Authors — Scott Macaulay

PRODUCER RON SIMONS ON PREMIERING NIGHT CATCHES US

Producer Ron Simons has been blogging from Sundance about his trip there with his first film, Tanya Hamilton’s Night Catches Us. Scroll back through the blog for his earlier posts. Night Catches Us has premiered! The last two days have been a symphony of interviews and press meetings. The day of the premiere our PR firm (Fatdot — a great PR firm by the way!) shuffled Tanya (our director) and me off to TV interviews, photo shoots and a taping for the Sundance Channel, among others. We’d wanted to include my producing partner Sean Costello in these activities but all […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 25, 2010
YOUTUBE vs. PHYSICAL MEDIA AND OTHER SUNDANCE NOTES

The YouTube/Sundance partnership that is streaming five films for rental during the festival has gotten a lot of ink, with many filmmakers and industry observers hopeful that the experiment will generate numbers that will help guide future online distribution decision-making. At the Producer’s Brunch today I ran into Children of Paradise producer Mynette Louie, who shared the data she’s received so far. Interestingly, physical media (i.e., DVDs) is currently winning out over the new model strategy. The publicity generated by the YouTube launch and the button Louie and director Tze Chun added to their page has generated $1,000 in DVD […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 24, 2010
SOLUTION-BASED: NEW BREED AT PARK CITY PART 2

Here’s the second of the New Breed videos discussing the current and future states of distribution. From the makers: Filmmakers Zak Forsman and Kevin K. Shah of Sabi Pictures arrive at Park City with an intent to define the questions most relevant to independent distribution options. Insights from Brian Newman, Dan Mirvish, Jon Reiss and Ira Deutchman open a path toward discovering some real solutions. NEW BREED PARK CITY – Discovering the Questions from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo. Watch New Breed Part 1.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 24, 2010
“LOVERS OF HATE'”S BRYAN POYSER | By Alicia Van Couvering

Originally posted as part of our Sundance 2010 coverage, Lovers of Hate will screen at SXSW and is available on VOD beginning March 15. Playing in competition this year is Austin filmmaker Bryan Poyser’s Lovers of Hate, starring Alex Karpovsky and Chris Doubek as brothers, Paul and Rudy, vying for the attention of Rudys’ soon-to-be ex-wife, Heather (Heather Kafka.) Paul is enjoying wild success as the author of a Harry Potter-like series of children’s books, which are based on stories that Rudy used to make up for Paul when they were children. Rudy, who calls himself a writer but who […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 24, 2010
A REPORT FROM THE SLAMDANCE/OPEN VIDEO COALITION FILMMAKER SUMMIT

“Independent filmmakers have always been very good about making their films, but they’ve had to rely on other outside advice [with regards to distribution],” said filmmaker and Slamdance founder Paul Rachman at the Filmmaker Summit, a Saturday-morning confab here at Park City hosted by Slamdance and the Open Video Alliance. Indeed, with the collapse of traditional acquisitions-based models for independents and the flourishing of DIY strategies and new platforms, perhaps the largest growth business in independent film right now is in seminars and conferences devoted to its future. This one condensed a lot of thought from some of the key […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 23, 2010
A FILMMAKER SUMMIT PRE-SHOW IN PARK CITY

Here is the first of the New Breed video reports realized this year in collaboration with Filmmaker and The Workbook Project. This one’s an open discussion between Lance Weiler, Peter Baxter, Saskia Wilson-Brown, Brian Newman and Paul Rachman just prior to Slamdance and the Open Video Alliance’s Filmmaker Summit in Park City, which starts in just a little more than an hour. If you’re not in town you can stream the summit here. NEW BREED PARK CITY – AN OPEN DISCUSSION from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo. For Filmmaker‘s complete Sundance coverage, visit our special Sundance section.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 23, 2010
SXSW 2010 COVERAGE STARTS HERE

Think of this post as a scrawled line on a notebook separating notes you made a year ago with notes you are making today… SXSW ’10 coverage starts here (i.e., look above). If you want to see what we posted about last year’s festival, scroll below.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 23, 2010
AT SLAMDANCE, SOLATRIUM SCREENED AND MASHED

When I taught the IFP Rough Cut Lab a while ago, one of the most intriguing projects was Chris Bower‘s Moon Europa, an idiosyncratic sci-fi drama with green overtones. Bower is still at work on the feature, which will shoot this summer, but for now check out Solatrium, which plays at Slamdance on the 22nd and the 28th. The filmmaker describes the film as the “story of Bria Living, a female astronaut who attempts to cure her regret and ennui by abusing her medication Solatrium. Little does she know she is a test subject for the Nevco Corporation who is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2010
“CATFISH’”S HENRY JOOST AND ARIEL SCHULMAN | By Alicia Van Couvering

The filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman work together in New York as Supermarche, and are prolific producers of music videos, commercials and feature films (Opus Jazz: NY Export, premiering on PBS this Spring, is their latest.) They also share an office with Schulman’s younger brother, Yaniv. One day Yaniv got an email from an eight-year-old girl who wanted to paint a picture of one of his photographs (a production still from Opus Jazz that had run in the newspaper.) Egged on by his brother and Henry, Yaniv said yes, and instigated an intense correspondence not only with the girl […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2010
A SUNDANCE INDUCTION: PRODUCER RON SIMONS BLOGS FROM THE FESTIVAL

Producer Ron Simons is blogging from Sundance with his first feature, Tanya Hamilton’s Competition title, Night Catches Us (pictured). Here’s his second post. Well I am here! The journey was not without its complications, but I’m here. While the flight to SLC was not delayed (actually arrived 15 minutes early), there were a number of disgruntled passengers sharing the flight with me. While I was uncomfortably sleeping (having slept only an hour and a half last night due to packing), another poor soul was suffering across the aisle from me. Apparently the gray haired gentleman boarded the non-stop from JFK […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 22, 2010

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.