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The latest news from Film Independent
5.9.08: FELLOWS NEWS
There are two great articles about Monique Caulfield (2007 Producers Lab), who won Film Independent's Sloan Producers Award last year. As part of her award, we partnered her with a geneticist to advise on the scientific content of her script, Basmati Blues. Her advisor, Norman Ellstrand, is one of the world's leading experts on genetically modified argiculture, and he teaches at UC Riverside. Read more about the geneticist advising Hollywood.
The movie is also the subject of an article in the Times of India, with a nice mention of Film Independent!
4.22.08: FELLOWS NEWS
At Film Independent, several of our programs—the Filmmaker Labs, Project:Involve (P:I), Fast Track (a program of the Los Angeles Film Festival), and the Spirit Awards filmmaker grants—were established with the goal of helping filmmakers develop their talent and get their projects made. We’ve brought these programs together under one umbrella: the Film Independent Talent Development Program. Participants are recognized as “Film Independent Fellows” and become members of Film Independent. Here’s the latest on what some of our Fellows are up to.
Congratulations to the five Film Independent Fellows who have been accepted to the 2008 Tribeca All Access (TAA), a program designed to help foster relationships between film industry executives and filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities.
The Fellows and their feature projects are:
Jason Weiss (2007 Producers Lab) was recently at the South By Southwest Film Festival with his feature Humboldt County. The film sold out all three of its festival screenings. At the final two showings at the Alamo Lamar, organizers added a simultaneous second screening to handle the crowds who turned up.
Also playing SXSW was Half-Life, the critically acclaimed directorial debut of Jennifer Phang (2003 Directors Lab, 2000 P:I). Jen also played the Gen Art Film Festival with the film this April, where she won the Grand Jury prize.
Director Jessica Sanders (2007 Screenwriters Lab, 2004 Fast Track, 2003 Producers Lab, 2000 P:I) who won a special jury prize at Sundance for After Innocence, is attached to direct MOTL—March of the Living, an English-language Brazilian theatrical documentary feature about a silent Holocaust remembrance march from Auschwitz to Birkenhau. March is produced by Rio de Janeiro’s Conspiracao Filmes, one of the biggest Brazilian film production houses, and L.G. Tubaldini Jr.’s Latin America Ent./Filmland, which is based out of Sao Paulo and Los Angeles. Cinematographer Heloisa Passos (Send a Bullet) will shoot the film in High-Def. Sanders has also garnered an Oscar® nomination for the documentary short Sing!, which she produced.
Ballast, by writer/director Lance Hammer (2002 Screenwriters Lab, 2001 Producers lab), and Frozen River, by writer/director Courtney Hunt (2006 Fast Track), both played the prestigious New Films/New Directors festival in New York this spring. Both films are slated to be released theatrically in the U.S. later this year.
FILM INDEPENDENT 2nd KODAK FILM GRANT
Film Independent has awarded its second Kodak Film Grant to the feature film Mississippi Damned, which has been developed in our Talent Development programs. The film, which shoots this May and June in North Carolina, will receive $10,000 in Kodak film stock. The film is written and will be directed by Tina Mabry (2008 Directors Lab, 2004 P:I), and produced by Morgan Stiff (2007 Producers Lab, 2004 P:I) and Alexis Fish (2003 Producers Lab). Mabry directed the award-winning short Brooklyn’s Bridge to Jordan and co-wrote Jamie Babbit’s 2007 Itty Bitty Titty Committee. Producer Morgan Stiff recently completed co-producing and editing the feature documentary One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story, which recently won Best Documentary at the 2008 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Producer Alexis Fish currently works with SAGIndie as Head of Development and Sponsorship. With almost a decade of experience in the independent film community, her last position was as Senior Vice President of Q Television Network. In addition to Executive Producing and overseeing 10 originally produced shows at QTN and 9 hours of live programming, Alexis oversaw all marketing, branding, sales, and acquisitions.
3.15.08: Help Film Independent support the "Orphan Works" bill
Dear Filmmakers:
Film Independent is one of several film organizations that supports an "Orphan Works" bill that will be introduced in the Senate in only a few days. "Orphan works" are works where you can't find the owner of a copyright even after a substantial search. Filmmakers are constrained because they're afraid to use these works for fear of injunction or retroactive, exorbitant fees.
