Filmmaking

IGGY POP’S HOUELLEBECQIAN DOG LOVE

Via Pitchfork comes this unexpected but delightful news that Iggy Pop is making an album of New Orleans-styled jazz songs inspired by the French writer Michel Houellebecq’s quite excellent latest novel, The Possibility of an Island. Entitled Preliminaires, the album is an outgrowth of a songs Pop made for a documentary about the French author’s making of his novel into a film. Pop has made a wonderful video trailer for the album, which can be seen here. From Pitchfork: A bulletin sent out via the Stooges’ MySpace page says that Preliminaires is “NOT a rock album, more jazzy stuff.” In […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 2, 2009 Filmmaking
THE STRANGE CONTINUES

While in San Jose to attend the Cinequest Film Festival I got a chance to hang out with one of our more eccentric “25 New Faces” alumni, M dot Strange. The Bay-area native has been hard at work on his next feature animation project. He didn’t want to go too in depth about it with me, but if you’ve seen his first feature, We Are The Strange, you know it will stretch the limits of DIY filmmaking. One tidbit I can give out is the film’s score will be done by Endika, a San Jose musician who is a moving […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Mar 2, 2009 Filmmaking
PANOPTICON-LAND!!!

Greg Mottola’s forthcoming Adventureland is set in a slightly run-down 1980s Pennsylvania amusement park, and, as this link demonstrates, amusement parks have come a long way in 25 years. In a creepy application of the surveillance state, visitors of U.K.’s Alton Towers have the opportunity of paying extra to have themselves recorded during their day on the various rides by the park’s surveillance cameras. The park developed software capable of tracking each of its wristband-wearing visitors and then dumping footage of them onto a DVD that’s available when it’s time to go. From the amusement park’s site: What did we […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 1, 2009 Filmmaking
WHICH PART OF THE MOVIE INDUSTRY ARE YOU IN? (WRITERS CLICK HERE)

Citing the uptick in theatrical box-office receipts led by hits like Gran Torino, Taken and Coraline, there have been a number of articles recently on the movies and the recession. Like this one in the New York Times. The upshot: in depressing times, people flock to escapist, cost-effective fun at their local cineplex. One can of course pick apart this thesis — in fact, David Poland just has — but most people in the movie biz prefer to cling to the reductive takeaway that our business is recession proof. However, as this post on screenwriter and director John August’s blog […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 1, 2009 Filmmaking
TOMORROW’S AD MODELS TODAY AT CINEQUEST

Over in our Festival Ambassador section, Jason Guerrasio reports from Cinequest, where he sat in on an interesting panel discussion entitled “The Marriage of Television and the Internet.” In the piece Jason relays comments from reps of Intel and Move Networks from subjects like Hulu and emerging internet ad models, but he also reports on an independent filmmaker who is making real money online where others have failed. From the piece: One filmmaker during the Q&A pointed out his success on the Web. Christopher Cannucciari, who has is debut feature premiering at Cinequest, New Brooklyn, talked how his Web series, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 1, 2009 Filmmaking
SITA SINGS THE BLUES PREMIERES — ONLINE AND FOR FREE!

Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues, the winner of the Filmmaker-sponsored “Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You” Gotham award, screens on WNET’s Reel 13 series on March 7, but the complete feature is now available online at the Channel 13 site. If you aren’t going to be home on the 7th, don’t have TiVo, or just want to sample some of the movie and find out what all the fuss is about, click here.

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2009 Filmmaking
PETER SCARLET STEPS DOWN AT TRIBECA

In perhaps the most curious use of a Billy Wilder reference in film festival journalism, Tribeca Film Festival director Peter Scarlet has resigned from his position just two months before this year’s festival and less than two weeks after Tribeca hired former Sundance director Geoff Gilmore to a postion as chief creative officer at Tribeca Enterprises. From Peter Knegt’s story in Indiewire: “The term ‘The Seven-Year Itch’ always evokes that famous still of Marilyn Monroe standing on a NY subway grating with her skirt blowing up around her thighs,” Scarlet said in a statement today. “But as my 7th Tribeca […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2009 Filmmaking
IATSE CREW EMAIL FUNNY… BUT FOR THE WRONG REASONS?

Over at Deadline Hollywood Daily, Nikki Finke publishes an email that is circulating among IATSE members that is a satirical attack on IA leadership for not aggressively expanding jurisdiction into New Media productions. And while I sympathize with union members who are watching the entertainment conglomerates move into web production, I have to wonder whether the below really helps their cause: FILM CREW WANTED: “New Media” production company seeks crew for experimental project. Applicants must be able to create, research, write, coordinate, production design, art direct, construct, paint, dress & decorate sets, location manage, assist direct, design/tailor/supply costumes, do hair […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2009 Filmmaking
A NEW, REVISED LIFE FOR THE NEW YORK TAX CREDIT?

News this week about the New York State Film and Television Tax Credit program, which is currently in a kind of limbo now that the funding allocated for it by the State has unexpectedly run out just ten months in a multi-year program. First, there was an article in the New York Post by Tom Topousis that reported that Governor Patterson’s office has indicated that it will seek additional funding for the program. The article included these two intriguing paragraphs: Marissa Lago, president of the Empire State Development Corp., told a breakfast meeting of the Association for a Better New […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2009 Filmmaking
DUSHKU, TIMONER BRING MAPPLETHORPE TO THE SCREEN

Here is an unexpected pairing: Dollhouse star Eliza Dushku and her Boston Diva Productions will team with doc director Ondi Timoner, who won the Sundance Doc Grand Jury Prize this year with We Live in Public, to make a biopic about the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. From Tatiana Siegel’s Variety piece: Dushku has secured the exclusive rights and the full cooperation from Mapplethorpe’s estate and has enlisted two-time Sundance grand jury prize winner and indie darling Ondi Timoner (“DIG!”) to helm the film, which is titled “The Perfect Moment.” Timoner’s Interloper Films and Dushku’s Boston Diva Prods. are producing the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2009 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.