Filmmaking

HELL IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT: ON THE ROLE OF THE PRODUCER

Ted Hope has an essential post this morning, “Ten Steps (Plus One) for how to Survive the Current Indie Producer Hell.” Reading it I almost thought of it as a sequel to his 1995 Filmmaker piece, “Indie Film is Dead,” which remains one of the best things we’ve published. (Reading that earlier piece is both fascinating and depressing. The more things change….) There’s a tiny bit of tongue-in-cheek in this post because, frankly, these steps are virtually unattainable for the vast majority of producers out there, as some of the commenters in Hope’s comments thread argue. Here are the first […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 9, 2009 Filmmaking
TORONTO 09: GUY MADDIN’S NIGHT MAYOR

Over at Movie City Indie, Ray Pride posts a two minute clip of Guy Maddin’s short film Night Mayor which will have public screenings at TIFF on Saturday, Sept. 12 @ 4:00PM (ISABEL BADER THEATRE) & Sunday, Sept. 13 @ 1:15PM (JACKMAN HALL – AGO). Looks like vintage Maddin to me. A description of the short reads: The filmmaker whose cinematic style inspired the term “Maddinesque” delivers a fantastical film about the night mayor of Winnipeg, an inventor of Bosnian descent who harnesses the power of the aurora borealis to transmit distinctly Canadian images across the Great White North. Guy […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 8, 2009 Filmmaking
THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL REPRODUCTION

More in today’s New York Times that’s worth noting: Alice Pfeiffer’s piece on how the art world is dealing with digital art creation and sales. Again, much of the most interesting thought about these issues is happening outside of the film world. An excerpt: The speed of change in electronic technology, the disconnect between data storage and display and the virtual nature of digital imagery raise difficult questions: how to tell genuine from fake or copy; how to create and protect uniqueness; and how to protect a work against technological obsolescence. Video art, for example, is typically sold as a […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 6, 2009 Filmmaking
COMPOSER, IMPROVISER AND FILM SCORER JIM O’ROURKE ON CONTEXT

From today’s New York Times, a piece by Ben Ratliffe on Jim O’Rourke and his move to Japan, his turn towards improvisation and film scores, his new album The Visitor (pictured), and his attempt to control context. An excerpt: Mr. O’Rourke’s production style is precise and dry; he creates a sound picture in which tiny sonic details matter. But where his Drag City records are concerned, everything matters: the pacing, the length, the sound, the cover images. For this reason he won’t allow “The Visitor,” or any of his albums, to be sold as downloads, on iTunes or anywhere else. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 6, 2009 Filmmaking
BILL MECHANIC’S STATE OF THE UNION

From David Poland and The Hot Blog comes a new video feature, “State of the Union,” featuring “interviews with the people behind the scenes about the industry, past, present, and future…” First up, producer and former studio exec Bill Mechanic on the history of movie marketing, home video vs. theatrical marketing, and why day and date from an economic perspective “is a complete and total disaster.”

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 4, 2009 Filmmaking
AFTER LAST SEASON DVD TO BE RELEASED

After Last Season director Mark Region emailed me to say that a DVD of the film will be available for order from its website on September 30. Head over to the site for a new trailer for the film, and check out my interview with Region here.

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 4, 2009 Filmmaking
TWEET WITH KEVIN SMITH FOR 24 HOURS

As “stay-cation” seems to be on everyone’s lips for this Labor Day weekend I thought I’d plan out your Monday for you… Sit in front of your computer and Tweet with Kevin Smith all day. To promote his upcoming book, Shootin’ The Sh*t with Kevin Smith, the foul-mouthed writer-director will be hosting a 24-hour Tweet Q&A with his followers on Monday at @ThatKevinSmith that he’s dubbing “Tweet-a-thon”. If you’ve ever been to a speaking engagement of Smith’s I don’t need to tell you how entertaining this will be. And it will be fun to see how witty Smith can be […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 4, 2009 Filmmaking
LOOP PLANES SEARCHES FOR ITS LEAD

Here’s the just-posted episode two of the Killer Films/Massify video production blog for their Loop Planes. For episode one and more on the project, click here. Massify + Killer Films Episode 2 from Massify on Vimeo.

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 4, 2009 Filmmaking
AND PROUD WE ARE OF ALL THEM

For anyone who’s payed the ultimate tribute to the Coen Brothers‘ The Big Lebowski by attending the Lebowski Fest, this one’s for you. I first heard of the Achievers last September when I interviewed the creators of Lebowski Fest for FilmInFocus. This group of die hards for everything Lebowski span the globe and are not fans of the film but are obsessed over it. Some dress up as their favorite characters and attend Lebowski Fest, others yell out every F-bomb at midnight screenings and some practice the religion Dudeism. The Achievers are now the subject of a documentary, The Achievers: […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 3, 2009 Filmmaking
Director George LaVoo on A Dog Year

In A Dog Year, the feature film directed by George LaVoo from Jon Katz’s memoir, Jeff Bridges plays Katz, a midlife crisis-stricken writer who, impulsively and in an act of near-deliberate emotional self-destruction, adopts a rambunctious and unsocialized border collie, flying him cross country to his family’s split-level home and their two other dogs. And while Lavoo’s movie has its share of Beethoven-esque moments as the collie sprints down suburban streets or mischievously jumps rides on passing automobiles, the film is less about canine hijinks and more about the complex and unexpected emotional roles that dogs play in our lives. […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 3, 2009 Directing

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