Filmmaking

THE SILVERBERG SHELVES

Hey, check out this article in Bookforum I just came across profiling an old friend, Ira Silverberg. I first met Ira years ago when I was the Programming Director of The Kitchen. At various times a literary publicist, head of Grove Press and agent (now at Donadio and Olson), Ira would pitch — and I would program — readings by people like Mary Gaitskill, Kathy Acker and Joel Rose. After a few of these I suggested he cut out the middleman (me) and become the curator of a new Kitchen literary series, a program he directed for several years. Elizabeth […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 22, 2007 Filmmaking
KEEPING IT SIMPLE

Finally… this blog has an RSS feed. That little symbol next to our logo above… use it to click through to an RSS page. Or search for Filmmaker magazine on your RSS reader. Or simply cut and paste this code — https://filmmakermagazine.com/blog/sitefeed/atom.xml — and receive this blog on your RSS delivery system of choice.

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 22, 2007 Filmmaking
WHAT’S IN A SCREEN NAME?

There’s an interesting thread going on over at Jeffrey Welles’s Hollywood Elsewhere. Welles has been talking up Mike Binder’s upcoming Adam Sandler-9/11 pic Reign on Me, and a recent posting linking to Anthony Lane’s positive review has turned into a war between the talkbackers (one, Scooterzzz, in particular), and director Binder, who is replying on the site. Binder has challenged Scooterzzz to post his real name and to email Binder his address so Binder can refund him his admission; Scooterzzz says it was a press screening and that it’s impossible to compensate him for the lost two hours of his […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 21, 2007 Filmmaking
A POWER MAC USER

Since I posted about the political ad mash-up that composites Hilary Clinton into Ridley Scott’s celebrated “1984” Apple Macintosh ad on March 5, the YouTube clip has gone from hundreds of views to hundreds of thousands of views, becoming a media sensation in the process. Keith Olberman has devoted a couple of spots to it, and various pundits have attempted to figure out the identity of the creator. Today, on the Huffington Post, the author of the work reveals himself. Here’s Arianna on the whole affair,”, and here’s Phil de Vellis, aka ParkRidge47, the originator of the spot. An excerpt […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 21, 2007 Filmmaking
REMEMBER THE ALAMO

This year I attended SXSW for the first time (embarassingly), and, as a juror for the Narrative Competition, spent a lot of time at the famed Alamo Downtown Cinema and Drafthouse. I watched a lot of their really fun trailer reels, ate a bunch of their burgers and chicken sandwiches, and wound up really getting off on the place’s hip calendar-house/movie fan palace vibe. I guess I should be glad I made it down there this year because, as this article in Ain’t It Cool News reveals, Austin’s Alamo Downtown is soon to be no more due to the typical […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 21, 2007 Filmmaking
I AM A FREE MAN!

This weekend the IFP and Filmmaker will be hosting four screenings of Michael Tucker’s The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair. We’ll be doing Q and A’s with director Tucker (whose previous film was the Iraq doc Gunnar Palace) after the 5:15 and 7:20 shows, Friday and Saturday, at the Cinema Village in New York. The doc was a bit hit down at SXSW and I’m eager to talk with Tucker about its production. Here’s how the filmmakers describe the film: In an absurd comedy of errors, a freedom-loving Iraqi journalist is mistaken as Tony Blair’s would-be […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 20, 2007 Filmmaking
FESTIVALS ARE DEAD! (LONG LIVE FESTIVALS!)

I’ve long argued that filmmakers shouldn’t view theatrical distribution as the be-all and end-all of their filmmaker efforts. Other forms of distribution, DIY or otherwise, are often more financially remunerative and somethings even emotionally rewarding, depending on the films. But I’ve never made the argument that filmmakers should sidestep the film festival circuit. One filmmaker who is at least posing that argument now is Sujewa Ekanayake, who decided not to submit his Date Number One to festivals while he launched his one series of DIY screenings. In this blog post, he explains his rationale and then makes a counterintuitive proposal: […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 20, 2007 Filmmaking
DVD OR DOWNLOAD?

There’s a spirited conversation going over at Twitch about whether or not small companies now releasing cult films on DVD should shift to a “download-to-burn” distribution model. The conversation centers around genre and catalog titles, but it’s applicable to our current independent cinema too. Here’s an excerpt from Swarez’s original post, but click on the link to read all the comments as well. The brick and mortar stores are out to make money and any good business man will tell you that it doesn’t make sense to stock the store with titles which the average viewer knows nothing about. Of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 18, 2007 Filmmaking
JUROR NOTES (SMILING ON FROWNLAND)

I sat on the Narrative Feature jury at SXSW last week. As you know, we gave the Grand Jury Prize to Itty Bitty Titty Committee, Jamie Babbit’s riot grrl riff on Lizzie Borden’s early ’80s feminist indie classic, Born in Flames. In addition to its spirited run through the history of late 20th century feminist political action, from Angela Davis through the Guerilla Girls, the film contains a set of relationships — the Latina lesbian protagonist, played by Melonie Diaz, and her accepting family; Melanie Mayron’s power lesbian and her psychologically enabling lover/rent girl (played by Nicole Vicius) — that […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 18, 2007 Filmmaking
THE ART OF IT ALL

Over at On Five, the Criterion Company blog, designer Eric Skillman tells — and shows — us how he got to the DVD design for the Criterion release of Jules Dassein’s Night and the City. Here’s the intro. Click on the link for further commentary and all the mock-ups that lead to the final design, seen here. When I was designing the cover for Night and the City, I wanted to find a slightly different idiom to represent “noir,” to get away from the pulpy, dime-novel look that’s normally associated with that era and style. (Something I think illustrator Geoff […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 15, 2007 Filmmaking

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