Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Editor’s Letter
As I noted online in my blog entry listing our top Web posts of the year, Filmmaker ended 2014 with an audience of 190,000 on our Facebook page — over 12 months, an increase of nearly 500%. That gain is reflected in our Web stats. Our overall traffic has doubled, and some days as much as 50% of our readers discover our content from Zuckerberg’s blue wall. (If you want to know how we did it, I have nothing for you — we did little more than post our articles, write original descriptions of them and answer people in the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 21, 2015 -
On Both Sides of the Lens
Is there another contemporary documentary director who has so lovingly — and yet so quizzically — explored the work of his own artistic inspirations as Wim Wenders? With his patient, probing camera eye and, often, ruminative German-accented voiceover, Wenders has captured the work of filmmakers (Nicholas Ray, Yasujirō Ozu), choreographers (Pina Bausch), fashion designers (Yohji Yamamoto) and many, many musicians (Blind Willie Johnson, U2 and the players featured in Buena Vista Social Club, among others). Wenders approaches these talents humbly — in some cases as a colleague, but most often as a fan and admirer. And as much as Wenders’ […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 21, 2015 -
Ted Hope Announced as Head of Production for Amazon Original Movies Division
Independent producer Ted Hope, who recently left his position as CEO of Fandor, has been announced as the new Head of Production for Amazon Original Movies. As announced by Amazon today, the division, part of Amazon Studios, will produce and acquire up to 12 films a year for theatrical release and then early window play on Prime Instant Video four to eight weeks later. With producing credits such as The Ice Storm, 21 Grams, Super and Hope, of course, is well known to Filmmaker readers and, encouragingly, he has been tapped to bring “unique stories, voices, and characters from top […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2015 -
Michael Ballhaus on Framing and Arguing with Fassbinder on The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
In this fascinating short interview released by The Criterion Collection, legendary D.P. Michael Ballhaus discusses working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder on one of the director’s best films, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant. After talking about how Fassbinder didn’t like to shotlist, Ballhaus describes one particularly difficult move and the director’s reaction when it wasn’t done just the way he wanted it. And even if Ballhaus weren’t an erudite interview, the clips alone here would be worth watching. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is now out in standard def and Blu Ray from Criterion.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2015 -
The Look of Defeat: Force Majeure‘s Director and Producer React to their Oscar Snub
Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure is one of my top films of the year, so I share — albeit not to the same degree — the disappointment of Ostlund and producer Erik Hemmendorff over the film’s failure to be nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. But it is their reaction, not mine, that is liveblogged, as they video’d their watching the nominations and then their post-announcement reaction. The joke — if it is indeed one — is contingent on you having seen Force Majeure. However, even if you haven’t, the relative banality of the video, which documents the paltry […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 16, 2015 -
Soderbergh Posts His 110-Minute Recut and Rethink of Kubrick’s 2001
If you noticed that Steven Soderbergh watched Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 three times in 2014, here’s the reason why: he was working on his own recut. Just as he did with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Soderbergh has worked over Kubrick’s masterpiece and he’s posted his version over at his Extension 765 website. He sets the bar high for his adaptation: i’ve been watching 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY regularly for four decades, but it wasn’t until a few years ago i started thinking about touching it, and then over the holidays i decided to make my move. why now? I don’t […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2015 -
Podcast Alert: Appropriate Behavior Director and Star Desiree Akhavan on Death, Sex and Money
Desiree Akhavan, a Filmmaker 25 New Face whose debut feature, Appropriate Behavior opens Friday, is the guest on the latest episode of Death, Sex and Money. I will be honest — as someone who interviews a lot of directors for a living, I often won’t listen to film directors interviewed elsewhere. But I make an exception when Anna Sale is the interviewer. She is expert at gently drawing out honest revelations from her interviewees about areas that most other interviewers (including me) won’t venture into. Here’s an exchange in which Akhavan talks with Sale about the pressure she feels as […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2015 -
Sundance Trailer Watch: Michael Madsen’s The Visit
Michael Madsen’s “documentary from outer space” is at the top of our viewing list at Sundance this year. As it is described by production company NGF: THE VISIT is a documentary with comedy elements, and a philosophical exploration of our fear of strangers through the ultimate threat to our self-image: The discovery of Alien Intelligent Life. In Vienna lies the UN-city, with its late 1970’s architecture and its extra-territorial status not unlike a giant spacecraft that has landed in the middle of the civilized world. Inside this impressive institution representing our belief in humanity, resides the UN Office of Outer […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2015 -
Watch: De Niro and DiCaprio Compete for a Scorsese Payday
While it may not be as consciously constructed as that of Quentin Tarantino’s, the film meta-world of Martin Scorsese would seem to at some point demand the pairing of his two most durable leading men, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. That time is now, apparently, as the two men appear in a short branded content film for the $3.2 billion City of Dreams casino in Manila Bay, Philippines. It may not be what we wanted, but it shouldn’t pass by unnoticed. The trailer for the film, The Audition, is posted above. Both actors have been reported to have received […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2015 -
Brief Thoughts on Pitching Articles to Editors at Sites Like Filmmaker
A bit of synergy as two things crossed my screen this morning: a query from a prospective writer and this article from Paul Bradshaw and the Online Journalism blog. Taken together they got me thinking about pitching, new writers and Filmmaker. The query was from a perfectly polite, well-spoken individual who self-identifies as a “blogger” and a “geek” and who sincerely wants to write for us. Absent from the email were a) any link to any previously published work; b) any sort of biographical information denoting the person’s specific expertise or area of interest; c) any specific suggestions of work […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 12, 2015
