Filmmaking

BLOGGING THE SUNDANCE DOC LAB

Filmmaker is hosting blogs from several of the participants of the various Sundance Labs this summer. Here’s part one of producer/director Deann Borshay Liem’s (Precious Objects of Desire) from the Sundance Documentary Edit and Storytelling Lab, which runs June 21 – 28. Sometimes I refer to myself as “she.” This is because I’m a character in my own film and I have to separate who I am in real life with who I am on screen. Fortunately I’m a Gemini so this splitting into two (or more) doesn’t seem that odd. Any other editor might think this was nuts, but […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 20, 2008 Filmmaking
EXPLETIVES DELETED

Two pieces have been published online reporting on the current financial situation at THINKFilm, owned by David Bergstein, who purchased the company along with Capitol Films in 2006. In IndieWire, Anthony Kaufman details the efforts of some filmmakers to receive the overdue minimum advances they are owed by THINK. He also gets a quote on the issue from THINKFilm CEO Mark Urman. From the piece: A determined, but frustrated, Mark Urman told indieWIRE this week that he’s communicating with his filmmakers and making every effort to get people paid. “I feel terrible if people are hurt by our financial problems,” […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 20, 2008 Filmmaking
BALLAST LEAVES IFC FOR STRAND

According to Variety, Lance Hammer‘s Sundance award-winning film Ballast has dropped out of its deal with IFC and has moved to Strand Releasing. An excerpt: “Obviously, we’re disappointed, but how can we not support him if he tries to take control of this himself?” IFC Entertainment veep of acquisitions Arianna Bocco said. “We wanted the movie, we love the movie, and we think that we would have done really well with it. It’s the first time that’s happened with us.” “The budget was big enough that it would be hard in the current model to see that money back,” Hammer […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jun 20, 2008 Filmmaking
DO NOT PRESS…

… if you want to do anything other than procrastinating what you are supposed to be doing right now. Actually, do not press here.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 18, 2008 Filmmaking
THE PERVERT’S GUIDE TO CINEMA

If you are a regular — like, hourly — reader of this blog, you know something about In Spring, the short Jamie Stuart piece which was posted on his own site and linked here only to be taken down shortly thereafter. Some (including, I’ll admit, me) wondered if Stuart had, in his continual skirmishing with the confines of publicity in the service of artmaking, crossed some kind of line with this piece, which incorporated a real interview with a misidentified Werner Herzog (who Stuart painted in 2005, shown here) in the THINKfilm office within a fictional mock documentary on the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 13, 2008 Filmmaking
PRIDE OF PLACE

If you are in Chicago this next month — or, perhaps, if you’ve got frequent flier miles or simple wanderlust — then I highly recommend checking out Enter Dream, a photo show by writer, photographer and critic Ray Pride, whose work is well known to readers of Filmmaker as well as those of his own Movie City Indie blog. Ray’s evocative photos are visually stunning and haunted by the idea of cinema — they contain potent traces of storytelling, whiffs of dramatic atmosphere, and suggestions of character. Here’s the official spam: The photographs in “Enter Dream” anatomize the geography of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 12, 2008 Filmmaking
WHERE FILM AND INTERNET WOUND UP

Over at Stream, Eric Kohn has a good write-up of the “Where Film and Internet Collide” event we hosted at the IFC Center last week with the IFP and IndieGoGo. He does a great job of summarizing the interviews with the creators of the various works we screened. Another good report is by the Film Panel Notetaker. Click on the links and read — between the two of them you’ll feel like you were there.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 10, 2008 Filmmaking
GOING TO THE MOVIES

FilmInFocus is running a four-part series on exhibition, from the ultra-small-scale screenings of the microcinema movement to the shape of things to come for blockbuster moviegoing. The first part, Ed Halter’s take on microcinema, is up now.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 9, 2008 Filmmaking
STORYBOARDING TARKOVSKY AT THE SUNDANCE LABS

The Sundance Director’s Lab is underway, and one of the participants, John Magary (pictured at right with Sundance Lab advisor Gyula Gazdag), has agreed to blog it for Filmmaker. Here’s the first of his posts. SUNDANCE, EPOCH 1 Day One smelled like chicken. Day Three smells like farts. I’m not talking about the Lab — haven’t gotten there yet. One can be coaxed out of a crippling fear of flying—it is irrational, after all—but heights is another matter. With heights, all you can say is, “Oh, stop being so scared.” (Hot tip: saying things like that to a phobic isn’t […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 8, 2008 Filmmaking
SUBMITTING TO HITCHCOCK

A couple of new writers have been added to the Spout Blog, and one, Lauren Wissot, has her first post up today. Wissot is a filmmaker and writer who has written for her own blog, Beyond the Green Door, as well as The House Next Door. Her debut piece for Spout is entitled “Dial S/M for Marnie” and it looks at Hitchcock’s film through the lens of kink: An excerpt: What neither the feminists nor cinephiles seem to appreciate is that Marnie is one of the greatest bondage and discipline (B&D in sadomasochistic parlance) pics of all time. Artfully disguised […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 4, 2008 Filmmaking

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