Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Watch: Álvaro, from UnionDocs Living Los Sures Project
Inspired by Diego Echeverria’s 1984 documentary, Los Sures, Living Los Sures is an expansive documentary produced over five years by 60 artists at Brooklyn’s UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art. Premiering online today here at Filmmaker is Álvaro, directed by Alexandra Lazarowich, Elizabeth Dealaune Warren, Daniel J Wilson & Chloe Zimmerman, a short doc about the daily ritual of longtime Southside, Brooklyn resident Álvaro Brandon. Timed to the restoration and Metrograph screening of Echeverria’s cinema verite work, about the largely Puerto Rican and Dominican community of the Southside of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Living Los Sures consists of 40 short films, the interactive […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 7, 2016 -
Watch: Stanley Kubrick, Across the Color Spectrum
In 2014 we posted Rishi Kaneria’s supercut on Stanley Kubrick’s love of the color red. Now, inspired by that video, Marc Anthony Figueras has created his own video, this time surveying the director’s use of color all across the color spectrum. Films referenced: 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut. And, for those who’d like to simply skip to their favorite hue, here are the chapter markings: Red- 0:07 Blue- 1:30 Yellow- 2:12 Purple- 2:42 Pink- 2:51 Orange- 2:59 Green- 3:15 Black & White- 3:45
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 6, 2016 -
IFP Film Week Moves to Brooklyn
IFP Film Week, the Independent Filmmaker Project’s signature event, is moving to from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Brooklyn for its 2016 edition. The event, which has morphed and shifted emphasis over its 37 years, is now, says the IFP, “the only international co-production market for film – and now television, web-based, and VR projects – in the United States, with over 150 projects from over 22 countries curated and presented as scripts and works-in-progress each year. ” The event runs from September 17 – 22, 2016. IFP Film Week joins the IFP itself, which moved to the DUMBO […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 30, 2016 -
Watch (and Read): Video Tribute and Interview with D.P. Jeff Cronenweth
With Josh Maczinski’s tribute to Jeff Cronenweth popping up around the interwebs, here’s a good time to post, alongside it, Jamie Stuart’s 2014 interview with the cinematographer. Maczinski’s supercut surveys favorite scenes from films like Gone Girl, The Social Network, Hitchcock and One-Hour Photo. Stuart’s interview gets deep into it regarding digital technology, lens choices and a lot more. Here is Cronenweth on Fincher’s use of digital tools: But it’s part of David’s tenacity in making sure that every image supports the story and nothing ever unsettles an audience member unintentionally. In other words, you see everything you’re supposed to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 29, 2016 -
Collaborative Essay/Music Project March Sadness Enters its Final Four
With Paula Bernstein writing today about Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World, I was reminded to post about a cool internet essay/music project by Ander Monson with Megan Campbell, March Sadness. For those a bit blue, and no following college basketball — and, probably, more than a few who do — the month-long series has paired off sad songs for voters to up and downvote, mixing in essays on the music by Rick Moody, Juan Diaz, Megan Campbell and others. Explains Monson: So this March I’ve been running this project called March Sadness. Well, I’m already oversimplifying: we […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 29, 2016 -
Robert De Niro Pulls Controversial Autism Doc Vaxxed from the Tribeca Film Festival
Just a day after issuing a statement supporting what he dubbed a personal decision to screen a controversial documentary, Vaxxed, by discredited researcher and former doctor Andrew Wakefield, Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Robert De Niro has pulled the film from this year’s festival. Last night, De Niro issued the following statement: My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is deeply personal to me and my family. But after reviewing it over the past few days with the Tribeca Film Festival team and others from the scientific community, we do not […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 27, 2016 -
Robert De Niro Issues a Statement about the Tribeca Film Festival’s Screening of Vaxxed
The following statement by Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Robert De Niro was provided to Filmmaker by the festival in response to the controversy that has arisen around the screening of Andrew Wakefield’s documentary, Vaxxed, discussed here in Penny Lane’s open letter. From Robert De Niro: Grace and I have a child with autism and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined. In the 15 years since the Tribeca Film Festival was founded, I have never asked for a film to be screened or gotten involved in the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 25, 2016 -
“People Assume That I am ‘Isabelle'”: Isabelle Huppert on the Metaphysical Desert Drama, Valley of Love
Playing divorced parents embarking on a strange journey into Death Valley, Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu bring an easy chemistry and rich shared experience to Guillaume Nicloux’s Valley of Love, opening today in the States from Strand. They both play famous actors, one a skeptic and one a life-after-death believer, yoked together on a road trip conceived by their son, who committed suicide in San Francisco several months earlier. He’s written them both letters and given them a map to seven locations, telling them in his posthumously received correspondence that he’ll appear to them at one of the stops. The premise […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 25, 2016 -
The Graphic Design of High Rise
Here’s a fascinating article by Mark Sinclair in the Creative Review about graphic design in Ben Wheatley’s High Rise. In most films, contemporary and near-period, production designers will seek clearance to use actual logos and products. When those clearances aren’t granted for whatever reason, the art department will mock something up. But unless there’s been real attention paid to these graphics, they can often look cheesy — like the film equivalent of clip art. The fantastic, dystopian qualities of High Rise — a science fiction tale set in an imaginary pre-Thatcherite early ’70s — has enabled Wheatley and his designers […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 21, 2016 -
Watch: What Does a Camera Operator Do?
A reader, Dylan Toombs, passes along this video shot earlier this month at the The Banff Centre for Story Summit 2016 and featuring his interviews with three top Hollywood camera operators: Mitch Dubin (Saving Private Ryan, Bridge of Spies), Steve Fracol (Songs of Anarchy, Scandal), and Dave Thompson (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook). At the head of the video, Dubin offers perhaps the most concise description of the camera operator’s job that I’ve every heard, and the rest of the short, four-minutes-and-change interview contains other perceptive insights into how these three men view the nature and definition of their job. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 20, 2016
