Director Andrew Bujalski on the red carpet for the premiere of Computer Chess at the Sundance Film Festival 2013. He is one of the leading figures of micro-budget filmmaking known as mumblecore. Bujalski used a 1969 Sony AVC-3260 tube video camera to give the film its period feel (and to show that video definitely doesn't look like film!). Computer Chess centers around a weekend computer chess tournament in the early 1980s at the dawning of the age of personal computers and well before technology was in the palm of our hands...
$70K Micro-Budget Film becomes First 3D Indie film to Premiere In Dallas (News/Industry)
Zero One, a science fiction thriller written and produced by Kareem Gray, will be the basis for a TV series now in development, The Zero One Mandate. The film, which revolves around a man who discovers a computer program that has the power to save or destroy humanity, has been screened at film festivals around the world. It won the Best Screenplay and Best Original Music awards at the Boston Sci-Fi Festival, and was named Best Film at this year's Dallas Black Film Festival. Ticket Stubs Entertainment called it 'hugely enjoyable for all ages.' Now the original 2-D version has been converted into a 3-D movie experience by P3DHD, a Dallas company that is pioneering quick, high quality, cost effective conversions of conventional film and video into 3-D.
Panasonic Announces New Pricing For 2/3″ cameras including Micro-Budget Friendly AK-HVF70G (News)
Panasonic has announced system pricing and initial delivery date for its new AK-HC3800 studio camera system, featuring three high-sensitivity 2/3 type 2.2-mega pixel IT CCD sensors and a next-generation, 38-bit DSP (Digital Signal Processor) with 16-bit A/D converter.
Autodesk 90-Day Fixed Term License (News)
The new 90-day fixed term license lets freelance artists have access to Autodesk Maya or 3ds Max for the low price of $199.
Micro-Budget film, Friggin’ Aliens, Unveils Community Film Initiative in IndieGogo Campaign (News)
Friggin’ Aliens is the first feature film for Darringer Productions and they are trying something new and experimental with the ownership of their film. Darringer Productions has created something they are calling the Community Film Initiative. CFI is a program in which the cast and crew (including the producers and director) receive non-expiring percentage of ownership in the film itself. (While it's not uncommon to allow content creators to receive a percentage of profits to equal sweat equity, this usually has a monetary cutoff level or an expiration date.) This allows them to make the movie on a micro-budget, but also does something that is important to David Whitaker, Eric Henninger, and Lori Henninger (who make up Darringer Productions), and that is that it builds community. Eric Henninger says, “This is about more than just making a movie. It’s about building a community of creative and talented individuals and giving them a platform...
Straight Talk with Oculus Feature Director, Mike Flanagan (Interview)
The original Oculus short was so impressive that it stood at the top of the MFM shorts list for 18 months. Flanagan's next feature, Absentia (which he raised money for on Kickstarter and shot with a 5D Mark II DSLR camera), received the first 10.0 for a feature in MFM's history. Absentia would then go on a whirlwind festival tour and be released via video on demand, Redbox, and Netflix. Now we speak with Flanagan about his feature film version of Oculus which is slated for theatrical distribution in 2013!