About Me

I make movies.

In the late ’80’s, American Independent Film burst on the media scene with the promise of new visions, new stories, and new approaches. Ted Hope was among the first producers to emerge from the pack and one of the very few today consistently delivering vital and exciting new work. With partner Anne Carey, Hope is the co-founder of New York production company This is that. In its six years, This is that has produced seventeen features. A survey of Hope’s work, numbering over fifty films, includes many highlights and breakthroughs of the last two decades. Ted’s films have received numerous awards, including three Academy Award Best Screenplay nominations.

Hope most recently wrapped production on ADVENTURELAND, by writer/director Greg (SUPERBAD) Mottola, a co-production with Miramax and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment.

Hope’s production of Oscar-winner Alan Ball’s feature film directorial debut TOWELHEAD, staring Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette, and Maria Bello, will be released in August by Warner Independent. TOWELHEAD is Hope’s 18th production of a first time feature film director. In addition to Ball, Hope has brought the first features of Ang Lee, Hal Hartley, Nicole Holofcener, Todd Field, Michel Gondry, Moises Kaufman, and Bob Pulcini and Shari Berman among others, to the screen.

Ted had four features released in 2007. THE SAVAGES, directed by Tamara Jenkins and starring Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Phil Bosco, was nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Actress and Best Screenplay. It was also awarded Best Screenplay and Best Actor at The 2008 Spirit Awards. Last year saw the premieres of FAY GRIM, Hope’s ninth collaboration with Hal Hartley, THE EX, directed by Jesse Peretz, and THE HAWK IS DYING, directed by Julian Goldberger.

Among Ted’s twenty-three Sundance entries, are three Grand Jury Prize winners: AMERICAN SPLENDOR (2003), THE BROTHERS MCMULLEN (1995) and WHAT HAPPENED WAS… (1994). AMERICAN SPLENDOR also won the FIPRESCI Award at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, the Critics prize at the 2003 Deauville Film Festival and was nominated for five Spirit Awards and one Academy Award. Ted also produced two Sundance Opening Night selections: Nicole Holofcener’s FRIENDS WITH MONEY (2006) and Moises Kaufman’s THE LARAMIE PROJECT (2002), which was nominated for five Emmys.

Among Hope’s many notable productions are 21 GRAMS, which earned two Academy Award nominations and five BAFTA nominations, IN THE BEDROOM, which earned five Academy Award nominations, and the Cannes Critics’ Prize-winning HAPPINESS, which Hope and his partners released themselves when its distributor’s corporate parent demanded they censor the film.

Hope has produced, with James Schamus, Ang Lee’s early films including RIDE WITH THE DEVIL, THE ICE STORM, PUSHING HANDS, the Academy Award nominated THE WEDDING BANQUET and EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN. Ted previously co-founded and ran the feature production and sales company Good Machine, which he and his partners sold to Universal in 2002. Good Machine was honored by a retrospective at the Museum Of Modern Art in 2001.

More Stuff On Hope


  • Josh Turnbow

    Hi Ted,

    I recently released my short film online and would love to get some feedback or even a mention from a seasoned pro like yourself. It's called Ninjito: Mexican Ninja, it's a fun genre mash-up with an epic martial arts story set in the mystical heart of Mexico. You can view it online here 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

    My goal in creating the short was to use it as a proof of concept for a planned feature length film which I've written.

    Would love your feedback if you don't mind. 

    Thanks!
    Josh Turnbow

    web: www.ninjitomovie.com
    fb: www.facebook.com/NinjitoMovie

  • Hi Ted,

    Couldn't work out how to email you so I guess this will do!

    I'll keep it Brief. We are an award winning British film production company looking to shoot an extremely exciting feature film this summer in Bristol. With the backing of Aardman, our team is composed of various professionals including make up artist Michelle Webb, designer Simon Farrell, composer Philip Kay and hot young director Rob Savage. Our film Brief Intermission is to be shot on a RED Epic camera and all the film's proceeds will go towards the charity Creative Youth.

