Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Our Ten Most Popular Posts of August, 2013
Here, according to Google Analytics, are our ten most popular posts of August, 2013. 1. “5 Lessons on Making a ‘Bigger’ Movie.” Drinking Buddies producer Alicia Van Couvering’s advice for directors stepping up to larger budgets was our top post of the month. 2. “In the Same Way Painters Used Their Paint: D.P. Bradford Young on Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Mother of George.” Anthony Kaufman’s in-depth interview with Young, in which he talks about drawing inspiration from Renaissance painters and how he lit Rooney Mara, was our runner up for most-trafficked post of the month. 3. “Ten Lessons on […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 31, 2013 -
Filmmaker John Greyson Remains Jailed Inside Cairo Prison
Acclaimed Canadian director John Greyson and Dr. Tarek Loubani remain in a Cairo, Egypt prison following yesterday’s no-show by a prosecutor scheduled to meet with lawyers for the two men. Greyson and Loubani were arrested on August 16 on their way to Gaza City, where Loubani runs a program training doctors at a local hospital. Greyson was reportedly planning a documentary project. Due to strife in the region, the two extended their stay in Cairo an extra day when they were arrested and held for a 15-day detention period, a stay which ended yesterday. Now, they are being held indefinitely […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 30, 2013 -
Five Questions for A Plague So Pleasant Director Benjamin Roberds
Putting a new cinematic spin on the zombie genre is Benjamin Roberds’ microbudget (under $3,000!) indie, A Plague So Pleasant. In the film’s near future, a zombie epidemic has created an undead population that is largely harmless, attacking only when threatened. It’s even a felony to shoot a zombie in the U.S. A Plague So Pleasant‘s drama turns on protagonist Clay Marshall’s desire to do just that — shoot a zombie, the boyfriend of her sister, in order to jolt her back to reality. Also significant about A Plague So Pleasant — the filmmakers are releasing it online and for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 29, 2013 -
Destin Daniel Cretton, Brie Larson, John Gallagher, Jr. and the Cast Talk Short Term 12
Winner of the 2013 SXSW Narrative Grand Jury Prize, Destin Cretton’s Short Term 12 is the entirely successful feature expansion of the writer/director’s excellent 2009 short about counselors and youth at a residential facility for at-risk teens. Flipping the gender of his protagonist from the short to the feature, Short Term 12 stars Brie Larson (a recent Actor winner at the Locarno Film Festival) as a savvy counselor whose spirit hasn’t yet been crushed by the bureaucrats above her. Of course, she’s challenged, not just by troubled teenagers but also by life changes and self-worth issues, the latter stemming from […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 23, 2013 -
Joe Swanberg talks Olivia Wilde, CAA and Going Bigger on Drinking Buddies
The confident and funny Drinking Buddies is Joe Swanberg’s first picture with a real budget (above five figures) and real stars (Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingstone), but don’t jump to the conclusion that it’s some kind of rom-com sell-out. The emotional messiness, generational indecision and loose-limbed storytelling of Swanberg’s previous work are all present here, honed and amplified by a terrific cast and sharp production team. The film has traditional elements: two couples, flirtations and one weekend in the country. But then there’s alcohol — specifically beer — and not just flowing during one climactic meltdown […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 23, 2013 -
Peter Mattei on How to Sell a Screenplay
Playwright, film director and now novelist Peter Mattei (The Deep Whatsis) was the guest recently on Brad Listi’s Other People podcast, where he told a surprising tale about contemporary Hollywood screenplay sales. Matthei, whose feature Love in the Time of Money was a La Ronde-inspired social X-ray of the early aughts, talks with Listi about working in the dotcom world and advertising, about the empowering nature of fiction writing and then this: I heard a story about a really well established screenwriter who had a great sci-fi script he couldn’t sell. So he finally just went into a comic book […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 19, 2013 -
Laura Poitras on Turning on the Camera
One extraordinary passage among many in Peter Maas’s New York Times Sunday Magazine cover article on Laura Poitras and her role in the Edward Snowden story details the symbolic meanings of the documentarian’s most basic act: turning on the camera. By this point in the story, Poitras has been contacted by Snowden, has had a series of encrypted exchanges with him, but doesn’t know who he is. She, along with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewan MacAskill of The Guardian, travel to Hong Kong to meet the source for what will be the most explosive national security tale of modern times. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 17, 2013 -
What New Film Has the Most 25 New Faces of All Time?
There are many good reasons to see David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, opening today. Many of those are articulated in David Barker’s interview with Lowery and Anthony Kaufman’s interview with its D.P., Bradford Young, but here’s another: this single film displays the work of more of our 25 New Faces than any other picture. Here’s that list: Jay Van Hoy & Lars Knudson. Now mainstays of the independent scene, New York-based Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen were, in 2006, the first producers to appear on the “25 New Faces” list. At the time the Parts and Labor team […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 16, 2013 -
Shushers, Vulgar Auteurism and the NSA: Sunday Morning Links, August 11, 2013
Here are some links to take your through the rest of the weekend. Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine gives his first interview since the release of mbv. The encrypted email service Lavabit has shut down rather than, it is surmised, comply with U.S. government demands regarding its data. “If you knew what I know about email, you might not use it,” says its founder. At the New Yorker, Richard Brody responds to discussion of “vulgar auteurism”: There has been lots of talk online in recent weeks about a critical phenomenon called “vulgar auteurism” (V.A.), a term coined—as I just […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 11, 2013 -
Tangerine Entertainment Announces “Juice Fund” to Support Women Directors
Tangerine Entertainment, Anne Hubbell and Amy Hobby’s start-up production company focusing on women directors, has announced the Juice Fund, “a donation-based initiative focused on changing the landscape for women filmmakers.” The Juice Fund’s financing will be crowdsourced. Those interested in Tangerine’s goal of supporting women directors and increasing their presence in the film industry can make tax-deductible donations via New York Women in Film and Television. From the press release: The initial $25,000 raise for the Juice Fund will be used to instigate concrete change in three ways: Rewarding – Ten participating U.S. festivals will present cash Juice Awards to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 8, 2013
