Filmmaking

DECONSTRUCTING THE DGA DEAL

The Directors Guild of America has reached a tentative deal with the AMPTP, and now its time to weigh in on it. However, coming as it did on the eve of Sundance, much of the working film industry press is a bit distracted. Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes have a solid article in today’s New York Times, in which they outline how the DGA’s different negotiating philosophy and lengthy pre-negotiation back channel conversations led to a quick deal. Over at the Working Life blog, labor activist and former Senatorial candidate Jonathan Tasini is doing the math, reviewing the deal point […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2008 Filmmaking
SLAMDANCE DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER INTERVIEWS: STEVE CLARK, MIKE LANDRY, AND CARLOS VELASQUEZ, FROST

Sat, Jan 19th, 8:30pmWed, Jan 23rd, 10am Interview by Brandon Harris Jack Frost’s playboy lifestyle in New York City is rocked by the news that his childhood love is engaged. Jack plunges into whiskey and self-destruction. until his eleven-year-old neighbor, Sophie, an unlikely mother figure, leads Jack back into himself, and out of the nostalgia and excess that consumed him. Interview with Steve Clark Where were you when you heard you’d been accepted to Slamdance and how did you react?I was in my apartment in NYC about to take a shower, when I picked up the phone, and one of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2008 Filmmaking
SLAMDANCE DIRECTOR INTERVIEW: EVA WEBER, CITY OF CRANES

Fri, Jan 18th 4:30pmTues, Jan 22nd, 7pm Interview by Brandon Harris Eva Weber’s doc short City of Cranes takes you on a journey high up in the sky, to look at London’s ever-changing landscape through the eyes and words of crane drivers. It is a glimpse into a world unnoticed by most of us, yet fundamental to our lives. What initially drew you to the world of cranes?I started making this film as I was fascinated by the fact that there is almost another world above London; yet most of us never look up to notice cranes or their drivers. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2008 Filmmaking
SLAMDANCE DIRECTOR INTERVIEW: CYNTHIA LESTER, MY MOTHER’S GARDEN

Interview by Brandon Harris As Sundance begins this weekend, the world of independent cinema once again turns its attention to this snowy resort town thirty miles outside of Salt Lake. Yet, since 1995, Sundance hasn’t been the only act in town. The 2008 Slamdance Film Festival begins today at Park City’s Treasure Mountain Inn, opening with Randall Cole’s Real Time, a brisk indie comedy starring Randy Quaid. As a brief snapshot of some of the 29 features and 67 shorts that Slamdance will screen in the next nine days, I caught up with thirteen Slamdance Filmmakers to discuss their films […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 18, 2008 Filmmaking
SUNDANCE: AN AIRBORNE PREVIEW

As I type this I’m on my way to the Sundance Film Festival, where the Filmmaker team will be filing coverage all week. I’ll be blogging along with Jason Guerrasio and Justin Lowe; Jamie Stuart will be shooting video – creating one of his own typically personal and idiosyncratic portraits of festival life as well as filming interviews with directors and actors which you’ll see in the months ahead; if all goes well, Brian Chirls will be shooting and posting video from the fest’s panels and programs; and, Brandon Harris will be covering Slamdance, blogging news and reviews from the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 17, 2008 Filmmaking
LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST AXIUM

The Axium saga continues, now appearing that Defamer’s headline, “Axuim: The Enron of the Payroll Services World,” was less of an overstatement than it initially appeared. (Props to Defamer for continuing to cover a story that has resulted in hardship for thousands of entertainment industry employees and which has been relatively underplayed by the trades.) Axium’s financier, Golden Tree Asset Management, has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit in California court against Axium principals John Visconti and Ronald Garber; their subsidiary companies, and their wives and ex-wives. I will try to have the full PDF of the lawsuit posted for your […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 17, 2008 Filmmaking
MANN ON WIRE

Seith Mann’s short film five deep breaths is one of the best we’ve seen in recent years, and it got the New York filmmaker selected to our 25 New Faces list — in 2003. And now that Mann has made a name for himself directing episodes of HBO’s hit The Wire, his short has surfaced again, this time via Bilge Ebiri at New York Magazine. Click here to both read about and see the film. Here’s Ebiri on Mann and his work: The tale of two friends who get in too deep when they decide to help out a battered […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2008 Filmmaking
WINTER ISSUE AND SUNDANCE AROUND THE CORNER

For those who just read the blog, check out the main page all this week as we’ll be highlighting the responses we got from many of the filmmakers with features at this year’s Sundance Film Festival as they answer the question: if you had 10 percent more of anything, what would it be and why? The responses are also in our Winter issue, which will premiere at Sundance (hits newsstands a week later) and also includes interviews with Paul Thomas Anderson on There Will Be Blood, Alex Gibney talks about his latest doc Taxi To The Dark Side and author […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jan 14, 2008 Filmmaking
STRANGER IN A STRANGE AWARDS CEREMONY

With the Golden Globes having seemed to have been beamed in from some alternate universe, the timing is right for Jamie Stuart’s latest short, in which a friendly space alien tries to grok that red-carpeted human ritual known as the awards show.

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 14, 2008 Filmmaking
WEEKEND BLOG ROUND-UP

Here are some posts that have caught my eye this week. Jon Taplin, probably the only professor at the Annenberg School for Communication who can also lay claim to producing one of the seminal films of the ’70s (Mean Streets), has a great blog that mixes his commentary on politics, economics and the film business. (Hat tip: Ted Hope.) The former Dylan tour manager and Merrill Lynch v.p. has written a two-parter entitled “Memo to Hollywood: Stop Making Movies.” He compares Hollywood’s battle for market share to players locked in the classic example of game theory, The Prisoner’s Dilemma. From […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jan 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.