Authors — Scott Macaulay

SUNDANCE ANNOUNCES CREATIVE PRODUCING INITIATIVE

At a lunch here at the Kimball Art Center at the base of Main Street, the Sundance Institute announced their new “Creative Producing Initiative” today. “To work effectively with filmmakers, producers need an opportunity to develop their own skills and voices. The Creative Producing Initiative is designed to develop a producer’s creative instincts in the scripting and editing stages and to evolve their communication and problem-solving skills at all stages of realizing a project,” said Michelle Satter, Director, Sundance Institute Feature Film Program. Producer Paul Mezey (Sugar, Maria Full of Grace) gave the keynote speech, and he pledged his support […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2008
THE GOOD BUZZ…

Before arriving at Sundance, if people asked what I thought the business climate was going to be, I told them that if they had a film with name cast and genre hooks enabling it to be sold as something other than a speciality film that the bidding would be strong. Traditional “small” speciality films might have a harder time given the poor theatrical performance of last year’s Sundance titles. So far, I don’t think my prediction is far off, although it’s too early to tell how strong the bidding will be for the larger titles. One industry vet told me […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 20, 2008
SUNDANCE FROM THE INSIDE

Over at the Film in Focus site, filmmaker Craig Zobel gives us five tips for making it through Sundance alive. I’m going to meditate on his tip number three — “Don’t Get All Stress Out Over the Parties” — rather than stewing over the invites I didn’t get. From Zobel: If you haven’t heard, the nightly parties at Sundance are real hard to get into. Even the fancy/rich/important have to stand in line sometimes. (For, like, two minutes. But still.) Let me go ahead and tell you what you are missing. A chocolate fondue fountain that has white chocolate on […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2008
THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUNDANCE…

was seen at last night’s black-out on Main Street. Over at Movie City Indie, Ray Pride has photographic documentation, like the picture of his I am posting here.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2008
THE BUDDY SYSTEM

Filmmakers Joe Swanberg and Ronnie Bronstein are videoblogging Sundance for Spout. Here’s episode four, in which they wonder where all the filmmakers are. Sundance 4: Melee on Main StreetAdd to My Profile | More Videos
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2008
BLUNT FORCE

I ran into producer Mike Ryan, whose Choke is screening here at Sundance, and he told me about a new website he’s involved with. Hammer to Nail has just launched, with Ryan and, soon, Mike Tully filing film reviews from Sundance — reviews that are intended to be provocative conversation-starters that eschew the niceties that sometimes inhibit writing from not only the MSM but also the blogosphere. (Last year, Ryan forwarded me at Sundance his politically-outraged comments about Grace is Gone, which I posted on the blog.) He launches the new site with a review of the Sundance doc The […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 19, 2008
DECONSTRUCTING THE DGA DEAL

The Directors Guild of America has reached a tentative deal with the AMPTP, and now its time to weigh in on it. However, coming as it did on the eve of Sundance, much of the working film industry press is a bit distracted. Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes have a solid article in today’s New York Times, in which they outline how the DGA’s different negotiating philosophy and lengthy pre-negotiation back channel conversations led to a quick deal. Over at the Working Life blog, labor activist and former Senatorial candidate Jonathan Tasini is doing the math, reviewing the deal point […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2008
SLAMDANCE DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER INTERVIEWS: STEVE CLARK, MIKE LANDRY, AND CARLOS VELASQUEZ, FROST

Sat, Jan 19th, 8:30pmWed, Jan 23rd, 10am Interview by Brandon Harris Jack Frost’s playboy lifestyle in New York City is rocked by the news that his childhood love is engaged. Jack plunges into whiskey and self-destruction. until his eleven-year-old neighbor, Sophie, an unlikely mother figure, leads Jack back into himself, and out of the nostalgia and excess that consumed him. Interview with Steve Clark Where were you when you heard you’d been accepted to Slamdance and how did you react?I was in my apartment in NYC about to take a shower, when I picked up the phone, and one of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2008
SLAMDANCE DIRECTOR INTERVIEW: EVA WEBER, CITY OF CRANES

Fri, Jan 18th 4:30pmTues, Jan 22nd, 7pm Interview by Brandon Harris Eva Weber’s doc short City of Cranes takes you on a journey high up in the sky, to look at London’s ever-changing landscape through the eyes and words of crane drivers. It is a glimpse into a world unnoticed by most of us, yet fundamental to our lives. What initially drew you to the world of cranes?I started making this film as I was fascinated by the fact that there is almost another world above London; yet most of us never look up to notice cranes or their drivers. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2008
SLAMDANCE DIRECTOR INTERVIEW: CYNTHIA LESTER, MY MOTHER’S GARDEN

Interview by Brandon Harris As Sundance begins this weekend, the world of independent cinema once again turns its attention to this snowy resort town thirty miles outside of Salt Lake. Yet, since 1995, Sundance hasn’t been the only act in town. The 2008 Slamdance Film Festival begins today at Park City’s Treasure Mountain Inn, opening with Randall Cole’s Real Time, a brisk indie comedy starring Randy Quaid. As a brief snapshot of some of the 29 features and 67 shorts that Slamdance will screen in the next nine days, I caught up with thirteen Slamdance Filmmakers to discuss their films […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2008

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