    Take a couple of minutes to check out our IndieGoGo page:http://www.indiegogo.com/brief...

    It would absolutely incredible if you could get involved in any way possible, whether it be through donation or any sort of publicity on websites/Facebook/Twitter. Let us know if you want any more information or if you have any questions about this ambitious project.

    Many thanks,Tom Brandhorst,Marketing Executive, Third Eye Productions

    --WEB: www.briefintermission.com
    --TWITTER: @BIntermission
    --INDIEGOGO: http://igg.me/p/96524?a=557232

  • Hilary Law

     Hi Ted,

    Hope
    you're doing well! My name is Hilary, the visual director of
    MoviePals.com. I love filmmaking and spent 3 years with my team building
    MoviePals.com--the social flimmaking network for everyone who works or
    wants to work in movies!  It’s a free feature-rich website that tools to
    help filmmakers network, find projects, showcase their talent, manage
    auditions or entire productions, and connect to the world of movies in a
    better, more productive way.

    If
    you could mention it, use it in an article, review it, or even just
    send us a line of feedback-- anything that resembles a response, really-- that would be amazing. You’re also personally
    invited to join the network. I know there are lots of other filmmaking
    networks out there, but if you just watch our intro video on the  the
    front page of http://MoviePals.com, you’ll see what makes MoviePals
    unique.

    Here's a link to our latest newsletter (MoviePals Entertainment News)

    Here's a link to a larger post on our launch

    You can also
    e-mail me direct at hilary@moviepals.com
    or
    contact me via MoviePals at hilary.moviepals.com

    Thanks,

    Hilary Law

  • There are only two
    ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a
    miracle. The other is as though everything is a
    miracle.

  • Rumie

    Im guessing this is the best place for strangers to reach you. Well, i found your blog thru google with the intention to find a few places to submit my short.

    ...
    Its about a writer who talks about his process of obtaining an idea & how to translate it to paper.

    https://vimeo.com/39996341

    Thanks for this blank surface

    Rumie

    Stimulativecinema@gmail.com

  • Hi, my name is Gregg de Domenico. I am a director and a cinematographer and I have my narrative directorial debut, the short film "Hip Priest", playing at screenings and film festivals this year, specifically this saturday at the Tribeca Grand screening room for the After Set Program. http://aftersetprogram.ticketb... a great review we got from Film Threat: http://www.filmthreat.com/revi... have been doing fairly well on the festival circuit, we've won some awards and have been getting great response to the film. We just got into the Montclair Film Festival and should have more screenings in the future.But my main objective in contacting you is to see if you'd be interested in plugging a screening wehave at the Tribeca Grand this saturday, March 24, at 7pm. 

    PLEASE CONSIDER THIS AN INVITE AS WELL!!!!Here's are our social media links:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hippr... https://twitter.com/#!/hipprie... details:27 minutes, black and white, 2.40 aspect ratio, shot with ARRI Alexa camera and RED Epic cameraStarring Gerard McNamee, who is an unknown actor and the Operations Manager at Webster Hall, and Sharon Angela, from The Sopranos Well, thanks for listening and I hope you can fit us in for some press this week. If you have any other ideasabout where else we could promote the film on the internet, blogs, etc, please let me know. I'm available to talk anytime......Thanks so muchGregg de DomenicoDirector, HIP PRIEST

  • Michael

    Hi Ted:

    These are truly exciting days for film on the web. New digital
    technologies are transforming the way we produce and consume movies.
     

    The International Movie Trailer Festival
    (www.internationalmovietrailerf...) is the world's leading online film
    festival devoted to the art of the movie preview. I'd like to invite you to enter our current contest. Here's the backstory:

    Our
    grand prize--determined by a jury of industry professionals--is $5,000
    juried grand prize. Voters on our site choose the $1,000 People's
    Choice Award. Moviemakers may submit trailers for completed movies or
    for movies still in the dream stage. All genres are accepted including
    trailers for fiction movies, documentaries, web series, and books. 

