Roofray is a clever website. I first read about here at Freshome. It has all the tools to determine the potential of any roof to generate solar power. It allows you to compare options, calculate the financials, essentially make the right decision of what system to buy.
Day: October 18, 2008
Categories
Rube Goldberg’s Spawns!
Why is watching something do lots of stuff for no reason other than to keep moving so entertaining? Is there a section of the brain that loves useless complexity? Was it really Rube Goldberg that really got this glorious contraption ball rolling.
We’ve sniffed out a bowlful of such wonderfully organized chaos to place in The Bowl today.
It’s hard to find a well shot video of the Goldbergian devices that call themselves art. But this one qualifies:
George Rhoads seems to be the most recognized complicated-marble-run-as-art maker out there but unfortunately I have not been able to locate any quality videos of his machines in action. You can see a lot of what he’s made right here though.
Categories
His Old Is Always New
For awhile Jean Luc Godard made films so fresh that, now –40+ years later — they still seem fresher than virtually anything anyone else is making.
Here’s the ALPHAVILLE trailer:
And here’s BAND OF OUTSIDERS trailer:
Categories
The Post-Fest Era
In September, Christian Gaines wrote a provocative two-part article for Variety speculating on a new business models for film rights holders in terms of how they use film festivals. It’s required reading, and certainly got me thinking.
In this month’s Independent, Paul Devlin has a piece on lessons he learned on the film fest circuit with his film BLAST. He definitely has some good information for all, but again it was ‘s last paragraph that got me thinking again:
Of course, the film festival model will always serve some film very well. But diverging interests may mean that film festivals necessarily become a much less essential element of a filmmaker’s strategy for promotion and distribution. Just as we seem to be entering a “post-distributor” environment in which filmmakers eschew rotten deals and embrace DIY, we may be witnessing the emergence of a “post-film festival” environment as well.
A new model needs to be found for filmmakers choosing (or having no other option than) to hold onto their rights.
Festivals can be a great way to heighten awareness for your film, but generally only in the local community where the film is playing. To make matters worse, many festivals these days are over-programed and as a result the films simply get lost and overlooked. The festivals and the communities make money on the sold out shows but not the filmmakers. With only a few sales happening and then only at the highest festival level, filmmakers can’t be attending with the hopes of a deal? So how can festivals be utilized by the Truly Free Filmmaker?
It would be ideal for local festivals to initiate deals with local theaters so that prize winning films would get an automatic one or two week booking three or four months after the festival. I have to imagine this is done somewhere already but frankly I am clueless as to where.
It would be ideal for colleges and community centers in and around the local festivals to agree to bring filmmakers and their films out to lecture one or two months after winning at the festival. This would allow for some local publicity to be done in advance of a future booking.
The most natural fit for regional festivals and TFFilmakers is for the filmmakers to use the festival to launch a specific DVD sale directly at the festival. At the very least they could take pre-orders.
I found it very exciting when Slamdance announced this year that certain films would be available for streaming directly after their festival premiere. When I have heard of a film playing a major festival, that is when my “want-to-see” is at its highest. Six months later another 50 films have moved ahead of it on my queue. TFFilmakers have to strike when audience desire is highest.
