Filmmaking

THE SKIN GAME

Filmmaker has been on press the last week so that has meant that we’ve been slacking on the blog. But one of the things I’ve been meaning to post about is the government’s new “2257” regulations which, on the sheer basis of their audacity, should be provoking outrage in the independent world. Strangely, though, our indie sector has been quiet on this government intrusion on content creators, probably because it specifically targets adult entertainment. Anyway, this Newsday editorial does a far better job than I could have explaining why you should care about these new regulations. Here’s an excerpt: “Regardless […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 7, 2005 Filmmaking
DON’T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB, LUC

In this article in The Guardian on London’s winning Olympic bid, the newspaper gives a mini-review to a new film by Luc Besson: “Earlier, Paris had been the first to address the IOC. The French attempted to match their audience, using exclusively white middle-aged men to deliver their message, culminating in a plea from President Jacques Chirac. Even a promo film directed by Luc Besson seemed staid, featuring enough talking heads to suggest the great auteur has a future in corporate videos should the Hollywood commissions end. It was unspectacular, but many believed it still might be good enough to […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jul 6, 2005 Filmmaking
FINDING OUT THE WINNERS

Film Independent (formerly the IFP/Los Angeles) announced the winners of its 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival. Mark Banning won the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature for his Jellysmoke, and the Target Best Doc Award went to Beth Bird for Everyone Their Grain of Sand. The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know. David Zeiger’s Sir! No Sir! won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature. Luc Jacquet’s March of the Penguins won the Audience Award for Best International Feature. Catherine Kellner and Ebon Moss-Bachrach of Leslie McCleave’s Road […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 27, 2005 Filmmaking
EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!

The folks at Stay Free Magazine have have an informative blog entry up on the music clearance hassles of Mad Hot Ballroom. The film’s producer and writer Amy Sewell talks about the unexpected issues she faced clearing everything musical numbers to a Rocky cellphone ring tone. Here she recounts one of the more vexing moments: “When we were down shooting the boys playing foosball, Ronnie yelled out, “Everybody dance now!” Just when I think we’ve finished the film, someone points out that we have to clear that because it’s a “visual vocal cue.” So I went back to the publishers, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 25, 2005 Filmmaking
A STRING OF CLIPS SET TO MUSIC…

… even Elton John music, is so much better than the formulaic trailer cutting that is rampant these days. You know, the fast music, cheesey step-zooms that aren’t in the actual movie, weird whooshing sound effects on the edits, even for dramatic films, switch to slow soulful music half way kind of thing?. This clip for Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown, linked to first on Ain’t It Cool News, is a much better promo than what will probably come later… Check it out.

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 23, 2005 Filmmaking
PITCHING SHOOT ‘EM UP

The guys over at Ain’t It Cool News have been creaming over Michael Davis’s Shoot ‘Em Up, an action pic set up at New Line starring Clive Owen. First the site’s Moriaty posted an interview with Davis in which the writer/director traces the interesting and circuitous route he took to being the town’s new go-to action guy. (Jeffrey Welles has also written about Davis in a fascinating career study that explains how a 44-year-old direct-to-video guy came to helm a big-budget A-list actioner.) And today, Moriaty links to the Latino Review which has a detailed script review and, most importantly, […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 20, 2005 Filmmaking
JOHN VANCO, FILM PROGRAMMER, OCCASIONAL CONTRACTOR

On the opening weekend of the IFC’s new IFC Center (which a friend reported was packed out for the opening of Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know), the folks at Gothamist have posted an interview with our friend John Vanco, the chief programmer for the theater. Vanco talks a lot about film and outlines an exciting vision for the theater, and he also reveals a past life as a carpenter when asked about the theater’s construction delays: “My background as a carpenter is an awfully obscure fact and fading memory — that was a long time ago. […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 18, 2005 Filmmaking
LUNCH HOUR SPACE OPERA

The rap on us movie business people here in New York is that we’re out of touch with the pulse of the industry, the daily insanity of life on the Left Coast. After seeing this pic, I fear that this criticism is correct. I honestly don’t know what to make of this story on Defamer which concerns the town’s biggest agency and one of my favorite writers. Finding it hard to believe that CAA has borrowed a promotional tactic from the IFP’s Independent Feature Film Market circa 1996, I ask anyone out there in L.A. to confirm Defamer‘s claim that […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 6, 2005 Filmmaking
CHIP SHOTS, PART TWO

As predicted yesterday in numerous publications and as recounted below, Apple Computer today announced that it will be moving from IBM’s Power PC chip to the Intel Pentium chip, currently used in Windows computers. Yesterday I linked to Wired‘s Cult of Mac blog which stated that while speed may have been an issue, one of the other main reasons behind the switch was Apple’s desire to use Intel’s new Digital Rights Management protection that’s embedded in the new Pentium chip, a technology that will allow Apple to pitch the major movie studios with an ITunes-like digital movie store. At the […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 6, 2005 Filmmaking
CHIP SHOTS

If you’ve gone anywhere near your computer this weekend you’ll have noticed all the stories about Apple’s supposed plan to shift from IBM Power PC chips to Intel chips in its Macintosh computers. A Wall Street Journal story earlier in the week claiming that this shift might be in the offing caused Apple’s stock to pop 6%, but most followers of Jobs and company doubted the report. Now, however, with the official announcement less than 24 hours away, it’s being reported as near fact. For Mac fans, it’s a big deal, as the architecture of the new chip will require […]

By Scott Macaulay on Jun 5, 2005 Filmmaking

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