    In the past 3 years, we've given out $20,000 in cash.
    Entries have come from 30 countries. 
    You can see recent winners at
    http://www.internationalmoviet...

    You can entry the contest online at http://www.internationalmoviet...

    In
    addition to providing the cash prizes and 24/7 online exposure, IMTF
    can arrange theatrical distribution for selected feature-length movies
    represented by trailers in its contest. We are working with an
    innovative Hollywood distribution company that has close ties with a
    national chain of theaters. 

    The deadline for entertaining the current contest is March 31. 

    On
    April 1, IMTF will officially launch its first smartphone contest.
    Winners will receive cash prizes plus will be exhibited in movie
    theaters. Early-bird entries will be accepted starting March 6. This is one for
    "faux trailers"--up to two minutes--promoting movies still in the dream
    stage. All entries must be shot using smartphones or tablets, but
    external microphones and extra lenses are permitted as is editing on a
    computer. You can find the complete rules at http://www.internationalmoviet...

    If you have questions, please write info@imtf.biz.

      

    Best wishes,

     

    Michael Finberg
     

  • Michelle Opitz

    Hi Ted, 

    My name is Michelle Opitz, a Japanese-American filmmaker based in LA.

    I
    wanted to show you this HDSLR feature film project I'm working on that I
    thought your readers might like.  I'm making an indie romantic comedy
    film called "I Hate You," with a small group of young aresourceful
    filmmakers.  I'm also reaching out to you to see if you'd be interested
    in discussing some things we could potentially do for your blog.

    We shot this trailer for our movie on a very modest Canon 5D setup with a $0 budget.

    Our
    film is a comedy chronicling the ups and downs of this young couple's
    relationship, inspired by all those real-life stories and situations
    we've often heard of (and lived ourselves) as 20-somethings.  We're
    starting our efforts with a Kickstarter campaign, on pace to reach our
    $15,000 goal (currently about 27% of the way).  You can check that out
    here:

    http://www.kickstarter.com/pro...

    If this is a project you think is worthy of
    showing your readers, it'd be wonderful if you posted about the film or
    simply shared it with your followers.  My filmmaking team and I would
    love to talk to you about other ways we can contribute since I'm also a
    fan of the blog myself. I teach filmmaking to teens here in Los Angeles and often share some of the articles/posts from your website. We'd love the chance to share on hopeforfil.com our thoughts or experiences as guerilla filmmakers working on
    shoestring budgets, our Kickstarter campaign, the festival circuit, or
    anything else your readers might be curious about.  Lots of ideas we can
    explore!  

    Let me know what you think!

    Best,
    Michelle Opitz

    Again, here are the relevant links for easy reference:

    Kickstarter:   http://www.kickstarter.com/pro...
    Our website: http://www.ihateyoufilm.com/

  • Loren Boyd

    Good
    afternoon,

     

    My name
    is Loren Boyd and I am the Marketing Director for a feature film, "Matt's
    Chance," that will begin production on March 20 in Seattle. Mirror Images
    LTD. has raised over $400,000 and is looking to raise it's last $5k to complete
    the budget. 

     

    Below is
    a link to the film's Kickstarter page and synopsis. We would love any exposure
    that you or your company could provide for us and are offering incentives for
    those who do. Help us keep filmmaking alive in Seattle! :)

     

    http://www.kickstarter.com/pro...

     

    Thank You,

     

    Loren
    Boyd

    Marketing
    Director

    Mirror
    Images LTD.

    email: loren.ashley@hotmail.com

    w: http://mirrorimagesltd.com/

    f: facebook.com/MirrorImagesLTD

  • Regina Chavez

    Hi Ted, would you be interested in coming to Albuquerque (at our expense) to participate in a cultural planning process?  Please email me at regina@creativeabq:disqus .org.  Thanks, r

  • Guest

    Hi Ted,

    Can you please advise, what is the best way to submit a press release?
    ThanksMonte Macphersonblipfilms[at]gmail.com

