The No Film School Podcast

In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord, Jon Fusco, and Erik Luers discuss ‘Black Panther’ mania ahead of the groundbreaking film’s opening weekend. We also get into the Parking Production Assistants of New York decision to unionize, the results of the WGA Awards, and say a sad goodbye to Oscar-nominated film composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. Charles Haine joins us for gear news including some speculation about a potentially game-changing partnership between RED and Foxconn. Charles also answers an Ask No Film School question on whether you should shoot with RED or ARRI cameras for your short film. 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. https://nofilmschool.com/2018/02/indie-film-weekly-021518   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In his introduction speech prior to the premiere of "The Catcher Was a Spy," Sundance Director of Programming John Cooper described the film’s director Ben Lewin as the “nicest director you'll ever meet.” When you’ve got four decades of dealing with the chaos of filmmaking under your belt and can still be described as such, you know you must be doing something right. While Lewin may describe his career as a “career built on accidents,” in reality, it is his attitude and personality that keep people coming with projects again and again. The greatest lessons Lewin’s learned don’t come from a technical, professional or even filmmaking level. They’re personal lessons. These are the type which help to maintain a working personality, sanity, level-headedness and leadership when the shit around you has hit the fan. His philosophy is to stay positive, especially between projects. Everyone knows it's hard to make a movie, so why gripe about it? "The Catcher Was a Spy" is a film that not only Lewin, but Hollywood at large, has been trying to bring to the big screen for years. It tells the story of Moe Berg, a queer Jewish major league baseball player, who was hired by the US government during WWII as a spy. His mission: to kill Werner Heisenberg before he could finish creating the Atomic Bomb for the Nazis. While it may sound absurd, the story is one hundred percent true. The film made its premiere at Sundance where No Film School's Jon Fusco sat down with Lewin to discuss his career, coping with the post-production blues, and most importantly, how to maintain your sanity when making a living as a director. 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 why the ‘Kill Bill’ car crash story matters for every filmmaker, how to create a winning Super Bowl ad, and the results of the recent DGA Awards. Liz also answers an Ask No Film School question about what to do if you don’t think you fit in at film school. Charles Haine joins us for a huge week in gear announcements, including ARRI’s new 4K Alexa LF. As always, we also bring you 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

Meet four powerhouse cinematographers who had nine projects between them at Sundance this year: Claudia Raschke, Shana Hagan, Ashley Connor and Mia Cioffi Henry. The talented group sat down at Sundance 2018 with No Film School’s Liz Nord to discuss the benefits of switching between docs & features instead of sticking to just one, how to be the cinematographer your director needs, what to do when a production starts to go off the rails, why cinematography is a people’s business, and much more. The group has a pretty amazing combined filmography. At Sundance alone, they screened docs, narratives, shorts, and an episodic TV show. They also represent four different decades of DPs, having begun shooting professionally in the ‘80s, ‘90s, 2000’s and 2010s, respectively, so they were able to share stories and advice with each other that we can all benefit from. 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 historic Sundance deals and what the festival sales tell us about the ever-changing indie distribution landscape. We also cover the Sundance awards and ponder whether MoviePass’s risky strategy will pay off. Liz answers an Ask No Film School question about perfecting your film's fundraising pitch. Charles Haine joins us for gear news, including RED’s limited edition Gemini sensor and an analysis of the cameras that were used to shoot Sundance films. 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

Nathan and David Zellner are no strangers to Sundance, but perhaps they wish the festival was as new and exciting to them as it was when they premiered "Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter" back in 2014. That's not to say Park City has grown stale for the directing brothers, merely that they enjoy new experiences. So much so, in fact, that it has become the driving force in their creative mission over the course of their career. They make it a point not to explore material which they have already explored, so with every new film, they add a new genre to their resume. For their current project, the subversively titled "Damsel," that means "western." "Damsel" takes place in the frontier west sometime in the 1800's. Robert Pattinson plays a wealthy dandy-man by the name of Samuel who hires a priest (in fact played by one of the Zellners) to accompany him in tracking down and marrying his beloved Penelope. Penelope is played by Mia Wasikowska who had two brilliant and strong-willed performances at the festival this year with this film and Nick Pesce's "Piercing." No Film School's Jon Fusco sat down with the Zellner's the day after their film premiered to discuss their "fresh start" philosophy, their roots as child filmmakers, and what it's important to remember when acting in your own films. 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 Jon Fusco are joined by Oakley Anderson-Moore and Erik Luers to give a full rundown from the snowy streets of Park City. The whole team has been trudging through the mountain snow for the past week to bring you all the most fascinating stories from America's preeminent independent film event. We forego our regular show format to share in-depth Sundance coverage, from the lay of the land, to celebrity run-ins, to the most intriguing films. We also cover festival acquisitions—or lack thereof—and what the lesser presence of Netflix and Amazon in the buying pool might mean for independent filmmakers. Finally, we bring news of the other biggest event in the film world this past week, the 2018 Academy Award nominations.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

Well, here we are, live from Utah and our first interview out of Sundance is for a film called "Arizona." Bizarre right? Well not nearly as bizarre as the film itself. Set in the midst of the 2009 housing crisis, this darkly comedic story follows Cassie Fowler (played by Rosemary DeWitt), a single mom and struggling realtor whose life goes off the rails when she witnesses a murder. The man who commits the murder (played by Danny McBride) proceeds to take her hostage and she must do her best to escape the grasp of his insanity. The result is a film that quickly alternates between dark comedy and horror/slasher, which makes sense considering the team behind it will be responsible for the "Halloween" sequel coming later this year. But how do you toe that line without lessening the effects of either genre? Director Jonathan Watson has been part of David Gordon Green and McBride's Rough House Pictures since "Eastbound and Down," but this is his first shot at the helm of a feature. To enhance that slasher vibe he employed the talents of composer Joseph Stephens. No Film School's Jon Fusco sits down with the collaborators to talk about how a great score can be used to influence your audience, the typical workflow of audio post-production and how a composer can stand out in the biz. 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 Jon Fusco are headed to Park City, Utah for the 34th Sundance Film Festival. They are joined by NFS Managing Editor Erik Luers to share everything you should know to get ready for the big event, whether you’ll be there in person or not. In gear news, Kodak makes a big gamble on a new version of old tech, and in Ask No Film School, Charles Haine reveals the most useful film production apps on the market. 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

This is the third and final episode of our “Best of 2017”, but honestly, with the quality of advice we received over the course of our interviews last year, we could keep this going forever. All of the excerpts featured in this week’s volume are part of what we here at No Film School like to call “Roundtable” episodes. We’ll try to get at least one or two of these done at every festival we travel to. The idea is really to get a group of filmmakers together and have them discuss their craft together in a forum where everyone can relate to each other and build off of their experiences. A lot of times they will be fresh off seeing each other's work so the questions keep flying and lead to some fantastic stories. We’ve selected three of these episodes to feature today, “What It Takes to Get Your Short into Sundance,” “How to Get Your Midnight Shorts into SXSW,” and “DP Roundtable: The Shots That Almost Killed Us.” For those of you making short films, these clips should be especially helpful. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices