Filmmaking

ROTTERDAM ANNOUNCES TIGER COMPETITION FILMS

The Interational Film Festival Rotterdam, which opens this year January 21, has just announced its Tiger Competition line-up. The competition, which is limited to first and and second features, contains 14 films, including eight world premieres, and the opening night film is MIchael Imperioli’s directorial debut, The Hungry Ghosts. Here is the complete list: At West of Pluto, Henri Bernadet & Myriam Verreault (Canada)Be Calm and Count to Seven, Ramtin Lavafipour (Iran)Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly, Edwin (Indonesia)Breathless, Yang Ik-june (South Korea)Dark Harbor, Takatsugu Naito (Japan)Dogging: A Love Story, Simon Ellis (U.K.)Floating in Memory, Peng Tao (China)The Hungry Ghosts, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 7, 2009 Filmmaking
SELLING THE SIZZLE

In our current down economy, there is one indie film genre that is actually attracting new investment dollars: the porn biz. That’s according to The Atlantic, which, in an article by Tom Johansmeyer, tells the story of AdultVest, which bills itself as the adult industry’s first hedge fund and investment community. The fund won the Alternative Investment News Hedge Fund Launch of the Year Award, beating out a the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. As the piece makes clear, the fund’s CEO, Francis Koenig, sees opportunity amidst all the financial carnage and technological disruption of the current entertainment distribution system. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 7, 2009 Filmmaking
FILMMAKER YEAR IN REVIEW: MIKE PLANTE

Here’s the last of our ’08 wrap-ups, this time from contributor Mike Plante, whose interview with Wayne Coyne about the Flaming Lips Christmas on Mars is up now on the main page. Independent film distribution was having trouble before the economy began crashing around your house and new car. But I’m not talking about early 2008, when the likes of Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse and New Line went away — I am talking about the last 50 years. When the independent distribution arms of the major studios went out of business, I felt bad about the opportunities for smaller-budget studio […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 6, 2009 Filmmaking
“A BLUESMAN IN THE LIFE OF THE MIND”

On my “best of ’08” list is a sub-category for the best films I saw on the fest circuit that have distribution in ’09, and one of my favorites of these is Astra Taylor’s Examined Life. It’s a documentary in which the director takes eight philosophers to the streets and explores the way in which their ideas bleed back and forth between the world and their consciousnesses. It’s a smart, heady film that is also an especially warm, engaging, and high-spirited viewing experience. Here is the just released official trailer.

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 6, 2009 Filmmaking
JOHN AUGUST ON iMOVIE POST MAC WORLD

One of the questions Apple’s filmmaker fans had going into today’s Macworld conference was whether the rumored changes to the iLife suite of programs would include an upgrade to iMovie that bring the program’s functionality back to where it was before it was disastrously retooled as iMovie HD. Unfortunately, based on screenwriter and director John August’s opinion, it doesn’t sound like this happened today. From his blog: Among the products Apple announced today is iMovie 09, an update to their entry-level video editor that I currently find completely unusable. They have demo videos up showing some of the new features, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 6, 2009 Filmmaking
CINEVEGAS CHECKS IN WITH DENTLER

Cinetic’s Matt Dentler, who is part of the roundtable discussion on the current state of the biz in the current Filmmaker (“as discouraging as it was galvanizing” one indie director called it in an email) is interviewed on the CineVegas blog by Roger Erik Tinch. Check it out.

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 5, 2009 Filmmaking
PRIDE’S FESTIVAL PHOTOBLOGS

Ray Pride has coverage of the Thessaloniki Film Festival in the upcoming issue of Filmmaker, but over the past few days he’s uploaded a bunch of his fantastic fest photography to our Festival Ambassador section. In addition to the Greek festival he’s got snaps from Sheffield and True/False as well as embedded clips featuring directors and writers like Azazel Jacobs, Diablo Cody and Michael Ondaatje. There’s even a shot of Peter Broderick in a swami hat and, here, Emir Kusturica leading his No Smoking band.

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 5, 2009 Filmmaking
NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR INDIE FILMMAKERS

CinemaTech’s Scott Kirsner has been collaborating with ITVS on a series of case studies focusing on filmmakers who are using new technologies to connect with their audiences and achieve distribution. The first seven case studies, featuring filmmakers like Hunter Weeks and Josh Caldwell, Tiffany Shlain and Kate Chevigny, are up now as is Kirsner’s “Top Five Digital Strategies for Social Issue Filmmakers.” Check them out at the links above.

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 4, 2009 Filmmaking
THE GOOGLE BOOK SETTLEMENT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ONLINE VIDEO

I’ve posted a couple of times about the Google Book Settlement, more from a general interest in intellectual property issues than anything else. The relationship between the settlement’s engagement with the publishing industry and its possible application to the world of film are not direct by any means. The Google Book Settlement applies to library collections containing copyrighted but out-of-print works as well as orphan works. But, I did suspect that at some point the issues involved would become relevant to the world of film. (Remember, Google owns YouTube.) Now comes a piece critical about the proposed terms of the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 4, 2009 Filmmaking
BLU-RAY VS. THE DEATH OF PHYSICAL MEDIA

I was kind of perplexed by Michael Glitz’s piece on The Huffington Post entitled “DVDS — How and Why You Should Switch to BluRay.” He runs through all the standard arguments — they look better, that’s the way the industry is heading, you can play your standard-def DVDs on a BluRay player, and if you have a 1080p flat-screen you’re getting the most out if it with BluRay. All reasonable arguments, and, in fact, while I don’t have a BluRay player I spent an evening with a friend the other day who has one and the picture quality of remastered […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 4, 2009 Filmmaking

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