Authors — Scott Macaulay
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“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 -
Joel and Ethan Coen Discuss How Their Editing has Evolved Over Thirty Years
“I think it’s absurd to say there isn’t a difference” between shooting on film and on digital, says Joel Coen in this short interview found on Adobe Create and filmed in the cutting room of the Coen Brothers’ latest, Hail, Caesar! Coen goes on to say that he hopes for a kind of format-neutral future, where choices of all sorts can be made on purely artistic grounds. That said, neither filmmaker is naive, and they realize that digital technology provides the new standards. As Ethan goes on to say, one of the reasons they finally began cutting on a digital […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 16, 2016 -
The Arbalest, TOWER Win Top Prizes at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival
While screenings continue throughout the week, 2016 SXSW Film Festival had its official awards ceremony last night, with director and comedian Mike Birbiglia — whose Don’t Think Twice was well received at the festival — hosting. Awards went to features about a famous mass shooting, a misfit romance and the KKK while, as always, the festival gave prizes as well to shorts, music videos and poster designs. In addition, Austin favorite Lee Daniels, well known for his work with Rick Linklater, received a special cinematography award for his lensing of Laura Dunn’s The Seer. Our friends at Keyframe have assembled […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 16, 2016 -
SXSW: Teenage Cocktail DP Justin Kane on Capturing “Raw Youth”
In his directorial debut Teenage Cocktail, director John Carchietta examines the plight of best friends Annie (Nichole Bloom) and Jules (Fabianne Therese), who just want to get out of their small town and move to California. Nothing is off the table, including webcam modeling, which places the adventurous young women in danger. In advance of the film’s premiere at SXSW, DP Justin Kane talked about his work on the project, going deep into the technical aspects. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2016 -
“Time, and How to Manage It”: Miss Stevens DP Sebastian Winterø
Building on eight years of pedagogical experience, Julia Hart’s debut feature Miss Stevens tracks a troubled teacher (Lily Rabe) and three of her high school students as they attend a statewide acting competition. Victory means possibly forestalling the closing of their cash-strapped school’s fine arts division, but Hart focuses equally on the complicated relationship between the teacher and her charges. Here, DP Sebastian Winterø (who recently shot Sia’s “Umbrella” video) discusses the importance of making sure the director has enough time, being fascinated by California’s light as a European, and how much work should be done for the DI. Filmmaker: How and why […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2016 -
Capturing Sweet Innocence: DP Ellie Ann Fenton on the Cinematography of Slash
Expanded from his 2013 short of the same name, Clay Liford’s Slash is a comedy of youthful sexual awakening set against the backdrop of slash fan-fiction, the amateur writing pursuit that places beloved pop culture characters in previously-undreamed-of erotic situations. In his first feature since 2011’s Wuss, Liford gives himself an extra challenge by committing to filming the sci-fi universe of Vanguard, a fictional character made up for the film (to duck the cost of obtaining intellectual property costs to existing characters). We interviewed Liford prior to the film’s premiere; below, DP Ellie Ann Fenton discusses being equally inspired by the cinematography […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2016 -
Styling the Comedic Horror Film Another Evil like My Dinner with Andre: DP Drew Bienemann
For his feature debut Another Evil, writer/animator Carson D. Mell tackles the risky horror-comedy genre. A husband and wife discover that their vacation home may be populated by malign spirits, bringing in two separate exorcists to deal with the problem. Comedy is courtesy of a cast of familiar TV presences (including Togetherness‘ Steve Zissis and Veep‘s Dan Bakkedahl), horror courtesy of the tone established by Mell and DP Drew Bienemann. Prior to the film’s SXSW premiere, Bienemann talked about being guided style-wise by My Dinner with Andre, getting a recommendation for the job from Jody Lee Lipes and the importance of shooting on an Alexa. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2016 -
SXSW: Asperger’s Are Us Director/DP Alex Lehmann on Being “In It for the Story”
DP Alex Lehmann leaps to the director’s chair with Asperger’s Are Us, a documentary about an unusual comedy troupe. With one of its members soon leaving Boston to study abroad, the improv group consisting of four young men on the spectrum prepares for what may be its final performance. Executive produced by the Duplass brothers, the documentary was quickly purchased by Netflix for worldwide distribution. Ahead of Asperger’s Are Us‘s premiere at SXSW, Lehmann discussed acting as his own DP, scrounging for enough cameras to film the climax and following the story. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2016
