Filmmaking

SAG ON A SUNDANCE ACQUISITIONS SHUT-OUT

Michael Cieply had a provocative piece this morning in the New York Times’ Carpetbagger blog in which he wondered: An interesting question — and at this point, it’s only that — has been floating among the people who buy movie rights for big studios and their specialty divisions at festivals like Sundance, which begins on Thursday: Can they, or should they, buy films that were produced under waiver agreements with the Screen Actors Guild? Because these waiver agreements oblige filmmakers to adhere to the final terms of the SAG-AMPTP contract, and that contract has not been negotiated, the thinking goes […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2009 Filmmaking
FILMMAKER @ PARK CITY ’09

Filmmaker leaves for Sundance on Thursday and before leaving we’ve launched our Sundance micro-site, where you’ll find all of our blog, feature, news and interview coverage of the festival. Check it now — a number of pieces are up, including Alicia Van Couvering’s conversations with filmmakers anticipating Sundance, my piece on the Sundance Archive Program and Anthony Kaufman’s article on LGBT filmmaking at Sundance following the Prop-8 battle. We’ll also be running each day responses from filmmakers to our annual Sundance question. This year we asked directors how their conception of story was affected by the changes occurring across our […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009 Filmmaking
QUICK READS ON SOME SUNDANCE FILMS

I tend to be a check-in, sit on my hotel or condo bed and go through the catalog kind of person. I don’t really plan my schedule way in advance. This year I’ve taken a longer look at the catalog than usual and jotted down a few thoughts on some films I want to see and a couple that we know a little bit more about. Consider these the equivalent of notebook scribblings and reminders-to-self — more coherent (and substantive) writing on many of these films will follow later. Dramatic Competition Amreeka: I saw the first 18 minutes of this […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009 Filmmaking
SEARCHING FOR THE SUNDANCE SHORTS

On this blog we’ve posted the line-ups of the various Sundance sections, but we forgot to include the shorts. So, to make up, Max Friend in the Filmmaker office has compiled this exhaustive post listing not only all the shorts but also hyperlinks taking you to info on the films, the filmmakers and sometimes the films themselves. Enjoy. U.S. Dramatic Shorts Abbie Cancelled (Directors: Dumb Bunny) — Two couples who have never met find themselves engaged in an awkward dinner after their mutual friends cancel at the last second. Acting for the Camera (Director: Justin Nowell; Screenwriter: Thomas Nowell) — […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009 Filmmaking
GEOFF GILMORE’S SOCRATIC METHOD

Geoff Gilmore asks himself and us all the right questions about change, independent film, and the evolution of film festival’s in this Indiewire First Person piece, launched on the eve of this year’s fest. I especially liked his riff near the end about stopping our natural tendency to “date” films based on their release date. From the piece: Theatrical admissions have trended downwards for a number of years and the importance of consumer preference and choice, of filmgoers seeing films when and how they want, is essential to success for the film industry in the future. The “long tail” of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009 Filmmaking
WHAT’S YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION?

FilmInFocus has asked a number of filmmakers about theirs. I love Azazel Jacobs’, think I’m going to adapt Michael Tully’s as one of my own, and feel that Astra Taylor somehow channeled my own thoughts about the book we are both reading right now. Check out the lists here.

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009 Filmmaking
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE KEVIN LEE/YOUTUBE SITUATION

Let me weigh in quickly on the imbroglio surrounding the deletion of Kevin Lee’s YouTube account. On the account Lee had posted his series of critical video essays on a number of recent and classic films, and in the course of arguing the aesthetic merits of each picture the videos included clips from the movies themselves. Apparently, YouTube received a complaint from the copyright holder of one of the clips and deleted his entire account. Matt Zoller Seitz has the complete story along with a comments thread that is also a must read, and Karina Longworth originally covered the story […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 13, 2009 Filmmaking
INDIEWIRE: RELAUNCHED AND RE-IMAGINED

I like the nice, clean look of the new Indiewire along with a number of its user-friendly interactive features. It’s just gone live so I’ll spend some time exploring it, but for now, here’s a piece of editor Eugene Hernandez’s introductory letter: As I revealed last week, we have spent over a year developing this new site, but it’s actually taken us twelve years to get here. We’ve not only re-designed indieWIRE, but completely re-imagined it. Understanding that indieWIRE has emerged as a hub for filmmakers, the industry, and movie lovers alike over the past twelve years, we have developed […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 10, 2009 Filmmaking
WHAT WILL THE FUTURE HOLD?

At the of Barack Obama’s election-night speech, he had a beautiful bit of oratory in which he remembered an elderly woman and spoke of all the things that she saw in her lifetime. What will we see if we live as long as her, he wondered. That, in essence was the question posed to a distinguished group of artists, writers and thinkers at The Edge. The responses here are of the quality that you want to bookmark the page and read one a day for the next month or so. Formally, the question posed by editor and publisher John Brockman […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 10, 2009 Filmmaking
REVISITING I.O.U.S.A.

Here Roger Ebert reprints his review of the deficit documentary I.O.U.S.A., which CNN airs this weekend. From Ebert’s blog post: I’m reprinting my review of the nonpartisan doc I.O.U.S.A. again because it will be televised on CNN at 1 p.m. CST Saturday, Jan. 10, and 2 p.m. CST Sunday, Jan 11. Co-hosts will be CNN financial experts Ali Velshi and Christine Romans. Their panelists will include Pete Peterson, ormer U.S. Commerce Secretary; Dave Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General; Alice Rivlin, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget; and Bill Bradley, former U.S. Senator. Okay, I’m going to reprint […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2009 Filmmaking

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