Authors — Scott Macaulay
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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 -
Watch: First Look Selection If We Say That We Are Friends in a “Socially Distant” Online Screening
Yaara Sumeruk’s short film If We Say That We Are Friends was scheduled to have its New York premiere tonight at the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look series. Of course, it’s been cancelled, along with the majority of the city’s cultural activity in the wake of the Coronavirus. But in what’s perhaps a forerunner of the way filmmakers may be responding to the screening cessations in the weeks ahead, Sumerek is going ahead with the event, but online, in a “social distant screening.” At 7:00 PM, viewers can click on this Vimeo link and use the password “Dine” […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 14, 2020 -
COVID-19 Prompts CPH:DOX To Move Its Upcoming 2020 Edition Online
CPH:DOX, the boundary-busting Copenhagen non-fiction film festival that takes place each March, announced today that its upcoming 2020 edition will be a digital one. With indoor events of over 100 people banned by the Danish government, the festival is quickly scrambling to present a portion of its program online. Here’s the press release: In the light of the global crisis related to COVID19, and following the latest announcement from the Danish Government on March 11, 8.30PM further restricting public gatherings, CPH:DOX has decided to roll out its 2020 edition in a digital version. Sadly, this means that the planned +700 […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 11, 2020 -
Daniel Chew and Micaela Durand’s Negative Two Now Online at Le Cinema Club
“Our films navigate what it means to exist today – the frustrating intimacies and alienation, and how the internet is not only a self-affirming tool, but also connected to our jobs and livelihood,” write filmmakers Daniel Crew and Micaela Durand in introducing their short Negative Two at Le Cinema Club, where it streams online until this weekend. “Our economy demands for us to be constantly online and we wanted to portray that simultaneity.” Commissioned by The Shed and selected for last year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam, Negative Two, as described in the program notes, “focuses on Devin (Eric Lee), a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 3, 2020
