Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Can You Explain Your Work to Your Parents? Dan Fox’s Audience Appreciation
Who is your audience? For all of us, argues Frieze co-editor and art critic Dan Fox, it starts with our parents. Soon, though, it — or, perhaps, our conceptions of it — change. In this video, based on a talk he gave at The Kitchen, Fox “…presents a personal perspective on how we think about audiences as we grow older, and as our responsibilities evolve.”
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 9, 2014 -
Ira Glass and Daniel Sax: on The Gap Between Your Ambitions and Your Work
The gap between your creative ambitions and your creative output — that’s the subject of a new video by Daniel Sax based on 2012 interview by Ira Glass. Sax was actually inspired by another video, one by David Shiyang Liu, which used animated typography to illustrate the same interview. Sax writes that he watched Liu’s video over and over again, letting Glass’s advice about getting through that period where your work just isn’t good enough ease him past his own disappointment in his endeavors. Glass’s words became motivation, and the result is this clever and, yes, inspirational piece of work. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 9, 2014 -
From Madrid and Berlin Comes Fever: Nothing Stays
Fever is a recently formed group of photographers and video artists hailing from Berlin and Madrid. As their blog, We Are the Fever, exhibits, their work consists of photo essays and videos, often dealing with youth culture amidst Europe’s economic crisis — two themes present in the group’s new short film, a startling, poetic and beautifully shot evocation of personal and social change titled Nothing Stays. It is produced by the group’s three members — Borja Larrondo, Daniel Eceolaza and Luis Guijarro — and written and directed by Eceolaza. Guijarro shot the short and did color correction. Check it out […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2014 -
“To Hell with Your Honor and Dignity…”: James Schamus’ Rousing WGA Award Speech
Screenwriter and producer James Schamus was honored with the WGA East‘s Evelyn F. Burkey Award, which celebrates those “bringing honor and dignity to writers.” Gratefully accepting the award, Schamus ponders the meaning of “honor” and “dignity” with regards to screenwriters in today’s working environment and delivers a rousing call to arms. Watch above.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2014 -
“The Minute You Walk Out the Door You’re Risking Something”: Philip Seymour Hoffman on the Challenge of Acting
In a free-flowing interview with June Stein in the Spring, 2008 issue of BOMB Magazine, Philip Seymour Hoffman discusses the insights into acting he gleaned from his experience as a director. Early on there is the following remarkable exchange, in which Hoffman says that acting is not about embracing one’s first instincts: PS: … Actors’ first instinct is to make themselves feel comfortable, to do things to make themselves feel like they’re in it, they’re truthful; I’m moving over here and that feels right, blah, blah, blah…. That’s what I do; so when I see another actor doing that, I […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2014 -
Filmmaker’s Top Ten Posts of January, 2014
Here are our most-read posts of January, 2014. 1. Why Your Film Needs a Good Gaffer: How Lighting Changes a Face. This hypnotic video featuring a pretty model whose face morphs from seductive to menacing to funny based on the lights that hit it went viral. It’s a great watch that prompted a lengthy dialogue about the relationship between D.P and gaffer on our Facebook page. 2. The Women of Sundance 2014. There has been a lot written about the underrepresentation of women directors, but I think filmmaker Danielle Lurie knocked it out of the park with this 5,000-word piece […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 31, 2014 -
Mark Cuban Blasts Patent Troll’s Movie Download Lawsuit
The absurdities of the U.S. patent system were brought into focus yesterday by Mark Cuban, whose Magnolia Pictures, along with Amazon, Apple and the Weinstein Company, has been hit by a bizarre lawsuit involving movie downloads. The title of Cuban’s blog post summarizes the suit: “So I Got Sued By A Patent Troll Who Thinks They Own Downloading Movies (only before they are released in theaters) over Cellular.” The suit has been filed in Illinois Northern District Court by Red Pine Point, a so-called patent troll, which is a company that files, holds but does not base its business around […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 29, 2014 -
Rotterdam Announces the 2014 CineMart Awards
The International Film Festival Rotterdam tonight announced the winners of its 2014 CineMart Awards. A feature project about the youth generation following the war in Bosnia and an Italian-French co-production setting personal stories in North-East Italy picked up the two top prizes, while three projects received €10,000 grants funded by the Global Film Initiative. Winning the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award for the best CineMart 2014 project with a European partner was Tabija, Igor Drljaco (Bosnia and Herzegovina), a production of SCCA/pro.ba. Said the jury in a statement, “This is a project with great urgency developed by a young team, in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 29, 2014 -
Did George Lucas Mastermind an Illegal Wage-Fixing Conspiracy?
A class action lawsuit alleging that a group of Silicon Valley companies, including Google, Apple, Pixar, Intuit and Intel, conspired to fix the wages of computer engineers has been cleared to proceed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Writes Mark Ames at Pandodaily, “…Apple’s Steve Jobs sealed a secret and illegal pact with Google’s Eric Schmidt to artificially push their workers wages lower by agreeing not to recruit each other’s employees, sharing wage scale information, and punishing violators.” The suit is the result of a 2010 Obama Department of Justice anti-trust investigation. Pando has extensive details and has also […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2014 -
Why Didn’t Shane Carruth Change the Distribution Paradigm for this Year’s Sundance Filmmakers?
While many Sundance filmmakers last year this time were nervously awaiting distribution deals, one had done something completely different. Upstream Color director Shane Carruth entered the festival with a DIY distribution plan already in place. He partnered with Sundance Artists Services’s Joseph Beyer and distribution consultant Michael Tuckman, devised a theatrical campaign and swift VOD rollout, and was already at work on merch for the large fan base eager for the follow-up to his cult classic Primer. Carruth and his team pre-screened the film for journalists, including Filmmaker, and, we responded by endorsing both the movie and its distribution paradigm, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2014
