Filmmaking

VIEWS FROM THE WINDOW

Tired of waking up in the same place every day? Then WinScape may be for you. The company’s plasma monitors and software allow you to change your definition of “outside” whenever you want. Most impressively, the view changes as you walk around your apartment… only if, that is, you walk around your apartment wearing a radio-emitting headpiece.

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 18, 2010 Filmmaking
WHAT SHOULD A NEW DOC FESTIVAL LOOK LIKE?

That was the question asked a group of about 40 filmmakers and members of the filmmaking community at an IFC Center Friday breakfast by Thom Powers (artistic director), John Vanco (managing director) and Raphaela Neihausen (executive director) about their new event, DOC NYC. Powers, Vanco and Neihausen are teaming to present the inaugural edition of this new Gotham doc fest this November, and their first step has been to reach out to the community for opinions on what’s needed to distinguish their festival. From their initial release: “DOC NYC will fill an important void in New York City and will […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 17, 2010 Festivals & Events
THOM YORKE COVERS “LOVE WILL TEAR US APART”

Some Friday night listening pleasure from the Atoms for Peace concert (I sadly missed).

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 16, 2010 Filmmaking
DEMO’ING THE RED EPIC AND SCARLET CAMERAS

Jamie Stuart passed me this video, which Ray Pride posted at Movie City Indie. Check out the small size of the forthcoming RED Epic camera. Here’s another RED report from NAB, courtesy of Engadget: Ted Interview (Part I) from Landmine Media on Vimeo.

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 16, 2010 Filmmaking
GUY MADDIN’S “NIGHT MAYOR”

Guy Maddin’s hometown fantasia, My Winnipeg, is one of my favorite films of the last few years. Night Mayor is a recent short film that explores similar territory. It won a Short Film Jury Award for Experimental Short at this year’s SXSW, and is now available online at the National Film Board of Canada site (and embedded here). From the press release: Night Mayor tells the tale of Nihad Ademi, a Bosnian immigrant who serves as Winnipeg’s “night mayor.” Ademi somehow harnesses the multi-coloured waves of the Aurora Borealis and uses its power to broadcast images of his beloved adoptive […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 16, 2010 Filmmaking
BAHMAN GHOBADI ON IMPROVISATION, “PERSIAN CATS,” AND KIAROSTAMI

I caught Bahman Ghobadi’s No One Knows about Persian Cats, opening tomorrow at the IFC Center, when it screened at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival. In the magazine, I wrote the following: The story told by the Iranian Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s No One Knows about Persian Cats would have fit comfortably into an afternoon of mumblecore films at SXSW. A young couple tries to form a band and score an out-of-town gig. Because it’s set in Iran, however, the band is outlawed, money must be scraped together for the expensive exit visa, and the female musician is not even […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 15, 2010 Filmmaking
STAR IN YOUR OWN “KICK-ASS”

Kick-Ass is Matthew Vaughn’s canny mainstream imagining of John Romita and Mark Millar’s Marvel Comic about a bunch of psychologically damaged homemade superheroes on self-empowerment rampage. Yes, I felt weird watching 11-year-old Chloe Moretz (she’s 13 now) take part in such violent shootouts. I also queasily admired Vaughn’s seemingly casual but ultimately quite calculated envelope-pushing. There’s some brutish B-movie splatter and the C-word too, but this is not transgressive filmmaking. (Indeed, while watching Kick-Ass I kept wishing I was watching the Takeshi Miike version.) Kinka Usher’s Mystery Men, adapted from Bob Burden’s comic, worked a similar concept over ten years […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 15, 2010 Filmmaking
CANNES 2010 LINE-UP ANNOUNCED

The South of France will be filled with familiar faces for this year’s Cannes Film Festival as the line-up was announced overnight in Paris. As previously announced Ridley Scott‘s Robin Hood will open the festival. Notable names attending will include Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jean Luc-Godard and Gregg Araki (full list of titles below). The one glaring omission is Terrence Malick‘s Tree of Life, though festival chief Thierry Fremaux says there more titles are expected to be announced as the festival approaches. The fest will take place May 12-23. IN COMPETITION: Tournee directed by Mathieu Almaric Des […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Apr 15, 2010 Festivals & Events
DISCUSSING “HORSES” WITH FILMMAKER LIZ MERMIN

I’m happy to welcome Mary Anderson Casavant to the blog. I’ll let her introduce herself below, and you can look forward to a series of posts from her on the documentary scene, focusing on the films featured at the Stranger than Fiction series unspooling at the IFC Center. First up is a conversation with filmmaker Liz Mermin. — SM I’d like to start by acknowledging that I am not a disinterested observer when it comes to Stranger Than Fiction. From 2005 – 2006, I worked as a freelance researcher for its founder and curator, Thom Powers, the current documentary programmer […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 14, 2010 Filmmaking
“HOUSE” SEASON FINALE SHOT ON CANON 5D

If you think that DSLRs haven’t caught on for filmmakers in a big way yet, think again. Following up a series of Twitter posts by its director, the website Peta Pixel reports that the season finale of House has been shot on the Canon 5D. The site compiles director Greg Yaitanes’ tweets into an impromptu interview (a neat journalistic trick I will make a point to try sometime), including this summation of his experience: “i loved it and feel it’s the future. cameras that can give you these looks.” Check out Peta Pixel for the whole conversation. The episode airs […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 13, 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.