Filmmaking

MEDICINE OPENING NOT MELANCHOLY

Congrats to director Barry Jenkins and stars Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins — their film, Medicine for Melancholy, featured on the cover of the new Filmmaker, scored the #1 spot on the Indiewire per-screen average chart this weekend. Writes Peter Knegt, “IFC Films’ one-screen debut of Barry Jenkins’ Medicine For Melancholy narrowly led all per-theater-averages this weekend, according to estimates provided this afternoon by Rentrak. Its $14,700 haul from New York’s IFC Center became the best opening for a 2009 limited release so far, and beat out Laurent Cantet’s The Class in its first week of release outside of December’s […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 1, 2009 Filmmaking
SUNDANCE 2009/8 FAVORITES MEME

I discovered while in Rotterdam that Karina Longworth at Spout tagged me to take part in the Sundance 8 Favorites Meme. So, I’m a bit late with this, but here it goes. First, the rules: 1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.2. Players start with listing their Sundance favorites, separated into 8 categories.3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their 8 favorites and include these rules.4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 1, 2009 Filmmaking
TAKEN AND THE PIRACY EFFECT

From Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily: The Super Bowl, pirated copies circulating on the web, and a lovable mall cop heating up the box office all should have depressed the North American grosses for 20th Century Fox’s thriller Taken opening. But the Liam Neeson-starrer, directed by District B13‘s Pierre Morel, and produced by Luc Besson, tackled those obstacles and turned in a super performance of $9.5 million Friday and $12M Saturday (+30%) from 3,183 theaters. That’s way more than what Hollywood expected the film would make all weekend. Now wait a minute… the film that was released in many non-North […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 1, 2009 Filmmaking
ADVICE FOR THE NEWLY GRADUATED

Screenwriter and director John August was asked to give a commencement address at a film school, and he has posted the speech, which contains a couple of observations and simple but essential pieces of advice, on his blog. After making the observation that being able to shoot and cut together images for the web is an important skill these days (and thus speaks to the worth of a film school education), he offers another super vital recommendation: And let’s talk about your classmates. You probably have some good friends and some people you kind of hope to never see again. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 1, 2009 Filmmaking
FREE IS NOT ENOUGH

I’ve posted previously on this blog about The Long Tail author Chris Anderson’s recent series of articles (and forthcoming book) on the economics of free. Briefly, Anderson’s proposition is that digital production and delivery, which decreases the marginal cost of goods, drives their purchase price down to zero. For most, this means adapting to the idea of distribution being ad-supported in some way, and this type of revenue scheme is what has dominated Anderson’s previous writings on the subject. But as I noted in a previous post on the Google Book Settlement, the problem with free models for the producer […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 31, 2009 Filmmaking
GORDON WILLIS ON ACCIDENTS AND BEER COMMERCIALS

Over at Splice Today, John Lingan has interviewed legendary d.p. Gordon Willis. An excerpt: ST: To what do you ascribe the simultaneity of directorial and cinematographic talent during those years? Was there a greater level of artistic freedom afforded to filmmakers then? Or was it the momentum of ’60s counterculture finally reaching the film industry? Hall and Wexler have credited “accidents” like sunspots in the lenses for spurring their perceived innovations; what was it about the industry climate that allowed those kinds of accidents to stand? GW: The studio system was beginning to buckle, but I think it’s more like […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 30, 2009 Filmmaking
POSITIF AT LINCOLN CENTER

Over on Web Exclusives page and coinciding with the Lincoln Center “Mavericks and Outsides: Positif Celebrates American Cinema” (beginning today), Jamie Stuart interviews Positif editor Michel Ciment about the magazine and also his long relationship with Stanley Kubrick. One film that’s part of the Positif series is Barbara Loden’s Wanda, which was one of Filmmaker‘s 50 Most Important Independent Films back when we did that list in 1998. Long difficult to see, it was re-released on DVD a year or so ago and has been claiming its place as an inspiration for a new generation of independent filmmakers. Over at […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 30, 2009 Filmmaking
NELSON GEORGE AT SUNDANCE (AND SUNDANCE)

Nelson George attended Sundance this year in two capacities. First, from January 9th to the 15th he was an advisor at the Sundance Writer’s Lab. Then, he went to the festival as an executive producer with Good Hair, the doc he made with Chris Rock. In the below video diary he takes us through both events, including the Obama inauguration party on Main Street and the premiere of his film, and along the way he also catches up with a number of other filmmakers at this year’s fest. Check it out. Nelson George: Sundance 2009 from Nelson George on Vimeo.

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 30, 2009 Filmmaking
CRITIQUING (AND COMMENTING ON) WEB VIDEO

Recently I linked to a CNET survey of mainstream video-hosting sites that critiqued these platforms according to their usability and picture quality. Now, CNET has published a “part two”: Around this time last year we put together a comparison of various video sites to determine which ones had the best overall quality and user experience. Since then, high-definition-capable digital cameras and camcorders have taken off, and several major video hosts have rolled out official support for wide-screen, super high-quality Flash video in response. So we think the time has come to take another look at what these sites are offering […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 29, 2009 Filmmaking
COMMENTING ON THE VARIETY LAY OFFS

I’m here in Rotterdam with poor wi-fi connectivity, so that’s one reason the blog has been a little light this week. But I want to join many others in the film journalism field by noting my dismay over this week’s Variety lay-offs, which include two great writers, Mike Jones (Filmmaker‘s former Managing Editor) and Ann Thompson, whose Risky Business column was published here at Filmmaker for a couple of years. In addition to being strong writers and reporters, both are journalists who understand the internet, the blogosphere, and the specific topics and tone required to engage an online audience. It’s […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 29, 2009 Filmmaking

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