Stats Can Serve or Enslave Us
We live in a world where we can improve our lives by improving our statistics, at least those that the marketplace finds valuable. That’s better than other historical alternatives, like marrying into status or bribing government bureaucrats or killing neighboring tribes for their resources, right? Even in such a system...
Locarno Film Festival = Impressive Organisational Machine (The Film Log #26)
The Film Log is a weekly video I record to share my journey making my first feature film, In Five Years. In these videos, I share what I learn and discover as I go about all aspects of being a first time indie filmmaker in today’s changing landscape. Find the full Film Log series here, and subscribe...
David Worth’s Tips to Have the Right Mindset as Indie Filmmakers
“The expansion of independent film may be the only opportunity people get to see something that has a pair of balls.” Filmmaker and cinematographer David Worth delivered that quote in a must-read interview with Vice some years back, but today, it’s evident that his belief in the grit and ability...
Activate Creativity: Join the First Online Program to Reconnect, Stretch and Nurture your Creativity
Have you ever been in this situation where you wish you had more time to sit and create, and then when you actually have time, you realise you are not inspired and end up binge watching a show instead? That's a common situation when you're a creative soul who has spent too much...
We Got Selected! (The Film Log #25)
The Film Log is a weekly video I record to share my journey making my first feature film, In Five Years. In these videos, I share what I learn and discover as I go about all aspects of being a first time indie filmmaker in today’s changing landscape. Find the full Film Log series here, and subscribe...
Brandon Li on Invisible Wipes, Digital Dolly Zoom and Making Hong Kong Strong
It's the second time I receive an email from one of yous recommending me to watch the work of online nomad filmmaker Brandon Li. Li has become a specialist in capturing the energy of a place and sharing it through effective editing. As a result, many of his videos have...
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