Authors — Scott Macaulay

MOTHERS AND KIND WORDS

Thanks to the folks over at Screengrab for the nice words about the new issue of Filmmaker. (And also for catching our over use of the phrase “a perfect storm” twice in one issue — honestly, we didn’t know it was going to be the title of George Tenet’s book.) There’s a bunch of good stuff over at Screengrab, including, for Mother’s Day, their list of the worst movie mothers in film history. Click on the link above to check it out.
by Scott Macaulay on May 13, 2007
RED ON RED

Actress Evan Rachel Wood seems to be the go-to-girl for ambitious music videomakers. First there was her starring role in Green Day’s anti-war “Wake Me Up when September Ends” video: And now she joins reported new b.f. Marilyn Manson in “Heart Shaped Glasses,” an NSFW homage to David Lynch (plenty of red curtains), David Cronenberg and, perhaps, Hermann Nitsch. (Oh yeah, if you’re under 16 you’re not supposed to watch this.)
by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2007
THE WRITING ON THE WALL

Below I blogged about the L.A. Weekly piece, “Double Cross at the WGA,” which was an explosive account of the Writer’s Guild of America’s policy of collecting and not always paying foreign levies on behalf of member and non-member writers. It’s a complicated story but well worth following for several reasons, not the least of which is what it says about our current and possibly future system of copyright. Now there’s more on the story. Stefan Avalos has written a long and nuanced piece about the scandal at Fade In Online. (The story begins on the website’s front page and […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2007
TIME REGAINED

If you’re in New York you’ve got a few days left to catch Guy Maddin’s Brand upon the Brain, the director’s spectacular staging of his latest movie with a live chamber orchestra, castrato, three live foley artists and an assortment of guest narrators like Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and Isabella Rossellini. Like all of Maddin’s work, the film immerses itself in the poetics of early cinema, applying the style this time to a storyline that seems a mix of Dickens and gothic horror. But what makes it a must-see is its rare event quality. When the musicians start, the foley […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2007
A GENIUS LEDE

Until such time as The Day the Clown Cried sees the light of day, we might just have to settle for… Georgia Rule.. Here’s John Anderson’s genius lede to his Variety review: No offense to either of them, but Georgia Rule suggests an Ingmar Bergman script as directed by Jerry Lewis. The subject matter is grim, the relationships are gnarled, the worldview is bleak, and, at any given moment, you suspect someone’s going to be hit with a pie.
by Scott Macaulay on May 8, 2007
COMEDIC CAMERA

Over at David Bordwell’s Website on Cinema, Bordwell has one of his great screen-grab filled comparative film essays, this time on the relationship between film framing and humor. “Can a shot be amusing in itself?” asks Bordwell before going on to talk about Tati, Barry Sonenfeld, and a sequence from Shaun of the Dead that features the two shots below: Writes Bordwell of the scene in which two groups of survivors meet in zombie-filled London, “The gag’s premise is that each survivor has a counterpart in the other line. There are two posers in brown leather jackets, two can-do girls, […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2007
THE WGA AND THE MORAL (AND FINANCIAL) RIGHTS OF THE AUTHOR

It’s long, detailed and a must-read — Dennis McDougal’s piece in the L.A. Weekly, “Double Cross at the WGA,” on the guild’s collecting and non-payment of monies issued to member and non-member writers by foreign rights societies. The piece springboards off a class-action lawsuit filed by writer William Richert (Winter Kills) against the WGA as well as whistleblower activity by a now-terminated guild administrator into a discussion of American copyright law, studio business practices and the U.S.’s complicated relationship to the Berne Convention, the international copyright agreement spearheaded by author Victor Hugo. The upshot? If you wrote a screenplay for […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2007
THE VAST RIGHT-WING BLOGOSPHERE

Via Talking Points Memo comes news of Qube, the right-wing answer to the lefty, politically correct, and conservative censoring website that is… YouTube? From their front page mission statement: Bit by bit the site is coming together. Building QubeTV in the public eye has been a both a joy and a challenge, a real chance to bring the American conservative movement together in one place – with all of you watching! Coming next: a continuation of the ongoing (and not always visible to the eye) tech improvements such as embeds and (duh!) categories, the simple basics we know you are […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 5, 2007
ORPHANS SCREENS IN MEMORY OF LILY WHEELWRIGHT

Sad news that arrived shortly after this year’s SXSW Film Festival was the sudden death of actress Lily Wheelwright, who starred in Ry Russo-Young’s Orphans. Wheelwright gave a tough and honest performance in the film, which won a Special Jury Prize at the fest. Here’s what writer/director Andrew Bujalski had to say about the movie: “A sensitive & peculiar pastoral, Orphans manages to derive as much compelling energy from its locations & spaces (of the wide open & claustrophobic variety alike) as from its two terrific lead actresses, a rarity these digital days. The film will receive a special screening […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 28, 2007
HERE’S TALKING TO YOU

Over at The Street.com, Jonathan Blum goes to NAB to discover “the future of media.” He lists three developments. The first, that Apple with its Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio is turning amateur filmmakers into pro-quality producers, is not so new and interesting. The second, that local broadcast television will be feeding itself to your cell phone in about a year’s time, is a little bit more newsworthy. But the third, dealing with HD radio, told me something I didn’t know. He says to forget all the news about XM and Sirius and to concentrate on the untapped […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 27, 2007

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