Filmmaking

CANNES ON DECAF

In the U.S. the prosperity of your local Starbucks has been viewed as an economic indicator, so why not at Cannes? Producer Noah Harlan of 2.1 Films sent the following email answering the question of whether or not there are fewer people on the Croissette this year. Everyone is talking about how quiet it is this year. Sales are slow according to most of the sellers I’ve met with but the best arbiter of whether the crowds are down was relayed to me by a sales agent with a stand in the market. He said he was having a coffee […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 20, 2008 Filmmaking
EVEN HEDGE FUND MANAGERS STARTED SMALL

Brooks Barnes has a funny article in The New York Times about Sanjay Sanghoee, a novelist, hedge-fund employee, and would-be writer/director/producer, who is out there in the wilds of film finance trying to make an adaptation of his book Merger. Let’s just say that a rolodex full of multi-millionaire contacts can’t buy happiness — or an independent feature. An excerpt recounting Sanhoee’s arrival in L.A. to pitch his movie: Mr. Sanghoee landed in a boomtown. More than $12 billion was in the midst of flowing into 150 movies, according to trade estimates. Hedge funds, awash in cash, were eager to […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 19, 2008 Filmmaking
LOOKING BACK ON SPIELBERG’S MOVIE FUTURE

Film Detail has a truly exhaustive list of links about not only Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but all the other Indiana Jones movies as well as other Spielberg-related stuff. One great find: this YouTube excerpt of Wim Wenders’s Chambre 666, 1982 film in which the director asked a group of colleagues, including Spielberg and, also in this clip, Antonioni, to comment on the future of cinema while sitting in a Cannes hotel room. Spielberg’s there with E.T., and, remembered today, his thoughts about budgets, schedules, the money people and the future of cinema seem almost […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 18, 2008 Filmmaking
AZAZEL JACOBS’S "LET’S GET STARTED"

Here’s a new short from one of our “25 New Faces” of 2007, Azazel Jacobs, whose sublime third feature Momma’s Man will be released in theaters this summer.

By Scott Macaulay on May 17, 2008 Filmmaking
MICHAEL MOORE IN CANNES

In Cannes, Anne Thompson interviews Michael Moore about his latest documentary, and colleague Mike Jones is there to capture it on his cell phone.

By Scott Macaulay on May 17, 2008 Filmmaking
ABEL FERRARA’S "CALIFORNIA"

In honor of Abel Ferrara’s latest, Chelsea on the Rocks,, premiering in Cannes, here’s a little-seen-in-the-U.S. French pop video he directed for Mylene Farmer. The song is “California.”

By Scott Macaulay on May 17, 2008 Filmmaking
SELF LINKAGE

A bunch of new, mostly cinematography-related stuff has just been been posted on our main page, and I want to draw your attention to it. First there is our article in which four cinematographers discuss the creative and production decision-making behind their latest features. The dps are Ellen Kuras (currently in production on Sam Mendes’s new film for Focus Features), Tim Orr, Andrij Parekh and Sean Kirby. On the same page: Damon Smith on Ellen Kuras’s documentary, Nerahahoon. Next is a feature called “Illuminating” in which six directors — Miguel Arteta, Pete Sollett, Miranda July (who is beginning her new […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 15, 2008 Filmmaking
THE MOST USEFUL MOVIE WEBSITES

FILMdetail has posted a 2.0 version of their “Most Useful Movie Websites” list. I was happy to see that Filmmaker made the cut along with a lot of other sites, most of which I knew but some I didn’t. The list also includes an exhaustive list of the best movie podcasts out there. Check it out and bookmark away.

By Scott Macaulay on May 14, 2008 Filmmaking
WHOSE BAD?

In the WTF! department comes this story just posted by Dave McNary at Variety: Werner Herzog will direct this summer a remake of Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant starring Nicolas Cage. Really, that’s what it says. You can click over there and confirm it. And as the picture to the left notes, this is the first Filmmaker cover film to be remade. (What’s next? Suture? 24-Hour Woman? Twin Falls, Idaho?) Ed Pressman is producing and Avi Lerner’s Nu Image/Millenium is financing. The script is by Billy Finkelstein. Bad Lieutenant is one of my all time favorite independent films, and it’s going […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 13, 2008 Filmmaking
FROM THE ARCHIVES: INTELLIGENT SCREENPLAY DEVELOPMENT

Recently I was talking to the script readers in my production office about script reading and development and remembered an article we published years ago by filmmaker and former development exec Barbara Schock. It was a great piece that looked at the screenplay development process with a critical eye, examining why the traditional method so often fails to generate great work. Along the way she offered a series of sensible tips on how to make that process better. I went home and rummaged through my old issue of Filmmakers trying to find it and then thought to try the web. […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 13, 2008 Filmmaking

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.