Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Marc Schiller Talks the Benefits of Movie Bundling
This week Bond/360 launched what they’ve dubbed a “Creativity Bundle” — four movies having to do with making and creation downloadable from VHX for a single, pay-what-you-wish fee. In a blog post I wrote about Bond/360’s use of what’s become known as “the Radiohead model,” based on the recording group’s pricing strategy for their In Rainbows album. But there’s another innovation going on here, and that’s the bundling of titles. Film packages are a staple of foreign sales, but usually they work in a different way. A distributor must buy a package of films in order to get the one […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 15, 2014 -
Platform Monopolies: Good or Bad for Independent Filmmakers?
Dubbed “a novelist from the day after tomorrow” in Sunday’s New York Times, Vincent Zandri profits, quite well, by living in the Amazon universe. His mystery novels are edited, published, marketed and sold by Amazon. Perhaps most importantly, the mechanism through which new readers will discover his work, the latticework of likes, referrals and recommendations, are increasingly controlled by Amazon and its related properties, like Goodreads. For Zandri, who achieved modest success through traditional publishers before signing with Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint, the internet giant’s model is the new way. Reduced to “returning bottles and cans for grocery money,” […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 15, 2014 -
Bond/360 Launches “Pay What You Wish” Four-Movie “Creativity Bundle”
Hailed as revolutionary back in 2007, “the Radiohead model” — pay-what-you-wish downloadable media pricing — never flourished in the years following. Even Radiohead abandoned it. Yet, as Bond/360 is setting out to prove, it may still have its place when it comes to independent film. Tonight at midnight they’re launching a four-film “Creativity Bundle” download through VHX. Pay what you want to own — not rent — four movies. And, just as Radiohead’s In Rainbows was one of their best, these titles (or at least the two I’ve seen) are excellent: Indie Game, Helvetica, Sign Painters and Beauty is Embarrassing. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 13, 2014 -
The Rumpus Launches Manual Typewriter iPad App, Typing Writer
I grew up on a manual typewriter, the same one my mom used to write articles for Life Magazine in the ’50s and ’60s. It was a small portable in a beat-up canvas case, and you had to hit the keys hard. Later, my dad outfitted his basement home office with an IBM Selectric. I loved that typewriter. It was a brick, a giant slab of molded something, and once you gave the keys a little push the thing would explode. The violence of it was kind of thrilling. Still, I don’t fetishize old-school typewriters, manual or electric. I can’t […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 10, 2014 -
Testing the Bechdel Test
One of the clever recent innovations at the subscription streaming service Fandor is the ability to filter films using the Bechdel Test. Created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, the Bechdel Test applies three criteria to judge the quality of female representation in a motion picture: 1) it has to have at least two [named] women in it; 2) who talk to each other; 3) about something besides a man. In a new video essay, “Beyond Bechdel: Testing Feminism in Film,” Lee interrogates the Bechdel Test using films from the Fandor library, asking whether the test is a meaningful criteria when considering […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 9, 2014 -
Borscht Corporation Launches Crowdsourced Scarface Redux
“Say hello to my little friend!” If you’ve ever fantasized unleashing your inner Tony Montana — or, more accurately, your inner ’80s-era Brian DePalma — then the latest crowdsourced art project from the Miami-based Borscht Corporation is for you. Borscht has announced Scarface Redux, a fan remake of the 1983 drug lord epic, with filmmakers from all over the world invited to direct and submit their own 15-second segment. The clip can be “live action, animation, puppets, legos, Chihuahuas, it doesn’t matter!”, the site says. The finished film will be screened at the Borscht Film Festival in December at a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 9, 2014 -
Parsing DIY Distribution with the CRI Virtual Toolbox
Need to make a snap decision about a crowdfunding or DIY distribution platform? Then check out the Virtual Toolbox from NYU’s Cinema Research Institute. The Cinema Research Institute at NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Graduate Film Program selects four fellows a year who “engage in the entrepreneurial exploration of the film business and initiate valuable research to be leveraged by the film community at large.” This year’s fellows have explored everything from dynamic pricing models to modeling film investment, but while we wait to learn more about their work, recommended and available online now is the Virtual Toolbox, created […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 8, 2014 -
Short Film: Saute ma ville, by Chantal Akerman
In 1968, at the age of 18 and six years before the release of her masterpiece, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Chantal Akerman made this short film, which announces themes and strategies she continues to this present day. From Amber Frost at Dangerous Minds: Akerman actually dropped out of film school before completing a single term in order to make it, selling stocks and working in an office to fund the twelve and a half minutes that eventually paved the way for her three hour plus opus. As with Jeanne Dielman, intense, oppressive boredom and domestic isolation […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2014 -
“What is Bayhem?” The Secret of Michael Bay’s Shots
In the latest in his Every Frame a Painting series, film essayist Tony Zhou breaks down the visual language of the visually dynamic, sometimes-maligned (although not by Filmmaker!) Michael Bay, showing why his shots still pack more punch than your average multiplex-crasher. Using commentary from Werner Herzog, references to West Side Story (one of Bay’s favorite films) and A/B comparisons of imitators interesting and not, Zhou explains Bay’s use of parallax, off-screen space, compression and speed. If you’re planning to see Transformers 4 — or even if you’re not — just check this out.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 3, 2014 -
Filmmaker‘s Top Ten Posts of June, 2014
Here is what you read the most at Filmmaker in June, 2014. 1. Jennine Lanouette’s post, “On Finding New Screenplay Structures for Independent Film,” that accompanied what turned out to be a successful Kickstarter campaign, was our more read post for June. Lanouette’s take on how structure represents itself through changes in character and world view as well as literal narrative inspired a thoughtful comments thread too. 2. Ariston Anderson’s “10 Lessons on Filmmaking from” series are always popular, no less so this latest installment, filed from Cannes, featuring Hope and Glory director John Boorman. One lesson — “The script […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 1, 2014