  • Coordinator

    My name is Connie Shea and I am coordinating an international film project called CollabFeature.  The project involves filmmakers from over 25 countries, collaborating over the internet to create a series of multi-director films.  We just released the trailer of our first collaborative film "The Owner" which will be premiering around the globe on May 25th, 2012. I think your blog is wonderful, I've been searching for a way to contact you and I hope this works! I think your readers would be interested in our film and the CollabFeature project in general.  You can watch the trailer here:  http://youtu.be/fADSZ2Scsis You can read more about "The Owner" and CollabFeature here:  www.collabfeature.com We would love your support!  And we appreciate any help in getting the word out about the film, whether posting our trailer or mentioning us in your blog.
    TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/CollabF...
    FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/Collab...
    FILM WEBSITE: http://who-is-the-owner.com Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing back from you!Connie Shea
    Project CoordinatorCollabFeature.com

  • Todd

    Hi Ted - I am interested in getting in touch with you.  I work for an early stage startup related to indie film.  We'd like to meet w/ you and tell you about our company and see if you might be interested in an advisory role.  I'll try to contact you through a couple other channels as well.  

  • Mike Gould

    Hi Ted,

    You wouldn't happen to be in London (UK) for Thursday, November 3rd, 2011, would you? We'd love to invite you (as guest panellist) to our Film Means Business, evening panel & networking event on the subject of US film funds, with packed-out audience of 200.

    Regards,
    Mike Gould
    FILM MEANS BUSINESS

  • Rohitpgupta

    Hi Ted, I love your thoughts/ blog and completely relate to them. To give you a quick background, my first 2 film assignments at the New York Film Academy 'Another Day Another Life' a 5 mins film & Life! Camera Action...' a 90 minutes full length feature film ; both made with 2 member crew, shot on Panasonic DVX 100 on shoe string budgets have won over 50 International Accolades & Awards in less than 2 years including 'Another Day Another Life' being 'Officially Selected' @0b8e8cd0e80fbd4955e711ff21625c39:disqus  the 'Short Film Corner - Cannes 2009'. 
    For more info please visit: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm326...
    Keep it coming, surely encouraging!! Thanks again...RegardsRohit

  • Michael Rasko

    Hi Ted,

    We loved having you, Spike and Lisa visit Cleveland to share some of your experiences.  I remember you talking about multiple platform media and was wondering if you've ever heard of a book by Frank Rose called The Art of Immersion: how the digital generation is remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue and the way we tell stories http://www.artofimmersion.com/ .  It is all about what you were talking about how a film creates a universe rather than existing on its own because of all the advertising and supplementary material attached to it.  I think you would enjoy it.

    -Michael Rasko

  • Hi Ted,

    I just wanted to say thanks for coming to Cleveland and dishing out some very practical advice on filmmaking.  Making films begets making films, so I better get moving. :)

    Best "hope" for the future,

    Candee Kramer

  • Ian Michaels

    Hi Ted,

    What is the best way to submit a press release?

    Best,
    Ian Michaels
    (818) 795-6372
    ianmichaels2@gmail.com

  • Ted,
    I think this might be interesting and related to the thoughts you share with us on your blog.
    As an on-line opinion maker, you are at the center of the digital
    revolution's impact. Over the last decade creativity and talent of
    hundreds of millions of people have been unleashed in an unprecedented
    way, forever changing human culture. Our film is a humble contribution
    to the debate.

    "PressPausePlay" is a documentary film about hope, fear, and digital
    culture based on interviews with some of the world's most influential
    creators of the digital era such as Moby, Robyn, Sean Parker and Seth
    Godin, among others. PressPausePlay will be premiering in March at the
    South By Southwest Film Festival in Texas as a Spotlight Premiere.

    Don't miss our official trailer release on http://www.PressPausePlay.com
    Of course I would be very grateful if you shared this link with your followers.
    With your help, we hope to spread the message and encourage active player
    participation in the new cultural game we all face today.

    Follow our project, "PressPausePlay", and stay tuned for extended
    cuts, music downloads and release dates of PressPausePlay.

