Filmmaking

LEM PODCAST

A few posts below I noted the death of Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem. Benjamin Walker has just posted a podcast devoted to Lem and his work.

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 6, 2006 Filmmaking
PEN PALS, PART TWO

The debate playing out at Caveh Zahedi’s blog over, specifically, Landmark’s backing out of screening his I Am a Sex Addict gets more and more fascinating as Zahedi and Mark Cuban go back and forth in a increasingly long series of blog entries. At the very least, it’s a more interesting and thorough debate of the whole “day and date” releasing strategy than we’ve seen in the trades as it deals with the inevitable conflicts that will arise between competing alliances of theater chains, cable providers and theatrical distributors. After a seemingly futile letter to Steven Soderbergh to intervene, Zahedi […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 6, 2006 Filmmaking
DISTRIBUTION NOW… DISTRIBUTION HOW?

I’ll be moderating an IFP-sponsored panel this coming Monday on the challenges of the current distribution environment for indies, focusing on filmmakers who have persisted despite initial adversity to see their films out in the marketplace. It’s linked to the New York opening of Caveh Zahedi’s I Am a Sex Addict and tickets cost ten bucks, but $8 of the ticket price goes back to the theater screening Caveh’s film and you get a voucher enabling you to see the movie during the first week. We’re doing it, obviously, to help Caveh’s grosses in the first week as these are […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 6, 2006 Filmmaking
NOIR REDUX

If you arrive at this blog through a bookmarked page, you’ll occasionally miss our various online-only features. Up now, for example, is Jason Guerrasio’s “Hammett Goes to High School,” a great interview with Brick writer-director Rian Johnson. Focus had an amazing opening for this film last week, grossing over $40,000 per screen, and from audience response it could be the next cult youth movie after Donnie Darko. From the piece: Filmmaker: You’ve said high school was a perfect setting because it took away from the noir world of fedoras and trench coats. Johnson: And saying that, I don’t mean to […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 5, 2006 Filmmaking
DARKO OBSESSION

Over at the music blog The Torture Garden (a website which appears to have little to do with Octave Mirbeau’s Sadeian 1899 novel), Daniel Hernandez has posted an obsessive listing of 88 Reasons to Watch Donnie Darko Again, catalogued by theme. Some excerpts: 01. [numbers] The movie takes place in 1988. Frank tells Donnie the world will end in 28 days, 06 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. If you add these numbers, the sum is 88. 08. [numbers] Donnie Darko was released on October 26, 2001. The Director’s Cut of the film was released on July 23, 2004, exactly […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 4, 2006 Filmmaking
PEN PALS

There’s a fascinating back-and-forth going on over at Caveh Zahedi’s blog over an unusual development that’s occurred just days before the release of Zahedi’s feature I am a Sex Addict. The film has been caught in the middle of corporate politics involving IFC (the film’s distributor), Comcast (its video-on-demand supplier), HDNet (Mark Cuban’s production and distribution company), and Landmark Theaters (the theater chain also owned by Cuban). It starts with Zahedi explaining the situation: I got a phone call today from IFC. Apparently, Mr. Mark Cuban (the very wealthy owner of the Dallas Mavericks) has decided to pull our movie […]

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 3, 2006 Filmmaking
PARTYING LIKE ITS 1994

In the beginning days of Filmmaker, Kevin Smith’s Clerks was one of our big topics, a movie that really connected to our readership and helped define the whole indie movie DIY thing. And now, 12 years later, Smith has made a sequel. Somehow, the timing feels right…

By Scott Macaulay on Apr 3, 2006 Filmmaking
YOUTUBE — HERE TO STAY

CNET covers Youtube: Executives from heavyweights such as Yahoo, America Online and Turner Broadcasting were buzzing about YouTube’s sudden success at the Digital Hollywood conference here this week. Even though it’s not clear exactly how YouTube will make money, no company generated as much excitement at the gathering of Hollywood studios, electronics manufacturers and Internet media companies….

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 31, 2006 Filmmaking
A DEFINITION OF MENTORSHIP

In Simon Reynold’s great history of post-punk, Rip It Up and Start Again, the critic describes trips taken by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt (who, with Eno, co-created Oblique Strategies, a set of simple directives on playing cards — example: “Don’t avoid what is easy” — intended as creative aids) to the British art school Watford in the ’70s where Eno would help students with projects. On some nights Eno and Schmidt would give Colin Newman, founding member of Wire (pictured), a lift, and Newman’s quote is a good description of how one generation supports another when it comes to […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 31, 2006 Filmmaking
JOHN AUGUST’S WORST WORKING HABIT

From “10 Things I Hate About Me” posted on the great blog by the screenwriter of Go, Big Fish, and Corpse Bride, among others: Particularly when I’m re-writing a script, I suffer from what my friend John Gatins refers to as the line-painter dilemma. Here’s the short version: A guy is hired to paint the yellow line down the middle of a country road. The first day, he paints five miles. His supervisor is impressed. The second day, he only paints two miles. His supervisor thinks, “Well, maybe he had a bad day.” But the third day, the guy only […]

By Scott Macaulay on Mar 30, 2006 Filmmaking

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