Filmmaking

PREVIEWING THE TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL

Howard Feinstein will be covering Toronto for Filmmaker this year. Below, he jots down a few of the things he’s looking forward to. Question: How to group the films at Toronto I am most eager to see, by section or by geographical programming (a major plus for the festival)? Answer: Both. Here goes, but frankly, the titles are hardly exhaustive. “Visions,” with only 12 titles, could turn out to be the hot strand. I’m eager to see Trash Humpers (above left), by the poet of the most ignored among the marginalized, Harmony Korine. Ditto To Die Like a Man, by […]

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 10, 2009 Filmmaking
DISPATCH #2 FROM 66th VENICE: POLITICS AND PERSONALITIES

This has been a festival of surprises, beginning with higher attendance than anticipated in view of the world-wide economic crisis, and the emergence of unexpected stars: how about Michael Moore and President Hugo Chavez as media darlings? Moore, who apparently is better known in Europe than one would imagine, brought Capitalism: A Love Story (right), drawing an overflow crowd to his press conference and enthusiastic audiences to the screenings. Moore’s is one of the six U.S. films competing for the Golden Lion. The real coup, however, was an international stage for Chavez in Oliver Stone’s South of the Border, signing […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 10, 2009 Filmmaking
From Hollywood to nobody

Sometimes people ask me how I went from living in Los Angeles, writing a studio film like 40 Days & 40 Nights, to living in Minneapolis, directing an independent comedy like nobody. It’s a fair question but it seems there’s a subtext here, too. Many people think independent film is a step down from the studio system. And I’m sure it is — for some people. But let’s go back. 40 Days & 40 Nights is about a guy who gives up sex for lent and then meets the perfect girl. The short version of how it was made goes […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Sep 9, 2009 Directing
TORONTO: TEASING HARMONY KORINE’S TRASH HUMPERS

Here’s the teaser for Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers, premiering this week in Toronto and then heading to the New York Film Festival.

By Scott Macaulay on Sep 9, 2009 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

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