Monthly Archives: June 2009

Casting directors and independent feature films

Here are my notes on “Casting the Net”, the third and final seminar I attended at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films. The panel was composed by three Casting Directors, including the incredibly on-the-ball Deanna Brigidi-Stewart, and focused on the role that Casting Directors can play in packaging an independent feature film. 1. [...]
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Expert tips on producing your first feature

This post is my write-up of another seminar I attended at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films. This seminar took place on the same day as the one about film publicity. The panel in this seminar was composed by an independent film director, an Executive Vice President of a distribution company, an independent [...]
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“No publicity really is bad publicity” – Palm Springs International ShortFest

I attended the "No publicity really is bad publicity" seminar at the Palm Springs International Short film Festival and this is a concise write-up of some of the main points made by the publicists who participated. The panel was moderated by Kathleen McInnis, who was unit publicist on the movie "Surveillance", among others. In accordance [...]
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James Cameron’s 3D movie “Avatar”

After a hiatus of more than ten years, James Cameron is finally directing a movie again. There is every indication that James Cameron is up to much more than simply making his next movie; it looks like James Cameron will revolutionize cinema and filmmaking. He is taking his career, and the film industry with him, to [...]
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James Cameron’s short film “Xenogenesis”

In the late seventies James Cameron was told by a friend that a consortium of investors was interested in financing a movie for tax-shelter purposes. James Cameron shot a quick 16mm teaser and the investors liked it, giving him a further $20,000 to produce a short demo in order to raise money from a [...]
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