This bill would let you go ahead and use the material and pay the owner a reasonable license fee, if the owner ever shows up. If you've had personal experience in this area, you could lend support to the bill by submitting your story by Wednesday, March 19, for the congressional record.
I'm enclosing a note from our attorney, Michael Donaldson, for more information on how you can help.
Thanks so much,
Dawn Hudson
Executive Director, Film Independent
Here is where you come in:
If you have ever been frustrated or blocked because you couldn't find the owner of a work you wanted to use in or for your film, we need to hear from you. We want to enter your story in the congressional record, by attaching it to our written statement. It will be best if you could put it on some sort of letterhead, but the important thing is that we hear from you pronto. This legislation is of critical importance to all filmmakers, which is why indies and MPAA both support the legislation. You can send your stories to michael@donaldsonhart.com with a copy to jurban@law.usc.edu. They will take care of it from there.
Support the cause. Send us your story.
Rivera to host Director Series
Film Independent's eighth-annual Director Series will be held Feb. 20-March 26 at the Landmark West Los Angeles. Oscar nominated writer Jose Rivera ("The Motorcycle Diaries") will serve as moderator. The Director Series offers a wide range of panel discussions devoted to various elements of filmmaking. The first discussion titled "The Independent Spirit: A Directors Roundtable," is set to take place on Feb. 20, and will feature 2008 Spirit Award nominees Jason Reitman (Juno), Tamara Jenkins (The Savages) and Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).
Other Series panelists include Zach Helm (Stranger Than Fiction), Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) Scott Frank (The Lookout) and Diana Ossana (Brokeback Mountain).
All panels will take place in Theater 12 at the Landmark West Los Angeles on Wednesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30 pm. Tickets can be purchased via Film Independent's reservation line at 310.432.1222 or by sending an email to Reservations@filmIndependent.org.
Source: VARIETY
2.4.08: Striking writers reach deal with independent filmmakers
NEW YORK (AP) -- Striking writers have reached interim contract agreements with four New York-based independent filmmakers, ending their 12-week walkout, the two sides said Sunday in a joint announcement.
The settlement appeared to be another step toward ending the national work stoppage by the Writers Guild of America that has brought film and television production on both coasts to a virtual standstill.
Source: CNN.com: Read entire article
2.4.08: Guild signs four more interim deals
Amid a rising tide of optimism about a possible end to the WGA strike, the guild's announced that it's signed four more interim deals with New York-based indie film companies.
In an announcement early Sunday, the WGA said it's signed agreements with GreeneStreet Films, Killer Films, Open City Films, and This is that corporation.
The deals bring the number of interim agreements to 21. By signing, a company can hire WGA writers under terms that the guild proposed in December.
Source: VARIETY's WGA Strike Blog: Read entire article
Mali Finn 1938–2007
Mali Finn — casting director, longtime friend of Film Independent, and past member of the Spirit Awards Nominating Committee — died on November 23, 2007, from melanoma. She was 69 years old. She is survived by her wonderful husband Donn and her son David.
Mali was not just one of the most accomplished casting directors — her credits include Titanic, L.A. Confidential, The Matrix, Your Friends and Neighbors, The Assassination of Richard Nixon, and Elephant — but she was also one of the most respected artists in this industry. Her dedication to immersing herself in the culture of a film, her eye for talent, her ability to create a world with exactly the right combination of actors, her passion for authenticity, and her commitment to know everything are simply unsurpassable.
Casting was not her first career; she was an actor and then an English and drama teacher until she was 43. Once Mali began casting, she quickly started working with some of the most talented directors in both the studio and independent arenas: James Cameron, Curtis Hanson, Neil LaBute, John Schlesinger, and Gus Van Sant. After she saw David Gordon Green’s George Washington while serving on the Spirit Awards Nominating Committee, she sought him out and said she’d do anything to work with him — and then cast his next two films. Mali served four years on the Nominating Committee, from 1999 to 2000 and again in 2006. No one ever came to the Spirit Awards Committee as prepared as Mali was: for every actor and supporting actor, she brought a file of his work from early off-Broadway to little-known film and television work. No one ever made us laugh more, either. She was hilarious and passionate and brilliant, and we will miss her terribly.
A memorial service will be held for Mali in Los Angeles in early 2008. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to Film Independent’s Project:Involve Mali Finn Fund, 9911 Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90035. Donations may also be made to Hospice by the Bay, In Memory of Mali Finn, 17 East Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Suite 100, Larkspur, CA 94939.
