Authors — Scott Macaulay

FROM ROBERT FRANK TO JEM COHEN TO… GOOGLE

After seeing Jem Cohen’s excellent historical reverie/political essay/performance documentary/poetic image symphony Empires of Tin at the IFC Center the other night, I’ve been thinking about street photography. Cohen’s practice has always involved a vaguely melancholy and Sebaldian filmic extension of the work of great street photographers like Robert Frank. In Empires of Tin, the kind of people typically captured by the street photographer (more, perhaps, Cartier-Bresson than a skeptic like Frank) are less caught in meaningfully decisive moments as they are announced as anonymous everymen, markers of history or, perhaps, poetic ciphers. Wall Street workers drifting down those sad streets […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 13, 2009
SUPPORT THE NORTHWEST FILM FORUM!

Recently the Pacific Northwest’s venerable Northwest Film Forum, which has been behind not only the exhibition but also the production of some of our most striking independent features, issued an urgent plea for financial assistance. By August 15, the organization requires $70,000 to forestall severe changes in the organization. With two days left to go, the NWFF is not quite half way there, helped by both its members and audiences but also companies like Sub Pop, which matched donations. There is still time to close the gap, though, in the next 48 hours. Here is executive director Lyall Bush’s latest […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 13, 2009
STEVEN SODERBERGH ON FIGHTING FOR 2.40

Yesterday I took note of a lead item posted by Ray Pride at Movie City News: a Steven Soderbergh-authored piece for the Directors Guild Quarterly on the movement in the HD world to make 16:9 a default format for a theatrically released film when released on video. I saw the headline, meant to click back to it, but then the magazine’s site went down. Fortunately, I was forwarded a link to the cached version this morning. (You have to scroll down the page to get to the article.) Here’s Soderbergh on the crux of the issue: Television operators, the people […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 12, 2009
DUBAI FILM CONNECTION DEADLINE, AUGUST 15

As my brief interview with Cherien Dabis in festival coverage of the Dubai International Film Festival (in our Spring, 2009 edition and which I’ve just posted online) noted, some of the financing for her debut feature Amreeka was found at the DIFF’s Dubai Film Connection, a CineMart-like financing market aimed at films from directors of Arab nationality or origin. Producers (who can be of any nationality) have until August 15 (that’s one week from now) to submit projects for this year’s edition. Here’s the official word: The DFC is open for documentary and feature film projects that are currently in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 8, 2009
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE SECOND TRAILER

More greatness:
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 7, 2009
HOPE AND VACHON INTERVIEW GIAMATTI AND ROCKWELL

Last year at Sundance producers Ted Hope and Christine Vachon shot a number of interview pieces for a web series associated with Film Catcher. Film Catcher has since changed direction, but the interviews are online and you can check them out on the site’s YouTube channel. Embedded below is the first part of Hope and Vachon’s interview with actors Paul Giamatti and Sam Rockwell, whose two philosophical science fiction films, Cold Souls and Moon, are in theaters right now. Head over to the channel’s page for the other clips as well as another set of interviews with Alan Cumming, Lee […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 7, 2009
TWITTER DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK

The lightness and ephemerality of Twitter is such that it feels less an application and more like part of our daily fabric. For a while this morning I thought I must have an internet connection problem but after an hour without Twitter I Googled and discovered that Twitter is indeed offline. In fact, according to the Twitter Status Blog, the microblogging service is defending against a malicious denial-of-service attack. Here’s hoping the opposing forces are soon successful in restoring order to our online world.
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 6, 2009
INHERENT VICE BOOK TRAILER

At Movie City News, Ray Pride asks if it’s narrated by Thomas Pynchon…. Could be…
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 4, 2009
A Filmmaker’s Glamorous Life: Barry Jenkins

In “A Filmmaker’s Glamorous Life,” online and in our latest print edition, Esther Robinson surveyed a number of filmmakers about the jobs they’ve taken to support themselves when they are not making films. In this blog series we’ll run the unedited responses we received that were then condensed for the piece. Below: Barry Jenkins. Filmmaker: How did you support yourself during the production of your last movie/movies? Jenkins: I had this job at Banana Republic that was more or less essential to getting my last movie done. Was a great job, I was the shipment supervisor at the largest Banana […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 4, 2009
SABI PICTURES ON TEST SCREENING FOR INDIES

At DIY Days in Philadelphia this weekend I moderated a panel on creative collaboration. Just before heading down I came across this post by filmmaker Zak Forsman on our new message boards entitled “Using Test Screenings to Shape Your Film” and made a note to post it on the blog. Now, Forsman and Sabi partner Kevin Shah, who were both on my panel, have elaborated on the post with an article at The Workbook Project and a video in which they discuss the process of test screening. They have great advice for anyone putting together a feedback screening. One tip […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 3, 2009

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