What's Up with CinemATL

It's 3:30 in the morning on Sunday, and I've just finished off my third can of Full Throttle (Sugar Free) in a little less than six hours. I'm trying to get enough of a buzz to put the finishing touches on the latest issue of CinemATL, our eleventh. I've been working non-stop since about noon on Saturday, and I'm close to having all the stories in place for launch.

A week ago, I was on set, assistant directing a short film, where we had two full days of  16-hour shoots. I just spent the week recovering from that, and now I'm up on another late night? What am I thinking?

Being our eleventh issue, this makes nearly two years of CinemATL. Each issue, our entirely volunteer staff of writers, photographers, editors and web producers (er, web producer), have contributed to keeping the magazine afloat. Each of us having day jobs, each of us trying to work on our own film projects, all the while.

Which brings me to a subtle change you may have noticed on our front page. You'll see that this issue is labeled "Issue #11 - Summer 2007."

Yes, we've changed to a quarterly format. It's out of necessity more than anything. While there seem to be more and more stories to cover, our staff is also growing increasingly more and more busy. Something's got to give.

Don't worry, we still plan on making each issue of CinemATL an interesting and entertaining read from virtual cover to virtual cover, but now we'll just have more time to bring you the stories that are important to you, and us, as filmmakers.

And just because we're putting out two less issues a year, don't think that we won't be seeing us at just as many events. The blog will still be going strong with regular updates between issues. Charles Judson will make sure of that. And Steve Warren's movie reviews will maintain their same weekly pace as well.

While we're slightly disappointed to be cutting back on our output, we know that you understand where we're coming from. Because, like us, you're filmmakers. Each one of us seem to be putting in way more time than we can imagine, doing what we love. Sometimes, you need to step back, though, and focus on quality over quantity.

This issue, though, I consider our underdog issue, as we examine some topics that haven't received a lot of press.

We start out with our Cover Story, an interview with Afemo Omilami, a face that you've probably seen dozens of times. This Atlanta actor has made a name for himself in Hollywood, and we've got the scoop on his career and what Southern cinema means to him.

We also examine the phenomenon known as fan films. Nathan Flood talked with three directors to see what goes into the making of their Star Wars fanifixation. Stephen Hart takes a look back at the watershed film Black Orpheus. Special makeup effects artist Toby Sells is profiled in our Insider's Scoop section, complete with a video interview. And Martin Kelley battles traffic to find out what's up with the new film Rex on set.

So, kick back and enjoy our latest issue, and then go out there and make some films!

Michael D Friedman is the online producer and an editor for CinemATL. In his spare time, he is a screenwriter and filmmaker.