Authors — Scott Macaulay

OFFENSIVE PLASTIC-NESS

A few years ago producer Ted Hope was at the forefront of the indie campaign against the major studios’ “screener policy” — the edict that specialty film companies could not use mailed promotional screeners in their Academy campaigns. Hope, along with producer Jeff Levy-Hinte and a group of allied production companies, won a court battle and the studio policy was reversed. Now, Hope has emailed about another issue concerning screeners — specifically, their impact on the environment. While other parts of the industry are going green, the mailed output of two companies in particular are not. From Ted Hope: After […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 28, 2007
CHEAT SHEET

When I was a kid I remember going to see Apocalypse Now at D.C.’s incredible Uptown theater and being handled a program when I entered. It was a black-and-white book, about sixteen pages, with stills from the film and commentary about it. It was a cool thing to get at a movie and I still have it. So it was interesting to read over at Ray Pride’s Movie City Indie that the Weinstein Company are doing something similar for the release of Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There. Pride quotes the press release: The Weinstein Company is pleased to announce that […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2007
WEEKEND LINK CATCH-UP

Here’s a collection of links to some things I’ve found interesting in the last week but which, because of the holiday, I wasn’t able to post here as their own separate entries. Filmmaker AJ Schnack has written an excellent post on the yearly disappointment that is the Academy Award doc shortlist. (For the complete list, click here). Typically, the Academy overlooked the most artistically risk-taking films, movies like Manda Bala and Billy the Kid, and went, mostly, for worthy films dealing with serious subjects that also happened to subscribe to long accepted methods of documentary practice. (Nominees included such strong […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 25, 2007
THE RULE OF TROIS

The Financial Times reports on a new anti-piracy and filesharing proposal being endorsed by President Nicholas Sarkozy. An excerpt from the piece by Ben Hall: Internet users in France who download music and films without paying for them could find their web access shut down by a government body, under a ground-breaking industry agreement backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy. The plan, which Mr Sarkozy is to endorse in a speech on Friday, will put France at the forefront of the battle against internet piracy with a three-strikes-and-you-are-out policy against repeat offenders. The proposed enforcement body would use information collected by […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 23, 2007
HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Everyone here at Filmmaker wishes our readers a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Thanks for reading us this past year and see you after the holiday.
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 22, 2007
WHAT WAS THE TREND AT THE AFM?

According to Mike Jones at Variety‘s “The Circuit,”, it was animals engaging in inappropriate behavior. Click on the link to find Mike’s first videoblog, a report from the halls of the recent American Film Market in Santa Monica.
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 18, 2007
Strikeblogging #1: "A $100 million Dogma ’95 Film"

If you’ve been following the WGA strike, you’ve probably realized that a lot of people on the WGA side are blogging it. There is, of course, United Hollywood, a blog that reports from the WGA side. But there are also several blogs run by active screenwriters. One is John August’s blog where the veteran screenwriter (Go, Big Fish, Charlies Angels) is offering a very personal view of life on the picket line. His daily reports are full of humor, well-crafted observation, and even bits of industry news. Here’s an excerpt of his November 15 entry in which he describes meeting […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 16, 2007
SWANBERG LAUNCHES BUTTERKNIFE

If you’ve attended a screening of Frownland (and a couple are coming up this week at MOMA), then you know that writer/director Ronnie Bronstein does a mean Q&A. Hannah Takes the Stairs director Joe Swanberg realized this too and cast Bronstein as the private investigator protagonist of his new web series, Butterknife. It’s being presented by Spout, and there’s a blog and trailer up now. (The series launches in January.) Here’s how Spout describes the project: Forced to deal with the ugly side of people and relationships all day, an unnamed private investigator can’t wait to get home and hang […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 15, 2007
FOLLOW THE MONEY

At her Deadline Hollywood Daily, Nikke Finke says “everyone in Hollywood is talking about” this YouTube video put together by the folks at United Hollywood.
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 13, 2007
HOLLYWOOD 3.0

In a post entitled ‘Rebuilding Hollywood in Silicon Valley’s Image,” Netscape founder Marc Andreessen wonders whether the current WGA strike will alienate the current television viewing audience and hasten their flight towards new forms of mostly internet-distributed entertainment. (Thanks to Ted Hope for the link.) From the piece: I think the TV and movie industry is at a turning point where things could go either way — they could repeat the critical error of the music industry and permanently alienate their customer base; or they could get it together and create viable models for the future that make consumers happy […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 12, 2007

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