Authors — Scott Macaulay
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The Last Days of Collapse Subject Michael C. Ruppert
The life and final days of Michael C. Ruppert — author, 9/11 Truther, podcaster and prophet of economic collapse — are chronicled by The Verge’s Mat Stroud in a fascinating, quite sad story. Filmmaker readers will remember Ruppert from Chris Smith’s 2009 documentary, Collapse, in which the author discussed his theories of societal collapse in the decades following “peak oil” — the moment in which there is less oil in the ground than has been used by mankind. For Smith, however, the documentary was as much about Ruppert the man as his work. In an interview with Brandon Harris, Smith […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 22, 2014 -
What’s in the Summer Issue of Filmmaker?
What’s in the summer issue of Filmmaker? Well, first of all, our 2014 25 New Faces, but you already knew that. (If you didn’t, click here and find out who they are.) But there’s a lot more to be found in our print edition. On the cover is Rick Linklater’s chrono-masterpiece, Boyhood. My interview is 5,000 words or so, and maybe the best things about it are just the rhythms of Linklater’s voice and the little bits of filmmaking — and life — wisdom he departs along the way. Our Managing Editor, Vadim Rizov, has been obsessively checking out all […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 20, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: The 50 Shades of Grey Teaser
If you’re looking for where movie marketing is in 2014, this is it. Last night Beyonce posted to her Instagram a short 15 second teaser for Sam Taylor Wood’s anticipated 50 Shades of Grey, whose official trailer is due to drop this week. A balcony, thigh caress and a key in the lock, scored to a stripped down “Crazy in Love” — that’s all it is, but the simulated intimacy of the Instagram platform and Bey’s implied endorsement (as well as her high, but tastefully hidden, follower count) make this a better buy for Universal than any network TV buy.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 20, 2014 -
R.I.P. James Garner
Good is the man who inspires the words “persuasively ambivalent” in a New York Times obituary. Actor James Garner died last night in his California home of natural causes. Long before I’d discover as a suburban teenager Elmore Leonard or Altman’s The Long Goodbye there was Jim Rockford, the Malibu p.i. with his trailer home on the beach, troublemaking ex-con pal, on-again, off-again lawyer girlfriend. It seemed like a way to live. From the Times: “Maverick” had been in part a send-up of the conventional western drama, and “The Rockford Files” similarly made fun of the standard television detective, the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 20, 2014 -
Kodak Moments: Rick Linklater on His Award-Winning Long-Game Masterpiece, Boyhood
This interview with Rick Linklater about his Boyhood originally appeared as the cover story of our Summer, 2014 issue. As the film wins Best Picture from the New York Film Critics’ Circle, is is posted online for the first time. Time, along with its cousin memory, are among modernity’s great artistic subjects, with the title of Proust’s masterwork, In Search of Lost Time, articulating the journey of countless authors, playwrights, and filmmakers to creatively capture the sensations and meanings of our rapidly receding past. Among the latter have been directors whose films have reached for these passing years with any […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 17, 2014 -
Editor’s Letter
Moments before writing this Editor’s Letter, an email landed in my inbox — a check-in from a writer/director who appeared in our very first edition of 25 New Faces, way back in 1998. That edition featured, among others, the actor Peter Sarsgaard, directors Jessica Yu and Jamie Babbit, d.p. Amy Vincent, and film composers Nathan Larson and Craig Wedren. All still active, as is the email-writer, Christina Ray Eichman (now just Christina Ray). “Some years are busy and some years are really lean,” she writes, “but there’s nothing that I’d rather be doing. I’ve done everything from directing and writing […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 17, 2014 -
Parting Shot
You won’t find a more disturbing portrait of psychopathology on screen than in James Franco’s upcoming adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God. In a lead performance both riveting and repellent — and worthy of comparisons to Klaus Kinski — Scott Haze plays Lester Ballard, a necrophiliac killer inhabiting the back woods of Eastern Tennessee. And while there are plenty of awful acts one could note, the overriding feeling emitted by Haze’s primal performance is one of sheer, suffocating estrangement — a man’s near redaction from the human race. “I needed to go all in,” says Haze of his preparation […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 17, 2014 -
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