    Thank You!

    CHARLOTTA RIBBEFJORD
    http://www.PressPausePlay.com
    charlotta@houseofradon.com
    Skype: ribbefjord
    LinkedIn: Charlotta Ribbefjord

    Follow the production of Press Pause Play - presspauseplay.com <http: presspauseplay.com=""> - Radon's new documentary about the revolution of creative works.
    </http:>

  • Michelle Cove

    Hi Ted.

    Am a first-time filmmaker who just had my doc distributed (digitally) by Lionsgate. It's called Seeking Happily Ever After, and it looks at why there are more single 30-somethings then ever in the U.S. and whether women are redefining happily ever after. One of the biggest things I learned over the past four years is how to stay tuned into what you want from the project while everyone is telling you what you should and shouldn't want/do/say (it's endless). It's probably THE most critical lesson in filmmaking. Please let me know if you might like a guest blog on this.

    Thanks (and many more thanks for this amazing site!)

    Michelle Cove
    www.seekinghappilyeverafter.co...
    producer@seekinghappilyeverafter.com

  • Programdirector

    Greetings!

    I'm from the Capital City Film Festival in Lansing, Michigan and we are looking for more film submissions from promising filmmakers. This is the first year for the CCFF and we would appreciate any help spreading the word to filmmakers that may not be aware of our festival. We've received many submissions from all over the world but we'd love to see more. We're particularly interested in narrative features and student shorts, a category for which we are giving away more than $7,000 in prizes. We will consider all reasonable fee waiver requests in those two categories. The deadline is coming up quickly on February 1st and the festival itself is April 14-17, 2011. Thank you so much for your help!

    Katie Wittenauer
    Programming Director, Capital City Film Festival

    programdirector@capitalcityfilmfest.com
    www.capitalcityfilmfest.com

  • Sachin

    Hey there,

    We have been reading the articles on your website and are very impressed with the quality of your information.

    We have a team of copywriters who specialize in writing articles on various topics and would like to write an original article for you to use on your website – this article will not be used anywhere else on the Internet.
    Once the article is live we will be marketing it online to build links to your site.

    In exchange all we ask is that we can have one or two links within the body of the
    article back to one of our sites. You can view a sample of the quality of our articles at

    http://www.enrichtraining.com....

    If you are interested in having us write an article for your website please just let me know and we would be more than happy to have one written for you within two weeks.

    Kind regards,
    Sachin

  • Ric

    Hi Ted,

    I'm planning an independent feature film to be made in NYC environs that I'd like to talk you about. It's financed, but I would be grateful about suggestions for local crew et. al. Made a previous feature that aired on Cinemax. Thought maybe I could reach you better this way than through UTA. Have an apt. in Greenwich Village.

    Cordially,
    Ric Klass
    ricklass@ricklass.com
    www.ricklass.com

  • Hannah

    Hi there,
    following on from Dennis' previous post I wanted to let you know about itzon.tv as I thought it may be of interest.

    In a nutshell, itzon visually resembles TV with live linear stream of programmes running 24/7, provides the marketing significance and showcase feel of a Film Festival, whilst offering the flexibility of online Video on Demand.

    It offers a new model to indie producers to increase the chances of a distribution deal or acquisition by mainstream TV broadcast and to help filmmakers create co-pro opportunities, win commissions, achieve film/DVD sales, get recognition, build a global fan base for their work and also earn revenue from the views they receive in our VoD system. You can see how the channel will look here www.itzon.tv and by clicking filmlover or filmmaker. We'll be beta testing in Dec and launching early in 2011 and have had around 600 hours of stunning and beautifully crafted films sent to us to feature already.