WGA TALKS WITH FILM INDEPENDENT: A recap of a discussion on the Writers Guild strike and how it affects independent filmmakers, held November 19 at the Film Independent office.
Panelists:Rodrigo Garcia, writer/director, “Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her,” “Nine Lives” Bill Condon, writer/director, “Dreamgirls,” “Kinsey,” “Chicago,” “God and Monsters”; member of the WGA negotiating committee Craig Emanuel, attorney, Loeb & Loeb Howard A. Rodman, screenwriter, “Savage Grace”; professor of screenwriting at USC; member of the WGA Board of Directors
A history of the WGA can be found at http://www.wga.org/subpage_whoweare.aspx?id=1217.
HOWARD RODMAN:
We are here not as the official word of the Guild or the official work of Film Independent, but as an off the record chat between writers. What we’re here to do is talk about how we got to this point and how we can get ourselves out of it. Also, what are some of the things we can and can’t, should and shouldn’t do as writers, as directors, as producers and as creators of wonderful material while the industry is decreasing in strength?
BILL CONDON:
It’s been a very frustrating process. We really put on the table the things and issues that we care about and there has been great openness about the process. The negotiating proposals are available to the public online. There’s no crazy demands like in the 80s, when there were tactics and not proposals.
Residuals from movies have paid for my life. It’s residuals that keep people in the business, especially for those here who are making independent films. It’s a crucial issue.
Everything under $1 million dollars, a writer gets paid .03% of the income. Anything over [$1 million] gets .36% [for the writer]. The offer from studios right now is to pay zero on streaming and .03% on permanent downloads.
Many movies make money on TV sales, for which we get 1.2%, which is a higher percentage. But if you look 10 years in the future, there’s a good chance that future technology will allow TV to be a combo computer/television that will allow us to just press a button and show us a movie. This will take away from DVD sales. There’s a huge chunk of money from independent films that will go away. That’s why this rate that replaces it is so crucial. In many ways it’s just trying to stay were we are. The revenues from studios has gone up and the writers’ share and the residual have gone down, so this is an important issue for future generations of writers.
No one chose the strike. We weren’t given a choice. What was put on the table by studios was simply nothing. Negotiations will continue the Monday after Thanksgiving. I believe that it’s the extraordinary unity and support from not just writers, but from actors and other guilds and unions that have brought them back to the table on Monday.
HOWARD RODMAN:
Just so you can understand what .03 of a percent means: If someone here were to buy a DVD of “Gods and Monsters”, Bill would make 4 cents. If you return an empty can of soda and gave it away to Bill, then he would make 5 cents.
Question:
What are the strike rules pertaining to hyphenates [writer-directors]?
Answer:
CRAIG EMANUEL:
If you are a writer-director, you cannot perform the following A through H services during the strike:
- Cutting for time
- Bridging material necessitated by cutting for time
- Changes in technical or stage directions
- Assignment of lines to other existing characters occasioned by cast changes
- Changes necessary to obtain continuity acceptance or legal clearance
- Casual minor adjustments in dialogue or narration made prior to or during the period of principal photography
- Such changes in the course of production as are made necessary by unforeseen contingencies (e.g., the elements, accidents to performers, etc.)
- Instructions, directions, or suggestions, whether oral or written, made to a writer regarding story or screenplay
Strike rules can be found at: www.wga.org/contract_07/StrikeRules2.pdf
Question:
I joined the WGA just this summer right after I had written several things. Currently, those things are going into production and now rewrites are wanted. I don’t know what to do morally and ethically because these things were initially written before I was a WGA member. Am I supporting the WGA by not submitting my rewrites?
Answer:
HOWARD RODMAN:
You are now a Guild member and it is less a matter of conscience and honor and more about your agreement with the Guild. So you cannot work for struck companies and should adhere to the WGA strike rules.
Question: What about my contract?
Answer:
CRAIG EMANUEL:
If you are a Guild member and if the contract is with a signatory company, then you are bound by the Guild rules. If you signed the contract with a non-signatory company before you were a member, you are protected legally and are able to render those services. You cannot, however, render services that are not under that contract. The moral issue of whether or not you want to render those services is a more challenging question.
HOWARD RODMAN:
The Guild has a hotline set up for people who have just those types of questions. The number is 323.782.4521.
