Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Sundance Announces 45 Selections for Expanded 10th Anniversary New Frontier 2016 Edition
Sundance’s always vibrant New Frontier celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with an expanded program, announced today, of 30 virtual reality experiences, 11 installations, three feature films and one live performance. Expanding from last year’s Claim Jumper home base to include presentations at The Gateway, Swede Alley and the festival’s Homebase, New Frontiers will also offer viewers this year the opportunity to view VR work on mobile headsets throughout the festival. Says Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer and Chief Curator, New Frontier, Shari Frilot, in a press release, “This year’s program provides a sensory experience that powerfully transports audiences to […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 3, 2015 -
Kickstarter Teaser: Nicole Riegel’s Holler
Currently up on Filmmaker‘s curated Kickstarter page is Nicole Riegel’s short film, Holler. Readers will remember Riegel from the ’14 25 New Faces list, where I wrote about the screenwriter-turned-director’s military background and its relationship to the tough, character-based scripts she’s made her mark with since. Riegel has assembled a great team, including It Follows DP Mike Gioulakis, and she’s currently just shy three grand or so of her goal. In this final fundraising stretch Riegel has released a toaster, which you can check out above. And consider supporting her film here at the link.
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 2, 2015 -
Slamdance Announces 2016 Narrative and Documentary Competition Films
Slamdance today announced the 20 films that comprise its 2016 Narrative and Documentary Competition selections. A total of 16 premieres — 12 World, three North American and one U.S. — will be presented January 22 – 28 at the festival’s usual digs atop mainstream at the Treasure Mountain Inn, Park City, Utah. Said co-founder and Slamdance President Peter Baxter in a statement, “The standard of DIY filmmaking around the world is the highest we’ve seen, and the diversity of storytelling is the most we’ve experienced. With a record breaking number of submissions to select from, the narrative and documentary feature […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 30, 2015 -
BRITDOC Launches the World’s First Documentary Cookbook on Kickstarter
With awards like the Cinema Eye Honors’ Unforgettables Award, documentary organizations are beginning to draw attention not just to the filmmakers behind documentary cameras but the subjects in front. Still, BRITDOC’s latest is utterly original: the world’s first documentary cookbook. Currently fundraising on Kickstarter, the project is a digital download illustrated by Ben Lamb containing savory recipes from documentary subjects all over the world, from Chicago’s Ameena Matthews (from Steve James’ The Interrupters) to Burma’s Joshua Min Htut (Burma VJ) to an as-yet-unrevealed “certain American living somewhere in Russia.” Six of the doc chefs have already been announced, with all […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 29, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: Todd Haynes’ Carol, Final Trailer
What an exquisite final trailer for Todd Haynes’ Patricia Highsmith adaption, Carol! Haynes’s film, a story of forbidden love set in a 1950s’ New York, is pure cinema, every moment carefully calibrated and achingly expressed. Carol is Filmmaker‘s Fall, 2015 cover story — an interview of Haynes conducted by Kim Morgan — and the Weinstein Company has just released this last trailer, posted above.
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 20, 2015 -
Short Film Premiere: Francesca Coppola’s Jonny Come Lately
“What can be said of a connection that seems to border on captivity? Where does the line between violence & intimacy exist?” That’s how Francesca Coppola introduces her sophomore short film, Jonny Come Lately, further described as focusing on “a fragile, complicated, volatile union between two lovers.” The film features Deragh Campbell, Kentucker Audley and Evan Louison, it was shot on 16mm, and it premieres online today via Filmmaker and courtesy of 1985. Last year, Coppola wrote about her film on the occasion of its Kickstarter launch. Here, she describes what the film means to her and, hopefully, for you: […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 20, 2015 -
Lena Olin-Starring A Critically Endangered Species Wraps Production
Oscar and Golden Globe-nominee Lena Olin (The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Enemies, A Love Story) has wrapped production of A Critically Endangered Species, an independent drama directed by award-winning poet T. Zachary Cotler and novelist/producer Magdalena Zyzak. The film was produced by Mike Ryan of Greyshack Films and Morgan Jon Fox, a director and producer who placed in the 2009 edition of Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces. Olin stars as a famous novelist who, after deciding to commit suicide, calls on young male writers to submit their work to her so that she can name one her literary executor. Starring alongside […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 16, 2015 -
IFP Announces 10 Web Series Projects for Inaugural Screen Forward Labs
IFP, Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today ten projects for its inaugural Screen Forward Labs, which are dedicated to serialized, story-driven web content. Encompassing a series of intensive workshops modeled after the organization’s Narrative and Documentary Labs, the Screen Forward Labs provide mentorship and year-round support for those looking to develop, market and finance their original online work. The Screen Forward Labs are led by Amy Dotson, IFP Head of Programming, and Holly Kang, IFP Screen Forward Labs Producer. Commented Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in New York Media Center, “We are excited to introduce the first […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 9, 2015 -
Look Into the Cut: Jessica Brillhart on Editing VR
From classical Hollywood continuity editing to Eisensteinian montage, from the quick jump cuts of the French New Wave to the even more accelerated and spatially destabilized editing of the Hollywood blockbuster, filmmakers from the dawn of cinema have had to embrace, even if only on a subconscious level, some theory of editing. What, then, of today’s nascent medium of Virtual Reality (VR)? Some are calling VR the next phase of cinema, but many VR works are more akin to video games, where cuts are hidden within approaching horizon lines. Or where, inelegantly, an edit is simply a transition from one […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 28, 2015 -
Editor’s Letter
It’s fall, and time for new things, so let’s get right into it. I like this issue. I know, I like every issue, but this issue has an especially good vibe to it. We’ll see what you think. In some ways it’s classic Filmmaker, and, as we do every fall, there’s a special focus on postproduction. But there are new contributors throughout, and we’ve shaken up the way we’ve covered certain topics. For example, in the fall we usually do some sort of NLE roundup, cataloguing the new features in the workstation space. But — the perils of publishing a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 28, 2015
