Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Kentucker Audley Wants You to Support the Movies on Kickstarter
Kentucker Audley might have been reading Mike Ryan’s “TV is Not the New Film,” in which the producer concedes that TV is dominating our cultural conversation right now. And he’s decided to do something about it. Audley has taken to Kickstarter to sell a simple item of apparel that will tell the world that, yes, you’re a movie fan.
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 16, 2015 -
Music Video: David Gilmour Meets Ornana with “The Girl in the Yellow Dress”
Ben Weissner and the gang at Ornana — Filmmaker 25 New Faces in 2012 — have just passed along this video for “The Girl in the Yellow Dress,” a single from Pink Floyd guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour’s new solo album. Explains Weissner about the video’s hand animation: His creative team had seen Confusion Through Sand (which has been re-edited to play at his live concerts) and were drawn to the dimensionality and movement in that style, so they asked if we’d bring a similar technique to their song. The music video is made of about 9.000 frames of animation that were […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 13, 2015 -
With Surreal Short Films and Spiky New Fonts, Jonathan Glazer and Neville Brody Rebrand U.K.’s Channel 4
Under the Skin filmmaker Jonathan Glazer and design hero Neville Brody, alongside creative agencies 4Creative and DBLG have “rebranded” iconic U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 with jagged new fonts and a deliriously weird, vaguely Kubrick-ian series of station IDs. Glazer’s four narratively-linked shorts fit more comfortably into his recent film work than they do any kind of television advertising, with their mysterious creatures, magenta rock formations and high-tech science laboratories. As for the fonts, well, back in the day, we at Filmmaker used to spend late nights with our late, great designer Wayne Van Acker geeking out over Brody’s work for […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 3, 2015 -
Professional Development, Pleasures and Promiscuity at IFP Film Week: A Filmmaker Post-Mortem
IFP Film Week 2015 has come to an end, and while the Filmmaker Conference, with its front-facing elements — all the panels, events and screenings — may have dominated ours and others’ home pages, the real action, arguably, was behind-the-scenes, at the Project Forum. That’s where filmmakers hustling the projects of tomorrow all convened, looking for the support that will enable them to bring their vision to screens in the years ahead. To call it a wrap on Film Week, we asked a number of directors, writers and producers attending the Project Forum to sum up their experience and, if they’ve […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 30, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: Monica Peña’s Hearts of Palm
Miami-based filmmaker Monica Peña’s debut feature, Ectotherms, was a provocative discovery out of the Miami Film Festival that scored a great review in Variety from Guy Lodge and which announced Peña as someone to watch. Just dropped, then, is the teaser trailer to her second feature, Hearts of Palm. Suitably mysterious and with arresting imagery, it is described simply as “a love story told through science, literature, and music, invoking Miami’s mystical undercurrents.” For more on Peña, read her interview with Sarah Salovaara about the distribution of Ectotherms. And, if you’re in Miami, join me, Peña, Jillian Mayer and Carla […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 28, 2015 -
Watch: Leah Shore’s Mindbending Charles Manson Animation, Old Man
Leah Shore made our “25 New Faces” list in 2013 on the basis of her totally trippy animated short, Old Man, which traverses the entirety of 20th century history, from Hitler to Kennedy, the bomb to Michael Jackson, in a rapid-fire, image-morphing five minutes that’s voiced by imprisoned cult leader Charles Manson. The recordings came from a series of tapes Shore obtained by Marlin Marynick, a psychiatric nurse. Explains Sarah Salovaara in her Filmmaker profile on Shore: Marynick forked over approximately 10 hours of audio recordings, which resulted in Shore “sitting in a dark room for two months and going […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 28, 2015 -
“I Play a Little with Fire”: Photographer and Director Stacy Kranitz on She Does Podcast
Stacy Kranitz is a documentary photographer who explores history, representation and otherness. She has developed her style, one that is full of movement, emotionally raw, gritty and features individuals in high-octane environments. These individuals are sometimes new subjects and other times her longtime friends, folks she has been documenting since she started her work in Appalachia in 2009. Stacy’s photos are sometimes bloody, many times violent, often sexualized, occasionally drug-induced and always causing a stir. She has documented people and places all around the world, including snake handlers in Appalachia, cockfighting in Louisiana and black metal bands in Norway. Her […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 25, 2015 -
IFP Screen Forward: 5 Questions for SXSW Film Director Janet Pierson
As Head of SXSW Film Janet Pierson relates below, her Austin-based festival has, for several years, showcased the work of television creators alongside works by feature filmmakers. For SXSW, throwing television into the mix is not so unnatural — the festival is a sprawling behemoth with not only music and film but interactive, gaming and sports. But other festivals, like Tribeca and Toronto, have jumped into the mix too, and some critics — like producer Mike Ryan in a recent Filmmaker article — have been calling for film festivals to focus on cinema and forgo small-screen work that is hardly […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 23, 2015 -
IFP Screen Forward: 5 Questions for Producer Peter Phok about Crowdfunding’s Aftermath
Producer Peter Phok (The Sacrament, The Innkeepers, V/H/S) is one of five professionals this morning at an IFP Screen Forward panel titled “Bridging the Gap after Crowdfunding.” The title of the panel is an interesting collision of terms as only recently has crowdfunding been factored into independent film financing equations alongside terms like “mezzanine,” “senior debt” and “tax credit monetization.” But, indeed, crowdfunding is part of many independent films’ financing schemes, and its success — or failure — has much to do with a film’s greenlight. Below, Phok answers questions about film and crowdfunding. Filmmaker: Your panel is called, “Bridging […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 23, 2015 -
IFP Screen Forward: 5 Questions for Documentary Producer Julie Goldman
One of the most prolific documentary producers around, Julie Goldman, takes the main stage this afternoon at IFP’s Screen Forward conference to talk about the evolving practice of non-fiction production. With producing credits going back to 1997, Goldman has produced or executive produced such notable films as Buck, Beware of Mr. Baker, 1971 , Best of Enemies and Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden. She’s currently producing through her production company, Motto, which has allowed her to increase the quantity of her production, just one of several topics she discusses below. Filmmaker: Your producing credits go back to 1997, yet […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 22, 2015
