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Micah Van Hove and Ryan Koo are live from NAB 2016 in Las Vegas where they give a summary of some the best new technology they've seen over the past week. 

While it may not have been as flashy of a year at NAB in terms of hardware, it's clear that companies are focusing more than ever on taking their existing products and making them as good as they can be for the filmmakers who own them. This, for those of us who can't afford to be dropping 10k+ a year on new equipment, is highly comforting.

Indie Film Weekly 4.21.16: Why This Year's NAB is the Most 'Comforting' for Filmmakers Yet

Last week,&nbsp;Producer/Editor Jon Fusco&nbsp;sat down with several of the impressive line-up of genre directors from the new horror anthology film&nbsp;Holidays,&nbsp;during its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Joining him on the podcast are Sarah Adina Smith (The&nbsp;Midnight Swim), Nicholas McCarthy (​The Pact,&nbsp;At The Devil's Door),&nbsp;Dracula Untold&nbsp;director Gary Shore&nbsp;and&nbsp;the man in charge of piecing the whole thing together&nbsp;director/producer&nbsp;Adam Egypt Mortimer.&nbsp;
The discussion ranges from Shore's (somewhat easy) decision to go from directing a studio blockbuster back to indie shorts, respecting (or ignoring) influences in filmic history, and how challenges on set end up benefitting your creative drive.&nbsp;

Tribeca 2016: How the Filmmakers Behind Horror Anthology 'Holidays' Use Genre to Thwart Expectations

The 15th edition of the Tribeca Film Festival just wrapped up, leaving us to ponder how they managed to sell out nearly every screening in a city as competitive for audience attention as New York. In this episode of Indie Film Weekly, Managing Editor Emily Buder and Multimedia Producer Jon Fusco join No Film School founder Ryan Koo and Editor-in-Chief Liz Nord to discuss the possibility that Tribeca has become the new destination for domestic premieres—second to Sundance, of course.

From groundbreaking VR (including the delightful Allumette, which lets you walk through the clouds) to mind-bending commentary on filmmaking (Actor Martinez) to exciting new international voices reminiscent of the Coen brothers (Mother) to discussions with some of our favorite directors in the world (ahem, Alfonso Cuarón) to taking a selfie with Danny DeVito, we experienced Tribeca to the fullest this year. Now, we get to tell you about it.  We also follow up last week's NAB episode with some details of our forthcoming exclusive, in-depth look video of the most groundbreaking camera to emerge in a decade, Lytro Cinema.

IFW 4.28.16: Is Tribeca the New Premiere Destination for American Movies?

Nerdland was produced by Adult Swim production powerhouse Titmouse Inc., the group of animators responsible for creating some of the most revolutionary cartoons to have been featured on television ever. These guys made the contemporary classics Black Dynamite, China, IL, Metalocalypse, Superjail! and The Venture Brothers, which everyone should check out if only for their sheer abrasive creativity. The same can be said for Nerdland; the script, penned by Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, contributes a little extra insanity. The film is certainly not for everyone (at one point you get a little too acquainted with one of the protagonist's buttholes), but it is one of the most unique films you will see all year. No Film School's Jon Fusco sat down with Mr. Walker and Chris Prynoski, head honcho at Titmouse, who was so stricken by the script that he requested to direct the film. We discussed how the director and writer's collaboration should be so seamless that the audience shouldn't be sure who's responsible for what in the final cut. 

World-Building Tips from 'Se7en' Writer Andrew Kevin Walker & 'Metalocalypse' Dir. Chris Prynoski

What makes a guerrilla film shoot guerrilla? Sure, there are the circumstances that surround the act itself; limited resources, communication breakdowns, language barriers, nowhere to get a sandwich, not to mention the personal, emotional and creative risks attached. The most important ingredient, however, is one that is almost entirely paradoxical to the word guerilla itself: sensitivity. It's the delicacy with which you navigate these obstacles—to fulfill the responsibility you owe to your film's subjects—that makes a successful venture. 

Everyone wants to travel for work, but this week's guests tell us that documentary filmmaking is no vacation. From carrying your own food into terrorist compounds to dealing with drunken, racist Serbs, No Film School’s Jon Fusco sat down with filmmakers Arianna LaPenne, Alex Mallis, and Brian Chang to get a complete rundown of the prospective challenges a filmmaker could face filming abroad.


Going Guerrilla: How to Successfully Shoot Documentary Abroad

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TELE-VISION JAN 5 2016

A short film is a tricky thing, you don’t know how much time or money to invest in such a personal thing that nobody may even end up seeing, so a lot of people don’t even try. The point of this podcast is to get you to stop worrying and just try. 

In this episode, No Film School Producer Jon Fusco identifies the key crew you'll need to get started and how to them on your project, how to create a proper lookbook, what to plan for on a location scout, strategies in collaborating with your DP in pre-production and how to obtain the best gear for your project.

How Do You Make a Film with Zero Experience? The First Short: THE GUY [Episode 1]

While Cristina Gallego was busy working as a producer on her partner Ciro Guerra's magnificent film "Embrace of the Serpent", she caught wind of a story from one of the many indigenous non-actors onset. That story was one that perhaps many of us have heard before, a Colombian man finds partners in America that he can sell drugs to, becomes fantastically wealthy and ends up abandoning his morals as a result. Except "Birds of Passage" is so much more. 

With Gallego and Guerra at the helm, we get a glimpse at a side of this much-glamorized Narcos-era that we've never seen before. The film presents the narrative from an indigenous Colombian perspective, full of magical realism steering from traditions that go back hundreds of years and is perhaps the most authentic story concerning its subject matter of all time. Think of it as a thrilling mixture of The Godfather and One Hundred Years of Solitude, where we watch the entire history of two families whose native ways are slowly brought to a halt as they engage in the burgeoning drug trafficking business. Eventually, it brings a war to control the business that ends up destroying both their lives and their culture.

There is no other pair of directors in the world that could've told this story, and for her part, Gallego switched from a lifetime of producing to the role of co-director in order to more clearly communicate her vision. I sat down with her at TIFF to talk about what that transition was like, working with Ciro Guerra, and finding the stories that stem from your own history.

Making the Move from Producer to Director: Cristina Gallego on 'Birds of Passage'

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’

Today is a very special episode of The No Film School Podcast and perhaps a momentous occasion in the history of the universe itself. The very balance of the cosmos hangs at a thread as Academy Award Nominated screenwriter John Fusco and former No Film School Producer Jon Fusco finally meet to discuss their craft.

John Fusco is, of course, the legendary screenwriter who dropped out of high school at age 16 to travel the south as a blues musician before returning to the Northeast and attending Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He later went on to write such hit films as Young Guns, Hidalgo, and most recently Netflilx's The Highway Men, which made its debut at 2019's edition of the SXSW film festival. 

The man has been writing films for over thirty years and has a wealth of knowledge to share with us all including practices on how to become disciplined (and stay that way), getting yourself into the screenwriting zone, and ways to retain control of your script once it hits the production stage.

The Ultimate Screenwriting Masterclass with John Fusco and Jon Fusco

***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.

Making the Move from Producer to Director: Cristina Gallego on 'Birds of Passage'

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