Interviews

Every interview our No Film School staff has brought to the podcast so far.

No Film School Interviews

Every episode of the No Film School podcast so far.

All Of Our No Film School Podcasts

Sundance 2017

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Podcasts

Jeremy Bernstein conducts the most thorough interview Stanley Kubrick has ever given. Background and context here: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/11/27/jeremy-bernstein-stanley-kubrick-interview/

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A rare interview with Stanley Kubrick (1965)

"Drive" Director Nicolas Winding Refn tells KCRW's Elvis Mitchell how his European upbringing influences his filmmaking.  The interview airs Sept 21 at 2:30 pm on KCRW.  

"Drive" Director Nicolas Winding Refn Loves Hollywood

Film Distribution: Top 10 Rules for Success

When filmmakers go out into the world to try to sell their indie film it can be a bit dangerous. The shark infested waters that make up film distribution can be brutal. Since I'm now going down the same dangerous road with my film This is Meg, I decided to write up a few rules I found useful over the years when it comes to film distribution.

Split Up Your Rights
The Bigger the Deal the Less Control You Have
Cap Your Film Distribution Expenses
The Middle Men - Beware of the Deal
Nothing is Guaranteed
Cost vs Sale or R.O.I.
Film Festivals Help...Sometimes
Beware of Exclusive 5 Year Distribution Contract
Don't get caught with your pants down in Post Production
E/O Insurance...gotta have it
I go into great detail about the list below in the podcast episode so take a listen. I hope to have the transcript for this episode up by next week. Happy selling.

Indie Film Hustle Podcast: Filmmaking | Film School | Screenwriting | Film Marketing | Independent Film | Cinematography

IFH 109: Top 10 Film Distribution Rules for Success

I had the pleasure of meeting Joshua Caldwell, a brother in "indie filmmaking" arms. He directed a $6000 feature film called LAYOVER, which World Premiered at the 2014 Seattle International Film Festival where it was nominated for the New American Cinema Award.

The story of how he made the film was education, rebellious and funny. Many things he said mirrored my experience making This is Meg. Josh really has a great philosophy about making films and content. Check out the trailer below to see what a $6000 feature film in today's world looks like.

 

If you are going to make a feature film in the near future you need to listen to this podcast. It will change how you think about making indie films. Below, I also included a talk the Josh Caldwell did at the Seattle International Film Festival that is AWESOME! After you listen to the podcast watch the video below.

Indie Film Hustle Podcast: Filmmaking | Film School | Screenwriting | Film Marketing | Independent Film | Cinematography | Film Festival | Filmmaking Podcasts

IFH 121: Joshua Caldwell - The Art of the $6000 Feature Film

What is Your Film Really Worth?

So you are thinking of making an indie film or you've just finished making one...now what? When filmmakers go on the long journey of making a feature film they rarely ask the question that could make or break the success of the movie,

"What is my film worth in the marketplace?"

Before you begin the process of making your film ask the following questions?

What is your film worth?
Who is your market?Is it in a genre that can sell itself without stars?
Do your actors have any market value overseas or domestically?
Does the budget justify all of the above?
What’s the tipping point as far as the budget is concerned for a drama or comedy with no stars?
What is your distribution plan?
Have you spoken to a distributor yet to see what they are looking for?
In this episode, I discuss the questions that most filmmakers don't want to ask themselves but knowing the answer is imperative.

IFH 124: What is Your Film Really Worth?

For all intents and purposes, the Sundance Film Festival is the Holy Grail for many short filmmakers around the world. Need proof? Just take a look at the number of entries to this year's competition: 9,000. It would take an army to sift through that much content. Or at least a highly dedicated and skilled team of programmers. Even with that sort of team in place, it seems like there has to be some element of luck involved with getting into one of the country's most prestigious festivals. In this episode of The No Film School Podcast, producer Jon Fusco and writer Oakley Anderson-Moore conduct a roundtable discussion with crew members from three of the 68 films presented in this year's shorts program. Included in the discussion are Rob Savage, Jed Shepherd and Douglas Cox from Dawn of the Deaf, a sign language zombie movie made with the deaf community in London; Native American filmmaker, Lyle Corbine Jr. who's latest short Shinaab marks his fifteenth film; and Jessica Beshir and Charlie Hoxie, who round out the group with their film Hairat, which details the strange nightly ritual of an Ethiopian man who feeds hyenas by dangling meat from a stick in his mouth. The result is a fascinating dissection of the steps each filmmaker took to find their place at Sundance. You'll find more than a few nuggets of advice in there to aid in your own short filmmaking projects.

