Authors — Scott Macaulay

WILL FILM FOR FOOD

Ed M. Koziarski in the Chicago Reader posts a piece about mumblecore auteur Joe Swanberg in the months following his breakthrough film Hannah Takes the Stairs. He goes with the hook of Swanberg still struggling financially despite his mini-stardom (“It hasn’t changed my life at all,” Swanberg says. “I’m still sitting in Chicago wondering how I’m going to buy groceries. I’m not getting phone calls from agents or studios saying, ‘What are you up to?’”), but there are other observations in the piece worth noting. Like this one: Hannah Takes the Stairs grossed a respectable $6,000 on one screen its […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 18, 2007
STRIKE TO THE DEATH!

As the Wall Street Journal pointed out recently, if you want to know what’s going on with the possible Writers Guild of America strike, check out The Artful Writer, the blog published by screenwriters Craig Mazin (Scary Movie 3) and Ted Elliott (Shrek). It’s a great blog with information for writers not just on the strike but also on copyright law, the WGA Minimum Basic Agreement, and lot of other news and info. And it’s most likely seen its traffic spike as the October 30 strike deadline looms. Mazin has been posting a blow-by-blow of the negotiations that’s relatively even-handed. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 15, 2007
A DOCUMENTARY CHORUS

Josh Welsh over at Film Independent forwarded me this info about a cool new documentary project that’s unfolding on YouTube. Two filmmakers, Eric Byler and Annabel Park, are making a film about the politics of immigration in Northern Virginia. They are posting short clips of their film on a channel they have set up on the site and are soliciting viewer feedback about the future direction of the project. “We will respond to viewer feedback, including requests for more coverage on certain storylines, contextual clarifications, and even perhaps on-site production excursions,” the filmmakers write on their YouTube page. Here’s a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 13, 2007
THE ONION TAKES ON INDIE FILM

An independent filmmaker in post on his new feature forwarded me this link to the satirical weekly The Onion and this story: “Independent Film Made by Dependent 27-Year-Old.” “Hit a little too close to home on this one,” he wrote in his email. Here’s the lede: Independent filmmaker Craig Rivers, still financially dependent on his parents at 27, announced Monday the completion of his feature-length debut, the locally produced, parentally financed Far Above The Jiffy Lube, The Stars Of Phoenix Shine. Shot on a tight budget of $75,000 of Marv and Elaine Rivers’ money, the film chronicles the lives and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 11, 2007
MORE ON REDACTED AND THE NYFF

Jurgen Fauth posted in the comment section of the post below about the dust-up at the NYFF press conference over Brian DePalma’s Redacted and the black bars that now appear over the film’s final images. He links to his own blog, which has both a video clip of DePalma at the conference as well as a detailed description of what happened, which I’ll quote here: When selection committee member J. Hoberman asked about the black bars that now cover some of the photographs at the conclusion of the film, Palma didn’t pull any punches, either: Redacted is now itself redacted,” […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 9, 2007
DE PALMA SHOUT OUT

Jamie Stuart attended the NYFF press conference for Redacted this morning and emailed his take on the squabble at the press conference afterwards: In the middle of Brian De Palma’s NYFF pc for Redacted earlier today, as he began discussing the film’s use of actual war photographs and their graphic nature, Eammon Bowles from Magnolia began shouting from the rear of the Walter Reade theater to refute De Palma’s claims that Mark Cuban was trying to…well…redact them from the picture’s release. Then, just as the pc was coming to a close, producer Jason Kliot rushed the stage and grabbed moderator […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 8, 2007
LYNCH + BLONDIE = GUCCI

Or, view it here at the Gucci site and check out the related content, including the behind-the-scenes.
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 1, 2007
ANY COLOR YOU LIKE

You don’t have to be a massive Radiohead fan (like me) to be interested in the sudden and unexpected news today about the release of their new album, In Rainbows. (Thanks, Pitchfork, for the heads up.) With this new release the band is busting the music retailing paradigm in ways that filmmakers might think about as well. The Radiohead site, linked above, allows you to buy the album, but it’s a bit, uh, mysterious, so you may as well get all the details from the Pitchfork link. But, here’s a synopsis of what Radiohead is doing that’s different: 1. The […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 1, 2007
JAMIE STUART. NYFF. 45

Filmmaker is very happy to be sponsoring gumshoe director/journalist Jamie Stuart’s annual take on the New York Film Festival this year. Here’s his first piece: Stuart… with music; Schwartzman… without mustache; Anderson… sans sous-titres. Click here and enjoy.
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 30, 2007
LET THERE BE LUMIERE

Over at Videoblogging, anyone with a camera is invited to subscribe to the Lumiere Manifesto and create one-minute works in the tradition of the turn-of-the-twentieth-century French filmmaking brothers. They’ve fashioned their call into a Dogma 95-ish Manifesto that dictates how such minute-long pieces must be conceived and shot. (Hat tips: Warren Ellis and Boing Boing) Here’s are excerpts from the Manifesto that argue for the validity of this homage in today’s times: We believe instead that everyday video brings together a collective consciousness and experience through which we all come to view a universal existence and see “light” in the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 29, 2007

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