Filmmaking

ARTS FUNDING, FILM BREAKS STRIPPED FROM SENATE STIMULUS BILL

Stripped from the version of the economic stimulus bill being sent to the Senate for vote are two provisions that affect the film community. First, a bill offering a tax break for film production that appeared in the House version was cut, and, second, increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts was eliminated. Jim Puzzanghera reports in the Los Angeles Times, explaining that the film provision consisted of a bonus depreciation tax break allowing investors to take an immediate 50% write-off on projects begun in 2009. (Here I need the help of some of our regular tax-break-savvy readers […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 7, 2009 Filmmaking
NEW YORK FILM TAX CREDIT ON HOLD

From Crain’s New York Business comes this disquieting news about the New York State refundable tax credit for film production that has been integral to the health of our business here. It’s titled “Television Production Stalls Out in New York,” and its subhead says it all: “The state’s tax credit for filming in the Big Apple has become a victim of its own success; the state is out of money and a lack of pilots is threatening jobs.” From the middle of the piece, this salient passage: Studio and local production executives began to worry several months ago about the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 5, 2009 Filmmaking
THE ORPHANAGE SHUTS DOWN

Slash Film passes on the sad news today that The Orphanage, the San Francisco-based special effects house that worked on such films as Iron Man and Superman Returns but was also known to indies for their so-called “Magic Bullet” tape-to-film process back in the early days of digital cinema, has closed its doors, an apparent victim of the economic downturn. Co-founder Stu Maschwitz is also the author of the excellent Pro Lost blog, which I’ve linked to here before. From his most recent post: Today I had the heart-wrenching task of joining my co-founders Scott Stewart and Jonathan Rothbart in […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 5, 2009 Filmmaking
LIONSGATE, TWC FILE LAWSUITS OVER PUSH

On the same day The New York Times published a piece on the difficulties facing the marketing of Lee Daniels‘s Push: Based on The Novel by Sapphire, indieWIRE‘s Eugene Hernandez reports that lawsuits have been filed by Lionsgate, which according to reports has acquired the film, and The Weinstein Company, which says they are the ones who closed a deal for the film (TWC is also suing the film’s sales rep Cinetic Media). An excerpt from the iW story: Bert Fields’ TWC statement noted that Lionsgate filed a pre-emptive suit against TWC yesterday. “This is obvious forum-shopping by a party […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 5, 2009 Filmmaking
LUX INTERIOR, R.I.P.

1946 – 2009.

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 4, 2009 Filmmaking
TICK, TICK, TICK… NOT

Commercial mortgages, CDOs, the derivatives market — there are a lot of ticking time bombs present in American society right now. Something that is not, however, such an impending explosive is the type of scenario regularly featured on shows like 24 — interrogations that promote torture as a tool to keep America safe. Don’t believe me? Then check out this video by a group of army interrogators who preach the message that “Jack Bauer is a great fantasy hero… and [the real world] doesn’t work that way.” In addition to the interrogators, the video includes comments from the producers of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2009 Filmmaking
HEY, WE’RE RECESSION PROOF… AREN’T WE?

Yes, the economy is tanking, but, hey, we’re in the entertainment business! Escapism rules in downturn. People want to go out and forget the troubles, and the price of a movie ticket is just… Reality check: Nick Wingfield and Piu-Wing Tam argue in The Wall Street Journal that the economically distressed are not heading out to the movies — they’re staying home and surfing the ‘net. From the piece: It’s been decades since Americans had this much time on their hands and — thanks to the Web — never have there been so many opportunities to burn it. In November, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2009 Filmmaking
YOUTUBE CAST-OFF’S, READ THIS!

Via Boing Boing comes this link to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is jumping into the fray to help those who, like Kevin Lee recently, have found their clips taken down by the user-generated video giant. (For the record, Lee’s account was reinstated, although I believe individual videos remain pulled.) From the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Fair use has always been at risk on YouTube, thanks to abusive DMCA takedown notices sent by copyright owners (sometimes carelessly, sometimes not). But in the past several weeks, two things have made things much worse for those who want to sing a song, post […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2009 Filmmaking
I AGREE WITH HARRY…

It’s a workplace incident that occurred eight months ago. None of us were there and we have no idea what happened before or after. It’s BS to post it. Have I witnessed similar? Sure… but I don’t post it here.

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 3, 2009 Filmmaking
2ND BABELGUM FEST KICKS OFF

Babelgum, the free-to-view independent Web TV service, announced this week that the finalists of their 2nd annual Online Film Festival is now available for public screening and voting. Heading the festival jury this year is Spike Lee, who will award the top films in each category (Short Film, Animation, Documentary and Mini Masterpiece) with a cash prize of $27,000. Screening and voting are currently available at: http://www.babelgum.com/online-film-festival

By Jason Guerrasio on Feb 3, 2009 Filmmaking

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