What It Takes to Get Your Short into Sundance

I speak a lot on IFH on how filmmakers should create their own ecosystem and revenue streams, today's guest has done just that. Shaked Berenson is Co-Founder of Epic Pictures Group, a film financing, production, and international/domestic sales company based in Beverly Hills, CA.

Shaked has produced films like the cult hit Turbo Kid (SXSW Audience Award), Entertainment (Official Sundance Film Festival Selection) and the animated film Space Dogs: Adventure to the Moon. What is great about Shaked is that he has created his own ecosystem. From financing to production to distribution, all under one umbrella. This way he cuts out the middle man and he can keep more of the profits.

Shaked came to my attention when I found out he was one of the producers of the internet darling Turbo Kid. The way that film was marketed, sold and distributed is something all filmmakers should study.

Here's the Synopsis of Turbo Kid:
Set in the post-apocalyptic year of 1997, TURBO KID is a retro-futuristic nostalgic tribute to 80’s action-adventure films follows a teenager who goes on an adventure to save the girl of his dreams. 



"Mad Max on a BMX: 'Turbo Kid' is an '80s adventure with added gore, and it looks nuts." - CNET



Also if you want to study an amazing crowdfunding campaign check out what the Turbo Kid filmmakers did on IndieGoGo. We go deep down the rabbit hole all things Turbo Kid, indie filmmakers, building your own revenue streams and much more.

Directing Actors, Directing Course, Per Holmes, Hollywood Camera Work, Hollywood Camera Work Coupon, Nina Foch

Here's a bit about Shaked Berenson: 
Prior to Epic Pictures Group, Berenson served as Renegade Pictures’ Director of Sales as well as the Director of Technology and International Relations for the Giffoni Hollywood Film Festival. Before Renegade Pictures, Berenson was in the Israeli Defense Force for four and half years where he served in managerial and educational roles as a project consultant to Elbit Systems, and worked as a program developer for NetVision, an Internet solutions company. He holds a degree in economics and business from UCLA. - IFTA-Online.org

Enjoy my conversation with Shaked Berenson.

Indie Film Hustle Podcast: Filmmaking | Film School | Screenwriting | Film Marketing | Independent Film | Cinematography | Film Festival | Filmmaking Podcasts I Moviemaker

IFH 141: Turbo Kid & How to Create an Indie Film Ecosystem with Shaked Berenson

Welcome to the world of modern filmmaking—a place where anyone can make anything at any time and put it online pretty much anywhere. Whether or not people actually watch it? Well, that's a different question. With the democratization of film comes the democratization of exhibitors, and in today's new media landscape, the number of platforms through which a filmmaker can show their work can be overwhelming.

In this week's episode of The No Film School Podcast, Producer Jon Fusco sits down with a handful of short filmmakers whose projects have either been funded, licensed, or exhibited by the idiosyncratic video website Super Deluxe. The Super Deluxe platform is one that should be a model for innovative filmmakers looking to get their work noticed. Self-described as "a community of creative weirdos making videos that are (we hope) more substantial than much of what you see on the internet," they are truly a service to filmmakers, providing funding, creative freedom, and, most importantly, trust. 

Kenneth Gug, Pipus Larsen, and Scott Ross started making Instagram videos and are now Sundance alum with their short doc, Deer Squad. Matt Wolf has been making feature documentaries for years, and Super Deluxe funded his doc short, Bayard &amp; Me, a biography about Civil Rights leader Bayard Washington. Anna Kerrigan was brought on as a director for hire for the web series The Chances, following two deaf friends as they navigate the buzzy scene in Los Angeles. 

