Authors — Scott Macaulay

HOPE AND VACHON LEAD PRODUCING TALK AT SUNDANCE

From Sundance’s YouTube page: Recently, Sundance Film Festival brought a group of independent film producers together for an informal discussion. This is what they talked about. Join Christine Vachon, Ted Hope, Thomas Woodrow, Liz Watts, and Jonathan Schwartz.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2010
“HIS AND HERS”‘ KEN WALDROP | By Alicia Van Couvering

Ken Waldrop’s His & Hers is a documentary focusing on 70 women from the Irish Midlands, arranged chronologically from age 0 to 90, telling small stories about their lives. Irish Midlands women, being funny, sarcastic, charming and warm, are good subjects; Waldrop knew that because he grew up the son of one of very funny and sarcastic Irish Midlands mother. He constructed the film to mirror his own mother’s life; the women speak of their marriages in their twenties, their sons, and, finally, their husbands and these men’s deaths. Some of the interviews are about tiny things (who controls the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2010
APPLE ANNOUNCES ITS "iPAD" TABLET

I took a break from Sundance coverage to follow the Apple iPad announcement on Twitter and to check out Engadget’s live stream. For all the talk about the iPad (which some consider to be an unfortunate name…) saving old media and print, the focus of Steve Jobs’s presentation was solidly on the device as a large-screen multi-media device. Games from Electronic Arts were unveiled, a YouTube HD native app was demo’d and new versions of iTunes and IWorks showed scaled-up, enhanced versions of those apps. (Filmmakers, take note of all of this…) And, yes, in the middle of the presentation […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2010
SEEKING THE ANSWERS WITH THE NEW BREED IN PARK CITY

If you’ve been following the videos we’ve posted here in the New Breed series by Sabi Pictures, you’ve by now recognized that a rhetorical storyline around the issue of alternative distribution is being constructed. Here’s the latest, entitled “Seeking the Answers, Part 2.” Scroll back through the previous posts for the others in the series. The official word: SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah move away from identifying the questions toward some possible answers that may, in fact, lead to the solutions we seek. Insights from Linas Phillips (Bass Ackwards), Jon Reiss and Brian Newman are fleshed out […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2010
“THE ROMANTICS”‘ GALT NIEDERHOFFER | By Alicia Van Couvering

Galt Niederhoffer is no stranger to Sundance, having produced films that won awards there beginning in 1997, when Morgan J. Freeman’s Hurricane Streets won the Audience Award. As a founding member of Plum Pictures, one of New York’s most active independent film production companies, she has produced over a dozen films, including Grace is Gone, Dedication, Prozac Nation, Lonesome Jim, The Winning Season, The Baxter and After.Life. Niederhoffer grew up in New York, one of six daughters of a squash champion-turned-hedge fund maverick, in a rambling, eccentrically decorated house. In her first novel, A Taxonomy of Barnacles, Niederhoffer may have […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 27, 2010
SUNDANCE FILMMAKERS LINAS PHILLIPS AND HABIB AZAR JOIN THE NEW BREED

Here’s the third of our New Breed videos on new distribution ideas and paradigms at the Sundance Film Festival. The intro: SABI filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah move away from identifying the questions toward some possible answers that may, in fact, lead to the solutions we seek. Insights from Linas Phillips (Bass Ackwards), Habib Azar (Armless), Dan Mirvish, and Brian Newman are fleshed out with more thoughts from the pre-Filmmaker Summit roundtable. NEW BREED PARK CITY – Seeking the Answers, Part 1 from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo. Watch all the New Breed videos.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 26, 2010
SUNDANCE, VARIETY’S PAYWALL, AND ME

As a magazine editor I am not unsympathetic to the need to generate paid online readership. I will also admit that I didn’t get it together to work out a Variety sub before Sundance now that the site has gone paywall. Yes, I need Variety for business, our parent organization subscribes so it comes to the office, and I will arrange to get it online, but I will also say that I am irritated by the initial promise of content one sees when clicking the site that’s then followed by a black screen of death. (“Just Control-C when the screen […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 26, 2010
PRODUCER RON SIMONS ON SUNDANCE PRESS HIGHS AND LOWS

Here is Night Catches Us producer Ron Simons’ fourth post from Sundance. January 24th was a good day. I finally got to have in-person conversations with two of the powerhouses of the Sundance Institute: Michelle Satter and Anne Lai (both of whom have been crucial in making this film come into being). They’d both fielded worried, stressed, beseeching calls from Sean, Tanya and myself. They were ever supportive with sage advice administered with calming tones and gracious patience. I also got to meet a number of other filmmakers at the Producer’s Brunch. The key note speaker was Lynette Howell, who […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 26, 2010
CINETIC FILM BUFF LAUNCHES ONLINE

The online destination for Cinetic Film Buff, the distribution label for Cinetic Rights Management, has launched. The site points you to where to see films like Big Fan, Collapse and Let Them Chirp Awhile, and there’s also a blog with links to articles dealing with films and digital distribution. Check it out at the link.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2010
SUNDANCE SENIOR PROGRAMMER SHARI FRILOT TALKS NEW FRONTIER | By Alicia Van Couvering

Tasked with “celebrating experimentation and the convergence of art and film,” the New Frontier section at Sundance has been exhibiting feature films and installations for the last four years. Shari Frilot is the programmer, and spent the entire year reviewing work from new artists, figuring out which part of the ground being broken she wants to put in front of the Sundance audience. How to show film art in an art film context? Frilot tries to make sure that the artists all “speak the same language” as cinema. This year, the spotlight artist is Pipilotti Rist, who creates video work […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2010

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