FEATURED POST
FINDING THE STORY: How Narrative Filmmaker Tamar Halpern Directed Her First Documentary
About Tamar Halpern Tamar Halpern is a writer and director with 9 feature films behind her — all low-budget and produced for less than $1.2 million. She graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts with an MFA in 1998, the same year she started...
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THE MOVING MASTER: Shooting Coverage With Efficiency and Style
Wide establishing shot… Medium two-shot… OTS single… Reverse… Reverse… Reverse… Punch in for a dramatic close-up… Sound familiar? It’s how most film and television scenes are shot and edited. Sure, it’s a little boring, but it works. And if you have...
MORALE ON SET: A Director’s Guide to a Happy Production
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THE ARTIST’S WAY FOR FILMMAKERS: Revisiting the Maintenance Methods of Creativity
Whose creative life hasn’t been supercharged, validated and otherwise improved by Julia Cameron’s bestselling book, The Artist’s Way? If you haven’t yet had your world rearranged by this 12-week study of artistic inspiration and productivity, make like...
FAILING FORWARD: How PLUS ONE fell apart and came together again
Two friends, a summer of weddings, and the indie rom-com that follows their story. This is Plus One, the breakout 2019 Tribeca Film Festival winner that was sold before it even premiered and is now streaming on Hulu. Lunacy Productions recently caught...
THE ‘WRITE’ PITCH: 5 Reasons to Pitch Your Work-in-Progress
If you’re having trouble finishing your script, here’s a wild idea: start pitching it! What? Now? That’s bonkers! Everyone knows you have to have a completed script before it’s ready to pitch. But... What if you were to make pitching a part of your...
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Alexandra Reinnoldt is a producer and sound technician for Lunacy Productions. This year she was invited to be a crew member at the Sundance Directors Lab, an annual retreat designed to support promising young filmmakers as they workshop their first feature films....
IT’S HARD TO MAKE MOVIES! Director Craig Johnson Discusses His First Two Films
About Craig Johnson Craig Johnson is an award-winning writer/director best known for 2014’s The Skeletons Twins, starring Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig. His latest project, Alex Strangelove is a Netflix original movie, available now. Lunacy’s own Stu...
RENAISSANCE DISNEY: Lessons We Learned Rewatching The Lion King
The term “Renaissance” has been used by fans to describe the awakening and reinvention that brought public and critical interest to Disney Feature Animation in the 1990s. We started revisiting these innovative filmmaking techniques with Aladdin, and...
TAKE YOUR TIME, DO IT RIGHT
This post is based on material from producer Stu Pollard's popular Film Independent seminars. Visit our new online education portal, lunacyu.com, for more comprehensive film production and financing resources! When it comes to raising money, consider the long game....
MOVING TO LA: 5 Financial Tips for Taking the Leap!
Great news! You’re moving to Los Angeles: the city of angels, the home of Hollywood. A travel destination full of movie stars and glamorous lifestyles, opportunities and challenges. As several friends told us when we planned to move to LA, “You’re...
ORIGINS OF INSPIRATION: 5 Creators and the Films That Inspire Them
What do Scream, Jaws, and Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner? have to do with one another? They all inspired Jordan Peele in the writing of Get Out, the Academy Award-winning screenplay that lent a fresh voice to an ongoing discourse about race in America. That...
ACTING FOR A LIVING: How Daniel R. Hill Books Work
In addition to being well-trained and really good, how can you turn your flair for the dramatic into a regular income? We got such fresh perspective from Daniel R. Hill’s interview, we had to share some of his secrets to working full-time as an actor....
POINTS OF ENTRY: How Our Favorite Filmmakers Got Their Start
Who are YOUR creative heroes? Do they seem to succeed effortlessly, and without much strategy? Do they walk on sparkly clouds of cinematic grandeur, arriving at their red carpet destination with nary a hair out of place? Are they mystifyingly perfect?...
FIVE ON FOURTH: 5 Movies to Celebrate on Independence Day
Happy Fourth of July! Four score and seven years ago (plus about 15 decades, during which we stopped measuring time with "scores"), the colonies of the New World claimed our independence from England. It took eight years of war to get them to...
THE ART OF SAYING THANKS: The Power of Gratitude
This post is based on material from producer Stu Pollard's popular Film Independent seminars. Visit our new online education portal, lunacyu.com, for more comprehensive film production and financing resources! We've talked before about the importance of...
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LOW-BUDGET FILMMAKING: How Much Does It Really Cost To Make Your First Feature?
Fellow indie filmmakers continue making micro-budget feature films. Glen Schultz (Red Trail 90) says he did it with $10,000. Mark Duplass (The Puffy Chair) suggests you only need $1,000. Those figures notwithstanding, keeping costs low can set you up to turn a...
RENAISSANCE DISNEY: 5 Filmmaking Lessons from Disney’s Mulan
The term “Renaissance” has been used by fans to describe the awakening and reinvention that brought public and critical interest to Disney Feature Animation in the 1990’s, starting with 1989’s The Little Mermaid and ending with 1999’s Tarzan. No matter...
Z-AXIS MOVEMENT: 5 camera techniques to help you raise stakes, create unease, and more
There are three directions you can move your camera: along the horizontal x-axis (pans and dollies), the vertical y-axis (tilts and booms), and the z-axis (moving forward or back). Used separately or in conjunction, these movements can serve utilitarian...
BETTER SLATE THAN NEVER: The Importance Of The Slate To An Assistant Editor
“Rushing Ramona” is a 2nd AC (camera assistant) working on a feature in Kentucky. Before each take she updates the slate (also called clapboard, clapperboard, or sound marker) with the appropriate scene and take. She announces the take, claps the...
WOMEN ON THE CUTTING EDGE: 5 Female Film Editors Behind Your Favorite Films
In honor of Women’s History Month your friends at Lunacy will be posting content celebrating the contribution of women to the film industry. We continue this week with a look at female filmmakers who aren't household names but have nonetheless shaped...
