Thom Powers emailed the below, an announcement of the Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant, so created in memory of the talented documentary filmmaker and wonderful, passionate and engaged person who passed away this past Spring. What: This grant funds first time documentary makers for travel and accommodations at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, April 12-15, 2007. For four days, grant recipients will be given access to films, participate in master classes and be mentored by experienced filmmakers. TWO filmmakers will be chosen for the grant in its first year. Deadline: Applications must be postmarked by February 5. Applicants will […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 24, 2006Check out Jamie Stuart’s holiday card, below, wishing us all a good holiday season.
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 23, 2006If you only bookmark this blog and don’t regularly check out the main page, click over to Jason Guerrasio’s web-only interview with Alfonso Cuaron, whose Children of Men opened yesterday. Here’s Cuaron in an excerpt: I hope young people will see this film. I mean my generation, we blew it. I think we grew up in a world that was pre-idyllic, and we saw the world collapse in front of us and we tried to believe that it was not our fault, that it was not our responsibility. We felt powerless about the situations as if they were very overwhelming […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 23, 2006I’ve been working on a piece for the next Filmmaker, a kind of year-end review of significant business developments in the world of independent film. Many of them are on Scott Kirsner’s “10 Pivotal Events of 2006,” which he’ just blogged over at his CinemaTech. Check out his commentary and if you like it, consider downloading his e-book, The Future of Web Video: Opportunities for Producers, Entrepreneurs, Media Companies and Advertisers, which is a straightforward and sober primer on the current state of distributing video through the web. In addition to a chart listing revenue opportunities for independent producers, the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 23, 2006I’m a big Michel Gondry fan, just as much so after viewing the YouTube video below which treats his latest frippery, the “Michel Gondry solves the Rubik’s Cube with his Feet” YouTube clip, as a modern day Zapruder film, playfully debunking it in the process.
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 19, 2006Screenwriter Annie Nocenti (she wrote Patriotville, directed by Talmage Cooley, which is currently in post-production) just returned from Baluchistan where she shot a documentary with partner Wendelin Johnson. She’s written a piece for The Brooklyn Rail discussing her trip which is a fascinating portrait of a “modern Sitting Bull”: the Khan of Kalat, Mir Suleiman Daud (pictured). A “chief of chiefs” in Baluchistan, one of Pakistan’s tribal provinces which also borders Iran and Afghanistan, Khan Suleiman is a Gucci shade-wearing, Hummer-driving statesman trying to unify the tribes towards an independent Baluchistan so that his people can stave off a “slow-motion […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 14, 2006When it comes to year-end lists, I tend to skip over all the critics lists and concentrate on those that summarize categories of filmmaking I don’t pay enough attention to. Music video, for example. So, here’s Pitchfork’s Top 25 Music Videos of 2006, with links to the clips. Check out work by Sophie Muller, Patrick Daughters, Chris Cunningham and others.
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 13, 2006From an interview by Fox News commentator Cal Thomas of departing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the differences between public support of World War 2 and public support of war in Iraq. One differing factor? The movies. Here’s Rumsfeld from the interview: Furthermore, the movie industry was mobilized to support the war. They (filmmakers) wanted us to win, which was an important factor. The situationtoday, the success that has been achieved in not having another attack onthis country in the last five years, has allowed the perception of a threatto diminish, even though the threat has clearly not diminished and, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 12, 2006When we started Filmmaker, one of the key lines in our mission statement was that we were “demystifying” the process of feature film production. It’s still a key tenet of the magazine and the philosophy behind it has remained unchanged: by giving filmmakers the information on how films are financed, produced, sold and distributed, we’re helping enable newcomers to enter the filmmaking process and realize their visions. But is it really necessary for first-time filmmakers to know all about these things? By that I mean, isn’t a healthy amount of denial and willful ignorance essential to the process of getting […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 12, 2006As part of its Oscar campaign for Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, Paramount is streaming online EPK material on the making of the film, including interviews with its production designer, d.p., sound team and more.
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 10, 2006