The No Film School Podcast

No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord, Jon Fusco, and Emily Buder discuss this year’s crop of filmmaker-helmed Super Bowl spots, and debate whether or not participating in America’s biggest day of ad spending helps aspiring directors. Plus, it’s a bumper week for new lenses, awards season marches on, and we say goodbye to tripod innovator Lino Manfrotto. In Ask No Film School, Charles Haine gives tips on creating a film that appears to be shot in one long take. 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 http://nofilmschool.com/2017/02/indie-film-weekly-020917-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yiddish is a language developed among the Jewish population of Central Europe in the 9th century as a mix of their Biblical Hebrew, and the German and other modern languages of the day. Before World War II, it was spoken by upwards of 13 million people. Today, in the US, it is estimated to only be spoken by less than 200,000. The scarcity of spoken Yiddish today makes it an especially unusual choice for the script written by American director and native English speaker Joshua Z. Weinstein on his new film “Menashe.” And that wasn’t the only—ahem—unorthodox choice that was made. The movie was filmed with almost all untrained actors from within an insular ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, and the script was developed alongside its star, a man who had never seen a movie in a theater. Perhaps even more surprising is that the feature not only made it into this year’s Sundance Film Festival, but got renowned Executive Producer Chris Columbus on board just before the event, and afterwards landed a deal with A24, which distributed last year’s biggest indie hit, “Moonlight.” Editor-in-Chief Liz Nord met up with Weinstein, along with the film’s cinematographer and co-producer Yoni Brook, and lead actor Menashe Lustig, at Sundance just after the film premiered. They discuss the unique production, camera techniques, and their unlikely success in making a film about a widowed man trying to convince his traditional community that he is capable of caring for his young son. 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 Netflix acquisition of Oscar-worthy Mudbound, the highly charged SAG Awards, how the first two weeks of Trump’s term are shaking up the film industry, and which cameras and lenses were most popular among Sundance cinematographers this year. In Ask No Film School, DP Shane King clues us in on cropping 4K footage. 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

This week, No Film School producer Jon Fusco sits down with Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion, co-directors of Bushwick, a film that premiered in Sundance’s Midnight Section. The premise for a Neo-Civil War film in America may have seemed insane a decade ago when Millot and Murnion first came up with it; now, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Brittany Snow plays Lucy, a student on her way home to Bushwick while on break from grad school. She gets off the subway only to realize that her Brooklyn neighborhood is under siege from an unknown enemy. Later on in the film, it is revealed that Texas and a handful of other states have seceded from the union and are the force behind the attack. With the help of Stupe, a former marine played by Dave Bautista, they attempt to fight their way through the city to safety. For Millot and Murnion, the road to making Bushwick was paved by a ton of hard work and self-education. Neither went to film school, but through a series of successful short film competitions, they were able to capture the eye of a producer at SXSW. That led to a directing gig on the 2014 horror/comedy Cooties. In this podcast, they discuss the steps they took to win that film and how their process of making a movie evolved once they had one in the can. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of Indie Film Weekly brings reports from the ground on the movies, the acquisitions, and the suspected Russian hacking of independent cinema's beating heart. Co-hosts Jon Fusco, Emily Buder, Oakley Anderson-Moore Liz Nord have been hitting the snowy sidewalks of Park City, Utah, for the past week, to bring you all the most fascinating stories from America's preeminent independent film event, the Sundance Film Festival. They forego the regular show format to share in-depth Sundance coverage, from the lay of the land, to celebrity run-ins, to the most intriguing films and biggest acquisitions. They also cover one of the strangest occurrences in recent festival memory, a cyberattack on the Sundance online ticketing and admin systems. Finally, we bring news of the other biggest event in the film world this past week, the 2017 Academy Award nominations. Find links to all these stories and more about the craft of filmmaking at nofilmschool.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Producer Jon Fusco kicks off The No Film School Podcast's Sundance coverage with an incredibly important (and timely) discussion on how documentary film can be utilized as a powerful call to action. "Whose Streets?" picks up moments after the murder of unarmed black teen Michael Brown at the hands of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Through a harrowing collage of guerrilla-style filmmaking and archival footage, Co-directors Sabaah Foloyan and Damon Davis place us at the epicenter of the Ferguson community as racial tensions in the city reach their boiling point. The directors, however, don’t focus on the forensics reports or harsh statistics associated with institutionalized racism. Instead, they sifted through nearly 400 hours of footage to deliver their message through the pain and heartbreak of the city’s residents. What we get is a stark contrast to a narrative the media presented back in 2014. And while it might be uncomfortable for some, the truth is made clear as we watch the intimate stories of the men and women who rallied together to push through injustice as the protests unfolded. On this episode, activist Brittany Ferrel joins Foloyan and Davis as we dig deep into the potential of documentary film as a tool for change. Regardless of your political affiliation, giving voice to the voices that usually go unheard is an objective every documentarian should seek to achieve. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, we preview the best that Sundance 2017 has to offer, and reveal why RED's Helium 8K is even better than we thought. No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord, Jon Fusco, and Emily Buder discuss the biggest festival buzz, and the films and filmmakers we're most excited to cover as we head to Park City, Utah, to bring you news and interviews from the Sundance Film Festival. We also discuss new filmmaker-friendly divisions at Vice and NatGeo, the Cinema Eye Honors results, and the too-short life of the Lily drone. In Ask No Film School, we advise on how to choose your next documentary camera. As always, the show also brings news you can use about gear, 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

In the emerging field of virtual reality filmmaking, there are still lots of basic questions about how best to tell a story in VR, which projects even make a worthwhile story in 360, and what conventions from traditional filmmaking that we need to throw right out the window to help pave the way for this medium. On this episode, I speak with some smart people who have been grappling with these questions and made some amazing projects—Ben C. Solomon, video journalist and filmmaker for The New York Times, and Carla Borras, Director of Digital Video at PBS’s long-running documentary series, Frontline. We are joined by Sean Flynn, Program Director of the Points North Institute who invited both Borras and Solomon to the Camden International Film Festival where we spoke, and curated its interactive storytelling lineup. Our guests share their stories and advice from the 360-degree trenches. For more, check out the podcast post at nofimschool.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Co-hosts Jon Fusco, Emily Buder, and Charles Haine discuss Kodak's big reveal at CES—the revival of color reversal film stock Ektachrome—and why trade shows are becoming irrelevant. They also delve into the awards season, which kicked off with Sunday's Golden Globes; George Lucas' new museum; and how to manipulate aperture and light sensitivity. As always, the show also brings news you can use about gear, upcoming grant and festival deadlines, this week’s indie film releases, our Ask No Film School segment, and other notable things you might have missed while you were busy making 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, Jon Fusco, and Emily Buder discuss how the death of America’s Section 181 filmmaking tax incentive will affect indie filmmakers. We also talk about the NoBudge Film Awards and say a sad goodbye to Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, and TIFF co-founder Bill Marshall. In Ask No Film School, we give some pointers on properly backing up your footage. Tech writer Charles Haine joins us to bring the latest gear news, including a CES preview that reveals the full Panasonic GH5 specs, and as always, we update you on 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. http://nofilmschool.com/2017/01/indie-film-weekly-010517-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices