Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Jonathan Harris on Becoming Unstuck
Even though technology-focused artist Jonathan Harris has a project at Sundance New Frontier — I Love Your Work, a documentary about the makers of lesbian porn experienced in your own private viewing booth — he’s been stuck. Creatively stuck, that is. And at Transom, he’s penned (and illustrated) an essay, “Navigating Stuckness,” that is both a meditation on creative block as well as, writes the site, “an autobiographical journey with teachable moments.” He’s broken down the stages of his creativity by years, tracking his life alongside projects like the data visualization work We Feel Fine, the storytelling platform Cowbird and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 17, 2014 -
21 Films I’m Anticipating at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival
These lists get harder and harder. You know more filmmakers, you hear more buzz and honing in on pre-festival favorites with any kind of concision becomes more an act of exclusion than a celebration of possibility. (In other words, this list’s length is more determined by the pokiness of Delta’s on-flight wi-fi and the festival opening-day deadline than my enthusiasms for the selections of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.) Below are 21 festival picks, beginning with a favorite project I’ve been wanting to see realized for years. As you’ll note, I’ve paid particular attention to folks from our 25 New […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 16, 2014 -
Tastemade Offers Video Previews of Sundance Restaurants
I have many pieces of advice for filmmakers, but here’s one I have for everyone attending the Sundance and Slamdance festivals this week: sit down and have a meal. Really. I mean, it’s ridiculously easy to subsist on hors d’oeuvres for a week, or to grab microwave burritos at the 7/11, or to nibble from the Albertsons/Fresh Market supply you loaded your refrigerator up with on the first day. But, such a dietary regime will make you feel bad, and you’ll probably get sick too. In addition, you’ll have better conversations with your friends over dinner at a real restaurant […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 16, 2014 -
Columbia Professor Tim Wu Responds to Manohla Dargis’s “Too Many Movies” Argument
Credit Manohla Dargis for kicking up a big discussion about the intertwined economics and cultural worth of independent film with her much-debated “As Indies Explode, An Appeal for Sanity” published in the New York Times. While her plea to distributors to stop buying so many movies struck Sundance-bound hopefuls as, well, a little mean, others are viewing her commentary in different ways. The latest is Columbia professor and journalist Tim Wu, who has penned a New Yorker response, “More is More in Independent Film.” “Dargis is wrong,” he flat-out writes, “making lots of films to yield a few hits is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 16, 2014 -
Astonishing Surfing Video Shows Power of Camera Drones
The technology cited by Filmmaker‘s Michael Murie in his 2013 Camera Tech Year-End Review is behind a beautiful surfing video by Eric Cheng that seems to be embedded on just about every site this morning. Five minutes of surfing bliss captured at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, California, the video features aerial shots of surfers, singly and in formation, that previously would have required expensive helicopter shoots. According to Cheng’s Tumblr, the footage was “taken with a DJI Phantom quadcopter, GoPro HERO3 Black edition camera, Rotorpixel HERO3 gimbal (http://rotorpixel.com), ReadyMadeRC FPV transmitter, receiver, and remote monitor, and modified DJI Phantom […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 15, 2014 -
What’s Ego Got to Do With It? At Sundance’s Arthouse Convergence, Ira Deutchman Imagines the Future of Specialty Exhibition
Just delivered in Utah at Sundance’s pre-festival 2014 Arthouse Convergence — where specialty exhibitors gather to discuss and debate trends, developments and threats to their collective business model — Ira Deutchman’s keynote is a witty and forward-thinking speech that looks to the past to consider reshaping the future. In his opening, Deutchman cites two truths he learned early on in his career: First, I learned that Business is dominated by people who are driven, sometimes myopic, and willing to do almost anything to succeed. The second thing I learned is that the Film Business, specifically, is driven more by ego […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2014 -
Thom Powers Curates Distribution Advice for Filmmakers
Toronto International Film Festival and Stranger than Fiction programmer Thom Powers is well known for his curation of documentary film, but with the New Year he’s offering something more: documentary film distribution guidance. For filmmakers entering the festival circuit, his “Distribution Advice for 2014” is a must read. In a detailed intro, Powers discusses various distribution options, ranging from traditional to hybrid to DIY strategies. Then, he gathers specific advice from filmmakers, journalists, producers, publicists and sales agent. Below are three of those recommendations, and check out the entire post at the link to read many more. DAN COGAN (CO-FOUNDER, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2014 -
Sundance Offers 2014 Artist Merch, Including Miranda July Scarf
At Filmmaker we are lousy with merch. We used to have t-shirts and tote bags, and they sold okay. But supplies dwindled, they were discontinued, and a more ambitious array of Filmmaker-branded collectibles is just another item on our escalating to-do list. (Filmmaker, by the way, is not alone in our merchandizing malaise. Elsewhere on this site, Sarah Salovaara notes the scarcity of indie film consumer swag in general.) Perhaps when we do get our merch store together we’ll look to Sundance for inspiration. The Sundance Film Festival’s Artist Editions line includes Shirin Neshat t-shirts, Susan Sarandon dessert plates, and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 7, 2014 -
Day 2 of 19: Zach Clark and White Reindeer
In an independent landscape of shaky, handheld cinematography, loose improvisation and bare-bones sets, the precise and punchy dark comedies of Zach Clark stand out. Recalling the days in which low budgets meant inventive art direction, heightened emotions and a rebellion against a default naturalism, Clark’s third movie, White Reindeer modulates the director’s deadpan, quasi-Sirkian camp into something more delicately bittersweet. Anna Margaret Hollyman plays a suburban real estate agent who returns home one holiday season to find her husband murdered. Learning he had a mistress, an African-American stripper, she journeys into a world where kinky fantasy is really just another […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 7, 2014 -
Iggy Pop, Jim Jarmusch, Sleep and Script Development
Originally discovered by E.V. Grieve and reposted by Gothamist, this short video of Iggy Pop touring the East Village in 1993 contains an interesting nugget of script development wisdom. I was watching the video this morning purely nostalgically — checking out my neighborhood 20 years ago — when I came across, at around the 10-minute mark, a short bit about the shooting of Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes. Pop says his segment with Tom Waits — a one-day, 16-hour shoot — was his best shooting experience ever. When the interviewer asks if the shoot was improvised, Pop says there was […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 5, 2014
