Filmmaking

Do the Yam: Astaire & Rogers: The Complete Works

“I wanted to be a dancer,” says Fred Astaire, wheezing out a tune on a harmonica with his gangly frame draped casually over a medical couch. “Till I was psychologized.” Astaire plays doctor—a shrink, of all things—in Mark Sandrich’s Carefree (1953), a little-known screwball comedy gem as antic and goofy as Howard Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby (1938) with dance. And what dance! Accompanied by an Irving Berlin score, Astaire and Rogers are at the top of their game in the tale of a therapist (Astaire) who must find the root of the commitment phobia that plagues his new patient (Rogers). […]

By Livia Bloom Ingram on Sep 1, 2010 Filmmaking
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS

Here are some links that caught my eye this week. The Workbook Project has a new Transmedia Talk Podcast. Topics include “The Web is Dead,” Foursquare, and the Transmedia panels at SXSW 2011. Also at the Workbook Project, Mark Harris on why he shot his forthcoming The Lost Children fiction feature as a doc. Sarah Kessler at Mashable: “New Neutrality — Seven Worst-Case Scenarios.” There’s been a lot of interest in NYC writer Tao Lin over at The Rumpus. I haven’t read him, so I can’t comment. But here’s an intro at Salon that also discusses the new ways he’s […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 29, 2010 Filmmaking
FILMMAKER FLASHBACK: FALL, 1996

Al Pacino, Robert Young, Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky, Cheryl Dunye, Curtis Charm, Nina Menkes, Alexander Payne, Steve Buscemi, Eric Bogosian and Nick Cassavetes were all featured in our Fall, 1996 issue, an edition that was dominated by one feature: our “50 Most Important Independent Films.” What makes one film more “important” than another? Here’s a portion of my intro: When we sent a letter out to several dozen critics, curators, distributors, and producers asking them to pick the most important American independent films of all time, we received a slew of responses ranging from the excited to the confused. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 28, 2010 Filmmaking
SUNDANCE DOC CREATIVE PRODUCING LAB DIARY #2: RACHEL LIBERT

Here is part two of Rachel Libert’s diaries from the Sundance Labs. Read part one here. The busloads of people arriving at the Sundance Resort for the Creative Producing Summit signaled the end of the Creative Producing Lab. Twenty narrative producers, twenty documentary producers and dozens of high-level industry representatives are sequestered in the privacy of the Wasatch Mountains. We’re participating in an information marathon. We are a think tank in which our collective brainpower evaluates the industry and its future. For the Documentary Creative Producing Lab fellows there’s a palpable shift from our tight knit group discussions about the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 28, 2010 Filmmaking
SUNDANCE DOC FILM CREATIVE PRODUCING LAB DIARY: RACHEL LIBERT

Here is the first of two diaries from Rachel Libert, a producer and director who brought her project Semper Fi: Always Faithful to the Sundance Doc Film Creative Producing Lab. I’m on my way home from the Sundance Documentary Film Creative Producing Lab and Summit and struggling to describe the experience. Nearly four years ago I was researching a documentary film about a public health organization and, while the idea was intriguing, it was becoming increasingly obvious that it was an impossible film to make. Before I graciously made my exit from the project I went to lunch with the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 27, 2010 Filmmaking
SOLVE A HUMAN MYSTERY, PRODUCE A FILM

Since I was a teenager, one of my favorite science-fiction writers has been Norman Spinrad. Of course, to call him a science-fiction writer is tremendously reductive, because his writing has encompassed historical fiction, political commentary and cultural critique. But when I encountered him, he was part of a renegade group of science-fiction writers who were pushing the genre’s boundaries of form and content. He was collected by Harlan Ellison in his Dangerous Visions series, which is where I first read him. Later I stumbled across a signed copy of Norman’s excellent and now astonishingly prescient tale of the media and […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2010 Filmmaking
Sundance Creative Producers Lab Diary: Amy Lo, Part Two

Producer Amy Lo with Producing Advisor Ron Yerxa Here’s part two of Amy Lo’s Sundance Creative Producer’s Lab Diary. Part One can be read here. Back in New York, a director I’d just met the other day told me, “You’re really nice for a producer.” Have we sunk so low? He was surprised that I was…nice? In fact, at the Sundance Creative Producing Summit, there was nothing but niceness all around. It began on Friday; specifically, after lunch. Pre-lunch, we were still ensconced in our intimate, small-group sessions for the Feature Film Creative Producing Lab, which had started five days […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2010 Filmmaking
CANON ANNOUNCES THE EOS 60D, WITH FLIP SCREEN

In our current issue Roberto Quezada-Dardon writes about the upsurge in HDSLR activity from manufacturers and accessories makers. Now, the new releases are coming fast and furious. Via Engadget, Canon has announced the EOS 60D. And it’s got a flip-out screen. From the site: Well, what do we have here? Last we heard about the Canon EOS 60D it was just a twinkle in our articulating screen of a peripheral vision. And now it’s official — my, how times have changed. Here’s what we know about the 50D successor (with definite nods to the Rebel T2i’s feature set): the 18-megapixel […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2010 Filmmaking
MARTIN SCORSESE’S SHE SAID YEAH

A promotional short for Bleu de Chanel that seems to be comprised of the shards of more than one complete movie. Score by the Stones. Hat tip Movie City News.

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 26, 2010 Filmmaking
SUNDANCE CREATIVE PRODUCERS LAB DIARY: AMY LO

Here is the first of two filmmaker reports filed from the just-finished Sundance Producer’s Lab. Reporting back here is Amy Lo. The Sundance Lab was my rehab. In the most transformative, astonishing way. Here we are, Day One, four fellow Fellows and me gathered up from parts east, west and south, hurtling up the hill, forward-pressing and fueled by anxious hope. We come to a sudden stop, a moment to inhale and exhale. High-elevation, low-oxygen. Rising disorientation. The Sundance Creative Producing Lab spans five days of project-focused tough love, naked honesty, catharsis and renewal. All framed by breath-taking mountainous isolation. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Aug 25, 2010 Filmmaking

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.