Filmmaking

SXSW BLOG: MRIDU CHANDRA, PRODUCER, “THE CANAL STREET MADAM,” PART 2

Cameron and I went to pick up Jeanette Maier (the subject of our documentary, and the former high end madam of New Orleans) from the airport in our “Madam-mobile” which is what we’re now calling the 8 passenger van that we ended up renting when we got to town. It’s all they had left, because there are so many folks in town for SXSW and of course everyone had already booked the more subtle smaller cars. While we were waiting, the airport cop grilled us about what we were doing there, because apparently last year there were unmarked vans trying […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2010 Filmmaking
ALEXANDER PAYNE’S “THE DESCENDANTS” BEGINS SHOOTING

Six years after making the cross-over hit Sideways, Alexander Payne has begun production on his next film, The Descendants. Announced by Fox Searchlight, the film, based on Kaui Hart Hemmings‘s novel, started principal photography today in Hawaii. The film stars George Clooney as, according to the release, an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. Also starting are Judy Greer, Beau Bridges, Matthew Lillard, Robert Forster, Shailene Woodley, Mary Birdsong, Nick Krause and Amara Miller. Surprisingly, Taylor is not […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Mar 15, 2010 Filmmaking
SXSW BLOG: ANNA HIGGS, DAY THREE

Day Three at SXSW This morning it was pretty hard to wake up after just a few hours sleep when we were all already running on empty. But we rallied the troops (just us this time – no Imperial forces!) and made our way over to the Kodak Filmmakers’ brunch. Sadly we didn’t do much networking as we had precious little time to plan the day ahead and catch up on the all-important social media buzz on the film’s first showing last night. We did find 5 minutes for Alexandre to have a quick massage in the Filmmakers’ Lounge though […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 15, 2010 Filmmaking
Thoughts on Paul Greengrass’s Green Zone

The genius of the Jason Bourne movies is their welding of existentialist inquiry with the demands of the thriller in a globalist age. Adapted from Robert Ludlum’s series, Doug Liman and screenwriters Tony Gilroy and W. Blake Herron established the template with The Bourne Identity, locating their film’s MacGuffin not in the outside world but under the skin of its hero. As ex-intelligence operative Jason Bourne skips from city to city, pursuing clue after clue, he is ultimately investigating not a case but his own identity. What kind of man was — is — he? For my money, the first […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 14, 2010 Filmmaking
SXSW BLOG: ANNA HIGGS PREMIERE DAY, PART TWO

So as we walked down the lines of people hoping to get into our screening — all there well before the screening was due to start — it was quite the feeling. It was great to see the Austin Fan Force roaming the crowds and having pictures taken with fans. As we were running through the tech check the theatre and festival staff had put their heads together and decided to put on an extra screening at midnight — in place of a surprise screening — to accommodate the people they already knew wouldn’t get in thanks to the long […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 14, 2010 Filmmaking
SXSW BLOG: ANNA HIGGS’ PREMIERE DAY, PART ONE

So, it’s day 2 of the fest and D-Day for THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS. It’s our world premiere tonight and we’ve got a day packed with final preparations, the premiere, party and hopefully not too much panic! The day started well with the news that our screening sold out on the Xpress pass tickets in less than 20 minutes. Some people were in line from 8am. The booths don’t open until 10am. Could we be creating a mini STAR WARS phenomenon here?! Then it was time for Alexandre’s Studio SX interview with Lewis Wallace from Wired Magazine. There was […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 14, 2010 Filmmaking
SXSW BLOG: MRIDU CHANDRA, PRODUCER, “THE CANAL STREET MADAM”

So here we are at SXSW for the world premiere of a documentary I produced, The Canal Street Madam. My badge, accordingly, identifies me as Mridu Chandra, “The Canal Street Madam.” I can’t say that we thought of that when we named the film, but it’s definitely my favorite film festival badge so far! We landed in Austin Friday afternoon with what seemed like enough time to rent our car, ditch our winter coats, and get to the Filmmaker Lunch at Troublemaker studios. We drove up to the studio to find that the weren’t letting more people in, because it […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 14, 2010 Filmmaking
SXSW BLOG: ANNA HIGGS, PRODUCER, “THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS”

Swinging in to SXSW This is my first SXSW, which feels odd for me as I’ve worked as a producer in digital media & film for more than a decade, but shoots & life got in the way of coming before. But this year I’ve got a great reason to be here – I’m one of the producers of the innovative feature documentary The People Vs. George Lucas, here with director Alexandre O. Philippe, fellow prods Kerry Roy & Vanessa Philippe and DOP Robert Muratore. I’m based in the UK, so it was a long flight over here, and I […]

By Filmmaker Staff on Mar 13, 2010 Filmmaking
SXSW BLOG: “THE WEIRD WORLD OF BLOWFLY” DIRECTOR JONATHAN FURMANSKI

My Arrival. Well, I made it. I’m in Austin for SXSW 2010 to premiere my documentary film, The Weird World of Blowfly. About 2-1/2 years of shooting and editing, endless phone calls, countless emails, and probably 50,000 airline miles to get to this moment. Probably there’s still more work to do on the film — I can already tell you half a dozen places where I want to tweak the color or adjust the mix — but I made it and I’m ready to introduce the film to the world. It’s a coming out party for 93 minutes of HD […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 13, 2010 Filmmaking
“RIDE, RISE, ROAR” DIRECTOR DAVID HILLMAN CURTIS BLOGS FROM SXSW

This week we have a number of guest bloggers posting here from SXSW. Follow them before and after their screenings to get a taste of the festival as well as their personal thoughts on premiering their films. First up is David Hillman Curtis, whose film Ride, Rise Roar captures David Byrne’s recent “Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno” concert tour. SXSW. We arrived in Austin Wednesday night…late. My wife and I decided to bring the kids, 9 and 3, and make SXSW a family trip… we are exhausted and might leave early. Just kidding. When I heard the good […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 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.