Film Method

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Join Cindy Freeman and Jenna Edwards for the last Film Method episode. It's been an incredible run these past few years as they've covered everything from raising money for your film to hiring crew members, running an efficient set, marketing your movie, and much much more. After 99+ episodes it's time to sign off.

Cindy Freeman - Host/Producer

Cindy Freeman moved to Los Angeles from San Diego in 2009 to pursue a career in the film industry. Upon her arrival in LA she immediately began working with producer Jenna Edwards to create behind-the-scenes content for Jenna's feature film April Showers. Cindy also directed the behind-the-scenes content creation for Jenna's filmÂIn the Darkness. It was while Cindy was working with Jenna that she was inspired to create the Film Method podcast.

Cindy has worked on a number of independent films as a production assistant and 2nd A.D while in Los Angeles and in July of 2010 she began working at Dreamworks Animation as a production coordinator.

Prior to moving to LA she produced a travel documentary,ÂSee Girl Go and a short film,ÂDrips through her production companyÂSoonami Productions.

To contact Cindy you can write to her at [email protected].

Jenna Edwards- Co-Host/Producing Advisor

Jenna Edwards began her film career in Minnesota where she was signed on as talent with Easter Hailey. Quickly after being signed Edwards was hired by the agency as a full time employee giving her a head-start on her Hollywood education. After two years of rising through the Minnesota film community Edwards made the move to Los Angeles.

Soon after Edwards moved to Los Angeles she was hired by Agent Jamie Ferrar. It was while Edwards was working for Ferrar that she developed an interest in the casting process, before long she had moved from talent agencies to working in casting with such industry leaders as Sally Steiner (Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Boy Meets World), Barbie Block (Jonas,ÂPepper Dennis) and Allison Jones (Super Bad, The Office). During this time Edwards was also able to gain valuable production experience working on shows such asÂBuffy the Vampire Slayer,ÂMalcolm in the Middle, and working with studios like Disney, MTV, FOX and CBS.

After several years of successfully navigating her career through the Hollywood studio system Edwards made the leap to independent film with her first featureÂApril Showers. After her success withÂApril Showers, Edwards formed Mattoid Entertainment with partners Jeremy McGovern and Andrew Robinson where they made,ÂIn the Darkness, the first narrative feature to ever premiere on Hulu.com. Most recently Edwards made her way back to Nebraska, where she shotÂApril Showers, to team up with some new filmmakers on a comedy film calledÂTrunk'd.

To contact Jenna you can write to her at [email protected].

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We return to the topic of music in film once again with London based composer Ram Khatabakhsh. Ram discusses his passion for composing music for film and working as a composer for independent film. We also spend a fair amount of time talking about his beloved Casio keyboard.

Ram Khatabakhsh- Composer

Ram started playing the keyboard at the age of six - just to figure out the melody of his favourite songs and themes. His parents bought him a small Casio keyboard at the time. He continued to play on his keyboard as a hobby after school hours and learned to play his favourite songs by ear. By age of 11, he was attending private piano and music lessons and exploring multiple musical genres. At the age of 15, Ram began to compose his own music and was instantly captivated by this. His passion for film music was apparent from the early days. He attended Kingston University in London where he obtained his degree in music composition. In November 2008 Ram was commissioned to write orchestral music and had his music performed by Kingston Chamber Orchestra in public concert. ÂIn June 2008 Ram had his music played and work shopped at Royal Academy of Music in London where he worked along side the conductor Christopher Austin and composer Philip Cashian. In November 2007 Ram's music was performed in the South Bank Centre as part of the PLG Group season. Ram's music is highly motivated by film music, as this is the greatest goal in his career. He has been working as a freelance composer for several feature film projects and has written music for number of online advertisements and commercials and short films.

Ram currently directs a music production company (Motion Sound Production) based at Pinewood Studios (UK) where he collaborates with directors and producers and works with a number of talented musicians and engineers.

Film Method Hosts

For more information about the Film Method hosts, please visit the About page.

Writer/Development Exec Tom Vaughan

Animation Producer Ellen Coss

Recap of Post-Production Season with Jason Brubaker

There's a saying that when you make a movie you actually make three movies by 1) writing the screenplay 2) shooting the movie and 3) editing the film. The editor of a film can serve as one of the primary storytellers of your movie and therefore is a critical role to cast when hiring your crew. Editor Karl Hirsch joins us to talk about workflow, the technical aspects of editing, and collaboration.

Karl Hirsch- Editor

Karl Hirsch is an award-winning picture editor, post-production supervisor, and trailer producer/editor. His boutique post-production company, HirschFilm, opened in 2003.

