Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Mentorless Returns from Cannes with Advice on Pitching Projects at a Major Festival
One of the best filmmaking video blogs going right now is at the Mentorless site, where filmmaker Nathalie Sejean is posting weekly about her goal of making her first feature film, In Five Years. Both Sejean and her producer, Muge Ozen, attended the Producers Network this month and returned with enough info to fill up two entries. Among the advice offered here is what online filmmakers should make sure to do to get accredited to the Cannes market, when to submit — and not submit — scripts to buyers, and how to consider whether you should even try to tackle […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 31, 2016 -
The Return of the Cassette: Prisons, “Analog Time” and a Forthcoming Feature
Filmmaker and Filmmaker contributor Alix Lambert is a guest producer on this week’s Theory of Everything, where she learns that it’s not just hipsters causing a revival in the audio cassette format but prisoners. Indeed, for most prisoners, cassettes are the only music delivery device they’re allowed. Listen to her episode, “Analog Time,” embedded here, as Lambert talks to some incarcerated men for whom cassette tapes are an escape, a salve, and even a medium of exchange. Meanwhile, Zach Taylor and Georg Petzold are finishing Cassette, “a feature-length documentary that celebrates the past, present, and future of an endearing musical […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 30, 2016 -
IFP Announces Ten New Narrative Films for Its Filmmaker Labs
The IFP announced today the ten work-in-progress narrative films that will take part in its 2016 Narrative Lab. They include a romance shot in Ukraine in the months following the 2014 revolution; a drama about the astral travels of a comatose man during what may be the apocalypse; and a comedy about house thieves trapped inside a house by its high-tech alarm system. The filmmakers, all first-time feature directors, are attending this week in New York a series of programs and mentorship sessions providing feedback on their edits as well as advice and counsel on festival strategy, distribution deals, marketing, […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 23, 2016 -
Venice Production Bridge Announces Gap Financing Market to Take Place During the Venice Film Festival
The Venice Production Bridge, a platform connecting European and international producers with potential sales agent, distributors and financiers able to provide final financing for their projects, announced today a new Gap Financing Market to take place during this year’s Venice Film Festival. Running September 2 – 4, the initiative will curate a selection of 25 European and international projects seeking the final 30% of their financing. Projects can be at any stage, from development to post-production, but must prove that the 70% of their existing financing is secure. Significantly, the initiative is open to both documentaries as well as fiction […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 23, 2016 -
Ken Loach, Xavier Dolan Top Surprising Cannes Awards Ceremony; Andrea Arnold’s American Honey Wins Jury Prize
One of the more surprising Cannes awards ceremonies has just ended, with Ken Loach becoming a two-time Palme d’Or winner with his I, Daniel Blake, about a 59-year-old carpenter battling England’s health care system following a heart attack, winning the top prize. (The director’s The Wind that Swept the Barley won the Palme in 2006.) I, Daniel Blake, while not one of the buzzier titles in the Competition, was generally well received; the same can’t be said for the jury’s Grand Prix, awarded to Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World. Variety’s Guy Lodge tweeted, “Giving Xavier Dolan […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 22, 2016 -
“Is the Remix Method Going Stale?” Watch: Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens
One of our 25 New Faces in 2011, Kirby Ferguson has, with his Everything is a Remix Project, created a web series that artfully blends cultural criticism with legal and copyright commentary. In the latest edition, Ferguson considers J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens and wonders if blockbuster artistic sampling has run its course. “Is remixing a weak point in The Force Awakens? Is the remix method growing stale? Have we reached the limits of remixing?” For his conclusions, watch the video above.
by Scott Macaulay on May 21, 2016 -
Being Reborn as a 16-Year-Old Girl: Nicholas Winding Refn on His Vampiric Assault on the Beauty Industry, The Neon Demon
Nicholas Winding Refn’s new The Neon Demon, premiering in Competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, is a nightmarish, outlandish fashion-world riff on A Star is Born in which vampiric models struggling to remain alluring in a swipe-to-the-next-one culture provide a ready-made metaphor for beauty industry soul-sucking. Elle Fanning is Jesse — blonde, beautiful, 16, and something of an empty vessel waiting to be anointed the next “It Girl.” Her journey through Angeleno nightclubs, booking agencies and photography studios is one of ribald psychological horror, as physical spaces twist and expand, friends become alien, and even her scuzzy, entirely unfashionable […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 19, 2016 -
Cannes, 2016: Five Questions for Tramontane Writer/Director Vatche Boulghourjian
Finding political resonance within the intimate story of a blind man, his past, and the Lebanese countryside, Tramontane is the debut feature of filmmaker Vatche Boulghourjian. Based in Beirut, Boulghourjian studied at NYU Film School, and his filmmaking draws upon the community he found in both his home and place of study. Premiering in Critics’ Week at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, Tramontane also received early development support from the Venice Biennale College Cinema, where I was one of its mentors several years ago. At the time, I was struck by Boulghourjian’s intelligence, empathy and ability to articulate the larger […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 16, 2016 -
VR AXS Map Wins the Made in New York Media Center by IFP Demo Day
VR AXS Map, a platform using VR to help the disabled pre-visit and share information about accessible public spaces, was named the winner on Wednesday night of the Made In New York Media Center by IFP’s Demo Day. The curated audience of VCs, entrepreneurs, creative directors and brands voted the award after five teams of Media Center entrepreneurs pitched their projects to a panel moderated by Mashable’s Jason Abruzzese and consisting of Fran Hauser (Partner Rothenburg Ventures) and Matthew Hooper (VP, Open Innovation, Barclays; Head of Rise, NY). VR AXS Map stood out due to its obvious social utility and […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2016 -
Watch: Paul Thomas Anderson’s New Radiohead Video, Daydreaming
Auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, for whom Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood scored his There Will Be Blood, has directed the band’s new video, which has dropped just days after their stop-motion animated clip for debut single Burn the Witch. Check out Dreaming above.
by Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2016
