Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Watch: Don’t Touch Your Face, Directed by Leah Shore, Music by Gina Volpe
It’s hard not to touch your face — something I, and many of you, have undoubtedly learned in recent weeks. As much as I now better understand epidemiological chains of transmission, I still sometimes slip up. So, I’m going to try to keep this punk earworm by the Lunachick’s Gina Volpe — here visualized in a brashly impactful video by Leah Shore, a 2013 25 New Face — in my head as I (only very occasionally and necessarily) venture out into the world.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 8, 2020 -
Field of Vision and Topic Announce COVID-19 Relief Fund for Documentary Freelancers
Field of Vision and Topic Studios announced today a relief fund for documentary freelancers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and corresponding economic shutdown. The $250,000 fund is financed from the two organizations’s current operating budgets, and the funds, intended to alleviate economic hardship due to loss of income or opportunity, will be dispensed in two tranches and in amounts up to $2,000 per freelancer. Rent, healthcare, utilities, groceries and other life expenses can be covered by the funds. In a press release, co-founder and executive producer of Field of Vision, Charlotte Cook, said, “This is an incredibly hard time for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 7, 2020 -
Trailer Watch: #FreeRayshawn on Quibi
Filmmaker has two points of intersection with crime drama #FreeRayshawn, one of the first releases on Quibi and scheduled to drop on April 15. Director and executive producer Seith Mann was on Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces list in 2003. And creator, writer and executive producer Marc Maurino has been a regular contributor for several years. In 2010 he was a blogger out of IFP’s Independent Film Week, which he attended with his debut script, Into the Machine. Several posts ensued, and then one of our great evergreen pieces: “‘It’s Just a General’: How To Take a General Meeting.’” His follow-up […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 30, 2020 -
Watch: Film Crew in Quarantine
Here’s a lovely one-minute animation by Robertas Nevecka that captures the confusing anxiety felt by those of used to working on film sets but who are now stuck at home. Nevecka is a Lithuanian assistant director whose film set drawings can be found on Instagram. Related at Filmmaker: “What Everyone Does on a Film Set.”
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 30, 2020 -
Watch: Ricky D’Ambrose’s NYFF Short, The Sky is Clear and Blue Today
To mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, a German-American filmmaker is commissioned by German TV to make an experimental short film based on his uncle’s famous photograph of young Brooklynites lounging riverside as the Twin Towers burn. With wit and formal precision, filmmaker Ricky D’Ambrose (Notes from an Appearance) methodically works through the political implications of this scenario in a work that mixes film-set comedy with commentary on the slippery ways in which differing types of media ingest and adapt scenarios of historical trauma. The film screened last Fall at the New York Film Festival and is appearing here online […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 27, 2020 -
“A System of Turnkey Tyranny…”: Edward Snowden on AI in the Era of Pandemic Panic at CPH:DOX
In the wake of the novel coronavirus, CPH:DOX has moved much of their program online, with a series of “debates” streaming live and available for viewing. Today’s is especially timely: Edward Snowden answering the question, “What is the effect of AI on the present and future of surveillance?” Kicking off the conversation is a discussion of privacy and surveillance issues related to government and private industry actions in the wake of the pandemic. It’s loosely tied to the festival’s screening of iHuman, Tonje Hessen Schei’s doc on the future of AI. The talk is moderated by DR’s science and technology […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 23, 2020 -
“You Staying Healthy?”: Joel Potrykus Pandemic-Calls Indie Film Dudes
Writer/director Joel Potrykus, who broke down the anxieties of the filmmaking process recently for Filmmaker, is doing what a lot of us are doing in this time of quarantine: checking in to see how our friends are doing. Here, in a video by Ashley Young, he lets us eavesdrop as he finds out how folks like director Dustin Guy Defa, Oscilloscope’s Dan Berger, Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo, Indiewire’s Eric Kohn and the harder-to-get writer/director Alex Ross Perry are handling the isolation.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 23, 2020 -
Filmmaker’s Spring, 2020 Issue Online and Un-Paywalled
Filmmaker‘s Spring 2020 issue is now online, arriving in mailboxes, and at whatever newsstands and bookstores that are still open amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. And because so many of us are working from home, sheltering in place, or on some form of lockdown, we’ve released every article from the paywall and are also providing to all a link to a free PDF of the entire issue. As Managing Editor Vadim Rizov wrote in a tweet, the issue’s runlist is one organized around something of a now-phantom slate of films and topics. Going to press at the end of February, the calendar […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 20, 2020 -
Out of the Spotlight: A 2020 Update on Film Tax Incentives in the U.S.
It’s an election year, and film tax incentives are in the news. Among small government types, state government tax dollars in the form of tax credits and rebates for film and television production will always be controversial. A September 2019 report by Michael Thom, associate professor at the University of Southern California Price School of Public Policy, adopted a “quasi-experimental” research approach to throw doubt on the role that incentives play in improving a state’s employment rate. The report, noted David Robb in Deadline, was “funded by the Koch Foundation, whose billionaire brothers—Charles and David Koch—virtually destroyed the Florida’s film […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 17, 2020 -
Editor’s Letter
Near the start of this issue, after the latest from our stellar trio of columnists, you’ll find an article on microbudget production by producer Mike S. Ryan. Back in the mid-1990s, Filmmaker made its bones by covering the microbudget scene, printing the budgets alongside our customary director deep dives. These pieces were very much about how you make a microbudget film—the tricks, tips, cheats and hacks. But now, with Filmmaker in its 28th year, the topic is less novel. On a purely technical level, anyone can shoot a microbudget film on their phone, cut it on their laptop and post […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 17, 2020
