Authors — Scott Macaulay

OBAMA, 181, AND FILM PRODUCTION

Submitted with the caveat that he’s not an expert on tax law, producer Noah Harlan sent the below comment about possible effects of the Obama election on film production incentives. From Harlan: It might be worth noting one of the interesting implications of the election for the film business. The bailout package passed last month included an extension of the section 181 provisions of the federal tax code that allowed investors in qualifying US films to take their investment as an expense against income. For most investors (except those that were full-time film investors) it is specifically against passive income […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 6, 2008
PRINT LIVES… FOR A DAY

Before driving back to New York from Ohio I thought I’d pick up a November 5 Cleveland newspaper for posterity’s sake. It’s something my parents used to do — collect “day of” Washington Posts on all the major election and historical event days. No such luck. Everything was sold out. Oh well, I thought, I’ll just grab a New York Times when I’m back in New York. Again, a strike-out. With declining newspaper circulation recently forboding “the end of print,” November 5th was a one-day counter-cyclical moment. At his Indiewire blog, Eugene Hernandez comments in the form of a video: […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 6, 2008
MORNING AFTER BLOGGING

I’ve been slack on the blogging because I’ve had the good fortune for the past week to have been part of a great group (The Trip2008) campaigning in Ohio for Obama. It was a diverse, smart and charismatic group with quite a few people from the indie film community involved. Among many good things, it was inspiring for me to witness at street-level the Obama campaign’s blend of old-fashioned grass-roots organizing and 21st century internet-driven civic empowerment, and I look forward to carrying some of these thoughts with me in future ponderings about our independent film community. I’ll be more […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 5, 2008
THE FILMMAKER GUIDE TO ASIA ARGENTO

Filmmaker has been a big fan of Asia Argento — as an actress and a director — over the years, and on the occasion of her BAM retrospective, “Sexy, Scary and Often Naked: Asia Argento,” which opens today, I thought I would throw up some links to our coverage of Argento over the years. Back in 2000 Travis Crawford interviewed Asia about her directorial debut, Scarlet Diva, and the article was illustrated by original Richard Kern photos (one of which I’ve included here). In 2005 Crawford interviewed Asia again in 2005 for her second feature, The Heart is Deceitful Above […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 1, 2008
MILK PREMIERES IN SAN FRANCISCO

Executive producer William Horberg attended the premiere of Gus Van Sant’s Milk last night in San Francisco and writes about it on his blog. An excerpt: It was almost 37 years ago that Harvey Milk, the subject of the film, moved to the Castro District from New York City and set up his camera shop there with his boyfriend Scott Smith, at what was to become ground zero in a cultural movement and struggle for respect and equal rights for gay people that, despite the major victories Harvey and his supporters achieved before his untimely assassination, as he became the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 29, 2008
FILMMAKER’S GUIDE TO HALLOWEEN HORROR

For those of you planning a Halloween viewing party, the staff of Filmmaker has compiled thoughts on seven films guaranteed to generate chills. Inside. If you watch a lot of horror films, at a certain point you being to feel that you’ve seen it all. I did… at least until I saw Inside. This French shocker is part of a new wave of Gallic horror that includes films like Haute Tension, Frontieres, Calvaire and Them. For me, it’s the most extreme and transgressive of the bunch, mostly due to its relentless, remorseless elaboration of its queasy premise: a pregnant woman, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 29, 2008
PLANNING FOR THE BEST CASE FESTIVAL SCENARIO

If you’re one of, probably, about 3,000 feature filmmakers who have submitted your features to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, then you are beginning to think about that best-case scenario: getting in. After the acceptance rush fades, you will realize that the whole process of finishing your film, scheduling the festival, and devising a publicity and marketing plan is a lot of work. To help you out producer Ted Hope, who has a lot of first-hand experience, has been posting this week on this Truly Free Film blog a series of pieces on the different stages of the process. He […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 29, 2008
WHAT EIGHT YEARS BRINGS

The filmmaker Charles Stone caused a sensation in the indie film world in 1998 with his short film, True, which launched him in both the film and ad worlds. The hilarious short, along with his music videos, led him to make his first feature, Paid in Full. And when the short was seen by ad agency DDB Needham, they had the idea to hire Stone to take the characters and concept and apply it to a Budweiser ad. These spots, called Whassup?!, won all the big advertising awards in 2000 and Stone went on to make movies like Drumline and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 29, 2008
BILLY THE KID ARRIVES ON VIDEO

Jennifer Venditti’s doc Billy the Kid arrives on home video today. Check out Nick Dawson’s interview with Venditti here.
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 28, 2008
MARK GILL ON THE FUTURE OF THE THEATRICAL BIZ

In what is something like an appendix to his famous “The Sky is Falling” L.A. Film Festival keynote speech, Film Department head Mark Gill is the guest on this week’s issue of the “The Business” film podcast. Gill’s segment is called “Mini-Majors, Endangered Species?”, and in it he discusses the independent film theatrical business in the wake of this year’s specialty label shrinkage. Like everyone, Gill wags his finger at overproduction but then he extends the argument to its logical end result — fewer movies in theaters. And that he likes. Quoting Gill: “The first and the best news is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 28, 2008

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