Authors — Scott Macaulay
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U.S. in Progress 2024 Submissions Now Open for American Independents Seeking Finishing Funds
U.S. in Progress is now through September 8 accepting submissions from American independent filmmakers with pictures in post-production seeking finishing funds. Accepted filmmakers and projects will attend the in-person event at Wroclaw, Poland’s American Film Festival from November 7 – 9, where they will present the rough cuts of their narrative projects to European buyers and Polish post-production companies providing over $100,000 in post services. Recent and upcoming projects that are alumni of U.S. in Progress include the Venice-bound Familiar Touch, directed by 2023 25 New Face Sarah Friedland; the recently released Summer Solstice, by writer/director Noah Schamus; India Donaldson’s […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 5, 2024 -
Jessica Oreck Kickstarts a Traveling Museum
Back in 2021, filmmaker Jessica Oreck (Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo), who appeared on Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces list in 2009, launched her Office of Collecting and Design, which she describes as “part wonderland, part library, and part nostalgia machine, devoted to the diminutive, the misplaced, the unusual, and the forgotten.” A truly unusual endeavor, the Las Vegas-based tiny museum is exhibition space, animation studio and prop house — in short, a physical extension of the enthusiasms that have powered Oreck’s filmmaking. From my print issue profile of the project: A cinematic sensibility permeates the whole endeavor, not just in the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 29, 2024 -
Trailer Watch: Zach Clark’s The Becomers
At Filmmaker we’ve long been a fan of Zach Clark, director of such witty and genre (and genre-adjacent) work as Little Sister, Vacation! and White Reindeer. He always brings real style and subversive smarts to his pictures, which often apply ingenious tonal twists to familiar situations and set-ups. For his latest, The Becomers, Clark fuses an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-type tale with a classic rom-com set up. Reviewing the film out of Fantasia, Erik Luers wrote: In depicting two shape-shifting entities who arrive separately on Earth searching for their misplaced mate, Clark’s film provides his Midwest cast the opportunity […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 23, 2024 -
Ten Takeaways from Hundreds of Beavers‘ Success
Each Friday I send out a free email newsletter with an original Editor’s Letter along with viewing recommendations and festival deadlines. The Editor’s Letter is usually not reposted here on this site. As a way of encouraging sign-ups — you can join for free here — I’m posting here a slightly edited version of last week’s edition, in which I draw some production and distribution conclusions from the success of the Mike Cheslik’s independent hit Hundreds of Beavers, drawing info from linked interviews, now unpaywalled, from our current print edition. — Editor Because I edit Filmmaker and am supposed to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 23, 2024 -
David Lynch on (Just) Making the Day
“Did you make the day?” That’s the first question financiers and production execs will ask after a first day — or, really, any day — of shooting. “Making the day” means completing all the scenes on the call sheet so that the production isn’t falling behind, something that can led to dropped scenes, budget overruns and more. But beyond the “making the day” question lies a deeper one: how is a production making the day? Rushed scenes, abandoned coverage and quickly made decisions can result in an on-time shooting schedule but diminished artistic results. That’s why this behind-the-scenes video of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 17, 2024 -
Watch: Rick Alverson’s Video for Alan Sparhawk’s Can U Hear
With White Rose, My God, a new album from Alan Sparhawk — his first since the passing of Mimi Parker, his partner in the band Low — scheduled to appear in September, the singer/songwriter has released its first single with a music video directed by independent filmmaker Rick Alverson (The Mountain). Alverson has pixellated Sparhawk’s face as the musician has digitally manipulated his voice in this eerie clip. Check it out above.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 17, 2024 -
“The Hardest Thing Is To Get Out of Your Own Way”: Lady In The Lake‘s Y’lan Noel, Back To One, Episode 300
Y’lan Noel played Daniel in the HBO series Insecure starred in The First Purge, and now he plays Officer Platt in Lady in The Lake, Alma Har’el’s eagerly anticipated new series for Apple TV+ that drops on July 19th. On this episode, he discusses his unique approach to the work, which starts with, and centers on, daydreaming and the avoidance of aiming to do “the right thing.” He talks about allowing for “an energy that’s not me to make certain decisions;” the importance of solitude, space, stillness; how Har’el’s willingness to leave room for the mystical served his process; and […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 16, 2024 -
“I Could Do a Dynamite Directors Cut, Because I Know Where All the Best Stuff is, But That Would Defeat the Whole Purpose of the Project”: Gary Hustwit on ENO
What used to be known, literally, as “the cutting room floor,” now exists as a digital bin, an assortment of deleted scenes, unused (and in today’s mode of industrial documentary production, perhaps even unviewed) footage — material that, through its absence, haunts any finished audiovisual work. Often when this material is revealed, on a Blu-ray supplemental features disc, for example, the director’s elisions affirm the strength of their initial creative editorial decisions. Other times, particularly in biographical documentaries, the unused material becomes a kind of lacuna, suggesting not only paths unexplored but a failure to engage with all that’s messy, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 12, 2024 -
Oxbelly Announces the Fellows and Advisors of Its 2024 Oxbelly Retreat
The Greek nonprofit Oxbelly announced today the participants of its 2024 Oxbelly retreat, which was held June 22-30, 2024 in Costa Navarino, Greece. Thirty fellows broken into three strands — screenwriting, episodic writing and fiction writing — received mentorship from an illustrious list of advisors, who included Charlie Kaufman, Chigozie Obioma, Miguel Gomes, Marielle Heller, Barry Jenkins and Michael Almereyda. Leaders and program directors for the three programs were Guardians of the Galaxy screenwriter Nicole Perman (Screenwriting); Jen Blake (executive producer, Joyland) and Deutschland 83 producer Jörg Winger (Episodic); and An Orchestra of Minorities author Chigozie Obioma (Fiction). As the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 10, 2024 -
BlackStar Projects Releases Full Schedule of Programs for 2024 Film Festival
BlackStar Projects, the organization celebrating visionary Black, Brown and Indigenous film and media artists, announced today the full program for its 2024 BlackStar Film Festival. This 13th edition of BlackStar takes place August 1 – 4 at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, with additional screenings, parties and events at various venues in Center City Philadelphia. Among the highlights are the Opening Night selection, Dreams in Nightmares, writer/director Shatara Michelle Ford’s feature follow-up to their acclaimed Gotham and Spirit Award-nominated debut, Test Pattern. Dreams in Nightmares tells the story of three Black queer femmes on a Midwestern road trip […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 9, 2024
