Authors — Scott Macaulay
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SXSW Preview: 20 Films and Presentations to Add to Your Austin Calendar
Last year was a great one for SXSW Film. Two of the year’s best independent films, just reaching theaters now (Krisha and Creative Control), premiered at the festival, and the Film and Interactive conferences offered up their typically dizzying assortment of how-to panels, seminars and forward-thinking keynote talks. As I anticipate this year’s edition from, literally, an altitude of 30,000 feet, Barack Obama has already left the room, folks on Twitter are complaining about the long registration lines, and the gear heads and app-makers are setting up shop in the Austin Convention Center for their mammoth trade show. Me, I’m […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 11, 2016 -
In a Valley of Violence DP Eric Robbins on Shooting Ti West’s New Film in 35mm
Don’t let the title mislead you: In a Valley of Violence is only Ti West’s second non-horror film. This time around, West tackles the Western with a tonal twist. In an inspired bit of expectation-reversing casting, this classic saga of a violent town on the frontier has John Travolta as the good guy and Ethan Hawke as the villain. The film premieres tomorrow at SXSW. In advance, cinematographer Eric Robbins answered some questions about shooting on 2-perf 35mm, lighting in the desert and his longtime collaboration with West. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 11, 2016 -
Writer/Director Benjamin Dickinson on Making his Social Satire Set in the World of Augmented Reality, Creative Control
Opening in theaters today from Amazon Studios and Magnolia Pictures is Creative Control, Benjamin Dickinson’s wickedly intelligent social satire set in a near-future advertising world enamored with the latest thing: augmented reality. The New York-based writer/director’s second feature, following 2012’s lo-fi apocalyptic drama, First Winter, Creative Control is an impressive leap forward. Realized on a modest budget, the film won a special jury award at last year’s SXSW for “visual excellence,” and, indeed, Dickinson and his collaborators incisively riff on the very plausible possibilities of augmented reality rigs like Google Glass and Magic Leap to imagine a world where avatars, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 11, 2016 -
Watch: Nicholas Winding Refn’s Hypnotic Hennessy Ad
Via Nowness comes this 1:44 second Hennessy advertising from Drive director Nicholas Winding Refn. In no less than seven chapters (!), its fragmented narrative is burnished with the hyper-sensuous glow found in the director’s underrated Only God Forgives. From Nowness: For their most daring campaign to date, Hennessy gave carte blanche to filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn to explore the layered experience of tasting the brand’s classic drink, the Hennessy X.O. “We were given the keys to the kingdom,” says the Only God Forgives director. “It was extremely brave of Hennessy to trust me with so much: For me this is […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 10, 2016 -
Emelie‘s Andrew Corkin on Becoming an Independent Film Producer
With over 30 assorted producing credits ranging from Martha Marcy May Marlene to An Oversimplification of Her Beauty to The Benefactor, Andrew Corkin is a constant figure in New York’s independent film scene. Uncorked, the production company he runs with partner Bryan Reisberg, has a filmography encompassing shorts, features, television and web, and the material ranges from auteur independent drama to so-called “elevated genre” pictures like Emelie, in theaters and on VOD platforms now from Dark Sky Films. Corkin’s most recent production, The Alchemist Cookbook, world premieres next week at SXSW. Last year I sat down Corkin for a public […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 9, 2016 -
Trailer Watch: Pamela Romanowsky’s The Adderall Diaries
Pamela Romanowsky’s adaptation of Stephen Elliott’s meta-memoir, The Adderall Diaries, gets a pulse-pounding trailer from A24. The film tells the story of a writer, Elliott, navigating writer’s block while reporting on a murder trial taking place within San Francisco’s SM community. James Franco, who originally optioned Elliott’s book, plays the writer; Amber Heard is the journalist who gains his access to the case; and Ed Harris plays Elliott’s father, whose rageful relationship with his son provides the film’s emotional throughline. The film premieres on DirectTV on March 10 and in theaters April 15.
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 8, 2016 -
Maris Curran Interviews Mira Nair about the Job of the Film Director
Filmmaker Maris Curran, who we talked with about her Toronto premiere, Five Nights in Maine, last Fall, forwarded this interview she did with a director she admires, Mira Nair. Nair (Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding, The Reluctant Fundamentalist) is one of the most articulate directors out there when it comes down to unpacking the process of being a director. Curran, whose own feature should reach theaters this Fall, asks Nair direct questions about the job of the director, ambition, budgets, and knowing when a project is the right one to develop years of one’s life on. “Never do anything as a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 7, 2016 -
Join Alien, James Bond, Scarface, Kurtz and Jennifer Beals in a Return Visit to Hell’s Club
Hell’s Club, the mind-boggling mash-up of pop culture mise en scene, has spawned a sequel: Hell’s Club, Part Two: Another Night. Director and editor Antonio Maria da Silva has summoned a follow-up that’s even trippier than the original, if possible. Once more, icons from our cinematic imagination boogie down (and shoot each other up) in a red-lit disco. The music oscillates between dance-floor thump and lyrical balladry, and the range of characters has grown to include Captain Kurtz, Ridley Scott’s Alien, three different James Bonds, a flashdancing Jennifer Beals, Jack Nicholson’s frustrated Shining author, Jack Torrance, and, of course, Tony […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 7, 2016 -
Watch: Martha Colburn’s Donald Trump Animation, Drumpf and Bass
In this very short video, experimental filmmaker Martha Colburn processes the madness of our current presidential election by vivisecting the applause lines of the current Republican frontrunner and setting them to a skeezy electro beat. Oh, and there are toads — “probably from the Middle East!”
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 4, 2016 -
MacArthur Foundation to Cease Supporting Individual Documentary Film Projects
The MacArthur Foundation, which has supported over 300 documentary films since the mid-1980s, is ceasing grant support for individual documentary film projects. In a change announced on its website, MacArthur writes that it will actually increase its overall support for the documentary field but will do so by supporting partner organizations, many of whom have individual granting programs. Indeed, the announcement redirects filmmakers to POV, Firelight Media, ITVS, Sundance Documentary Fund and Tribeca Film Institute. In the post, MacArthur cites the more expansive work done by these partner organizations, which includes mentorship, editorial advice and audience engagement. From the site: […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 4, 2016
