Authors — Scott Macaulay
-
SXSW: Tree of Life Plus the Doors — Rainbow Time DP Nathan M. Miller
In his follow-up to Manson Family Vacation, director Linas Phillips turns his attention to the troubled relationship between Todd (Timm Sharp) and his sex-obsessed, developmentally delayed older brother Shonzi (Phillips). A Duplass brothers production with Melanie Lynskey as Todd’s girlfriend, the film premiered this weekend at SXSW. Before, DP Nathan M. Miller spoke about using The Doors (not the movie!) as a reference point, working with a small crew and integrating VHS into the production. 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 hired for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2016 -
SXSW: Hunter Gatherer DP Jon Aguirresarobe on Shooting Fast, Shooting Super 16mm Dissolves and Emulating Fuji Stocks
Ashley Douglas (Andre Royo) gets out of jail eager to start over, but nothing goes as planned; his girlfriend is now his ex, he’s living with his mother, and it’s hard to find work. Josh Locy’s feature debut Hunter Gatherer (we interviewed the director here) was shot by Jon Aguirresarobe, whose attentive eye brings south Los Angeles neighborhoods to life. Prior to the film’s SXSW premiere, Aguirresarobe discussed the difficulties of production on a tight schedule, shooting dissolves on Super 16mm and attempting to emulate Fuji film stock. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 14, 2016 -
SXSW: Five Questions for Claire in Motion Directors Lisa Robinson and Annie J. Howell
Five years after premiering their pregnancy road trip drama Small, Beautifully Moving Parts at SXSW, the writing/directing team of Lisa Robinson and Annie J. Howell return to Austin with their Competition entry Claire in Motion, a drama about a woman grappling with the disappearance of her husband — as well as the secrets of his life that disappearance has caused to surface. Below, we talk to the duo about the nature of their collaboration, being female directors working with female subject matter, and whether comparisons to Gone Girl are accurate or not. Filmmaker: It’s been five years since Small, Beautifully […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 14, 2016 -
SXSW: Five Questions for Slash Writer/Director Clay Liford
Love stories set in a specific subculture are a hallmark of independent cinema, and for most directors the challenge is to simply find a fresh subculture that hasn’t had its inner workings drained and exploited by sundry other jndie movies or cable series. And while I won’t swear that no one else has set a romance in the world of erotic fan fiction, I can’t think of one other than Austin-based Clay Lifford’s Slash, which premieres today at SXSW. Below, Lifford talks about the “slash” world, not shooting his own film and Google search terms you should definitely avoid. Filmmaker: […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 13, 2016 -
SXSW: Producer Dan Schoenbrun and Five Directors on their Dreamy Anthology Film, collective:unconscious
In November, 2014, Dan Schoenbrun threw down a provocative artistic challenge on Kickstarter. The former IFP-staffer, sometime Filmmaker writer, and current Film Partnerships lead at the crowdfunding platform conceived of an anthology film that would charge a stellar group of up-and-coming directors with adapting each other’s nocturnal visions. Each director would write down a dream and give it to Schoenbrun, who’d then assign it to another director. As you’ll read below, the pairings wound up being more natural and forced, with the intent being not a VHS-style horror anthology but rather a more diverse film unlocking all the meanings dreams, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 13, 2016 -
“A Little Like Borat but Without the Punchlines”: Five Questions for Rainbow Time Writer/Director Linas Phillips
Back in 2005, young filmmaker Linas Phillips paid homage to a cinematic hero by recording a cross-country pedestrian journey in Walking to Werner — the “Werner” being, of course, Werner Herzog. At the time, he told Filmmaker, “I remember Werner saying if there is a big decision in your life, it should be done on foot.” Over a decade later, Phillips’ career has ambled through a number of interesting digressions, including acting in Manson Family Vacation and this latest, a narrative feature about the strange relationship between two brothers, one mentally challenged. It’s premiering at SXSW, and below Phillips updates […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 13, 2016 -
“If Something Looks ‘Lit’ My Skin Crawls”: Free in Deed D.P. Ava Berkofsky
After shooting a number of well-regarded shorts, including former SXSW selection Sequin Raze and Picturing Barbara Kruger, Ava Berkofsky makes her impressive dramatic feature cinematography debut with one of the most bracing movies on this year’s independent circuit, Free in Deed. The third feature from 2005 Filmmaker 25 New Face Jake Mahaffy, it’s a probing and at times assaultive story inspired by a real-life tragedy: the death of a young boy at the hands of a religious faith healer. Berkofsky’s fluid, expressionistic lensing brings the mental turmoil of the film’s characters — the healer, the boy, and the boy’s distraught, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 13, 2016 -
SXSW: Five Questions for In a Valley of Violence Writer/Director Ti West
SXSW and Ti West have been to each other over the years. The Austin festival premiered his debut feature (The Roost) before going on to play Trigger Man and then breakthrough picture The Innkeepers, which landed West on our Winter, 2012 cover. Now he returns to Texas with, certainly, his starriest movie to date, and one that steps outside of the horror genre he’s best known for. Produced by his usual team alongside Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Pictures, In a Valley of Violence is a revenge western starring John Travolta, Ethan Hawke, Taissa Farmiga and Karen Gillan and set […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2016 -
“I Love Everything About Exorcism”: Five Questions for Another Evil Writer/Director Carson Mell
Multi-hyphenate Carson Mell has been known in the independent film world for some of the most subversively entertaining animated shorts of recent years, including Bobby Bird: The Devil in Denim. He’s acted, appearing recently in Marielle Heller’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl. And he’s now an established television writer, having written for the series Eastbound and Down and Silicon Valley. Which is all to say that the subject matter of his first feature would have been anyone’s guess. Beating a comedy about alcoholic astronauts to the punch is his SXSW-premiering, IFP Narrative Lab selection, Another Evil, a comedy about […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2016 -
SXSW: Five Questions for Hunter Gatherer Writer/Director Josh Locy
Virginia-born Josh Locy makes his feature debut at SXSW with Hunter Gatherer, a drama about forty-something African-American-man beginning life anew after prison — and after the support network he thought he had fail to reengage with him in his new life. Locy originally planned to become a Baptist minister, but a detour led him to the director David Gordon Green, for whom he worked, and the job of art director, which he now practices on various independent and studio films. Below, he discusses the origins of his story, what he learned from Green and how working in the art department […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 12, 2016
