Filmmaking

HAMPTONS SCREENWRITERS LAB ANNOUNCES PROJECTS

The Hamptons International Film Festival has announced the projects chosen for its Sixth Annual Screenwriters Lab, to be held this coming weekend in East Hampton. The chosen writers will develop their scripts with mentors Warren Leight, Whit Stillman, Charles Randolph and Alison Maclean. From the press release: During the lab in the Hamptons, our emerging screenwriters will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one each day with established screenwriting mentors who will advise them on how to develop their scripts. Within this intimate environment, our screenwriters are encouraged to take risks and discover new possibilities for their projects. Participantsalso attend group […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2006 Filmmaking
INDIEWIRE, THE NEW YORK TIMES AND EMERGING PICTURES TEAM UP

From a just received press release: The New York Times and Emerging Pictures, the New York-based digital cinema network, will for the first time present “indieWIRE: Undiscovered Gems” as an eight-month-long film series. Based on indieWIRE’s annual list of the top 15 films from major festivals around the world that have yet to find a theatrical distributor, the series is being presented in association with the California Film Institute. The series kicks off in late April with Jem Cohen’s acclaimed feature Chain. With support from Sundance Channel, an audience prize competition will provide the winning filmmaker a cash award of […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 19, 2006 Filmmaking
GOING HOME

Director Mike Leigh is on London stages now with Two Thousand Miles, his first ever “Jewish play.” Linda Grant in The Guardian talks to Leign about his Jewish heritage and why it hasn’t surfaced in his work until now. An excerpt: It was a kosher home, though they only went to synagogue now and again and they drove on the sabbath. “But it was very, very Jewish. My grandparents were immigrants – they talked in Yiddish – and there were some outreaches of the family where there were genuine frummers [Orthodox].” It was a time, he points out, when many […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 17, 2006 Filmmaking
PRIVATIZE THIS!

Pat Aufderheide, Professor and Director for Center for Social Media at American University’s School of Communication, forwarded an email about potentially alarming news coming from the Smithsonian. She writes, “The Smithsonian recently announced an exclusive partnership with Showtime Networks to create ‘Smithsonian Networks’ as a joint venture with the Institution’s Smithsonian Business Ventures Unit. This arrangement could stifle the range of independent work on American history and culture that consistently brings new ideas, voices and perspectives to public attention.” Why? Because, she continues, “The Smithsonian Networks policy would preclude independent filmmakers from creating projects for other media outlets. According to […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 16, 2006 Filmmaking
GREEN ON MYSPACE

Filmmaker‘s MySpace page has over 15,000 friends and as we (laboriously) approve each new person, it’s nice to see some directors we like check in with pages that contain their own work. For example, Brent Green, who was one of our “25 New Faces” last year, just joined, and his page streams some of his very original low-fi animation that we went crazy for last year in the magazine. (His regular film site, Nervous Films, has some of his fine art work and other info but no streaming.) And, while we’re at, Crystal Dunn, the NY-based photographer who took the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 15, 2006 Filmmaking
F*CK THE FESTIVALS

The filmmakers behind a short entitled Sex, Love and Z Parts have started a blog in which they’re showing the world that festival acceptance isn’t everything. They’re gearing up for a showcase screening at an L.A. theater where they’ll prove the naysayers wrong. Here’s from their inaugural post: Ok let’s get something straight; I have no regrets. Sundance doesn’t want me, boo -fuckin’ hoo. Slamdance don’t wanna dance, well call me Gloria ’cause I will survive bitch. I shot this movie and it’s the tits! ok…that’s better. So let me fill you in on a few things. I shot a […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 14, 2006 Filmmaking
MANUALLY OPERATED

Over at his blog, Self Reliant Filmmaking, Paul Harrill interviews one of our “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” Jake Mahaffy, who who discusses the artisanal techniques he brought to the production of his film, War: I shot most of it on a 16mm Bolex camera, which doesn’t have a battery, by disengaging the motor and winding the rewind key forward. So, I manually pulled the film through the camera, like silent film-operators used to do. That’s not a clever attempt at art. It was a practical necessity. With the Bolex, a spring-wound camera, you only get 20-second shots… many […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 14, 2006 Filmmaking
DEMME ON NEIL YOUNG’S NEW PROTEST ALBUM

Editor and Publisher reports that filmmaker Jonathan Demme, currently in theaters with the Neil Young concert film Heart of Gold is quoted via a third party saying, “Neil [Young}just finished writing and recording — with no warning — a new album called ‘Living With War.’ It all happened in three days… It is a brilliant electric assault, accompanied by a 100-voice choir, on Bush and the war in Iraq… Truly mind blowing. Will be in stores soon.” Singer Alicia Morgan has more on her blog: “On Wednesday, I was at work when I got a call for a Neil Young […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 14, 2006 Filmmaking
CROSS COUNTRY DIALOGUE

Over at Green Cine, Hannah Eaves writes up a panel on new distribution models that overlaps the discussion I moderated earlier this week for the IFP. Filmmaker Caveh Zahedi was at both panels, and the Sonoma, California panel went into different tangents and featured folks like moderator Joel Bachar (of Microcinema), GreenCine’s Content Acquisitions Director Jonathan Marlow, Wellspring’s VP of Theatrical Sales Marisa Keselica, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos and Houston King of Goodbye Cruel Releasing.

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 14, 2006 Filmmaking
THIS IS YOUR PILOT SPEAKING

Borys Kit has a good article in the Hollywood Reporter discussing the influx of feature directors to the TV world, noting that this pilot season Spike Lee, Jim Mangold, F. Gary Gray and others are completing small-screen work. “The perception that TV was a sitcom world and that features provided a more intellectual medium — that distinction is not necessarily the case anymore,” said attorney Gregg Gellman of Barnes Morris Klein Mark Yorn Barnes & Levine, whose crossover clients have included directors like Gavin O’Connor (“Miracle”). With more and more scripts tackling concepts that challenge traditional formats and genres, feature […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 14, 2006 Filmmaking

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