Authors — Scott Macaulay
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How to Create a Profitable VOD Strategy
This distribution case study of American: The Bill Hicks Story has been previously posted at Indiewire, and when it went up, I quickly scanned it and tweeted their link. But now I’ve actually had time to read it carefully, and it’s a very useful document that deserves its own place on the blog. A Powerpoint presentation prepared for a panel at this year’s SXSW moderated by Orly Ravid, the document walks you through the filmmaker’s DIY theatrical and various VOD and digital distribution deals. There are revenue numbers here, and not just for American, but also other movies released by […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 25, 2012 -
UPDATES TO OUR CURATED KICKSTARTER PAGE
I just added several projects to Filmmaker‘s curated Kickstarter page. They include Galileo, a cool new device that adds remote control functionality to your iPhone; The Miracle Mile Paradox, an ARG (alternate reality game) set in both viritual space as well as L.A.’s museum strip; The Man’s Guide to Love, a fiction feature film developed from the filmmaker’s two-year old website containing short-form doc content on men in love; The First Hope, a UCLA film student’s short about a young boy’s romantic life beginning when he sees Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia kiss; Brendt Barbur’s The Commentator, a doc featuring […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 25, 2012 -
Senate Passes JOBS Act with Modified Crowdfunding Rules
The JOBS (Jumpstart Our Small Businesses) Act, a collection of six bills intended to make it easy for small businesses to raise capital by relaxing various Securities and Exchange Commission requirements, including those related to crowdfunding, passed the Senate yesterday. It is now headed back to the House for reconciliation and could become law next week. While the House version of the bill passed swiftly with bipartisan backing, its passage through the Senate was rockier, with some Democrats and progressives warning that the bill would dilute necessary investor protections contained in the 2002, post-Enron Sarbanes Oxley Act. The bill exempts […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 23, 2012 -
FIRST TEASER UNVEILED FOR DAVID CRONENBERG’S “COSMOPOLIS”
Now that the film has come and gone, I seem to be in the minority of those who thought that David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Mind, with its viral take on the philosophy of psychology, was his most Cronenbergian film in years. But based on the just-released teaser, perhaps that crown may be more appropriately placed on his upcoming Don DeLillo adaptation, Cosmopolis. Even at only 30 seconds, many of them filled with title-cards, there’s a sense of brainy spectacle here that we haven’t seen in the director’s work in a while.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 22, 2012 -
JAMIE STUART DISASSOCIATES SUNDANCE
For Jamie Stuart, Sundance 2012 was a schizophrenic affair. Find out why in this video he made while covering the festival for Cinelan’s Focus Forward initiative. Appearances by Filmmaker‘s founding publisher, Karol Martesko-Fenster, Filmmaker correspondent, d.p. and director David Leitner, Morgan Spurlock, Jessica Yu, Frank Langella and more. Sequelized from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 20, 2012 -
MUSIC VIDEO: SPIRITUALIZED’S “HEY JANE”
Directed by AG Rojas, the near 11-minute music video for Spiritualized’s “Hey Jane” is an epic day-in-the-life of a transsexual stripper raising two young children. It is NSFW with sexual and violent content.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 20, 2012 -
Jamie Stuart’s New Short Both Ends
Jamie Stuart, familiar to Filmmaker readers for his various short-form work for this site over the years (and familiar to many more for his Idiot with a Tripod short last year), got his hands on a Canon EOS-C300 recently. To test it out he made a short film, Both Ends, starring Lauren Currie Lewis as a chameleon-like party girl having the worst day of her life. The film was shot in one long 16-hour day in locations spanning three boroughs. The primary lenses used were Canon’s 16-35mm f/2.8 and 24-70mm f/2.8. It was edited on Premiere Pro CS5. Grading was […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 19, 2012 -
TRAILER WATCH: RIDLEY SCOTT’S “PROMETHEUS”
This is the Hollywood trailer of the moment. I particularly love the music fake-out — starting with the typically ostentatious “epic score” and, after a moment of silence, phasing into something more modern and frightening.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 18, 2012 -
Columbia U. Launches Screenplay Revision Workshop
Becoming a good writer is not just about writing well — it’s about rewriting well. I know plenty of promising writers who positively fail at that essential skill. They are unable to move beyond their first drafts, to process feedback, and to shape their own raw material into production-worthy scripts. This summer a resource for the self-aware among this set is being offered by Columbia University. Columbia’s Film School chair Ira Deutchman recently announced the Screenplay Revision Workshop, which is open to all. From Ira’s blog at Tribeca: In all my years in the film business and my travels around […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 17, 2012 -
Crowdfunding Bill Stalls in the Senate
The JOBS (Jumpstart our Business Startups) Act, which passed the House last week, has stalled in the Senate over criticism by Democrats over some of its provisions, including those related to crowdfunding, the strategy being used today by many independent filmmakers. Currently, it is illegal to use crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to solicit actual investments. Monies pledged on these platforms are donations usually lacking any tax benefit or further income possiblity for the funder. (Or, increasingly, they are pre-buys for a specific goods or services.) The JOBS Act aims to change that, allowing businesses, including filmmakers, to solicit […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 16, 2012
