Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Todd Solondz on Career Longevity and Dark Horse
Todd Solondz just scored one of the best reviews of his career with A.O. Scott’s New York Times rave for Dark Horse, opening today. Favorably comparing it to Death of a Salesman (!), Scott writes: But Mr. Solondz brilliantly — triumphantly — turns this impression on its head, transforming what might have been an exercise in easy satirical cruelty into a tremendously moving argument for the necessity of compassion. Again and again — in the ’90s indie touchstones Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness, and more recently in Life During Wartime — this director has blurred the boundary between misanthropy […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 8, 2012 -
FILMAID MUSIC VIDEO: “A HEAVY ABACUS,” DIRECTED BY PAOLA MENDOZA AND TOPAZ ADIZES
Filmmaker Paola Mendoza (Entre Nos, and one of our 25 New Faces) just forwarded this video she directed with filmmaker Topaz Adizes for FilmAid. It’s the organization’s first video, in support of World Refugee Day on June 20, and the music is The Joy Formidable’s “A Heavy Abacus.” While volunteering as Visiting Teaching Artists for FilmAid, Mendoza and Adizes shot this piece featuring Sudanese refugees in the Kakuma refugee camp in Northern Kenya. It was shot with a Canon 7D using two bounce boards and an iPhone as a monitor for the kids to lip sync to. For more information […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 6, 2012 -
ALRICK BROWN: BREAKING IN IS HARD TO DO
Last night I moderated an IFP panel at DCTV, co-sponsored by the New York Television Festival, on transitioning from film to TV. It consisted of two TV execs — Colleen Conway (VP of Reality and Alternative Programming, Lifetime Networks) and Erin Keating (Director of Development & Production, IFC TV) — and one filmmaker, Alrick Brown. Filmmaker readers will be familiar with Brown as he was one of our 2011 25 New Faces and won an Audience Award at Sundance for his debut feature, Kinyarwanda. Brown recently broke into television by directing an episode of the upcoming ABC documentary crime series, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 6, 2012 -
AARON HILLIS RAISES INDIEGOGO FUNDS FOR HIS NEW VIDEO STORE
Last week I posted my interview with Aaron Hillis in which the Brooklyn-based curator and critic announced his purchase of Video Free Brooklyn, a Cobble Hill video rental store. In the interview he spoke of the fundraising campaign he needs to do to make the store viable again… and here it is. Check out the well-choreographed video and also the rewards he’s offering to his Indiegogo supporters. There are some hefty offerings here, including the entire Oscilloscope catalog and dinner with director Robert Downey, Sr., a private screening with actor David Cross, and Bobcat Goldthwait performing stand-up in your living […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 5, 2012 -
MUSIC VIDEO: “MAN ON FIRE,” DIRECTED BY BRADY CORBET
Actor/director Brady Corbet directed this great video for “Man on Fire,” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. It was shot by Jody Lee Lipes, d.p. of Tiny Furniture and whose own dance film is N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz. Check it out below.
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 5, 2012 -
JAMIE STUART’S A-LIST NEW YORK
Jamie Stuart, well known to Filmmaker readers for all the videos he’s shot for the site over the years, was commissioned to shoot the intros and promos for the New York City Made in New York Awards, held at Gracie Mansion last night. Here’s his intro spot featuring all the recipients, including Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep.
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 5, 2012 -
Prometheus Screenwriter Jon Spaihts
Telling the origin story of the creature that terrified us in Alien over three decades ago, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is one of this summer’s most hotly anticipated films. But somewhat surprisingly, the origins of the screenplay came as much from a screenwriter’s general meeting as the story material developed for that original movie. At a meeting in the offices of Scott’s production company, Scott Free, screenwriter Jon Spaihts was asked to riff on the possibilities of a film that would revisit the Alien universe. What resulted is Prometheus, with a script credited to Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. Below I ask […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 4, 2012 -
HARMONY KORINE’S BLACK KEYS VIDEO
Harmony Korine takes the Black Keys to his Trash Humpers universe with the music video for the band’s new “Gold on the Ceiling.” Here it is — glitches, drop-outs and all.
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 1, 2012 -
Prescreen Suspends Operations
Prescreen, the independent film discovery and distribution platform, has suspended operations, reports Rip Empson for Techcrunch. Beginning as a kind of film-of-the-day online distributor and developing into a marketing and discovery platform integrated with Facebook Open Graph, Prescreen both rented films and offered audience data to filmmakers developing their marketing plans. In his piece, Empson talked with Prescreen founder Shawn Bercuson: While Prescreen saw interest both from users and filmmakers (and the co-founder added that some of its investors were willing to re-up), timing is crucial. The space is hot, and Bercuson believes that it’s inevitable that a platform like […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 31, 2012 -
12 Tips on Networking from the Cannes Film Festival
While the concept of dropping into the world’s largest film event and competing with 999 other short filmmakers for the industry’s attention may seem like a Survivor-like TV show, it’s the reality each year for participants in Cannes’ Short Film Corner. Many of the filmmakers who screen their works in the basement of the Palais are arriving in Cannes for the first time, and the event is a crash course in networking and navigating the business side of film markets. “You can get lost in a sea of films,” admits filmmaker Bradley Montesi (pictured here with producer Elle LaMont), attending […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 30, 2012