There is no right way to go about getting your project recognized, although it's preferable to have a strategy rather than throwing something online and hoping it catches fire. All of these filmmakers came together at Sundance to discuss their own experience within the oversaturated new media landscape and their strategies in tailoring stories for an era of rabid media consumption.

Breaking the Algorithm: How to Make Your Video Stand Out Online

So as filmmakers we all want to make the best films we can. Sometimes filmmakers think that a bigger budget is the answer, that bigger is better. This is what I thought when I went down the road and create my short film Red Princess Blues. After going down this road once before with my first short film BROKEN, I thought bigger had to be better. If $8000 was good (budget of BROKEN) then with $50,000 I could blow everyone away.

BROKEN opened a ton of doors for me as a filmmaker. I was contacted by studios, executives, producers, agent, you name it. BROKEN was an ambitious short film, to say the least. You can listen to that story here: How I Made Over $90,000 Selling My Short Film.

In this episode, I discuss the mistakes I made when I made a $50,000+ short film. Mistakes with

Budget
Crew Choices
Size of Crew and Cast
Production Design
Distribution Plan
ROI (Return on Investment)
Who is the end user (audience I'm trying to reach)

IFH 143: How NOT to Shoot a $50,000 Short Film

In a breakthrough year for virtual reality, No Film School’s Liz Nord sits down with four Sundance filmmakers who learned to get past convention and embrace creating in VR. Each of their fascinating projects are cinematic, but they're certainly not cinema—which didn’t stop them from premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Guests Lily Baldwin of 'Through You', Rose Troche of 'If Not Love', and Yasmin Elayat and Elie Zananiri of 'Zero Days VR' discuss how they brought their groundbreaking stories to life, and which filmmaking rules they had to throw out the window to do so.

Why VR is Not Filmmaking

In this episode of the No Film School podcast, Emily Buder sits down with David Ethan Shapiro, CEO of Starlight Studios, and Jacob Schulsinger, editor ("Force Majeure," "Antichrist"), to discuss their Sundance premiere,&nbsp;"Come Swim," Kristen Stewart's experimental short film. We talk the merits of film school and why it's important to recreate that creative atmosphere in your career, the secret to raising money as a producer, why editors should help directors write movies, and more.

How to Start a Production Company: From Film School to Raising Money Out of Your Bedroom Office

In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, No Film School co-hosts Liz Nord, Jon Fusco, and Emily Buder give the secret to shots that smoothly pan from dark to light and introduce a filmmaker whose work has started a global conversation. We celebrate Women’s History Month with Ava DuVernay’s Twitter takeover. We also get advice from four-time Sundance director Tiffany Shlain. Later, we preview this week’s SXSW Film Festival, tech writer Charles Haine joins us with gear news, including our lens test comparing five different Anamorphics on RED Weapon vs. ARRI Alexa, and Dutch director Martin Koolhoven discusses his new film 'Brimstone'. 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

Indie Film Weekly 3.9.17: Smooth Aperture Moves & How To Get the World Talking About Your Film

In today's episode of The New Film School Podcast, writer Oakley Anderson Moore talks with two DPs. Her guests are Andrew Ackerman, who shot the brilliant, colorful underwater documentary "Chasing Coral," and Ante Cheng who DPed the nuanced black and white narrative Gook, set during the 1992 LA riots. While the style of productions are practically polar opposites of each other, from underwater timelapse nightmares to stylized lighting for black and white, they find common ground in the joy of telling a story through the visual image.

DP Roundtable: From Brilliant Color to Black and White, Lensing a Sundance Award-Winning Film

We had some of the biggest directors of the year on the show in 2018 and this batch of best ofs proves it. Yorogs Lanthimos, Debra Granik, Jeremy Saulnier, and the legendary Mike Leigh all make an appearance as does Denis Villeneuve and Steve McQueen's go-to-editor, Joe Walker.

Best of the 2018 No Film School Podcast Interviews, Part 2

It's not all about big names and big projects here on the No Film School Podcast. Some of our best conversations take place with artists who are just starting to find their way in the world. Really, all of should be able to relate to these guests on a deeper level since we hear problems that many of us are still struggling with as we make our own way through the industry.