Karl has worked on films such as For the Love of Money (James Caan, Oded Fehr, Edward Furlong, Delphine Chaneac), Officer Down (Sherilyn Fenn, Casper Van Dien), Fist of the Warrior (Ho-Sung Pak, Peter Greene, Michael Dorn), The Third Wish (Betty White, Jenna Mattison, Armand Assante), Frame of Mind (Chris Noth, Tony LoBianco, Barbara Barrie). His films have been released by Lionsgate, Echo Bridge Entertainment, Phase-4 Films, Freestyle Media, Lifetime Television, Movieola, FunnyOrDie.com, Mini-Movie Channel, and Warner Brothers Video-On-Demand.

Other editing and post-production credits include Stuart Gordon's King of the Ants, starring Daniel Baldwin and Kari Wuhrer; Paul Carafotes' Club Soda, starring James Gandolfini, Joe Mantegna and Louis Gossett Jr.; bio-fuel documentary feature Gashole: Killer Movie, starring Kaley Cuoco and Paul Walker; The Tub, starring Melora Hardin and Dedee Pfeiffer; and HBO Films' If These Walls Could Talk 2.

Karl has also produced and edited hundreds of trailers, promos and sizzle reels. Recent work includes Lasse HallstrÃm's Hachi: A Dog's Story, starring Richard Gere; 2nd Take, starring Sarah Jones and Tom Everett Scott; theatrical advertisements for the documentary screening series Something to Talk About; Smother (Liv Tyler & Diane Keaton) for Inferno and Variance Films; Jim Isaac's action/thriller Pig Hunt; and promotional material for The Grammy Awards. He has also produced sizzle reels for musical acts Il Divo, Bowling For Soup, and Good Charlotte. Karl was nominated for a Golden Trailer Award in 2002, and was a Telly Award winner in 2008 and 2010. The short thriller Clown was awarded "Best Editing" by the International Sci-Fi and Horror Film Festival in October 2005.

Karl is also a producer of English dubs of foreign-language features. Credits include Gen (Turkey), Wolfhound (Russia), and the animated features Goat Story (Czech Republic) and Space Dogs 3D (Russia). Karl's client roster includes Inferno Entertainment, Epic Pictures, The Recording Academy (The Grammys), Yahoo!, KidZania, Octagon Worldwide, Brainstorm Media, Siegel+Gale, Helio/Virgin Mobile, Future Engine, THINKFilm, VMI Worldwide, and Cutler Enterprises. He was featured in Paul Osborne's documentary feature Official Rejection, and in Kim Adelman's book The Ultimate Filmmaker's Guide to Making Short Films. He has guest-lectured at Scottsdale Community College in Arizona, Film Independent in Los Angeles, and has spoken on film festival panels in Victoria BC, Austin, and Phoenix.

Karl and his wife Lauren have written three monster movies together, made a short film about hiccups, and are currently producing a series of childrens radio plays.

Film Method Hosts

For more information about the Film Method hosts, please visit the About page.

When making a film it's important to be mindful of adding value to the project in order to sell it later. Those things, such as actors with names, can be attractive to a distributor who is looking to make a certain profit on your film and will also allow you to pay back your investors. Producer's Rep Noor Ahmed joins us to give tips on how to increase the value of your project and on working with the MPAA.

Noor Ahmed- Producer's Rep

Mr. Ahmed began his career in Ohio working as a production coordinator on various television commercials and indie feature films. Before leaving for Los Angeles, he worked on the indie feature Blue Car which premiered at the Sundance film festival and was released by Miramax.

After moving from Ohio, Mr. Ahmed worked at New Line Cinema on various productions including Son of the Mask, Freddy vs. Jason, and Dumb and Dumber 2. Following his time at New Line, Mr. Ahmed worked as an Associate Producer on the PBS documentary, California and the American Dream, a four part series that received a national broadcast in the U.S. After leaving PBS, Mr. Ahmed worked for the distribution company Roadside Attractions traveling to various film festivals as their Acquisitions Coordinator. During his time at Roadside Attractions the company acquired several high level indie films including Supersize Me and What the Bleep Do You Know. Mr. Ahmed left Roadside Attractions to join Reder & Feig where he worked with the firm as a paralegal on films including, Brick, Thank You for Smoking, La Misma Luna, Southland Tales, and other indie features (full list on IMDb) before becoming the firms in-house Producer Rep.

Reder & Feig's Website

Film Method Hosts

For more information about the Film Method hosts, please visit the About page.

As technology advances, the options for independent filmmakers increase significantly, which can make picking a camera or a digital release platform very difficult and overwhelming. Filmmaker Andrew Robinson joins us to talk about everything from selecting the right camera for your project to working with Hulu as a release platform and home theater technology.

