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This piece by Karina Longworth discussing a panel discussion at Telluride on the crisis in independent film is essential reading. Ann Thompson, director Danny Boyle, distributor Michael Barker, critic and professor Annette Insdorf and writer/director Paul Schrader all talk about changing models and whether or not independent film as we know it is dead. There’s a lot of great stuff here, but these words by Schrader are choice, and they echo the comments I far less eloquently tried to advance in the Filmmaker magazine panel discussion that we recorded for the next issue. From the piece: “Technology is leaving behind […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 3, 2008In Variety, Ali jafaar reports on a new production company poised to pump a billion dollars into film production. From the piece: Abu Dhabi has set its sights on joining the big leagues of pic production. The Abu Dhabi Media Co., which oversees the emirate’s film, TV and radio outlets, is launching a production shingle with $1 billion to spend on developing, financing and producing feature films over the next five years. Company dubbed Imagenation Abu Dhabi, which will also oversee Abu Dhabi’s existing $1 billion production fund with Warner Bros., has a mandate to produce eight features a year […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 2, 2008At his blog John August announces the arrival of Scrippets, a WordPress plug-in that allows for easy script formatting within blogs. Check it out. (Hat tip: Noah Harlan.)
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 2, 2008In the last weekly newsletter I wrote the following: Last week Filmmaker gathered a small group of producers, sales reps and a distributor to talk about what some are calling a crisis in the funding and distribution of independent film. Our panel mixed generations, comprising veterans who remember independent film in the ’70s and ’80s as well as relative newcomers who have begun producing in the post-Pulp Fiction/Blair Witch era. I won’t go into all the details of our conversation here because the comments will run as a roundtable discussion in the next issue of Filmmaker. One thing was clear, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 1, 2008As we enter a lazy Labor Day news cycle, Anne Thompson picks up on her Variety blog the press release that THINKfilm CEO Mark Urman is leaving the troubled distributor and will join Senator Entertainment as the head of its new theatrical distribution company. Here’s the press release: Effective October 1, veteran film industry executive Mark Urman will join Marco Weber’s Senator Entertainment US as president of his newly formed distribution company. The teaming with Urman follows Weber’s recent acquisition of all shares in U.S.-based Senator Entertainment Inc. in order to focus solely on the production of English language films […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 29, 2008During this election season I recommend taking a break from the cable talking heads and reviewing some of the independent media that has been produced over the last couple of years about American foreign policy. One of the best documentaries is Charles Ferguson’s Academy Award-nominated No End in Sight. As Ray Pride report at Movie City Indie, Ferguson is streaming the film free on YouTube. Pride reports: No End in Sight is being made available free to the public to reveal the facts about the Bush Administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq to voters concerned with the issues of national […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 28, 2008I like Aaron Sorkin, but I don’t know what to make of the fact that he’s so loudly publicizing the fact that he knows so little about the online world he’ll be writing about in his Scott Rudin-commissioned script on Facebook. I’ve listened to interviews with Sorkin before in which he’s talked about capturing the rhythms of intelligent speech and about how one doesn’t have to know all the details of a character’s profession in order to write that character. And yes, often an outsider’s eye can be the best when it comes to entering into a world and finding […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 28, 2008Everyone’s talking about small screens — what it’s like to watch movies on mobile devices like cell phones and iPods. Mark Cuban’s musings about the Olympics and The Dark Knight, however, lead him in the opposite direction: Of course it would also not be a stretch to place the biggest screens in existence in open air locations where huge gatherings and related events can take place. Would families pay 50 bucks for a day of Olympics fun outside on 100 acres? Olympicsalooza anyone ? Why should it be any different than all the events that take place SuperBowl, or NBA […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2008A couple of weeks after organizations for the disabled attacked Tropic Thunder for an epithet used in the movie, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is objecting to the title of Alan Ball’s new film, Towelhead, which opens next month. But Eric D. Snider at Cinematical argues that the film’s title shouldn’t be considered offensive as it can’t be separated from the intentions of the film itself: I think CAIR’s objections could be remedied by simply watching the movie. Over the course of it, the girl (played amazingly by Summer Bishil) comes to feel empowered and confident in who she is. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2008Declining box-office… shuttered indie arms… busted distribution windows… the credit crunch… bankrupt distributors… creative malaise — they are all cited by Dade Hayes and Pamela McClintock in Variety as the reasons for indie film’s “dismal year.” A key graph summarizes the debate that many in this business are engaged in right now: The bottom line is that it’s a changing world — and it might be something cyclical, or things may have changed permanently. The matrix of different ancillaries — which has expanded radically from the early video days to include VOD, Web downloads, airlines, music and merchandise — puts […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2008