Authors — Scott Macaulay

THE FILMMAKER AS FINANCIER

With his various blogs, Sujewa Ekanayake has been a tireless supporter of DIY independent filmmaking. Now, he’s going to put his money where his keyboard has been with a gesture that, if replicated by others, could lead to a new way of financing no-budget films. Two years after the United Nations announced “The Year of Microcredit,” Ekanayake is applying the economic model pioneered by Muhammad Yunus in which tiny loans — microcredit — are offered to unproven entrepreneurs in order to realize their projects to independent moviemaking. From Wikipedia: Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 17, 2007
A WALK IN THE SEA WINS THE TEDDY

Congrats to Esther Robinson (pictured), one of Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces, for winning this year’s Berlin Film Festival Teddy Award with her A Walk in the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory. For more on the film check out Brian Brooks at Indiewire, who has a feature up on Robinson’s doc along with two others: Steven Kijak’s Scott Walker documentary and Rodolphe Marconi’s Lagerfeld Confidential. Check out the Teddy link above for the other awards, which include the Best Narrative Feature Prize to Zero Chou’s Spider Lillies.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 17, 2007
GRINDHOUSE TRAILER ONLINE

Okay, this looks pretty great.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 16, 2007
WHEN A TREE FALLS IN BERLIN

Over at Indiewire, Eugene Hernandez has an excellent report from Berlin on the premiere of Ryan Eslinger’s When a Tree Falls in the Forest. Eslinger, who was one of our 25 New Faces in 2004, is one of the youngest directors to premiere a film in Berlin’s Competition. If you read the industry papers, it’s been a mixed blessing as the film received several negative trade reviews and star Sharon Stone didn’t show for the post-screening Q and A. Hernandez offers a more balanced view, noting fest head Dieter Kosslick’s support for Eslinger and quoting Raj Roy, the American member […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 16, 2007
ZODIAC X NINE

For those of you excited about the March 2 release of David Fincher’s latest, Zodiac, IESB.net has posted nine clips from the film. And, if you haven’t read it yet, check out Jamie Stuart’s “Are We there Yet?”, an article on HD cinematography that talks with d.p. Harris Savides about his work on the film.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 13, 2007
NIGHT AND THE CITY

I was surprised how purely lovely I found Doug Aitken’s Sleepwalkers, currently on display through tomorrow (Monday) night outside the Museum of Modern Art. Using multiple projectors to beam images onto walls and screens affixed outside the museum, Aitken’s public art film has an appealingly simple concept: the synchronous, small-scale moments that echo between a group of otherwise disparate New Yorkers going about their daily lives. With actors like Tilda Swinton, Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power), Seu Jorge and Donald Sutherland and carefully composed images that alternate between shallow focus portraits and geometric abstraction, Aitken’s silent city cinema does what […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 11, 2007
EASY COME, EASY GO?

It’s late at night in Europe, and I’m not quite sure what to make of this article I’ve just read in Variey by William Triplett entitled “IRS strips indie film tax breaks.” The thrust of the article: the IRS has ennacted onerous restrictions on the film financing tax break contained in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. This tax break has incentivized private investors to invest in independent film by allowing them to deduct the full amount of their investment in the first year rather than amortizing it over multiple years. According to the Variety article, the IRS is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 9, 2007
HOOKING UP

Mike Mohan, who some of you may know from his work at the Sundance Institute, is also a director, and he’s just launched a new web series at Atom Films called “Casual Encounters.” It’s a sort of mockumentary spoof on the whole phenomenon of finding a one night stand on internet sites like Craig’s List. Two episodes are already posted, with more promised for the coming weeks. Here’s episode one (and it’s, as they say, NSFW — “not safe for work”).
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 8, 2007
THE YEAR IN SELF-DISTRIBUTION

Over at his Wild Diner Films blog, Sujewa Ekanayake is asking what should be more than a rhetorical question: “So, self-distribution in 2006: how did it go?” He’s requesting that DIY distributing filmmakers share some of their experiences and to start it off, he’s posted the numbers on his own Date Number One.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 8, 2007
UN FILM DE MICHAEL BAY

I’m in Paris for a few days, and there are posters up everywhere for Jonathan Liebesman’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning., but the director’s name can’t be seen on the poster. There is, however, an outside-the-billing-block “Un production de” credit for producer Michael Bay, whose powerful film brand is now validated by this most auteur-centric of film cultures. As recognition, here (via Defamer) is “Bay’s Touch,” a totally nuts tribute to Bay (and be sure to click on the link for the lyrics).
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 7, 2007

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