The No Film School Podcast

In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord, Jon Fusco, Charles Haine and Emily Buder discuss the real problem with Lucasfilm's firing of Lord & Miller, and how to protect yourself from a cyberattack. We also reveal why a promising streaming subscription was killed before it even had a chance to live, and why you might never see Albert Maysles’ final film. In Ask No Film School, we outline the best color grading software for Premiere Pro. As always, we also bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, this week’s indie film releases, 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

Ashley McKenzie is the type of director that does it all. The Canadian multi-hyphenate runs her own production company, writes her own scripts, and directs all of the company's films. When she’s on set, however, she gives up almost all notions of planning and control to make her shots as organic and in the moment as possible. For her debut feature, Werewolf, which has won awards at almost every regional Canadian festival she’s brought it to, this included throwing the actors into real-life situations, adding events into scenes without telling them, keeping the camera rolling after the scene had cut, and even casting non-actors as key characters at locations on the fly. The film itself follows a pair of outcast methadone users who push a rusty lawnmower door-to-door to cut grass for money to feed their addiction. No Film School’s Jon Fusco sat down with McKenzie and her two lead actors Andrew Gillis and Breagh MacNeil to discuss their intensely real collaboration. 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 weigh the benefits of film school against its rising cost, and debates the merits of renting out your own gear. We share some fun facts about the crossover between TV directors and the year's biggest films, say a (possibly temporary) farewell to one of the world's greatest actors, and discuss whether or not Apple is finally a serious contender in the original content game with its latest hires. What’s more, we discuss the Canon and Sony summer gear rumors, and hear from ‘Wonder Woman’ DP Matt Jensen about the differences between shooting for action and drama. As always, we bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, this week’s indie film releases, 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

We saw a lot of movies in the Midnight Section at Sundance this year. There were a lot of weird movies. 'Bitch,' however, is a batshit insane movie. In terms of understanding what we’re dealing with here, the premise really only gets you half the way there: an underappreciated mother finds out her jerk-off husband is cheating on her and as a result, well, she turns into a dog. The real insanity, however, comes across in a near constant destruction of genre conventions. Is it a horror? Is it a comedy? Is it a relationship drama? At times it’s all of these things all together, at times it is very clearly just one. Marianna Palka wrote the script in just two days, which aside from being a remarkable achievement, is a testament to the free-wheeling nature of the film itself. She also directs and stars in the film. At Sundance, NFS Producer Jon Fusco was joined by Emily Buder, Palka, and actor/musician Zack Clark to discuss Palka’s unrivaled writing technique and the benefits of being a multi-hyphenate. If you're in New York you can check out Bitch at BAM CinemaFest this week. 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 Emily Buder discuss the new coalition that has longtime rivals HBO and Netflix joining forces, why producers are losing money, and a new digital filmmaking initiative in LA. Charles Haine joins us for gear news and answers an Ask No Film School question about how to buy good lenses on a budget. In Weekly Words of Wisdom, we share tips from Steven Spielberg, Game of Thrones costume designer Michele Clapton, and David Mamet himself on the three best ways to learn filmmaking. As always, we also bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, this week’s indie film releases, 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 Emmy award-winning co-directors of Berlinale premiere ‘For Ahkeem', Jeremy S. Levine and Landon Van Soest, and one of the film’s producers, Iyabo Boyd, join No Film School’s Liz Nord for a frank and fascinating discussion about how to overcome the challenges inherent in telling the story of someone whose background is entirely different from your own. In this case, the film’s co-directors are two, middle-class white men from New York City, and their subject is a charismatic, 17-year-old African-American girl named Daje Shelton from outside of Ferguson, Missouri, where fellow black teenager Michael Brown had been famously shot and killed by police. In order to authentically portray this story as outsiders, Levine and Van Soest made Shelton a partner in the filmmaking process, and diversified the larger crew of people working on their film, including Boyd, their female, African-American producer. 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 Emily Buder discuss the camera that Panasonic hopes will win back indie DPs, and the threat holding Hollywood ransom. We also uncover the indie heart of the Wonder Woman phenomenon, and how its director Patty Jenkins' next move is coming directly to a niche streaming service near you. The episode goes into Apple's first original program, and says goodbye to Peter Sallis, the voice of Wallace from the ‘Wallace and Gromit’ films and a true supporter of independent filmmakers. Charles Haine joins us for an update from the Cine Gear Expo—including Panasonic's EVA1—and more gear news. In Ask No Film School, Elise McCave from Kickstarter shares some do's and don'ts for crowdfunding your film. As always, we also bring you the latest gear news, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, this week’s indie film releases, 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

At Tribeca, No Film School's Emily Buder sat down with first time director Sophie Brooks and her producer, David Brooks, who also happens to be her brother. Their film The Boy Downstairs went through a very well structured series of steps to prepare it for a premiere at a major festival. The duo talk the strategies they put in place to prevent Sophie from making the same mistakes any other first-time director would make. From test screenings to re-writes, they share some great tips that you can borrow on the lead up to your own future releases. 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 Emily Buder reveal the film that got Jessica Chastain and Pedro Almodovar teary-eyed at Cannes, and a lot more about the best and worst of the world's pre-eminent film festival from this year. We also discuss Canon's latest offering—an affordable camera whose specs were leaked ahead of this week's Cine Gear Expo in Los Angeles. In Ask No Film School, we share some tips on finding a job in the film industry. As always, we also bring you this week’s indie film releases, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, 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

'Flames' co-directors Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell waded into the most intimate waters with Ashley Connor, the DP who filmed them having sex. The threesome joins No Film School’s Liz Nord to discuss their provocative film—an art-docu-fiction-softcore porn-hybrid about Decker and Throwell's real-life relationship and its aftermath—after its Tribeca premiere. The conversation includes the fine line between porn and art, what happens when you add a third person and their camera to your relationship, how they managed to make a cinematic-looking film on the 5D, and so much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices