Authors — Scott Macaulay

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
LATE BLOGGING

Like I said, I’m behind in my blogging (and a little annoyed to be sitting here realizing that now “blogging” is yet another thing I can be late in doing), so here’s a quick round-up of some links I had meant to blog about on time. The Writers Strike. The WGA strike is the story of the moment, not least because of the obvious possibility that the finances of scores of entertainment industry workers could be severely impacted in the weeks ahead. But the strike is also forcing to the forefront complicated issues involving the future of digital delivery and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 6, 2007
LOVING THE LIGHT

I’m a bit behind in my blogging and web coolhunting, so I missed this gorgeous short film Wong Kar-Wai made to promote the new Philips Aurea television. In case you missed it too you can see it on the Philips Aurea site, Seduced by Light or via YouTube, below.
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 5, 2007
LOOKS LIKE A STRIKE…

Unless the latest round of dueling press releases between the AMPTP and the WGA represents a last spasm of contentiousness before a final reconciliation, which I really doubt, it looks like the WGA could be striking by the end of the week or Monday. (The WGA agreement expires at midnight tonight, but it originally looked like writers would work while negotiations continued post-expiration.) On her Deadline Hollywood Daily Nikkie Finke posts a statement issued by AMPTP President Nick Counter. (He’s the guy repping the studios and producers). In it, Counter says not only that the WGA-desired revision of the DVD […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 31, 2007

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