Filmmaking

PLEASE GO SEE FROWNLAND AT THE IFC CENTER!

I’m posting this short review by Richard Brody that appeared in the New Yorker this week as the first of a trickle of postings, message board missives, MySpace bulletins, and FaceBook alerts that will soon develop into a deafening roar of digital noise converging towards one important goal: to get you to see Frownland this weekend in New York at its world theatrical premiere at the IFC Center! If you’ve been following this blog over the last year, you know of our huge love for this film. I first saw it a year ago at SXSW and was on the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 4, 2008 Filmmaking
THIS ELECTION IS GETTING TOO BIZARRE…

According to The Huffington Post, the Hillary Clinton campaign released this video demonstrating the support of Jack Nicholson: UPDATE: Over at his The Chutry Experiment, Chuck Tryon explores the semiotics of this advertisement, noting that many of Nicholson’s characters are rebellious anti-establishment types, and muses on the collision between these associations and the Clinton campaign. Meanwhile, The Caucus blog at the New York Times discusses this video as well and, as a poster in the comments thread below concludes, doubts that it came from the campaign itself.

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 1, 2008 Filmmaking
DISCUSSING STORY AT THE TED CONFERENCE

When Filmmaker starts pulling in the big bucks, I’m going to demand that the magazine send me to the TED conference each year. The high-level conference acts as a platform and networking group for transformative ideas about technology, politics, social change, and the arts. The 2008 edition is in progress right now in Monterey, California, and news of the event can be found across the web. Steven Levy at Newsweek has this intro in which he talks about how the conference has changed over the years. Another distinguishing characteristic of TED is its tilt away from a classical tech conference […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 1, 2008 Filmmaking
EDISON CHEN SCANDAL PART 2

After I posted links to various summaries of the Edison Chen nude picture scandal, a flurry of new news appeared online. Last week the actor held a press conference in Hong Kong where he stated that “society as a whole has been affected” by the scandal, apologized to “all the ladies and all their families,” and announced his indefinite hiatus from the film business: It seems that Chen has now left Hong Kong for the States where he will lay low… at NYU Film School? Meanwhile, Radar Online aggregates some of the latest developments, including the theory that Chen leaked […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 29, 2008 Filmmaking
GREAT BUT PROBABLY QUITE IMPRACTICAL HORROR FILM LOCATION #1

From Fogonazos: Kolmanskop is a ghost town in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of Lüderitz. In 1908, Luederitz was plunged into diamond fever and people rushed into the Namib desert hoping to make an easy fortune. Within two years, a town, complete with a casino, school, hospital and exclusive residential buildings, was established in the barren sandy desert. But shortly after the drop in diamond sales after the First World War, the beginning of the end started. During the 1950’s the town was deserted and the dunes began to reclaim what was always theirs. Soon the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 27, 2008 Filmmaking
DAVID FINCHER AND SPIKE JONZE PRESENT…

… is the very eye-catching come-on for the theatrical release of Tarsem’s long awaited, long in production second feature, The Fall. Previously Tarsem directed the underrated The Cell as well as some classic music videos, including R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” Here’s the trailer.

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 26, 2008 Filmmaking
STRANGE ADVICE

Over at The Workbook Project, M. Dot Strange offers the case study of his film We Are the Strange that he prepared for the Berlin Talent Campus. Here’s his intro: This was part of a presentation called “Adventures in self distribution” I describe the journey I took with my animated feature film “We are the Strange” From my bedroom to Sundance and beyond and back to my little studio again after turning down Hollywood deals and deciding to self distribute and make my films my way. And here’s the embed: M dot Strange: Berlin Talent Campus 08 from M dot […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 26, 2008 Filmmaking
WHY NO BRAD RENFRO ON THE OSCAR TRIBUTE?

Us Magazine has a piece on their website about why Brad Renfro didn’t appear in the Oscar tribute last night to those who passed away in the preceding year. For the record, an Academy spokesperson chalks it up to “an editing decision.” There’s an active comment section following the article and most are outraged that the talented actor, who died of a heroin overdose on January 15 and who spent half his life working in the movies, wasn’t included.

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2008 Filmmaking
BROKEN?

The filmmakers behind From Here to Awesome have made this short video entitled “Why Film Festivals Don’t Work” to explain the thinking behind their new festival, which you can read more about at the link above. submit films | watch films | learn to make films | fest news | fest stream

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2008 Filmmaking
DAWSON TALKS WITH CHOP SHOP’s RAMIN BAHRANI…

.. over at the Director Interviews. An excerpt: Filmmaker: What was the process of casting like? It seems that who was playing the roles was integral to the movie’s success. Bahrani: I learned on Push Cart that the biggest job in learning to work with the actors is casting. We were relentless on the casting: we looked for months for the kids, we saw probably 2-3,000 kids, I put 625 interviews on tape. Usually the first step is Q&A: “Who are you? Where are you from?” After you get them comfortable and you get them talking, you start asking things […]

By Scott Macaulay on Feb 25, 2008 Filmmaking

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