Guerrilla Filmmaking

PAUL NEWMAN DIED YESTERDAY at his home in Westport CT.

A couple of months ago the legendary actor was given weeks to live, he only wanted to die at home. "Paul didn't want to die in the hospital," a source said. "Joanne and his daughters are beside themselves with grief."

Newman died Friday of cancer, spokeswoman Marni Tomljanovic said. No other details were immediately available.

His career was outstanding. Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century,  Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers, among many others. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Robert Redford, his sidekick in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting."

He will be missed.

NO BUDGET, NO PROBLEM Independent Film Week.

The IFP brings again the Independent Film Week between September 14th and 19th in NYC. With dozens of panels but only a handful designed to the Guerrilla Film Community I feel that we need our own Guerrilla Film Week, so while I plan this GFW that could take quite some time I will leave you here with the three panels that I think could be helpful for the Guerrilla Filmmakers out there...

Niche Marketing Tools As an audience for films become more segmented, how do savvy distributors, marketing execs and publicists suggest independent filmmakers build buzz for niche films, particularly online and through the use of alternative new media technologies, before their films hit the marketplace.

In search of a midnight kiss & Frozen River premiere today!

IN SEARCH OF A MIDNIGHT KISS

Guerrilla Fillmaker Alex Holdridge lunched his career in 2001 with a small film called Wrong Numbers that end up winning the Audience Award of the Austin Film Festival, the budget of the film was $ 10,000 and the story was about two dumped nineteen-year-old men that just want to forget their individual problems over a few beers and was set out into the underage world where strange things happen. Bad directions, bad luck, and teenage-harassing cops stand in the way of these two slackers as they hopelessly meander through the streets of Austin, Texas trying to buy a case of beer. Their patience and worries are pushed to the limit until they are forced to do the unthinkable.   (Yes Superbad people stole the idea, from the same studio, Sony Pictures, where Holdridge was developing a spec script). Read more about this, in the indiewire profile of Alex Holdridge.
 

Now he comes comes with In Search of a midnight kiss, a more adult film with a bigger budget $ 25,000.

Valdís Óskarsdóttir shot Sveitabrúðkaup (Country Wedding) in 7 Days

Valdís Óskarsdóttir is one, if not the best, film editor from Iceland, having worked on films such as Dogme # 1: Festen (The Celebration), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (for which she won a Bafta award), Julian Donkey Boy and Mongol, she’s now one of the driving forces behind Iceland’s changing cinematic landscape.
Definitely working with unique filmmakers such as Michel Gondry, Anders Thomas Jensen and Thomas Vinterberg has gotten her infected with the directing bug, because this year, although pretty much unknown to everyone, she shot a feature film in seven days using four cameras all supervised by Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (28 Days Later, Mifunes sidste sang, The Last King of Scotland) and the cast made up of the Vesturport gang (Children, Parents and the upcoming Undercurrent).
I'm not quite sure if this is a Guerrilla Film, I don't have any idea how much the budget was, but there are a lot of people from the old Dogme Movement and was shot in one week, so that's enough for me to spread the word.

Netflix close down Red Envelope Entertainment, its Theatrical Acquisitions and Production Division

...via indiewire

In its short life ( 3 years), Red Envelope acquired 126 films, including the Golden Globe nominated Sherrybaby, co-produced a slate of movies for IFC TV (including Kirby Dick's This Film is Not Yet Rated) and partnered on theatrical distribution for such micro-hits as 2 Days in Paris with Samuel Goldwyn, No End in Sight with Magnolia Pictures, The Puffy Chair with Roadside Attractions, and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days with IFC Films.

Due to changing marketplace conditions and the natural evolution of Netflix, according to Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, the company decided it was time to move on. "The one thing we learned this year is that there's no shortage of produced movies and there's no shortage of money for viable projects," Sarandos told indieWIRE last Tuesday. "The best role we play is connecting the film to the audience, not as a financier, not as a producer, not as an outside distributor or marketer."