On today's, final installment of the best of the No Film School Podcast we'll take a look back at some of these conversations and trace through what it can cost to make a film. Whether it be a short or a feature, documentary or narrative, you're bound to walk away with some advice that will be of aid on your future projects.

Best of the 2018 No Film School Podcast Interviews, Part 3

Taking its rightful place at the very beginning of the 2019 festival circuit, the Sundance Film Festival is often an unpredictable beast. But Jon Fusco, Erik Luers, and George Edelman are live from Park City, Utah to try and make some sense of it all for you. 

In this special episode of The No Film School Podcast, they take an early stab at predicting what features end up as festival favorites, run down some of their most anticipated films and share some insights on how to survive the 2-week orgy of independent film.

No Film School Live from Sundance 2019 Pt.1

Emily Buder, Erik Luers, George Edelman, Ryan Koo and Jon Fusco are all together again in Park City to give you a rundown of everything that happened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. It's been a crazy week full of screenings, interviews, and generally just trying to stay alive, so you best believe they've got more than a few hot takes to throw your way.

In addition to sharing their favorite films and what they're sad they missed, the team identifies a few trends that could end up re-shaping the future of the industry.  This is Part 2 of No Film School's live audio coverage from Sundance 2019.

Does This Year's Sundance Signal the Death of Truly Independent Film? NFS Live Pt.2

The documentary cinematographer is a special kind of cinematographer. Whereas in narrative, the role is more defined, DP’s of the more truthful persuasion may find themselves piling on more hats than their fiction bound counterparts. Take it from David Paul Jacobson of Ask Dr. Ruth and Kristy Tully of Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins, two Sundance caliber cinematographers who join us on today’s show.

Both of their projects revolve around strong women. Ask Dr. Ruth chronicles the incredible life of Dr. Ruth Wertheimer, a Holocaust survivor, former soldier, immigrant and two-time divorcee who became the world’s most influential sex therapist. Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins memorializes the former journalist who made a name for herself as rough talkin’ six foot Texan who was quick to expose corruption wherever she found it.

Together in this roundtable we talk about how to grab the most effective b-roll, the perfect kits for the job, and not overstepping boundaries with directors and editors as you must also direct and edit yourself.

How to Become a Sundance Worthy Documentary Cinematographer

“In the rugged wilderness of Appalachia, the members of an isolated community of Pentecostal snake handlers led by Pastor Lemuel risk their lives to attest themselves before God.” This is a much different type of log-line than the others entries you’d find scrolling down the list of Dramatic Competition entries in Sundance’s program. 

It is the plot of Them That Follow, the feature film debut for writer/directors Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage and boy, is it a doozy. Though they didn’t have any directing credits prior to the film’s premiere, the duo had more than enough experience between them to pull off the gripping narrative. Through years of working for other studios and other directors they found themselves with the opportunity to "get in the room.” What is the room? Well and not to use a cliche lightly here, but, “the answer may surprise you.”

We also talk through writing a story about a secretive community with limited access, filling in the blanks with your own personal experiences and working with an incredible cast that included Olivia Coleman, Walton Goggins, Jim Gaffigan and more.

How To Put Yourself in the Room: Sundance Breakout ‘Them That Follow’

Director of Photography Lawrence Sher takes us through his career from the early days (he calls his first day "the worst first day in the history of first days") to how he lensed the most successful R-rated movie of all time, offering insights as well as practical tools.

How Larry Sher Shot 'Joker', Built a Career, and Almost Got Fired on His First Day of Filmmaking

***As of 2020 the No Film School Podcast is no longer hosted on Soundcloud. Please subscribe via iTunes, Spotify, or the podcast app of your choice. Thank you!*** A podcast about how to build a career in filmmaking. No Film School shares the latest opportunities and trends for anyone working in film and TV. We break news on cameras, lighting, and apps. We interview leaders in screenwriting, directing, cinematography, editing, and producing. And we answer your questions! We are dedicated to sharing knowledge with filmmakers around the globe, “no film school” required.