Filmmaking

NEW NEW YORK INCENTIVE RULES PROPOSED

According to an email alert from The Incentives Office, the new New York State film and TV credit was approved by the legislature as part of a new budget, which is awaiting signature from Governor Patterson. However, there are notable changes to the way in which the credit will be dispersed. From their email: The $350M is an additional allocation to their state tax credit program which ran out of funding last month, and the percentages (state – 30% and city – 5%) remain the same. The major change is the manner in which the rebates will be paid out. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 8, 2009 Filmmaking
A WORD ABOUT OUR MESSAGE BOARDS

If you are a filmmaker looking for cheap Accutane, or to have your penis enlarged, then, in the last couple of weeks, our message board has been for you. If you are anyone else, it has been rendered unusable by an automated spambot attack that has filled up every category with horrible junk. Accordingly, we’ve disabled posting on the site and are embarking on revamp that will involve upgraded software to prevent this from happening in the future. We will also have more coherent and useful forum headers and we’ll be more actively moderating the boards. First, though, we will […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 8, 2009 Filmmaking
FLUTTER LAUNCHES NANOBLOGGING

Andy Bouve — up 600% on iMDB’s Star Meter! — directed this satirical take on today’s Web 2.0 business models. As a recent Twitter convert, I did get a kick out this video’s send up of the different assumptions regarding business models and consumer behavior that are dominating the internet world right now.

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 7, 2009 Filmmaking
THE SKOLL WORLD FORUM ON SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP, WRAPPING UP

Here’s the last of our guest blogs from Sundance Lab-supported filmmaker Gayle Ferraro, who blogged from the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. Back in NYC Reflecting while recovering from jet-lag – it was quite the trip. It was extremely full and Sundance took wonderful care of us filmmakers. Now sitting in one place to review the collection of business cards I gathered and process some of what went on I realized what an unusual event it was for filmmakers and social entrepreneurs to come together that way and share. Surely, the dedication of the social entrepreneurs was matched by […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 6, 2009 Filmmaking
WOUTER BARENDRECHT FILM FOUNDATION ESTABLISHED

A condolence register has been established for Wouter Barendrecht, who passed away suddenly this past weekend. You can post your thoughts and memories of Wouter, who was a real force in international cinema, and you can also find details about a newly formed Wouter Barendrecht Film Foundation. Here is the statement found on the page: To honour Wouter’s memory, a foundation has been established today, the goal of which will be to discover and support new filmmaking talent around the globe. While Wouter loved flowers, we would ask that if you want to honour him, a contribution to the Wouter […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 6, 2009 Filmmaking
WOUTER BARENDRECHT, 1965 – 2009

I was stunned to receive a call from a friend this afternoon telling me that Wouter Barendrecht, co-chairman of the top arthouse international sales and production company Fortissimo Films, died suddenly this weekend in Bangkok. Wouter has been a bedrock of international art film distribution as long as I have been in the film business. His exquisite taste, championing of auteurs new and established, business savvy, uncanny networking ability and indefatigable good cheer at the festivals he seemed to effortlessly navigate were all things anyone who worked in world cinema strived to emulate. This is a devastating loss, for both […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 5, 2009 Filmmaking
ADVENTURELAND DIRECTOR GREG MOTOLLA ON ’80S MUSIC, SUPERBAD FAME, AND VIRGINITY

With Adventureland hitting theaters today, here’s a reminder that Nick Dawson’s interview with director Greg Mottola is up now on our home page and in our Winter, 2009 issue, which leaves newsstands in about a week. Here’s an excerpt: Filmmaker: The main character is very sexually inexperienced, and in a way this is almost like The 40-Year-Old Virgin except that, unlike Judd Apatow‘s movie, James being a virgin is something we sympathize with rather than make fun of. Motolla: It was a somewhat different time 20 years ago, obviously, but there was a lot of discussion about whether to keep […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 3, 2009 Filmmaking
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, JOE WRIGHT CREATE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AD

Atonement director Joe Wright and star Keira Knightley have teamed to create a powerful ad attacking domestic violence that will premiere in U.K. theaters April 6. The film, entitled Cut, was produced by the British charity Women’s Aid and is part of a new U.K. domestic violence awareness campaign. As The Guardian reports, the agency that produced the clip, Grey London, is still negotiating with British broadcasters over inclusion of the film’s violent content. Commented Knightley: “I wanted to take part in this advert for Women’s Aid because while domestic violence exists in every section of society we rarely hear […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 2, 2009 Filmmaking
WHY THE RECESSION COULD BE GOOD FOR FILMMAKERS

There are many reasons why the current recession is bad for films and filmmakers. Venture capital is drying up; lacking stock portfolio gains, individual investors don’t have the “mad money” that once fueled indie film production; and the entertainment conglomerates are cutting back by axing the specialty divisions that were the buyers for our films. However, there are reasons why which the recession may turn out to be a good thing for filmmakers, and some of these are the same reasons I just listed above. At the Steady Diet of Film blog, Erin Donovan posts, “Why the financial collapse is […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 1, 2009 Filmmaking
THE LATEST COMMERCIAL FROM ERROL MORRIS

We at Filmmaker are big fans of Errol Morris, who we have interviewed numerous times and have placed on our cover. Morris is a very successful commercials director (that’s part of what enables his ambitious doc work), and we’ve linked to some of his TV spots before too. So, in the interests of completeness, we embed his latest, a commercial directed with his customary real-person adeptness for Depends. The folks at AdGrabber, who picked this up, seem to be perplexed by Morris’s approach, though. “Many brands use analogies to help explain their product features and benefits. Even makers of diapers […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 31, 2009 Filmmaking

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