Authors — Scott Macaulay

A NEW FESTIVAL DISTRIBUTION MODEL?

On the one year anniversary of Mike Jones’s “The Circuit” column at Variety, former AFI Fest Director Christian Gaines, who is now employed by Withoutabox, contributes a two-part discussion on festivals and our current failing indie film theatrical distribution model. Part one is titled “Do Festivals Matter?” and part two is “Things Gotta Change.” In part one, Gaines writes that festivals have become, for many films, the premiere exhibition opportunity: In the pantheon of viable choices for getting your film seen, film festivals continue to thrive (seems there’s a new one born every minute, right?), and that’s because, putting aside […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 24, 2008
CROSSING THE UNCANNY VALLEY

I’ve written before about the “uncanny valley,” the term used in discussion of technological attempts to simulate the human visage. It refers to the phenomenon where things intended to look human suddenly seem unrealistic as they closely approach a realistic representation of the human. There was talk this month at SIGGRAPH about Emily, a completely animated character that promises, in the words of creator David Barton, “new levels of believability in computer animation.” From the linked piece in the Daily Mail: To create the footage the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies made a a computer generated replica […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 24, 2008
25 NEW FACES UPDATE #8

M. Dot Strange, writer/director, 2007: Since being the only one hiding his face amongst the 25 I posted my animated feature film We Are the Strange on youtube subtitled in 17 languages where combined it has been viewed over 1.1 million times adding to my international audience. I did an animated music video for the NYC band “Mindless Self Indulgence” for the song “Animal” and it was included with the bands new album “IF” I’m currently completing the animatic for my new animated feature film Heart String Marionette. It is scheduled to be completed in January 2010 with production beginning […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 23, 2008
THE ART OF WALKING

In a Guardian piece titled “Exit Strategies,” Ronald Bergan writes about a seldom-discussed part of moviegoing: walking out. His lede: Though life is too short, it seems to drag on interminably while one is watching a bad film. The moment during a film when I begin to question my very existence is the moment I decide to head for the exit. It is when I abandon any cool critical assessment. All I know is that my senses and intelligence are being abused by the ugly and stupid sights and sounds on the big screen. Bergan doesn’t just write about the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 23, 2008
SECONDING MOMMA’S MAN

Nick Dawson’s Web Exclusive Director’s Interview this week is Azazel Jacobs, whose third feature, Momma’s Man, opens tomorrow. Of the movie, which details a few days in which a young, recent father, Mikey, travels home to his parents (played by Ken and Flo Jacobs, the director’s real-life parents) and is not able to leave, having become entangled in the crosscurrents of nostalgia for his childhood, Dawson wrote: …the film is particularly resonant and moving, as well as being funny and tender, and Ken and Flo Jacobs both give surprising, strong performances, despite never having acted before. But it is ultimately […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 21, 2008
LEARNING FROM MANNY FARBER

In Summer, 2005, the filmmaker Barbara Schock wrote a spirited piece for Filmmaker about studying film with critic and artist Manny Farber, who died on Tuesday. Mirroring Farber’s rapid-fire thinking, Schock makes you feel like you’re in his classroom as she writes about the man, his syllabus, and his teaching style. We’ve posted it in our Web Exclusives. Here’s the intro: The phenomenal painter, teacher and film critic Manny Farber called his film class “A Hard Look at the Movies.” It was the first upper-division college class I took. I’d transferred from a small college in the Midwest to the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 19, 2008
TRAJAN HORSES

A year ago Gary Hustwit came out with Helvetica, showing how the typeface became the ubiquitous graphic signifier for… just about everything in the post-’60s era. Well, everything except one thing. As this web video demonstrates, when it comes to movie marketing, a font called Trajan rules. Watch this great clip for a glimpse at how unimaginative our movie marketing has become. (Hat tip: Ted Hope.)
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 19, 2008
WATCHMEN STUDIO GRUDGE MATCH

Far away from the world of indie film one of the most dramatic show business stories is unfolding. As Nikki Finke and Variety are both reporting, a high-stakes showdown is occurring in court as Fox is suing Warner Brothers over the release of 300 director Zach Snyder’s upcoming The Watchmen. From Dave McNary and Tatiana Siegel’s piece: A judge has denied a Warner Bros. motion to dismiss 20th Century Fox’s lawsuit over Warners’ right to make a film based on the graphic novel Watchmen. Ruling is potentially a huge victory for Fox, which could wind up as a profit participant […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 19, 2008
MANNY FARBER, 1917 – 2008

Celebrated and influential film critic Manny Farber died yesterday at the age of 91. At Movie City Indie Ray Pride has a lovely, well-linked remembrance, which opens like this: Manny Farber, painter, brilliant writer, indelible critic and all-round original whom some aped and few grazed, died in his sleep last night at the age of 91. He had retired from writing and teacher and devoted himself to painting and drawing. To cite Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve, which early Preston Sturges savant Farber would likely not frown upon, “What a life!” Glenn Kenny also has a long piece on […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 18, 2008
METROPOLITAN AND THE DIGITAL RE-RELEASE

I’ve posted before about Chris Anderson’s dictum that everything in the digital world wants to be free. One type of merchandise that may prove Anderson’s theory is independent film hits from the 1980s and ’90s. Whit Stillman and Cinetic Media organized a blogosphere blitz this week with the free streaming release of his 1990 debut feature Metropolitan on Hulu.com. As Cinetic’s Matt Dentler blogs, Stillman did fresh interviews with Karina Longworth at Spout, Eugene Hernandez at Indiewire, and Stephen Saito at Indiewire. Noticing all the commotion, I emailed Dentler and asked him what prompted it. He wrote back, “Cinetic Rights […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 18, 2008

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