October 1999

Also see the List of N.E. Films/Videos at the IFFM.

With success stories like "My Dinner with Andre," "Down by Law," "Slacker," "Clerks," and "The Brothers McMullen," filmmakers at the Independent Feature Film Market know that anything can happen.

There are numerous nonlinear editing software applications on the market today, ranging in price from $100 to $50,000 and up. It's a great time to be a digital moviemaker, because the tools to see your project from creation to completion reside on your desktop and at your fingertips.

This is exactly the response I have gotten from concerned friends and family. Of course, it is always accompanied by a raised eyebrow and a look on their face that says it all: "Are you nuts or something?" Maybe, but I have spent the last year and a half increasing my skills and training to become a full-time stuntwoman. Most people ask me the same question: "What on earth made me choose such a career path?" I must admit it was not initially my idea. I have loved film and special effects since I was read more...

Screenwriters in New England will have an opportunity to deconstruct the process of writing and marketing their work when Esther Luttrell, author of "Tools of the Screenwriting Trade" and president of Screenwriting Partners Unlimited, returns to Rhode Island in October to teach her two-day intensive Midnight Oil Screenwriting Workshop. Esther gave me a preview of the class, talking talked about the nuts and bolts of scriptwriting, formatting, and marketing from her home in Mount Dora, FL.

NARRATIVE FEATURES

MUD SEASON
Drama, 35mm, Color, 1999, 102 min.

Remember being scared at the movies when you were a kid? In 1973, at the tender age of three, I saw my first film, a horror anthology called "Asylum." I still have memories of hiding in the back seat of my parents' car at the Starlight Drive-In during that one. In fact, I attribute my love of horror films directly to "Asylum." Its disturbing imagery, while tame by today's standards, instilled in me the sense of wonder and terror I carry to this day.

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Film Festivals

A government report released in April said the teen birth rate dropped to a record low in 1997, 6% lower than its all-time high in 1994. Of the 50 states, Vermont could boast the lowest numbers of teen births.

Once in a while, a film comes along with such a moving, heartfelt story line that the production values become secondary. But in the case of the seven-minute award-wining short "Bunny," it's hard not to appreciate both.

To DV or not to DV. Wait a minute: is that really the question? Numerous techie and film trade magazines would have you believe that it is. They would have you believe not only that the digital revolution has indeed arrived, but they would have you believe that if you're not standing on the station platform ready to board RIGHT NOW, la revolucion is fixing to leave you behind, blinking and coughing in the dust.

Eric is a ten-year-old boy, left with his grandparents while his parents travel to America. He is unimpressed by their modest but hardly primitive country home, disgusted and disheartened by their unpalatable fare. So begins "Guttaperc," a film by Barbados-born producer/director Andrew Millington. But the Caribbean world Eric finds himself in is not as simple as he thought. Indeed, it is one caught in a struggle, represented by the two figures that dominate his life: his grandfather (played by read more...