Metablast

It's a truth (almost) universally acknowledged that Francois Truffaut's Day For Night is the ne plus ultra movie about making movies. No argument here. Contemporarily, I'm also partial to David Mamet's satirical State and Main, which is more about everything that goes wrong in the moviemaking process. Neither of these are yet available at any of the (legitimate) streaming sites, but here are a couple other films about filmmaking that are -- one documentary and one not:

American Movie chronicles the real-life efforts of low (low) budget horror filmmaker Mike Borchardt to finish his short film Coven. Say what you want about Mike -- and as you watch him, there will be plenty for you to say -- but his tenaciousness in realizing his vision is undeniable. Would you or I be so driven?

Living In Oblivion, on the other hand, is a small independent film about the making of a small independent film. Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, and Dermot Mulroney stand out, but the thing to really keep in mind as you watch is that writer/director Tom DiCillo directed Brad Pitt in the indie film Johnny Suede before he made "Oblivion." Think of that as you watch the segment with James LeGros as Chad Palamino . . .

(sorry no video embeds. Crackle sucks about that apparently.)