Authors — Scott Macaulay
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Watch: Taiwan Food Adventures: “Lynn Chen Bites, Episode One”
I first met actress Lynn Chen when executive producing Alice Wu’s feature film, Saving Face, and, since then, I’ve followed her work across film and TV — from Dave Boyle’s features to the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead — but also podcasting and social media. A body image activist as well as actress, Chen has the most varied social media footprint of anyone I know. She’s recently carved out a second career as food blogger through her website and podcast, The Actor’s Diet, as well as food videos for Buzzfeed, where she’s scored over one million views in a […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 30, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: Blue Velvet Revisited, Directed by Peter Braatz
Marking the David Lynch film’s 30th Anniversary, this Fall will see the release of Peter Braatz’s Blue Velvet Revisited, a feature-length documentary consisting of Super 8 footage the director shot on the North Carolina set of Blue Velvet. Braatz previously made a short film out of this material, No Frank in Lumberton, but now he’s pulled out all the stops, commissioning a brand-new soundtrack that excites me just as much as this footage does. That soundtrack, featuring new work recorded in 2015 by Tuxedomoon, Cult with No Name and John Foxx, is already available for pre-order on Amazon and iTunes. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 29, 2015 -
No Mimes, Please! Soderbergh Recuts Antonioni’s Blow-Up
“For legal reasons, all of the footage with the mime troupe will have to be excised,” writes MGM “executive receptionist Tureen Patarga” to one Michelangelo Antonioni about his movie, Blow-Up. “Apparently one of the striped shirts worn by a cast member was originally created by the noted designer Hermoine Girth-Schnitt and was not cleared for use by the costume department.” Any on-set producer, particularly on a low-budget picture with lightly-staffed departments, has experienced that morning-of irritation: “Hey, is this okay to use? Can we clear this?” Usually it’s a rock-star poster, a t-shirt, or some ambiguous knick-knack foregrounded in the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 29, 2015 -
A Reader Asks, “How Do I Find A Director for my Screenplay?”
We’re always happy to receive questions here at Filmmaker about filmmaking itself. One such question inspired one of our most-read posts, “15 Things to Do After You Finish Your Script,” and now a reader of that blog post has written in with a logical next question: How do you find a director for your screenplay?” Below, my response and, as I like to do, further comments from someone who might have more experience than me — in this case, screenwriter and Filmmaker reader (and writer), Marc Maurino. First, here’s the reader letter: Hello Scott: I’ve just read and thoroughly enjoyed […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 25, 2015 -
Aerial Los Angeles and “Droning for Good”
Filmmaker Ian Wood has posted his second overhead exploration of Los Angeles — its neighborhoods, landmarks, people and vistas. His footage is beautifully operated, color-corrected and edited, and amidst recent controversy over drone filmmaking comes with, on Wood’s Vimeo page, his personal rulebook for urban drone shooting: Droning For Good With all the controversy about drones, it’s important to remember that they can be (and often are) used responsibly. As with many emerging technologies, the laws struggle to keep up and we must employ a common sense approach to their use that is respectful to community, safety and the law. […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 16, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation
“Remix culture applied to cinema” — that’s the elevator pitch for DJ Spooky’s latest release, Rebirth of a Nation, a multimedia work that uses remixing, original scoring and various DJ techniques to interrogate D.W. Griffith’s 1915 The Birth of a Nation. Collapsing the three hour film into an hour of sound and image, DJ Spooky’s project critically analyzes the film’s legacy on both film grammar and the depiction of race in the more than a century since. Originally commissioned by the Spoleto Festival, Rebirth of a Nation has been performed around the world and is now available on CD, with […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 16, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: John Magary’s The Mend
Hilarious, confrontational and compellingly disorienting, John Magary’s The Mend is one of the most striking independent films of the past couple of years. A SXSW ’14 standout, it reaches theaters this week with a run at the IFC Center in New York. Check out the trailer for this comedy of dysfunctional siblings and lost weekends, and return later this week for more on the film.
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 15, 2015 -
Music Video: Lana Del Rey, “High by the Beach,” Directed by Jake Nava
What was that Godard (or Griffith) line, “All you need to make a movie is a girl and…”? Lana Del Rey’s latest music video, “High by the Beach,” has just dropped, and it’s got a kind of Zabriskie Point-era Antonioni meets Andy Sidaris thing going on, with lovely handheld camerawork, a trendily minimal beachside house location (“no” production design is the new production design) and a blast of a finish.
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 13, 2015 -
10 Lessons on Filmmaking from Roger Corman
The following interview, in which producer and director Roger Corman broke down the filmmaking rules he lives by, was conducted in 2013 and is reposted today on the sad occasion of Corman’s passing last Thursday at the age of 98. R.I.P. Roger Corman. The legendary Roger Corman is America’s proto-independent filmmaker, having produced literally hundreds of films and directed dozens more, most of them genre films made under a “fast, cheap and profitable” model that still offers guidance for new filmmakers everywhere. And while Corman is best known for films made during an earlier independent era, one in which regional […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 10, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: Jake Mahaffy’s Free in Deed
Jake Mahaffy appeared on Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces list in 2005 following his Tarkovsky-esque black-and-white (shot on a hand cranked camera, no less) tale of American collapse, War. His very different 2008 feature Wellness won the Grand Prize at SXSW and now, seven years later, Mahaffy is back with the Venice-premiering Free in Deed. Produced by Mike Ryan, it’s easily the film I’m anticipating most on the Fall festival circuit. From the film’s Facebook page: Set in the distinctive world of storefront churches and based on actual events, Free in Deed depicts one man’s attempts to perform a miracle. When […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 3, 2015
