Authors — Scott Macaulay

WHAT’S IN A WORD?

The mumblecore-haters may be out in force these days but, hey, it’s not like they got a word into the New Oxford American Dictionary. As reported on the Oxford University Press blog, “mumblecore” is a runner-up 2007 “word of the year.” The OAD defines mumblecore as: “an independent film movement featuring low-budget production, non-professional actors, and largely improvised dialogue.” As a word, mumblecore faced stiffed competition. Some of its challengers included “upcycling” (“the transformation of waste materials into something more useful or valuable”); “previvor” (” a person who has not been diagnosed with a form of cancer but has survived […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 12, 2007
ANOTHER WORLD

Because it’s laid out at the bottom of the home page, you may have missed Rak Razam’s interview with French director Jan Kounen. Razam’s was a fascinating over-the-transom submission that explains what the talented Gallic director has been up to the last few years. I first came across Kounen’s filmmaking many years ago when I saw his short Vibraboy. A friend and aesthetic colleague of directors like Gaspar Noe and Marc Caro, Kounen attracted international buzz with the film and then went on to make a hyperviolent and stylish crime movie, Dobermann, that starred Vincent Cassell and Monica Bellucci. The […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 12, 2007
TRACEY IN SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS

Bruce McDonald’s new film The Tracey Fragments played at the AFI Fest this week, but if you missed it, don’t worry — you can make your own version of the film. The film stars Ellen Page and is described as “a 21st century Catcher in the Rye told in a dizzying pop-art fashion.” The film is also edited in a multi-frame format, and the filmmakers have employed this aesthetic concept coupled with open-source generosity to come up with a unique promotional tool. As one of the three editors of the film, Matt Hannam, wrote in an email, “As the movie […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 11, 2007
GROSS OUT!

Arriving at the start of the second week of the Writer’s Strike is a research report by Global Media Intelligence entitled “Do the Movies Make Money”” Their answer? No. As reported in the International Herald Tribune by Michael Cieply, Global Media Intelligence, which is a partner of Merrill Lynch, examined the revenue from all films distributed by the six major studios, Dreamworks, and the studio specialty divisions and reported that the film business overall runs at a loss. (They report last year’s loss at $1.9 billion against $25.6 billion in revenue). What’s the reason? High guild residuals? No. The report […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 11, 2007
ROUGH CUT LAB GROUP BLOG

Over at Lance Weiler’s Workbook Project, there’s a newly launched group blog authored by the participant’s in this year’s IFP Rough Cut Lab. The ’07 class is a fantastic group of filmmakers and the challenges they face as they complete their films are ones that any working filmmaker will empathize with. Click on the link above and read what they have to say.
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 8, 2007
PORN IN THE FOX HOUSE

Robert Greenwald’s latest missive against Fox News — for the wanton “pornification” of its news programs — is both hilarious and weirdly disturbing. In this short video he skips through their various news shows and finds strippers, spring-break’ed co-ed’s and, as Bill O’Reilly might say, lingerie action. It’s all part of Fox Attacks, a group advocating a consumer’s right to boycott the conservative cable channel by de-bundling it from his or her cable package. (Hat tip: Talking Points Memo.)
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 8, 2007
VINCENT GALLO AND ERIC ERLANDSON’S NEW MUSIC

Filmgoers of course know Vincent Gallo from his features The Brown Bunny and Buffalo 66, but he’s also an accomplished painter and musician. Today, Pitchfork reports on Gallo’s latest, RRIICCEE, a new music group featuring him and Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson. The group will go on tour next month. RRIICCEE has a website that is promising more details soon, and Gallo had the following words in a press release: “Improvisation is not a good word for what we’re doing. It’s more a gesture of composing and performing at the same time, always hoping to avoid musical cliché or jamming. We’ve […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 7, 2007
MUMBLED OUT

Over at Film Comment, critic Amy Taubin visits the mumblecore party and finds that the keg has run dry. “Adieu, mumblecore, the indie movement that never was more than a flurry of festival hype and blogosphere branding,” she opens (and summarizes) with in a piece that challenges the proposition that these largely no-budget, DIY films constitute a valid aesthetic movement. Is that, however, a sufficient basis for a film movement? Obviously not in the grand sense of the French New Wave or the postwar American avant-garde. At most, one might think of mumblecore as an update of the “New Talkie,” […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 7, 2007
BEST THEATER-LESS FILM ARRIVES IN THEATERS

Steve Barron’s Choking Man, which won the Filmmaker-sponsored “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” Gotham Award last year, is finally — and thankfully — in theaters. It opens this Friday at the Cinema Village and we highly recommend it. If you don’t know much about it, elsewhere on this site Nick Dawson interviews Steve Barron, the writer/director. Over at The Reeler, Stu Van Airsdale has a great feature up in which he talks with Barron and sorts through the film’s odd but ultimately touching mixture of social and magic realism. Go see it — and, if you’re […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 7, 2007
THE OFFICE IS CLOSED

The writing staff of The Office shot on the picket line this informative and funny YouTube piece explaining why they’re part of the WGA strike.
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 7, 2007

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