    Let me know what you think
    all the best
    Hannah

    hannah@itzon.tv

  • Ddtoth

    Hi,
    I am doing a blog piece on various emerging forces in indie production, one of which (obviously) is the use of social network and web sites for an increasing range of development and distribution. You have been in the forefront of this movement and I am hoping to be able to ask you one or two quick questions. The blog column is called Film Fund-amentals (and it can be pretty quickly found through Google). Since I subscribe to your e-mails, you should have my e-mail address (or you can locate it through the blog site - not real excited about leaving it online though that is more of a quirk at this point than a real concern).
    -Dennis Toth

  • theoffshorepirate

    Hi Ted,

    A question I hope you can address in a future post:

    When it comes to your producing career, what do you think pushed you ahead of the pack? What separates good producers from the truly great?

  • JamesMowery24

    Hello,

    I was wondering if you accept guest post for your blog. If you do, I would like to submit a few. You can see a sample of my work at LaptopComputers.org under the author James Mowery. I've also written for several high-profile blogs like Mashable, Performancing, and CMSWire. Thank you for your time.

    - James

  • I have conducted a "Movie Camp" for the last 2 summers for my grandchildren and their friends ages 4 to 9. While not feature films, these kids were able in 4 afternoons of instruction to produce 4 to 6 minute films ready for "world premier" for their parents on the Friday of the week. That's a total of 16 hours which included breaks and a lot of teaching.

    I have no doubt that with the experience of the filmmakers cited by Mr. Fair, that a feature length film could be made as he describes.

    Part of my reason for working with the children each summer (yes, there is a plan for the 2011 Movie Camp) is to teach them the language of film and head off at the pass the junky YouTube fare that floods that outlet. It is a lot of hard work and a LOT of fun.

    Here are some links to the films the kids made and the backstory of the camps. Our film budget was zero and I did not charge anything for the campers. We did have parental help and the parents paid two babysitters. It cost them less than the local day camps in the area.

    http://web.me.com/tbbeqa/Movie... This is from 2010

    http://web.me.com/tbbeqa/Movie... This is from 2009

    I suggest watching the 2010 camp first. The backstory is the first film and the films made by the kids are under the Red Team and the Green Team. We were working under record breaking heat (2 days over 100F).

    In 2009, the films were a bit different and possibly not as polished (they had a year of experience for 2010!) but charming. I also made a short music film at the 2009 camp ("Pony Man") with the kids as the actors. The greatest compliment paid by the kids to me after they saw "Pony Man" was a request to "see it again."

    Tom

    Thomas B Barker
    Imaging and Photography
    1223 Lake Point Drive
    Webster, NY 14580
    (585) 265-4015
    tbbeqa@mac.com
    http://web.mac.com/tbbeqa/iWeb...

  • Goguen

    There are two video/ film production and distribution websites in beta
    right now that I think you may find really interesting.

    Spidvid.com is a social networking site of sorts, where you can create
    and join video/ film projects, or find people to work on your
    projects. You can rate each member of the crew you’ve worked with, and
    can see what people’s ratings are before they join your crew. The site
    is set up on a system where people work collaboratively without pay,
    and then each have a stake in any distribution deals/ festival prizes
    that come of it.

    Unleashvideo.com is the sister site, where you upload completed videos
    from spidvid. The site offers $1 for every 1,000 views, and right now
    each video is getting 2,000 views already, so it’s an easy two bucks,
    and more as the site gets bigger. Right now it’s only in beta, but
    once it gets public, the payout should get ten or more times bigger
    per thousand views.

  • I was very excited about finally having the opportunity to put my ideas to the test--a known and well-connected director found the model quite compelling. But unfortunately, the entertainment start-up referenced above (with a focus on China and Asia--our point of differentiation), has not raised all of the necessary capital. So I had to move on. But my intention remains to prove this concept on a worthy project in the near future.

  • Hi, Ted. At the LAFF (DIY)istribution & Marketing Syposium you invited folks to write guests posts on your blog. I feel I have something very helpful to contribute. How can I do so, or at least pitch my post?

    Thank you, Christopher J. Boghosian

  • Any updates?

