Filmmaking

PICK OF THE WEEK

Many filmmakers lately have been interested in blending documentary with drama, mixing real people and places into classically structured stories. Perhaps the best of these recent attempts is also the most timely and vital; Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross’s The Road to Guantanamo, which tells the true story of three British Muslims who, traveling to Pakistan for a wedding, haplessly wind up captured by U.S. military and sent to Guantanamo Bay. Winterbottom and Whitecross shoot on DV and blend talking-head interviews with the real “Tipton Three” — who have since been released — with incredibly dramatic scenes with actors that […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 23, 2006 Filmmaking
THE FINAL FRONTIER

Below we linked to The Smoking Gun regarding a lawsuit threatened by Paramount against an artist who created a twelve-minute video piece apparently based on the screenplay for Oliver Stone’s forthcoming World Trade Center. Interestingly, the New York Times ran a piece this weekend about the same studio’s tolerance (so far) of fan-produced Star Trek episodes and movies. The video equivalent of “fan fiction,” some of these not-intended-for-profit works have been downloaded 30 million times! From the article as reprinted in IndyStar.com: Fan films have been around for years, particularly those related to the “Star Wars” movies. But now they […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 21, 2006 Filmmaking
THE YOUNG AMERICANS

Writing in Sight and Sound, Amy Taubin surveys the young Americans at Cannes — John Cameron Mitchell, Rick Linklater, and, finally, Richard Kelly: “It’s about how a bunch of teenagers are dying because we don’t have an alternative fuel source,” said Richard Kelly of ‘Southland Tales’, his hallucinatory, media-saturated, apocalyptic, broken-hearted, future/present follow-up to ‘Donnie Darko’ – which has just a ghost of a chance of being shown theatrically in its two-hour 43-minute Cannes version. As oneiric and overwhelming as two memorial films of Cannes past – David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Dr.’ and Wong Kar-Wai’s ‘2046’ – and a lot funnier, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 21, 2006 Filmmaking
APPROPRIATE APPROPRIATION?

The lawyers at Paramount, who presumably are not fans of folks like Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, and other appropriation-based artists, have launched a federal lawsuit against artist Christopher Moukarbel, who we blogged about recently. They are charging copyright infringement with regards to a 12-minute film he created and put up online which is based, apparently, on a copy of the screenplay for Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center. (Filmmaker‘s blog is cited in the Paramount filing.) The Smoking Gun has all the details, including links to screenplay excerpts, which have been filed as exhibits, as well as a side-by-side comparison of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 21, 2006 Filmmaking
GLOBAL MARKETPLACE

Larry Clark’s Ken Park, from a script by Harmony Korine, is notoriously difficult to see in the States. According to Clark in this week’s Village Voice, that old nemesis, uncleared music rights, is the culprint. But for those who want to see the movie, Clark relays to writer Jessica Winter some consumer advice while he waits for the song situation to get worked out. In the meantime, Clark directs interested parties to the Internet. “You can go on eBay and get the DVD. The Russian DVD is good, the French DVD is good, the Dutch DVD is good. But don’t […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 20, 2006 Filmmaking
CREEPY CALLS

Via Ray Pride at Movie City Indie: David Lynch is selling ringtones. $3.99 a pop.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 20, 2006 Filmmaking
POP TIME MACHINE

Pitchfork Media has just put up one of their mammoth surveys, this time 100 Awesome Music Videos, complete with mini-critiques and, for each one, a link to the video itself. It stretches back to the beginning days of music video and seems to have most of the major clips covered. Check it out.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 20, 2006 Filmmaking
Agent Provocateur

With The Outsider, cinematic badboy James Toback gets in front of the camera for first-time filmmaker Nicholas Jarecki. “Who is James Toback?” That’s the question documentary filmmaker Nicholas Jarecki poses in The Outsider, a freewheeling and highly watchable portrait of the director of idiosyncratic films like Fingers and Black and White. Jarecki introduces his subject, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Bugsy, on the set of a 2004 film for which Toback had high hopes. When Will I Be Loved, which starred Neve Campbell as a young woman on the make, would, like many of Toback’s films, be a minor presence […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jun 16, 2006 Directing
Sound Jam

The director of Head-On investigates the rich musical culture of his homeland. DIRECTOR FATIH AKIN. The soundtrack and score of the critically acclaimed, adrenaline fueled doomed romance Head-On was a fusion of punk, European electronica, hip-hop, British new wave and traditional Turkish laments, so it’s no great surprise that the Turkish-German director Fatih Akin’s new movie is a documentary about the vibrant and diverse music community in Istanbul. It’s the city where Head-On music composer Alexander Hacke, better known as a member of the avant-garde band Einstuezende Neubauten, recorded a few songs for Head-On — and became fascinated by the […]

By Jason Guerrasio on Jun 16, 2006 Filmmaking
HIGH ALTITUDE

Over at Caveh Zahedi’s blog, Zahedi is talking about teaching at the European Graduate School in the Swiss Alps where he’s hanging out with and listening in on classes taught by Claire Denis, Jean-Luc Nancy, D.J. Spooky, the Quay Brothers and others.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 12, 2006 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.