Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Filmmaker‘s Top 20 Posts of 2013
This list of 2013 top posts is broken in two — the first contains the top ten posts here at Filmmaker published during this calendar year. The second are the top ten older posts, the ones that keep on bubbling to the top of our Google Analytics. (A true 2013 top ten would be a mixture of these two lists.) So, to close out the year, here is what you read most at our site. 10. 13 Steps to Directing Famous Actors on a Microbudget Film. Director and Slamdance co-founder Dan Mirvish has two articles on this year’s list. In […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 30, 2013 -
“I Don’t Know Where to Put the Camera”: Martin Scorsese on his Toughest Set-Up
Why is Martin Scorsese a great director? Because he’s always wondering where to put the camera. Here’s a priceless and little-viewed French television clip of Martin Scorsese traveling to the airport to present The King of Comedy in Cannes in which the director talks about his toughest set-up. Warning: it’s not from any of his films. Indeed, the clip, in addition to capturing great ’80s NYC street ambiance, is a good illustration of what makes Scorsese Scorsese. After telling the interviewer about all the decisions a director must make when it comes to framing a shot, he answers her question […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 29, 2013 -
Filmmaker‘s Top 10 Posts of December, 2013
Our top ten posts of 2013 will follow, but, before we get to that, here are Filmmaker‘s top posts of December, 2013. 10. Film vs. Digital: The Canon 5D and 7E. Sarah Salovaara’s post of a video A-B’ing two Canon still cameras as a way of comparing film and digital was next on the list. 9. Christine Vachon in Wroclaw. Another November post is in the #9 slot — a synopsis by Ashley Green of producer Christine Vachon’s talk about the producing business at the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland. 8. How Many Films Does the Average Low-Budget Filmmaker […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 28, 2013 -
Happy Holidays to All!
Wishing all of our readers a very happy holiday season!
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 25, 2013 -
Fred Armisen Stars in Alix Lambert’s Superhero Comedy Ambiance Man
Ambiance Man is a new comedy web series from MOCAtv created and directed by filmmaker (and sometime Filmmaker contributor) Alix Lambert and starring, as the eponymous superhero, Portlandia‘s Fred Armisen. The concept, Lambert says, hails from her teens, when she imagined a superhero who would sweat the small stuff. She tells MOCA, “Ambiance Man is a series about a super hero who fixes what we really need fixed in our day-to-day lives. While most super heroes are focused on preventing the end of the world, Ambiance Man is focused on transforming the moments that feel like the end of the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 22, 2013 -
Joe Swanberg Names Tiger Tale in Blue Best Film of 2013
Joe Swanberg has posted his Top Ten list over at Esquire, and in the top slot is Frank V. Ross’s deceptively low-key relationship drama Tiger Tale in Blue — nominated by Filmmaker as one our Best Films Not Playing at a Theater Near You in 2012. In an interview with Ross, Filmmaker‘s Nick Dawson called the film a “beautifully calibrated piece of observational cinema that is emotionally compelling without ever imposing itself upon the viewer.” And here’s Swanberg at Esquire: This is by a director named Frank B. Ross. It was nominated for a Gotham Award last year for Best […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 19, 2013 -
The Changing Aatsinki Season
For us in North America, Winter formally arrives this Saturday, December 21. But the season has already changed — online, at least, and to Fall — for the arctic cowboys of Aatsinki Season, the hypnotic online collaboration between director Jessica Oreck and transmedia developers Murmur. For the last nine months, an online extension of Oreck’s documentary, Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys, has been streaming and scrolling online, with each quarter bringing a new set of meditative observations. When the project premiered, Oreck discussed the difference between the film and the site: The film is very pure, direct cinema—an immersive […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 19, 2013 -
Shia LaBeouf Tweets Apology for his Daniel Clowes Plagiarism
Shia LaBeouf’s short film HowardCantour.com — and internet film culture — has had a strange 24 hours. Yesterday, Short of the Week posted a short by the actor-turned-director about a bitter online film critic meeting a famous director at a film junket. Various sites, including Filmmaker, embedded it, and LaBeouf himself reached out to press through his Twitter account. About the short, LaBeouf told Short of the Week: I know something about the gulf between critical acclaim and blockbuster business. I have been crushed by critics (especially during my Transformers run), and in trying to come to terms with my […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 17, 2013 -
“It’s Not Enough To Have a Good Story with a Video Camera in the Vicinity”: Lucy Walker on The Crash Reel
Depicting professional snowboarder Kevin Pearce’s rise to the top of his sport and then his struggle to recover from a monster wipe-out and traumatic brain injury, Lucy Walker’s The Crash Reel is riveting, emotional, sobering and enraging. It tells a very human story as the endearing Pearce struggles to not only physically recover from his injuries but, at such a young age, to invent a new identity for himself and his future. At the same time, the film is a provocative, well-researched takedown of the extreme sports industry, which markets vicarious danger for energy-drink consumers and sneaker-wearers at the expense […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 14, 2013 -
Stream Previews of all 17 Videos from Beyoncé’s new “Visual Album”
If you want a quick crash course in music video today — its looks, styles, and assorted tropes — you could do a lot worse than spend seven minutes watching this stream from Beyoncé’s YouTube channel, which begins with the first 30 seconds of every video made for the singer’s surprise, self-titled release. (It just appeared on iTunes last night with no advance publicity.) Living up to her workaholic reputation, Beyoncé has made what look to be lavishly produced, cinematically striking and conceptually varied videos for every song on what she calls her “visual album.” A track list with directors […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 13, 2013
