Authors — Scott Macaulay
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“In My Film Time Is Shattered”: Producer Anatole Dauman Remembers Working with Alain Resnais
Coinciding with a 2000 retrospective of Alain Resnais’ work organized by both the American Cinematheque and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, producer Florence Dauman gave Filmmaker these quotes from her father, Anatole Dauman, about working with the great director. Through his company, Argos Films, Dauman produced or co-produced many of the masterworks of postwar European cinema – including Resnais’s Night and Fog; Hiroshima, Mon Amour; Last Year at Marienbad; and Muriel. On the occasion of Resnais’ death yesterday at 91, we are reprinting them here. Night and Fog (1956) “It was our first short film together. Would he accept […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 2, 2014 -
After Trayvon: Short Doc on Trayvon, Stop and Frisk, and Racial Profiling
Two years after the death of Trayvon Martin, filmmaker Alex Mallis releases online After Trayvon, a short doc shot last summer after the day’s wrap of his latest feature. Mallis, who associate produced and was a cinematographer on Keith Miller’s film, Welcome to Pine Hill, introduces it here: Last summer, a day after George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, our cast and crew wrapped a day of filming in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn for the upcoming feature, Five Star. Informal conversations throughout the day, between takes, and a fully equipped film crew, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 26, 2014 -
The Shape of Something Squashed Director Tom Noonan on How Jennifer Lawrence Inspired His New Play
Playwright, actor, director and screenwriter Tom Noonan is currently debuting his latest play, The Shape of Something Squashed, at New York’s Paradise Factory, but it might never have been written if it weren’t for an invitation to meet with Jennifer Lawrence one day. I’ll let Noonan tell the story below, but suffice to say that the bent emotions and darkly comic introspection that near-encounter produced are the stuff Noonan has memorably mined in his writing and directing work for years. Noonan’s film roles include singular turns in Heat, Mystery Train, Manhunter, Synecdoche, New York, and House of the Devil, to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2014 -
“Stop Making Indie Films,” Urges Kentucker Audley Change.org Petition
Responding to recent articles in the New York Times and Salon, filmmaker Kentucker Audley has launched a Change.org petition asking “mediocre” independent filmmakers to stop making films. The articles blame overproduction and too many films achieving theatrical release for the economic and artistic issues facing independent film. For the New York Times’ Manohla Dargis — who herself asked distributors to “stop buying so many films” at Sundance — too many films in theaters produces a noise drowning out the virtues of the fewer good movies that deserve critical and public support. For Beanie Barnes at Salon, overproduction has led to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 24, 2014 -
“Walter Murch: From The Godfather to the God Particle”
Legendary film editor, sound designer, writer, translator, amateur astronomer and director Walter Murch needs no introduction. (Oh, what the hell, his credits include The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Tetro and more.) In addition to being a great filmmaker, he’s also a great teacher and talker about film. Here, at the 2013 Sheffield Doc Fest, where he accompanied the doc, Particle Fever, he gives an inspiring speech on film editing, technology, audience expectation, how film grammar is changing with digital technologies, and physics. Don’t miss this.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 23, 2014 -
Rick Baker on How to Build a Shocking Rubber Prosthetic
Want horror-movie makeup tips from an Oscar-winning legend? Here, Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, Videodrome, Men in Black) offers DIY tips while demonstrating how to make “Miss Shock,” a gruesome character created by Bob Burns in 1959 for a live event with The Tingler director William Castle. In this fast-paced 15-minute clip, Baker starts off by making a mold of his daughter’s face and then moves on to the artistic detail work he’s revered for. (Hat tip: Mutiny Co.)
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 23, 2014 -
Boom! Veronica Mars Breaks the Theatrical Window
Credit the Kickstarter-funded Veronica Mars movie with a distribution first: as the Wall Street Journal reports, the film will be the first major studio release to simultaneously premiere in movie theaters and on online platforms. Distributors like IFC and Magnolia have been doing such day-and-date releases for years, but Hollywood’s six major studios — under pressure from theater owners — have held tight to a “windowing” model by which films play exclusively in theaters for at least three months. For the Veronica Mars movie, Warner Bros. and AMC Theaters seem to be engaging in a bit of semantic sleight-of-hand to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 22, 2014 -
Noah Cowan Named Executive Director of San Francisco Film Society
Noah Cowan, the founding Artistic Director of the Bell Lightbox, is leaving Toronto for the Bay Area, where he will take over as the Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society. “I am grateful to the Board of Directors of the Film Society for providing this remarkable opportunity,” said Cowan in a press release. “The Bay Area has a storied relationship to cinema’s century-plus history and is currently home to the technology companies that will decisively influence the medium’s future. SFFS is uniquely positioned to work with filmmakers, educators and enthusiastic local audiences to embrace the dynamic and exciting […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 19, 2014 -
What Difference Does It Make: A Film about Making Music
And now for our feature presentation… the folks at Red Bull have posted online What Difference Does it Make: A Film about Making Music. It’s an energetic mash-up of the events occurring during Red Bull Music Academy’s festival last year in New York, and it contains moments from Brian Eno, James Murphy, Van Dyke Parks, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Philip Glass, Steven O’Malley and many more.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 19, 2014 -
“I Am a Ukrainian, and This Needs to Go Viral.”
“I am a Ukrainian, and this needs to go viral,” is the message in this video from a protestor in Ukraine, currently in the midst of violent government repression. As reported by Deborah Stambler in the Huffington Post, the video was “put together” by filmmaker Ben Moses, who is currently at work on a documentary, A Whisper to a Roar, about democracy activists around the world. The video, posted several days ago, has indeed gone viral, attracting almost one million views on YouTube. According to Stambler, there are some who dub it a hoax (one YouTube commenter accuses it of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 19, 2014
