The No Film School Podcast

Steven Spielberg is the highest grossing directors of all time, with over 50 influential titles under his belt. And yet, do we really know Spielberg? After all, he rarely does public appearances or gives in-depth interviews. Perhaps the director was just waiting for the right moment to tell his life’s story and the right person to tell it to. Fortunately, that time has come, and that person is our guest, Susan Lacy. As executive producer of the PBS series American Masters, she produced 250 films exploring the lives of America’s most influential cultural icons. For the new HBO documentary ‘Spielberg', she turned her hand to directing. Lacy interviewed Steven Spielberg for over 30 hours collectively, skillfully pulling out threads from his own life to weave together the film’s thesis: though he’s not known as a “personal filmmaker", there’s a part of Spielberg in every film he makes. In this episode Susan Lacy joins No Film School’s Liz Nord and the film’s editor, Deborah Peretz, to discuss how they managed decades-worth of archival and new interview material, and what they learned from Spielberg and his movies in making this one. 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 discuss the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse accusations and what they mean for indie film, share highlights from our New York Film Festival coverage including conversations with Richard Linklater and Sean Baker, and ponder what exactly is the future of storytelling. In gear news, RED has finally released its Monstro sensor and DJI has released its highest resolution drone cinema camera yet. DP Open Soffer joins us to answer an Ask No Film School question about how to shoot dialog scenes. 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

"The Florida Project" may be the first Sean Baker movie you'll go out to see in theaters, but he's been on the scene for a long, long time. Perhaps best known for the iPhone 5s filmed "Tangerine", Baker has been a champion of low-budget filmmaking for his entire career. More so than that, he has been a trailblazer in the democratization of film. Inspired by the Dogme 95 movement pioneered by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, he makes the absolute best use of the resources that are available to him. "Take Out", "The Prince of Broadway" and, yes, "Tangerine" were all shot on minuscule budgets with minimal crew and whatever gear they could afford to shoot on. His latest film, "The Florida Project", breaks this trend but keeps the Dogme 95 spirit well alive. It’s his first film to be granted a million dollar budget and shot on 35mm every frame oozes with beauty. The film is set over one summer in Celebration, Florida (the home of DisneyWorld) and follows the everyday adventures of precocious 6-year-old Moonee, a child whose mother lives month to month in a motel and does some less than favorable things to make rent. Baker and No Film School's Jon Fusco discuss the director's long road through obscurity, the level of discipline every filmmaker should aspire to own, and how even when no one else believes in you, you can still believe in yourself.   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 Charles Haine discuss Vulture’s list of the Top 100 Screenwriters of All Time, a new online marketplace for lenses, an indie distributor making bold moves, and how one filmmaker is changing the entire advertising industry. Charles also answers an Ask No Film School question about whether or not you need to buy a cage for your small camera. As always, we also bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, a slew of 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

Three directors who have been invited to and attended some of the most elite labs and fellowships in the business join No Film School's Liz Nord to define pitch forums, labs, retreats, and fellowships, and let other filmmakers know why participation in these opportunities can be extremely rewarding. Guests Sierra Pettengill ('The Reagan Show'), Sabaah Folayan ('Whose Streets’), and Jeff Unay (‘Cage Fighter’) share their own filmmaking journies and pitching processes, and also elaborate the value of fellowships to anyone trying to get a film made—everything from relationships to mentorship to feedback to simply having space to cry. 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 Charles Haine discuss the lifesaving info that every filmmaker can learn from recent Radiohead and NARCOS shoots, and a dirty debacle threatening the beloved indie institutions in the Alamo Drafthouse family. In gear news, we get a first look at Sony’s full-frame VENICE, and we answer an Ask No Film School question about what you can do in 8K that you can’t do in four. As always, we also bring you the latest filmmaking tools, 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 week’s guests have heard over 10,000 pitches between them and, in this episode, they reveal what works and what doesn't when you're trying to raise money for your films. No Film School’s Liz Nord is joined by Molly O’Brien (Chief Business Development Officer of Fork Films), Daniel Chalfen (Co-founder of Naked Edge Films), and Jose Rodriguez (Director of Documentary Programs at the Tribeca Film Institute) to discuss the art of the pitch. 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 discuss why the Emmys are actually worth noticing this year and what we should make of all the hubbub around Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, ‘mother!’. We also share wrap-ups from the Toronto and Camden International Film Festivals, including the movie made with 10,000 hours of surveillance footage. In Ask No Film School, we answer the perennial question of why your film isn’t getting into festivals. 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

Why do theater when you can do film? Why do film when you can do theater? Why do one when you can do both? Why do both when you can do VR? Director Dan Hasse and director/actor Taylor Myers are an ambitious pair of artists based in New York City who grappled with these pressing questions at length before finally coming to a conclusion. The answer? Just do all three. The duo went abroad earlier this year after conceiving the idea to fly to Ireland, rent a castle, and perform an immersive theater adaptation of Shakespeare’s immortal play Hamlet. Then they thought, well why would we limit this experience to just a few people? So the theater makers, brought along a crew and decided to become filmmakers as well. The result is Hamlet in the Golden Vale, a feature-length film that will be appearing on the festival circuit next year. All of this output from a single independent film production is made even more impressive considering that In the process, they also managed to secure funding for a companion VR piece as well. Dan and Taylor sit down with No Film School Producer Jon Fusco to discuss their multi-pronged effort to make the most of their eleven days in Ireland and the difficulties in translating from stage to the screen in all different aspects of production. From screenwriting to acting to directing they share a few tips on how to keep things running smoothly across every medium. 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 Charles Haine bring you a fall gear preview. We discuss all the latest gear news coming out of Amsterdam's IBC expo, including more details of Panasonic's EVA-1 and major Resolve upgrades, plus the multiple Apple announcements made at the company's annual launch event and how they affect indie filmmakers. We also cover a bevy of indie acquisition news out of TIFF, Louis CK’s top-secret DIY movie, the Creative Arts Emmys, and Disney's latest Star Wars shakeup. As always, the show also brings Ask No Film School, plus news you can use about upcoming grant and festival deadlines, this week’s indie film releases, 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