Authors — Scott Macaulay

GRAPHIC NOVEL CO. TOP SHELF, BREGMAN AND JOHNSON PACT

From a press release I just received: Co-Publishers Chris Staros and Brett Warnock of independent graphic novel and comic book publisher Top Shelf Productions announced today that it has entered into a capital investment deal with new media entrepreneur John S. Johnson, and independent film producer Anthony Bregman. Johnson, and Likely Story, Bregman’s film production company, have purchased a 33% interest in Top Shelf Productions, Inc. Johnson will join the board of Top Shelf, and Likely Story will get a first-look deal for all new Top Shelf publications for possible film and TV development. The first project slated for development […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2010
A PARK CITY DATE WITH JON REISS

I received the following email from Jon Reiss detailing an offer he’s making to filmmakers. Jon is a wealth of knowledge about all matters related to DIY and hybrid distribution, and I hope folks decide to take him up on the below. As some of you might know, one of the reasons that I wrote Think Outside the Box Office was after those first Filmmaker articles I wrote in Fall ‘08 about my experiences distributing my graffiti doc Bomb It, many filmmakers contacted me to help them with their films. However they were all broke, as most filmmakers are. The […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 12, 2010
REMEMBERING ERIC ROHMER, 1920 – 2010

Eric Rohmer, the New Wave filmmaker who made intimate, conversational films exploring deep moral and ethical themes with a simple elegance, died today in Paris at the age of 89. Like many of his colleagues in the French film movement, Rohmer began his career as a film critic, eventually becoming the editor of Cahiers du Cinema. Although he made his first feature in 1959, he became more widely known to international audiences in the late ’60s and ’70s, beginning with his Six Moral Tales, a series of six films which included his acclaimed My Night at Maude’s, Claire’s Knee, and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 11, 2010
MATT ZOLLER SEITZ ON ZACHARY OBERZAN’S ONE-MAN RAMBO RETHINK

I’ve been hearing about Zachary Oberzan’s no-budget unauthorized adaptation of David Morrell’s First Blood (the basis for the Rambo movie series) from one of our writers, Lauren Wissot, for some time. Staged entirely in Oberzan’s apartment and featuring the director in every part, the film was called by Michael Atkinson in the Village Voice as “the best movie of 2010.” And, over at Hammer to Nail, Brandon Harris has praised the film too. He writes: David Cronenberg once said that as long as you have good sound, movie audiences can be compelled to watch anything. Zachary Oberzan’s Flooding With Love […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 10, 2010
MOVIE ART AND ARCHITECTURE: ALEX ROMAN’S THE THIRD & THE SEVENTH

The online video of the moment is Alex Roman’s The Third & the Seventh — so much so that Roman’s own site, which I was going to link to, is down due to bandwidth excess. (It redirects to the Vimeo video below, but rather than watching here, go to Vimeo and resize to HD and see it full-screen.) The video is described by Roman as “a FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal.” In other words, what you are […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2010
THE RED TAIL LOOKS AT OUTSOURCING

Mike Johnston, who wrote the article here on the site about the indie film Ink and piracy, has started an online video series about indie film. His first episode consists of a phone interview with the makers of The Red Tail, a documentary about job loss and outsourcing. From the film’s website: While 4,400 aircraft mechanics wage a seemingly endless strike to keep their jobs from being outsourced – Mechanic Roy Koch and his daughter Melissa (Director of The Red Tail in collaboration with Dawn Mikkelson) follow the trail of outsourcing to China. The Koch’s journey is a search for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2010
CANON’S DSLR LA RONDE

Speaking of the new DSLR cameras, Canon and Vimeo have launched a contest in which filmmakers are being inspired to create episodes of an eight-part narrative based on the old La Ronde structure: each episode starts by following the image that ends the previous episode. Details from PDN Gear Gude: Canon gave Laforet a still image of a cab and then asked him to interpret it into a 2-3 minute short film. Laforet’s film, which was shot with a Canon EOS 7D digital SLR, ends on a still image. Contestants are then asked to take that image and interpret it […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2010
SXSW TRAILER WATCH: AARON KATZ’S COLD WEATHER

Out of all the films associated with The Film Movement Formerly Known as Mumblecore, Aaron Katz’s Quiet City was perhaps the most visually assured. There was a real poetry and sensitivity to light and locations in that film, and his follow-up, Cold Weather, looks to take his filmmaking to a new level. The film will premiere at SXSW ’10, and the trailer is below.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2010
STRATEGIZING YOUR PARK CITY RELEASE

Jon Reiss has an excellent two-parter up at Ted Hope’s Truly Free Film blog. Titled “25 Points to Consider in Approaching Your Festival Premiere,” it’s broken down in a list of things you should consider in general before arriving at, really, any festival with your film, and then those other things you should think about if you are planning to make the festival premiere some part of your distribution launch. The latter piece in particular hit home as I’ve spoken to a number of filmmakers recently who have asked for DIY distribution advice. They want to know who to partner […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2010
THE VIRTUAL NEW YORK… OR L.A…. OR TOKYO… OR MOSCOW

I found this link on Twitter (sorry, can’t find the original tweet to attribute to) and it read something like, “Why New York’s new location fees are a bad idea.” Of course, green screen backdrops are nothing new, and all of us probably see a lot more of them in films than we realize. But this demo reel from Stargate Studios points to how ubiquitous they may become. Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Demo from Stargate Studios on Vimeo.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2010

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