Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Trailer Watch: Bryan Cranston and Alice Eve in Tze Chun’s Cold Comes the Night
Tze Chun, a 2007 25 New Face based on his great short, Windowbreaker, appears to have done a 180 follow-up to his first feature, the low-key, character-based drama Children of Invention. Cold Comes the Night stars Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston, rising star Alice Eve and a missing bag of cash. But, note that I wrote “appears” in the above sentence. Last year, Kishori Rajan spoke to Chun about this movie while it was in production, and the director says it’s not entirely unlike his previous work: When his manager sent him as a writing sample a psychological thriller script by […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 24, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: 21st Century
With dozens, sometimes hundreds, of press releases landing in my in-box every day, what makes me click on a link to learn more? Usually, it’s not overuse of superlatives. Nonetheless, there was something about this letter from Manhattan Project Films that made me want to watch the trailer: Manhattan Project Films is set to release its latest movie “21st Century”. We invite you to be part of our celebration and witness first hand the beauty and joy of our new cinematic masterpiece. The event promises you the opportunity to enjoy the charming atmosphere of the movie industry, food and drinks, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 24, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity
Long single takes are some of the most thrilling shots in cinema, and many would argue their thrills are reliant, in part, on the audience’s knowledge that they are choreographed and filmed in real time. But CGI-enabled single takes can be thrilling too, as this amazing trailer for Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming Gravity proves. The film opens October 4.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 24, 2013 -
Music Video: Fiona Apple’s Hot Knife, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
For his first music video in 11 years, Paul Thomas Anderson reunites with his ex, Fiona Apple, for “Hot Knife,” from the singer/songwriter’s The Idler Wheel…. Mixing black-and-white and color, split screen and tight close-ups, the video was, Apple said in an earlier interview, developed with Anderson prior to his shooting of The Master. It’s just been released today; check it out above.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 24, 2013 -
“The Past is Never Past,” but the Faulkner/Midnight in Paris Lawsuit Is.
One of the most vexing and unanticipated problems facing independent filmmakers involves realizing that brief, seemingly incidental references — a song lyric, the quoting of a movie character, or referencing a line from a novel — are actually copyrighted materials requiring clearance. Yes, there is what’s known as Fair Use — a doctrine allowing selective quotation of copyrighted works. But Fair Use is most often used in documentary and less so in fiction works. But a recent court ruling involving a William Faulkner line quoted in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris offers hope to filmmakers. This problem of quote clearance […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 24, 2013 -
Brie Larson
Sacramento-born Brie Larson has been acting since the age of 6 and already has a lengthy list of credits including television (United States of Tara), studio films (21 Jump Street, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and independent dramas (Rampart, Greenberg). This summer she appears in three of the best-reviewed independent films of the 2013 festival circuit — James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon, and in the lead role that will break her to critics and a wider audience, Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12. Larson plays a tough yet compassionate supervisor at a facility for at-risk teens, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 18, 2013 -
Editor’s Letter
We used to classify the filmmakers in each summer issue’s “25 New Faces” by listing their job category under their names, such as “director” or “cinematographer” or “actor.” But we don’t do that anymore, mostly because it’s too difficult. Take this year’s “25” — virtually everyone on the list is some kind of multi-hyphenate. There are two directors of photography on the list, and both are directing their own films — and one has even become a kind of distributor! And those two are by no means the only shooters here. Quite a few of the directors we picked this […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 18, 2013 -
L.A. Unplugged: Director Paul Schrader on The Canyons
Stunning black-and-white photos of movie theaters — old-style palaces and tacky multiplexes alike — sit underneath the credits of The Canyons, the 18th feature from veteran director and screenwriter Paul Schrader. Except rather than evoke the majesty of the 20th century’s dominant art form, they depict its collapse. These theaters are guttered, wrecked, their seats torn out, signage empty, neon fixtures torn and dangling from the ceilings. Some of these theaters — vintage single-screen Art Deco houses — are surely no longer viable in the modern era. The demise of the pictured strip-mall multiplexes, however, is most likely the product […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 18, 2013 -
Follow Filmmaker on App.net
You can now follow Filmmaker on App.net. What is App.net? Well, here’s Ben Friedland last August on the App.net blog: App.net is a subscription-based, advertising-free social network and API. It’s a platform that developers can rely on and that members can use to interact with each other. App.net connects members’ feeds across clients built by third-party developers. Developers are free to build on our API – we’ll even send you a monthly payment, if your app is well-received – which means that members have a variety of apps to choose from to access the network. Most of the larger press […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 17, 2013 -
Jessica Oreck on her new Web Series, This Working Man
Less than three months since she premiered her documentary, Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys, at the Tribeca Film Festival, Jessica Oreck is both on the road and back with new work. This Working Man is a web project combining video portraiture, travel, and crowdsourced curation. From the project’s website: This Working Man is a series of short portraits of men at work. It is about practiced motion, kinetic movement, bodies, and forms. It is about a particular type of man: exceedingly capable, strong, confident, and diligent. The project is a search for humble masculinity and an unapologetic admittance of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 16, 2013
