by Eric Steuer.

For nearly 60 years, Roger Corman has been making indie films with budgets that wouldn’t even cover the catering costs of multiplex fare like Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol.

The legendary king of B-movies has produced or directed close to 400 films, including cult classics like 1960’s The Little Shop of Horrors (which he famously shot in just two days), 1975’s Death Race 2000 (co-starring a pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone) and the so-bad-it’s-good Carnosaur horror series from the ’90s. In the process, he launched the careers of protégés like James Cameron and Martin Scorcese, and inspired dozens of today’s other top filmmakers with his low-cost, highly entertaining movies.

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, a documentary examining Corman’s legacy, hits select theaters Friday. Alex Stapleton’s directorial debut is a fun, fast-paced look at Corman and his contributions to the world of film.

The R-rated documentary is jam-packed with interviews with famous actors and directors who started off working for Corman, terrific behind-the-scenes clips from his productions, and plenty of interesting conversation with the grindhouse auteur himself. Wired.com spoke with Stapleton for insight into how Corman — who’s still making movies at the age of 85 — changed film forever through his mix of imagination and innovation.

Read the rest of this article from Wired.

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by James Carney.

There are more independent movies made in the UK each year than you imagine. With the continual improvement of affordable equipment available, more and more people are turning their hands to film-making – and the results, it’s fair to say, are mixed.

Even if your film is good – not quite the same as buying a lottery ticket – it takes a huge amount of timing and good fortune to make it stand out in this increasingly crowded market, and rise to the top.

With Black Pond, film-makers Will Sharpe and Tom Kingsley have begun their ascent.

With just £25,000 – the same figure, in dollars, with which Kevin Smith shot his first feature movie Clerks, Sharpe and Kingsley have made a movie that is causing waves on the independent festival circuit.

Selected to screen at Raindance and at the Moet British Independent Film Awards, Black Pond looks set to announce the arrival of two talented young film-makers.

Read the rest of this article from Yorkshire Post.

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by Ted Hope.

Until the double whammy of Toronto 2010 & Sundance 2011, it looked like the US acquistion market for feature content had fully collapsed.  No reasonable P&L would have shown more than a modest six figures for US acquisitions.  Hybrid & DIY models have not been developed yet to consistently deliver returns in excess of this amount (or even at these figures).  Perhaps this is now changing, but it would still be foolish for any filmmaker or investor to expect this and we can’t budget for such expectation.

How many of the 7500 films produce in the US annually return 20% of their negative cost from US licenses?  Although it puts emerging filmmakers at a great disadvantage, I think the surest determining factor for predicting US acquisition potential is the filmmakers’ track record.  If you have found buyers previously, you are well suited to find them again — and even still exceeding that 20% is the exception and not the rule.

Read the rest of this article from Truly Free Film.

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by Ted Hope.

This past Wednesday I screened Andrew Haigh’s WEEKEND for my HopeForFilm/Goldcrest Screening Series.  It is a truly romantic film.  It may be a gay love story, but in it’s tale of a one night stand that could become something more, Haigh’s has tapped into a longing and hope that I never feel in any corporate filmmaking and is entirely universal.  It makes me wonder if when creators are forced to think first about the market, if their work will be deprived of love and romance.

Read the rest of this article from IndieWire.

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by Jason Brubaker.

Times HAVE changed.  In many, many ways.  But what we call Indie Film is an era gone by.  The opportunity to create and connect has never been greater—and it means other changes are afoot.  Jason Brubaker reached out to me with what I felt was an important idea, but like many I encounter, I was too busy to participate unfortunately.

Jason recognizes that filmmakers no longer need “discriminatory distribution” and can reach audiences with their work in new and different ways.  But Jason also recognizes we need to share the info on how we do it.  Most importantly, he recognizes this is a community effort. He has done a great service to our community and deserves our thanks.  But I am going to let him tell you all about it with a guest post.  Thanks Jason!

Read the rest of this article from IndieWire.

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by Mark Olsen.

A group of like-minded young people pool their resources, make use of new, inexpensive technology and begin to make movies that capture their particular time and place. From the French New Wave to the recent American micro-budget movement, filmmakers have often come together just so. The documentary “Blank City,” which opens in Los Angeles on Friday, explores the independent filmmakers of New York City’s downtown scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Though the New York musicians from that era — the Ramones, Blondie and Sonic Youth, to name but a few — have been well documented, the filmmaking of that period has been less examined, even though directors such as Jim Jarmusch (“Stranger Than Paradise”) and Susan Seidelman (“Smithereens”), as well as performers such as Steve Buscemi, John Lurie, Lydia Lunch and Ann Magnuson, have gone on to long and varied careers.

Read the rest of this article from LA Times.

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by Dorothy Pomerantz.

Thousands of people are converging on Park City, Utah, today for the start of the Sundance Film Festival, the biggest independent film festival of the year. Sundance is where films like Little Miss Sunshine, The Usual Suspects and The Blair Witch Project made their debuts.

For the past few years though, Sundance has been at the center of an industry in trouble. Like the rest of the economy, the independent film world got hit hard by the global crisis. Before 2008, Wall Street bankers with more money than they knew what to do with were directing extra funds into the film world in the hopes of turning a profit or at least getting to meet Scarlett Johansson.

Read the rest of this article from Forbes.

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This article was written for Knowledge@Wharton.

Aspiring filmmaker James Kerwin had an image in his mind — a 1940s-era Lauren Bacall wearing Humphrey Bogart’s trench coat and walking through city streets at night. That image was the genesis of his first feature film, Yesterday Was a Lie, a black-and-white noir-style science fiction mystery starring Kipleigh Brown, Chase Masterson (who also served as producer) and John Newton. The independently produced film draws on myriad arcane influences ranging from Jungian psychology to quantum physics.

To fund the film, Kerwin used an approach that is uncommon in motion picture production: He established a tax exempt non-profit organization to raise the roughly $200,000 he needed. He was also fortunate enough to be awarded a grant from Panavision, which supplied most of his equipment.

Read the rest of this article from Knowledge@Wharton.

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This article was written by Alison Rowat.

Though his first film, Monsters, is yet to go on general release, Gareth Edwards has already made a name for himself as the anti-Oliver Twist of movies. Where other directors want more money, he was forever asking producers to spend less. Has the age of austerity found its film-maker?

Set in a post-apocalyptic Central America, Monsters is a mix of love story, road movie and creature feature. At this year’s film festivals, in Edinburgh especially, it was a King Kong of low-budget indie film-making, charming and wowing audiences as it went.

Read the rest of this article from Herald Scotland.

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This article was written by Jason Brubaker.

One of the most important filmmaking strategies you must adopt in this era of modern moviemaking is a long term perspective. In years past, filmmakers focused on making one movie, selling it and then moving on to the next movie.

While the idea of creating multiple titles over the course of your filmmaking career has not changed, it is now vitally important that you plan a series of movies from day one. The reason for this is simple. You are now solely responsible for the success of your movie business. And to stay in business, you will need to create a profitable library of titles that continually pay you.

Read the rest of this article from FilmmakingStuff.

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