  • anna

    Great site,Ted.Please check out my book project-The Sunshine Project(working title) on Kickstart.com http://kck.st/c50zeN to coincide with the National October DVD release of my up beat award winning feature doc(theatrically released) Buddha Wild Monk in a Hut.Details on the film and book at http://kck.st/c50zeN

  • Dear Ted:

    Extra Criticum (just having been nominated ourselves) has nominated you for the Kreativ Blogger Award. It’s a great honor and a great way to get new traffic to your site.

    All you have to do is post an announcement on your site. The announcement should include:

    1) the Kreativ Blogger logo
    2) a link back to the site that nominated you (in this case: extracriticum.com)
    3) 7 things readers might not know about you
    4) you should nominate (along with links) 7 other blogs worthy of the distinction.

    For an example of one such announcement, you can take a look at ours:
    http://www.extracriticum.com/e...

    There’s no hurry. You can do this whenever time permits.

    Cheers!

    - Roland Tec
    (a.k.a. Rolando Teco, Founder of Extra Criticum)

  • John Sagoe

    I am new to this site. Just discovered it anyway. I am a film maker: writer, director, producer and actor living in Accra, Ghana in Africa. My highest achievement was official screening of my first feature at the New York Independent Film and Video festival in 2004. Haven't done much till now when I am readying to shoot again, a film based on an adapted game from the basketball. There aren't much outlets for distribution for African films around the world. I hope my access to you would be beneficial in that sense and also get more informed with time.

    What I have seen so far is commendable

    Looking forward to beneficial relations.

    Thanks

  • Ted:

    I thought you would be interested to know about the launch recently of Movie Monitor, the first website to comprehensively track the availability of films across the major online providers. For more information about this project, please visit moviemonitor.com/about, or contact me if you have any questions or would like a press package.

  • J. J.

    Dear Mr. Hope:

    Thank you for sharing "Thoughts on The New Festival Model", which is a very important and timely piece.

    We are witnessing a shift away from film economics based on the mass market, four-quadrant, to one that must recognize the growing importance of the niche or "long-tail" audience--and how to engage and capture them. Many in traditional Hollywood have yet to accept the changing reality, but therein lies the opportunity.

    A little over a year ago, I developed a next-generation model, one that was intended to beta on a specific feature project, for an emerging film+entertainment start-up. My model (strategic and tactical) is premised on exactly your comment: to leverage multiple, trans-media platforms to build and engage with audiences, but over the lifetime of a project. In that context, a feature release, rather than being the "destination" event, becomes one of several milestones over the life of any project. The model also assumes, for example, that pre-sales, rather than looking backward at historical comps to project likely success in the future, will, going forward, hinge on the degree to which the filmmaker can "bring" an audience (with better targeting and much less expenditure) and generate a level of awareness PRIOR to the sale. I already have anecdotal evidence that this is occuring from colleagues on the finance side.

    In the end, it would equal more attractive pre-sale opportunities for filmmakers (which would increase leverage in distribution conversations)--and ultimately, dramatically less spend on P&A (which, from a funding perspective, are hard $$ to come by these days, since the global financial implosion has impacted many studio credit lines). The net-net would be more transparency on the PROFIT story--undoubtedly a positive for filmmakers and a vast improvement from the murky status quo.

    When we add to all of this the possible efficiencies gained by leveraging digital theatres (vs the current) for a theatrical release, the implications are even more profound.

    I am firmly convinced that the entire ecosystem of film-making, much like what has already occurred in the music industry, will change. But as your article implies, this is great news--for those who can embrace the changes and ADAPT.

    I was very excited about finally having the opportunity to put my ideas to the test--a known and well-connected director found the model quite compelling. But unfortunately, the entertainment start-up referenced above (with a focus on China and Asia--our point of differentiation), has not raised all of the necessary capital. So I had to move on. But my intention remains to prove this concept on a worthy project in the near future.

    If any of this has piqued your interest, I hope that we can continue the dialogue in the near future. Many thanks for reading and for your great contribution to the broader discussion.

    BTW, I love your work.

    Sincerely,

    Julie (on LinkedIn and Twitter-@nihonmama)

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