Authors — Scott Macaulay
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FLAMING LIPS AND THE WOMB GALLERY
On a trip last weekend to Oklahoma, the IFP’s Amy Dotson attended the opening of the Womb Gallery, spearheaded by the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne. Her short report follows. When you think Oklahoma City, usually Bigfoot, giant balloon-filled walk-in vagina sculptures and samurai serving alcoholic snow-cones are not what come directly to mind. But thanks to Flaming Lips front-man Wayne Coyne and his collaborators, all that is about to change. With its psychedelic exterior from Brooklyn artist Maya Hayuk and featuring campy, graffiti inspired art by Bigfoot One, The Womb Gallery launched this weekend. Not even the 114 degree night […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 10, 2011 -
Now it’s Dark… The Blue Velvet Project
Last year, after becoming a fan of Nicholas Rombes’s “10/40/70” series at The Rumpus, I did a short interview with him for the blog. I asked about his approach to film criticism, which involves extrapolating larger meanings from a film’s isolated moments. (His “10/40/70” series critiqued films by looking at the scenes occurring at those precise minute marks). His reply: When I first started teaching film in the early 1990s, we’d screen them on via VHS tapes playing on VCRs hooked up to TV sets. Pausing a film for an extended period of time to look at the composition of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 7, 2011 -
DAVID GORDON GREEN ON “THE SITTER”
In our Winter issue Michael Tully sat down with David Gordon Green to discuss the arc of his career, which has gone from small-scale, Malick-inflected indies to big, ’80s-riffing studio comedies. His latest is The Sitter, starring Jonah Hill, and while it may seem like a raunchy take on Chris Columbus’s Adventures in Babysitting, Green said he had a different model in mind. Here’s an except from the interview: Filmmaker: You’ve just finished shooting. Are you watching movies? Do you watch movies that reflect the mood you’re in and the movie you’re making? Or is it the opposite? Do you […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 6, 2011 -
Kentucker Audley Launches No-Budget Streaming Site
Memphis-based filmmaker Kentucker Audley (Team Picture, Open Five), selected for Filmmaker’s “25 New Faces” list in 2007, is releasing today online his new film, Holy Land (pictured here, with stars Bunny Lampert and Cole Weintraub), and with it a platform for fellow directors working in the no-budget trenches. The site is called “No Budge Films,” and it is described simply as “a place to watch no-budget films… Post your short film or feature // for a short run or indefinitely.” Why such a simple site? “Because most films don’t get distributed + it’s cool to give away your film for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 3, 2011 -
TRAILER WATCH: FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA’S “TWIXT”
When I listened to Francis Ford Coppola give a master class at last year’s Marrakech Film Festival, some of the most valuable information imparted was about the creative process. So that’s what struck me when I watched this trailer of his latest film, Twixt, premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival this month. Val Kilmer stars as a mass market horror novelist, and there’s clearly some kind of meditation going on about the workings of the imagination. As quoted at First Showing, Coppola says the film “‘was inspired by the eerie writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe’ and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 2, 2011 -
Melissa Lee at the Sundance Creative Producing Lab
The Sundance Creative Producing Lab just wrapped, and here, with an account of her days there, is producer Melissa Lee (Dear Lemon Lima, Circumstance). Last week I had the honor of being one of six Fellows at the Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab. Over the course of five days, the intimate group of Fellows and Advisors – about 15 in all — dissected, scrutinized, and re-energized not only the five projects selected for the Lab, but also each of the Fellows behind them. I’d heard the experience compared to rehab, group therapy, and King Arthur’s Court. It turned out to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 2, 2011 -
VIMEO ANNOUNCES “VIMEO PRO”
Video sharing site Vimeo announced today Vimeo PRO, a new account aimed at small business — including independent filmmakers and production companies. Offering high-quality hosting at a competitive price (50GB of storage and 250,000 plays for an annual $199 fee), the new service lives separately from the regular Vimeo community. From the press release: “Until now, quality video hosting has been expensive, confusing, and extremely difficult for a small business owner to understand. Small businesses have fallen between the cracks of free video services and massive enterprise video solutions,” said Dae Mellencamp, Vimeo’s General Manager. “Vimeo PRO resolves the contradiction […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 1, 2011 -
IRA DEUTCHMAN CHAIRS COLUMBIA FILM SCHOOL
Producer, distributor, and longtime professor (24 years!) at Columbia Film School, Ira Deutchman has been appointed the division’s new chair. He takes over from the film school’s previous chair, Jamal Joseph. Well known in the independent community, Deutchman was a founder of indie distributor Cinecom, a former head of Fine Line Features, and is currently Managing Partner of Emerging Pictures. Film’s he’s worked on as either a distributor or marketer include The Player, An Angel at My Table, Hoop Dreams, Naked, and sex lies and videotape. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Deutchman commented, “I’ve been teaching at Columbia […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 29, 2011 -
FESTIVAL FILM WATCHING AND THE DEATH OF THE DVD
I always feel odd holed up in my hotel room watching DVDs while at a film festival. After all, a film festival is supposed to be festive, and that means audiences, excitement, buzz. But invariably, once you’ve missed a screening those DVD screeners that weren’t available pre-fest are suddenly pressed into your hands by anxious publicists. Or, maybe you just meet a cool filmmaker on the shuttle bus and agree to watch HIS short that night. If you’re doing your job as a journalist, at least some of your festival stay will be spent watching DVDs in your room, perhaps […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 29, 2011 -
GOOD QUOTES FROM CHRISTINE VACHON
From her conversation with Anthony Kaufman, recapped at Indiewire. On money, producing and responsibility: “In film producing there is an inherent tension between the director, the money and the producer, and that’s what keeps it flowing and honest and accountable. Sometimes, when I work with financiers or a studio, they see my job as the one who has to tell the director he can’t have something. And that’s a drag. So I have to figure out ways to come up with creative solutions, before I tell him what we’re up against, so it’s not a state of crisis. And Todd […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 28, 2011
