Authors — Scott Macaulay

DISCUSSING STORY AT THE TED CONFERENCE

When Filmmaker starts pulling in the big bucks, I’m going to demand that the magazine send me to the TED conference each year. The high-level conference acts as a platform and networking group for transformative ideas about technology, politics, social change, and the arts. The 2008 edition is in progress right now in Monterey, California, and news of the event can be found across the web. Steven Levy at Newsweek has this intro in which he talks about how the conference has changed over the years. Another distinguishing characteristic of TED is its tilt away from a classical tech conference […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 1, 2008
EDISON CHEN SCANDAL PART 2

After I posted links to various summaries of the Edison Chen nude picture scandal, a flurry of new news appeared online. Last week the actor held a press conference in Hong Kong where he stated that “society as a whole has been affected” by the scandal, apologized to “all the ladies and all their families,” and announced his indefinite hiatus from the film business: It seems that Chen has now left Hong Kong for the States where he will lay low… at NYU Film School? Meanwhile, Radar Online aggregates some of the latest developments, including the theory that Chen leaked […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 29, 2008
GREAT BUT PROBABLY QUITE IMPRACTICAL HORROR FILM LOCATION #1

From Fogonazos: Kolmanskop is a ghost town in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of Lüderitz. In 1908, Luederitz was plunged into diamond fever and people rushed into the Namib desert hoping to make an easy fortune. Within two years, a town, complete with a casino, school, hospital and exclusive residential buildings, was established in the barren sandy desert. But shortly after the drop in diamond sales after the First World War, the beginning of the end started. During the 1950’s the town was deserted and the dunes began to reclaim what was always theirs. Soon the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 27, 2008
DAVID FINCHER AND SPIKE JONZE PRESENT…

… is the very eye-catching come-on for the theatrical release of Tarsem’s long awaited, long in production second feature, The Fall. Previously Tarsem directed the underrated The Cell as well as some classic music videos, including R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” Here’s the trailer.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 26, 2008
STRANGE ADVICE

Over at The Workbook Project, M. Dot Strange offers the case study of his film We Are the Strange that he prepared for the Berlin Talent Campus. Here’s his intro: This was part of a presentation called “Adventures in self distribution” I describe the journey I took with my animated feature film “We are the Strange” From my bedroom to Sundance and beyond and back to my little studio again after turning down Hollywood deals and deciding to self distribute and make my films my way. And here’s the embed: M dot Strange: Berlin Talent Campus 08 from M dot […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 26, 2008
WHY NO BRAD RENFRO ON THE OSCAR TRIBUTE?

Us Magazine has a piece on their website about why Brad Renfro didn’t appear in the Oscar tribute last night to those who passed away in the preceding year. For the record, an Academy spokesperson chalks it up to “an editing decision.” There’s an active comment section following the article and most are outraged that the talented actor, who died of a heroin overdose on January 15 and who spent half his life working in the movies, wasn’t included.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2008
BROKEN?

The filmmakers behind From Here to Awesome have made this short video entitled “Why Film Festivals Don’t Work” to explain the thinking behind their new festival, which you can read more about at the link above. submit films | watch films | learn to make films | fest news | fest stream
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2008
DAWSON TALKS WITH CHOP SHOP’s RAMIN BAHRANI…

.. over at the Director Interviews. An excerpt: Filmmaker: What was the process of casting like? It seems that who was playing the roles was integral to the movie’s success. Bahrani: I learned on Push Cart that the biggest job in learning to work with the actors is casting. We were relentless on the casting: we looked for months for the kids, we saw probably 2-3,000 kids, I put 625 interviews on tape. Usually the first step is Q&A: “Who are you? Where are you from?” After you get them comfortable and you get them talking, you start asking things […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2008
INTERVIEWING THE OSCAR WINNERS

I’m not much on post-Oscar pontificating — there are plenty of others who do it much better than me. But, the show did seem awfully low-key this year. I guess the writer’s strike necessitated a slimmed down show overloaded with film clips and tributes. Anyway, I was happy to have interviewed three of the Oscar winners. For Filmmaker I interviewed Best Actress winner Marion Cotillard and the director of the Best Documentary, Alex Gibney. And for the FilmInFocus site I interviewed the winner of the Best Score Oscar for Atonement, Dario Marianelli. Also, here’s Lisa Garibay, who interviewed Best Original […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 24, 2008
THE EDISON CHEN SCANDAL

I try to keep up with celebrity scandal just as much as the next guy, so I was taken aback at the Spirit Award after party when a producer friend said, shocked, “You haven’t heard about Edison Chen?” No, actually, I hadn’t, but a few moments later, after he gave me an excited outline of the salient points, I had. In short, while Western audiences have been crashing the New York magazine website to see the Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn shots, audiences in Hong Kong and throughout Asia have been riveted by an internet scandal featuring hardcore sex photos of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 24, 2008

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