Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Google Glass Releases New Demo Video, Offers Contest for Early Access
Google has released a new video demonstrating its Google Glass and is launching a new campaign, “If I Had Glass,” offering creative people a chance to buy the product early. Read details at the link but, in short, you have 50 words on Twitter or Google + to say what you’d do using Glass, the deadline is February 27, and, if selected, you have to pre-order Glass for $1,500.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 20, 2013 -
A Haunting New York Shot in HDR on the RED Epic-X
Filmmaker Colby Moore has shot an eerie New York montage in high-dynamic range on the RED Epic-X. Underneath his Vimeo video he explains his process: A short and creepy montage of scenes shot around the ever-photogenic island of Manhattan — filmed entirely in high-dynamic range and comprised of some HDR Timelapse footage I shot, along with a collection of slow-motion and normal 24fps footage processed from Red Epic-X RAW video that I recently captured and then exported as -2,0+2 TIFF stacks to be tone mapped in Photomatix using a batch processing workflow. Please note that none of this was shot […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 18, 2013 -
Seven Ways to Fail at Promoting Your Film Online (Broken Record Edition)
Since repetition in the form of rote memorization is a major element of education, I’m not going to apologize for this, one of my periodic rants on the ways in which filmmakers (and, sometimes, their publicists) fail in the promotion of their films online and through social media. I’m sure that over the years I’ve posted every one of these points before, as have other writers on our site, like Jon Reiss. But, based on my encounters with filmmakers, their films, and their websites these past few weeks, these are worth repeating. Want to decrease press interest and the size […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 17, 2013 -
Karaoke Girl’s Visra Vichit-Vadakan and Sandi Sissel
Receiving its world premiere in the 2013 Rotterdam Film Festival’s Tiger Awards Competition, San Francisco-based Visra Vichit-Vadakan’s Karaoke Girl is an evocative character study of a Bangkok working girl, a singer in a nighttime karaoke bar for whom memories of her rural past and dreams of romantic fulfillment form a pulsing lifeline away from an emotionally depleting world. A hybrid documentary/fiction film, Karaoke Girl stars newcomer Sa Sittijun as a character largely based on herself. The documentary sections of the film follow her back to her real hometown, and feature interviews with her real family, while the “fiction” sequences are […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 15, 2013 -
Conversations with Blocked Filmmakers
Independent films get made, and we cover them here at Filmmaker. But what about all the films that don’t get made? They have their own stories, and their stories can be as useful to other filmmakers as those of films that do actually hit the screen. After a brief Twitter poll, I’ve decided to invite several filmmakers who have been struggling, so far unsuccessfully, to make their films to discuss those projects here on the site. I’ll be interested in the films, the length of the development process, the avenues tried, and the possible reasons for the projects’ failure to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 12, 2013 -
Cinekink Announces its 2013 Line-Up
Cinekink NYC has announced the line-up for its 2013, tenth anniversary edition, which runs February 26 – March 3, 2013. Presented by Cinekink, “an organization dedicated to the recognition and encouragement of sex-positive and kink-friendly depictions in film and television,” the festival has historically mixed documentary, fiction and experimental work, drawing from the festival circuit, the art world, and adult production. Here’s the line-up, and further information can be found at the festival’s site. (The festival’s closing-night film is a restoration of Radley Metzger’s ’70s porno-chic hit, The Opening of Misty Beethoven. Read our interview 1997 interview with Metzger here.) […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 12, 2013 -
Interview Show Rambling On Now at Filmmaker
Rambling On, an independent film interview show, is landing at Filmmaker. Produced by filmmakers Russell Costanzo and Melissa B. Miller (The Tested), the show gathers, roundtable style, producers, directors and actors to discuss their working practices. Here’s an excerpt from the duo’s previous episode, a roundtable with producers Sophia Lin (Compliance), Josh Mond (Simon Killer), Riva Marker (What Maisie Knew), Jared Goldman (The Magic of Belle Isle), and Michelle Ann Small (Gun Hill Road). The moderator here is Matt Patches from Hollywood.com, and this clip addresses a skill every producer needs to learn how to master: How — and when […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 7, 2013 -
Trailer Watch: Kick Me
Gary Huggins made our 25 New Faces list in 2006 on the basis of his excellent Sundance short, First Date. After a successful Kickstarter raise, he’s back now with his first feature, Kick Me. Here’s the synopsis, and the video is above. A fancy high school guidance counselor (Santiago Vasquez) ventures into unknown territory – Kansas City, Kansas – and learns crucial lessons about community, prejudice and brotherhood the hard way.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 6, 2013 -
House of Cards, the Netflix Algorithms and Me
As I learned from a piece by Andrew Leonard at Salon, at 12:22 AM last night a Netflix event was created in my household when I switched off Episode Four of the streaming video giant’s new series, House of Cards, and went to bed. Leonard’s event was caused when he stopped midway into the show’s first episode, but I watched the first two back to back before a digital datapoint was created. That event was triggered by me pausing the show to make dinner, a moment presumably reduced in significance by my subsequent reengagement with the series. If I do […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2013 -
My Bloody Valentine Crashes the Internet with New Album
Keeping true to founder Kevin Shields’ word a couple of days ago, the new, 22-years-in-the-making My Bloody Valentine album has dropped. Well, at least I think it has. After posting word on their Facebook page, the band’s website has gone dark, delivering a “403 — Forbidden: Access Denied” warning. We know the name of the album (MBV), the tracklist (below), and the price ($16 in multiple digital formats, including MP3 and .WAV.) Vinyl and CD versions will soon be available. Spoof reviews are already up on the Facebook page, with some posters claiming to be bewildered by the Christian rock, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 2, 2013
