Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Shane Carruth Explains Upstream Color in 528 Words
Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color opened this weekend, and it’s gotten great reviews as well as prompted a certain amount of head scratching. The film is the cover of our current issue, and in it I spend about 5,000 words talking with Carruth about the movie, his DIY distribution plan, what he’s up to next, and why he stepped out of the Hollywood development mill. For those who’ve seen the film and want to know a bit more, here’s Carruth’s answer to my question about the film’s inspirations. I was surprised at how voluble he was and interested in unpacking some […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 6, 2013 -
The New Digital Storytelling Series: Mark Harris
Mark Harris is a filmmaker and software architect. Mark writes software for gameplay, storytelling, and transmedia. Mark was a mentor at the first StoryCode StoryHack, and creative technologist on Lance Weiler’s Pandemic 1.0. Mark is also an alumnus of the IFP Narrative Lab. Mark’s transmedia project, The Lost Children, had its New York City premiere in Jan 2013 at Film Society of Lincoln Center, with a feature film and live immersive experience. In the Fall of 2012, Mark wrote his first immersive play for Epic Theater Ensemble, and in Spring 2013, Mark joins the hybrid studio/technology company Murmur. MIT Open Documentary Lab: How did you […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 4, 2013 -
Filmmaker Celebrates 20 Year Anniversary at MoMA, April 4 – 15
This is Filmmaker‘s 20th Anniversary Year, and I’m very honored to have curated a MoMA Carte Blanche series, opening tomorrow and running through April 15, of films from the magazine’s history. I’ve posted the complete schedule below, and will be on hand tomorrow night to introduce the series and its first film, Darren Aronofsky’s Pi. And each day for the duration of the series I’ll be posting on the site old interviews and articles from the magazine featuring the films and filmmakers presented. I’m showing 11 features in addition two programs highlighting short work from our “25 New Faces” series, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 3, 2013 -
What’s In My Instapaper: Game of Thrones, Bitcoin, Video Game Death, Chloe Sevigny and More
Here are my weekly Sunday morning links. A sophisticated discussion of videogames and violence is contained in Adi Robertson’s “Death is Dead: How Modern Videogame Designers Killed Danger” at the Verge. The article quotes David Cage, whose Beyond: Two Souls is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival this year, proclaiming, “If the character doesn’t hold a gun, designers don’t even know what to do.” That leads to a discussion about the relationship of death to videogame narrative: But unlike Cage, most of the writers giving talks at GDC don’t come into a game with complete control. They’re brought on to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 31, 2013 -
Rodney Ascher on Room 237 and the Haunting of The Shining
A must-see for not just fans of The Shining but anyone who has been obsessed by a movie, Rodney Ascher’s Room 237, opening today, is a documentary about a group of online fans, scholars and theorists who have dedicated their lives — or at least their leisure hours — to unpacking bizarre, alternative interpretations about Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic. Above, recorded last year at the Cannes Film Festival, I discuss with Ascher the origins of his film, why you never see the faces of his interview subjects, and Fair Use. Ascher is interviewed in the latest issue of Filmmaker by […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 29, 2013 -
Hands on a Hard Body Director S.R. Bindler On His Documentary’s Unlikely Broadway Adaptation
An odd, homemade blend of Garrison Keillor and Jackass, as filtered through an early Errol Morris-like lens, S.R. Bindler’s 1997 documentary Hands on a Hard Body is now having one of the most unexpected independent film second lives ever. Hands on a Hard Body the film has led to Hands on a Hardbody the Broadway musical, starring Keith Carradine, directed by Neil Pepe, with a book by Pulitzer-Prize winner Doug Wright and a score by Phish’s Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green. It opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theater last week, and Charles Isherwood wrote in the New York Times, “…this […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 28, 2013 -
Jason Brush and Michel Reilhac Discuss the Second Screen and New Interactive Cinema at SXSW
Two of the events I was most looking forward to seeing this year at SXSW Interactive were Jason Brush’s talk, Filmmaking as User Experience and Michel Reilhac’s “Meet the Insiders” panel, “Storytelling + Interactive.” Brush teaches at UCLA’s Department of Film, Television and Visual Media and is Executive Vice President of Creative & UX at POSSIBLE. Reilhac, who I have written about before at Filmmaker, is an independent transmedia director, story writer and consultant, and one of the most passionate and eloquent voices for new forms of interactive storytelling. Unfortunately, as is often the case at SXSW, once I put […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 27, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: A Journal of Insomnia
One of the Storyscapes projects I’m looking forward to at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival is A Journal of Insomnia, an “interactive fresco” combining confessions from insomniacs the world over and gathered since 2012. The “unique nocturnal premiere” happens April 18. From the press release: The original idea for the project comes from Hugues Sweeney, Executive Producer of NFB French Program’s Digital Studio in Montreal. Hugues explains that, “This is not a traditional Web documentary. It is a genuine attempt to push the boundaries of the genre by merging art and design with technology and social media, to create a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 26, 2013 -
Tugg Co-Founder Nicolas Gonda on Curators, Brand Ambassadors and Artist Entrepreneurship
Celebrating its first anniversary at SXSW 2013 was Tugg, the web-based, theatrical-on-demand platform that allows movie fans to create their own theatrical events while also providing exhibition opportunities for both studio and indie films. The company used SXSW to launch its new website, which offers greater analytics tools for event promoters, and co-founder Nicolas Gonda was on hand to talk up some of Tugg’s recent milestones. Those include the theatrical run of Honor Flight, a doc about World War 2 veterans that, according to Tugg, scored 56% of its total theatrical box-office via the platform. After a limited theatrical run […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 26, 2013 -
All Six Star Wars at Once
Here, via a YouTube user named Michael McNulty, is an incredible piece of nearly psychedelic mash-up collage art for our media overloaded, scheduled impacted era. All six Star Wars films played side by side, at once. I’m not the hugest fan of the series, and I have to admit, I find this completely hypnotic.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 25, 2013