Question:
If I’m not a WGA member, can I produce my low-budget film during this time?
Answer:
HOWARD RODMAN:
If you a not a member and you’re doing a low-budget film and you are not a Writer’s Guild producer signatory, go for it. Make that movie.
Question:
As a member of the Independent Writer’s Caucus, what can I do and what can’t I?
Answer:
RODRIGO GARCIA:
I think it’s the same for all members of the Guild, just that it’s the caucus that brings together the independent writers. The obligation for members is the same.
Question:
If I am a WGA writer and a producer, do I need to become a signatory to get my film made?
Answer:
HOWARD RODMAN:
If you are a WGA member and you write a script, if you are going to direct it than you the director have to be a signatory to make your—the writer’s—screenplay.
Question:
Are Waivers available?
Answer:
HOWARD RODMAN:
Waivers generally say that you can’t get this but you can do this. Very few waivers will be given out, but in the past a waiver has been issued for a project that will help the strike effort.
Question:
Should I work with independent loan financiers who have signatory loans out so they can work with Guild writers, but are not themselves signatory companies?
Answer:
RODRIGO GARCIA:
You shouldn’t do business with a struck company or do business with one who is a partner of a signatory if you are a Guild member.
HOWARD RODMAN:
If you’re not a Guild member, you shouldn’t be carrying water for the company, but if you do, we won’t look at you negatively. What is of concern is when it’s obvious when it is a signatory company.
Question:
As a filmmaker who is a non-member, with no union and no connected financial banking, what can the WGA do for me?
Answer:
BILL CONDON:
There’s a real attempt to have people like you work with and be able to draw on the talent of writers in the field and not have it be something that costs a lot of money. So when that movie gets made or shown on television, then those writers ultimately get to share some of the money that you make on those films.
HOWARD RODMAN:
The Writer’s Guild works very, very hard through the Independent Writer’s Caucus to make it possible for Guild writers to work on independent films and enjoy the protections that they have come to appreciate through the Guild work. Things like health, pension, residuals, and eligibility for the Writer’s Guild Awards consideration. And to do it in a way which is producer-friendly and not a deal breaker.
Question:
As a writer, I would like to direct my own film and form with a partner an LLC. If I become a signatory now, it would require an interim agreement? Would it be allowed if I’m willing to sign a Guild proposal and work under Guild terms?
Answer:
CRAIG EMANUEL:
Companies who apply for interim agreements are going to be stuck with whatever they agree to now. The problem that is potentially raised is that you are agreeing to abide by certain residual formulas and calculations. You then have to find a third party distributor whose going to agree to account and pay those residuals based on that formula, which could possibly be more expensive. You, the individual producer, could be bound to assume those obligations.
You can make an interim agreement, but this could ultimately not help the WGA cause and defeat the purpose of what the Guild is trying to achieve. If you really want to sign an interim agreement now, then you’re going to be stuck with whatever terms you’re agreeing to now, because otherwise, you’re effectively getting a free ride.
Question:
What are your hopes going into the negotiations, for next week and what are your thoughts on next year and the future?
Answer:
CRAIG EMANUEL:
I think as far as festivals are concerned, the demand for product is going to be higher than usual. There is a concern with film festivals that attendance will be down because agents have cut their expenses. On the other hand, I think the distributors will be there in full force, looking for product. I am and have always been optimistic that this issue is going to get resolve and I’d love to think this will get resolved before Christmas and if not Christmas, early next year.
BILL CONDON:
We wouldn’t go back to the table unless we were negotiating and that’s what’s different this time. We are very much looking forward to what we can achieve when the talks are started and we begin to get somewhere.
HOWARD RODMAN:
All we really have is our time and our voice and we put those at risk all the time, when we’re making independent film. I don’t think we’re wrong to do so and I we’re all the kind of people who will do it again. e don’t do it because our investment banker told us that’s the most prudent thing to do. We do it because we can’t help ourselves.
RODRIGO GARCIA:
I’m also hopeful about the talks. It seems that some of the other members that I’ve talked with are really going into it with some hopefulness and a reasonable attitude towards these talks. The unprecedented support that the strike and the writers have had has been great. It’s been a real boost of oxygen to the Guild and I think as far as the big companies are concerned, they are not all the same and hopefully the more reasonable—if that’s the right word—members of the other side, hopefully, will also prevail. And as festivals are concerned, people are hungry for product.
