Remember that Phil Dick-ian John Carpenter movie, They Live? In it, a special pair of sunglasses allows you to see the world as it really is, with all of the government's subliminal messages exposed. I thought of that film while reading this blog post at Seeking Alpha entitled "How Video is Going to Take Over the World." It summarizes a Forrester research reporter claiming that we are entering an age of "Omnivideo," in which video playback will occur on multiple surfaces all throughout our daily life.

From the post, quoting Forrester:

“Once video becomes this easy to produce, deliver, store, and share, every agent in society will not only want to participate but will have to participate in order to have a shot at reaching people with its products and services.”

In his view that means:

Consolidation and collaboration will increase even faster than before. But the pick-a-winner approach to integrating content with devices will get blown wide open as companies like Sony (SNE) and Panasonic realize they can’t bet on a single partner but have to offer access to all major content partners.

Companies will continuously “broadcast” video from inside the enterprise. The Internet has forced marketers to go far beyond a few ads and some brochures in their communications efforts. The shift to video will be much more taxing because companies have to have a strategy for communicating every message — internal or external — with video.

Every video surface will become a marketing platform. When nearly every surface in your environment can display video, marketers will pay a pretty penny to show up at the bottom of a food bowl or in a bathroom mirror, where their product marketing message will be far more relevant than it is on a TV today. “The only broker of this ad space in your home is you: We envision ad networks one day paying you for the right to aggregate your ad experiences.”

I thought of the Carpenter film when reading this comment by a poster called Big Bear Lake Hostel:

Someone will invent intelligent "media blocker" sunglasses for city people which will block out or noise cancel all electronic noise and video and replace all advertising with screen saver type images of your own choosing. how about wanting through times square and only hearing your favorite song, and what humans are saying around you, and instead of billboards everywhere you saw images from your flickr account wallpapering the buildings around you. a short of realtime TIVO for your physical reality..

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/23/2008 11:14:00 PM Comments (3)

I've posted before about Hammer to Nail, the website launched this year in which Michael Tully, Mike Ryan and others are posting opinionated, passionate and politically informed reviews and commentary on independent films and the indie film scene. Today I received an email from producer Ted Hope, who announces more content at Hammer to Nail, where he, Ryan, Tully and Corbin Day will try to make sense of today's paradigm-shifting independent business. So, if you haven't already, add Hammer to Nail to your list of bookmarks. And, below, is the entirety of Hope's email:

I was on a panel at the Provincetown Film Festival this weekend (which is a great festival - go!). Actually two panels, one on Towelhead (opening 9/12/08) and the other with Greg Araki, Mary Harron, Tom Kalin, John Waters, and Christine Vachon on "filmmaking on the edge". In these discussions, and in the articles attached below, it's clear that Business of Indie Film is looking for a new paradigm. We are between things and the old model no longer works and the new one is undefined. But I see some real hope nonetheless.

This change has been much discussed for the last fifteen years, but the digital revolution is very slow in coming. This slow trickle has, in my opinion, allowed for a withering away of what truly made the indie film world unique, which is the glue that kept it a community and not just a demographic. Digital downloads won't be anyone's salvation, but the internet can truly rebuild what has collapsed -- but it's time to look at the infrastructure first.

Time and time again, films emerge that define a community and the community comes out to support in droves. Similarly, it truly feels to me that we are at a cultural crossroads, where we -- as a community of filmmakers and film lovers -- are in real danger of losing access to a dynamic range of personal cinema, unless the various communities start to take steps to unite and speak up for the world they want. We can't keep settling for the crap that is hoisted upon us (see George Carlin RIP below).

I have several thoughts on how these communities can be brought together and strengthened, and I hope to expand upon them in the months ahead, but in the interim I wanted to point out a blog that I have started together with Corbin Day, Mike Ryan, and Michael Tully entitled Hammer To Nail. It's our attempt to build a home that has a passionate appreciation for ambitious film, for films of limited release and more limited budgets, but for films that still dare to reach, dare to aknowledge the world they come from and the world they hope to be, films that reach both narratively and formally. It's only in it's early alpha stage so be gentle. We also would love to have more filmmakers who want to write about other films and what constitutes ambitious filmmaking, so let me know if that interests you.

Sincerely,
Ted

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/23/2008 10:57:00 PM Comments (2)

Ted Hope tipped me to this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer on this summer's empty arthouses. Several of the usual suspects are interviewed in a piece that talks about the high cost of marketing, the internet, downloads, the production glut and marketplace churn -- the practice of shuffling new titles out of theaters when they don't immediately click. Again, no magic solutions here, just lots of opinions, like these:

Despite the current doldrums, the market for arthouse cinema seen in the art house remains vibrant. "It's a cyclical business," Mundorff says.

Observes Bernard, who has been in specialized distribution since 1981, "The obituary for art films appears every 17 years, like the locust."

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/23/2008 09:27:00 PM Comments (0)

Labels: obituaries

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/23/2008 09:03:00 PM Comments (0)

There are always unusual characters at SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival, from the eclectic staff and volunteers to diverse filmmakers and film subjects - the people watching is always outstanding. Primarily, the people-watching is in the movie theaters, although this year, Silverdocs was marked by the appearances of Spike Lee, recipient of the annual Guggenheim Award for lifetime excellence in social issue documentary; Music Award jurist, and pro-open source sampling documentarian/musician Paul D. Miller, (aka DJ Spooky); and on the other end of the spectrum, the theraputic robot seal, Paro, of Phie Ambo’s Mechanical Love, which looks at the brainstorming and experimenters leading the progress of android engineering.

