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Let's Make Better Films

How Do You Make The Miraculous Happen?

Sabi Pictures’ third episode of “The New Breed” is “Planning For Discoveries”.

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Let's Make Better Films

The Repercussion Of Your Choices

“The New Breed” kicked off Episode One with “Nothing You Have To Have”. It’s a great series on the creative process brought to you by Sabi Pictures courtesy of Filmmaker Magazine and The Workbook Project.

NEW BREED LOS ANGELES – Episode 1 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.

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Let's Make Better Films

Engineer Serendipity

“Beginning, middle, and an end — but necessarily in that order” — so today it’s Episode 2 from “The New Breed”.  Featuring Julius Onah, filmmaker Jeff Malmberg, actress Trieste Kelly Dunn , director Brett Haley, and yours truly.

NEW BREED LOS ANGELES – Episode 2 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.

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Let's Make Better Films

Protect The Integrity Of The Story & The Emotional Truth Of The Characters

I was fortunate to take part in episode 6 of Sabi Pictures’ “The New Breed”, a co-production of Filmmaker Magazine and The Workbook Project. They shot seven episodes around the LA Film Festival this year and really put together something nice.

NEW BREED LOS ANGELES – Episode 6 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.

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Let's Make Better Films

“On Casting With The Director” via The New Breed

When I was out in LA for LAFF, I got an opportunity to sit with Kevin & Zac of Sabi to talk about the casting process for their series “The New Breed” that they are doing with Filmmaker Magazine and The Workbook Project.

NEW BREED LOS ANGELES – Episode 4 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.

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Truly Free Film

More Thoughts On The New Film Festival Model

“Blood Simple” was the first film I bought a ticket for at a film festival.  It was screening at the NYFF and I soon came to recognize that the films accepted to that fest were of a exceedingly high quality.  The curatorial taste behind that festival choices was something I had confidence in.  They gained my trust precisely because they have never tried to be all things for all people, and for that I have always been willing to pay a premium for. The NYFF was, and is, a trusted filter.

Too many festivals these days program too many films without revealing, or reveling in, their curatorial hands, diminishing the power of their brand in the process.  If festivals are going to become the new curators, that will have to change.  Festivals must emphasize their unique taste, if not overall, then within sidebars at the festival.

Categories
Truly Free Film

Don’t Do It Yourself: NYC DIY DAYS Keynote

I am giving the keynote today for DIY DAYS.  This is it, devoid of any adlibs.

It is inspiring to be in this room with all of you for this:
The first edition of DIY DAYS NYC.
All of us. Together.
Here.

It took me almost 30 years to get here. Thanksgiving Weekend. 1980. The Clash’s Sandinista! Godard’s “Everyman For Himself” and Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” They all came out on the same weekend and I was home freshman year for break. Seeing, hearing, absorbing all that I thought:
”This is what I want to do: intense, hard-hitting, challenging, personal, political self-expression. “
I didn’t know how. I didn’t even know what the first step could be, I just felt that want. That DEEP DEEP need to create something of my own.

Have you ever recognized that you are in the right place at the right time? The exact right place? In the exact right time? With the exact right people? I have felt it, a few times, and that feeling has pushed me, pushed me forward, in a big way that has brought others along with it.