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
MADONNA AND THE UNCANNY VALLEY

Jason Kottke has a fascinating entry today at his Kottke.org entitled “Approaching the Uncanny Valley from the Other Direction.” In case you haven’t heard about the “uncanny valley,” it’s a term originally created to apply to robotics that can now, Kottke says, refer to the human visage in the age of plastic surgery. First, from Dave Bryan at Glimpses: Japanese roboticist Doctor Masahiro Mori is not exactly a household name—but, for the speculative fiction community at least, he could prove to be an important one. The reason why can be summed up in a simple, strangely elegant phrase that translates […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 13, 2008 Filmmaking
IFP ANNOUNCES ’08 DOC LAB PARTICIPANTS

Created to support high-quality, independent projects at the rough cut stage of production prior to submission to film festivals, IFP announced today the films that will take part in its May Documentary Lab that connects first-time feature filmmakers with leading industry mentors, which this year includes filmmakers Doug Block (51 Birch Street), Liz Garbus of Moxie Firecracker Films (The Farm: Angola, USA) and editor Keiko Deguchi (Cats of Mirkitani). Excerpts from the films will then screen at IFP’s Independent Film Week in New York City this September. The 10 selected films include: Burning in the Sun – A young entrepreneur […]

By Jason Guerrasio on May 13, 2008 Filmmaking
LINKAGE

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch reports on a way you can make money while in Cannes. (Actually, there are a bunch of ways you can make money in Cannes, but this one is legal.) The arthouse download site The Auteurs is sponsoring a contest in which you arrive at the festival, pick up one of 250 Flip cameras, make a film while there, and compete for a $10,000 prize. More details at the link. Previously we wrote about the Obama Campaign’s “Obama in 30 Seconds Competition” user-generated political ad competition. You can see the winner and the runners-up at the link. […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2008 Filmmaking
THE POST USER-GENERATED ERA?

After just a few postings, Jamie Stuart has reached a conclusion at his nascent blog over at Wonderland: user-generated video is dead. (Oh, and by the way, long live user-generated video.) From the piece: Well, so much for that. Hope you enjoyed it. And I’m sure you never even realized it was over. Trends rarely last longer than 4-5 years, so by that measurement this recent burst of online DIY activity is finished. By my estimation, this trend in film culture and filmmaking encompassed the period spanning roughly from 2002-2007, give or take…. During this same period, sites like MySpace […]

By Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2008 Filmmaking
ONLY IN CANNES…

Will you see a huge billboard of Robert Downey Jr. in blackface. The promotion is for the upcoming summer release Tropic Thunder, which also stars Jack Black and Ben Stiller (who co-wrote-directed) as a group of actors making the most expensive Vietnam War film and finding themselves in real combat. Downey Jr. plays super serious actor Kirk Lazarus who’s been cast in the role of a black solider. Not enough? Tom Cruise has a cameo as a bald, foul-mouthed studio head. Image courtesey of Variety’s The Circuit.

By Jason Guerrasio on May 12, 2008 Filmmaking

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