Filmmaking

CINEMATIC RENDITION

I received this email as a response to this week’s edition of the Filmmaker newsletter. (If you don’t get the newsletter, which contains an Editor’s Letter not appearing on this blog, you can subscribe for free here.) Scott, I always love your weekly newsletter editorials and from your last I know you need a quick, humorous distraction. The new model for film distribution occurred to me today. I’m in a creative headstorm with my editor and since our film is about humanity, the universe, and the space program under the Bush Administration, it all synthesized at once. We kidnap potential […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 18, 2010 Filmmaking
13 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE IFP NARRATIVE LAB

The recently concluded IFP Narrative Lab was a dense week of study and mentorship as our participating filmmakers, all with films somewhere between rough and fine cut, were given guidance about picture lock, sound design, scoring and music licensing, festival strategy, distribution deals, and DIY, self and hybrid distribution efforts. Amy Dotson and Rose Vincelli from the IFP did a fantastic job of putting the program together. Susan Stover, Jon Reiss and I were the lab leaders. In addition, an inspiring group of editors, filmmakers, producers and industry vets came in to lend their expertise. At the end of the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 17, 2010 Filmmaking
PETER BRUNETTE, R.I.P.

I was shocked and tremendously saddened to read at Indiewire this morning the news that film critic Peter Brunette died today of a heart attack while attending the Taorima Film Festival in Italy. Eugene Hernandez’s obituary recalls Brunette’s many accomplishments, including his books on Michelangelo Antonioni, Wong Kar-wai and, most recently, Michael Haneke, as well as his work as director of film studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. From an excerpt from a Wake Forest publication quoted by Hernandez: “People should watch art films for the same reason they should read Virginia Woolf as well as Tom Clancy,” […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 16, 2010 Filmmaking
JAMIE STUART’S “SPLICE THIS”: A TRIP TO EDITFEST NY

Caffeine, The Departed and too much B-roll brings out Jamie Stuart’s hardboiled, affectionately profane persona in Splice This, a short film based around his trip to EditFest NY this weekend. It features interview material with longtime Scorsese-collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker and ace editor Alan Heim. (Warning: profanity. Not safe for work.) See more videos on our YouTube channel. You can also download the original Quicktime here.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 16, 2010 Filmmaker Videos
DEEP BACKGROUND ON THE SUNDANCE INSTITUTE AND FESTIVAL

At The Film Stage, Kristin Coates has a long and impressively detailed take on the early days of the Sundance Institute and Festival, tracing the social, political and industry currents that lead to the formation of what is now one of the dominant institutions in the world of independent film. The Directors Lab is currently unfolding at Redford’s Sundance Institute in Utah, and Coates’ article is not only a timely tale of Sundance but also a history of the transition from the “New Hollywood” of the mid-’70s to a self-identifying American independent film movement that gathered steam in the ’80s. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 12, 2010 Filmmaking
NEW CHANCE FOR OLD MOVIE : ANTONIONI’S LE AMICHE

Literally translated as “The Girlfriends,” Michelangelo Antonioni’s Le Amiche was made in 1955, but never given a proper US release. A restored print by Cineteca di Bologna arrives at Film Forum next week in New York and will play DC, LA and beyond, courtesy of an exquisitely curated new distribution company, The Film Desk. Reported features of the movie: a picnic by the sea that foreshadows L’Avventura; a collection of deep, and deeply troubled, female characters; a tea party — this is much more than a completionist’s dream come true!

By Alicia Van Couvering on Jun 11, 2010 Filmmaking
AMOS POE’S WHITE ALBUM

I thought I knew Amos Poe’s first film, but after reading his account of the early days of his career as well as Lower East Side film in general, it turns out that I didn’t. From his piece at Truly Free Film: My first Super 8 film, was a series of shorts made to the Beatles “White” album. I loved that record and came up with short stories or ideas for each song. My friends helped and “acted” in these films. With ”Rocky Racoon” I did single-frame animation, for “Dear Prudence”, I managed to convince the most beautiful girl in […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 11, 2010 Filmmaking
ARTISTS ADD PORN TO THE iPAD

Looks like Banksy’s Exit to the Gift Shop is influencing folks out there. This viral campaign by a group of San Francisco artists, Freedom From Porn , who are protesting the ban on adult material within Apple’s walled garden, clearly cops a few licks from the British artist’s great new movie. Freedom From Porn from Freedom From Porn on Vimeo.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 10, 2010 Filmmaking
“KEVORKIAN” AT STRANGER THAN FICTION

Do not ask for whom Kevorkian tolls, Kevorkian tolls for Stranger Than Fiction. Last night, the spring season of the IFC series came to a close with Kevorkian, Matthew Galkin’s profile of the controversial right-to-die-activist’s recent run for Congress. During the nineties, Kevorkian assisted in the suicides of over one hundred people, becoming the center of a media fire storm, a storm he stoked by sending a tape of himself injecting a terminally-ill man with an overdose of drugs to 60 Minutes and then daring prosecutors to come after him. They took him up on his offer. Determined to provoke […]

By Mary Anderson Casavant on Jun 9, 2010 Festivals & Events
TALKIN’ ABOUT YOUR NIGHT MOVES

Jamie Stuart recently purchased a Canon 7D (see our recent interview with Joshua and Benny Safdie for his work) and has been building some homemade gear. Check out this video demonstrating his DIY portable slider — and also the camera’s awesome night shooting capabilities. You can also download a Quicktime here. Night Moves from The Mutiny Company on Vimeo.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 8, 2010 Filmmaking

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