Werner Herzog is especially apt to show a person’s most unusual side. His Encounters At The End Of The World, Shows not just the confusing and bizarre terrain of the Antarctic, but the scientists and other wandering thinkers of its McMurdo Station and outlying research camps. Herzog’s documentary techniques are elegantly revealed, showing his drama-eliciting questions and allowing the subjects ample space to answer how they ended up there. More than one interview notes that anyone who isn’t tied down falls to Antarctica, leading to philosophers driving fork lifts and linguists, in a continent with no native language, tending the hydroponic vegetables – this steamy greenhouse an oasis in a film dressed in blue-white landscape and oversized red parkas.

In Herzog’s recent interview with Filmmaker, he talks about falling in love with the world through filmmaking; this idea is behind many of the other films in the program. In Gini Reticker’s Pray The Devil Back To Hell, Leymah Gbowee’s love for her war-torn Liberia leads to a feminist peace movement. She dreams, literally, that the women of Liberia can pray for peace and make it happen. Praying alone isn’t enough, and this group of thousands of Christian and Muslim women take action with sit-ins and sing-ins, and, as in Lysistrada, a sex-strike; doing everything they’re able to stop the war. They persuade war-mongering president Charles Taylor and the rebel warlords to attend peace talks in Ghana. When the factions haven’t reached a decision after six weeks with hotel beds and catered meals, ‘General Leymah and her women’ block them in the deliberation hall without food or water, forcing the men to reach an agreement. As UN peacekeepers come to Liberia and calm is nervously settling upon Liberia, the women continue to monitor the situation, their work aiding in electing the first female head of state of any African country, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Pray the Devil… seems required viewing for feminists and peaceniks, a reminder that a committed group can make serious change with non-violent protest. Pray The Devil Back to Hell won the Witness Award, which also includes $5,000 cash.

If artists and collectors had required viewing at SILVERDOCS this year, it’s Herb and Dorothy, the tale of voracious art collectors of modest means, excellent taste and a graceful love. The Vogels - Dorothy, a librarian, and Herb, a postal clerk, began collecting minimal and conceptual works by now influential artists including Christo, Chuck Close, Richard Tuttle and dozens of others, amassing more than 4,700 works in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Now in their 70s, and faced with a full to bursting apartment, the Vogels donate their collection to the National Gallery of Art, and start a ‘50 Works for 50 States’ program which spreads it to major museums the US. First-time feature director Megumi Sasaki deftly explores their collection and their mindset, showing us Herb’s pointer dog stance when viewing work, and Dorothy’s organized temper to his compulsive buying, and introducing us to the artists they have supported as friends and collectors. Sasaki allows us to feel their passion and curatorial knowledge of conceptual art, along with the durability and love of their unique marriage. Herb and Dorothy, in person at the World Premiere, received a gracious standing ovation from the large audience, and the film Herb and Dorothy handily took SILVERDOCS’ Audience Award.

IFP alum had good showing at SILVERDOCS; Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s World Premiere screening of The Garden took the Sterling US Feature award – SILVERDOCS’ top American prize, which includes $10,000 cash and Kodak film stock. The Garden showed as a work-in-progress in 2005’s Independent Film Week “Spotlight on Documentaries” program. The Sterling US Jury, which included Sandi Dubowski, noted they gave the award for The Garden’s “tenacity in storytelling in the face of injustice, and the filmmaker's singular vision in bringing a gripping, dramatic, and important story to the public eye… It unravels a complex and layered tale of the destruction of America's largest urban farm that must not be forgotten.”

2007 Documentary Lab alum Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell screened in the Music Competition, and director Matt Wolf spoke on a panel on music documentaries. Under Our Skin, Andy Abrahams Wilson’s compelling examination of Lyme disease was an audience favorite as well, garnering one of the Festival’s coveted ‘Back By Popular Demand’ screenings. Under Our Skin screened in last year’s “Spotlight on Documentaries” program.

SILVERDOCS wraps today, finishing the week-long fest with screenings of all the award winners and the “Back by Popular Demand” films; this additional day of screenings a novel way of allowing audiences a compact place to see the festival favorites they’ve missed. To see the full list of award winners, visit www.silverdocs.com

# posted by Rose Vincelli @ 6/23/2008 05:56:00 PM Comments (0)

Film Department CEO Mark Gill spoke yesterday at the L.A. Film Festival's Financing Conference, and his speech, which Indiewire is running and which is entitled "Yes, the Sky is Really Falling," is excellent. It's a must-read summation of the current crisis in the independent film business, complete with a conclusion in which Gill discusses how one can and must survive in this business. Gill hasn't discovered any sort of magic bullet -- his advice can be boiled down to "apply smarts, passion and elbow grease"), but he's framed it all perfectly, and his lengthy discussion of the importance of quality in our 500-channel word is an important one. Here's a key paragraph:

The single biggest change should be to only make movies that we absolutely love. Not ones we like. Not ones we need to do as a favor. Not the ones we do because they seem like a good "piece of business." Not ones we do because we think, hope or wish that "the kids" will like them. Not the knock-offs of the ones that worked at the box office last year. In a word, we should only pick the films we're passionate about--and that have an audience.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/22/2008 08:03:00 PM Comments (0)

There's a good conversation going on at the always excellent blog of Jon Taplin. Entitled "Who Will the Next Fool Be," the short piece, which I'm taking the liberty of quoting in its entirety, critiques the recently announced deal in which India's Reliance may be financing Dreamworks.

Here's Taplin's post:

The movie business reminds me of that old Charlie Rich Tune, “Who will the next fool be?”. The news that a unit of one of India’s largest Conglomerate, Reliance, is contemplating starting a new Dreamworks 2 in what the Times article hints could be horrible terms. OMG! When will the world of finance finally learn? Two kinds of people make money in the movie business:Top Talent and Distribution. Everybody else, including off balance sheet finance, get screwed. First it was Wall Street (Steve Ross Era up to about 1982). Since then it has been British and German Tax Shelters, French (Canal Plus & Warner) TV partners, Japanese and Korean equity,Australian Equity (Village Road Show), Tech Moguls (Paul Allen), Hedge funds (recently badly burned & very under reported). Everyone of them thought they were the coolest kid on the block. But they all quickly retreated from the business.Hollywood is off bounds for most Arab investors, unless they had gone secular like Dodi Fayed of London and Princess Di fame. So all that’s left is the Indians and The Chinese .

Who will the next fool be?

The comments thread is already heating up with posts from people who obviously know something about the film biz. Rachel writes, "I think of it as the dinner party factor. It’s so much more interesting to be able to talk about the film you just financed than it is to talk about the expansion of your infrastructure fund. Well, maybe not more interesting, but of more interest to non-financial people. Plus these guys might get to meet [insert star du jour] at the premiere, or even at Cannes/Sundance/Berlin yada yada." Another poster, Ken B., writes, "In addition to the ego factor, there are other factors that can bring in the piece-of-the-action investors: for some it’s a tax shelter guaranteed to make a controlled business loss, a few use inflated production budgets as a money laundry that can process large amounts of cash, and then there have always been those who get caught up in the high stakes casino aspects."

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/21/2008 10:29:00 PM Comments (0)

All the industry news seems to break right when we are finishing an issue and don't have the time to properly parse it. Fortunately, Scott Kirsner is on the case at his CinemaTech blog, beating everyone to the punch with his news of SnagFilms, an interesting new distribution application that will enable filmmakers to receive ad revenue from the internet streaming of their films.

More:

Snag isn't going to try to create a destination site for film fans, but is building a video "widget" that can be placed on other sites: a filmmaker's site, a blog run by an advocacy group, a Facebook profile, anywhere. The widget will deliver streaming film clips, trailers, shorts, and in some cases entire features, peppered with advertisements.

Kirsner has a lot more, including what he has heard is the revenue split, at the link. The site is being launched by Ted Leonsis, who I have written about here, and AOL True Stories.

Also this week: news of the just launched YouTube Screening Room, the viral video giant's platform promising revenue to independent filmmakers.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/21/2008 04:14:00 PM Comments (0)

Filmmaker is hosting blogs from several of the participants of the various Sundance Labs this summer. Here's part one of producer/director Deann Borshay Liem's (Precious Objects of Desire) from the Sundance Documentary Edit and Storytelling Lab, which runs June 21 - 28.



Sometimes I refer to myself as “she.” This is because I’m a character in my own film and I have to separate who I am in real life with who I am on screen. Fortunately I’m a Gemini so this splitting into two (or more) doesn’t seem that odd. Any other editor might think this was nuts, but my editor, Vivien Hillgrove, has a bit of Gemini in her too, so between the two (or more) of us, we get by fine in the edit room.

Duality has always been a theme in my life. I was particularly fascinated as a kid with stories about babies who were switched at birth and grew up in the wrong families. It turns out I had been switched, too, not as a baby, but at the age of 8 with a girl I had never met. In the film, PRECIOUS OBJECTS OF DESIRE, I go to Korea in search of this “double” in an effort to resolve mysteries about her (and my) identity. The story of this search serves as the narrative spine for an exploration of the history and ethics of international adoptions from Korea, beginning with the Korean War.

I received funding for the film from the Sundance Institute and now have the privilege of attending the Sundance Edit/Story Lab coming up in a couple of days. To establish a kind of baseline, this is where we are. We have 80 minutes of an early assembly. It’s not a full assembly yet, but a series of scenes and character sketches strung together. Vivien and I will be screening this before our fellow filmmakers and advisors this weekend to get their (hopefully merciful) input. I wish we were further along, at the rough cut stage. But we’re not. I may sound calm about this, but deep inside I’m trembling.
I’m writing this blog in part at the Institute’s invitation, but also as an opportunity to share my experiences at the Lab. Since the Lab focuses on editing and story development, I thought I’d try to write about the working/creative relationship with my editor, as well as about our experiences at the Lab itself.

But who knows, my other self may change her mind once the Lab starts and end up writing about something else.

More soon…
Deann Borshay Liem

Photo caption: Before we were invited to the Sundance Lab, nice and relaxed. (L to R – Vivien Hillgrove, Deann Borshay Liem, Charlotte Lagarde)

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/20/2008 04:52:00 PM Comments (0)

Two pieces have been published online reporting on the current financial situation at THINKFilm, owned by David Bergstein, who purchased the company along with Capitol Films in 2006. In IndieWire, Anthony Kaufman details the efforts of some filmmakers to receive the overdue minimum advances they are owed by THINK. He also gets a quote on the issue from THINKFilm CEO Mark Urman. From the piece:

A determined, but frustrated, Mark Urman told indieWIRE this week that he's communicating with his filmmakers and making every effort to get people paid. "I feel terrible if people are hurt by our financial problems," he said. "We're not moving forward on other people's blood, I can assure you. We're not [EXPLETIVE] people; we're in trouble. And if people end up getting [EXPLETIVE], we're [EXPLETIVE], too, and we can all be on the unemployment lines together."

EDITORS NOTE: After publication, indieWIRE was contacted by Mark Urman who requested that the expletive used in the quote above be removed.

Today, A.J. Schnack has published a story about filmmaker Alex Gibney, who has announced a lawsuit against THINKfilm over the release of his Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side. Schnack quotes a press release issued by X-Ray, Gibney's production company:

"X-Ray asserts, among other things, that THINKFilm did not have the financial resources to properly release the film and fraudulently concealed this fact from the film’s creative team, its investors and the film’s sales agent, Cinetic Media Inc. Further, the demand asserts that THINKFilm’s actions damaged “Taxi,” its commercial reputation and its future possibilities for commercial success. X-Ray seeks damages, payment of legal fees as well as a termination of its agreement with ThinkFilm and a return of its distribution rights.

(...)In conversations with some of the film’s principals, it seems clear that many of ThinkFilm’s problems are the result of actions taken by its parent company, Capitol Films, and its principal, David Bergstein. Glascoff noted that Mark Urman, President of THINKFilm may have been frustrated by his inability to get needed cash flow from Capitol. “Nevertheless,” notes Glascoff, “lack of disclosure was a serious problem.”

Gibney is less diplomatic. “I was particularly upset,” says Gibney, “ by the way that Think took advantage of the many small vendors – publicists and web designers – who gave Think discounts because of the important message that “Taxi” had to convey. Rather than reward them for their hard work – which helped to earn the film an Oscar – THINKFilm is refusing to pay them.”

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/20/2008 04:06:00 PM Comments (0)

According to Variety, Lance Hammer's Sundance award-winning film Ballast has dropped out of its deal with IFC and has moved to Strand Releasing.

An excerpt:

"Obviously, we're disappointed, but how can we not support him if he tries to take control of this himself?" IFC Entertainment veep of acquisitions Arianna Bocco said. "We wanted the movie, we love the movie, and we think that we would have done really well with it. It's the first time that's happened with us."

"The budget was big enough that it would be hard in the current model to see that money back," Hammer said. "In the old days, when distributors gave a larger minimum guarantee, that would have been a totally different story. Nobody can afford to do that anymore."

Originally slated for the summer, Filmmaker has confirmed it's moving to a fourth quarter release.

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 6/20/2008 11:02:00 AM Comments (0)

NewFest wrapped up its 20th year of programming in New York City this Sunday, and at the conclusion of its closing night Gala film Were the World Mine, the festival's Artistic Director Basil Tsiokos and Administrative Director Kerry Weldon announced its winners. The evening's big winner, nabbing both the Showtime Vanguard Award and Best International Narrative Feature was The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela (pictured at right) a film that follows a Filipina transsexual prostitute who dreams of a fairy tale life in the West. Winning the Best Documentary Feature prize was Be Like Others which chronicles the experience of Iranian men who transition from male to female in order to abide by their country's law, which explicitly bans homosexuality as punishable by death. Winning Best US Narrative Feature was The Lost Coast, a character driven drama in which old friends reconnect over the course of one evening in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. The Audience Award for Best Feature appropriately went to Pageant a documentary which had New Yorkers clapping for their favorite candidate for Miss Gay America. For the first time this year the festival held its NewDraft Screenplay Competition, the two winning screenwriters were Rodney Evans for Day Dream and Soman Chainani for Love Marriage. For a complete list of winners click here for NewFest's website.

# posted by Conor Fetting-Smith @ 6/19/2008 10:54:00 AM Comments (0)

... if you want to do anything other than procrastinating what you are supposed to be doing right now.



Actually, do not press here.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/19/2008 12:26:00 AM Comments (0)

If you are a regular -- like, hourly -- reader of this blog, you know something about In Spring, the short Jamie Stuart piece which was posted on his own site and linked here only to be taken down shortly thereafter. Some (including, I'll admit, me) wondered if Stuart had, in his continual skirmishing with the confines of publicity in the service of artmaking, crossed some kind of line with this piece, which incorporated a real interview with a misidentified Werner Herzog (who Stuart painted in 2005, shown here) in the THINKfilm office within a fictional mock documentary on the distribution company.

Now, Stuart at his Stream blog writes about the piece, about not only its technical realization but also its conceptual intent. For Stuart fans, it's as close as we're probably ever going to get to an aesthetic manifesto from the guy. You can check it out here.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/13/2008 12:45:00 PM Comments (0)

Here's writer/director John Magary's (pictured here with Robert Redford and Vilmos Zsigmond) second dispatch from the Sundance Directors' Lab:

This is my first stab at blogging, okay? I’ve never been a self-starting chronicler, never had a personal essay phase, or a journal, or a sketchbook. I’m not wired that way. I don’t really know how to steal away time in bars or cafes, to reflect on my day in an endearingly scruffy little notebook—even a grocery list is a chore.

Long story short, I’m finishing up my second week here, and I have no notes. It’s blurs on top of blurs. Super-blurs, hyper-blurs, and where to go for some peace and quiet and that Alone Time with a hot cup of Sanka? Case in point, this is a Sunday, my “free day,” and here’s how it played out:

2:00-4:30, Screening of Little Fauss and Big Halsy (1970), starring a swaggering and shirtless Robert Redford, presented by Nicky Katt. Nicky, whom you’ve seen in probably more movies than you realize and who’s something of a mad cinephile, is acting in Daniel Casey’s Lab project Poletown. He keeps referencing movies that I’ve never heard of, severely fraying my adequacy levels.

4:30-5:30, Filmmaker Meeting, wherein we Directing Fellows air out our laundry, talk about the Process, laugh, cry, what have you.

5:30-6:15, Adviser Reception, wherein we meet the new advisers. The advisers, as you can imagine, are tasked with making us better. Among them (again, no notes) this week, Robert Elswit, Fernando Leon de Aranoa, and Michael Almereyda. Talk about your solid bunches, whoa. Last week was Robert Redford, Vilmos Zsigmond, Ira Sachs, Joan Tewksbury, Thomas Carter, Suzy Elmiger, and Christine Lahti, so help was frighteningly abundant. Mr. Zsigmond screened Close Encounters. Ms. Tewksbury, Nashville. Gyula Gazdag, A Hungarian Fairy Tale, which is a more or less impossible-to-see gem. The screenings are mega-awesome-sweet, I won’t lie.

6:15-7ish, Screening of the week’s scenes, wherein we Directing Fellows watch our edits in a room full of crew, staff, actors, and advisers. It’s a sweaty-palm kinda thing. (More about the PUBLIC aspect below.)

7:00-8:00, eat at buffet, which always has fruit, which is neat.

8:00-10:30, watch adviser Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s Mondays in the Sun, a simple and keenly observed study of laid-off friends in northern Spain. Starring Javier Bardem, who’s surprisingly hilarious for a paunchy, laid-off Spaniard. I’m describing his character, not him, so cool your jets.

Yeah, eight and a half hours of activities, and it’s my free day. Some were optional, but still—it’s an exhausting embarrassment of riches here. And so I lie, in blankets, way beyond the witching hour, and I’ve gotta be up at 6:45 in the morning, to walk halfway down a mountain, eat something/anything, and edit for nine hours, and I want to paint a picture for ya.

Dear Reader, how do I compress it? What would you like to know? I see no comments after my first post, so maybe it’s moot. (Do I offend?) I also see the picture with me and Gyula—pronounced JOO-la, and he’s not a Bond villain, he’s great, he’s Hungarian and an amazing director and wise and kind and supportive—and notice my noontime physique, my shape rounding off like a soldier six months out of Iraq. It’s buffet eating here, and me no good at restraining so much at the buffet. Apologies to my girlfriend.

Speaking of war and wars, the Lab is joked about as a boot camp for filmmakers. It’s not hyperbole, really. There is a rigid, almost relentless dedication to fitness here. Even something as seemingly straightforward as editing—when all is said and done, two people banging away in a small dark room—can feel like one of those Zero-G machines they fling you through in Air Force training. The thing in Spies Like Us. That thing.

I will focus, I must. Let’s talk about the public aspect, which takes some getting used to. I was talking with another Fellow, a commercial director named Frank Budgen, who’s brought a darkly comic adaptation called Shockheaded Peter to the Lab—of the Fellows, he’s worked on the most massive scales, piling up extras in Rio, animating clay bunnies in the middle of Manhattan, a city-wide water balloon fight in Buenos Aires, that kind of thing. Even considering the broad, high-budget, million-choices-a-minute experience, he was taken aback by how very open we have to be here. Everyone, from Lab head Michelle Satter down to the boom ops, seems to have read all the scripts, and there’s always some kind of audience, their eyeballs blinking in the cartoon dark. I’ll be digging down in a bag of Lays and four people will come up to tell me that they like Antoinette, who’s not a relative or friend, but a character I’ve written.

Support borders on the maniacal, in a good way. Shy ones are plucked out like errant hairs. There is a pungent, we’re-all-here-to-try-stuff-out-even-if-we-look-like-idiots vibe, and at first, cynic that I am, it all felt a bit…humiliating…

But the sunny smiles and the mountain air and the wise eyes of Gyula (there’s a title: The Wise Eyes of Gyula) have somehow beaten me into a glassy-eyed, productive spirit.

I’m not sure I’ve created anything good yet, and the Fear’s still there, but at least I’ve cast off those thoughts of stealing a jeep and peeling out, Zero-G, into the Utah wilderness.

Labels: Sundance

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/13/2008 09:11:00 AM Comments (8)

If you are in Chicago this next month -- or, perhaps, if you've got frequent flier miles or simple wanderlust -- then I highly recommend checking out Enter Dream, a photo show by writer, photographer and critic Ray Pride, whose work is well known to readers of Filmmaker as well as those of his own Movie City Indie blog. Ray's evocative photos are visually stunning and haunted by the idea of cinema -- they contain potent traces of storytelling, whiffs of dramatic atmosphere, and suggestions of character.

Here's the official spam:

The photographs in “Enter Dream” anatomize the geography of Chicago night, forbidding and delicious as these streets might be to a runaway child. Things left behind. Escape routes. Mute facades. Fearful horizons. Landscapes both bright and dark. The creatures that populate threatening places and moments familiar to ghosts, insomniacs and those who fear sleep and dreams to come. A city that does not know you, glimpsed in shards and captured in telling tableaus. The images, large and small, capture specific moments, but also intimately specific moods. William S. Burroughs wrote, “The important fact about urban living: the continued stream of second attention awareness. Every license plate, street sign, passing strangers, are saying something to you.” There are messages in “Enter Dream,” if you were to recognize them, if you were there to decipher them.

Ray’s work has been exhibited in group shows at the Cultural Center and Zolla-Lieberman Gallery and site-specific solo shows at Rainbo Club and Atomix Café. His portraits have been published in Newcity and Cinema Scope, among other places, and he contributes photo essays to Sharkforum and Variety. He is also a writer, film editor of Newcity and an editor of Filmmaker, Movie City News and Movie City Indie.

The show runs from June 13 through July 9 at Medicine Park. The opening reception is tomorrow night (June 13) at 8 p.m. Click on the link for more info.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/12/2008 06:42:00 PM Comments (1)

IFP's Independent Filmmaker Labs launched their 4 day Narrative Lab program yesterday at Soho House in New York City. For the first time in the history of the lab program, 2008 Narrative Lab participants will be eligible for the Independent Filmmaker Finishing Grant, which totals $50,000 provided by an anonymous donor. Lab leaders Scott Macaulay and Gretchen McGowan will be joined by 24 additional lab leaders who will mentor filmmakers and key crew on topics that range from festival strategy to music selection to DIY promotion and publicity. Last year's Narrative Lab participants (pictured above with filmmakers John Sayles and Maggie Renzi) have gone on to great festival acclaim, including The New Year Parade, which won the Grand Jury Prize this January at Slamdance. For more information on the labs, check out IFP's website.

# posted by Conor Fetting-Smith @ 6/11/2008 01:52:00 PM Comments (3)

New York City was once known for its bountiful movie going choices, mainly its revival houses and midnight movie screenings. Cult legends such as Rocky Horror Picture Show, Eraserhead and Liquid Sky made quite a splash through these alternate distribution choices, and we as moviegoers were all the better for it. Sadly, those days seem very far away, what with the almost total domination of DVD and Netflix.

Some theaters, however, are still keeping the torch burning: Landmark's Sunshine is one that comes to mind, with their weekend midnight screenings of classic cult and arthouse fare. But hands down, my fave would have to be The Pioneer over in the East Village. They've been offering great film revivals and midnight shows, along with edgier first-run theatrical fare.



This weekend, to celebrate Friday the 13th, we are to be treated to a rare screening of a new 35mm print of 80s Canadian horror classic Curtains, complete with an appearance by star Lesleh Donaldson. Bringing this obscure, thoroughly enjoyable gem back to the screen is a stroke of twisted genius. It's exactly why I love The Pioneer.

And with the weather as steamy as it's been, what better way to relax than in a cool theater with soda, popcorn and your favorite slasher movie?

Labels: cult movies, horror, midnight movies, theaters

# posted by André Salas @ 6/11/2008 01:13:00 PM

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

WHERE FILM AND INTERNET WOUND UP 

Over at Stream, Eric Kohn has a good write-up of the "Where Film and Internet Collide" event we hosted at the IFC Center last week with the IFP and IndieGoGo. He does a great job of summarizing the interviews with the creators of the various works we screened. Another good report is by the Film Panel Notetaker. Click on the links and read -- between the two of them you'll feel like you were there.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/10/2008 07:47:00 PM Comments (0)

Monday, June 09, 2008

NEWFEST 2008: HERE, QUEER, IN ITS 20TH YEAR 

From NewFest's opening night Gala film "Tru Loved" (right to left) Producer, Antonio Brown; Actor, Tye Olson; Actor,
Najarra Townsend; Director, Stewart Wade

We're here. We're Queer (or at least by association). Let's go to the movies. As of this Thursday, June 5th NewFest, New York’s premier LGBT film festival has begun, and it will be rolling out gay-oriented flicks through Sunday, June 15th. This being its 20th anniversary year, the festival has seen a great deal of change in virtually all of its essential elements: filmmaking, New York City, and gay culture – and the films of NewFest class of 2008 reflect this change like a drag queen to a make-up mirror.

The four themes of the festival this year are The Early Years of AIDS, Activism/Repression, Parenthood, and African American Images and nearly all of the films seem to fit neatly into one or more of these categories. “These themes come up organically from submissions,” NewFest’s Artistic Director Basil Tsiokos tells me, “We don’t seek out films that fit into pre-conceived categories.” Thus moviegoers this year can expect a number of poignant looks at past and present, where gay culture and filmmaking in general have been, and where they are going. New Yorkers looking to revel in the nostalgia of gay New York of yesterday can look to The Universe of Keith Haring or SqueezeBox! both of which recently screened at the Tribeca film festival. Those looking for innovative filmmakers that stand up to any audience of progressive cinephiles should head to Japan Japan an Israeli film that mixes kaleidoscope imagery with understated, impressive acting and a fresh style of filmmaking. Those looking to understand where gay culture is going can look to films like Bi the Way an honest and intelligent documentary that seeks to understand trends in bisexuality in America.

Regardless of all the changes that have gone on over the past 20 years, it is clear from the general feel in the air at Thursday’s opening night Gala screening of Tru Loved, a glossy LA centric crowd pleaser, that NewFest has been bringing crowds back for 20 years not just because they find films that will succeed outside of an insular LGBT film festival circuit, but because they continue to nurture a New York audience that seeks to understand a little more of themselves and others, and while they’re doing it, like Cyndi Lauper says, they “just wanna have fun!”

# posted by Conor Fetting-Smith @ 6/09/2008 11:09:00 PM Comments (1)

GOING TO THE MOVIES 

FilmInFocus is running a four-part series on exhibition, from the ultra-small-scale screenings of the microcinema movement to the shape of things to come for blockbuster moviegoing. The first part, Ed Halter's take on microcinema, is up now.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/09/2008 12:47:00 PM Comments (0)

Sunday, June 08, 2008

STORYBOARDING TARKOVSKY AT THE SUNDANCE LABS 

The Sundance Director's Lab is underway, and one of the participants, John Magary (pictured at right with Sundance Lab advisor Gyula Gazdag), has agreed to blog it for Filmmaker. Here's the first of his posts.


SUNDANCE, EPOCH 1

Day One smelled like chicken. Day Three smells like farts. I’m not talking about the Lab — haven’t gotten there yet.

One can be coaxed out of a crippling fear of flying—it is irrational, after all—but heights is another matter. With heights, all you can say is, “Oh, stop being so scared.” (Hot tip: saying things like that to a phobic isn’t remotely helpful.) And I guess I knew that an Amtrak train ride from New York to Salt Lake City might at some point teeter along the trembling biceps of the Rockies, but still I’m wondering, “Can not our country build its own national subway?” Cuz you can’t fall when you’re underground.

(There’s that weird feeling when you travel through the Big parts of America, right? You want to swallow stuff up: what you’re seeing is simultaneously too much and never enough. It’s huge, a little terrifying, a little garish: a landscape painted with free market urges. America knows this: God is a capitalist.)

I was told by just about everyone that this fifty-four hour journey would more or less cure me of my “fear”—their quotes. You’ll be cooped up for hours on end in a small space, they said, a small space that smells like farts, and the people will be weird and you’ll be late to every stop and the food’s bad. But so far it’s had the opposite effect. The slowness, the pretty views, the generous legroom and little pillows (two!), the conversations about office space engineering, states’ laws regarding pasteurized goats’ milk, what exactly a “tumbleweed” is—it’s all been pretty amazing.

Okay, that’s a lie, not amazing, but pleasant. Or, pleasant enough. Look, I hate flying. And the food’s just fine, thanks. Besides, I’m on a TRAIN, rolling through this crazy land of ours! Comrades! Watch me hurtle! I’m splitting this country in two! IN TWO!

And there goes a denim jacket with an iron-on kitty that says, “BUG ME AT YOUR OWN RISK.” (I don’t get it.)

Disclosure time. Filmmaker Magazine agreed to pay me $75 per word to write this blog, so you’ll understand if the syntax gets unnecessarily complicated, the language purple. If I can stretch it out enough—like limitless, infinite, inexhaustible, measureless taffy pulled from puddles of moonlight, darkest, blackest, bluest moonlight--I might clear two years’ salary in just a few posts. And yes, I will be paraphrasing Kubrick a lot here. (“As Stanley Kubrick said while shooting A Clockwork Orange, ‘a stitch in time saves nine.’”) And I will occasionally talk about the Sundance Directors’ Lab, and what we are doing there.

Like, here’s a nugget. I am currently storyboarding (or trans-storyboarding, or whatever) a scene from Arnaud Desplechin’s My Sex Life…or How I Got Into an Argument. It has Marion Cotillard—ten-years-ago Marion Cotillard, I only just realized this--and she’s naked, so I’m trying to watch it against a backwall, so that no one can see what I’m watching, you know, so as not to offend the lady in the denim jacket. Feels a little pervy, but Sundance asked for this. An advisor at the Lab, Gyula Gazdag (wasn’t he a Bond villain?), asked that we pluck two scenes from movies we love or hate, and storyboard them. So I have My Sex Life and an early scene from Tarkovsky’s The Mirror (natch). Both scenes are well-loved, and both, predictably, had a lot more going on in them than I realized.

I taught directing to undergrads last year, and this exercise would’ve been helpful for them. Damnit. It’s always useful to break down a scene that somehow beguiles you. With these two scenes, Tarkovsky and Desplechin—two very different filmmakers, obviously—play around a great deal with point-of-view, and a kind of hide-and-seek blocking, and achieve something magical through very different means. Tarkovsky, with his long crane-set takes floating over the grass, and Desplechin, with his seemingly improvised jump cuts and frame-rate-ramping.

Train just stopped again. Not at, like, a platform—just somewhere in the mountains. For an hour.

Put your money in railroads, guys. This! Is! The Future!

The man I talked to about office engineering, whose wife ordered a steak with peculiar gusto, said they were headed to San Francisco.

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco, I told him. (Stanley Kubrick said that.)

I’m dancing around this, okay? I am a little nervous about this Lab. How’d I get myself into this? Am I remotely ready for this throttling? One way to comfort yourself is to say, “Well, I don’t deserve this.” Then it all gets to be like a joke, and then you can go on being fearless again.

But yeah, I’m bringing a lot of Fear to the Lab. A suitcase full.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/08/2008 07:29:00 PM Comments (0)

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

SUBMITTING TO HITCHCOCK 

A couple of new writers have been added to the Spout Blog, and one, Lauren Wissot, has her first post up today. Wissot is a filmmaker and writer who has written for her own blog, Beyond the Green Door, as well as The House Next Door. Her debut piece for Spout is entitled "Dial S/M for Marnie" and it looks at Hitchcock's film through the lens of kink:

An excerpt:

What neither the feminists nor cinephiles seem to appreciate is that Marnie is one of the greatest bondage and discipline (B&D in sadomasochistic parlance) pics of all time. Artfully disguised as a psychosexual thriller, Hitchcock’s classic is actually kin to The Story of O with Hedren’s O-like Marnie at the sole mercy of Sir Connery’s sexy daddy (think Sir Stephen), reduced to being trapped like a wild animal to be broken and trained, owned and cared for, eventually becoming Rutland’s wife/slave. This ain’t misogyny – it’s erotic art!

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/04/2008 08:08:00 PM Comments (0)

SAG 'S INDIE WAIVERS 

Michael Fleming and Dave McNary have a piece in Variety on SAG's granting of waivers to independent productions allowing them to proceed with their shoots undeterred by the possible upcoming strike.

From the piece:

The stars and studios are nonetheless gearing up for the worst possible scenario. The current number of waivers is triple what SAG had signed three months ago -- and an indication there will be a modicum of feature shooting in the coming months.

Even if there's no SAG strike, the major studios will probably need a few months to slot in production starts, so indie projects will dominate activity in the late summer and early fall.

Some of the indie folk who have already taken advantage of SAG's offer: Mel Gibson, Oliver Stone and Antoine Fuqua. Oh, and also Werner Herzog, who is apparently gearing up his Bad Lieutenant remake.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/04/2008 12:03:00 AM Comments (0)

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

PARAMOUNT VANTAGE: CONSOLIDATED! 

