Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Watch: A Scorsese Fast Dolly Zoom-In Supercut
From faces to guns to cocaine to pasta sauce, the fast dolly zoom-in is one of Martin Scorsese’s go-to expressive camera moves. Here, Jorge Luengo Ruiz compiles four-minutes of them in what is both great mid-day cinematic eye candy as well as something of a critique. Ruiz writes: Martin Scorsese’s penchant for a specific kind of zoom, one where he runs the camera right up to the face of his subject, falls somewhere in between the subtle and the obnoxious. Seduced as we are by the style and panache of Scorsese’s oeuvre, we let this habit of his pass us […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 1, 2016 -
Chicago Newcity Names the 2016 Film 50
I’m a couple of weeks late posting about the latest edition of the Chicago Newcity Film 50 because, well, it’s a dense read — think Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces times two, made all the more impressive because one person, Ray Pride (also a Filmmaker Contributing Editor) pens all the profiles. A list of 50 people who comprise a composite snapshot of the Windy City’s community of media creators (this year, Pride’s preamble states, the list devoted itself to artists as opposed to producers and programmers), the Chicago Film 50 is both an insightful read and a great resource. Writes Pride, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 31, 2016 -
Watch The Way It Should Be, Snapchat Doc about Queer Women of Color, Today Only
Appearing today only on this “Now This” section of Snapchat is The Way it Should Be, a short (naturally) doc about love and friendship between queer women of color by Chanelle Aponte Pearson and Terence Nance. The second entry in POV Snapchat Films, The Way It Should Be can be watched in less than five minutes, and it’s perfectly conceived for Snapchat’s vertical video format. Swiping left takes you to an image page with a chapter heading graphic. Swiping up takes you to a minute or so of video content that ranges from talking head interviews to short, music-video style […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 30, 2016 -
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn Opens Feature-Rich New York Theater
After a week-long soft open, Alamo Drafthouse opens today its first theater in the New York area, the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn. Snuggled away on the top floor of a brand new shopping mall, and following an escalator trip that takes you past a Target and a Century 21, the new seven-screen Drafthouse is feature-packed in more ways that one, offering state-of-the-art projection (including, in one theater, 35mm), Dolby 7.1, programming mixing mainstream arthouse with local, repertory and genre events, and, of course, food and drink. The latter is served up in the theaters as well as in the House […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 28, 2016 -
Recommended on a Friday: Gimme Danger, Dreamlands, The Fosters, Killer Party
This pre-Halloween weekend is unexpectedly light on new releases. For Filmmaker readers, the most significant of the newcomers is Jim Jarmusch’s Cannes-premiering documentary on The Stooges, Gimme Danger. If you’re any kind of Iggy Pop fan — and, although not an obsessive or a completist, I count myself as one — than this doc is a must-see. It’s certainly not a revolutionary rock doc, consisting straightforwardly of Iggy’s own present-day interviews; comments by fellow band members, other musicians, and various colleagues and music execs; fantastic concert footage (albeit less of it than you want); and a smattering of archival footage […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 28, 2016 -
“When I Looked at All the Ways You Can Fail in VR, That Was a Turn-On”: Doug Liman on His VR Sci-Fi Thriller, Invisible
Released today, Invisible is director Doug Liman’s first foray into virtual reality, a five-part science-fiction thriller that places viewers in the midst of a tale involving corporate secrets, future tech and family treachery. The series takes off from the question one sometimes mulls: what superpower would I choose for myself? Says producer Julina Tatlock of the production company 30 Ninjas, “One of the top superpowers people would choose is invisibility — and we’ve all dreamed about being rich. By creating Invisible in VR, we are able to immerse the viewer into that glam, exotic and at times terrifying world in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 27, 2016 -
Recommended on a Friday: Moonlight, Fire at Sea, Criterion’s Boyhood Disk, Dessert, Chris Gethard and More
Our new “Recommended on a Friday” column is meant for us here at Filmmaker to throw some attention on films we love that perhaps we haven’t covered online and in print, but this week we’re just going to start by piling on a pick that you’ve already heard quite a bit about: Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight. Jenkins’s previous film, Medicine for Melancholy, was a Filmmaker cover back in 2009, and we’ve been eagerly awaiting his next film since. Moonlight — a bracingly tender, ambitiously realized and wisely provocative character study about the construction of African-American masculine identity — demands to be […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 21, 2016 -
Watch for 48 Hours: Spider Veins and Hearts of Palm from the East Oregon Film Festival
With the East Oregon Film Festival underway this weekend in La Grande, Oregon, Filmmaker is happy to once again host the festival online selections here at the site. Starting now, for 48 hours, you can watch Monica Peña’s haunting and haunted relationship mystery, Hearts of Palm, preceded by a short, Frank Mosley’s multi-layered psychological drama Spider Veins. From the filmmakers, here are their two short synopses: Spider Veins: Two women reunite in a quiet neighborhood before a party begins. But by turns mysterious and shocking, the film’s narrative begins to unravel even as the women’s relationship teeters on the edge of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 21, 2016 -
Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight Top Nominations for 26th Annual Gotham Awards
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP, and Filmmaker‘s publisher) announced today the nominees for its 26th annual Gotham Awards. Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea tops the list with four nominations, including Best Feature and, for Casey Affleck, Best Actor. Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight also placed highly, scoring a Best Feature nomination as well as Best Screenplay, Breakthrough Actor for Lucas Hedges and a special Gotham Jury Award for its acting ensemble (actors Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex Hibbert, André Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monáe, Jaden Piner, Trevante Rhodes, and Ashton Sanders). This is the second year the Gotham Awards have included […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 20, 2016 -
Playing the Long Game: Producers on Sustaining a Career in Independent Film
When legendary producer and studio executive Robert Evans penned his autobiography — later adapted into a documentary — he picked a telling title: The Kid Stays in the Picture. You would think that after producing films like Chinatown and Urban Cowboy, Evans could happily rest on his laurels, but his book’s title, with its defiant use of the present tense, speaks to the ambitions and anxieties affecting every filmmaker with producer DNA. These, of course, are issues of continuing relevance and professional durability — or, to use the independent film parlance of the moment, sustainability. Contrary to the imagination of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 20, 2016
