Authors — Scott Macaulay
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CONDITION ONE REINVENTS WAR JOURNALISM IN LIBYA
At the end of my profile of filmmaker Danfung Dennis in our 2010 “25 New Faces” feature, I touched on what was then his next project. After completing Hell and Back Again — winner of the World Cinema Jury Prize and World Cinema Cinematography Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival — Dennis embarked on Condition One, which he told me “will use a network of journalists, filmmakers and servicemen to send a stream of high-quality video to millions of mobile devices.” Danfung’s new venture now has a website, a Facebook page and a proof-of-concept video that’s also 90 seconds […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 27, 2011 -
ELIZABETH TAYLOR, R.I.P.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 23, 2011
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A WALK THROUGH THE 2011 SXSW TRADE SHOW
Here’s another SXSW iPod Touch video, this one featuring some of the vendors attending the 2011 SXSW Trade Show. (This year, the Austin festival mashed film, interactive and music into a single trade event.) A Fed-bashing indie film; a new social network for creators; indie film and a new location-based app; and “fun” fake IDs (for some, a necessity in Austin). Watch. Featured in this clip: the Techsmith suite of products; the New York Film Academy; MyCube; Locaii; Acts of Sharing; The Imaginary University; Spotzen; Fedora; Evri; Designica; Silver Circle.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 22, 2011 -
“TEENAGE” WILDLIFE
Matt Wolf, one of our 25 New Faces of 2008, and author and critic Jon Savage are collaborating on a feature doc, Teenage, based on Savage’s 2007 book, Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture. Although it may seem that being a teenager is an ahistorical fact of life, Savage’s book detailed the cultural creation of the teenage class, tracing its relationship to art, political movements, and the rise of consumer culture. Their feature will bring this all to life with, as their new teaser trailer exhibits, archival footage, an evocative voiceover by Jena Malone, and music by Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 21, 2011 -
A FINAL REPORT ON SXSW INTERACTIVE 2011
My mind wasn’t blown this year. No Zeitgeist-nailing speaker convinced me that the world was about to change. Nor was there a high-profile washout, a speaker whose on-stage fail created its own newsworthy drama. I’m talking about SXSW Interactive, the mammoth convention/trade show/meet-up/party spot that crowds the stage with the more homespun SXSW Film in Austin each year. This was my fifth SXSW, and, a couple of years ago, in the midst of the indie film depression, I realized something. The positive energy, the feeding frenzy, the dollars — most of it was over on the interactive side. The kind […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 21, 2011 -
“ATTACK THE BLOCK” AND MORE NEW SXSW AUDIENCE AWARDS
SXSW has announced three final awards for its 2011 edition. Here are the audience awards for its 24 Beats per Second, Lone Star States and Midnight sections. Austin, Texas – March 19, 2011 – The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival announced additional Audience Award-winners today from the Lone Star States, 24 Beats Per Second and Midnight categories. Audience Award results for all categories were certified by the accounting firm of Maxwell Locke & Ritter. For the 2011 SXSW Film Festival, 140 features, consisting of 66 World Premieres, 15 North American Premieres and 15 U.S. Premieres, were selected […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 19, 2011 -
Breaking Down Ed Burns’ $9,000 Shooting Budget
While procrastinating working yesterday, I was following Ed Burns’ Twitter stream, in which he detailed the no-budget nature of his latest film, Newlyweds. With a shooting budget of $9,000, Burns worked with a three-person crew, shot on the Canon 5D (which he owns), had the actors wear their own clothes and do their own hair and make up, and worked without lights (except an occasional china ball) and sound mixer (the actors wore lavs). Tweeted Burns, “Sound is important but don’t let it slow you down. The Italian Neo-realists didn’t and they made some pretty great films…. No disrespect to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 18, 2011 -
A WALK THROUGH SXSW’S SCREENBURN ARCADE
Here’s another quick iPod touch SXSW video, this one with short interviews with a few people who had booths at the festival’s ScreenBurn Arcade. Games for the whole family, Mike Tyson, corporal punishment and more… Featured: Unlimited Justice; “Taking on Tyson” ; Mayfair Games; Wyld Stallyns Games; Renegade Kid; GameGround.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 17, 2011 -
CAMERAS AND GEAR AT SXSW
I used my iPod Touch to shoot some short interviews at the SXSW trade show and Screenburn exhibits. (It’s the first time I used the iPod Touch instead of the Flip. The quality definitely isn’t as high, and there’s some drop-out and stuttering going on here. But the new iMovie, released to coincide with the iPad2, works on the iPod Touch, and while it’s not amazing it’s still pretty cool — despite occasional crashing and some difficulty scrubbing clips.) Below are comments on the Panasonic AG-AF100 and Red Rock Micro’s DSLR rigs.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 16, 2011 -
HEATHER COURTNEY ON HER “WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM” SXSW PREMIERE
Documentary filmmaker Heather Courtney premiered her Where Soldiers Come From, about a group of Michigan teens who enlist in the National Guard and wind up fighting in Afghanistan, at SXSW. The film tracks their journey there and back, and it won the Best Editing award at the festival. Below, she recounts a confrontational moment that occurred between an audience member and her subjects at the premiere. A few days before the world premiere of Where Soldiers Come From at the SXSW Film Festival, we showed the final cut of the documentary to the guys and their families who are in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 16, 2011
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