The No Film School Podcast

Three filmmakers with documentary films in the 2018 Tribeca and HotDocs lineups—Assia Boundaoui of ‘The Feeling of Being Watched’, Nancy Schwartzman of ‘Roll Red Roll', and Cynthia Lowen of ’Netizens'—sit down with No Film School’s Liz Nord to discuss their powerful films and several behind-the-scenes topics like how to gain the trust of subjects who have been exploited by the media or other institutions in the past, how to make uncomfortable issues into conversation-starters, how to tackle films that challenge entrenched beliefs while keeping yourself and your subjects safe, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord, Jon Fusco, and Erik Luers discuss two of the most important industry events that you might never have heard of, Cinemacon and the Newfronts, along with mayhem at Moviepass. We also say a sad goodbye to photojournalist Shah Marai, who was killed in a bombing in Afghanistan this week. Charles Haine joins us for gear news, including a potentially exciting partnership between RED and Facebook.Charles and Jon also answer an Ask No Film School question about the right audio gear for recording podcasts. As always, we also bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, new indie film releases, weekly words of industry wisdom, and other notable things you might have missed while you were busy making films. You can see all the links from this show in this week’s podcast post at nofilmschool.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of our step-by-step podcast on how to get your first feature made, using No Film School founder Ryan Koo's Netflix Film "Amateur" as a case study, we dive into the creative and visual side of prep including storyboarding, shotlisting, previz, and creating overheads. He also discusses some common pitfalls to avoid such as why it's challenging to rewrite the script during prep and why locking locations is so important before starting principal photography. Ryan gives us some tips into his favorite tools and apps that helped him through pre-production as well as the cameras and gear that made the production of the film possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve discussed many different tactics for getting your short films into film festivals on this podcast, but at SXSW last month we decided to head straight for the source: the people in charge of selecting the films themselves. That’s right we’re talking about the all-powerful festival programmer. And to get the inside scope there’s no one better than SXSW Senior Film Programmer Claudette Godfrey. On today’s program, Claudette and NFS Producer Jon Fusco run through exactly what it is that attracts a festival programmer to a certain short. She also gives us a rundown of the things a filmmaker should focus on when submitting, as well as what they should attempt to avoid when working on a project they hope will be selected. Claudette makes a powerful case for the value of festivals like SXSW for all filmmakers and if you’re in the middle of planning a festival run, you better listen close. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord, Erik Luers and Jon Fusco share all the news, films, projects, and directors you need to know about from our on-the-ground coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival, and debate Tribeca’s importance for indie filmmakers. Charles Haine joins us for tech and gear news, including the lighting that was designed for Michael Haneke and is now available to you. Charles also answers an Ask No Film School question about whether or not you really need to shoot at 60fps for broadcast production. As always, we also bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, new indie film releases, weekly words of industry wisdom, and other notable things you might have missed while you were busy making films. You can see all the links from this show in this week’s podcast post at nofilmschool.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of our step-by-step podcast on how to get your first feature made, using No Film School founder Ryan Koo's Netflix Film Amateur as a case study, we dive into how to cast your movie—and what to expect when you go into prep. This episode covers Ryan's experiences attaching cast to Amateur, including Michael Rainey Jr. (POWER, LUV), Josh Charles (THE GOOD WIFE, SPORTS NIGHT), Sharon Leal (ADDICTED, DREAMGIRLS), and Brian White (RAY DONOVAN, SCANDAL). We then move into the prep process on the film, and touch on: How a short film can help with attaching cast; The two-part process of auditioning Michael Rainey Jr. (who came us to via Jason Berman, who had produced a film with Michael in it, LUV); The value of a casting director (in Amateur's case, Jessica Kelly and Kate Geller; What an "offer" is and why you can only offer the part to one actor at a time; Doing street casting to find "real people," in this case, several basketball players who had never acted before; Location scouting and tax credits; Scheduling and what a "company move" is (and why we needed to avoid them); The challenges of working with a child actor and the resulting limitations on shooting hours; Rehearsing and read-throughs; Tech scouts... and more. Thank you to the Panavision New Filmmaker Program, Sony, G-technology, and Vision Research for their help in providing equipment on the film (which we'll cover more of in our forthcoming production episodes). Watch Amateur on Netflix, available now worldwide at netflix.com/amateur. You can find all other episodes of The First Feature at nofilmschool.com/firstfeature. This episode of The First Feature is sponsored by Music Bed. Get 20% off you next on-site license at musicbed.com/new with coupon code "FirstFeature20." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three filmmakers with short nonfiction films in the SXSW 2018 lineup—Jury Award-winner Charlie Tyrell, Mohammad Gorjestani, and Leah Galant—sit down with No Film School’s Liz Nord to discuss why this is a golden age for documentary shorts, how they each got their projects made, and how shorts can fit into your filmmaking career’s bigger picture even if you’ve already worked on commercials or features. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord and Erik Luers and discuss whether independent filmmakers ultimately pay the price in the ongoing war between Netflix and the Cannes Film Festival. We also preview the Tribeca Film Festival, which we will be covering in depth over the next two weeks, and say a sad goodbye to influential film director Milos Forman, who passed away last Friday. Charles Haine joins us for gear and tech news, wherein he recaps the best new filmmaking toys and tools that our team discovered over four days at America’s biggest broadcasting expo. Charles also answers an Ask No Film School question about how to put together a showreel for sound design. As always, we also bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, new indie film releases, weekly words of industry wisdom, and other notable things you might have missed while you were busy making films. You can see all the links from this show in this week’s podcast post at www.nofilmschool.com   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of our step-by-step podcast on how to get your first feature made, we dive into the pitching and financing processes on Ryan Koo's Netflix Film AMATEUR. This episode covers his experiences pitching Amateur eighty (!) times and eventually getting it to Netflix, including the following points: Making a pitch into a back-and-forth conversation as early as possible; What goes into a pitch packet other than the script, including a rip-o-matic/multimedia lookbook; Using CRM software to track producers and financiers (Ryan used Streak); How rejection can be a development process unto itself; Why "producer" is an amorphous term and how to identify producers with complementary skill sets; Who his producers were (Jason Michael Berman, Chip Hourihan, and Mark Moran) and what their roles were; and finally, How he got the film to Netflix. Watch Amateur on Netflix, available now worldwide at netflix.com/amateur. You can find all other episodes of The First Feature at nofilmschool.com/firstfeature. This episode of The First Feature is sponsored by Music Bed. Get 20% off you next on-site license with coupon code "FirstFeature20." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The landscape for short films is changing quickly. One might say we're entering a "Golden Age," where content is being taken seriously and you can even make money off of a five-minute video...if you get the right eyes on it. Traditionally, getting those views used to be all about submitting your project onto the festival circuit. This also came with the stipulation that you couldn't exhibit your project online or anywhere else if you wanted to make it in. That's not the case anymore.  Many aspiring filmmakers may not know just how valuable a Vimeo Staff Pick can be to your career. The distinction, which celebrated its tenth anniversary at SXSW this year, can lead not only to massive exposure but gigs from brands, producers and even music companies. You can really make a name for yourself if you're one of the 3-4 projects selected every day. Case and point, Jon Fusco's guests on today's show who have a combined 19 video staff picks between them: DANIELS, of Swiss Army Man fame, and Kirsten Lepore who's animated shorts in the style of Hi, Stranger led to jobs like creating an episode of Adventure Time, which later went on to win an Emmy. Together they join Vimeo's Head of Curation Sam Morrill to discuss how to get a Vimeo Staff Pick, what that Staff Pick can do for your career and how to best position yourself for a successful career after creating a short. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices