July 2008

For Dr. Randy Olson, a Harvard-educated marine biologist
who gave up his life in academia to begin a career in filmmaking, it's always
been about storytelling.  Even after transitioning from his tenured
professorship at the University of New Hampshire to becoming a film student at
the University of Southern California to establishing himself as a director, this common theme has endured.  "As
a scientist, I went into the field, gathered information, then analyzed it in

Filmmakers with feature ambitions are urged to take note of
what many were told in film school, depending upon the caliber of the school,
often repetitively to ad nauseam: “The script is the most important aspect of
the project.”  

In April, media equipment sales, rental, and service
companies Rule Broadcast Systems and Boston Camera Rental Company merged
operations to become New England’s largest production equipment source. 
Together, the companies have 44 years of experience in helping filmmakers big
and small find the right package for their budgets and visions. 

Email news to news@newenglandfilm.com. 

This Month

In a rush to claim Hollywood for its own, several New
England communities have co-opted the moniker (Is Boston Beanywood?  NH has a
new television show, Hollywood New England).  But in Plymouth, MA,
frustration came not from the association with glamour-production but when giant
lettering “Hollywood East” (used with permission from the Hollywood, CA

AD Calvo will let you borrow a great scary story to tell
around the campfire this summer, and you’ll find it in his latest feature film,
The Other Side of The Tracks.  It’s the story of a man haunted by visions
after the tragic death of his girlfriend 10 years earlier.  His best friend
tries to help him move on, while a mysterious new woman captures his attention. 
 

Even her name sounds American Indian: Anne Makepeace,
evocative of the legendary and eloquent Peacemaker, founder of the Iroquois
Confederacy.  It certainly must have had immediate appeal to the selection
committee of the Guggenheim Foundation, which recently awarded her a grant in
support of their mandate to “the cause of better international understanding.” 
Their monies, along with support from the Sundance Documentary Fund and a
year-long Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, will allow Makepeace to focus on her

A new wrinkle at 13th Nantucket Film Festival -- which
usually reserves its kudos for the unsung craft of screenwriters -- was the
Compass Rose Acting Tribute awarded to Meg Ryan, who is back into romantic
comedy big-time, having shot four in the past year, including The Women,
which wrapped this spring in Boston, and a festival selection, The Deal,
a keen movie-industry satire co-written by actor William H. Macy and director
Steven Schachter.  The two longtime collaborators -- who are now working on a

“Could I get your full street address so I can just plug it
into my GPS?”