Authors — Scott Macaulay
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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 -
Kirby Ferguson’s Everything is a Remix: the iPhone
25 New Face Kirby Ferguson extends his popular Everything is a Remix series with this latest entry on the iPhone. I wrote about the series’ original four parts back in 2011. An excerpt: Rather than push a copy-left agenda or hype the latest mash-up artist, Ferguson uses the subject of the remix to discuss the history and nature of creativity. Everything is a Remix deconstructs the idea of originality, exploring the creative but also technological and business memes that recombine from one generation to the next, making us feel that we are encountering something “new” along the way. And it […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 13, 2013 -
Announcing the Filmmaker 2013 Holiday Sale
Filmmaker‘s popular once-a-year holiday sale is now live, with 40% discounts on subscriptions to our print, digital and iPad editions, as well as bonus gifts — some of our favorite books and DVDS of the year — given away to randomly selected new and returning subscribers. Our regular subscription, which includes the quarterly print and digital editions plus our iPad edition — is discounted from $18 to $10. If you’d just like to buy our flip-book style digital edition, which includes all back issues to 2007 and allows for PDF downloading, that’s only $6 during the sale. And, if you’d […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 11, 2013 -
Only 7% of U.K. Films Earn a Profit, Claims BFI Report
Only 7% of British films released from 2003 to 2010 were profitable, claims a BFI report issued this week at London’s Screen Summit. From Michael Rosser’s article in Screen Daily: The stats showed that just 3.1% of films with budgets under £500,000 turned a profit. The numbers increase as budgets rise: £0.5m-£2m: 4.1% £2m-£5m: 4.6% £5m-£10m: 12.1% £10m+: 17.4% Speaking on stage, Steele said: “What does one do faced with those sorts of numbers? Clearly, portfolio investment is necessary to negate the risk and secondly, qualitative judgement. Try to choose filmmakers projects that have above average chance of making a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 3, 2013 -
“Send Me Your Sexts” is Strange and Provocative New Pay-for-Film Service
“Send Me Your Sexts” is a just-launched, strange new pay-for-film service from director Eileen Yaghoobian (Died Young Stay Pretty). (Video above is NSFW.) Inspired, she says, by The Act of Killing (!) and its use of reenactments, and drawing on her own background in documentary and theater, “Send Me Your Sexts” is both a service and an online video platform featuring original short reenactments of user-submitted sexts. Viewers can check out the steamy videos while sexters can pay Yaghoobian to turn their own digital missives into soft-core online entertainment. From the website: I’m Eileen, a filmmaker and artist who’s convinced […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 3, 2013 -
Inside Llewyn Davis, Fruitvale Station Take Top Prizes at the Gotham Awards
Inside Llewyn Davis, the Coen Brothers’ sly fable of the artist’s life set in the ’60s Greenwich Village folk scene, was awarded the Best Feature prize at last night’s IFP Gotham Awards, held at Cipriani Wall Street. The film was something of a surprise winner, with many predicting Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave to take the top prize. Also scoring at the Gothams was Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, which won the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director and Breakthrough Actor for Coogler and Michael B. Jordan, respectively. The Best Documentary Award went to Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn and Anonymous’s The Act […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 3, 2013 -
How Much Can Your Film Make From Festival Screening Fees?
Film festival screening fee revenue is often a contentious topic, with festivals arguing the value of community and exposure while filmmakers point to the fact that the regional festival circuit is, for many, taking the place of traditional theatrical distribution. But what kind of numbers are being argued over? The Film Collaborative sends out a regular e-blast, and the most recent tackles just this topic. Gathering data from the films they’ve been involved with over the past several years, The Film Collaborative has determined screening fee revenue ranges based on films’ niches and premiere venues. Yes, where a film premieres […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2013
