Authors — Scott Macaulay

POST-GAMING THE SPIRIT AWARDS

The cinematic year of the pregnant woman continued as Juno won Best Picture, Best Actress (Ellen Page, pictured), and Best First Screenplay at the Film Independent Spirit Awards this weekend while nominee Angelina Jolie, clad in a tight-fitting black dress, made gossip page news by premiering her own baby bump at the event’s red carpet. The Spirits have always managed the tricky business of blending authentic Hollywood glamour, cheeky awards-show irreverence, and sincere salute to independent film, and this year was no exception. Winners spanned the range from mega-hits like Juno to no-budget indies like Chop Shop, and the crowd […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 24, 2008
WORK STUDY

Interesting trend article by Dan Frost in the New York Times about “co-working,” in which various freelancers all share a common office space while still doing their own projects. From the piece: While coworking has evolved since Mr. Neuberg’s epiphany in 2005, dozens of places around the country and increasingly around the world now offer such arrangements, where someone sets up an office and rents out desks, creating a community of people who have different jobs but who want to share ideas. “It’s nourishing on a fundamental level,” said John Vlahides, the executive editor of 71miles.com, a travel site covering […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 20, 2008
ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET, 1922- 2008

The French writer and film director Alain Robbe-Grillet died on Monday in Normandy at the age of 85. GreenCine has a round-up of various news reports and commentary here. Robbe-Grillet was best known for his literary manifesto “For a New Novel,” his screenplay for Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad, and his various novels — The Erasers, Jealousy, The Voyeur — that formed part of the Nouveau Roman movement. As a director, his films include L’Immortelle and Trans-Europe Express. La Belle Captive was recently released in the States by Koch Lorber. When I was in college, Robbe-Grillet’s early novels and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 18, 2008
OF QUESTIONABLE IMPORT

Over at his Cinema Echo Chamber, Brandon Harris has a go at Richard Corliss’s list for Time Magazine of the “25 Most Important Films about Race.” From Corliss’s intro: To celebrate Black History Month, we’ve chosen 25 movies to honor the artistry, appeal and determination of African Americans on and behind the screen. The films span nine decades, and reveal a legacy that was tragic before it was triumphant. At first, blacks were invisible; when they were allowed to be seen, it was mostly as derisive comic relief. The 1950s ushered in the age of the noble Negro, in the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 17, 2008
ANNE THOMPSON SURVEYS INDIE ONLINE DISTRIBUTION

Anne Thompson writes in Variety this week about the marketing challenge facing indies hoping to distribute their films online. In a piece headlined “Frustrated indies seek we distribution,” Thompson looks at all the unsold films out of Sundance this year and then talks with some of the current players in the online distribution space and wonders whether the needs of the former can be met by the current powers of the latter. A passage: The key question is, when will an alternative distribution outlet for indie films emerge — an outlet that can interest enough viewers to bring in meaningful […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 15, 2008
VALENTINE’S DAY SHORTS

Since this seems to have been a blog day of embeds and videos, I’ll add one more: this link to Kate Stables’ piece in The Guardian providing links to six online videos all themed for Valentine’s Day. There’s work by Duane Hopkins, Anastasia Kirillova and others, and you’ll find the sweet and romantic as well as the brooding and unexpected. (Hat tip: GreenCine.)
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 14, 2008
THE GREEN STUFF

Here’s the new red-band trailer for David Gordon Green’s Judd-Apatow-produced comedy Pineapple Express.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 14, 2008
VALENTINE’S DAY AT THE HOME

Sent “in the spirit of Valentine’s Day,” Filmmaker 2007 25 New Face filmmakers Brian Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky passed along this excerpt from The Patron Saints, their doc-in-progress about “faith, uncertainty and sainthood.” For more about their work and their project, visit their blog, Pigeon Droppings and their company website, Pigeon Projects.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 14, 2008
JONZE AND KANYE

Here’s “Flashing Lights,” a strange and violent video for the Kanye West song directed by West and Spike Jonze.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 14, 2008
BAD DATE

Ninety-nine percent of interviews with directors and cast members about working on a film fall into the “everyone was so wonderful, it was like a family, I had such a great time” mold. But the opposite can sometimes be a better sell, or, at least, can more effectively cut through marketplace noise. And sometimes filmmakers don’t have a choice — if they want to promote a film that seems like it’s in trouble, they’ve got to spill the beans about what went wrong. A case in point is this article by Missy Schwartz in Entertainment Weekly about the straight-to-video release […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 13, 2008

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