Authors — Scott Macaulay

STORYBOARDING TARKOVSKY AT THE SUNDANCE LABS

The Sundance Director’s Lab is underway, and one of the participants, John Magary (pictured at right with Sundance Lab advisor Gyula Gazdag), has agreed to blog it for Filmmaker. Here’s the first of his posts. SUNDANCE, EPOCH 1 Day One smelled like chicken. Day Three smells like farts. I’m not talking about the Lab — haven’t gotten there yet. One can be coaxed out of a crippling fear of flying—it is irrational, after all—but heights is another matter. With heights, all you can say is, “Oh, stop being so scared.” (Hot tip: saying things like that to a phobic isn’t […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 8, 2008
SUBMITTING TO HITCHCOCK

A couple of new writers have been added to the Spout Blog, and one, Lauren Wissot, has her first post up today. Wissot is a filmmaker and writer who has written for her own blog, Beyond the Green Door, as well as The House Next Door. Her debut piece for Spout is entitled “Dial S/M for Marnie” and it looks at Hitchcock’s film through the lens of kink: An excerpt: What neither the feminists nor cinephiles seem to appreciate is that Marnie is one of the greatest bondage and discipline (B&D in sadomasochistic parlance) pics of all time. Artfully disguised […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 4, 2008
SAG ‘S INDIE WAIVERS

Michael Fleming and Dave McNary have a piece in Variety on SAG’s granting of waivers to independent productions allowing them to proceed with their shoots undeterred by the possible upcoming strike. From the piece: The stars and studios are nonetheless gearing up for the worst possible scenario. The current number of waivers is triple what SAG had signed three months ago — and an indication there will be a modicum of feature shooting in the coming months. Even if there’s no SAG strike, the major studios will probably need a few months to slot in production starts, so indie projects […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 3, 2008
PARAMOUNT VANTAGE: CONSOLIDATED!

Nikke Finke at her Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting that the marketing, distribution and physical production departments of Paramount Vantage are being folded into its parent company, Paramount. Here’s the official press release: Paramount Pictures and Paramount Vantage today announced the consolidation of its marketing, distribution and physical production departments, which will serve both entities. The merged marketing department will be lead by Gerry Rich (President, Worldwide Motion Picture Marketing). Megan Colligan and Josh Greenstein who were promoted to Co-Presidents of Domestic Marketing, will report to Mr. Rich. The consolidated distribution department will be lead by Jim Tharp (President, Domestic […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 3, 2008
AVOIDING THE INDIES?

A lot of political bloggers (which I’ve been reading to check out the responses to tonight’s amazing but also surreal evening of politics, which included not only the speeches by the three major candidates but also Terry McCauliffe’s bizarre, would-be comedy act on The Daily Show) have been linking to “101 Movies to Avoid Watching Before You Die” on the Crooked Timber site. The point of the post is self-evident; it’s a riff on those lists like The Guardian’s “1000 Films to Watch Before You Die.” And as an independent film champion, I’m startled by a lot of the responses […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 3, 2008
WHERE FILM AND INTERNET COLLIDE (AT THE IFC CENTER)

Thursday, June 5, Filmmaker, the IFC, IndieGoGo and the IFP are hosting an evening at the IFC Center that is part of Internet Week New York. It’s called “Where Film and Internet Collide,” and it’s one of three events going under this name that are dedicated to the merging of filmic and web sensibilities when it comes to creating new work. At the IFC we’ll be screening a number of interesting works created for the web and then will be discussing these works and web production in general with their creators. There will be plenty of time for questions, so […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 3, 2008
SIDNEY POLLACK, 1934 – 2008

Sidney Pollack, director of such films at Tootsie, Out of Africa, Sketches of Frank Gehry, and Three Days of the Condor died today of cancer. He was 73. In addition to directing, Pollack was an active producer (credits include Michael Clayton, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Cold Mountain) as well as an actor, appearing in such films as Eyes Wide Shut, Husbands and Wives, and, recently Clooney’s Michael Clayton. Within the world of big-budget Hollywood moviemaking, Pollack brought intelligence, political awareness, and solid craftsmanship to projects in a variety of genres and subject matters. He was also one of the […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 26, 2008
THE QUESTION OF REALITY

It is a sign of insanity to do the same thing over and over (like make an independent film) and expect different results? At GreenCine, Jonathan Marlowe re-poses the question of the moment in a piece entitled “Studios didn’t build their sales models for you”: Under these circumstances, why are filmmakers still holding out for the legendary promise of a theatrical release? When the likelihood of success for films made on spec (that is, a film made with private money on the hopes of selling it to an established studio or distributor) approaches the same statistics as the chances of […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 26, 2008
BRIAN ENO AND THE NEW FOLK MUSIC

Brian Eno, who just turned 60, is interviewed in Wired, and as part of his long conversation he talks about the changing definition of the artist in the digital/social-networking age. Wired: Much has been made about the way tech (MySpace, digital distribution) has sped up the whole hype/buzz process. Had your career gone from 0 to 160mph the way it could today, how might that have influenced your development as an artist? What effect has Internet technology and culture had on art and artists? Eno: That’s an interesting question. The effect of highly accelerated careers could be this: Ideas are […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 26, 2008
FREE IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR…

If you’re an indie film pontificator who likes to talk about Radiohead’s and NIN’s innovative free pricing models, then you should check out the weekly podcast Econ Talk, which spent an hour with Wired’s Chris Anderson, whose next book is all about the trend towards no-cost goods and services. (This topic was explored by Anderson in a recent Wired cover story. I subscribe to Wired, not because I read it that much, but because it’s only $8, and I get enough out of it to justify that cost. But I didn’t read Anderson’s piece in Wired, although I did listen […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 25, 2008

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