Authors — Scott Macaulay

PANOPTICON-LAND!!!

Greg Mottola’s forthcoming Adventureland is set in a slightly run-down 1980s Pennsylvania amusement park, and, as this link demonstrates, amusement parks have come a long way in 25 years. In a creepy application of the surveillance state, visitors of U.K.’s Alton Towers have the opportunity of paying extra to have themselves recorded during their day on the various rides by the park’s surveillance cameras. The park developed software capable of tracking each of its wristband-wearing visitors and then dumping footage of them onto a DVD that’s available when it’s time to go. From the amusement park’s site: What did we […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 1, 2009
WHICH PART OF THE MOVIE INDUSTRY ARE YOU IN? (WRITERS CLICK HERE)

Citing the uptick in theatrical box-office receipts led by hits like Gran Torino, Taken and Coraline, there have been a number of articles recently on the movies and the recession. Like this one in the New York Times. The upshot: in depressing times, people flock to escapist, cost-effective fun at their local cineplex. One can of course pick apart this thesis — in fact, David Poland just has — but most people in the movie biz prefer to cling to the reductive takeaway that our business is recession proof. However, as this post on screenwriter and director John August’s blog […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 1, 2009
TOMORROW’S AD MODELS TODAY AT CINEQUEST

Over in our Festival Ambassador section, Jason Guerrasio reports from Cinequest, where he sat in on an interesting panel discussion entitled “The Marriage of Television and the Internet.” In the piece Jason relays comments from reps of Intel and Move Networks from subjects like Hulu and emerging internet ad models, but he also reports on an independent filmmaker who is making real money online where others have failed. From the piece: One filmmaker during the Q&A pointed out his success on the Web. Christopher Cannucciari, who has is debut feature premiering at Cinequest, New Brooklyn, talked how his Web series, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 1, 2009
SITA SINGS THE BLUES PREMIERES — ONLINE AND FOR FREE!

Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues, the winner of the Filmmaker-sponsored “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” Gotham award, screens on WNET’s Reel 13 series on March 7, but the complete feature is now available online at the Channel 13 site. If you aren’t going to be home on the 7th, don’t have TiVo, or just want to sample some of the movie and find out what all the fuss is about, click here.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2009
PETER SCARLET STEPS DOWN AT TRIBECA

In perhaps the most curious use of a Billy Wilder reference in film festival journalism, Tribeca Film Festival director Peter Scarlet has resigned from his position just two months before this year’s festival and less than two weeks after Tribeca hired former Sundance director Geoff Gilmore to a postion as chief creative officer at Tribeca Enterprises. From Peter Knegt’s story in Indiewire: “The term ‘The Seven-Year Itch’ always evokes that famous still of Marilyn Monroe standing on a NY subway grating with her skirt blowing up around her thighs,” Scarlet said in a statement today. “But as my 7th Tribeca […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2009
IATSE CREW EMAIL FUNNY… BUT FOR THE WRONG REASONS?

Over at Deadline Hollywood Daily, Nikki Finke publishes an email that is circulating among IATSE members that is a satirical attack on IA leadership for not aggressively expanding jurisdiction into New Media productions. And while I sympathize with union members who are watching the entertainment conglomerates move into web production, I have to wonder whether the below really helps their cause: FILM CREW WANTED: “New Media” production company seeks crew for experimental project. Applicants must be able to create, research, write, coordinate, production design, art direct, construct, paint, dress & decorate sets, location manage, assist direct, design/tailor/supply costumes, do hair […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2009
A NEW, REVISED LIFE FOR THE NEW YORK TAX CREDIT?

News this week about the New York State Film and Television Tax Credit program, which is currently in a kind of limbo now that the funding allocated for it by the State has unexpectedly run out just ten months in a multi-year program. First, there was an article in the New York Post by Tom Topousis that reported that Governor Patterson’s office has indicated that it will seek additional funding for the program. The article included these two intriguing paragraphs: Marissa Lago, president of the Empire State Development Corp., told a breakfast meeting of the Association for a Better New […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2009
DUSHKU, TIMONER BRING MAPPLETHORPE TO THE SCREEN

Here is an unexpected pairing: Dollhouse star Eliza Dushku and her Boston Diva Productions will team with doc director Ondi Timoner, who won the Sundance Doc Grand Jury Prize this year with We Live in Public, to make a biopic about the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. From Tatiana Siegel’s Variety piece: Dushku has secured the exclusive rights and the full cooperation from Mapplethorpe’s estate and has enlisted two-time Sundance grand jury prize winner and indie darling Ondi Timoner (“DIG!”) to helm the film, which is titled “The Perfect Moment.” Timoner’s Interloper Films and Dushku’s Boston Diva Prods. are producing the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2009
DOC FILMMAKER WINS FIRST AMENDMENT SUIT

From the law firm Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein and Selz comes a press release announcing the New York State Court dismissal of case brought against doc filmmaker Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love. It’s great to see a filmmaker challenging such a seemingly frivolous lawsuit and winning. Excerpted from the press release: The film centers on the controversy surrounding Grammy-award winning musician Youssou Ndour’s release of his acclaimed album “Egypt.” Plaintiff, a former attorney for Mr. Ndour, appears briefly in archival footage taken at a press conference. “Vexatious right of publicity claims often hamstring documentary filmmakers,” said […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2009
HAND-HELD COPPOLA

Check out Francis Ford Coppola’s new site for his forthcoming movie Tetro, starring Vincent Gallo. He’s got a video blog going with an accompanying flash gallery of images. The first vlog, just posted today (and shot by the director with the camera in his outstretched hand), is a brief intro to the film (and his Napa Valley workspace), and Coppola discusses why it’s his first original screenplay since The Conversation. From the site: It is his most personal film yet, arising from memories and emotions from his early life, though totally fictional. It is the bittersweet story of two brothers, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2009

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