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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, 2008Us 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, 2008The 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.. 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, 2008I’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, 2008I 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, 2008The 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, 2008Interesting 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, 2008The 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, 2008Over 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