Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Letters from Blocked Filmmakers: Zoje Stage
“Isn’t there some form of torture that involves death via a thousand small cuts?” The first sentence — indeed, the entirety of this latest edition of Letters from Blocked Filmmakers — is a heartbreaker. This week’s column makes me alternately want to shake its writer, Zoje Stage, and say, “C’mon, don’t give up,” and applaud the reasoned “I’m moving on” vibe that may lead her to a happier creative place. Intended as her directorial debut, Zoje Stage’s The Machine Who Loved is a screenplay written to be realized on a low-budget, and over the course of six years it has […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 28, 2013 -
15 Tips for Producers from the Cannes Film Festival
Learning from your producer colleagues — that’s one of the benefits of attending the Cannes Film Festival and Market. Whether you are premiering a film, hustling a film, or just watching movies, the experience of encountering at multiple parties fellow filmmakers makes Cannes a great place to glean tips on your practice by observing how others are getting it done. In addition to watching movies, this year at Cannes I moderated morning meetings at the Producers Network, of which IFP is a sponsoring partner. I also moderated the “American Producers in Cannes” panel at the American Pavilion and spoke with […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 28, 2013 -
Brit Marling’s Georgetown Convocation Speech: On Not Going it Alone
“When a group of people get together and decide to do something, strange and mysterious things can happen,” said writer and actress Brit Marling as she delivered the 2013 Georgetown University Senior Convocation speech. The Georgetown alum reflected on her years at Georgetown and the friends and future directors she met there — Mike Cahill and Zal Batmanglij. She describes moving to L.A. with them and not becoming successful until the three decided to stop trying to “break in” and just make work. “If I can tell you anything of value, it’s that the most important thing you do from […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 27, 2013 -
Blue is the Warmest Color Wins the 2013 Cannes Palme d’Or
In a ceremony hosted by actress Audrey Tatou and with a jury headed by director Steven Spielberg, the 2013 Cannes Film Festival awarded its top prize, the Palme d’Or, to Abdellatif Kechiche’s lesbian teen romance, Blue is the Warmest Color. In an unusual move for this auteur-centric festival, the jury gave the award to Kechiche and his two lead actresses, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux. The three-hour film, which also won the FIPRESCI prize, was bought for the U.S. during the festival by IFC’s Sundance Selects. The jury distributed awards evenly among the majority of films that had been buzzed […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 26, 2013 -
Cannes 2013: Jodorowsky’s Dune and Inside Llewyn Davis
“I wanted to make something sacred and free,” says Alejandro Jorodowsky about his planned adapation of Frank Herbert’s science-fiction classic, Dune. Indeed, Dune will be more than just a movie, argue the director and his collaborators in Frank Pavich’s Jodorowsky’s Dune, a documentary that premiered Saturday in the Directors Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival. Says Jodorowsky in the film, “Dune will be the coming of a god.” There are several documentaries about nightmare shoots and even unmade films — Lost in La Mancha comes to mind — but Jodorowsky’s Dune is the only documentary I can think of […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 20, 2013 -
Letters from Blocked Filmmakers: Michael Lew
Get together for drinks with a group of people who work in film, and soon the memories will flow. And they are usually linked to films these people have worked on. Film titles become markers of memory. It was on that film that this electrician met his future wife. On this one a P.A. adopted her dog. The sound guy was going through a divorce on this other one. The films may have faded from our collective memory, but the days on those sets are still ripe for the people who were involved. In reading this letter from Michael Lew, […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 14, 2013 -
Insider Tips for Surviving the Cannes Film Festival
For those headed to the South of France this week, Filmmaker has polled our friends and colleagues for their advice on attending the Cannes Film Festival. Even if you are not a first-timer there’s something here for you, ranging from day-trip suggestions to business etiquette to restaurant tips. If you are a first-time attendee, take these especially to heart, and if you’re a returning veteran and have tips, feel free to post them below. See you on the Croisette. Ben Gibson (director, London Film School, and producer): Been doing this advice for many years: Have a meal with someone you’ve […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 14, 2013 -
Harmony Korine in the Paris Review, World/Life Boundaries, H.P. Lovecraft, Coding, Film Locations and More: Sunday Links
On the rerelease of his collage novel, A Crackup at the Race Riots, Harmony Korine is interviewed by Christopher Higgs at the Paris Review. Here, Korine describes the process that created the book 15 years ago: At that point in my life I had no idea how to contain my ideas. The creative process was more explosive for me. And I didn’t have a filter, and I didn’t try to filter anything, as much as just try to get stuff down. So, I would just write everywhere. I would wake up in the morning and hear a conversation on the […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2013 -
David Foster Wallace’s This is Water Turns Viral Video
The L.A.-based production house The Glossary created this homage to writer David Foster Wallace, condensing and illustrating his celebrated Kenyon College commencement speech into nine or so minutes — and scoring over two million YouTube views in the process. Comprised of director Matthew Freidell and producers Allison Freidell and Jeremy Dunning, producer, The Glossary self-funded this video without obtaining rights to Wallace’s audio. In an interview with Ad Week, the trio describe the video as “a passion project” and say that “sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” And while the video was prompted by Matthew’s love of […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 10, 2013 -
The Independent Screenwriter: Larry Gross
“The independent screenwriter” — is the term a tautology or oxymoron? While the word “independent” is often applied to directors and sometimes producers, it’s rarely seen appended to the job title of screenwriter. Is that because so many independent directors write their own scripts? Because screenwriters-for-hire are inevitably drawn to the world of Hollywood? Or, perhaps, because the term means little when applied to the craft of screenwriting? After all, while a director is reliant on others to provide financing and labor, a writer can always sit down with pen, paper or word processor. In this new, occasional column, we […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 8, 2013