Nikke Finke at her Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting that the marketing, distribution and physical production departments of Paramount Vantage are being folded into its parent company, Paramount. Here's the official press release:

Paramount Pictures and Paramount Vantage today announced the consolidation of its marketing, distribution and physical production departments, which will serve both entities. The merged marketing department will be lead by Gerry Rich (President, Worldwide Motion Picture Marketing). Megan Colligan and Josh Greenstein who were promoted to Co-Presidents of Domestic Marketing, will report to Mr. Rich. The consolidated distribution department will be lead by Jim Tharp (President, Domestic Theatrical Distribution) and the combined physical production department will be headed by Georgia Kacandes, Executive Vice President, Physical Production. Mr. Tharp and Mr. Rich will continue to report to Rob Moore, Vice Chairman, Paramount Pictures. Georgia Kacandes will report to Brad Weston, President, Production, Paramount Films.

“The new consolidated structure allows both Paramount and Paramount Vantage to leverage the strengths and resources of a combined talent base, while minimizing redundancies and optimizing efficiencies,” said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman, Paramount Pictures.

“Today’s change is in line with our strategy to restructure the business for the long term,” added John Lesher, President, Paramount Film Group. “It takes into account the dynamic nature of the marketplace and positions Paramount for the future.”

The combined resources of these departments will service Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, DreamWorks Pictures, MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies, as well as distribution partners Marvel and DreamWorks Animation.

This isn't comparable to the shutdown of Picturehouse and Warner Independent which, despite Warner President and COO Alan Horn's protestations to the contrary, really does seem to signal that studio's departure from the independent business. Paramount Vantage head Nick Meyer is still in place, and he'll continue to report to Paramount Film Group President John Lesher, who formerly ran Vantage. But it's definitely another blow to the idea that specialty films need their own specialized marketing and distribution departments to properly release their films.

Anne Thompson reports on this news here at Variety.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/03/2008 11:33:00 PM Comments (0)

AVOIDING THE INDIES? 

A lot of political bloggers (which I've been reading to check out the responses to tonight's amazing but also surreal evening of politics, which included not only the speeches by the three major candidates but also Terry McCauliffe's bizarre, would-be comedy act on The Daily Show) have been linking to "101 Movies to Avoid Watching Before You Die" on the Crooked Timber site. The point of the post is self-evident; it's a riff on those lists like The Guardian's "1000 Films to Watch Before You Die."

And as an independent film champion, I'm startled by a lot of the responses the blog has prompted. I'm reminded of Harmony Korine's quip about Janet Maslin's review of Gummo, which read, "October is not too early to call Gummo the worst film of the year"; Harmony would always say with surprise, "And that was the year of Eight Heads in a Duffle Bag!"

What's on the Crooked Timber list so far? What are those films that eke even more life force from a dying soul? Well, there are a lot of indie films nominated -- yep, the films we imagine provide a respite from the hollowness of studio product. Here are a few: Chasing Amy; House of Sand and Fog; Happiness; My Dinner with Andre; Junebug; Magnolia; Kids; Reservoir Dogs; Pulp Fiction; "the entire oeuvre of Gregg Araki"; Leaving Las Vegas; The Usual Suspects; and Juno.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/03/2008 11:09:00 PM Comments (0)

WHERE FILM AND INTERNET COLLIDE (AT THE IFC CENTER) 

Thursday, June 5, Filmmaker, the IFC, IndieGoGo and the IFP are hosting an evening at the IFC Center that is part of Internet Week New York. It's called "Where Film and Internet Collide," and it's one of three events going under this name that are dedicated to the merging of filmic and web sensibilities when it comes to creating new work.

At the IFC we'll be screening a number of interesting works created for the web and then will be discussing these works and web production in general with their creators. There will be plenty of time for questions, so if you have an interest in taking your film production online, now's the chance to get tips from people who are already out there doing it.

Here's the official spam:

Filmmaker Magazine, the IFC Center and IndieGoGo present “Where Internet and Film Collide,” a night of screenings and conversation centered around the convergence of filmmaking and web video, Thursday, June 5 at 8:30pm. Held as part of Internet Week New York and hosted by the IFP, the night will consist of a number of exciting short form works that could only have been created for the web and then discussions with their makers about their creative and production processes.

The program includes several of the most groundbreaking recent examples of this exciting trend, including: Green Porno, a series of short films about the sex lives of insects, conceived by and featuring Isabella Rossellini and developed for the Sundance Channel; work by M ss ng P eces, the Webby-nominated boutique video label that has developed original programming for online distribution, including a collaboration with the legendary Chris Blackwell and an award-winning documentary about the young African inventor William Kamkwamba; NYFF45: Part Two (pictured below), a mix of press conference reportage with original narrative and innovative shooting and editing that signals the re-imagining of film festival journalism; The West Side (pictured above), an urban western set in a unique, alternate universe presented free on the internet as a contemporary version of the serial novel; and Beyond the Rave, an online serial that heralded the resurgence of one of Hammer Films, one of Britain’s best loved film companies.

In attendance to discuss these films and their unprecedented methods of production and distribution will be Christopher Barry, the Senior Vice President, Digital Media and Business Strategy for Sundance Channel; Ari Kuschnir and Scott Thrift, founders of M ss ng P eces; Jamie Stuart, director of NYFF45: Part Two; Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo and Zachary Leiberman, creators of The West Side; and Lance Weiler, who created an extensive game world around Beyond the Rave.

For over fifteen years, Filmmaker Magazine has been covering the most intriguing, independent films that will be released in theaters in the following season. IFC Center also partners with Filmmaker to present the ongoing “Dialogues on Film” series, which has featured screenings and discussions with directors DA Pennebaker, Bradley Beesley, Jem Cohen and Ronald Bronstein.

Tickets for the evening are $11.50 General Admission/$5 for IFC Center and IFP Members. Click here for advance tickets.

I'll be moderating the event and hope to see a bunch of you there.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 6/03/2008 01:19:00 PM Comments (0)