Andrew Robinson- Director

Andrew Robinson's career in Hollywood began eight years ago creating advertising and marketing campaigns for some of the industry's biggest films and television shows. Upon graduating from The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California Robinson took a job at BLT & Associates working for clients such as ABC, TNT and CNN. Robinson left BLT and went to work for Shoolery Design and their primary client CBS, helping with the launch of the hugely successful CSI: Miami for Jerry Bruckheimer.

Following his time at Shoolery, Robinson worked for Crew Creative Advertising in their theatrical advertising department. During his first three years at Crew Creative, Robinson worked on various hit films, including Harry Potter, Superman, Jarhead, The Island, Rambo 4, Happy Feet, Dodgeball and The Dukes of Hazzard to name a few.

Robinson returned to television advertising as co-creative director of the newly formed Network Department at Crew Creative. While serving as the department's co-creative director, Robinson oversaw the launch of TNT's The Closer, Tyler Perry's House of Pain, A&E's Mad Men, and FX's Dirt and Rescue Me, among others.

Robinson's advertising and film work has been seen all over the world and has been covered by The Daily Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, LA Times, CNN, Fox, KTLA and more.

During his five years at Crew Creative, Robinson found time to write and direct the feature film, April Showers starring Kelly Blatz (Disney's Aaron Stone), Daryl Sabara (Spy Kids), Illeana Douglas (To Die For) and Tom Arnold (True Lies). April Showers was released by Warner Brothers in the spring of 2011.

Currently, Robinson is hard at work on his next film Love in Training, which will begin production in 2012.

Andrew Robinson's Website

Film Method Hosts

For more information about the Film Method hosts, please visit the About page.

When tackling post-production you want to have someone on board that knows the ins and outs of managing your post-production team and who is familiar with working with a number of different film formats. It's also extremely important to work with a supervisor who is an expert in film deliverables in order to handle all the requests you will receive should you be lucky enough to work with a domestic or foreign distributor.

Anthony Gore-Post Production Supervisor

I have been the Executive in Charge of Post Production for the independent film production company, The Bubble Factory for over 11 years. Most notably on the films: Playing Mona Lisa (2000), Bad Girls From Valley High (2005), The Devil's Tomb (2009) and Creature (2011). My other post production credits include the Adult Swim hit TV series Childrens Hospital and the cult classic television show, Sordid Lives: The Series, as well as the critically acclaimed independent films, West Of Brooklyn and Revolution Green. Currently I am supervising the independent film For The Love Of Money starring James Caan. I am a graduate of Rutgers University and I am an active member of the Motion Picture Editor's Guild and Producer's Guild of America.

Film Method Hosts

For more information about the Film Method hosts, please visit the About page.

One of the most important things to consider as you're making your movie is how you're going to connect with an audience. Whether it be a niche subject or a broader family film, you must know who your audience is and how you will find them. Jon Reiss of Think Outside the Box Office joins us to share his pearls of wisdom on the topic.

Jon Reiss- Producer/Author

Named one of "10 Digital Directors to Watch" by Daily Variety, Jon Reiss is a critically acclaimed filmmaker whose experience releasing his most recent documentary feature, Bomb It with a hybrid strategy was the inspiration for writing Think Outside the Box Office: The Ultimate Guide to Film Distribution in the Digital Era, the first step-by-step guide for filmmakers to distribute and market their films. In that book he created the concept of the Producer of Marketing and Distribution (PMD) in order create a new crew member who would be in charge of a film's audience engagement and release.

As a consultant, Reiss is unique as one of the only filmmakers who works with other filmmakers throughout the world helping them devise strategies to release their films. Reiss has worked with IFP, the Sundance Institute, Screen Australia, Film Independent, Creative Scotland, The South Australian Film Corporation and numerous film schools and festivals to devise ways to educate and help independent filmmakers in the new economic landscape. He has conducted over a dozen TOTBO Workshops over three continents in the last year and is the year round distribution and marketing mentor at the IFP Filmmaker Labs. He also teaches at the Film Directing Program at Cal Arts.

Reiss is working on two more book projects: the first is devoted to the PMD, the second book takes the structure of distribution and marketing outlined in TOTBO and applies it to all the art forms. Reiss is also a regular contributor to Indiewire, Tribeca Future of Film, Sundance Artists Services, Hope for Film and other publications.

For more information go to: www.jonreiss.com

FB: www.facebook.com/reiss.jon

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Jon_Reiss

Film Method Hosts

For more information about the Film Method hosts, please visit the About page.